I've lost my drive. What do I do?
in Psychology ·
casualcanyon3 said:And frankly, those types usually end up making something of themselves. Even 😁 Vitruvius touched upon this concept—the notion that talent carries very little weight if you aren't connected to the right power players.
For me, this presents a significant dilemma, because even engaging in basic, everyday small talk requires me to switch into a specific social mode that I find utterly draining. As for the crowd I would actually need to network with—particularly those personalities drifting through the "popular" art scene—I find them profoundly unappealing. I have gone to great lengths to avoid them entirely. I simply cannot stomach that pervasive snobbery, the arrogance, and that performative, "elite" posturing; honestly, I often feel an impulse to mock them to their faces. I can count on one hand the number of people from that echelon whom I actually respect and with whom I would genuinely desire to maintain a sincere connection.
Edit: What I was really getting at is that socializing with "influential" figures must essentially become a lifestyle if you want to be noticed or to ensure a broad spectrum of opportunities. But in that pursuit, how much of your true self can you actually manage to preserve?
If you’re capable—meaning you know how to pick your battles or engineer your own path toward some specific goal—you might not even bother asking if you can still hold onto some 'different' (read: incompetent) version of yourself. Meanwhile, those who can't calculate or act with purpose usually just obsess over their one "great talent," whatever that may be. They spend all their energy pointing at those "successful" people out there, basically repackaging their own inadequacy as some kind of external injustice. It's their way of saying their high-quality talent just never got its big break because of bad luck or some rigged system...
Picture this: out in the middle of nowhere, two totally different types of people are running from a pack of wild dogs. They manage to dodge them for days, but eventually, exhaustion sets in. Both realize that "wisdom" without actual strength isn't going to last long. After weighing the cost of their own lives versus someone else's, they both come to a decision about what to do next. One guy thinks about climbing a tree and pushing the other down to feed the dogs, giving himself a head start while they're distracted by the meal. Maybe if he feeds them enough, they'll leave him alone...
The other guy is thinking about climbing that same tree and just letting the dogs have him, sacrificing himself to give the first guy a chance to escape. If he satisfies their hunger, maybe they won't go after the other guy either...
In this scenario, the first guy—who’s usually been a total loser or an underdog his whole life—suddenly finds that being cold and calculating feels like the most logical, valuable thing to do in a crisis. As for the guy who's normally capable of looking out for himself and stepping over anyone in his way, he suddenly sees himself as this noble hero, finally completing his life's journey by sacrificing everything for some nobody...
As for the wild dogs, if they don't find a more realistic way to deal with their hunger, they'll probably just starve to death. At the end of the day, whether you're a person or a dog, everyone—regardless of who they are—is primarily focused on one thing: staying alive...
Literally just surviving. Staying yourself. Though, when things are comfortable and easy, it's sometimes hard to recognize that "universal" self. Without all the labels and "this type of person" or "that type of person" nonsense based on circumstances, who are we really? And maybe, just maybe, that person was right all along. Maybe the whole point of existing isn't about holding onto that one "true" self, but about losing it... losing that singular identity in favor of something bigger. Entropy and death would probably just nod in agreement...