Road To Revelation

While listening to the song The Road To Revolution by Dream Theater the other day I couldn't help notice that a certain lyric stuck in my mind. The lyric is:

"When the man in the mirror takes a long hard look at me, will the person staring back be the man I want to be?"

This particular song lyric really grabbed me because I can relate to this more than I could probably explain. It is basically saying, are you the person you want to be, or are you pretending to be someone you're not? Here is the song if you're interested. It truly is an amazing song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhlzm0fLldE

I think everybody at some point in their lives looks in the mirror and ponders who they are. There are few things more depressing than not truly knowing yourself.

I think society has a false perception of success which in turn creates a false perception of yourself. We are told life is being born, school, good job, marriage, kids, bills, retirement, death. If you're lucky maybe you'll get to travel two times a year. The average human works a 9-5 job then comes home and watches TV until bed time. Rinse then repeat! Most people will live and die in the same place they grew up. This doesn't sound like any serious life experience to me. The way society defines success is not the way I define success.

I use to think money was happiness until I realized that it was the experiences I have had that I remembered and not the money it cost to have those experiences. You need to say I did this and that instead of saying I didn't do this or that, but I saved money. You can't sacrifice your joy in pursuit of living a life you don't want just because it is considered successful to everyone around you. It's a sick an disturbing mentality if you think of it for a second and just don't jump to the automatic reptilian survival brain response of "I need money to live." It's true you need money to live unfortunately in this perverted society. However, you don't need a lot of money to live. Yeah, if you want to fit into the mainstream society you do, to buy $300 shoes and $30,000 cars. If you want to live and not divulge in unnecessary bullshit you don't need a lot of money. Sacrifice for a year. Eat rice and grow your own food. Stop wasting your money on popping bottles and going out to fit in with people you don't even like. Build the life you want. Create! But it is going to take sacrifice. It will not be easy. But it will be worth it. There are no excuses, only choices. You choose the life you want and the person you want to be. You can complain, but at the end of the day that won't get you anywhere. Follow your heart. Take chances. Fight for what you love and don't ever settle for security. It is a trap that you will regret when you're 75 years old with a lot of paper money and no inner happiness. When you reach 75 years of age chances are you won't have the energy to do a lot of things. So do them now, don't care so much about the money. Money can create temporal pleasure, but it will not give you fulfillment. That comes with actually living your life and doing everything you want to do. And when you do what you want to do and what you love to do, the money will come even greater than when you would settle for a career. This is the road to revelation.

So, when you look into the mirror. Will the person staring back be the person you want to be?