What is aspiration?
Aspiring to break into the boardroom is very different to aspiring to a new pair of trainers Kanye's wearing you cannot afford. When you spend too much time obsessing over the unattainable for you material goods and possessions, glamour or experiences of other people you are destined for perpetual disappointment and feelings of failure. Realistically until you do something worthy of a walk down a red carpet it's unlikely you'll ever step on one unless you're the photographer, the stylist, the celebrity hairdresser or the date.
We are a culture obsessed with an insatiable need to look perfect, yet very few of us ever come close. Most of us just daydream about a life of “if onlys”. Spending 10,000 pounds to get your teeth fixed is pointless if you are not happy and never smile.
The truth is the patterns we have embedded into our lives have clouded everything that is real, leaving us a nation of disillusioned and disappointed people, aspiring to a myth. Happiness cannot be bought, manufactured or found in any high street store. Happiness cannot be found by looking like your favourite celebrity or copying how they dress. You cannot have Jordan’s life no matter how hard you try and aspire to it. It is already taken and belongs only to her, the product of her own creation.
“You have your own life so get on with it. Aspiration is pointless. You don't buy a life you build it.
If Brad Pitt treats himself to a £50 million yacht you can bet George Clooney will pull up next to him in a £100 million yacht, bigger, faster and more flash. Aspiring to something materially to make you who you are is pointless and will leave you with a huge dose of “Status Anxiety”
“No one cares what colour your sofa is or your carpet for that matter.”
If a short millionaire playboy with no hair or teeth driving a flash red Ferrari asked you on a date, ask yourself would you consider the man without the car and the money?
“There’s only one thing to aspire to today, to be the best you can be from the inside out.”
Aspiration has got us nowhere except in debt. There is no point buying 10 ball gowns with matching bag and shoes if you never go to a ball.
“You might look a little out of place down the chippy.”
Aspiring to look like an airbrushed model on TV who says she looks fantastic because she eats a certain brand of cereal is pointless if you are a size 20 and prefer 10 slices of buttered toast for breakfast.
There is no instant fix to a perfect life but one thing we can be sure of, happiness comes from being yourself.
Stop wasting your life wishing you were someone else, somewhere else and recognize you are what you are but can be anything you decide to be and go anywhere you want to, it just needs some work on your part and a little patience to make it happen. We can never be David or Victoria Beckham no matter how many tattoos we get, extensions we put in our hair or cosmetic procedures we under go because we are all unique and those two lives are already taken.
Aspire to be yourself always and be proud of who you are. If you desire material stuff like designer bags, cars, boats and planes, then recognize you need to get a well paid career to be able to finance such an existence or you will exist on the treadmill to aspiration nowehere, never being satisfied or happy.
"when it comes to being hooked on aspiration we think too much and feel too little."
Stop thinking about the designer bag you saw in a magazine on the shoulder of a rich celebrity, that on your salary you will never own and start feeling grateful and content with what you have around you, the things money can never buy you, like your good health, your talents and gifts and your actual life whether you ever walk a red carpet in Hollywood or not.
Photo by: Claudio Schwarz Unsplash