I (31m) am past the age of pursuing glory, you stick around too long and you become the old guy, everyone in your age group is settling down, goals aren’t about competition anymore but rather about building something new. My mentality is stuck in that chase though, I am drawn to competition or chasing a goal within some context, I can’t internalize a sense of fulfillment from building something new. In other words, I can’t move past the “glory days” mentality but I need to. So what do I do?
Okay I guess I need to edit this because I have gotten 9 responses and while I do appreciate the responses, none of them understand what I am asking. **This isn’t about giving up or not having goals.** This is about transitioning my sense of fulfillment from that of one nature to another. Specifically “glory” is the pursuit, chase, or competition, or/for goal **within** a predefined context (the dynamic that is largely present in young people’s lifes). A “glory” based sense of fulfillment can be contrasted with a a system were fulfillment is not about working with a predefined contet, but rather building the context yourself.
Intuitive examples being playing football vs starting a family.
10 comments
I never moved past that – being a man is all about improving, achieving, and conquering in life. Nobody likes people who are stagnant. Don’t lose that hunger. When people get complacent in life that’s when everything falls apart
I think it’s best not label yourself or times in your life or what you should be doing. Just live one day at a time.
And it might be best to stop using terms like “glory days” which don’t really mean anything.
I would make the argument that I haven’t quite hit my “glory days” yet
Pro tip…. move past them by simply not having them in the first place
>you stick around too long and you become the old guy,
You’re still worried about what everyone else thinks.
If you’ve got goals you want to work towards, work towards them. Some things just take time.
Everybody’s different. Be yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that. You have your place in society just like everybody else. Not everybody is going to have the same place or role. I would do what makes you happy and stop worrying about what your peers are doing. For all you know, they very well may actually be envying you. Over time, I think you’ll come across some surprise admissions where people who you thought had it all together secretly admired you and wished they took the route you did.
Get an office job, get married, and start a family. After a year or two, you won’t even remember what it felt like to have dreams or goals. You won’t recognize that 29yo guy with aspirations. You’ll finally stop fighting the current and let the warm, gentle waters of mediocrity slowly rock you to sleep.
The only way to be at peace with giving up on some dreams is to chase bigger ones imo. I’m in the process of giving up being a successful musician which would hurt way more if I wasn’t working on the even-harder goals now.
If you find yourself not being competitive you’ve kind of given up already. In most aspects of life.
Why do you want to do this? It’s OK if you still want to seek fulfillment by running a marathon or whatever you’re into.