After you wake up.

People are egoistic in a way that they come to believe that they can arrange future. They schedule without any disbelief over their predictions. They dream and put their feelings on a calendar. People are stupid; You can’t schedule anything.

You are too small.

And the world is too big. It’s just a matter of variables: You are one variable and your environment is infinite variables. Even if you really have control over your actions - which you don’t -, even then how can you control everything else? Our mind is not made to create a future: Just sit back and enjoy the ride…

…or become angry and dissapointed.

Where do people usually make the mistake of thinking too deep in the future?

• A romantic relationship: You make dreams for years in the future, for marriage and kids but you can’t predict the wonderful person that will show up tommorow and “steal your heart”.
• A friendly relationship: You become so much used to a person’s company that you arrange a future based partially on his/her influence. But you can’t predict that you will be bored of him tomorrow/or that he will die in a car crash.
• A day’s planning: You say that you will go for dinner at night, but you can’t predict that terrible headache that will make you stay at home

Do you get the point? You never had any control over your life: We are spectators and commentators, maybe even actors, but definitely not directors of our life.

The “first step only” rule.

Of course, these are generalizations. We can predict things according to circumstances and we should try to abide to the possibilities. But when we think about the future we should keep in mind the the second step to any action is too “far away”  for us to be able to predict. Think about “the first step” only.

You are going to hit on a woman/man that you like? The “first step” prediction is the arrangement of the “hitting on” situation. Thinking about the probable response is a “second step”: Stay away from this - Anything except the first step is not at all dependent on your behavior.

The “first step” always consists of half of you. You create a situation inside an environment - Half is you and half is the environment variables. But the second step doesn’t have any of you - It’s just million of possibilities that you don’t know of.

Keep it to “one step” or…

…become angry, unsatisfied, scared, misunderstood, dumb, endangered and many more bad words :).

Anyway, following the first step rule can also help you do things that you wouldn’t otherwise do. Think about how many times you were prevented to do something just by the image of a bad occurence that you predicted as a consequence. The first-step alone rarely contains fear - It’s pure impulse.

And some more words…

Life is full of unforeseen happenings, of random incidents and interesting things. I am not able to really predict anything even in the next few seconds of my life - Why should I bother with arranging the future? In the end, that’s why life is interesting. The one day you send roses to the woman that you love and the other day you don’t even want to see her. Interesting…

Everyday, while watching my life unfold, I notice various things: One is the beginning of all relationships.

I mean, there is a first time for meeting anyone: Your friends, your lovers, even your parents.

It’s definite that people are of utmost importance to each other. You probably can’t live alone, except if your are a god or a beast. You need others to BE something, you need others to WANT something, you need others to HAVE something. Of course, the overhuman is the one that will surpass all of these limitation, but that’s another subject to open.

So, we can say that:

1. There is always a first-time meeting for everyone.
2. Other people are the basis of our lives.

But it’s not only the amount of people that matters. People are different from each other: You can name them one by one, each one of them having a different effect in YOUR life.

So, are people that much important?

There were some few times that I told to someone: “Well, I really can’t imagine my life before meeting you”. And, yes, there was quite some truth in this statement of mine, but after some time and some variations in the circumstances of each relationship, I came to say: “I had been living long before I met that someone and I will still be living after he leaves my side”.

People are important only when you want them to.

Once again, the cause of the problem is (guess what?): YOU! It’s just the need to make your things look important. You WANT everyone to be important to you, just to believe that YOU are important.

People are replaceable.

Have fun with people, share emotions with people, believe in them, love them… But always keep in mind. There are so many people that you haven’t met yet, so many possibilities. People are easily replaceable.

You know that voice right? - That voice inside you that always tells you what NOT to do: “Don’t stand up for your right!“, “Don’t punch that idiot that made you feel bad!“, “Don’t talk to that woman that you like“.

Don’t, don’t and don’t. Believe me, any kind of positive change is always a sum of various DOs!

The nature of the voice.

I would call that voice an expression of you inner fears. It’s just a mechanism that prevents you from taking unnecessary risks. That may would have worked in a life with constant danger but in our society fear can only hold you back. Accept the fact that fear has held you back many times in your life: It has happened to anyone of us. Can’t you find any people in your past that were very “free” and always had the good stuff happening around them?

Recognize the voice.

The first step to start gaining from this voice is to recognize it.

The easiest way is like this: (for men that is - try finding an equivalent situation if you are a woman) Go out to a cafe/bar. Look around. See any woman that you really like? If you do, think about going to talk to her. You will probably hear a voice inside you that tells you something like “Well, you are not good enough for her” or “Come on, you are not in the mood today, do it tomorrow”. I call this: “The fist step to NOT succeed”.

Now, remember that voice. Can you recognize its instances in other parts of your life? Can you recall that “burning feeling” in your stomach that it comes with? Create a mind-alarm that always notifies you: “Hey! That’s the voice!”.

The only difficult step: Overcoming the voice.

Now, trust me. There is one major step to making that voice work for you. That is to overcome it once: Then you will be able to use the memory of that achievement and do whatever you want.

Just get in a situtation where “the voice” tells you what NOT to do. For example, some person somewhere makes you angry for some reason (generic situation, huh? ). You would normally be patient and say nothing. Now, do the difference: Stand up and say what you want. It doesn’t have to happen in an angry way, just say what you want to say.

You will almost definitely feel very good and satisfied with yourself. Remember the feeling. Remember the pattern of the situations.

Fuck the voice/Make use of the voice.

Learn to ignore the voice, but even better make the voice a way to understand when you really want to do something. I mean, when the voice says DON’T, be sure that you have to DO it!

Try it once. Even better make it a part of your life, being fearless. Be able to really listen to what your mind says. Turn the DON’Ts into DOs. Be happier.

Let’s get is laconic: Philosophers are dead.

The word doesn’t need philosophers (?)

The cradle of philosophy was ancient Greece (and more specifically ancient Athens). Back then philosophers used to be of utmost importance to the society, they were highly respectable people. Bring to your mind Plato, one of the most important philosophers in history: He was totally influential to his city (as in “country” back then), his subjects of interest included philosophy as well as rhetoric, logic and mathematics and he left us students like Aristotle (which means that his philosophy stayed alive and evolved).

Looking for philosophers.

Are there people like this today? Probably no. There may be highly influential people, there may be excellent studiers of rhetoric or mathematics, there may be people that leave their stigma after their death, but there are no people that combine all of these attributes. I guess that this situation is simply the result of the society’s mechanics: We don’t need philosophers - we don’t allow them to exist.

When did philosophers die?

One of the greatest philosophers ever, Nietzsche, died on 1900. It wasn’t until recently that true philosophers ceased to exist. Is it a coincidence that the great industrial age was on its starters? I think that this is the situation that made philosophers unnecessary.

Why?

The industrial age brought up both a tremendous evolvement in the number and depth of the scientific areas and an over-abundance of luxuries.

• Today’s science demands special abilities in certain fields. One isn’t able anymore to excel in many fields, thus making the existence of a philosopher (one that is broadly oriented) unnecessary.
• The over-abundance of luxuries creates for us an environment that does not promote original philosophical thought.
• Our modern religions provide pre-fabricated truths for everybody. No one needs to think about death; They “know” about it (or so they believe). And as a great philosopher said “Philosophy is thinking/studying about death”.

Do we need philosophers?

There are so many things that have been already said or written that it’s almost unfeasible to create original thought nowadays. I suggest to anyone that wants to learn about great thoughts from the greatest minds that have ever lived to study 2 things:

1. Ancient greek philosophy - Probably contains everything you need and it is so vast that you won’t be able to read everything in two lives.
2. Friedrich Nietzsche’s work - Probably the most original thought of the latest centuries even if he still walks on ancient Greeks’ footsteps.

(to be continued)

Everyday-life situations is what “feeds” us with experiences; That’s what our personality needs to grow up. Definitely every normal day should be full of those, but you can be amazed at how much experience you can gain from “your past” itself.

Let me propose three interesting ways to “squeeze” every experience-goodness from your past life:

1. The photo album

I generally don’t like photographs: They are like worshiping a mere moment of life, they are many times very “set up” and they can also make you feel bad (especially if you are old). But photographs have an amazing power to dig the deepest memories in your mind. You can be shocked at how many things you have forgotten over the last years, just by taking a look at a photo album.

How do we gain experience from that? By looking at yourself in a picture you look someone with different thoughts than you, someone that would react differently to many things. You can compare you to that person (your past self) and see where you have improved and where you should have. You can look at yourself from a third-person point of view and probably out of an emotionally-charged state: Mistake back then? - Mistake if you repeat it again.

Check out also the people around you in the photos. Remember what they said back then? Did they stand up to their words? Did they behave badly? Do you recognise any signs of bad behavior in your photos? Don’t forget the behavioral patterns of others and you won’t be late to react for a second time.

2. Your diaries/poems/personal notes.

These three things are possibly the most emotional remnants of your past. Read a love poem that you wrote one year ago. Remember when you were crying back then about a woman? Now, does she worth anything in your life? Probably not: Learn that emotions are quite temporary. Also learn that many times our intense feelings tend to “blind” our valuable logic. Generally, compare your “emotional-blinded” self with your present one. Gain experience and act better in the future.

3. The discussions

Grab a person that was close to you in the past and take him/her out for a coffee. Should it be your ex-girlfriend, your ex-boyfriend or a friend that isn’t anymore, it doesn’t matter. Sit in a table and talk about your common experiences in the past. Ask him about how he perceived things back then from his/her point of view: Compare that with your own thought of back then. Do you see how many times we may not understand what people are thinking? If this doesn’t fill you with everyday-applicable experience, then you probably are deaf and blind: Consult a doctor.

“A wise man does not make the same mistake for a second time“. That’s what people say; I agree. Learn from your past and act accordingly in the present. But always have in mind that what’s “good” for someone may not also be “good” for you. You may judge things only in perspective with YOUR ideals: Dogmas and “unproven truths” aren’t “good” for smart people.