The Dark Side of Freedom | Daily Quote #256

A meaningful passage from Logan Ury about the downside to modern freedom...

“Modern life is a path that we must chart on our own. Whereas our predecessors didn't have to weigh where to live or what to do for a living, we make those choices now. That gives us incredible freedom to shape our identities-to pick Nashville over Atlanta, to choose whether to work as a meteorologist or a mathematician—but that freedom comes at the cost of certainty. Late at night, our faces lit by the blue glow of our smart-phones, we wonder, Who am I? and What am I doing with my life?

The dark side of all this freedom and endless choice is the crippling fear that we'll screw up our lifelong pursuit of happiness. If we're in charge, then we have only ourselves to blame. We could fail, and then it would be our fault.”

Logan Ury, How to Not Die Alone

This is not in anyway to say that the modern level of freedoms we may experience are bad! However, if you feel like you are struggling to know how best to spend your life, know that you are not alone and that there is a reason for that being the case. You can be literally anything you want. You can do anything you want. How you spend your life now is entirely up to you. This is a massively beneficial state of life, which only the past three generations or so have been able to (at least partially) embrace; but, that means if you pursue something and realise when you reach the top that you are not happy, that’s on you.

Fortunately, you read this Substack. That is my aim: to get you to seriously think about how you are going to live your precious life, so you don’t screw up your lifelong pursuit of happiness.

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