Fear of missing out is just not worth it.
The cost of missed opportunities in the current shape of the world is not as high as we think it is. Think about it. We live in a highly secular society, most of us free of the fear inflicted by eternal consequences. This being a given you are free to retry. Then the workings of the world, be they damn cold capitalist, are in the end learnable. Its not like it used to be, an ever changing “the king is dead, long live the king” system anymore.
The cost of missed opportunities lies in the value of retry.
The value of a retry is not that high as long as the world stays in its current shape. You can start over after pretty much any number of failures, because food is abundant, comfort levels are at historic records and overall world stability is apparently held in place.
Therefore the stress of missing out on life becomes unjustified. Lets take some examples.
Marriage. If you want to get married and feel the excitement of doing so, do it. You will not be the village weirdo if you decide it was a bad idea, nobody will judge your sins if you divorce and in no scenario other than stupidity will your financial situation be affected. So loose the FIMO and buy that ring.
Entrepreneurship. Do you have an itch that doesn’t let you sit at work? Scratch it and go for the start up dream. Its not like you’ll miss company in the long tail of 98% failure rate in this adventure. But you’ll learn so many things that unless you are a lazy prick, coming back to a job in case of ruin will be easier than you think. So loose the FIMO and incorporate!
Youth. Young age has finally transcended the biological age. There is no social norm anymore that states how you should behave at 30 or at 45. So instead of a mid life crisis why not just be young again? Go bring youth back, you’ll have a much better time than fitting into the lame cliche of the oiled gym guy or the hyper sexual vixen. So loose the FIMO and feel life!
Career. It is never too late and never to early to either stop or start one. A “career” is no longer something good by itself. We took some 80 years to finally conclude that a career without personal growth is not worth more than a fake watch at retirement. On the other hand bohemianism is overrated too and stability has some unbreakable perks. So loose the FIMO and enjoy working again.
Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.
FIMO is stress. Stress is blocking. Blockages stop progress. No progress means death. It is no better time, and it never was a better time, than now to just go the old pop cultural way and just do it (TM).
P.S. If you like the quote go read the gold standard of inspirational articles, by Mary Schmich in Chicago Tribune, 16 years ago. And Medium should allow citing for quotes, justsayin’