Harsh Truths we Should all Live With

These are truths I had to learn, myself. They’re not nice. Life is not nice. Neither are people you meet within it. Most of this is about them.

Though everyone is unique, you a not a special little snowflake. There are folks who think that just because they’re different, or think they have some kind of gift, then they’re entitled to special treatment. Not so. If you’re unique, then so’s everyone else. Get over it and move on.

Even if you know what you’re talking about, nobody is going to listen to you unless you’re saying what they’re thinking. And even then, it’s chancy. People around me do not listen to my good advice, my statements of fact, nor my warnings. They definitely ignore the I-told-you-so’s. Then they turn around and blame me for not telling them in advance. There are times I wish my life was recorded and replayable at will.

Anything you want, it is wise to earn. Trust me on this one. You spend above your income, you wind up having to earn more to fill up the debt. Living below your means is better, in the long run, as is saving for those big-ticket items. It’s more rewarding to have the item through hard work, than it is to charge it on the credit card and have a massive debt with compound interest.

By the time you have the qualifications for your dream job, it is no longer there. It takes four years of hard work to earn a degree. More, if you choose to do it part-time. Sure, it’s theoretically possible to get that job by working your arse off, but the odds are rigged against the “lower classes”. Kids from blue collar backgrounds pretty much have to have a part time job, or saved up practically from birth in order to just pay for the books and fees. So you exit university with a brand-new bachelor’s (or whatever) only to discover that the position you wanted has been shipped off to cheaper pastures, and nobody in your city/state/country is hiring any more. Or has been given to some trust-fund “special snowflake” who went to the right university or has the right pedigree.

Anger is not worth it. Specifically, hanging on to anger. You’ll only hurt yourself. And it’s the sort of pain that can get infectious. Better to just breathe it out, vent in the safest way imaginable or available, and move on with what must be done.

You will never be famous. It takes a lot of connections and a lot of luck to even have a fleeting glance at a shot at stardom. Stop practicing your Oscar acceptance speeches and spend the time in more worthy pursuits.

Deal with problems you can help with, whenever you can. Trust me, nobody else is going to do it, so you might as well help out. Helping someone (or even nobody, if it comes to picking up garbage) generates goodwill. There’s enough bad feeling out there, already. Plus, it can give you that nice, warm feeling of a good deed well done. Natural high FTW.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Esentially, “think before you act” in more poetic packaging. I tell this one to my kids practically every day. A few corporations should start employing this one, IMO.

For every right, there is an equal and opposite responsibility. Every right you have comes with a responsibility attached, maybe more than one. The right of free speech comes with the responsibility of making sure your words don’t hurt someone. The right to reproduce comes with the responsibility to make sure those kids you produce are cared for, fed and educated. Yes, even you, irresponsible male. You like to “ride bareback”, that kid is your responsibility too. And no, she did not “get herself pregnant”. You helped. Get over it.

There is no such thing as no choice. There is such a thing as no time to make a right choice. Many, many bad decisions have been made by people who later claimed, “I had no choice, I had to–”. You had no time. The first option in your head was the one you had to go with. This speaks more of a history of bad thinking than no choice.

Revenge can only go wrong. Revenge is its own bad news. It breeds. It grows each time in futile attempts to make sure the other party doesn’t try anything ever again. If family and friends get involved, it winds up becoming a feud. Then a war.

You will never get everything you want. If you’re very lucky, then you might get some of the things you want. The odds are always against keeping them. Best to mourn and move on. Stress is bad for you.