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Dear readers: Thank you very much for your support of Fluorescent Sunshine. Knowing that I have an interested audience keeps me motivated. Please leave your thoughts on the articles by clicking the link at the end of each post. Your comments let me know that my work is not in vain! Thanks, BJK
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| Lessons Learned |
| 01.27.04 (9:00 pm) |
I'm back, thanks for your patience. I had a stressful week last week and could barely tie my shoes, much less wax opinion here on this site. January always feels like the longest month of the year, and this year even more so. It seems like months since the ball dropped, and yet here we are, still in the thick of it. Before I go to sleep I wanted to record the important things that I've realized since the calendar changed, because...well, I dunno, sometimes it just helps to write shit down.
1. Always, always listen to your inner voice. If things get too loud in your head and you can't hear it, give it some time and it will eventually be loud and clear.
2. If you want something, just ask. Pursue it relentlessly. 90% of success really is just showing up. It's amazing.
3. Think just as hard about what you don't want in life as you think about what you do want. Your desires and dislikes will change, but they are always in tandem, each one shaping the other. Every time you encounter dislike, disinterest, or failure, you are a step closer to fulfillment in life.
4. Compromise is only a reasonable course of action if you have no choice. If the choice is yours, refuse to accept "almost," "kinda," and "maybe." Jack Johnson was right...maybe pretty much always means no. I believe that this world holds for each person an abundance of what s/he seeks, and we should refuse to accept something less just because it's out there. If you short change your conscience, you will short change your soul.
5. Take time to talk to the people you know about what you are looking for in life. Talk to everyone, no matter what your relationship with them, and discard your pithy self-consciousness about coming forward with what you want. You will be amazed at the small army of people who are willing to help you.
6. What goes around comes around. Help, others, too. You never know who will be able to return the favor at just the right time.
7. Refuse to take shit from anyone, and stop giving others so much shit, too. It's crude, but it's true...toting around a chip on your shoulder just makes others want to throw things at you in an attempt to knock it off.
8. Wallow in self-pity all you want, but only after you've taken stock of who you are, what you have accomplished, and what you have. Cherish the small, private victories as precursors to larger, public triumphs.
9. Be a decent human being. All the time. De-adversarialize your interactions with other human beings, and your stress will magically be reduced. Leave your jaded outlook back in your teen years where it belongs.
10. Shamelessly pursue your passions. Refuse to let anyone tell you that you can't/shouldn't/won't and prove them wrong. Take on a hobby or cause that fills your heart with gladness...it's therapeutic.
I know none of this is original, but that's not the point. I needed to see my thoughts as two-dimensional; to distill the truth from the distortion. And now, I need to detach from this dispatch. Good night...
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