“That Quote Would Make a Sweet Tattoo”

Daily Meditation 466–6/6/2023

I recently heard a snatch of a quote along the lines of “We are trapped in a time where love and happiness are just quotes for tattoos and entire lives are fake.”

While maybe a bit of a platitude, it feels true, doesn’t it?

As we waste away, rotting ourselves on social media with doomscrolling, we absentmindedly like and share gross, greasy and empty little quotes:

“You matter.”
“I’m here for you.”
“Wherever you are, you can do it.”

and then keep scrolling on to like the bikini clad, thin women and musclebound men — representing the 1% of peak genetics — as we turn our brains and emotions into the metaphorical equivalent of Swiss cheese.

“I wish I was rich and ripped like this woman,” we imagine to ourselves.

I’m not here to agree with you or to tell you you’re right.
Why aren’t you rich and ripped? That’s an answer for you to ask and honestly answer.

But the more important thing than miserable self-pity is to examine our warped perception of the world and how it relates to our warped perception of the self.

If we believe that the news, social media, or apps are our reality, then certainly we misperceive ourselves typically as “wrong” within that framework.

Not fit enough.
Not rich enough.
Not happy enough.
Not healthy enough.

And certainly, we should strive for these things with an appropriate vigor.

But the only person we ought to compare ourself to was us, yesterday.

Turn off the social media.
Ignore the awful, empty, useless quotes.
Stop thirsting for the “Idols of the 1%” — they are overrepresented due to algorithms!

Go to a gym, yourself.
Learn about investing, yourself.
Get out hiking, yourself.
Watch some informative videos about dieting, yourself.

Just as one of our YouDaimonia Mottos are “Live in a manner consistent with the person you aspire to be” applies here, so does another of them:

“Happiness is a BYPRODUCT of a life of meaning.”

No quotes tattooed on your forearm, no amount of low bodyfat, and no level of riches, alone, will make you happy. They are a folly to chase like prey.

Seek meaning.

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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”