“What do you think I’m going to do?” She asked him.
“Whatever it is,” he answered, “I think you’ll be terrified when it happens. Don’t let that stop you.”
–Kevin Wilson/The Family Fang: A Novel
If you want to change your direction
If your time of life is at hand
Well don’t be the rule be the exception
A good way to start is to stand–J.Bass/Put One Foot In Front Of The Other
I can’t believe I’ve been reduced to using a song from Santa Claus Is Coming To Town in my blog. It’s not even one of the good cheesy Christmas specials! really prefer Rudolph. Yes, I needed to explain that or you might have thought I liked it. Yes, that matters. It just does, OK?
Well, it’s not like I have anything particularly original to say about doing stuff, so perhaps the cheesy song quote is appropriate.
Everyone knows they have to do something sometime, right? (Oooh, George Michael flashback: “not everybody does it, but everybody should.”)
This doesn’t seem to be going well. I’ll try back later.
…
…
It’s later now.
I’ve still got nothing.
Do some stuff, okay? People seem to mostly agree that it’s important. But don’t do too much stuff. That is apparently bad too.
Yeah. You can’t win.
Here’s my best advice:
–Be mostly positive, but stay rational about it. Sometimes things do suck and I think it’s OK to acknowledge that.
–Do stuff. Live your life mostly the way you want it. Sometimes you won’t be able to, but aim for that to be the exception. You won’t get what you want unless you take some sort of steps to make it happen. They can be small steps, as long as they keep going.
–Don’t be afraid of doing the wrong thing. Trust me, doing nothing is far worse.
–Don’t beat yourself up if you do the wrong thing. But. If you have been a douche canoe, please admit to it and make amends.
–Don’t completely buy into that stupid Zen saying about you being responsible for your own reactions and emotions. Yes, it is true that you choose how to react to what happens to a great extent. But if someone shoots your dog, it is not unreasonable to be pissed off at the shooter. In fact, I think anyone who can be all peaced out about really awful stuff is just plain weird. On the other hand, if you lose your shizz over sitting at a traffic light that isn’t synched up then I reserve the right to laugh at you. Other people will do things that piss you off. YOU will do things to piss yourself off. It’s OK. Get over it. BUT if you’ve done something horrendous, give yourself an ass-kicking first if you deserve it and then get over it.
Use your judgement. If you have terrible judgment, get advice and follow it.
Use some balance.
Nothing is 100% right or wrong.
Also, before doing anything you have to know what you want.
That. Is. The. Hard. Part.
I am still working on it.