Why do we keep chasing after the things that will lead us nowhere in life? Why do we chase after things that do not benefit us in any way to our everyday life?

These are the questions we should ask ourselves daily, and you know it will always be the fictitious things in life that seem to entice us. We people were created to be naive and we tend to chase after these non-existent dreams. What we fail to realise during this process is that this endless pining makes us push aside the more important things in our lives. We put all of our blood, sweat, and tears into achieving this “dream” that does not exist in the real world.

We prefer to give up everything in our lives, and that goes for our social lives as well as our mental state because we are adamant in holding onto that little bit of hope that we believe will help us achieve that something we call a “dream”.

It can be a dream to find the perfect significant other, one who can fit our standards and personal preferences, or maybe it’s the dream of having a perfect lifestyle. Honestly, it’s a good thing to have a dream, but one thing we need to keep in mind is that nothing will ever be perfect. Life does not always go the way we plan and that is something we need to come to terms with. Dreaming isn’t all bad, it shows creativity, how imaginative you can be, and also gives you a visual example of how you see yourself in the future.

It’s just that sometimes it’s better to dream realistically instead of dreaming big. You should always try to reach for the things that you can accomplish as a person, instead of getting your hopes up and putting yourself down because you didn’t achieve what you initially had planned for yourself.

What you should be chasing after is rather a contentment, and not after something that is far within our reach.

We must find contentment because if we keep wanting to chase after this fictitious life that we want for ourselves we will never be fully satisfied with anything around us. Let us be satisfied with the people close to us, or even things that we’re doing in life right now.

I’m not against dreaming, because I am an avid dreamer myself. Sometimes, I tend to dream too far about becoming this successful author one day; someone who can inspire so many other young people through stories that I tell. But you see there’s a difference in this dream of mine because instead of me chasing after nothing, I am taking a step in making this lifelong goal a reality.

I set realistic goals along the way so I can achieve my dream of wanting to become an author, and it honestly isn’t an easy process. It’s a different story when you dream of yourself becoming something than to carry it out.

Chasing after nothing will only lead us nowhere in life, but once we start considering the other opportunities that are offered to us will only be the moment that we create a bright life for ourselves. That will be the moment in which we will reach contentment, we will be able to accept ourselves and also find ourselves.

We are programmed into believing that we desperately need the perfect lifestyle; the ideal partner and the perfect career. That’s why I call it chasing nothing. We are chasing after something that does not exist in the real world. There is no such thing as “perfect” in this world, and that’s the reason why we aren’t fully satisfied with our lives.

Society has pressured us so much into believing that we need this oh-so-perfect life when in reality, we don’t. To me perfect doesn’t exist, it’s a mere nothing in my life. Not everyone can fully be happy with the life they have, but it’s how they choose to live it. I have no right to tell those people how they should live their lives. I strongly believe that when we keep chasing after impossible things that we cannot achieve, that’s what lowers our self-esteem.

This is what contributes to us feeling as if we will never be able to be satisfied with anything that we do, hence the reason why I think it’s time for us to start dreaming realistically instead of big. People will just get their hopes up, and their productivity levels will start to decrease.

It’s time for us to make a better change for ourselves for the better. Only then will we reach contentment, but we first need to stop chasing after the nothings in life. It will only lead us onto the path of nowhere, and we want a successful life. A life in which we are fully satisfied to live.

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Tell us: Do you agree with the author that people should dream realistically instead of dreaming big?