Why it's rare to live your own life

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Most people are not living their own lives.

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Presented by Orion Taraban, Psy.D. PsycHacks provides viewers with a brief, thought-provoking video several days a week on a variety of psychological topics, inspired by his clinical practice. The intention is for the core idea contained within each video to inspire viewers to see something about themselves or their world in a slightly different light. The ultimate mission of the channel is to reduce the amount of unnecessary suffering in the world.

#ownlife #psychology #price

[humlakullen]

The older you get, the less you care about other people’s approval or opinions. Thank god I adopted that attitude in my early twenties…

[GloriaCote-oc]

Lived alone many years and loved every moment!

[Redbird]

We are always constrained by the important need to keep these bodies alive. Food, water, shelter, warmth, sleep are a daily survival requirement from birth until death. Social conditioning from our families and school, the laws of the land and living in a capitalist economy further restricts our ability to live completely free and independent of the system. Also, living a completely "free" life is great providing your desire doesn't involve harming other people.

[Thomas-pqys]

Welcome to my life.

I was raised to not accept convention, the norm. I can't tell you how many times I've been fired from jobs because, "You just don't fit in."

I've rejected gorgeous women who wanted the relationship to "go further." I was happiest living apart, hanging on weekends. I have had some that could work that, buy they wanted more of everything.

I finally found a woman a lot like me. She loves having her own place, hanging I n weekends.


I'm now retired, am amazed at how the world wants me to comply in so many ways. I resist the best I can... but sometimes, I've got to bite the bullet, play along.

I have no idea how military folks do what they do. The corporate world was bad enough.

In retirement, I have to comply to my own schedules, plans... and internally, I resist, being my own worse enemy...

[rickholland]

If this is all true. Then my circumstances must be an exception. My life may not be perfect. But it isn't a disaster either.
1. My family has/continues to be supportive and is actually rather functional.
2. My wife, Penny and I worked as EMT/Paramedic partners on the ambulance for many years (decades). We were a great team on and off duty, building a successful life together. We loved working EMS. A rather necessary job (we considered it more of a calling). It's definitely interesting and rewarding.
3. We worked very hard and made reasonable money throughout our careers. We had no debt, own a home/land in the county and have decent financial savings/investments. I will semi retire in 2 years because I can afford it.
Unfortunately, Penny passed away suddenly in 2020. I can tell you they don't make women like her anymore.
I love and miss you, my wonderful wife. But life goes on.

[chasingmypinnacle]

You can get really rich as an employee, look at C-Suite executives at medium to mega cap publicly traded companies.

You can get rich working as a an oil and gas worker too by being frugal and investing your money in U.S equities for the long haul and real estate.

[kendreamer]

All men are not equal not all people have the same abilities and opportunities but we thinks we should make everyone equal and been working on that for a while. So life is more difficult than it has to be. However we can choose a simpler path for ourselves and let society walk the path of pain.

[antaresmaelstrom]

Me living alone and not having the slightest difficulty with it.

[csakzozo]

38 here. Divorced, have 2 kids who I see almost daily. Decent with money, I can take care of myself(wash, shave, clean, cook, etc.). At this point nobody can say anything I would care about. Noone has the right.

[JaySmith-pvmw]

I know people who constantly complain about the relationships they are in and when I say I'm perfectly happy being single they always say Don't you get lonely? Do you want to die alone?

[photographyenthusiast]

Marriage is a beautiful thing. That said, I hate rules and I don’t care what anyone thinks. Do what makes you happy, and live life with zest and an adventurous heart however you want to. >>”Be who you are and say how you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.” - Horton Hears a Who, because why not. : )

[hansvos]

Freedom is the most difficult and the most intelligent.

[danmej]

Crazy good Doc. It’s hard to do, but the reward is beautiful and long lasting. In my experience all my loved ones came back into my life with much respect and appreciation like you said, for the courage to go through it.

[tlz]

I can relate, I'm swimming amongst unhappy complaining colleagues that are poor in cash and relationships, yet egging me on to find a girl and get a nice car..

[drlarrymitchell]

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose Freewill

[curdledmayonnaise]

if you live with a woman, you essentially are living the exact same lifestyle as a married couple. the rest is labels and legal contracts

[laurenzhanedesfosse]

I agree with living your own life and resisting pressure to conform. I’d say we’re biologically wired to follow the herd and it’s seekers of truth who step out of the rigid boxes

[scorpiocurse]

All true, indeed, but I think it is difficult mostly because living your own life requires the sacrifice of a lot of relationships, and to overcome the need to be seen as "good" by other people (which in reality often means being a doormat)...difficult things to do for a species as social as ours...

[JeffersonRah]

I get the first part and I try to apply it to my brother who got a divorce. But then I have 8 siblings and their marriages are great and when their significant others are together it's great. Except for my little brother. His wife always stayed away. I feel like their marriages would've stayed together if he had spent time with the siblings more. Of course living your own life and doing your own thing is healthy but sure, raise your own empire.

[cniht]

Well here is a great surprise, you're going to live life, either on your terms or someone else's terms. That will be an immutable fact until you die. So choose wisely.