The Birth of Modern Anxiety

Lesson #2 - Remember the Tortoise and the Hare

Being a good person / Leader / Role Model / Faith / Family Dreams

Previous generations experienced a roaring industrialized economy built on the emerging middle class. Generally, a member of the middle class would spend a lifetime building wealth and assets over the years, allowing them to properly retire and pass on a nest egg to the next generation. While it's important to acknowledge that access to the middle class was not universal or guaranteed, it did not seem an improbable dream. In previous generations, the middle class had a different level of purchasing power, particularly when renting or owning a home. When you think of the manifestation of a young dream, you may feel that you must achieve great things to obtain what previous generations considered to be expected. However, it would help if you had a bit of self-reflection as you plan for the future. If you feel like you're in a rush to be successful, you must ask your-self why.

Many believe their dream MUST happen almost immediately for it to be relevant. If you feel there are fewer prospects for the possibility of lifelong dreams, you may feel like it has to be "now or never." Today, with automation, Deep Fakes, and AI Voice Cloning Apps, it seems like we are sapping ourselves of our uniqueness. Are we just interchangeable cogs in a machine that are ultimately replaceable? The answer is NO. We are beautifully and wonderfully made, but we must find our importance by relying on each other. As long as we continue to become socially isolated, we will have more dreams centered solely on proving our personal success and less on societal impact. If you feel we are in a "race against time," and that TODAY is as good as things will be, then you may find yourself in an even greater rush to pursue dreams on a nearly unimaginable scale. Suppose you believe a bright future is not guaranteed. In that case, you might think it's logical to put everything you can into becoming successful NOW, instead of "waiting" for a future dream that may never materialize. But the truth is, things often seem bleak because individuals frequently prioritize short-term fixes to problems that have been decades in the making, and focusing on a short-term dream may perpetuate that same cycle. We have the chance and responsibility to join together to create a better world. Things are only hopeless if we choose to give up.

But even if your lofty expectations may not match reality, this does not mean you should limit your potential possibility of greatness. How many times in history have individuals believed that the struggle, hurt, and pain of the moment would continue to be prevalent forever? How many people fled ethnic genocide or religious persecution and came to a new country to pursue their dream? How many packed up their possessions and headed to a new location, hoping they could some-day shape a better life for their children? How many prayed to overcome in hopes that someday their children would have access to an opportunity they did not? Did they give up? No! Today, we have many challenges, but the people who sacrificed in hopes that their grandchild or great-grandchild would have a brighter future are still with us in spirit. We are only here because of the greatness of those who came before us.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants".

- Sir Issac Newton

The concept of "standing on the shoulders of giants" implies that intellectual growth and progress have come from those who've made tremendous breakthroughs in the past. We must remember that we can SHAPE a future that we can believe in if we have a real conversation about the specific and measurable goals that will truly make us happy. Feeling "trapped" or "stuck" without hope for the future will often lead us to inaction based on the perception that no amount of work will ever lead us to our dream.

We must avoid falling into the trap of comparing ourselves to others. Sometimes dreaming of a specific form of success based on age will make you withdraw and become depressed when you discover that an arbitrary timeline will not be met. In many cases, you may be closer to seeing the results than you realize, but you may be overly focused on what you haven't accomplished by a specific point in time rather than what you have. When you change your mindset to pursue lifelong dreams, you will discover that achieving great things is possible as long as you keep working diligently toward your passion. When you change your mindset, you will find that failure will only drive you closer to the recognition and realization of your dream becoming a reality. In original story of the Tortoise and the Hare, by Aesop, a variation of this quote has been shared: