Why write?

Why write? - well, writing is a form of thinking. It's actually the most demanding form of thinking I would say

No one teaches kids these things in school

Kids have been educated for twelve years and no one had ever sat them down and said - okay what the hell are you doing and why and how are you gonna get there?
- Where do you want to go?
- Why do you want to get there?
- How are you gonna get there?
- How are you gonna mark your progress?
They've never walked them through that exercise.
If you walk people through that exercise just to get them to do that increases the probability that they'll stay on track by 50%. That's incredible

If you know that you're the one that can transcend your problems most fundamentally then you have the faith that would enable you to take stock of who you are

You have to face what you don't want to face in order to fix it

Be honest with yourself about what you are doing

I don't know what to do

"I don't know what to do" - That's okay, nobody does. Go do something. Do the best thing that you can think of. Put the best plan you have into practice. It's not going to be perfect and it will change along the way but it will change partly because you become disciplined pursuing the path and as you become disciplined you become wiser and as you become wiser you become able to formulate better and better plans so you can start vaguely and confused and develop a plan that's not so great and you start to implement it and then you accrue incremental wisdom as you implement your flawed plan and that enables you to fix the plan and so that's part of that process of incremental self-improvement as well

Meta rule - you have to discipline yourself

The rule might not be - "follow this rule!"
The rule might be - "you have to follow some rules!"
It's a meta rule - "you have to discipline yourself"
And the issue is how? That's not really the relevant question. You can pick a disciplinary path

You could be way better!
You could be incompatibly better across multiple dimensions and in pursuing that better that's where you'll find the meaning in your life and that would give you the antidote to the suffering

Incremental steps to success

You take an incremental step and well now you can lift 55 pounds instead of 52.5 pounds. It's one step on a very long journey and it starts to compound on you. So a small step today puts you in a position to take a slightly bigger step for the next day and you do that for two or three years. Man you are starting to stride!

Matthew principle

There's a statement in the New Testament, it's called the Matthew principle and economists use it to describe how the economy in the world works - "To those who have everything more will be given, from those who have nothing everything will be taken". It's like very pessimistic in some sense because it means that as you start to fail you fail more and more rapidly but it also means that as you start to succeed you succeed more and more rapidly

Your best strategic position is how am I insufficient and how can I rectify that. That's what you've got. And the thing is you are insufficient and you could rectify it. Both of those are within your grasp if you aim low enough

How to prepare for the flood?

Even if things are going really well for you now there's going to be a time in the future where things are rough. You're gonna be ill, family members are gonna be ill, a dream is gonna fall apart, you're going to be uncertain about your employment status... The flood is coming. The apocalypse is coming. It's always the case in life and you have to be prepared for it. And the question is - how to prepare for it? And the answer to that is to find a way of being that works even under the diarist of circumstances

Where is the meaning to be found?

Life is hard. It's tainted by malevolence and betrayal. That can make you bitter. You need a meaning to offset that. Where is the meaning to be found? Not in rights, not in impulsive pleasure but in responsibility. You take responsibility for yourself so you take care of yourself.
If you're good at it you have some excess left over to take care of your damn family.
If you're good at both of those then you have some excess left over to take care of your community. Those are heavy burdens. You pick up the burdens and you find that's meaningful.
The best way to pick up the burden is to continually improve yourself. And that's where the meaning is to be found. That meaning is in the continual self transcendence. That's letting your old self die and the new self be reborn

What's the best thing you can do?

You need some reason to get the hell out of bed on a terrible day because you've got something good to do. What's the best thing you can do? - Transcend your current wretched and miserable self. There's meaning to be found in that. That's a meaning that's associated with responsibility

Tragedy combined with betrayal and malevolence makes life even worse. Especially if it's self induced. You need something to set against that so you don't get bitter and resentful. What do you set against that? Doing something worthwhile!

Things are tragic and difficult but there's always some stupid thing that you could do or someone else could do that could make it even worse than it has to be. So, that's life

What's the right way of being in the world?

What's the right way of being in the world? - It's not acting according to a set of rules. It's attempting continually to transcend the flawed thing that you currently are. Meaning in life is to be found in that pursuit

Could you be slightly better tomorrow than you're currently flawed self?

I'm a flawed person and I've got all my problems. Could I be as good as person X? - It's not the right question. The right question is - "could you be slightly better tomorrow than you're currently flawed self?" and the answer to that is - if you have enough humility to set the bar properly low then you could be better tomorrow than you are today.
What you also have to do is you have to say - well here's all my flows and insufficiencies and the best that someone that flawed and insufficient could do to improve and actually do it is this!

What is personal responsibility?

Personal responsibility is to compete with yourself. It is to be slightly better than yourself the next day

What is lesser self?

What is lesser self? The lesser self world be resentful and bitter and aggressive and vengeance seeking and all of those things that go along with having a negative moral character and those are things that interfere with your ability to progress as you move forward through life

If you are improving yourself then what you are doing is competing with your lesser self

If you want to compete fairly with someone then you should be competing with you

The question is - who should you defeat in the final analysis?
The answer is - you should defeat your former self. You should be constantly trying to do that. And you are the right control for yourself to because you're the one who's had all your advantages and disadvantages. So if you want to compete fairly with someone then you should be competing with you

Victory is really the victory over the lesser you