I heard this quote when I was about 20 years old somewhere on YouTube. It led me to pursue Zen Buddhism and spend a lot of time meditating. I even went on a retreat where I meditated for two weeks. It wasn’t easy, and a lot of memories from my childhood came up.
I suffered a lot of trauma, and a lot was done to me that wasn’t right. However, because of my pursuit of wisdom, I can now say that I have gained a lot of insight into how the world works and how to navigate it.
I understand the people around me better and why they are the way they are.
But most importantly, I know the inner workings of myself.
I know what makes me feel good and what makes me feel bad. I know what actions tend to lead to what results. I know what I want in my life, and I have a better understanding of how to go about getting it.
Am I perfect?
Absolutely not.
I still have days when I get depressed or sad and don’t want to do anything. But I know those days are a stage I’m going through, not my entire life.
So, the best advice I can give you is this:
Get to know yourself first.
What is a quote that changed your life? Let me know in the comments.
Category Life
What goes on the inside of the life of a madman?
My life has been in turmoil. My mental illness has been kicking my ass, and I stopped fighting back. I drive around every day. I do some DoorDashing sometimes. I’m stuck in my parents’ basement, where all I have is a mattress to sleep on.
At nighttime, I’m not really sleeping. I have dreams where I’m realizing stuff that happened to me, and I realize how it affected me. It’s like I’m living life in the past, constantly processing my trauma.
I’m not really living. I’m stuck with no way out. I’m addicted to cigarettes. All my extra money goes toward gas and cigarettes. I’m constantly asking my parents for money, and I’m 39 years old.
The only way out is to find something I enjoy doing, but I’ve been stuck on that since the age of 5, when my dad would get drunk and torture me by asking me, “What do I want to do with my life?” Like I had any clue. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to figure it out instead of doing stuff. It’s like my mind is gone in that aspect of life.
I’m going to try to go to Barnes & Noble and read books about history every day. But even that is hard because I get too excited about the stuff I’m learning and put the book down. This is what goes on inside the mind of a madman.
Why honesty is the best policy?
I went to a Catholic school in 6th grade. Sister Alma, the school principal, told me honesty is the best policy when I told her I was lying to myself inside my head without knowing it. For some reason, that saying got stuck in my head for my whole life, and people tell me I’m the most honest person they ever met.
But why is honesty the best policy?
Because when you lie to yourself, you don’t know where you stand. You don’t know who you are or what you really like and don’t like. Honesty to other people is more of a gray area. Yes, it’s important to tell other people the truth, but it’s also okay to tell what is called a white lie, meaning a lie that is told to not hurt their feelings. However, a lie to yourself is never okay.
The nasty flaw in honesty
There is also a flaw in being totally honest with someone that has power over you for example your boss. If you finish and you tell him you’re done he’s just going to give you more work. Which will eventually lead to burn out. I haven’t discovered the solution to this problem if you have please let me know in the comments.
The benefits of honesty
The “benis” of honesty will be more aligned with your true purpose in life. Overall, you will be a more fulfilled and happy person in your personal relationship with yourself. People will respect and trust you more and be more helpful toward you.
Troubles avoidance
Most importantly, you will stay out of trouble with people and the law. It will lead to a much happier and more fulfilling life! Remember, honesty is the best policy..
Why I’m thinking about living as a hermit
My life has been destroyed by other people. Yes, I’ll admit I have a habit of bragging, maybe too much. But I thought the people close to me would be happy for my successes. I was wrong.
People would rather see you fail than see you succeed. Why? Because of equilibrium. People will try to keep up with you and try to copy you as much as they can. However, because I’m a bright guy, they realize they can’t. That’s when they try to destroy what you have so you don’t get ahead of them.
It’s not on purpose, but it’s what people do unknowingly. I only had two people in my life that truly wanted me to succeed, and that’s because they were happy where they were.
For that reason, I am thinking about buying a house in the middle of nowhere and focusing on the arts and reading and writing.
My father taught me to always help and assist people to grow. Since a young age, I would put other people ahead of me. Well, that philosophy attracted a lot of people who didn’t appreciate my help, expected it, and gave nothing back.
I think it would be nice not to talk to anyone and live my life in solitude. Sure, I won’t have anyone to help me grow, but I will also not have anyone sabotage what I am doing. I can meditate and live my life in peace.
Once you got it don’t look back
When I was young, about 20 years old, I wanted to try something different. Although I was raised Roman Catholic, I went to see a psychic. I was scared, but I said, “Maybe he can help me.” Really, I wanted to see if it was true—to see if they could predict the future or tell me information that I didn’t know.
Although it was vague and didn’t really impress me, there was something that I remember to this day. He said, “I’m going to give you something so you can have anything you want in life. But once you get it, don’t look back.”
I really didn’t understand what that meant and didn’t really think about it until today. While browsing through the bookstore, I saw a book that said, “Don’t look back; you’ll trip over.”
How many times do we look back in life and think about what could have been and how our life could have turned out differently? Had we made this one decision differently or realized something sooner?
But what if we accept things as they are—the good, the bad, and the ugly? We truly would realize we are already rich and successful. We might not have as much money as Elon Musk or be as successful as Hulk Hogan, but that’s comparing, and comparison is the thief of joy.
So stop regretting, accept that what you have is already enough, and once you’ve got it, don’t look back.
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Be careful about sharing your intentions with people
I wanted to start a blog like this in 2008, when I was about 22 years old. I remember telling my martial arts teacher about it, and he asked why. I told him I wanted to share the lessons I learned. Instead of telling me, “That’s a good idea, go ahead,” he said, “Help me set up a blog. I’ve been wanting to start one for a while.”
Being young and inexperienced, and not knowing what I had, I agreed. I went on and set up the blog for him, which he only wrote in once. I figured I didn’t have much to write about and kind of put the idea aside.
Until 15 years later.
Looking back at it, he took advantage of me or he really wanted to set up a blog I’ll never know for sure , I was too naive to know.
This is why you never tell people why you are doing the things you are doing. You can tell them what you are doing, but never why. Because if you tell them why, you set yourself up for manipulation, jealousy, discouragement, or worse, in my case.
The best thing to do is tell people when you succeed, but even then, don’t tell them why. You ever heard that if you tell people your dreams, they never come true? This is why.
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What to do if you feel like a loser at 40
So you are forty years old with a list of boring, entry-level jobs. No girlfriend and no kids, no formal education, and you feel like life passed you by. You will never be a success story. Here is the truth: you can still turn your life around. Here are some ideas.
1. Stop doing what you are doing
If you are dwelling on the past or what could have or should have happened, STOP. That is not going to change anything. In fact, it will make it worse, because you are not making any progress forward.
2. Accept where you are
Take full responsibility for where you are in life. Not because of your friends or your parents. Not because of your environment, but because of the choices you made and the route you chose to take.
3. Make a plan
Decide what you are going to do from this point forward. If it’s going to be going back to get a degree or starting that business, make a detailed, step-by-step plan of what you are going to do every minute of every day for the next five years.
4. Go for it
Give it everything you’ve got. It’s live or die—give it every single piece of energy you have. Think that every day for the next five years is going to be hard and almost impossible if you don’t give it every single piece of willpower to change.
5. Once you achieve your goals
Once you achieve your goals in five years, be grateful and appreciative, because you could lose it fairly easily by falling back into your bad habits and thinking patterns.
How Overthinking is the worst drug
I spent a long time wasting my days scrolling through Facebook and driving around, thinking about all the bad things that happened to me. From friends betraying me and pointing me in the wrong direction, to all the bad choices I made along the way.
But the biggest mistake I made was overthinking — it’s worse than any drug. No, really — you can spend your entire life doing nothing but thinking and never get anywhere. Overthinking is like reading the same sentence twelve times — it gets you nowhere.
About a month ago, I went to the gym for the first time in years, and I was shocked at how out of shape I am. It made me think about how much time I wasted and how I didn’t get anywhere.
Now I’m starting a routine: wake up every day, go to the gym, go to the bookstore, read, and write in this blog. At night, I watch a movie and then go to sleep.
The more you do in life, the slower time moves — the less you do, the faster time goes by. Because when you look back, you can see all the things you accomplished.
You can literally rob yourself of years of your life by doing nothing but thinking, leaving yourself with nothing but wasted time to look back on.
I believe the biggest reason people don’t achieve anything in life is because they spend too much time thinking and not enough time doing. I’m going to change and follow a routine, and I suggest you should too.
Why you should accept all the bad things people did to you
I spent a lot of time reminiscing about all the bad things that people — even loved ones — did to me. From my so-called friends giving me bad advice just so they could feel better than me, to strangers taking advantage of me — and me letting it happen.
What you should do is close your eyes and imagine yourself on a beautiful mountaintop or at a beach with perfect weather. Then remember all those things you wish hadn’t happened to you — from the betrayals to the lies to the backstabbings.
Finally, accept them — and hug yourself; you will get your ultimate power back. You might even see why it happened — like I did. All the hurt and pain will finally make sense. From then on, move forward and tell yourself you won’t think about those things anymore.
Now you can move forward with new acceptance and understanding.
Make the best of every situation
I came to realize that being positive is not just when your life is going well. You could be living on the street and be homeless. In that horrible, hopeless situation, you could still be positive and make the best of it.
You could be a millionaire, living on a yacht, and still be miserable and negative. It is not the outside conditions that shape you; it is how you view the conditions you are in.
We spend about 47% of our time inside our head, thinking, according to research where people were asked randomly throughout the day what they were doing.
So how do you make the best of every situation?
I was sitting next to an old lady when I noticed something different about her. I don’t know why, but I asked her, “How do you view the world?” She said she was an artist. She said there is an old lady walking down the street in the biggest ghetto, trying to make ends meet. There is something beautiful about that. There is something beautiful in every situation, she said. I asked, “When did you realize that?” She said she was always like that; that’s why she chose to be an artist.
That is how we should make the best of every situation. We should see the good in the worst situations—even homelessness, addiction, and even prison.
Because if we don’t, it will only get worse. That is the cure to a horrible life.
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