Copyright tribuneonlineng
By Arewa Abimbola THERE’s a silent kind of exhaustion many young people carry these days – not from lack of effort, but from trying too hard to meet invisible expectations. It’s the heaviness that carries from scrolling through our phones and feeling like everyone else is doing better. Someone just bought a car. Another moved abroad. Someone else launched a business, released a song, or got married. We smile and type “Congratulations”, but deep down, a small, heavy thought lingers: “we’re not doing enough”. The truth is, our generation is drowning in the pressure to succeed – to achieve, to impress, to “make it” fast. We’ve turned success into a competition, a performance, a race where everyone is sprinting without knowing who set the finish line. And somewhere in that noise, we’ve started losing our peace., Growing up, we were told to dream big and work hard. There’s nothing wrong with that. Ambition itself isn’t the enemy. It’s one of the most beautiful things about us – the desire to grow, to create, to become more. But somewhere along the line, ambition got hijacked by comparison. Social media with its endless parade of achievements, turned personal progress into a public scoreboard. Now, instead of being motivated, many young people feel anxious, left out, or ashamed for not being “there” yet – wherever “there” even is. It’s almost as if we’ve mistaken movement for meaning. We glorify being busy, overworked, and “on the grind”. We post motivational quotes about sleepless nights and sacrifice, as if exhaustion is proof of value. But when did peace become luxury? When did rest start to feel like failure? We talk so much about success that we forget to ask what it actually means. For some, it’s money. For others, it’s influence or visibility. But if success leaves you anxious, empty, or constantly comparing your life to others, is it still success? Because the truth is, many of us are working hard not because we love what we do, but because we’re terrified of looking like we are not doing enough. There’s a name for this – hustle culture. It’s that modern obsession with achievement that convinces us we must always be producing, achieving, and improving. It tells us that our worth is tied to our output. That we are only as valuable as our last win. It sounds inspiring on the surface, but underneath, it’s draining millions of young people who wake up every day feeling like they’re already behind. And it’s not hard to see why. The economy is tough. Opportunities are limited. The future feels uncertain. Many of us are not just chasing dreams – we’re trying to survive. But survival and self-worth are not the same thing. When we constantly compare our pace to others, even our small wins start to feel insignificant. We start resenting our own progress, forgetting that every journey unfolds differently. But here’s something we rarely admit: the people we envy are also under pressure. The influencer who seems to have it all might be drowning in debt. The entrepreneur posting success stories might be quietly battling burnout. The truth is, everyone is struggling with something. We are all just curating different versions of our chaos online. It’s okay to want success, it’s normal to dream a better life. But when success becomes a burden instead of a blessing, it’s time to pause because the chaos never ends. Once you reach a milestone, there’s another waiting. A bigger house, a fancier title, more followers, more validation and a lot more. And one thing about this is that as the bar keeps rising, peace keeps slipping away. Maybe the problem isn’t that we are not achieving enough. Maybe it is that we have allowed success to define us. We’ve forgotten that who we are matters more than what we achieve. We’ve forgotten that joy is not found in comparison, but in contentment. The people who build meaningful lives are not always the loudest. They’re often the ones who live quietly working, learning, growing, and resting. They understand that success without peace is just a stress in disguise. They’re not running to prove anything – they are walking with purpose. We need to give ourselves permission to slow down. To stop measuring our worth by our productivity. To understand that growth takes time, and there is no shame in being in a work in progress. Some flowers bloom early, others take longer. But every one of them blooms beautifully in its own season. So maybe the real success isn’t the one that trends, but the one that brings peace. The kind of success that allows you to rest without guilt. The one that lets you enjoy the present while you build the future. The one that doesn’t require you to lose yourself just to be seen. The truth is, this constant pressure to succeed is robbing us of the very things success is supposed to give – joy, confidence, and peace of mind. What good is it to reach the top if we lose ourselves on the way up? Maybe the real goal was never to be the fastest, richest, or most famous but to make it and still be whole. To build something lasting, not just something loud. To be happy, not just impressive. There is no deadline on destiny. We are not late. We are not behind. We are just becoming and that, in itself, is enough. Life is not a race; it’s a journey and everyone’s path unfolds differently. Stop waiting for big achievements to feel proud. Celebrate every small win, growth is rarely loud. Rest is not laziness and the world will not fall apart just because we slowed down. It’s better to be genuinely growing than to look like we’ve arrived. Authentic people may not always be trending, but they last longer. Follow people who inspire depth, not just display; substance, not just status. So, breathe. Work hard, yes – but work with purpose, not panic. Dream big, but move with grace. Rest when needed because at the end of it all, true success is not about how quickly we get there but how peacefully we arrive. •Arewa, a 400-level student of Linguistics and African Languages at the Obafemi Awolowo University, can be reached via [email protected]
