Millennial’s guide to the galaxy
Sitting comfortably.
Surrounded by “stuff”.
Stuff designed by the cleverest minds around the world.
Modern innovations built upon thousands of years of compounding knowledge.
All things to make life more convenient.
All things to bring ease and happiness to human life.
So why do I still feel an empty dissatisfaction?
Going with the flow is like drifting down stream. You let everyone and everything else carry you to where they are going.
If we have a destination in mind and we want to take ourselves there, we better decide whether going with the flow is the best path for us.
Some decisions are like being in a lake. Deciding to go with the flow doesn’t have a big impact on where we go.
Other decisions are like going over a waterfall. Irreversible thoughts that change our life forever.
It’s difficult to tell when you’re safely floating in a lake or on the precipice of a waterfall.
Breakfast might feel like a lake to many, but for some it can be a waterfall. If by eating a bad breakfast you trigger a cascade of bad or non-decisions throughout the day, you may find yourself further down the river than you thought.
For others, breakfast may have little-to-no significant impact on the rest of their day. They may be able to eat a donut and say to themselves “okay, I’ve had my treat for the day. Now the rest of the day is work, let’s get to it.”
Awareness is being able to step back and see what’s happening so you can make conscious decisions about your life.
Knowledge is the understanding of what may happen given various inputs (usually based on our own learnings or studying those of others).
Wisdom is the ability to synthesize our knowledge and act on it.
Going against the grain.
Swimming up stream.
Implicit in the name is that it is difficult.
If it were easy, everyone would do it. But very few people do. And that’s one of the biggest things that makes it so valuable.
Water flows downstream taking the easiest possible route. As water molecules flow together they naturally go where energy takes them. They slip and slide getting to the lowest elevation, closest to earth, as quickly and easily as possible.
In many ways our culture is like the mountain and we are all molecules of water sliding downhill. A seemingly invisible force carries us all through life.
When we aren’t putting our own mental and physical energy in to make thoughtful choices about where we want to go, everyone and everything around us makes that decision for us. We slide through life, taking the easiest path.
Those who are aware of the big picture and can muster the energy to make thoughtful decisions have the ability to change the direction of their life.
Finding a mate is relatively easy.
Finding one you really like, or “love” as we like to call it, is not so easy for most.
Maintaining that “love” is even more difficult.
Step 1: Ask yourself these questions:
Step 2: Focus on becoming the type of person your ideal mate can not resist.
We focus too much on generalities without taking care of the day-to-day things that make up a healthy and fulfilling life.
We aren’t truthful with ourselves. We’re out of touch with reality in a way that is self detrimental.
Our conception of love is formed by unrealistic representations of relationships in movies, songs, and on social media
Our ingestion of media causes us to misinterpret other people’s relationships because we see the highlights of their “love” and not the struggles they are enduring together on a regular basis. Examples:
We are barraged with these on a daily basis.
Imagine only watching the highlight real of a basketball player and expecting that’s how they perform on every single play of the game. Then setting the expectation for yourself that this is how you should play.
Anonymous
We ingest the highlight reals of other couples, then project that on to our own lives, setting the bar way too high.
How can everything be so perfect all the time?
Humans are animals.
We have a brain designed for hunter gatherer and small tribe live, but we live in a modern world with smart phones and Instagram updates.
To find and maintain love, we need to bring ourselves back to reality.
We do that by asking and answering the tough questions.
The human’s source of motivation is cemented firmly in its DNA, placed there by millions of years of evolution.
Some combination of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs translates to man’s drive to live and reproduce.
We all have this gene (or collection of genes). It is what moves the biological world forward. Without it, life would slowly dissipate into darkness.
The basis of all life is to keep it going.
Reproduction * Environmental Experiment over Time = Evolution
Happiness, fulfillment, accomplishment; These can even be translated into hormones and molecular structures. Dopamine and serotonin are what the human strives for. Actions that support the human’s chances of survival and reproduction are rewarded in the brain.
What is your next goal?
I can use the internet. Here’s what I think about the world…