If life is hell, this is an intervention

No matter how much we think we have it under control we’re wrong! Admit it! The problem with most of us is that we do not want to accept that we are wrong. We like to think of ourselves as these humble beings of light which we are not. We think, “Oh! I am better than Suzie, Suzie sucks, she is such a mean person. Though I might not have my life figured out I am a great person and I listen to everyone, Oh! I am so kind”

This is our sloppy, slimy, shifty, malign and dodgy self, talking to us. It has never done anything but stop us, always. Put safety nets where there are none needed. It has stopped us from taking risks. It has stopped us from putting ourselves out there. Made us feel shameful to bare our true selves to this world. Then, we wonder why we are failing at relationships, life in general.

Storytime

There was once a king who was very fond of one of his servants. There was nothing special about the man, he was just a regular guy. The King liked his cavalier attitude. It was not negative but rather very positive. He would always say, “It’s all good”

His positive frame of mind annoyed others in the court but the King always laughed and keeping him by his side always made him appreciate the world. His responsibilities and problems were diminished when he heard him say “It’s all good”

The king did not believe in the servant’s philosophy but romanticized about it. One day the king was out hunting with his favorite and while the servant was stuffing the arms with gunpowder, he was having a funny chit chat with the king. His unattentively put in a lot more gunpowder than necessary.

The king blew his right thumb off. The king was quiet but he was furious on the inside. Two days later the servant was tried in the courts and was banished to the cellars under the castle, for life. The king did not want to put him away but he had to set an example.

A year passed away, the king and his men were riding down the forest to go visit another kingdom nearby when they were captured by a large clan of cannibals. They were ferocious. They rampaged through killing several people and only a handful remained including the King whom they captured.

They brought them back to their village and prepared for a lavish dinner. Out came the large cauldrons. All people were slowly lowered into the boiling water. The cannibals were dancing and celebrating. Their happiness merged very weirdly with the screams of the boiling people. The leader of the cannibals spotted that the king had no thumb and the cannibals believed him to be impure so they set him free.

The king ran back naked to his kingdom thanking his stars. Once back on the throne, he pardoned the servant and met him in private. He told him the whole story and thanked him for unknowingly saving his life. He said, “It’s all good”.

The king was confused a bit because the servant didn’t show any appreciation for being released. He asked the servant, “Aren’t you thankful for your release?”. The servant said, “My King, I should be thankful to you for putting me in the cellar otherwise I would have been boiled alive by the cannibals so it’s all good”

The king finally believed in his philosophy. No matter what happens, It’s all good.

Takeaway

It is necessary to believe that it’s all good but not in a sense where we take it too far and watch Netflix all day and say “It’s all good”. It starts to feel bad pretty soon. It’s all good philosophy can fit in very well with a person who is trying to change their way of life when there is no hope. We may be tempted to take large steps to improve our lives because that is what we want in life, right? The truth is baby steps is what we need because we don’t have the willpower, the confidence, the drive to handle 8-hour long work windows and actually excel at it. This way we would fail at every attempt and then feel worse about ourselves. It is a vicious cycle we need to avoid.

Do things one at a time

No matter how genius we think we are. No matter how much of an expert at deduction we think we are after watching Sherlock reruns. If our life is a mess, take up things one at a time. We cannot change ourselves in a week. We will not just wake up tomorrow and feel like we can have a productive day with 8 hours of work done. We are not going be the one who starts a successful Shopify store tomorrow if we eat a pizza, masturbate and cry yourself to sleep while our laptop stream some mindless gook off of Youtube. Sorry! that was intense, sometimes we need tough love.

If we’re struggling to get past a single day, thinking about five-year plans make no sense. We need to concentrate on tomorrow. Also, don’t think about the day after tomorrow because we don’t have tomorrow locked down yet.

Wait!

Just plan today (or the rest of the day) and tomorrow. We need incremental success in small steps. 14 days of successfully doing small tasks work for me. You can choose your own number but remember, don’t lie to yourself. It isn’t going to help.

Once, we have those set number of tomorrows followed through, we need to start adding the day after tomorrow to our plans. Soon enough, we will find ourselves planning way ahead. We will be planning weeks and soon we will be planning months ahead. Soon, we will be planning our trip to Hawaii and taking Jazz lessons over the weekend. Soon, we will start our own business and live a life of fulfillment.

Just start with one small thing done right today.