From a Treehouse in the Jungle.
Subject: How to not ruin your life.
This is a letter for anyone with a history of fucking up their life through bad decisions. Aka my former self. Aka most young men with high testosterone. If that’s you then sit your ass down for 5 minutes, turn your shitty smartphone off and listen to me because I’ll save you a lot of lost money and time from bad choices.
You want piece of old school advice?
If you have something on your mind; a problem, a decision to make, an issue you need to solve but can’t figure out how to.
Get your head out of the internet and go take a walk in nature. Through the mountains, a forest, maybe a park. Turn all the shit off and be with yourself for a day or two. Camp overnight. No phone. No computer. No internet. No texting.
Just slow down before you do anything.
Guys - I cannot tell you how many times I have FUCKED UP things in my life because I was over caffeinated, stressed out, not thinking clearly and in a bad state of mind when I made decisions.
It happens quick.
Time and time again as a younger man I have been through this. I have also watched other young men make decisions that send them backwards in life. Decisions made out of impatience and frustration that make no sense to anyone watching, but the person making them is convinced they’re right. Until they land face first in a pile of runny dog shit.
We’ve all been there, some worse than others. I’ve seen guys do some real stupid shit and not come back from it. That happens. You’re not immortal. I used to ride my Harley up the highway without shoes or a helmet playing chicken with trucks. This sort of shit is pretty dumb, but fun at the time.
As a young man you need to understand that your feelings and emotions are NOT good ingredients for effective decision making. All decisions made in this state of mind are going to be unreliable. In fact pretty much all of the problems I’ve ever had come from making shit choices.
Life is simple. Make good decisions, get good results, protect what you have through work and then leverage the principle of compound interest to keep making everything better.
Sometimes you can’t avoid problems and life is fucked, but generally everything gets better over time if you do the right things and avoid the wrong things. Like snorting cocaine and fucking hookers in the ass without condoms. Don’t do that shit because it isn’t going to end well.
Trust me.
You’ll cook your brain and ruin your dick, and you can’t buy a new brain or dick as far as I know.
But back to my point.
Sometimes you just need to stop what you are doing. Take some time out. Go see something new and allow the mind to get above the issues clouding your mind. Let the mud settle. Maybe it’s a road trip, or a camping trip, or a hike, or whatever. Just do something to allow yourself a rest and the space to get perspective.
It’s real easy in life to get lost in the weeds. Especially when you make money online because the physical exertion and exhaustion isn’t there. You can’t just dig the hole harder like you could if you were digging holes for a living. It’s mostly mental work and the problem with that, is that it’s completely shit when your brain isn’t working properly.
So just slow down.
Take a deep breath and walk away. Don’t react. Don’t get emotional. Chill out and go do something else for a while until your mind is clear. You will end up with more money, better health and a better life as a result. You’ll have less problems. Less stress. Less shit to deal with because you took the time to THINK through situations instead of reacting out of impulse.
You want to respond to things, instead of reacting.
REACT = reacting the past = letting issues and insecurities control the present moment
RESPOND = responsibility = you have the responsibility to choose how you respond.
Half the battle of success is not ruining what you’ve created once you have created it. I’ve seen this done time and time again. Stress and frustration get the better of guys. So they just wake up and decide to completely fuck everything. Weird behaviour, but it’s relatable because I’ve been there.
Life’s alright.
So your stupid brain goes “you know what, life’s alright, let’s just fuck it up”. Then you’re standing there with a 100lb sack full of new problems that could have been avoided and you’re asking yourself what is wrong with you. Self sabotage. I used to do it all the time until I smartened up.
Boss has you pissed off? Take a walk.
Girlfriend is being weird? Take a walk.
You’re broke? Get a job you slob.
Life is falling apart? Take a walk.
When you get caught up in the moment it’s easy to lose your perspective and think everything is worse than it really is. Then you get out and forget about it for a bit, and when you come back it all makes 10 x more sense.
If you can learn this lesson BEFORE doing all the silly shit I had to do in order to learn it. Life will probably be a lot better a lot faster.
Making good decisions.
It’s a learned skill that is a combination of listening to yourself and thinking logically without emotion clouding your judgement.
It will come from life experience and self reflection.
You won’t just “get it” because you read this piece. Time is the key ingredient. But if this piece helped prompt you into thinking more carefully, or it helped you make a decision.
Great.
Leave a comment below and let me know how it helped.
Thanks for reading.
Filed under · Mental Clarity
