David's rules for life (more)

David's rules for life

When I started this blog, I decided I'd only post when I had something to say. Well now I have something to say:

David's Rules for life, in no particular order

1) You are required to accept your capricious heart, but you aren't required to indulge it.
Letting the heart lead is dangerous, as it often makes poor choices. Still, the life lived without joy, sadness, and love is no life lived at all. That said, when your heart insists on making poor choices that you KNOW will turn out badly, don't

2) Remember how people are when the chips are down.
Now matter how much you hope people will be wonderful, you must remember that how people are when things go bad doesn't tend to change. And things will go bad. Make sure you're always prepared to deal with that.

3) Don't be yourself, be someone better.
Everyone says "be yourself," which implies you should be happy with yourself. I say that's bunk. If there's something that continually bugs you about yourself, you should realize its something you consider a major negative and FIX IT.

4) Just because something is hard, doesn't mean its worth it.

Striving is great, but remember to keep in perspective what your striving for. Don't keep chasing something just because it refuses to be got. Don't let the chase become the goal.

5) 

Winning...by degrees

Your history teacher lied to you. No, I'm not talking about the fib we all got fed about how everyone except Columbus thought the world was flat and that's why he discovered America. I'm talking about the necessary distortion one faces when learning about history...time. Most history courses attempt to pack centuries into roughly 180 1 hour periods. Even your most detailed college class might attempt to smash an action packed decade into maybe a little more than 2 days of real time. And all this squishery has given us the wrong idea about our lives.

We somehow got this idea, from history, TV, movies, whatever, that all our greatest moments and triumphs would arise after one frantic, heroic burst of effort, and when we discover that life doesn't always work that way, we get discouraged. Think about how long a minute is to someone waiting for an ambulance. Think about how long an hour is to someone giving birth. Now think about how long a year is. WWII  reshaped the entire world and took 6 years. All those days, hours, and minutes that were each important moments made up an epic struggle that spanned the world.

Not all of your conflicts will be resolved in 2 hours. Not all of your conflicts will be resolved to your satisfaction after one gut wrenching moment or speech. In fact, most won't. You can make your epic push, and most times, very little has changed. Most battles are won by inches, by minutes, little by little. You must gain ground slowly sometimes, patiently, and not be discouraged by how long it's taking. You can win by degrees, you can win over time, and it will be even sweeter than those victories earned quickly.