During a long drive, I was listening to Jack and Diane by John Cougar Mellencamp. The first time I heard it, I was in my teens. The song was a hit and was pretty inspiring.
The funny thing is that song has a different meaning later on in your life. Younger people worry less about time and look forward to new experiences. While older folks knows that their time are limited and look back on what they could have experienced.
The song goes on to say that the life goes on long after the thrill is gone. Pretty true.
We all go to school since we are kids. We study hard and play hard. We struggle in different ways… but we are all looking to achieve all of our dreams.
We graduate to college and go out ready to conquer the world… and make a difference… become the best in our fields. We have so many things to do… and so much time ahead.
Then, we find a job. We work hard. We get married. We buy a house. We have kids. We get promoted.
We are living the American Dream!
But, are we?
You think you are. Is the thrill of life the same as it was when you were young?
Think about it.
Personally, I feel like an ant. We are caught in a routine life cycle. To fit into this culture and to fit into this standard life cycle. Just like an ant working for a queen – doing your job for the best of the colony… with no large reward.
The thrill… the dreams are all but slowly disappearing.
Sad. But, true.
So, what should you do?
- Break the routine. Spend your time like you did when you were in college
- Pull an all-nighter again — so what if you didn’t sleep much… it didn’t bother you as much when you did it when you were in school
- Get your sense of adventure back again. Try something different. Have fun. Go to eat or grocery shopping at 2 in the morning
- Keep your mind and body active. Get some exercise. Read a complicated book. Solve a word problem. Do whatever it takes to stretch yourself physically and mentally
Just don’t think about it too much. Just go and do things again and get the thrill back. Life is not meant to be stagnant. If it was you are not growing any more.
It will feel good afterwards.