Don’t listen to the naysayers
“You waste your time with losers if you get stuck in a rock-n-roll band”
Do you find it more rewarding to work with morons throughout the land?
–What can you do by Bad Religion
There are always going to be naysayers out there who tell you something can’t be done or that you’re making a mistake. If you try to start your own business they are going to tell you how most new businesses fail. If you are going to move they will question you about how are you going to manage to find a place to live and how will you work. If your going to cut your hair they will say, “are you sure that will look good?” These naysayers are everywhere are at times it can be hard to follow your own path and keep your own council when there are voices of skepticism and doubt coming from all corners.
You are responsible for your own happiness. If you know that you want something out of your life that only you can do it. If other people doubt you then to hell with them… just because they say it’s a bad idea doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go for it anyways. Learning to live our own lives requires us to be able to set our own ideas and desires aside from those of society and the people around us. In the end only we know what is truly best for ourselves. If I feel being in a rock band (if only I could sing!) is the fulfillment of my dreams then there is no reason anyone else can give me that would outweigh my own desires. The worst feeling of all is wanting something, but not going for it because you’re too scared of what other people will think.
The naysayers will always be there. I like to call that group of people “The Sucks”. Just because they suck at something and can’t do it themselves, they don’t want to admit that anyone else could do it. Just because they are too scared to try and make a drastic change in their lives, they feel no one else should either. They don’t just suck at individual things… they suck at life. The people you want to surround yourself with are not these naysayers but instead the people you’ve seen have dreams, make plans, and then accomplish what they set out to do. We want to be surrounded by enablers.
A lot of people do weird stuff with their lives that we can never understand. I went to a rock quarry about a year ago to help a friend build a path in her garden. While at the quarry we asked for help from this 60 year old man who owned the place and we ended up with a two hour long lecture on slate and all the little tiny details you never would have thought about it. This guy had dedicated his whole life to rocks… I think it’s weird, but I also think that guy is awesome for going after what he was into. My own hobby is mountaineering and to many people that seems ridiculous and horribly dangerous. Why do I climb mountains? The flip answer would be, “if you have to ask then you couldn’t understand”, but the truer one would be “because it makes me feel alive.” I love it and when I’m on the mountain all the rest of the world goes away. I don’t think about work. I don’t think about getting an oil change for my car. I don’t think about paying the bills. I don’t think about ties. It all goes away and I’m completely in the moment and terribly alive. It’s amazing, and even though I get to hear that I’m crazy on a weekly basis, I won’t give it up - because it matters to me and in the end that’s what counts.
So ignore the naysayers. Do what you love. Take up a new hobby. Move to a new city. Start your own business. Keep your own council and don’t wait to hear the advice of others before making your choice. Know what you want and go for it.
