The trap of young and middle-aged people

There's always a force pushing you forward, but you don't know why. You work from dawn till dusk to complete one task after another, so busy that your vision is blurred and you can't see what's ahead. This force keeps pushing you forward. Life experience tells you, "It's always better to keep moving than to stop. There's always a holy city ahead."

After graduating from university, most of us live a life of eight hours a day, selling ourselves to capitalists. Becoming fully independent brings with it a multitude of miscellaneous tasks, many things we want to try, and one "opportunity" after another. After a few years, we realize we've tried everything interesting and engaging, and instead, we fall into deep reflection. Whether a job is good or bad, it's always a fixed 40 hours. Those who enjoy their work climb the ranks, while those who dislike it switch jobs, eventually finding satisfaction and continuing the upward climb. It seems this is the only thing we can truly control, and we slowly fall into a cycle until middle age or old age, progressing from junior to intermediate to senior to expert, until retirement. As we age, our paths narrow.

I call this the "midlife trap," and the reason I wanted to write about it is because I've found myself caught in it. With fixed lifestyle habits and things settling down, it seems like I no longer want to move. Losing motivation, I'm left at the mercy of others. My development gradually shifts from divergent to linear, and life transforms from an unclear path into a predictable one. The article I read before, "Most people are already dead after 25," roughly conveys this idea. We do what most people do, walking the same repetitive paths, like a game where you can already see the outcome—do you still want to play? Constantly getting up early and going to bed late for work becomes an anesthetic; everyone is immersed in it, and society makes it difficult to escape.

Why not do something you enjoy? It's not that I don't want to, but I have too little time, I'm physically exhausted, so I'll just give up. Why not try to break out of my current predicament and take a different path? I'm physically exhausted, the cost is too high, the uncertainty and risks are too great, so I'll just give up. Then why are you still alive? You're no different from a walking corpse. Because we live in society, we have social responsibilities. You're no longer just yourself; you have to consider your parents, friends, children, property, and so on—things connected to you.

This trap slowly draws you in, and as time goes by, it becomes increasingly difficult to escape.

what to do?

Finding what you want to do isn't difficult; what's difficult is having the courage and perseverance to step outside of that area. I discovered this problem today, and I'll start trying tomorrow.