Staying True to Yourself

Life is full of lessons, there's such an inane amount of knowledge to be acquired and stored in our feeble minds that it is foolish to try to remember it all. Unless we luck out with a photographic memory, we're left with a limited capacity with which to store our foremost thoughts. We have the ability to remember more, but most of it will be stuck somewhere in the Netherlands of our minds, never to resurface without a deep excursion. Out of the knowledge we have remaining, we must learn to prioritize what's the most important, and grow as humans to fulfill an identity we must create for ourselves. In this pursuit, sometimes we may lose sight of the most important thing of all; our own self. Embrace the inner value found within yourself, and shun the desire to seek outside validation. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes a good servant, and a bad master. Acceptance is something we allow ourselves to become a slave of, much in the same way an alcoholic craves his poison, or how a gambling addict continues to prod the thrill of the risk, to his own downfall. If you have a belief, stick to it. Don't force it down someone's throat, but don't allow others to spit on your ideals because you fear the repercussions. If you desire something, speak up. You may be ridiculed and rejected for it, but there is no chance you'll get what you want if you don't make an effort for it. And most importantly, find motivation within yourself. Find what you enjoy, and do it. That doesn't mean smoke weed everyday because "it feels good." In fact, living a life based loosely on unrestricted hedonism is a recipe for disaster, both in a country and in an individual. Do what makes you happy, and you will be happy. Don't fall prey to societal pressures to do what others think will make you happy. Love (note, not like) fishing but don't live near water? Move somewhere where you can fish. You may be pressured by others to revoke your decision, saying you can't do it, but in all honesty, you can. Do you party and act a player because your friends do, but feel empty inside? Then don't party as much. You can even stop partying whatever. Don't feel pressured to do something you don't want to. Grow a backbone. Because you're the only one who can know what you want until you decide to speak up and communicate your desires to others. And that won't happen until you make it happen.

On this topic, I'd like to mention the law of sunk costs. Whether it's actually an official philosophical concept, I don't know. If something is a sunk cost, ignore the cost of it. If you buy tickets to a concert and come concert time you don't want to go and can't find anyone to take the tickets, don't feel like you have to go because you paid for it. It's a sunk cost. Whether you go or not, you're not getting that money back. So don't let the price you paid for something influence your decision surrounding it.