Pursuing Hapiness: A Checklist
1) You only live once. Life is short, fragile and fast.
2) Figure out what you like, learn about everything even if you don't like it, its hard or you dont understand it. Try hard. See #1.
3) Don't do things because others expect it of you, do it for yourself. See #1 and #2.
4) Read the Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)-
"Everything is written by the same hand."
"Life attracts life."
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."
"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."
"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
The book is by a Catholic... but give the guy a break, remember faith must exist even if you have to make it up. Believe in something. I leaned a few lessons from it.
This one is more for fun, I can't cite reasoning... just read books that make you think.
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5) Now that you've read and thought about #1-4 you are ready to throw everything away as soon as you have a dream, find something you like or fall in love. Forget that, remember that in the real world you have to pay bills. remember that in the real world, there are more options that just right and wrong. remember that the real world is cold, hard and can be as unforgiving as it can be divine and wonderful.
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6) Try and remember what it is that stirs passion in you, but look for ways to use it at a job. Try to not be crazy. This is not a requirement, however. Remind yourself of #1-4, keep #5 in mind.
7) Make a set of goals. If you don't, you risk losing sight of the big things you want while the little ones pile up. This is to remind you that a career, a family and climbing Mt. Everest are all separate, but you can't do them one at a time. See #1-2.
8) Find a job to make $$$. It doesn't need to be what you love, but if you don't start down a path you can't reach the destination. It doesn't mean any job will work either, it just means pick one and use your compass to stay on track. See #2-5,7= compass.
9) Try to make sense of all of that shit. Try to remember it all. Try to remember it all and still live your life. If you can do that, we need to talk...
10) Don't forget... success and happiness are different. Success is relative. You define what success is, you are allowed to set that bar yourself. Happiness is a feeling. Happiness is something your heart will only let you really have when you deserve it. Which are you looking for? Check #7.
Appendix:
Don't give up. (I didn't think this needed to be stated explicitly, but just in case, here it is.)
