Pragmatism
How To Overcome Crushing Blows
The past few months have been like a riptide for me, every time I pop back above the surface I’m further out, and getting pushed right back under. I’ve lost friends, I’ve somehow managed to walk away from death, and I’ve lost my job. The thing is in life those things matter, but they happened in the past, they will effect how I act in the future, but I shouldn’t have to wait for these to occur to figure out I needed to change.
The Preciousness Of Time
*Rough post and unlikely to be modified do to the time, and realizing I don’t have the answer. This is a set of recent realizations, some personal, in their rough form, take of it what you will.
Time is itself immutable, and, yet, it is the essence of all mutability
Last week, I spent time with family after the loss of my cousin. Over the week I spent time with relatives and family friends talking about memories and all the time we have sacrificed without a second thought. One of the conversations was with my aunt, about my relationship to my estranged father and how there isn’t much time left. I’m still not sure what I’m doing with my life, but this past week has been a wake up call, I need to get rid of all the hindrances in it that are wasting time.
Time is the stitching that holds billions of scattered, unconnected, snapshots together to create the ever rippling fabric of life.
The single reason for wasting time, accidents and traffic not withstanding, is our throwing mental barriers up to avoid certain situations or people. I noticed this after talking with my aunt about my dad. The only reason I’m estranged from him is because of my half-siblings, his wife, and the way she treats him. I can’t stand them so I avoid them, along with him, unfortunately, I care about him and know all to well the this recent funeral could have easily been his. I’ve seen him maybe two hours in total since New Year ‘08 and that’s not enough time to spend with someone you care about, no matter how you feel about them or the people they surround themselves with. I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to do to repair this situation, but I don’t have much time because noone expects another 5 years out of him.
“Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell
I notice myself being less and less reliable on listening to my instinct and find my self deliberating on things far to much. I think we all need a good kick in the ass to get us to realize we don’t have time to waste analyzing all the data, it just takes to long. We have to learn when we come across a sunk cost and how to keep from wasting anymore time on it. I think I’m just going to stop thinking about stuff.
“Time is like money.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
This is the truth and the fact is that you can spend both rationally, or you can waste them on frivolous affairs. The best form of management with either is to think ahead and budget how you’re going to use them, but always remember to leave a little extra for fun and pleasurable things. The one major difference between the two is that you can always earn more money without spending it, but with time your always spending it and your never going to get more.
The best way to get more out of life is too enjoy the time you have.
Success Isn’t In Your Genes, It’s In Your Heart
The other day I watched Gattaca and was fascinated by it’s attitude. The film is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller looking into a dystopian future where if you weren’t genetically engineered you were of lower social rank. This however isn’t what I took away from the film, I took away something far brighter, a look into successful habits. The protagonist is a genetically inferior child with a weak heart and huge dreams to reach the stars. Here’s a list of some of the habit’s I found.
Don’t Save Anything to Go Back
This is probably, the most noticeable in the film as this statement is only slightly paraphrased from the film. The reason not to save anything is because the risk going to prod you along, you will know in the back of your head it’s sink or swim. I don’t recommend going so far as that if you make a mistake you will fail completely, but just far enough to make it hard to accept failure.
Always Look Up
In the film, Vincent stares at the rocket that is his dream multiple times as it is taking off. He was positive that he would be able to find a way to get on it no matter how impossible it seemed. Positivity will lead you towards your dreams, you just have to know where to look, up.
Share Your Success
What’s better than one person being successful and reaching there goals. It’s multiple people assisting each other in achieving their goals. The movie provides a very close relationship between multiple characters as they each find success through assisting each other. Pull someone along for the ride and let them occasionally pull you up also when you slip.
Don’t Let Others Tell You What You Can or Can’t Do
Being born in a time of genetic engineering, Vincent’s parent’s new exactly what was wrong with him from the time he was born. As the movie progresses you can clearly see that he was triumphing over these ailments that were supposed to cripple his potential. He set his own bar and didn’t let what was supposed to happened keep him from going strong. Don’t let other’s inhibit you from doing what you set out to do.
Success Isn’t In Your Genes, It’s In Your Heart
Remember that, you achieve what you want to achieve, and only what you want to achieve. Your life isn’t predetermined by what’s pumping through your veins but what’s pumping through your mind. So what is it that you want from life and who are you taking for the ride?
Stop Crippling Your Potential
Did you come up with a valid excuse for not doing something in 2008? If not, either your a truly honest person who knows how not to hinder their opportunities and doesn’t look for the easy way out, or your a liar. To be fair, I believe the majority is in the latter or you said yes, and don’t worry I came up with an excuse and used it all year round, too. It’s something that’s unavoidable you make an excuse based on facts but doesn’t really have a standing on that area of your life.
With me, I failed out of college and used an excuse all year round that could have been an influence, but I know wasn’t. The night before 3 of my final exams the first semester I suffered severe muscle spasms in my upper back and ended up in the E.R., until 2 in the morning, and also had to pack to leave school so I didn’t sleep at all. It’s all true, except I omitted the fact that I had already slipped to the bottom of my classes, or close to it. I went back for the 2nd semester but gave up on everything in the 3rd week after I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to keep my scholarships. This damn thing has been my crutch and I limped around with it just because I could; well now it’s time to change.
If you share an excuse like that with me; I want you to toss the crutch out and be honest with yourself and with others. You can be great, your just going to have to learn to walk again without having a crutch there to keep you from falling down. You can be whatever you want to, but first you must see it, then you must do it. The world is at your fingertips are you going to take it by storm this year. Here’s a quote to keep you going throughout the year.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle