There are two rules for a successful life:
- Don’t tell them everything you know.
Don’t be a jerk.
Nice. In the same vein, I learned everything I know from David Mamet:
Sam: Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That’s the first thing they teach you.
Vincent: Who taught you?
Sam: I don’t remember. That’s the second thing they teach you. [indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent]–*Ronin*[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
Scott: In the city there is always a refelection, in the woods always a sound.
Curtis: What about the desert?
Scott: You don’t wanna go to the desert.[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent]–*Spartan*[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
Coffee Cart Man: Hey buddy. You forgot your change.
Joe Moore: [Takes the change] Makes the world go round.
Bobby Blane: What’s that?
Joe Moore: Gold.
Bobby Blane: Some people say love.
Joe Moore: Well, they’re right, too. It is love. Love of gold.[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent]–*Heist*[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
Jimmy Dell: I think you’ll find that if what you’ve done for them is as valuable as you say it is,
if they are indebted to you morally but not legally, my experience is they will give you nothing, and
they will begin to act cruelly toward you.
Joe Ross: Why?
Jimmy Dell: To suppress their guilt.[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent]–*The Spanish Prisoner*[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
Stranger
Love it.
Oh, also, it’s perfectly fine to study things for the sake of studying them; it doesn’t need to be a means to an end. Studying things for no reason beyond “they interest me” is in fact a rather good idea.
That IS good advice because you never know where it will take you. I love the SD because I learn so many interesting things and it feeds my life-long passion for learning. As a result, I’m seldom bored, there’s always more reading/research/hobbies to pursue. There’s some advice right there - READ. Go to the library or a bookstore, browse and engage your mind. The iPod and the videogames and the cell phone will still be there later.
Hmmm…okay. So, it’s one of those “unless you’re willing to make travel the center of your life, and rearrange everything around it/piss off your whole family by doing irresponsible things in order to afford it/etc., you didn’t REALLY want to go” things.
I think it’s very facile to look down on people and make pronouncements about how they could do this and that if they really wanted it enough, like everything that happens to someone is their fault.
Also, what kind of job doesn’t fire you when you ask for three months in a row of vacation? Yikes.
Mine does - I can take up to a year off as a career break (unpaid, of course).
I see what she’s saying though. Lots of people are great at coming up with reasons why their dreams could never become reality, but the biggest reason is because they never try. Travelling or moving to another country is actually quite simple, lots of people do it every day.
And, to offer my own advice:
When you feel sad and discouraged and want to feel better, do something to help someone else. Someone has to counter the general trend of negativity among people in the world, so go out and offer help and hope to someone else. And if you help someone and they don’t appreciate it, don’t help them again, but do help someone else. Don’t sit back and say “those people, they’re all ingrates” just because you met one who was.
It’s the “having thousands and thousands of dollars you don’t need for something else” thing that seems like the biggest roadblock, heh. 
It doesn’t cost all that much to tie a bunch of inner tubes together, carve a plank into an oar, and cast yourself into the sea. Hundreds of people do it every day.
Thanks. I’m not trying to attack anyone and this isn’t just about travel, either. It’s about whatever it is that you want to be doing with your life. Want to be fit? Go work out. Want to be married? Go out and pick up on guys. Want a better job? Walk into the places you want to work and ask to talk to the boss. Intentions are nothing and actions are everything when it comes to living a fulfilled life.
Exactly - failure is never even trying.
Live in a climate you like.
Sure, it is fine to complain about the weather. But live in a climate you like.
Sure, I’ve complained about the weather in Dallas and Phoenix. But, I’ll take those climates as well as any Southwestern US climate over almost any climate.
- Never tell the truth.
- Never play by the rules.
- Never spend your own money.
“Also, what kind of job doesn’t fire you when you ask for three months in a row of vacation? Yikes.”
Try being a server, that’s how I did it. I went away to exotic locations for 3, 6 even 10 months at a time. Having a job you can walk in and out of is kind of key. Also avoiding debt like the plague. Learning to save, actually save your money.
The others are absolutely right when they tell you thousands of people do it everyday. Being where you want to be is only the price of an airplane ticket away at any time. Like any accomplishment in life it takes discipline to attain.
I spent over a decade of my life roaming the globe and collecting experiences while my peers were largely collecting things. We are not currently, in the same position in our lives, as a result, but neither I, nor my partner, would change a single thing.
Hope for the best, but always prepare for the worst.
And sure as hell don’t breed with it.
If he’s a cokehead or a deadbeat dad or behind bars or living with his momma at 40 he isn’t dating, boyfriend or marriage material. If you already have kids with someone else don’t bring the cokehead or the jailbird or the emotional fuckup into your life let alone theirs. It doesn’t matter how good he is in bed if you’re not sure if that white powder on his coat is sugar or something much, much worse.
Do nice things for strangers, if and when you can.
I’m not talking about those big things that make the national news, or even those big things that make a dramatic difference in a person’s day or week or month, but the little things that make people perk up just a bit. For example, I saw a woman in Target today buying a gift bag and tissue paper (red & white with a star pattern) that she got at the front of the store. I stopped her and pointed at my red & white with hearts pattern that I’d gotten from the back of the store (valentine’s day clearance) and said, “Just so you know, these packs are back there and only cost $0.20.” I give people coupons I don’t need when I seem them in the store, and things like that.
It brightens my day to do this, and brightens my day when others do these things for me.
There was a point in my life that played out like a scene in Total Recall. You know, where Quaid is told he’s not really on Mars and needs to swallow a pill to ‘return’ to Earth. He puts the pill in his mouth as told and then, just before swallowing it, see’s that the Recall technician has beeds of sweat on his forehead. He shoots him in the head.
Nothing that extreme, of course. But, remember this:
Whether it’s your boss, a teacher, a counselor, anyone in a postition of authority - spit it out, smile, walk away. You know better and they’ll be the wiser. What ever you do, don’t swallow it.
Look for their sweat.