Why 90% of People Are Asleep Their Whole Life?

A man sleeping while walking.

There is something strange about human life. A person can spend 40 or 50 years on earth, wake up every morning, go to work, eat, talk to people, raise children, follow the news, enjoy entertainment and grow old without seriously questioning the life he or she  living.

Many can be busy every day and still fail to understand where their life is going. They can complain about the same problems for years without changing how they approach them. They can watch their circumstances change around them while continuing to live according to ideas they adopted from their parents, friends, colleagues and society.

When I say 90% of people are asleep their whole life, I am not presenting a scientific statistic. I am describing a pattern I believe many people can recognise around them. People become so comfortable with familiar routines that they stop examining whether those routines are taking them anywhere.

Look at Uganda specifically. How many people spend their working lives waiting for the next salary? How many spend their evenings consuming whatever appears on their social media feeds? How many know every new song but pay little attention to the rising cost of living? How many couples raise children for years without agreeing on the kind of future they want to build? How many citizens complain about public services without demanding answers from the people responsible?

These are different problems, but they share something important: people can participate in the same activities for years without stopping to ask why they are doing them, what they are getting from them and what they are sacrificing in the process.

The tragedy is that you do not have to be unintelligent to live this way. You can be educated, employed, married, respected in your community and still go through life without examining your direction.

Sometimes, the person who needs to wake up is not the one who has failed. It is the one who has become comfortable enough to stop asking questions. 

But why;

1. Employment Has Taught Many People to Wait for a Salary.

For generations, employment has been presented as one of the main routes to a respectable life. Go to school, obtain qualifications, find a job, work hard, receive your salary and use it to support your family.

There is nothing wrong with this arrangement. Employment provides income, experience, stability and opportunities that many people genuinely need. Uganda or other countries cannot function without teachers, nurses, engineers, civil servants, shop attendants, drivers and countless other workers.

The problem begins when a person becomes so attached to the salary routine that they never examine what their working life is producing beyond the money that arrives at the end of the month.

Consider a Ugandan employee who has worked for 15 years. Every month, the salary enters the bank account. Rent is paid, food is purchased, children are supported, transport is covered and relatives may receive assistance. The remaining money, if any, disappears into other expenses. Then another month begins.

After years of this routine, the employee may discover that their lifestyle depends entirely on the next salary. They have no meaningful savings, no additional source of income, no plan for retirement and no clear strategy for what happens if the employer can no longer pay them. They have worked hard. But what have they been building?

This is where I believe many people begin to sleep through their working lives. They become so occupied with earning that they rarely examine the relationship between their time, their income and their future.

Some people only begin asking serious questions after an employer frustrates them, delays their salary, refuses a promotion or terminates their contract. Suddenly, they start thinking about the many hours they have spent working for someone else.

Why did they not ask these questions while the job was still available?

The uncomfortable truth is that a job can become a comfortable trap when a person treats it as the whole plan rather than one part of a larger life.

This does not mean every employee should abandon employment and start a business. That would be irresponsible advice, especially in a country where starting a business requires capital, customers, knowledge and the ability to survive uncertain income.

Instead, an employed person should periodically examine their position. Are they developing skills that can improve their opportunities? Are they managing their expenses? Are they preparing for emergencies? Are they building financial security where possible? Are they using their income to create options for the future?

A salary is not a failure but depending on a salary without examining the risks can become one.

The question is not whether you are employed. The question is whether, after years of working, your life has become more secure or simply more dependent on the next payday.

2. Social Media Is Consuming Attention That People Could have Used to Understand Their Lives.

Open TikTok, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube and begin scrolling. You do not need to search for anything specific. The feed will keep presenting videos, arguments, comedy, gossip, music and other material designed to hold your attention.

You may intend to spend five minutes on your phone. An hour later, you are still there without realizing.

This is not necessarily intentional because you made a conscious decision that the next hour should be spent watching videos. The content keeps coming, and each new content offers another reason to continue.

The recommendation systems behind these platforms use signals such as watch history and other interactions to estimate what interests users. The more you interact with particular kinds of content, the more similar material you may see. Think about what that means to your time and focus.

Your feed may gradually become filled with celebrity gossip because you repeatedly watch it. It may keep showing you arguments because you stopped to read the comments. It may present you with endless comedy because you rarely engage with anything else rather than comedy.

The platform is not necessarily asking whether this information will improve your life in five years. Its recommendations are designed around predicting what you may want to watch or engage with, not guaranteeing that what you consume is useful to your future. That is where the individual must take responsibility.

A young Ugandan can spend several hours every day watching videos, discussing celebrities and following online arguments while postponing the practical questions that could improve his or her life circumstances and worries.

A question many could have asked which they don't are;

What skill should I learn? How much money do I spend on unnecessary things? Why have I been looking for work for two years without changing my approach? What can I do to improve my performance at work? Why am I unable to save anything?

These questions require attention. They require sitting down, examining facts and sometimes admitting that our own habits contribute to our problems. Scrolling is easier.

Social media itself is not the enemy. Someone can learn a trade, find customers, follow useful news, discover job opportunities or build a business through these platforms. The same phone that wastes one person's time can help another person develop a valuable skill.

The difference is not necessarily the device. It is how deliberately the person uses it.

Before blaming the algorithm for everything, ask yourself a difficult question: What have you repeatedly shown your feed that you are interested in, and what have you neglected to learn because your attention is always somewhere else?

A person who never controls their attention may eventually discover that other people's businesses, arguments and entertainment have occupied the time they needed to build their own life.

3. Entertainment Makes People Feel Good, but the Feeling Does Not Last Forever.

Every society needs entertainment. People work hard, face disappointment and carry responsibilities. Music, comedy, football and other forms of recreation provide enjoyment and relief.

There is nothing wrong with knowing every song by your favourite Ugandan musician. There is nothing wrong with following football or laughing at a comedian after a difficult day.

The problem arises when entertainment becomes so dominant that a person knows more about what is happening in the lives of celebrities than what is happening in their own household.

Imagine someone who can sing every line of the latest hit song but has never sat down to calculate how much their family spends on food each month.

They know which musician released a new song. They know which celebrity is dating whom. They can argue passionately about a football match. But when the prices of basic commodities rise, they have no clear idea of how the increase affects their budget or what adjustments they need to make.

In Uganda, a household may already be struggling with rent, transport, food, electricity and school fees. When prices rise, the money available for other needs becomes smaller. Yet a person can remain fully occupied with entertainment while avoiding the difficult work of understanding their financial position.

Entertainment provides a temporary feeling. The responsibilities waiting at home remain.

This is not an argument that people should spend their entire lives working or thinking about money. That would be another form of an unhealthy life. Rest matters. Enjoyment matters. People need time away from their problems. But there is a difference between resting from life and escaping from life.

If someone watches football for two hours and then returns to their responsibilities refreshed, the entertainment has served a purpose. If someone spends every evening watching videos while avoiding overdue bills, neglected plans and unresolved family problems, the same activity may have become a way of postponing reality.

The danger is not always in what people watch. Sometimes it is in what they refuse to face while watching. A person can follow the whole entertainment industry and remain a stranger to their own circumstances.

4. Citizens Can Become Accustomed to Poor Government Services.

Government has responsibilities that affect ordinary people every day. These include public services, infrastructure, healthcare, education, public safety and the management of public resources.

Citizens pay taxes directly or indirectly, and they have a legitimate interest in asking what those taxes support, how public money is used and whether public institutions are fulfilling their responsibilities.Yet something worrying happens when poor services become familiar.

A road develops potholes, and people complain. Months pass. The potholes remain, and people begin treating them as part of the journey.

Someone visits a public health facility and experiences difficulties accessing the service they need. People discuss the problem. More people experience similar difficulties. Eventually, the difficulty itself becomes something citizens expect.When a problem becomes normal, the pressure to question it can weaken.

This is one way people can sleep through their civic responsibilities. They know something is wrong, but their response rarely goes beyond private complaints, political arguments or jokes shared online.

A citizen can spend an entire evening arguing about political personalities without examining the practical questions that matter to their community.

What services should be available? Which public institution is responsible? What information is available about the relevant project or budget? What explanation has been given for delays? What lawful channels exist for raising concerns and demanding accountability? These questions are more demanding than simply choosing a political side.

They require citizens to distinguish between promises and delivery, personalities and institutions, rumours and evidence. The responsibility does not rest entirely on citizens. Governments and public officials must provide information, respond to legitimate concerns and fulfil their duties. People also face real obstacles when trying to obtain information or challenge poor services.

But those difficulties make informed civic engagement more important, not less. A population that treats every public failure as unavoidable risks lowering its expectations of leadership. And when citizens expect little, leaders face less pressure to explain why results have not matched promises.

Citizens should be able to discuss roads, hospitals, schools, taxes and public spending with more seriousness than they sometimes bring to celebrity gossip or political insults.

The question is not whether citizens should criticise government. It is whether their criticism leads to better questions, informed participation and sustained demands for accountability.

Complaining about a problem is not the same as understanding it, and understanding it is not the same as holding those responsible accountable.

5. Marriage Can Keep Two People Busy Without Giving Them a Shared Direction.

Marriage introduces another uncomfortable area of life.Two people can live together for decades, raise children, pay bills, attend family functions and fulfil their daily responsibilities without ever developing a clear understanding of the life they are trying to build together.

At the beginning, the relationship may be driven by love, attraction, excitement and the desire to establish a home. As time passes, responsibilities multiply. Children need school fees, food, clothing, medical care and attention. Rent or a mortgage must be paid. Relatives may need support. Work consumes time and energy. The couple becomes busy.

But are they thinking together?

Suppose one spouse believes the family is spending too much money on things it cannot afford. They want to reduce expenses and save for a more important goal. However, they fear that raising the issue will cause an argument.

They remain silent.

The other spouse may have a different concern. Perhaps they believe the family is neglecting a business opportunity, failing to plan for the children's future or living beyond its means to impress other people.

They also remain silent because they do not want conflict. Eventually, both people may become experts at maintaining the appearance of peace while avoiding the conversations that could help them make better decisions.

Years pass. The family continues operating, but nobody has properly examined whether its decisions are taking it in the right direction.

This is not a problem unique to Uganda, but Ugandan families may also face additional pressures involving extended family obligations, school fees, housing costs and expectations about what a successful marriage should look like.

Some couples feel compelled to maintain a lifestyle they cannot comfortably afford because relatives, friends or neighbours might judge them otherwise.

Others disagree about money, parenting or future plans but have never developed a constructive way to discuss those differences.

The result can be a household full of activity but short on deliberate planning. Of course, not every disagreement can be resolved easily. Some relationships involve unequal power, financial dependence, emotional abuse or other serious difficulties. Telling people simply to communicate better does not solve every problem.

But where honest discussion is possible, couples should be willing to ask difficult questions before circumstances force those questions upon them.

What are we building? How do we want our children to grow up? What can we genuinely afford? Which family obligations can we manage without destroying our own stability? What happens if one of us loses a job? Are our decisions based on our needs or on pressure from other people?

Children make these questions more urgent. They depend on adults for years, and the consequences of household decisions often reach far beyond the adults who made them.

A family can spend 20 years raising children and still fail to agree on the future it wants those children to inherit. Marriage should not require people to abandon independent thought. A healthy partnership should make serious thinking easier, not impossible.

6. People Rarely Make Time to Examine the Lives They Are Living.

This may be the common thread running through everything discussed above.

Many people are busy from morning until night. They wake up, prepare for work, deal with transport, perform their duties, return home, attend to family responsibilities, use their phones, watch television and eventually sleep.

The next day follows a similar pattern. There is always something to do. But being busy does not automatically mean that a person is progressing.

Someone can repeat the same routine for ten years without learning anything significant about their own habits. They may never examine why they are constantly short of money, why their relationships keep developing the same problems, why they have stopped learning or why they are dissatisfied with their circumstances.

They simply continue. Thinking seriously about life does not mean sitting under a tree searching for the meaning of existence. It means examining the decisions that shape ordinary life.

How much did I earn last year, and where did the money go? What have I learned that makes me more capable than I was three years ago?

Which problems keep appearing in my life because I never address their underlying causes? What am I doing mainly because other people expect it from me? What am I postponing because I am afraid of the consequences of making a change?

These questions are practical. Their answers can influence how a person manages money, chooses opportunities, handles relationships and uses time. Yet answering them honestly can be uncomfortable.

A person may discover that their financial difficulties are partly connected to their spending habits. Another may realize that they have spent years waiting for an opportunity while doing very little to improve their readiness for it. Someone else may recognise that they are maintaining a relationship, habit or lifestyle mainly because changing it would upset people.

Not every problem is self-inflicted. Poverty, unemployment, illness, discrimination, economic conditions and family responsibilities can severely restrict people's choices. But recognizing the limits imposed by circumstances is different from refusing to examine the choices that remain available.

Sometimes a person cannot change their situation immediately. They can still understand it better, prepare where possible and stop repeating avoidable mistakes.

Without reflection, people risk spending decades responding to events without ever deciding what direction they want their lives to take.

7. When Serious Thinking Disappears, Unserious Behaviour Becomes Normal.

A society does not need everyone to become an expert in economics, politics, parenting or philosophy. It does, however, need enough people willing to think carefully, ask questions and challenge ideas that do not make sense.

The problem begins when serious thinking loses its place in everyday life.Look at the things people sometimes admire. A person buys an expensive item they cannot comfortably afford, and others praise their success without asking how the purchase was financed.

Someone spreads an unverified story online, and hundreds of people share it before checking whether it is true.

A young person sees a carefully staged picture of someone else's lifestyle and begins measuring their own life against it.

A community becomes more interested in insulting people who raise difficult questions than examining whether those questions are valid. In such an environment, appearances can become more important than substance. People begin competing to look successful rather than examining whether they are becoming more secure, capable or responsible.

Where do you belong?..... You are having many answer right now.

Written by abdurahman kajumba.