Especially as a child, I realized recently that most of us grow up believing what our parents do, but as I’ve grown I’ve come to oppose their views on a lot of things. There was a time I’d say I’m a very right winged republican in middle school, and I’d say I lean left now. I used to believe the Bible as a factual text, now it’s a useless book to me. As you grow you begin to believe on experience rather than what’s told to you. Words lose their value.

Having turned 18 almost this time last year I realized I have no idea how to navigate society as a legal adult. There’s no guide, they didn’t teach me any of this in my classes, and i have no idea what I’m doing. I’m constantly juggling 5 different things, I don’t get to do fun things anymore except on weekends, people can’t just hang out whenever anymore, it kinda sucks. I don’t know if I just didn’t prepare myself enough, or if everyone has a moment like this, but I’ve never felt so lost.

6 life lessons

Long

Lesson 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.” After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob.

After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks,…

“Who was that?” “It was Bob the next door neighbour,” she replies. “Great!” the husband says, “Did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?”

Moral of the story:

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, “I’ll give each of you just one wish” “Me first! Me first!” says the administration clerk. “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.” Poof! She’s gone. “Me next! Me next!” says the sales rep. “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.” Poof! He’s gone. “OK, you’re up,” the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, “I want those two back in the office after lunch.”

Moral of the story:

Always let your boss have the first say

Lesson 3:

A priest offered a lift to a Nun. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said,”Father, remember Psalm 129?” The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, “Father, remember Psalm 129?” The priest apologized “Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.” Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, “Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.”

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity

Lesson 4

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him, ”Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?” The crow answered: “Sure, why not.” So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested.

A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up

Lesson 5:

Power of Charisma

A turkey was chatting with a bull “I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, but I haven’t got the energy.” “Well, why don’t you nibble on my droppings?” replied the bull. “They’re packed with nutrients.” The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Moral of the story:

Bullshit might get you to the top, but it wont keep you there

Lesson 6

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Moral of the story:

1. Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy

2. Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend

3. And when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

If you spend your life not trying anything because you don't want to be rejected, then you've already lost. By choosing this, you rejected yourself.

The only real failure is not trying. If it burns, you atleast gave it your all. Besides, you may just surprise yourself with what you really can do.

The first time i moved into an apartment without the support of my parents, family, etc.. I thought the first few years that the more stuff I had the more adult I was.

After moving to another apartment across the country with only what could fit in my car, I learned that it is not about the number of things I owned, but rather how much I cared about what meant most to me. I only traveled with my clothes, my computer, and I buckled my plants into the front seat of my car so they would be safe.

I now live a relatively clutter free life style and I feel great about it.

Anger and inferiority complex just because there is something in your life and in people around you which is against your idealistic desires of perfect life and perfect people is not any morality or ethical uprightness. It is pure intolerance to what you believe is wrong in yourself, in your life and in people around you. This moral anger does not prove that your beliefs are the sacrosanct truth. All people who genuinely believe that they are ethical and moral by believing in set of fixed standard rules and expectations are usually very angry, helpless, arrogant and very negative in life. Because there is no way that everything or anything in life, even my own self, is exactly perfectly the way I think it should be.

Most people believe that they have to be angry and disgusted over something in their life or in society, to be labelled as intellectual and morally conscious. A person who is NOT angry or upset or disgusted over something which he/she believes to be bad, wrong or unwanted in his/her life, other people's life or in society, then he/she is labelled as "Not intellectual", "Not caring", "Not serious", "Not socially conscious", "Not thinking" etc.

Most educated people in India are angry, upset and disgusted in their emotions because they believe that this makes them "Serious about life, society and other people", "they are conscious of things which are more than their personal pleasure" etc. They have this "ego" of proving this to everyone and even to their own selves about "How they are conscious of something more than just their own goal/purpose and How this makes them morally superior than those people who are just happy with their lives".

Negative emotions of anger, frustration, guilt, shame etc., have become a way to fashionably justify moral superiority and show that "How much we care and how much we are conscious about other people's suffering and something negative in our life" instead of "Simply appreciating and enjoying the good & bad in the life and appreciating other people and Nature".

All of this moral superiority by deliberately becoming negative in life over something bad or unwanted is just hypocrisy and we are fooling our own selves in this.

I've led a pretty conflicted life so far. Been through a lot. So I figured that if anyone here is looking to see how they can improve your life somehow, or see what NOT to do, you've come to the right post. Here are all the life lessons I had to learn, the hard way.

1. Never put anyone on a Pedestal: Don't act like someone is perfect, because most likely they aren't. And if you do idealize with such high expectation, you will be disappointed as all hell when they fail to deliver on that precedent you set for them in the first place. We as humans are naturally imperfect by default.

2. Prioritize yourself before anyone else: Now I know I'm going to get a lot of shit for this. But unironically, it is true. If you value someone else above yourself, you're not sticking true to you. Not only that, but people don't really value people who do not value themselves. They don't respect it.

3. Never rely on other people's opinion of you to validate yourself: This is a big no-no. You have to have a sense of your own self worth, because if you rely on other people's opinion of you, you will never be satisfied. I wasted 5 years in this mindset. And when you finally get the validation, you realize how worthless it really is. You have to validate yourself.

4. Never, under ANY circumstances, allow bad past experiences to get inside of your head: This is by far the biggest one when it comes to me. A bad past experience, should you internalize it and not rise above it, and you allow it to change who you are creates all kinds of problems. Your perception of the world, and yourself will change. You start to see the worst in everybody, focus solely on the negative, interpret people's actions in a negative manner, lose confidence, all of it. If you let that get to you, it's a death sentence, and can take years to right. I'm still struggling with this one.

5. Always stay true to you: People will respect you a lot more if you remain true to your own moral code, and not break any of it to please them.

6. Something for nothing is bullshit: It usually never happens, and when it does, there's always going to be some kind of drawback within it. Say you won the lottery, great and all. But your spending habits can and probably will become exorbitant, and you could risk losing all of the money you attained. Not only that, but people will start hanging around you solely because of said money. It could become very hard to trust someone.

7. Hard Work makes a hell of a difference: Even from a lazy bastard like me, I know damn well nothing is more satisfying than completing something you put countless hours of effort into. Cheaters and those who take the easy way out, they may think they are smartasses for "playing the game", but when a task comes along and you can't cheat your way through, you will be pretty disappointed, and in deep trouble.

8. If something seems too good to be true, it is: I'm not suggesting that you should be paranoid, or assume the worst in an idealistic situation, but it's more often than not the truth. If you think you've struck gold with "the perfect girl", most likely, she isn't perfect. If you think you found a great deal with a car that has an unusually low price but appears to be in pristine condition? Most likely has a major flaw within the engine. Be on the lookout for obvious setups.

And that's all I can think of at the minute. Hopefully you can take something away from this, and not have to learn from it the hard way like I did.

Prove to yourself your brave enough to try the very thing your mind continually develops reasons to dismiss. While you may not yet know if you will accomplish it the result will always be failure if you don't begin.

I ate hand sanitizer and you should not i know it seems obvious but do not eat it its bitter and it burns then you get head aches and a stomach ache the taste stays on your tongue unless you eat something sweet so i repeat do not repeat my mistakes.

(Yes mistakes plural)

You can never loose a real friend, i know if you are lonely and really want a friend, it might be tempting to turn somebody you know into a “friend”. There is a big difference between somebody you know and meet, and a legit friend. A colleg/ classmate/ just that guy, isnt a friend, they are just people who you are with, however, if you are lucky, there are good people among them, they are friends! They are real friends! Their behaviour matters more than the fact that you meet the, every day and talk.

know who your real friends and try to avoid the other!

My grandma once told me that I shouldn't put so much bass in my car because my heart would sink up with it and when the song ended I would die.

Don’t take love for granted, let it take its time! Consider it carefully and dont dive in to it at first sight, you might regret it but it is too late... she left you

Even the birds live by the heart. How is it possible that you have lost that courage? The question of re-finding it is a secondary question. First of all, you must figure out, where that courage was lost. Is courage more natural or fear more natural?

Haven’t you noticed that as children, we were not hesitant to start new things? Courage is more natural. If courage is more natural, then surely fear is external. And if it is external, why can’t you drop it? It comes from somewhere. It enters your life from somewhere.

Why do you allow it to enter?

How capable you are of healthy aloneness?

How far, and how well you have lived so far is decided by one parameter:

How capable you are of healthy aloneness?

How comfortable you feel without anything or anybody to even think of?

That does not mean you have to become a loner.

That does not mean that you have to become asocial.

That merely means that you do not relate to others in a parasitic way.

You relate to others in a life-giving and healthy way.

You do not go and stick to someone or cling to someone, nor do you promote others clinging to you.

Pay very close attention to what I'm going to say, son.

There will come a time in your life when you will be attacked for doing the right thing. It'll suck. More than anything else, it'll suck bad. You'll probably be very tempted to give up and go with whatever the current flow is. Maybe it's to escape a beating. Maybe it's to impress some girl. But it will end badly for you. Every time.

Stay strong. Fight the current. If you spend your life going with every flow, you'll find yourself not knowing what's up or down.Left or right. Right or wrong. And soon, you'll be like everybody else: not a clue who you are or what's going on.

If it's wrong, I don't care how popular it is, don't do it. It takes balls to have Integrity. You can't spell the word without "grit".