What is the RANT series?
I read a lot, a lot would be an under statement, the reason I read is I believe when I read a book, its like the author is with me at a bar with him giving me his best bar talk. The Rant series are my rants about how I apply what I read to my life.
RANT #1 : Health, Wealth, Relationships in the face of Adversity
"So what do you want to do with your life?" - Is this a trick question?
We look around, drive around, walk around, watch TV, turn on our media devices and everywhere we turn the world makes us want something more, something else, almost as if telling us we aren't enough already.
I say, be aware and decide to fuck that shit today. (I know this escalated quickly)
For a minute forget what society wants you to conform to, forget what your parents, teachers and siblings want you to do with your career, forget what advertisements want you to buy, forget what your lazy ass wants and ask yourself, What do I want for myself? What's the best version I see of myself?
The world has us chasing more....More money, housing, cars, stuff, shoes, phones, the latest, the newest, the shiniest. It's consumer culture. (Disclaimer: I am not against it, but anything in excess is bad.)
"So what do you want to do with your life?" - Of course it's trick question, what we want out of life is always going to be better self esteem aka Happiness, now happiness is not something to aim for, there is no linear path or calculated steps towards Happiness.
Happiness is being happy with the problems you do have in life. We all have problems, in fact if you look around the more personal you think a problem is the more universal it is. Problems require us to step the fuck up in the face of adversity.
The key here is to choose your problems, for eg. A 9 to 5 corporate exec has problems to deal with related to long work hours, presentations, overbearing bosses, canceled plans with friends and family etc etc. If the exec likes dealing with these problems and can navigate the corporate world really well then kudos to him. Similarly an entrepreneur has problems related to uncertainty, funding, markets, employees, keeping himself motivated, but if he truly enjoys solving all these problems, you can say he is happy.
Problems exist everywhere and we grow with them. The key to happiness is to choose problems you want to solve.
Ask yourself, what do I want for my Health, Wealth and Relationships. Then ask yourself, what adversity am I willing to face to achieve these. True happiness comes from that choice of struggle.
