Once again, the Internet is full of this crap. Try to throw a rock and not hit someone pushing you. Just try.  From every angle, on every platform, every damn day, you will be pushed. Because in American culture we are never allowed to believe we are enough or we have enough or we do enough.  This anecdotal bullshit is not helping us. It is hurting us. Don’t pin it. Don’t share it. Don’t believe it.

No matter how much you push, it will never be enough. This is the American way; to slay all day, as the younger generation likes to put it. You will never run out of people and programs and photos to point it out and prove it to you because the pushers cannot afford to ease up on you. Every achievement is the result of pushing yourself. Every failure is the result of not pushing yourself. The point is to keep you pushing, which keeps you perpetually needy, unsatisfied, and unhappy. The more you think you need, the more you’ll spend.

Do you get that? The point is keep you believing you need to be more or better or different and do more or better or different every waking moment of your life, from infancy to old age. You will be pushed and pushed and pushed to push, which means your lifetime will be spent spending, upgrading, seeking, acquiring, and accumulating.

Wellness is rooted in ease, not in angst. The way to push back against the pushers is to refuse to push. Step away from directives like the one above. Don’t give in. Don’t play along. Don’t believe there’s something missing or lacking about you or your life if you aren’t pushing for something else. Be here now, with what is, as it is, and let it be enough.

— Mercy