Sunday, July 10, 2016

What is the Best Way to Enjoy Life and be Successful at It?

My sense of the wisdom of how to live a good life is both tentative and absolute:

  1. Retract attachment to all people and things. You don’t want to be persuaded by mere opinions, as this will lead to confusion and bad feelings.
  2. Think about the good life. What is most worth doing? Can you do it? Is it difficult? How much work will it take?
  3. Develop a secure home base. Find an income that is reliable, even if it is very small. This may require convincing relatives that you are worth it, committing to a job, completing your education, or taking charity. Use your home base to create a reliable platform for success.
  4. Now, indulge your feelings about the good life without feeling regret. What are small things you can do to improve your life? What are you doing slightly wrong? What are dangers you can avoid? What would be most helpful? Can things just continue as they are? Are you being unrealistic? What can change? Have you found your center?
  5. Create more or less structure where necessary. Remain optimistic. Change will occur.
What you have to watch out for is that some people have achieved all these steps in high school. But relative success is still possible.

No comments: