If you were looking for a blog that is well organized, well written, and professional...Allow me to apologize.

8/24/08

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?

8 comments:

Man Named Kim said...

wonderful words of wisdom and with a few more years in this world than you, i can say it took me much longer to learn this than it has you. Cheers!

brian said...

Wow, you learned all that in Texas? Color me impressed. On #1, I had a boss who once told me "there's the easy way and the right way and 99 times out of 100, they aren't the same." What's brought on this philosophical overtone and minimalist blog theme? Cleaning up your life? Getting off the ether and the mescaline and the amyls? Whatever you do, don't throw them out...a few late nights cramming for exams and you'll be looking around for household cleansers to "escape." Not that I would know about any of this...

The Baroness said...

@brian: What can I say? My blog is basically whatever I feel like sharing, and I was feeling quite philosophical. As for the theme, I felt like the pink was going to start making everyone, including me, sick. I am laying off the ether, as well as the galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers and laughers. ...However you know that I am a serious collector.

Mark Salinas said...

Always a good read..."Anything worth doing is not easy" very nice.


Go Vikings! for yesterdays post! :)

brian said...

yawn...

Unknown said...

+1

Good maxims to remember, but so easy to forget when things get tough. Here's hoping you hang onto these for a long time! :-)

Siobhán said...

Dang you had to go and list no. 5 didn't you?! :) It's the one that is so hard to admit but it is so absolutely true.

(Nice blog btw!:)

novitaliang said...

1