10 Limiting Views You Have To Reject If You Want A Shot At True Happiness

1. Your passion won’t pay your bills.

Your passion may not pay the bills right away, but over time it very well could. Job security is almost extinct in this day and age. Someone out there is making a living out of the things you are passionate about. With a lot of research and a lot of trial and error, you can find a way too.

2. Your education defines you.

You should not be defined by a piece of paper. Too often, people make the mistake of judging others based on where they went to school, or what they studied. The truth is that most people end up working in a different field or use very little of what they studied. And no one really cares about your GPA a year out of college. You should be defined by your character and your values, not by your grades or your extracurricular activities. Not everyone can afford a good education, but that doesn’t make them any less smart or less important.

3. If you’re not married by 30, you probably have issues.

You should get married whenever the time is right for you, whenever you meet the right person, whenever you learn enough about relationships and commitment to make one work. If you never do, that’s okay too.

4. All women are fit to be mothers.

Women who want children and are able to love and support them should have children. Women who don’t want kids, or are incapable of caring for them, shouldn’t. Kids are not toys and not everyone is ready for them. People need to start understanding that women are much more than just baby-makers.

5. You have to be thin to be attractive.

Marilyn Monroe was a size 8 and James Dean didn’t have a six pack. We should take care of ourselves and our bodies, but we should not pressure people to be a certain size or to have a specific percentage of body fat.

6. Non-conformists are just plain weird.

Our differences are what make us special, and what make us think outside the box. We should not suppress who we really are or repress our quirky traits or our eccentric opinions just because people might judge us. People will always be startled by what is unknown and unfamiliar to them and that should not be a reason to conform to something that doesn’t make sense to you.

7. It’s not okay not to be okay.

It’s OK not to be OK. We are obsessed with pretending to be strong because being sad is looked upon as a weakness, and people don’t want to be around sad people. We have to let certain emotions take their natural course so they can freely leave our system once and for all. We need to stop forcing others to be happy when they are not or act strong when they can’t. Instead, we need to offer a helping hand and lend a sympathetic ear.

8. Everyone else is happier and more successful than you are.

With the breakthrough of technology, it is becoming impossible to avoid seeing people’s success. People flaunt their extravagant vacations and major accomplishments across social media. We must not forget that people’s social media profiles represent only one sliver of who they are. What we see is merely a few pixels of their reality and our own imagination.

9. You have to have everything figured out by 30.

To quote the Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, “Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.” You can’t fixate on what you have or haven’t accomplished at any age if you want to achieve anything. Instead, focus your energy on actually doing something. With time, everything will fall into place for those who are actively trying to figure things out instead of just sitting around sulking.

10. Your image is everything.

Nowadays, people tend to avoid asking direct questions or they say the exact opposite of what they actually think because they’re so concerned about their image. Unfortunately, society celebrates that kind of deceitful behavior. Society needs to start celebrating individuals for who they really are and we all need to start being ourselves instead of conforming to ridiculous standards.