No one ever tells you that. It might be helpful to hear that from others, but, on the other hand, probably not? No one wants to be told anything. That's sort of a shaky rule of thumb. Not exactly a written on stone commandment, but real-world experience. "Don't tell me what to do."
Turns out the only way thru Life is to experience it for yourself. There are no "hacks," no shortcuts. You have to live, and find out on your own. It's a pretty inefficient way to go. You know, "fuck around and find out."
So you fuck up lots. All the time. And then deal with the fresh fuck-ups as best you can. You improvise, you recalculate, you experiment, and decades whiz past you. You are constantly, morphing, evolving, changing. The world is too. It's all a moving target embedded within a moving target.
What do you find out? What you eat is important. Who you hang out with is important too. What you read, what you listen to, how you deal with emotion, how you handle success, failure, adversity, how you feed your head, your body, your soul.
You have choices to make, moment to moment. And most decisions you make, you make with very little helpful knowledge at hand. You flail and fail. Often. You find out that everything counts. Even, and sometimes especially, the tiniest, seemingly insignificant things. Everything is consequential. Everything is potentially life-changing.
And then, well, you will also find out it's not all in your head or hands. There is so much out of your grasp, your control, you have no idea.
Where you were born? Where do you choose to live? Who were your parents? What is your genetic inheritance? What is going down in the wider world? You discover you are captive to a certain age, time, & era. You realize that time is a certain kind of relentless dictator. You are in the clutches of time. At all times.
It's just true. Life, it's more, and sometimes less, than you bargained for, and really you never had a chance to bargain. Life is not a business, it's not math, it's not dollars & cents, it doesn't always add up. For sure, life is not what you think.
The more I think on it, I suppose I do have a handful of "Life Hacks," that sit well with me. I mean, I know if you are still with me here, still reading, you will probably ignore or disregard these, but, oh well, here is my list, in no particular order of importance, or, I mean, these are probably all equally important:
Life- Hacks
1. Keep moving.
2. Meditate.
3. Cultivate silence.
4. Work on being ok when you are alone.
5. Don't listen to anyone who says, "It can't be done."
6. Avoid stupid people, the know it alls, the nay-sayers & doom-purveyors.
7. Listen to music as if your life depended upon it.
8. Read books with a voracious purpose.
9. Hope, dream, stay positive.
10. Always be onto something. Find out the things that you love doing and do them.
