Pressure From Society

One thing I've thought of recently is the pressure society puts on people to do certain things that aren't necessary at all. Probably the biggest societal pressure is for women to be skinny. But since I'm a man I don't really know about that first hand. Still, there are other pressures that are put on people for really no reason at all.

Take the pressure to have a good birthday. Society makes you feel like you should have a great day on your birthday, and if you have to clean something up or do some unpleasant everyday tasks you feel like you shouldn't have to since it's your birthday. But why? Isn't it really just another day? Is it so bad that you have to work on your birthday, or you might have to make your own sandwich for lunch? To me, it's nice to get to pick your favorite meal to eat and maybe what to do that evening, but beyond that I don't want to feel like I need to have a special day.

Another pressure is retirement. You see commercials about having a magic number that you need to get to financially so you can retire. And you can sweat out your 30s and 40s trying to shove enough money into your 401K and IRA so you'll have a nice nest egg 30 years down the road, but why? Sure, I believe in saving money and putting money back, but so I can sit around and watch TV all day? Sure, there are plenty of activities you can do and vacations to go on, but why do you have to spend 40 years saving so you can spend 20 years doing nothing? I would like to retire so that I can release my responsibilities to the next generation but if I get to age 62 or 65 and I'm not able to retire then I don't need to have pressure on me from society wondering why I haven't or why I can't retire.

There are probably plenty of other pressures everyone faces from society...these are just some of the ones I've thought of lately. It's easy to say that you can ignore what people think you should do or what they think of what you are doing, but it can be hard at times. But when you recognize that you only feel a certain way about a certain thing because its the way society says you should feel, then hopefully you will resist and just do what you think is right.

JB