Someone called me recently to ask for some advice about a job they're about to undertake and I gave them some advice that felt really negative, depressing and discouraging.
I told them to go with the advice if they actually wanted to avoid any troubles in the future and they replied that they've actually thought about what I've told them, but they just didn't know if it was the right thing.
If they'd asked me for this advice 6 years ago, I'm certainly sure I was going to give them a different counsel, because life was better back then, I wasn't fighting any demons, not a lot of experience, just a young man who was living life without fear of consequences whatsoever.
A lot of people currently don't like the fact that I'm not as optimistic as I used to be, they feel that I need to be more hopeful and liberal, and while I actually want to be, I don't think being like this has anything to do with reality.
However a lot of people find it very difficult to differentiate between being realistic and being pessimistic. Being realistic means looking at life without filters.
Being pessimistic means being negative even when there's a possibility that positivity can come out of a negative situation. I do agree that they share a very thin line, and honestly, I think it's what it is.
Hope isn't work
I live around a lot of hopeful people, they are positive without any form of realistic efforts to back up this hopefulness. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Christian and having faith is something I have as a Christian, but even the Bible says that faith without works is dead.
I can possibly expect to become rich tomorrow if there's no basis for that to happen in reality. You cannot expect to harvest if you do not plant and this has nothing with being a positive person.
I think it has to do with training yourself to understand that there are honestly no free things in life, and life doesn't get magically better if you don't make it work. It's taken a lot to me me a very realistic person. I've been through the ringer in the past, and I've seen how harsh reality can become if we don't fix it quite well.
I was talking to a technician that fixes home appliances for me, and he was a pretty fun chill guy that enjoys life really well, but a lot of things changed the moment his wife died. I was discussing my losses with him.
Obviously I cannot compare my recent financial losses where I've had my entire savings ripped from me, but I've also experienced death and losses of loved ones just like him and I'm qualified to talk about pain with him.
He talked about why bad things happens to good people, and my assertion is that most times we look for justifications for good or bad.
Normally life should punish more bad people but the more we look at it, the more interesting it becomes. Bad people can use the proceeds of their bad life to secure themselves from bad things ever happening to them, and this is why they feel very secure, because they already protected themselves from bad things happening to them.
Karma is almost not real
With good people there are no coverage, we just feel that the universe should be automatically good to good people, but bad people makes it almost impossible to get caught by karma or punished because they make sure they they continue protecting themselves from any consequences of bad things.
If you understand this from a realistic point of view then you've understand the whole point of the post. Reality is very difficult and sometimes it's just what it is, there's really nothing you can do, it's just life and you don't have any control over it.
I recently found myself getting angry at people who don't understand my perspective of reality, I do think it's because they've probably never seen life they way I do, or they've never really been deep thinkers.
Deep thinking
This isn't to say deep thinking is such a good thing anyway. A lot of people indulge in alcohol just to forget stuff and never actually deep thinking. So even though my faith/religion wasn't against alcohol, it's definitely one of the things I'll never indulge in, just because I want to get rid of my deep thoughts.
Inasmuch as it makes me sad, I like the fact that it reminds me of my failures and life challenges. A man should never strive to get rid of his deep thoughts simply because it makes him sad. I don't agree that we must strive hard to get rid of every form of sadness in our lives.
Sadness is an emotional reaction, and while I agree that a lot of it can be bad, I think we need it always to actually remind us of what reality truly us. A state of complete happiness will bring complacency and carelessness and honestly, no one should have that.
