When it comes to life, you’ll find that there are things you tend to gloss over or deny because they’re too difficult to accept. Since the path of least resistance is a common human trait, this is normal. But that doesn’t make it excusable as you’ll eventually have to confront the truth either willingly or unwillingly. Here are 5 harsh realities of life in the 21st century that need to be accepted:
Not Everyone is Going to Like You
As a people pleaser for most of my life, this one took some time to settle in. If you’re anything like me, it will also take some time because you’re so fixated on either hoping others can see all of the good qualities you see in yourself, or ensuring there’s no friction or bad blood between you and the people in your life. Or, it’s a mix of both.
This is simply a counterproductive strategy.
As you progress through life, you’ll meet all types of people in all types of settings. For one reason or another, one of the harsh realties today is that some people you run into will just not like you.
And it’s not your duty to find out why.
If you know in your heart that you have genuinely good intentions toward others, then that is all that’s needed to remember when wondering what the reason could be for a person’s views toward you. Doing right in the world can help you stay grounded.
If You do What is Hard, Your Life Will be Easy
Nobody wants to take action on endeavors that are a struggle to endure, but produce an ideal personal outcome. Because struggle is not comfortable, and again, the path of least resistance is the default mindset for people.
Think of the voice in the back of your head, your higher consciousness. Notice when you choose to take the easy path, that voice is reminding you of how much you’ll regret that decision later on. That you won’t be any closer to the better version of yourself you know you want to become.
Also notice it emphasizes what you should be doing instead, and that’s almost always what you try to avoid.
When the path of least resistance is ignored and you go against the grain, you’ll reap the rewards of your labour. Aside from just savoring those rewards, you can spot trends in how much easier everything else becomes.
For example, you want a muscular physique but realize committing yourself to the gym won’t be easy. You do it anyways and achieve the physique you visualized.
Then, disciplining yourself to focus on work or a side project becomes easier as you disciplined yourself at the gym. Women tend to show more interest in you since they realize it takes commitment and grit to achieve a body like yours.
Another one of the harsh realities of life is that God rewards those who work hard. If you’re not religious, then the universe rewards you if you work hard.
Loyalty is Rare Between Men and Women
Social media has turned the world upside down in many ways. From frying your dopamine system through constant content scrolling to fracturing your self-image by comparing your life with the lives of others on screens.
What’s become more and more noticeable is the access to attention and validation both women and men can receive. There are so many options available through the explore section on Instagram and dating apps like Tinder that it’s hard to overlook the difficulty it creates with intimacy.
Cheating and self-pleasure in relationships happens so often that it’s almost become normalized – one of the more daunting of the harsh realities today. There are still couples out there who stay true to each other, but it’s a rarity.
Women in particular have never had as much access to partners than right now. There’s something to be said about a man’s concern with this because if his girlfriend perceives his actions or inactions as dissatisfactory, no matter how trivial, she can easily look elsewhere. Which begs the question: what’s the point in dating?
This is not to say men don’t do the same thing, because they do, but it’s generally harder for a man to have sex or set up dates with other women. The ones who have an easy time with it are set apart through status, looks, resources, or all of the above. And it’s difficult to bring yourself to that level.
The overarching theme is that social media content accelerates the difficulty men and women face with each other.
You Have No Reason to Not be Learning
Despite the problems social media and the internet at large has introduced, there’s still so much utility to be taken from it.
We’ve never had more access to information than today. On virtually any topic you can think of.
As of 2022, 66% of the global population uses the internet. 5.3 billion people.
With that comes the matter of personal development or generally learning about things of interest to you.
You can learn skills, educate yourself about aspects of the world, find mentors to guide you, start a business, and the list goes on. It’s actually crazy to realize the potential for personal growth you have at your fingertips.
So if you’re wasting your days with instant gratification, you need to wake up. Really understand what you’re doing versus what you could be doing. Ignorance or a lack of motivation are not excuses anymore, and that’s one of the harsh realities today.
Skills Matter More than Post-Secondary Education
We’re not living in the 20th century anymore. Even though some employers and companies still value it, post-secondary school education just isn’t as important as it used to be.
I think there’s been a realization across the board that one of the harsh realities in the 21st century is: being able to memorize information and then repeat it onto a test or exam doesn’t help you in the real world. A case can be made for applying what you learn, especially if it’s relevant to your work (like a doctor, for instance), but in the fields that aren’t directly linked to schooling, how much of that information can really be applied?
There’s been more of an emphasis on acquiring hard and soft skills as a gateway to a job or generally making income. And this is because proficiency at skills that are relevant to your source of income make you more competent at what you’re doing.
You can check out my post on self-education that covers the importance of learning skills here.
For example, if a corporate company is hiring and one of the requirements as an applicant is to be proficient at Microsoft Excel (a hard skill), are they going to hire the person who is or isn’t?
Soft skills are always in demand, too. I landed a corporate job because I had prior sales experience with the ability to build relationships and engage in productive conversation. This was proven by my track record of hitting and exceeding quotas.
And I don’t have a degree.