Life Lessons 1-5

For all 5 of you who read this blog, you will be sad to know that soon I will be posting a bit less, as I am about to go back to school.

Before I do go back, I wanted to impart to you some of the things that I have learned about life over my 20+ years. I plan to write more later, but here are the first 5:

1. Anything worth doing is not easy.
This is practically the meaning of life, and all of us want to deny it. We're always inventing things to make our tasks easier like diet pills, drive-thru windows, electric scissors, delivery services, and let's not forget the internet. The only things that can't actually be made easier are the truly rewarding things like long-term relationships, raising children, taking care of your health, completing degrees, etc. The number 1 difficult thing that's totally worth doing? Living your life just the way you want to.

2. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
This goes hand in hand with the first. Be debt free today! Get a free iPod by answering the easiest pop culture question EVER! Lose 30 pounds in 1 day! Living in America especially, you have to remember that you can't believe everything you hear.

3. There is no such thing as perfect or the best.
This is VERY difficult for me to accept, because I am a textbook perfectionist. I like to have the best grades, to run the fastest, and to do the best at work. I have learned over the years, however, that no matter how hard you work, there IS NO PERFECT. In addition, no matter how good you are, there is most likely at least one person out there who's better. This is just the reality of things. What you are allowed to do once you know this is to have fun with your abilities. So what if you have a 3.8 instead of a 4.0? You learned something, and it was sort of fun, wasn't it?

4. No one has the answer.
There was a period of years in my life when I was obsessed about finding the answer to all my problems and the meaning of life. A lot of people do things like this. I had my face buried in a book all the time, trying to figure out what it's all about. The thing is, if someone knew the answer to all of our problems, we wouldn't have them anymore. In addition, if someone knew the meaning of life, we'd probably have really boring existances. I'd like to point out that I know NOTHING about philosophy, so don't get mad at me if I've bungled this one up.

5. The only thing that can make you happy is YOU.
Not a doctor, a pill, a book, "a program", money, food, love, sex, TV...It's all up to you. The only person who controls your emotions is you. You always hear people say "If only I had __________, I'd be happy". Sadly, once they have it, they'll realize that it's not enough. Strange but true, no?