How Am I Doing?

One of the things I was taught — or, at least, it was suggested to me — many years ago is that comparisons are deadly... our lives are our lives.

Maybe... maybe not... that statement has to be put inside some kind of context in order to make sense.

Comparisons are deadly, when your context is eternal comparisons to unrealistic societal standards, or falling short of values you don't even subscribe to. And comparisons are also deadly when viewed in the context of the proverbial peer-pressure "keeping up with the Joneses" situations.

Just... don't.

But when I find myself pondering the question of "How am I doing?" it becomes very difficult to answer, without some kind of external metric or scale.

Like, for example, I know I'm doing pretty well as a writer, but what metrics am I considering that on?

If we were to just looking at my compensation, we'd quickly find that I am an abject failure! The handful of coins I occasionally make barely even qualifies as "compensation!"

But I am definitely happy, and enjoying myself. So that has value, right?

I am also doing pretty well because I get to work 100% from home, and don't have to spend two hours in traffic every day, commuting to some soul-sucking job at a large company where nobody cares about anything beside the corporate bottom line.

This post was actually inspired by watching an episode of the popular TV show "Survivor," in which one of the participants was confessing his insecurities and embarrassment at being 38 years old and living in a trailer in his parents' driveway, because that was all he could afford.

The context here is that this man was following his dream and passions as a professional stunt man in the film industry... but the reality of that passion was that his monetary income was only enough to afford him a life in a trailer.

What so we DO with that?

Do we follow our passions and thereby stay true to ourselves... and to wherever those passions might lead, or do with accept that the only way to have any kind of life is to be "an obedient little soldier" who follows the prescribed path laid out by a society that — most likely — measures "How am I doing?" by a very different set of metrics than we do?

I remember having a conversation with a friend, a great many years ago... and she pointed out that society is is set up to support productive human beings, not happy human beings.

And if you happen to be happy while being productive, it's typically just a random stroke of good fortune rather than a deliberate plan.

I'm doing pretty well.

I get to sit here and write a blog post that I get to publish on the Blurt blackchain, and if I am fortunate, I might be rewarded some 40 cents for my effort, when all is said and done... which is 40 cents more than I would be rewarded if I put the same thing on Facebook.

So that's something.

It's more difficult to put a value on the freedom and independence of being able to DO that. That's what most people in our world do not have.

They end up beholden.

And while they might be "doing well" against the mainstream narrative for what "fine" looks like, are they ultimately happy? Undeniably, some are. And many are not.

How are YOU doing?

*Thanks for coming to visit and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? How do you think you are doing? Are you using YOUR OWN metric to measure, or are you comparing yourself to societal norms? How is that working out for you? DO leave me a comment — engagement matters! Communities are built because people INTERACT with each other through the content that's created! This is SOCIAL media, after all. So share your opinion, be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer all worthy comments!

Sequence: 096 — Timestamp: 2025.03.14 - 21:30 PDT

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