Where to look when you are… faced with different choices
Research shows that when we choose to quit pursuing unattainable goals, we're less happier, less stressed, and get sick less often. Which people are the most stressed out? Those who wouldn't quit what wasn't working.
— Eric Barker, (resource) Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want.
~Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom
Indeed, in today's consumer society advertisers and the media dictate what people are supposed to want. Many people consume this programming greedily instead of stopping to question what will truly make them happy. After all, it is much easier to try to fit in with the majority than to question what the majority is doing.
You are always free to choose. In the long run, no one forces you to think, feel, or behave the way you do. Rather, you choose your emotions and your behaviors by the way you choose to think about the world around you and about what is happening to you.
Dr Viktor E. Frankl, survivor of three grim years at Auschwitz and other Nazi prisons, has recorded his observations on life in Hitler's camps:
We who live in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: last of the human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
The first thing to do- don't get worked up. For everything happens according to the nature of all things, and in short time you'll nobody and nowhere, even as the great emperors Hadrian and Augustus are now. The next thing to do- consider carefully the task at hand for what it is, while remembering that your purpose is to be a good human being. Get straight to doing what nature requires of you, and speak as you see most just and fitting with kindness, modesty and sincerity. ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.5
A study of lucky and unlucky people to see if it was just random chance, spooky magic... or if there were real differences that caused such different results in life.
It turns out luck isn't just serendipity or due to the paranormal. A lot of it is about the choices people make.
—Richard Wiseman, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire, (resource) Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Envision the moment when we will walk onto his stage. The music will be like none we've ever heard. We'll stroll among the angels and listen as they sing. We''ll gaze at heavens lights and gasps as they shine. And we'll walk next to the Maestro, stand by his side, and worship as he leads..
