We were built to survive, not to be "successful"
We were built to survive, not to be "successful" — and I think that's the biggest scam of modern life For most of human history, our biggest daily problem was simple: find food before the day ends. That was it. That was the entire job description of being human — survive today, repeat tomorrow. Somewhere along the way, "surviving" turned into "succeeding." And the checklist got insane: good grades, good looks, the right job, the right girlfriend or wife, the right car, the right house, a "perfect" relationship. None of that existed when we were just trying not to starve. We added all of it ourselves, and now we act like failing to hit every box makes us worthless.
Here's an example that messed me up. I have a friend — genuinely one of the smartest, most decent people I know. Great grades, landed a big job, did everything "right." Then he got married, and it fell apart in the worst way — his wife filed cases against him, he lost his job fighting them, and the stress of it all was part of what led to his father's death. This is a guy who chased the "perfect life" checklist better than most people ever will. And it still broke him. So what does "success" even mean? Is it grades? A job title? A wife or a girlfriend? A car? None of that was on the menu when we were just trying to hunt something to eat and survive the night.
We've built this entire tower of expectations — be smart, be attractive, be married, be rich, be respected — and act like it's natural, like it's just "life." But it isn't. It's man-made pressure stacked on top of a brain that was only ever wired for one thing: survive today. I'm not saying don't try. I'm saying maybe we should stop treating "success" like some objective truth we're all failing to reach, when really it's just a very convincing, very exhausting scam we all agreed to buy into.