Avoiding entitlement
Inertia — Nº177
Life is a vast landscape, not a guided tour. Your view is for you to discover.
“It doesn’t owe us anything…” I have to remind myself now and again. “There are no entitlements. I wasn’t born with a golden ticket. I’m fortunate enough to start with a few more perks than some, but life doesn’t owe me more just because I’m in it. I’m not entitled to a mark in this world, I’ve got to make it myself.”
Walk without the expectation of a red carpet. Eat without the expectation of a silver platter. No one knows you until they know you. No one will willingly take the reigns while you wait for things to happen. No one will willingly snatch the pen from your lazy index finger and continue your story just as you like while you sit back and watch.
Take it as the ideal daily morning affirmation. Like a clear, beautiful song you can’t help but keep on repeat each time the sun rises.
To be entitled is to stride with an unearned sense of deservingness. It’s assuming all doors open automatically because the sensors exclaim, “It’s you!” with excitement. It’s believing your problems solve themselves because you ignore the people in the background doing the work. It’s believing others cater to your needs without question. It’s assuming you have a right to things you haven’t worked for. Truly, it’s the fear of having to push through all your fears and waves of shame yourself.
It’s hard—but you have a lifetime to do so.
Otherwise, you care too much about what you don’t have without opening your eyes and seeing what you do.
I see it most in younger generations. And I get it; you’re born in this world of endless technology and casual societies and grow up being the centre of attention by lenient parents. They love you, but they think about life differently than before. I’ve seen and heard enough about kids getting what they want through screaming, even when they’re in the wrong. Being rewarded for snatching things from other kids or upsetting them because they were getting more attention. So of course they expect this to carry on through life. As a kid, I couldn’t have dreamed of such a thing.
There are times when you need to feel proud, passionate, and confident, when you need to be possessed by the agency to create life as you want it. But you can always accompany that with gratitude and patience.
A good life is knowing how to move forward and backwards, how to stand tall in challenging situations without someone holding your hand, how to recognize that life isn’t a linear march from A to B, and how to be happy when life has regressed, and your emotions have been wrung dry. Entitlement only holds you back from this.
In your story, you’re the sole author—not a passive recipient of fate. It’s about finding joy in effort rather than expecting happiness to be handed over. A fulfilling life comes from setting goals, working hard to achieve them, and slowing down to be grateful along the way. I’ve had some of the happiest months I’ve ever had recently, which wouldn’t have been possible without this lesson.
Rejecting entitlement is where you create resilience, self-reliance, and genuine satisfaction. We appreciate life more deeply when we know the work that went into it, and so much more comes from a mindset that believes we must actively shape our destinies.