Don’t try to make it up on the fly. Have a plan.
We must begin by seeing ourselves and the world in a new way for the first time. Then we must fight to be different and fight to stay different –.
If you need help, comrade, just ask.
Overcoming obstacles is a discipline of three critical steps. It begins with how we look at our specific problems, our attitude or approach; then the energy and creativity with which we actively break them down and turn them into opportunities; finally, the cultivation and maintenance of an inner will that allows us to handle defeat and difficulty.
Succumbing to the self-pity and “woe is me” narrative accomplishes nothing – nothing except sapping you of the energy and motivation you need to do something about your problem.
People say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” as they hasten that very death, both literally and figuratively. They trade their health for a few more working hours. They trade the long-term viability of their business or their career before the urgency of some temporal crisis.
If action is what we do when we still have some agency over our situation, the will is what we depend on when agency has all but disappeared.
Remember, “zealot” is just a nice way to say “crazy person.
We can stop seeing the “problems” in front of us as problems.
A philosopher, on the other hand, knows that their default state should be one of reflection and inner awareness. This is why they so diligently protect their personal space and thoughts from the intrusions of the world. They know that a few minutes of contemplation are worth more than any meeting or report. They also know how little time we’re actually given in life – and how quickly our stores can be depleted.
If our spouse is venting, we want to tell them what they should do. In fact, all they actually want us to do is hear them. In other situations, the world is trying to give us feedback or input, but we try to talk ourselves out of the problem – only to make it worse.
The more creative we are, the easier it is to lose the thread that guides us.
What is it then to be properly educated? It is learning to apply our natural preconceptions to the right things according to Nature, and beyond that to separate the things that lie within our power from those that don’t.
We can learn to focus on what things really are.
We don’t just want people to be better, we expect it to magically happen – that we can simply will other people to change, burning holes into their skull with our angry stare. Although when you think about it that way, it makes you wonder who the rude one actually is.
Everyone buys into the myth that if only they had that – usually what someone else has – they would be happy. It may take getting burned a few times to realize the emptiness of this illusion.
Our brains evolved for an environment very different from the one we currently inhabit.
Think about it: a voice of a generation doesn’t call itself that. In fact, when you think about it, you realize just how little these voices seem to talk.
Remind yourself how pointless it is to rage and fight and try to one-up those around you. Go and put yourself in touch with the infinite, and end your conscious separation from the world. Reconcile yourself a bit better with the realities of life. Realize how much came before you, and how only wisps of it remain.
The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.