When we are young, we are told that in life, anything is possible, anything at all. If you want to be the richest man on earth, you have the potential to be so. A scholar, also possible.
Successful business man, absolutely. A lawyer, doctor, candlestick maker, yes, all of those things are possible. We can be who and what we want to be, given our, given, so to speak.
The race that we’re born into, the socioeconomic situation, factors such as these can change those things. And then I can proceed forward. But unfortunately, what we are not told is that those things will not come to us just because we go to school.
Will not happen in that way. We must learn to work. Develop a systematic way to accomplish a goal.
And we’re not taught this, I think, many times. We’re fooled by the internet. Suddenly people are bloggers, they’re vloggers, and they’re getting millions of followers, and they’re living an idyllic life.
The way it goes, but it’s just not the truth. Life is hard, and life is work. So you are free to be who you want to be, but you’re not going to accomplish anything without some way to get on to your path.
So how do I begin?
Well, at the very beginning, I must get some form of part-time job when I’m relatively young, still going to high school. Why do I say this?
Well, work for the most of us, if it’s pure work, selling your time for money is a very unpleasant phenomenon, and you need experience at how unpleasant it is.
So your first job when you’re 16 years old, working in perhaps a gas station or a Starbucks or some other restaurant, whatever it is, will teach you, I do not want to live this way for the rest of my life.
So I can see that selling my time for money is a painful process, and I’m going to remember this. So learn to work at an early age.
And then, the notebook I learn to talk to myself, because the only person who can educate me, who can really teach me, of course, is me. Yes, we need good professors, and yes, we need loving parents, all of those things.
But if I object to their methods of teaching, I will never learn. I will not accept them unto me. I teach myself.
Then, I think, what we must get into is a realization that I effectively am an independent agent in the world. And the world is not my private being inside my brain, or wherever that world is.
Lots of debate where consciousness actually exists, but it’s somewhere, for sure. So I must become conscious, if you will, of the fact that what’s inside of me doesn’t have to be presented in the world.
I can continue to have poor manners, dress like a boor, all the rest of it, and limit my own social contacts due to my own foolishness. So I must learn to develop some style, a brand, if you will. The brand of Leon, the brand of me.
Right? For sure. And then some gratitude, pure gratitude that I’ve been given a chance to get into the race, the human race, that is.
And I think many, many people don’t appreciate how lucky they are. Whatever a person’s body, ethnicity, gender, all the rest of it, I’ve been given a chance to develop.
And then we come to the ultimate freedom, the freedom to share you with the world. So the more you grow in stature and power, the more you must be modest with that power and that stature and give back to civilization. Because life is not about me.
For sure not. It’s about we. And many people today in a capitalistic driven society forget that a lot of people, most probably are not like me.
They’re not hard working. They’re not ambitious. They’re not from good families.
They’ve really had a tough bit of luck when they were born. And they must work harder than I have to work. And yes, I must work hard, of course.
But some people have to work a lot harder. And that’s just the way it is, and has always been for that point. And the final conclusion is that I must not become smug.
Yes, give back all of that, but some people are just a little bit smug, meaning I’ve achieved my pinnacle of power, and I’m just basking in my good fortune, because I must remind myself that my good fortune can be snatched away for sure.
Boethius wrote a book, The Consolation of Philosophy in the 6th century, and it was about his misfortune, if you will.
He made an error, and he was arrested, and everything was stripped away, his lands, his social status, and then he was sentenced to death. And between the time he was sentenced to death and the time he was actually executed, he wrote this book.
And this book has a dialogue with philosophy, if you will, as the principal character. And philosophy points out that whatever happens in life, you must be prepared to deal with it, whatever it is. And many people call it a religious book.
It doesn’t mention religion at all, but it gives you a spiritual way of seeing your life. Good read. Recommend it.
So you are free to be what you want to be in life, but promise yourself that you’re always going to put in the work. Always excellence. Why not?
And you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary if I truly am going to free myself and become the person I want to be in my life, or at least get on the path.
And critical thinking is great. Truly great. You take care of yourself.
God bless. Bye-bye.