My Sense of Entitlement

You know, I just had to write one more post before education week. I apologize ahead of time to my international readers because this will mostly be a U.S. centric post, but I do believe it will have some good points you can use. So read on…

In America, we have this saying that many people, especially the younger generations, have a sense of entitlement about them. Meaning that they believe that society owes them something. Or that they are entitled to certain things in life. Our very own Declaration of Independence even states that, “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”.

It is a cultural thing that can serve to be good or bad. It certainly breeds a certain independence and entreprenuerial spirit in us. It also breeds in us an idea that we don’t necessarily have to work hard for the things are want in life.

In my own humble opinion, it is a spell that needs broken. Granted, not everyone lives with this idea in their heads, but many do. Often it takes some hard knocks in the school of life for people to start loosing this illusion that they have about the way the world is.

The obvious problems that this illusion creates is a society in which one thinks they can have or do anything. This leads to a certain amount of destructive behavior. It also causes many individuals to become confused about what they are meant to do with their life.

Well, if I can do anything in this life, then what in the world should I do?

The answer proves illusive. Many people live their entire lives without ever answering the question…

I think that we need to help younger generations discover the answer to this question. How you might ask?

To be honest, the answer is found on the path that the individual walks. That we can not help with.

However, we can tell our own stories about how we found meaning in life. Hear enough of other people’s stories and eventually you will take bits of meaning from theirs and piece together your own.

I also believe that there really are some things that are universally meaningful. Your family and culture play a big part. So does your environment.

In the end though, it is your choices who determine who you are. Looking at your past decisions enables me to determine who you are and what is meaningful to you. If you forsake family and culture to move to a foreign land, I can tell you that adventure and seeking your own way are more meaningful than tradition. But I can also tell you that at any point you can choose to change your mind in the future…

Like I said before, free will is one of the scariest and most amazing things about life. The cool thing about your life is that you get to choose what you do with it. It’s a gift!

And like I said before, I really do have all the answers to all of life’s questions, except for the ones where the answer is, “It depends”. It just so happens that most of them have that answer. 😉

So about your sense of entitlement? Throw it out the window. It doesn’t serve you very well.

What are we entitled to? Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, we have the freedom to choose how we will pursue happiness (or contentment, or whatever else) in this lifetime. And that’s about it!

This week was really fun and set the groundwork for education week. Maybe you are still scratching your head about how the posts this week deal with education. Well subscribe using the link below and check back next week to find out! 😉