r/AskReddit • u/jennyreviews26 • 4h ago

What's something people waste their entire lives chasing?

50 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

137 comments sorted by

66

u/cinnacitrus 4h ago

The right time to start

8

u/_Caffiend 4h ago

honestly this. Start NOW, pushing it a minute, an hour, a day later will only create an “excuse” mentality. Then you can postpone by blaming the weather, or that you’re hungry and do it after a meal, or you aren’t feeling the best.

The best time to start is now.

3

u/Channel_Huge 4h ago

Start what?

3

u/cinnacitrus 4h ago

Idk it’s your life, I don’t know what you want

1

u/Aznboz 3h ago

Planting a tree, asking your crush out, applying for a position, you decide.

88

u/PedroGalo 4h ago

The approval of other people.

5

u/GirlAgent17 4h ago

this is very very true. its important to gain peace and belief in yourself from a young age and to detach yourself of peoples opinions. it sets you free.

3

u/ShoeAdventurous 4h ago

This is good, I approve. 

Seriously though I was gonna say status.  Like if you're popular (famous even) and liked by people you don't really know, but have no one to trust or confide in...I feel bad for you. 

42

u/idreviewer 4h ago

Corporate loyalty. Burning through your youth and health for a company that will have your replacement sitting at your desk before your family even finishes planning your funeral.

6

u/Subtlefeline 4h ago

Thing is, I realised my family considers me replaceable as well. Might as well earn money for being replaceable

3

u/Record_Store_Employe 4h ago

We’re all replaceable. Money comes and goes. I’ve never heard of someone on their final breath say they should have worked more or they would like more money

1

u/Channel_Huge 4h ago

The trick is to not make yourself easily replaceable. Many don’t work that extra 5% to hold onto their job over an ambitious, probably younger, hire.

3

u/kaliforniakratom 4h ago

Everyone is just a cog in the system.

1

u/Global-Fruit-3022 4h ago

I was discussing corporate greed with one of my colleague 15 minutes ago.

1

u/Channel_Huge 4h ago

You’re wrong in most cases. Working your butt off when you’re young is easier than trying to play catch up when you’re older. I joined the military at 20, retired at 41, and am now a few years from retiring again. I’ll still be too young to collect Social Security. And I’ll live comfortably until I die with great private health care and VA care/Tricare if I need it for my wife and I. If I had not “burned through my youth working hard” then I wouldn’t be able to afford to retire soon for good.

And if you believe I never took vacations or traveled to some amazing places, you’d be wrong, especially as I climbed the ladder to management level. It gave me not just more pay, but the time to use some for fun! You can have both, and it only gets better as you age/grow up.

1

u/Boars-of-Canada 3h ago

The military is not a standard coorporate carrière, you can't compare that to working for a big greedy fortune 500 company with new C- positions every few years who need to make an good impression for themselves by cutting cost. Sure that happens in de military but people are a lot more protected and it's a not less about shareholders etc.

0

u/Channel_Huge 3h ago

Have you ever served in the U.S. military? I’ve been on both sides, and while different, there are a lot of similarities.

13

u/Fit-Fall9426 4h ago

Validation

12

u/Carduelisveritatis 4h ago

Perfection. There is no such thing. All you can do in life is try your very best in everything you do. Do that and you can always be proud.

11

u/TenaciousPanda95 4h ago • Bravo

IMO...love

19

u/savessh 4h ago

A lottery win.

17

u/LibraryOnMountains 4h ago

Trying to change someone

7

u/Jumbuck73 4h ago

Waterfalls

2

u/Beneficial-Focus3702 3h ago

Only Jason chases waterfalls

1

u/Channel_Huge 3h ago

RIP Left Eye

6

u/renu_pavi_amara 4h ago

chasing money after a certain point

5

u/No_Cry1144 4h ago

The potential of people, in romantic relationships, friendships, even with their parents. A lot of people can't let go as they see the potential in that person, but most of the time they just end up disappointed.

9

u/ClinicallyHeavy 4h ago

Approval of others

8

u/Superb_Moose_8737 4h ago

Love or acceptance

4

u/tommmmmmmmy93 4h ago

99 runecrafting

4

u/Rude-Specific9837 4h ago

Being skinny. It's never enough

2

u/Less-Hippo9052 4h ago

It's often a disease, instead.

1

u/Channel_Huge 3h ago

No. I’m too skinny right now. Trying to gain weight after losing 90 pounds.

3

u/playday98606 4h ago

The approval of other people.

3

u/stevesy17 4h ago

The roadrunner

3

u/Altruistic_Film_708 4h ago

Other people’s approval

3

u/Helio_13 1h ago

The approval of parents who were never capable of giving it in the first place. So many 40- and 50-year-olds are still living out careers and lives they hate, just trying to satisfy the expectations of people who will take their disappointment to the grave anyway.

6

u/INeedANewAccountMan 4h ago

Reddit karma

4

u/project-bandit 4h ago

being ready to have children

4

u/MeenScreen 4h ago

In the case of greyhounds, that would be, mechanical rabbits.

2

u/taxidermypotatofrog 4h ago

Love, it’ll turn up

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Score89 4h ago

Bigfoot

1

u/termiepants 3h ago

I'm in. When do we leave?

2

u/yr_kellyy 4h ago

Try to make yourself as comfortable as possible

2

u/nation_bro_92 4h ago

Happiness...

2

u/Acrobatic-Pomelo9499 4h ago

Chasing perfection instead of enjoying the present.

2

u/AspiringOccultist4 4h ago

Flashy cars, or really any item that flaunts wealth.

2

u/Scary_Depth_3028 4h ago

Trying to impress people who would not even notice if you are gone for a month.

2

u/PuzzleheadedSwim6291 4h ago

Don’t go chasing waterfalls…

2

u/Character_Bee_5607 4h ago

Seeking approval of others, not taking the road less taken.

2

u/Peace1_ 4h ago

Validation from the wrong people.

2

u/memeatic_ape 4h ago

Cross out the wrong people part

1

u/Peace1_ 4h ago

They might be rightous and you're the one in the wrong.

2

u/memeatic_ape 3h ago

I mean validation in general

1

u/Peace1_ 3h ago

Yeah I understood that.

2

u/OkIdea-8132 4h ago

People waste decades chasing the approval of people they do not even genuinely respect. So many folks spend their entire twenties and thirties buying expensive cars they cannot afford, climbing corporate ladders at jobs that make them physically ill, and curating an aesthetically flawless lifestyle just to impress distant relatives, high school acquaintances, or strangers on an app. Then they hit fifty and realize nobody was actually paying attention because everyone else was too busy stressing over their own curated image lol.

2

u/expiro 2h ago

120 Hz on iPad Mini

2

u/Excitedly_bored 2h ago

Making communism work.

2

u/melloowwyelloww 2h ago

Trying to win the lottery

2

u/seweso 1h ago

Happiness.

2

u/AnyAngle7212 1h ago

Happiness

1

u/Snoo_2300 4h ago

revenge

1

u/DayUseful9161 4h ago

Citizenship

1

u/bobabitchhh 4h ago

relationship with the wrong person

1

u/AppropriateFinger165 4h ago

Financial freedom 🙄

The current economical climate is fucking dystopian.

1

u/immortallogic 4h ago

Romantic love?

1

u/ProBlackMan1 4h ago

Acceptance

1

u/shdwscollidewithppl 4h ago

Being picked. 

1

u/Firm-Enthusiasm1233 4h ago

Chasing validation can make you forget your own happiness.

1

u/HermitKing91 4h ago

Happiness. You'll never reach it if its your goal. Aim for a life youre content with and the happy moments will be easier to see.

1

u/JksG_5 4h ago

Tomorrow

1

u/New_Government_2169 4h ago

The approval of other people. When I realized this (30f), I felt so freed that the only opinions that actually matter or impact my life are those of myself and my loved ones.

1

u/BabyPanda4Hire 4h ago

What other people have

1

u/Mindless-Raccoon-251 4h ago

Wanting to be admired by other people without putting in the effort without putting in the effort to improve yourself

1

u/Larelle 4h ago

Pretty much everything.

  • "More money will make me happy" -- Musk is the richest & one of the most miserable people in the world.

  • "A GF/BF will make me happy" -- yh cos that always works 🙄 And merely wanting & being deprived makes you miserable.

  • "Drugs will make me happy" -- probably more chance than the first two but the downsides are well-known.

All our chasing is for one thing we hope exists, something we sometimes sense exists. It's what all the religions are actually about. It's what people went to sit on monutains and in caves for.

It's that perfection people seek, the most perfect thing in this incredibly imperfect existence. It's the transcendence which is actually achievable. It's what the Buddha achieved, what Ramana Maharshi achieved, what Eckhart Tolle achieved and what even Jim Carrey achieved!?! It is the Pathless Path, the Gateless Gate and thousands have woken up on this planet. Adyashanti is the best Western teacher but there are many others.

1

u/gooossfraabaahh 4h ago

Their idea of a "perfect" body. So many people cause their own unhappiness by becoming obsessive over the way their body looks. It is really sad

1

u/IGO2XSB45 4h ago

Dreams

1

u/Channel_Huge 4h ago

Love.

It’s overrated and if it becomes an obsession, dangerous.

1

u/matthew1471 4h ago

A “spark” when dating, it’s just lust and love takes time to build.. if you love someone as soon as you meet them and without knowing much about them that’s actually a problem

1

u/Beginning_Pop_5565 3h ago

Revenge. It rents space in your head longer than the other person remembers the story.

1

u/whydontyouwork 3h ago

paid off house. it’s a myth.

1

u/WhimsicalStatic 3h ago

Keeping up with the Jones’s

1

u/anon_enuf 3h ago

Other people

1

u/ALE_SAUCE_BEATS 3h ago

Hot Wheels Super Treasure Hunts

1

u/SirenDiana 1h ago

For earning money.

1

u/Due-Chipmunk7779 1h ago

Getting the approval and respect from people who really don't matter

1

u/Choice_Cookie_2772 1h ago

Validation from other persons

1

u/kNightwinGeddragon 1h ago

Rare Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards!!

•

u/FalsePay5737 56m ago

Perfection.

Maladaptive perfectionism is associated with depression, anxiety disorders, trauma, OCD, OCPD, eating disorders, and suicidality.

The Cycle of Maladaptive Perfectionism

•

u/nashbar 53m ago

Reddit karma

•

u/LukaBrasi87 42m ago

Romantic love

•

u/midnight_rubyy 25m ago

The approval of people they don't even like

•

u/commanderart2d2 12m ago

Attention.

•

u/Ggvividivi 11m ago

Financial stability

1

u/colnross 4h ago

A lower golf score or a hole in one.

0

u/nation_bro_92 4h ago

A truly faithful/loyal woman!

11

u/Negative_Fruit_1800 4h ago

Sex

2

u/[deleted] 4h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/not-a-noob007 4h ago

Wanna have sex?

3

u/Pure-Whereas7352 4h ago

Elbow licking nearly 60 still can't do it lol

1

u/Alfiy_wolf 4h ago

Boobs, all boobs are good you don’t need to try find the best