Category: Philosophy

Ignore It?

Should one just ignore the news?

It is usually of the clamorous and disastrous variety. So it is is a huge stressor, and who needs the stress? Plus, one can’t do much about whatever it is anyway.

So why pay any attention to it at all? Just ignore it, for one’s mental health.

In Stoicism, they tell you to concentrate on what is under your control, but ignore everything else — that would include the news, in my opinion

You see these people who never miss a single headline, and it is just making them crazier, although they may not realize it.

Nutrition and Health

Discipline

When you must do something but you don’t want to — that’s discipline.

It is like a muscle. The more you are able to do it, the stronger it becomes. Conversely, the more you fail to do it, the weaker.

You can’t achieve anything without discipline. There isn’t much you can’t achieve with it.

Heroes

Stay Positive

They tell you to stay positive. Yet circumstances may not allow you to be positive. If the circumstances you are facing are harsh enough, then it becomes virtually impossible to “stay positive” — the likely outcome is too depressing.

But if there is some light at the end of the tunnel — real light, not false hope — then the fresh air of actually being positive, as opposed to the shallow trick of telling yourself to stay positive, breezes in and resuscitates.

True Grit

Circumstance

Eugene O’Neil wrote a play about two brothers living on a farm. One brother loved farming and the other hated it. The brother who loved farming was infatuated with a local girl, but she took a shine to the other brother, and they eventually married. The disappointed brother who loved farming decided to cede the farm to his brother, and left to explore the world.

Thirty years later, he returned, after experiencing many difficulties and stresses but no joy, as he had left the one occupation that would have given him great satisfaction — farming.

When he returned, he found the farm in shambles, as the brother who had inherited it hated farming and generally neglected what needed to be done. And his marriage to the local girl proved barren and ended in divorce because, although she loved him, it wasn’t reciprocated.

One of the ancient Greek philosophers made the famous and enduring statement that “character is fate,” and this is so true, as your character will determine how you react to the world, and this will lead to certain outcomes. But mere circumstance is an extremely powerful influence over one’s life, no matter how strong and resilient your character may be.

Friends

Winning

In the end, everyone loses — because you die. But until then, play to win. Don’t wimp out.

But playing to win is much more valuable than actually winning. Winning at best is a brief dopamine rush, like eating an ice cream cone. Just minutes later, the ice cream doesn’t matter anymore. And in the end, winning has no value because in the end, we are all going to be losers — we are all going to die, so what value do your wins have then? None.

Yet playing to win has a lot of value because it gives you a commendable standard to live by — a bright light in the darkness of life.

So always play to win, even though you know winning has no great value.

Dreamland