Perhaps the greatest challenge for human beings is not survival, but learning to live without being permanently conditioned by the structures they have inherited. From an early age, we internalise an idea of what a proper life should look like: study, work, produce, consume, progress, start a family and achieve certain goals. We rarely stop to question whether we genuinely want any of these things or whether we have simply learned to consider them necessary. To escape this conditioning, we need to reclaim our mental independence, distinguish our needs from the desires others have created for us, and stop measuring our worth through success, money or recognition. We also need to understand that our time is limited and that every obligation we accept consumes an irreplaceable part of our existence.

This is not about abandoning society or idealising a primitive way of life, but about regaining the ability to decide how we want to participate in it. Reducing our dependencies, protecting our time, stepping away from competition and rediscovering activities that serve no productive purpose are ways of gaining freedom. Resting, playing, walking, talking or simply doing nothing should not require justification. Nor should we wait until illness or old age to ask ourselves whether we have lived the way we wanted. Perhaps true success is not about achieving everything society proposes to us, but about preserving enough freedom to choose our own existence. Because in the end, the question is not how much we have achieved during our lives, but how much of our lives we have actually been able to live.