10 Stupid Things Society Wants You To Do

12 min readDec 4, 2021

Don't Listen to anyone, But be realistic.

Ask yourself this question,

‘Am I doing what I want, or am I doing it just to please someone or something’

Be sincere to yourself. Are the things you do a result of what you want, or are they things that society wants you to do?

Our society shapes the way we see things and perceive the world, and sometimes they are good, but the majority of the time, it is to our detriment.

This post is set to show you 10 things that society wants you to do, and give you a reality check, whether what you do is what you want, or what society wants.

This article will be a long one, a long wake-up call, so grab a pen and paper and tick which ones you are already doing, or you can do that mentally.

Bookmark this post so that you can come back to it anytime, when you feel lost and feel like you need a little bit of inspiration and a huge wake-up call.

Share this post with a friend or anyone who needs this reality check too, so that they can question themselves, if what they are doing is for themselves, or society at large.

With that said, here are 10 stupid things society wants you to do, and why you should listen to yourself, and not the crazy etching voice of society at all.

10 Stupid things society wants you to do even when you know it’s insane

1) Get a Safe and Secure Job

This might rub off the wrong way on some people, because they love their job, and there is nothing wrong with that.

You can be successful at a job you love, but the keyword there is a job you love. Now not everyone wants to have a job, and that’s ok.

The crazy thing about it is that we are so accustomed to the usual go to school, get a safe and secure job, save enough and then retire at 65, which to me, is bonkers.

A job can’t be safe or secure, and we all saw that happen during covid when thousands of workers were laid off, and they realized that a job they thought was their safe route, wasn’t safe.

There is nothing wrong with having a job it’s great to have one, so you can understand the ins and outs of business and how to marketplace works.

Where things go wrong, is when you depend solely on your job, and your job is the only thing sustaining you. If you lose your job, you are done.

Don’t follow what society says about the job, instead have your job, and build a business on the side. Create some passive income streams on the side so that you can have some money flowing into your pocket without your exact direct intervention.

Let me leave you with a quote to ponder on.

‘$40,000 in passive income, is worth more than $200,000 of worked income’

2) Get into bad debt

Go into debt to buy a car, a house, a phone, or even put food on your table. In today’s society, a person without some form of debt, such as a credit card, mortgage, or any form of payment, is seen as weird.

Like how does one live their entire life with some form of debt looming over their heads? To set things straight, some forms of debt are dangerous, and some which will benefit you.

This is why there is a distinction between good debt and bad debt. Bad debt will be a burden to you, while good debt, will make you a lot of money.

There is a distinction between the two, and when you learn it, you’ll realize that not all debt is bad.

Use credit and debt to your advantage, and you’ll understand exactly how people leverage debt to build wealth and make their wealth last.

Don’t be sucked into what society says about debt and learn how debt works and how you can use it.

3) Don’t Question and obey your elders on Default

You should obey your elders, and there is nothing wrong with listening to what they have to say, but the area which I do not agree with is not questioning what they have to say and obeying them on default.

The truth is that the majority of elderly people today, do not understand that the world has changed so fast from how it was 50 years ago.

Today, people don’t have to leave their homes for work anymore. A person in South Africa can work for a person in Scotland, without ever seeing their face.

Someone can make millions of dollars from their home without having to dress formally or go to an office,

and when they see you do this, some of them might think you are lazy and do nothing. A lot of advice they might give today is either obsolete or have little value attached to it.

Some advice you might hear are:

You just need to learn one thing and you are okay
Going to college is a must if you want to succeed
The government will take care of you when you are old, and so on

You should question such advice, and in my opinion, I won’t advise you to follow it. The world is changing.

Right now, I have gigs on a freelance site, Fiverr, and I have worked for clients in the United States and the United Kingdom, without ever seeing their faces. That’s the power of technology.

Elderly people need to understand that their advice to people today might be 99% obsolete, and people don’t have to obey them. We can question these things and find better ways of doing things.

And to all the elderly people that think that they can make someone obey them such by asking them to, they need to understand that,

‘Respect is earned not demanded’

4) Follow celebrity gossip

I don’t feel the need to know what Kim Kardashian wore at the met gala, or what Justin Bieber said about Selena Gomez, or which celebrity is dating who or who said what when.

This stuff adds no value to your life, PERIOD.

So why do we feel the need to know what happened to which celebrity? It’s because of the way society looks at things like this. Society wants you to know what a celebrity did, or what a celebrity said that shocked the world, OMG.

Let me tell you a real example about this in my case.

There is a reality show here in Nigeria, called Big Brother Naija, where people compete for money and do the most trivial things for it.

I don’t watch the show, or follow it on Twitter, or follow up with the gist of who kissed who in the house, or why someone cooked and didn’t cook for others.

When I was with a few friends, they were discussing this and I was not in the conversation, because I didn’t care nor was I interested. When that asked me a question about it, I told them I don’t watch it, and instantly it was like I was the bad guy in the group.

Why, because I don’t care about who kissed who?

This is common in society that I won’t be sucked into at all. There is no value in following celebrity gist and gossip.

These things favor the celebrity alone and in no way favor you. It will only cost you time lost, which you should have used to do something else.

This is one of those things society wants you to do, but don’t follow this or be sucked into it.

5) Be offended

Ever seen someone offended on behalf of someone else, who wasn’t offended in the first place?

Yeah, that’s one of those things society wants you to do. Be offended, and for the most trivial of things.

And when you are angry about the little things, you forget about the big things. Don’t let something so little throw you off your balance,

because when it does. You fail to see the big picture and only look at the small things in front of you.

This is much more potent here in Nigeria, where people are offended that a certain celebrity was cheated on, and fail to realize that the country keeps sinking every single day into poverty and debt.

(not trying to bring in politics or anything here, but trying to use my country as an obvious example)

6) Do the same thing your parents did, or do what your parents want you to do

There is a quote that states,

‘ If you lived your life the way you mom wanted, or your dad, or uncle, or teacher or some guy on television, then you deserve it

Starting strong huh?

There is this thing that society wants you to do, which you follow the path your parents have set for you and don’t even look any other way.

A lot of parents write the destiny or future of their child before they are even able to make their own decisions.

The parent wants their child to be a doctor, a lawyer, an architect, but the child wants to be a musician or an artist, and then as a parent, you forbid it.

You are actively ruining your child’s life and you don’t even realize it. They will grow up to follow the path you set, without having a choice, and live to regret it.

Everyone in the world has a path they want to follow, a path they have set for themselves, and a path they create and follow.

As a parent, you might not like it, but the least you can do is advise and encourage them and make sure they don’t dig a hole for themselves, not choose what they should do.

You shouldn’t let your parents choose your path. If you don’t want to go to college, that’s ok.

If you want to volunteer and help people and children in some countries in Africa, more power to you. But don’t d follow a pre-written path for yourself.

Build your path, create what you want, so that you will be happy that what you did, was what you want and not what someone wanted for you.

This s one of those things society wants you to do, but don’t let society dictate what you should or should not do.

7) Stop Learning after School

People seem to think, and believe that once you throw that graduation cap off your head, you are done. That’s it, not more learning.

But that couldn’t be far from the truth.

The thing is, after college your education might be over, but your learning is just beginning. College isn’t the end, it’s the beginning, and the sooner you understand that the better your life will turn out to be.

As a person, a human being in this world, you are either growing, or you’re dying. Your brain is like a machine, as like a machine, you need to service it and oil it.

You need to keep learning, because the more you learn, the more you grow, and the more you understand the world, plus, the more you earn.

I have written on different books I recommended, on various parts of your journey, which you should look through, pick one up, and read.

Keep yourself up to date. Read articles, blog (like this one), listen to interviews and podcasts.

Allow your brain to keep assimilating information, and keep understanding how the world works. Don’t let society make you feel like college is the end, because it isn’t. Remember this quote,

‘ College is not the end of the learning process, it is simply the beginning’

Top CEOs read 50 books per year while the average person reads 1.5. Keep that in mind when you question why a top CEO earns 50 times more than you do.

8) Marry by 25, have kids immediately (maybe 4), stay together forever (hopefully), and retire at 65

This one is bonkers, and wrong in so many aspects.

First of all, there is no set date of when you should or shouldn’t get married, and the fact that people think there is is pure crazy.

If you are ready to get married at 25, then do it, but if you are 25 and not even thinking about it, then don’t let anyone bother you or question you with why don’t you want to get married? or what are you waiting for? or aren’t your mates married?

If you want to settle down at 30, then that is your choice to make. If you don’t want to get married at all, that s also your call.

All that is involved is for you to make sure you are doing this deliberately and by your own choice and wished.

On the issue of having kids, society tends to expect everyone to have children. What if you don’t want kids at all, and want to have your dogs with you?

That’s perfectly ok. Don’t be pressured to have kids that you do not want because Tina is having kids, so why don’t you.

simply put, don’t have kids when you’re not ready to be a parent. And if you do want kids, don’t wait that long, because at the end of the day, especially for the ladies, your biological clock is still ticking nonetheless.

Staying together is a choice, and if you feel like it’s not working anymore, it’s best to leave than to pretend.

Don’t remain in a marriage because you don’t want people to think a certain way. Let me tell you something, People will talk no matter what so get over it.

Do not let your sanity and healthy be at stake and stay in a relationship that isn’t valuable to you just because of what Karen has to say.

Leave and move on.

And it doesn’t matter when you retire. In my opinion, I don’t look at what age to retire, rather I look at what income I wish to retire at.

If I reach my income goals at 30, I can choose to retire, and that is all up to me. Don’t follow society and retire when you are 65. Retire when you want to.

Make your own choices of how you want to leave your life.

9) Learn 1 Skill, Have 1 job, and you’ll be fine

In the 1900s, it was that 1 skill and 1 job can set you up for life, but in today’s world, that’s a recipe for failure.

One skill will get you nowhere. The generation of our parents learned 1 or 2 skills, had 1–3 jobs in their lifetime and they are ok.

Today, we learn over 10different skills, and the majority of us may have 10–15 jobs and careers in our life.

I mean, I’m not 25 yet, but I’ve already dabbled in 4 different industries and I still learn different skills today. Imagine where that will be when I’m 40.

Don’t let society make you learn one single skill and think that you are set and okay to go through life.

The world is changing, and your skills and your mindset have to change with it. 15 years ago, there was nothing like cryptocurrency, but today there are and people are learning the skill of mining cryptocurrency.

Having only one skill will take you nowhere so don’t let society tell you to have only one skill and have one career or one job.

10) Have your sh*t figured out by the time you are 20

How many people can say that they have their lives completely figured out? Nobody I’m sure.

Why is that? Because you don’t have all the data.

No matter what you see on Instagram or Pinterest, and that people seem like they have it all figures out, they don’t.

When you hit your twenties, people tend to look at you as if you have it all figured out, when you don’t, AND THAT’S OKAY.

I don’t have it all figured out, you don’t have it all figured out, nobody has it all figures out, even if they show that they have on social media.

It’s okay to be confused sometimes because when you are confused, it shows that you are growing, and learning.

You will fail, and you will get up and keep going.

This is one of those crazy things that society wants you to do, and if you follow, you will be setting yourself up for failure.

Keep trying, keep failing, and as you keep going, you will get closer and closer to that goal you have set for yourself.

CONCLUSION

I understand this was a long one, and for good reasons.

These are a few of the things society wants you to do. But you are smart, and you know not to follow some things that worked in the 1900s but not today.

I hope this article opened your eyes to the few things society wants you to do, which you shouldn’t be doing.

There are much more, but I have highlighted these 10 to help you discover who you are, and if you are paving the road to your success or simply floating in the ocean to wherever the wind takes you.

If you’ve gotten this far, THANK YOU, and I would appreciate it if you could share this with your friends, or anyone who you know needs a wake-up call.

Let this article spread to those who feel stuck and are looking for a way out.

Thank you for being here, and I hope you check out my other article for much more inspiration and motivation.

Originally published at https://ellamoves.com.