My philosophy on life, "The Answer to Life."

[Armand]

Here is an essay I wrote with the intention of helping others. I have recently discovered exactly how life works and can literally make anything I want in my life occur. This essay sums up how I do it pretty well. Fyi I'm only 18 years old, I have done drugs in the past but I don't plan on doing anything other than weed/alcohol ever again in my life. I don't need to, I'm happy all the time and can make conversation with ANYONE. Remember, this is only meant to help and not to impose. If you want to try and prove my philosophy wrong, I don't care.

Enjoy the read:

"If you are looking at the length of this essay and do not feel like reading it. I suggest you do, because it is the answer to life.

What if I said you can be eternally happy and have everything and anything you possibly want from life? Sounds too good to be true? Well it really is very simple, and the fact is the human mind over complicates the simplest things.

This is what I want you to do. Go ahead and take out a piece of paper and a pen or pencil, I am sure you have both in your book bag. Then, I want you to list the ten most negative things you encounter in your life. This can be anything and everything from people, to TV shows, to animals, to traffic, to parents, to friends, to anything. Go ahead, you want to have anything and everything from life right? So get a piece of paper, and write down those ten things.

Now, next to those ten things, write why they make you feel bad. For reference, here is a complete list of negative emotions; Anger, Irritation, Exasperation, Rage, Disgust, Envy, Torment, Sadness, Suffering, Disappointment, Shame, Neglect, Sympathy, Fear, Horror, Nervousness.

All done? Ok now I want you to read that back to yourself. Who is really responsible for your list of problems? You are. The reality of the situation is that you are the one perceiving each of those problems in that negative manner. This is basic philosophy that many of you know already, so why do you not apply it? Please, tell me why? Do you enjoy these negative emotions? I am pretty sure every single person on this earth does not enjoy any negative emotion.

So now I want you to write what you can do to turn those ten things into positive emotions rather than negative. You know you can do it, because you are the one who is viewing those ten things negatively. So tell me why do you do it?

"But Armand, I can not be happy all the time, and I can not get along with everyone."

We are all individuals and we perceive everything completely different than the next person. Every single person has their own unique thought process, logic, and point of view. Sometimes one’s logic can be so vastly different than another, that they can not see how another’s logic makes sense, because it has never crossed their mind before. This can be interpreted in a negative manner such as stupidity for example, but the truth is, your opinion is no greater than anyone else’s, and we must all respect each other’s point of view, logic, and thought process. We all learn from others and these conflictions should be only taken as a learning experience instead of a negative experience.

If you feel you have done everything to get along with someone but you simply can not, or they will not let you, leave them alone and continue your day with a smile. If you do not like someone's personality, tell me why you should get yourself down because of it? For me, I either try to help them as much as they can, and if they do not wish to hear my opinion, or they think I am trying to impose them rather than help, then I leave them be and continue my day with a smile.

Here is one example of the way I see the brighter side as far as the work aspect of my life. You do not like your job? Tell me why? You have too much work to do? What is your work? Doing physical tasks that require no mental effort? Because that is just what it is. It is not WORK, it is MINDLESS PHYSICAL TASKS, and there is no reason to complain about it, because of just that, there is no reason, because you can be happy while you do it. Everything is just a matter of how you look at everything. The same thing applies when your parents tell you to do chores around the house. Stop complaining, stop being lazy, and just do it, it really is not that hard I promise.

Just remember, anytime you feel any negativity, it is because of you, and there is always a more positive way to look at everything.

“But Armand, I can’t handle so many things in my life at once and just be happy all the time.â€

[Da Mule]

Cool...thanks for sharing. But what does this have to do with the bicycle link at the bottom?

[Timezone LaFontaine]

I think there are some valid points in your essay and there's a lot that's empowering about consciously selecting your outlook, attitude and intentions in life... however, there are also things that happen in life that are not a result of your mental attitude and are not simply physical manifestations of your own internal processes, and are not your fault. This type of "it's all about your own attitude" philosophy can spill over into blaming the survivors of actual crimes and tragic circumstances that are either other peoples' faults, accidents or natural disastrous happenstance.

Happiness and 'positive' emotions are very important, but so are their so-called 'negative' corrollaries because they give you experience, perspective and ultimately empathy for everyone around you.

[ygmir]

so much also hinges on your beliefs in "fate".......

is life an infinite number of random circumstances and decisions.........
or,
is it pre-ordained and you're just along for the ride.............

your belief in either of these paths can have a huge effect on perception of events and decision making.


IMHO......

[Armand]

I don't mind the criticizing, but I have mastered this philosophy so well that nothing really bad has happened to me since I've been practicing this point of view with not a single doubt. I do believe that you can even control others mistakes causing you harm, such as a drunk driver hitting you. I don't know exactly how it works, but like I said originally, I have literally been able to get anything I want in life and make anything I want come to me.

One example of many, I went to fill up gas the other day, and I had lost my wallet and I couldn't find it. I didn't immediately think of the worst and think something like "OH CRAP I musta dropped it before I went into my car and someone musta stolen it, spent all my cash, and probably went on a cruise off my credit card." I thought to myself, can I truly think of a reason why I would DESERVE to lose my wallet. The answer was no, so I was like, alright, it'll come back to me soon enough, someone will be nice enough to return it. Five hours later I go home and check my mail like always, and my wallet was in there, with everything I left in it. I don't know who found it and who returned it to my mailbox, but they did, because I trusted someone would.

Just things like that happen alllllll the time for me. I TRULY believe that I am the only one responsible for everything that happens to me/the things I receive in life. Its simply the law of attraction, and I've found that if I never, ever think of any negative thoughts and try to make every single person I encounter happier, then I feel I deserve anything I want because all I do is try to make people happy. There is nothing more rewarding than making others happy. It's just a combination of SEVERAL things I try to do in my life, and I really do feel I can make anything I want happen in my life, and I can and have been doing it.

[Elderberry]

so much also hinges on your beliefs in "fate".......

is life an infinite number of random circumstances and decisions.........
or,
is it pre-ordained and you're just along for the ride.............

your belief in either of these paths can have a huge effect on perception of events and decision making.


IMHO......

I don't think either of those 'beliefs' are valid, but adopting either will definately determine your fate in life; which in my opinion, will be less than it could be by adopting a different belief system.

JK

[ygmir]

so much also hinges on your beliefs in "fate".......

is life an infinite number of random circumstances and decisions.........
or,
is it pre-ordained and you're just along for the ride.............

your belief in either of these paths can have a huge effect on perception of events and decision making.


IMHO......

I don't think either of those 'beliefs' are valid, but adopting either will definately determine your fate in life; which in my opinion, will be less than it could be by adopting a different belief system.

JK

please, elucidate and, therein, enlighten me..........

[Elderberry]

so much also hinges on your beliefs in "fate".......

is life an infinite number of random circumstances and decisions.........
or,
is it pre-ordained and you're just along for the ride.............

your belief in either of these paths can have a huge effect on perception of events and decision making.


IMHO......

I don't think either of those 'beliefs' are valid, but adopting either will definately determine your fate in life; which in my opinion, will be less than it could be by adopting a different belief system.

JK

please, elucidate and, therein, enlighten me..........

crap, you had to ask...now I have to think...I hate thinking.

OK to my way of thinking, very little in life is random. A person's state of mind and their expectations tend to determine what so-called random events they will encounter and how they deal with them and what the outcome will be. I think that story about the two twins--one an optimist the other a pessimist--illustrates this better than I can explain it...

A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was
their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it
was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed
the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one
was an eternal optimist, the other a doom & gloom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, on the twins' birthday their
father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and
game. The optimist's room he loaded with horse manure.

That night the father passed by the pessimist's room and found
him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly.

"Why are you crying?" the father asked.

"Because my friends will be jealous, I'll have to read all these
instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I'll
constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get
broken," answered the pessimist twin.

Passing the optimist twin's room, the father found him dancing
for joy in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he
asked.

To which his optimist twin replied, "There's got to be a pony in
here somewhere!"

If you prepare and plan and stay focused on where you want your life to go, you will handle all that life throws your way in a manner that will move you toward where you want to go. I will even go one step farther by saying that having goals will then tend to determine what those 'random events' that life throws your way will be.

If you have no plan, and don't set goals, then all that life throws your way is truly random and you just bounce from one 'random event' to the next.

Believing in the second 'philosophy' you mentioned is pretty much giving up all hope of having any control of anything that happens in your life--it's the ultimate excuse for failure--or worse yet--to not even try.

JK

[ygmir]

it seems, you are taking a page from, IIRC, Pasteur (sp?):
If I, in my opinion, boil down that last part of your post, it all says:

Chance favors the prepared mind.......

you say very little is random, but, it seems you are saying the opposite.

It seems, though, that you are in favor of the "life is a series of random events".......in that, every moment, we make choices, and, each of those choices leads us down a different path.
All I see differing in what you say is, that, when that path leads to opportunity, you recognize it and take advantage of said opportunity.

the story you share is a good one, but, is an illustration of attitude, IMHO, not the difference between random events and pre-ordaned destiny.

I agree, that, the second theory is an easy out......but, a lot of folks believe that all is planned, and, they do their best to take advantage anyway.....kind of a dichotomy, IMHO.

I'm the random belief person, myself. That each choice we make, takes us on another path.......and, we don't know where that path leads.....we can hope, but, really, we just don't know until it's over.......

I also believe:

It's better to be lucky than good:

if your good, you'll usually win, if your lucky, you always win, whether you're good or not.
Lucky can always beat good.......

ah, I wax philosophical again...........sorry

[theCryptofishist]

Here is an essay I wrote with the intention of helping others. I have recently discovered exactly how life works and can literally make anything I want in my life occur. This essay sums up how I do it pretty well. Fyi I'm only 18 years old,

Ah. As the man said:

Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

Luckily, I'm not looking for a philosophy of life. I'm in it for the ride.

[Elderberry]

Chance favors the prepared mind.......

you say very little is random, but, it seems you are saying the opposite.

I have no problem with saying "chance favors the prepared mind" and the second sentence is a chicken or egg thing.

Say that life does present you with a series of "random" events/opportunities--how many people let most of those random events/opportunities just pass them right by because their minds are not prepared to even see them let alone take advantage of them?

So is it the random events or the preparation taken to be able to recognize and take advantage of (or maybe even to avoid) those events?

JK

[ism]

Jkisha's response to Ygmir, feckin' rocked, but I'm not into philosphy, so I'll just say, I think the OP has cut the razor's blade a bit thin.

Sorry, I meet to many people in Fanta Se that wanna spout their mombo jumbo, "I'm at peace with all things, lemme tell you how I did it", because it makes me feel more empowered crap than I can shake a stick at.

Power of positive thinking...self fulfilling prophecies...yeah great. What did L. Ron Hubbard build his manure-load of first Dialeptics, and then, Scatology on? Yeah...it was that.

Don't get me wrong OP, you're method is sound, it's just that...well, me, nor my cat wanna take that route. It's too methodical, it's too presumtive that we know ourselves'. My cat licks their ass. If I could, nah, I probably wouldn't...probably... :/.

However, as has been said, you need the balance of both sides, and your method completely ignores the grey areas. Where does anxiety fall? I could be anxious because all my money is turning into shit, or anxious of a hawt ass stripper I've been tipping for the last month coming over for dinner. O.o. Should I date a stripper? Should I worry about my money?

You're making assumptions on moral precepts. Even Jeebus Crisco, Gawd's Sun in leavened, rose to heaven while going through most of your ten in the list of negative emotions...

...I guess what I'm saying is that if you have perfected your philosophy, and can control the world around you, well then...you've become something other than "christlike". I know, smile on, make everyone happy, blabbity...spread the love. Awesome concept, but as you said, "proof my beliefs wrong I don't care", or something like that...sorry, "prove"...you're taking an absolute position.

Personally, I despise absolute positions, they don't let me think openly enough about things to criticize them. I like to be able to listen to a point and consider it with every little brain nugget my wetware has to offer me. So then, while your essay is good, imo. It's certainly positive, and uplifting. It's too founded on beliefs, you can keep your beliefs, I read your essay as an idea, or theory...I can change those, but you can't change your beliefs.

If you can, then they weren't really beliefs to begin with, were they? Then it comes back to an idea, which you seem to have a nice one, redone, but then what isn't.

[ourania]

Oh to be 18 and think I know everything again. Seriously, sometimes shit just happens. There's no way that everyone who has ever had anything crappy happen in their lives has manifested it themselves. I work in a children's hospital and this attitude drives me a little bonkers. I would challenge you to spend some time with a kid living with constant pain and disability and then tell me this is the life they chose for themselves. I would humbly recommend getting a little more life under your belt before you decide you've figured out all its secrets.

[ygmir]

Chance favors the prepared mind.......

you say very little is random, but, it seems you are saying the opposite.

I have no problem with saying "chance favors the prepared mind" and the second sentence is a chicken or egg thing.

Say that life does present you with a series of "random" events/opportunities--how many people let most of those random events/opportunities just pass them right by because their minds are not prepared to even see them let alone take advantage of them?

So is it the random events or the preparation taken to be able to recognize and take advantage of (or maybe even to avoid) those events?

JK

IMHO, we're on the same page then.............
If I understand you, you're saying random happens, and, the prepared mind can recognize the opportunities when presented and take advantage? And, when the next opportunity presents, take that, etc, etc.

and, if your not prepared, they just wander by.........

The random event opens the door, the prepared mind steps through, not around.........

Am I close?

[mdmf007]

Oh to be 18 again and naive to the world. Apparently this kids problems are limited to school, parents, friends, etc.

i am sure it will change abit when he looses a job and has 4 mouths to feed and was already living check to check. Now how about we throw a catastrophic accident in and you say, loose your legs in an incident. Lets see if writing that tidbit on paper will help out.

This is real shit that has happened to people near and dear on this forum. i respect the essay and his right to write it, but at 18 - you should never start a paper out with a line that includes "this is the answer to life"

My cup has always been half full. Sure, i get kicked square in the balls and have had ginormous setbacks in life. Its how you handle a situation that makes you who you are.

My nature is to "get over it" quicker than most, and move on - some people cant do that.

I have a friend that is always looking for the fault in everything. He is pissed all the time, angry and blames others for whatever pops up in his life. He pines over old girlfriends, missed business opportunities, and is just generally angry all the time.

IMO his quality of life is dismal, but that's how he is. The funny thing is that he makes his own shell. I always thought that if you expect it to suck - it will, no matter what it actually is.

Be positive and positive things happen. Shit on it, and shit happens. Your essay is Your answer to Your life - each is different requiring a different essay.

[ygmir]

we all know one.......

[Elderberry]

in response to ygmir's and mdmf's posts--yes, we are on the same page.

JK

OH, and I just noticed--mdmf is back!!!! We missed you.

JK

[ygmir]

in response to ygmir's and mdmf's posts--yes, we are on the same page.

JK

OH, and I just noticed--mdmf is back!!!! We missed you.

JK

better work on your aim.......

[Ugly Dougly]

The answer to life is "yes".

[Sensei]

Fyi I'm only 18 years old

I've got boxer shorts older than you.

[Armand]

[quote="ourania"]Oh to be 18 and think I know everything again. Seriously, sometimes shit just happens. There's no way that everyone who has ever had anything crappy happen in their lives has manifested it themselves. I work in a children's hospital and this attitude drives me a little bonkers. I would challenge you to spend some time with a kid living with constant pain and disability and then tell me this is the life they chose for themselves. I would humbly recommend getting a little more life under your belt before you decide you've figured out all its secrets.
:roll:[/quote]

I'm sorry but age is NOTHING but a number. Life experience isn't all about age, it's about how you go through problems in the past and how well you interpret those experiences and how much you can learn from them. I've been forced to mature with my past and I am as content as it gets. Two months out of high school I'm making about $25 an hour and am ranked #1 in the restaurant I'm working now, I helped my brother design the green-cycles products found in my sig, and I've started a business when I was 15 under the name AKRacingProducts, where I was making custom r/c car parts out of my garage, I also built my own car. I can easily say I am much more mature than a lot of guys in their low to mid 20's and I've got VERY good people skills, and a damn good salesmen. I also used to sell cars at a Local Nissan Dealership 3 days after I turned 18. By the way you would think I am no less than 23 years old if you saw how I looked.

I'm just ambitious and I trust that I get what I want from life, and allllll the opportunities I can ask for comes my way.

By the way, I don't believe in luck.

Also, when you get to my point you're able to look back in the past and see how all the major events in your life connects to each other and how one led to another.

I am telling you if you perfect the first post like I have you can LITERALLY make anything occur in your life. I've been doing it for a while and I don't see why I should stop. I'm getting into the music industry and although it is one of the most competitive industries, I could care less, because it's what makes me happy and I bust my ass in everything I do, and I KNOW I will succeed.

Numbers, statistics, and possibilities do not mean anything to me.

There is a reason why 1% of this world controls 96% of the wealth, and it's not because they're lucky.

[Elderberry]

There is a reason why 1% of this world controls 96% of the wealth, and it's not because they're lucky.

You are right-- It's because they either inherited it or they have brilliant minds and are willing to apply themselves.

JK

[ourania]

Armand, I wish you nothing but the best in your ambitious endeavours. I'm sure with your copious talents and ego you'll go far. The fact remains, however, that experience is: "knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone", ergo, the more time you've spent experiencing life, the more knowledge you will have had the opportunity to accumulate. The irony is, that the longer you spend on this Earth, the more you come to realize how very little you know.

"And in knowing, that you know nothing, makes you the smartest of all."

Socrates

p.s. Hey JK, you forgot the third and most used option: steal it from someone else.

[ism]

Armand: The Almighty 1%!! Zeig Freud! Wait..?

I smell pretention...

...I started my own "company", too. I was older, just out of lock-up, 16. It made money. I had to start small, I had very little capital. You're so right, though! The ambition and drive, the waking up everyday to see a little bit more done....then I bought a fish tank. Fecked everything up. Oscars are sex-ay fishies. Then I met a girl...I think she was Santa..wait...I misspelled that.

I'm 33, and I get carded almost everywhere. Was there a point to that, I thought age was just a number? You said that, right?

I'm a slacker now, playing a professional role...can't wait to go back to a civilized life of bartending. Can't wait to play my PSP in the shade on the playa until nightfall, again.

I've gone down your list, I don't do 12 steps. Like i said, I was in lock-up...that..."hey, ism, welcome back, works if you work it!", shit doesn't work for me. It actually scares me, like that stupid feckin" what kind of it bird is it, on Sesame Street. Unless ofcourse you'd like to free yourself up for the next time being, well...dunno what you would be. Certainly not you.

When "allll" opps come your way, better run, cause your kissing someone's, and stepping on someone else's....napolean approach? It worked! Good luck!

Oh yeah, shet, you don't believe in luck. Good reality, then?

When I get "to your point", I guess I'll stop studying religious history, and comp-sci...cause you'll have brought on the rapture?

Piece and Hair Grease,

teh ism.

[Elderberry]

p.s. Hey JK, you forgot the third and most used option: steal it from someone else.

LOL...funny you should mention that. I was actually considering editing the post to include that, but decided not to take it in that direction.

JK

[ygmir]

p.s. Hey JK, you forgot the third and most used option: steal it from someone else.

LOL...funny you should mention that. I was actually considering editing the post to include that, but decided not to take it in that direction.

JK

I'd lump stealing it in with brilliant, though....usually, to steal that much takes a pretty good scam..........

how, though, can you discount the luck, or randomness, of the steelworker winning 200 mil. in the lottery?.........to prepared mind for that.......of course, still having it 10 years later.........now that's another thing.

[ourania]

Either a good scam or a lot of muscle.
JK, you are WAAAYY more diplomatic than I am. I kind of felt like the discourse required a little dose of reality lest we all float off into utopian la-la land where everything is there for the taking, all we have to do is BELIEVE. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually pretty optimistic in my perspective on life, but I've learned that everything doesn't always go as planned and much like Fish, I'm going to enjoy the ride no matter what. Hence, Burning Man! I can't wait.

[Gizmostarr]

Well, please consider this.....

Beyond beliefs, ideas, wishes, attitudes and concepts... EVERYTHING in life is FATE. There is no free will and I think I can prove it. Show me you choosing where you were born, when you were born (your present age), your height, your sex, your looks (good or bad) - you can't. Some will say that you pre-chose before you were born, but why did you choose what you chose?

You are who you are - if you are a school teacher you can't show me you being an astronaut, and if you are a school teacher who became an astronaut, then that's who you are! But you didn't choose it. If a man says he's hungry, or thinks that a certain female is sexy.... well, he didn't choose those - they are just who he is. Some people like coffee, some don't, some like chocolate, some don't - that's just the way they are, they didn't chose it.

If, one day, a piano falls on your head.... then it's just fate. If the wind blows your house down, and you can find the positive in that, then it's just that you were born, or became through circumstances, the kind of person who would have that positive attitude.

Everything is (a) a result of the tendancies which we were born with, (b) the situations and circumstances of life that shaped us, and (c) the random events of life - if you're one of the 200,000 killed by a tsunami, then that's your fate.

Hope this cheers everyone up!

[ygmir]

Well, please consider this.....

Beyond beliefs, ideas, wishes, attitudes and concepts... EVERYTHING in life is FATE. There is no free will and I think I can prove it. Show me you choosing where you were born, when you were born (your present age), your height, your sex, your looks (good or bad) - you can't. Some will say that you pre-chose before you were born, but why did you choose what you chose?

You are who you are - if you are a school teacher you can't show me you being an astronaut, and if you are a school teacher who became an astronaut, then that's who you are! But you didn't choose it. If a man says he's hungry, or thinks that a certain female is sexy.... well, he didn't choose those - they are just who he is. Some people like coffee, some don't, some like chocolate, some don't - that's just the way they are, they didn't chose it.

If, one day, a piano falls on your head.... then it's just fate. If the wind blows your house down, and you can find the positive in that, then it's just that you were born, or became through circumstances, the kind of person who would have that positive attitude.

Everything is (a) a result of the tendancies which we were born with, (b) the situations and circumstances of life that shaped us, and (c) the random events of life - if you're one of the 200,000 killed by a tsunami, then that's your fate.

Hope this cheers everyone up!

I'd say choosing where you were born, looks, (the stuff you came with)
might be fate, although, just as easily explained as random........

but, the rest of your analogy, IMHO, is just as easily explained my randomness, and, the changing of paths on a moment by moment basis related to decisions of the same time frame.

If you subscribe to "choosing before you were born", and, I think that has some validity, too, then, it's like choosing which movie you go see.....

if you're a disembodies soul, waiting to be "born", you may well have choices of the life you "live"(the movie you watch). Not everyone goes to see only happy ending movies.........
The same could be said for "souls" choosing a life to experience.........
When it's over, they go back to "their world" and try another.........

To refer to a person being "who they are" by virtue of what they do, is, exactly right, IMHO.........we are who we are due to choices we've made and circumstance arising from said choices..........
How can you deny that?

With free will, you make choices of direction, not choices of outcome........

all, IMHO, of course.......

[wedeliver]

Don't you love a song that says something...

[youtube][/youtube]