by Jason Ball
You may think these are all part of you fulfilling your potential, but they’re not. Listen to me, just do the right thing.
Now, you might reply, ‘They sound pretty alright to me.’ And they might. But take the time to look a little deeper. Are they really going to make you the best person you can be? Only you can say.
7. Storing up trouble
It might not seem like it at the time, but no good will come from doing anything right now that will result in you having to lie or suspect others’ motives or lose your self-respect.
If you can keep your rational self front and centre at all times, you won’t need to pretend to be something you’re not or moan about your lot in life or crave either company or solitude.
You won’t worry about how much longer you’ll be on this Earth. In fact, if you got wiped out by the proverbial lightning bolt tomorrow, you’d check out with a clear conscience, knowing you stuck to the right path.
8. Get some discipline
A disciplined mind is a beautiful thing. In it you’ll find none of the mental junk that poisons so much of everyday life. The person who achieves this discipline will neither grovel for approval nor think they are top dog. They will neither depend on others nor be afraid of asking for help. Ultimately, they’ll answer to no one but themselves.
9. Beware fake opinions
Be careful how you form your opinions. It’s your one defence against making assumptions built on poor foundations. Check your sources – just because it’s on your newsfeed, doesn’t mean it’s true (no matter how much you’d like it to be). Take time over this and you’ll get on better with those around you (or at the very least, be immune to their nonsense).
10. Right here, right now
If you take little else from what I say, take this: We live only in the present moment. The rest is either done and dusted or is something yet to come (and won’t turn out the way you expect anyway).
In the greater scheme of things, our lives are small, played out on a tiny patch of a blue speck floating through the cosmos. And fame? That’s bullshit. It’s just selective memories by people who’ll soon be dead themselves.
If that doesn’t put things into perspective, I don’t know what will.
11. Ask the right questions
Whenever you see or think anything, strip it down in your mind to its bare essentials. Give it a name, a simple description. Name all its parts.
Doing this will build some serious mental strength. It’ll help you work out what you’re dealing with, where it fits into the world around you, and whether you should spend any more time on it.
You can go further and ask yourself a series of questions.
Why is this thing here now?
What’s it made of?
How long will it last?
What will it demand of you?
Is it here by some random chance?
Or is it the result of human activity?
12. Give it everything you’ve got
Whatever you do, stay focused and give it your all. Expect nothing and fear nothing – simply do what you believe to be right. If you can do this, you’ll have a good life. What’s more, no one will be able to stop you.
13. The right tools for the job
In the same way that a surgeon will have all the instruments they need within reach, ready to save a life, you should always have your principles to hand, ready to learn more about the world and people around you. And never forget that everything is in some way interconnected.
14. I love you tomorrow?
All those books you plan to read. Those tabs you have open for later. That bucket list of experiences to try before you die (someday, maybe). Do it now while there’s still time. You’re a long time dead.
15. See this
People are blind. They can’t see what it really means to steal, to plant, to consume, to be at peace, to do the right thing. That’s because to really see these things demands a different kind of vision than what their eyes can provide.
16. We’re all the same. We’re all different.
We’re all a mix of body, soul and mind. The body for physical sensations. The soul or self for our impulse to act. And the mind for our core principles.
But we also share our capacity for physical sensations with every wild animal and burrowing parasite on the planet. Every nutjob, tyrant or internet troll is driven by impulse. And even terrorists, paedophiles and Fox News pundits have minds to guide them.
With so much in common, what separates a good person from the rest?
Well, it’s the fact that they can embrace the whims of fate without resorting to irrational thinking and kneejerk reactions. It’s in their ability to face up to the real world without resorting to lies or taking advantage of others. It’s in the way they refuse to be put off when others question how they can live such simple, self-respecting, happy lives.
9
The Fourth Book
‘Love what you do. Enjoy your talents. They’ll allow you to spend the rest of your life as neither master nor slave.’
1. Get some perspective
When you’re OK with the way things are in reality, you can adapt to whatever the world throws at you – threat or opportunity. You won’t come at things weighed down by the baggage of expectation or prejudice. You’ll be able to step back and get some distance. Then, no matter what happens, you can judge whether to embrace it, fight it or ignore it.
2. There is no try
Yoda was right. If you’re going to do something, do it properly and with purpose.
3. Wish you were here?
Everyone wants to get away from it all to the perfect hideaway.
Ever notice how it’s almost always somewhere far away? Thing is, get your mind into the right place and you can get away from it all without ever leaving your own head. Understand your own mind and you can find this inner peace whenever you want, as often as you like.
In doing so, you can recharge your batteries whenever you feel run down (just make sure you don’t take too long to get back in the game).
What really stresses you out anyway? Other people? Remember, we’re all in this together, tolerating others is just part of creating a fair world. People aren’t willingly evil. And whatever they do wrong will soon be gone (as will they before they know it). So chill out.
Maybe it’s your personal circumstances that make you worry. Well, either we’re just a random jumble of atoms or there is some wider purpose to all this. If it’s random, what can you do except roll with the punches? If there is purpose, then simply play your part to the best of your ability.
Or are you hurting? Well, pain is simply what the brain determines it to be. Train your mind to detach from the physical and you’ll hurt a lot less.
Or are you worried about what others think of you? Not getting enough love for your latest Instagram update? Soon enough, no one will either remember nor care. You’re on a tiny part of a small blue dot flying through the universe. When you look at it from that perspective, who gives a damn what others think?
So take a break in the sanctuary of your mind when you need to. Whatever happens, view things from the perspective of a human who is on this planet for just a little while. When it comes to it, nothing outside your mind can really affect you (unless you let it). And when shit happens, it won’t last long anyway.
Let’s face it, most run-of-the-mill bad stuff has happened to you loads of times in the past and you probably remember hardly any of it. Why will this one be any different?
In the final analysis, everything changes and most things in life are simply a matter of opinion.
4. Hello fellow citizen
We all have minds, we’re all rational creatures, we can all tell right from wrong. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, we’re all citizens of planet Earth. From this fellow citizenship, we all get our understanding, reason and law. Nothing comes from nothing – the mind is no different.
5. The love life of atoms
&n
bsp; Birth. Death. It’s all part of the same process – atoms come together, atoms break apart. There’s nothing really to get worked up about, it’s just part of nature.
6. Spare change
You can’t change people, they’ll act as they will. Expecting anything different is like expecting a cat to bark. But why worry? Soon we’ll be dead and a little while later, no one will remember us anyway.
7. Get over it
Don’t get all wound up and offended by others. Abandon the feeling of being wronged and you’ll get rid of the wrong itself.
8. Become bulletproof
What doesn’t affect your mind can’t affect your life or harm you in any way.
9. The whole enchilada
Ultimately, the natural course of action is one that benefits the whole of humanity, nature and the universe.
10. Get in order
Whatever you do should be the result of an ordered series of decisions (not just a random bunch of events). Make sure your heart is in the right place. Do the right thing, not just the easy one, and you won’t go far wrong.
11. Get a reality check
How you view the world will dictate your opinions. So be careful to see it as it really is and not as it appears on Facebook or in the news or how you’d like it to be.
12. A simple recipe
OK, two things. First, do only what reason says is good for those around you. Second, don’t be afraid to change your mind if (and only if) someone can convince you based on reason and the common good.
13. A reasonable idea?
You’ve got a brain right? Then why not use it? Once you can apply reason to all your problems, you’ve got life nailed.
14. An atom at a time
You are a part of the universe, and at some point, you’ll dissolve back into it, atom by atom.
15. A haiku
Many petals fall
Some fall now and some later
There’s no difference
16. How awesome are you?
Right now, some people may see you as a bit of an idiot. (I know, right?) But get back in touch with your reason and in a week’s time they’ll see you as some kind of god.
17. The sand is running down
Face it, you won’t live to be a thousand. Time’s running out for you just like everyone else. Do some good while you still can.
18. Go straight ahead
Don’t waste time caring about what others say or do. Just focus on doing the right thing. Not only will it cut down stress, you’ll get where you need to go faster.
19. The dead don’t remember
So many people want to be remembered for something after they’ve died. But really, who cares?
Say people do remember you, soon they’ll be dead too. So will those that come after them. And even if, by some miracle of science, they did live forever, what’s it to you? Nothing.
Face it, in all your desire to make your mark for posterity, you’re wasting what you could be doing today.
20. Flattery will get you nowhere
Truly beautiful things are beautiful whether anyone praises them or not. It’s the same with intelligence or kindness or talent. In reality, none of these things is ever improved by praise or damaged by criticism.
21. We are all made of stars
Is there really a way for the soul to go on after death?
If there is a heaven, wouldn’t it get full? Think about all those physical bodies – people and animals – buried in the earth or that have gone up in smoke. They’ve simply transformed from one collection of atoms to another.
So maybe whatever we think of as a soul will go through the same process, transforming back into the stardust that makes up the universe around us.
How can we know the truth? By understanding the difference between things and the evidence for what happens.
22. It’s simple really
Stop fucking about. Simply make sure you’re seeing what’s really there and do the right thing.
23. What goes around comes around
It’s like this: Things will happen when they happen – no sooner, no later. Ultimately, everything comes from nature and, sooner or later, everything ends up there too.
24. Free: time
In the real world, it’s better to do a few things well than try to do anything and everything.
Most of the other stuff is just bullshit anyway. So you might as well save yourself the time and trouble. Whenever you’re faced with another to-do, ask yourself, ‘Is this really necessary?’ If not, don’t even think about it.
25. Take this test
Try this on for size: Simply attempt to lead a good life. Be happy with your lot. Enjoy doing the right thing. Then see how it suits you.
26. Take a chill pill
Chill out. Unfaze yourself. If someone you know is doing wrong, that’s their problem. If something has happened to you, so what? That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
Life is short my friend. Seize the moment. Don’t get caught up with things you can do nothing about.
27. Maybe you’re not as crazy as you think you are
Either the universe is an interconnected orderly affair or it’s the chaos of an angry two-year-old. Thing is, can there be so much disorder in the universe and still order within you? Think about it – everything around you in nature simply works.
28. Rant
What an absolute dick! What a muggle-brained, stubborn, small-minded fool! (Sorry, sometimes you’ve just got to let it out.)
29. Getting cut off
Those who fail to see the true world around them are as much a stranger to reality as those who are simply a bit dim. They are exiled. Blind. Poor. Birdshit on the newly cut hair of the world – a world they’ve divorced by bitching about ‘stuff’ (while forgetting that they are just ‘stuff’ themselves). It’s like they’ve amputated themselves from a world where everything should be one.
30. Sometimes, reason is all there is
Philosophers are a funny sort. You get one without a coat, another without books. One will complain about having no food but say they still have faith in reason. For my part, while I make no money from my learning, I’ll still stick with it.
31. Nobody’s slave
Love what you do. Enjoy your talents. They’ll allow you to spend the rest of your life as neither master nor slave.
32. Not worth a bean
Look back in history. Take the 60s for example. All those people going about their lives: getting married, having kids, getting sick, dying, fighting, partying, doing business, throwing insults, having sex, making money, chasing power.
Fast forward to the 80s and you’ll see exactly the same thing.
Today? Just the same again.
All those people throughout history beavering away before passing away. You probably know some yourself, running headlong after their little vanities rather than focusing on the simple good life that lies right at their feet.
At the end of the day, things are only worth what they’re actually worth. Remember this and you won’t get distracted.
33. No one thinks about Betamax anymore
Words go out of fashion and die – who today talks about video cassettes or modems or velocipedes? It is the same for people – the stars of our childhoods fade over time. Even an Elvis Presley or a Princess Diana is spoken about less today than in their time. Even the mega-famous and super powerful are destined to become footnotes in history.
Let’s face it, what good is everlasting fame to anyone? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. So why bother?
What makes life worth living? Just this: understanding the world, doing the right thing, telling the truth and cultivating an attitude that treats every event as no big thing.
34. Give it up
Give yourself over to whatever happens and play your part in the rich tapestry of life.
35. Forget about it
Everything is just dust in the wind – both the person who remembers and the person remembered.
36. Plant a seed
If one thing is certain, it’s change. One thing leads to another and another and another. You think the only seeds are the ones that develop into plants? Think again.
37. RIP
You’ll soon be dead. Yet you still worry. You’re still afraid. You still rush to take on other people’s troubles. What’s the point?
38. School’s in
Check out what really makes wise people tick. What do they love? What do they hate?
39. Head to head
What goes on in other people’s heads can’t harm you. So why do you hurt? It’s simply because, in your own head, you’ve decided you’re harmed.
It’s the same with physical pain. Refuse the judgement and you’ll eliminate the pain.
What happens in life is neither good nor bad, it’s thinking that makes it so.
40. All stuff and nonsense
Remember, everything in the universe is made of the same stuff – atoms. More than this, it’s all interconnected. Everything affects everything else – like the butterfly in South America that sets in train events that become a hurricane thousands of miles away.
41. As Epictetus put it…
‘You are just a soul lugging a corpse.’
42. Change for good?
Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But then again, the outcome of change isn’t always good either (no matter what the self-help gurus say).
