#9: Problems make you happy.
Some of the most important truths in life don’t make sense on the surface, but once you get beneath it, the world will never look the same.
I noticed this the first time I fell in love. There was a girl in my high school class I liked a lot. Shoulder-long, brown hair, beautiful face, a heart-melting laugh, and eyes I could’ve stared into forever, or at least until the bell announced the next algebra session.
Like most high school kids, I thought I just needed to be nice and loving for her to reciprocate my feelings. Spoiler: It didn’t…
…but repel them instead.
Attraction is a tough topic.
Men and women both sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to woo potential partners. But well-meant isn’t always well-done, as overinflated lips and guys posing in front of rented Lamborghinis show.
I know what it’s like. I tried to be the “alpha” guy for years until I realized the very behaviors I thought made me attractive turned me into the sexual equivalent of stale goulash soup. But men aren’t the only ones selling themselves out.
Both sexes do stupid things to be more attractive, but as a man who’s spent a few years of his life…
Lessons from hitting rock-bottom.
Two years ago, I was in a dark place. Mindless and pointless distractions ate away most of my time. A toxic relationship and negative friends held me back and sucked the energy out of me. I studied something I didn’t enjoy and had no idea what to do with my life.
Today, I’m earning money with what I’m passionate about. I’m in a healthy relationship with an incredibly supportive woman who checks most of the boxes. The toxic friends who once wreaked havoc in my life do so no longer. I know who I am, I’ve got a clear trajectory…
Book your first win before you quit.
Juggling has changed my life. Not because I’ve always wanted to become a circus clown, but because it has significantly improved my productivity at work.
The repetitive up and down of colorful balls is perfect to relax and refocus during breaks. It’s engaging enough to keep my mind from ruminating yet doesn’t take up too much mental capacity. But it wasn’t always this way.
When I started, my balls were all over the place — it felt like a wild orgy, minus the fun. One even got lost in my friend’s handbag for weeks. …
Love is what you do every day.
For the first time in my life, I feel truly happy with another person. I’ve also never put as much effort into a relationship as into this one. As you’ll see, this isn’t a mere coincidence.
That doesn’t mean you’ll never disagree and wake up every day with rose-colored glasses on.
Sometimes, I want to throw my girlfriend out the window and she wants to do the same to me (first floor, so no major harm done.) Luckily, I’m stronger than her, so she gets a lot more fresh air than I do.
Jokes aside, there’s a simple reason I…
Use the wisdom of Hanlon, Hitchen, and Occam.
I’m guilty of what every human is guilty of: We see a situation and immediately assume we know what’s happening.
Last week, I witnessed a massacre while shopping. An innocent victim was brutally murdered, left out to slowly die for everyone to see. By the time I tried to help, it was already too late.
That victim was a pot of ice cream.
Someone had taken a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream out of the freezer and left it to thaw in the open. When I told the store clerk, he tried to perform first aid, but to…
4 lessons that click.
Good photographers have always fascinated me. The right picture makes you not only see but feel the scene.
This doesn’t mean I’m any good at it — I struggle to take a selfie in which I don’t look like Shrek the Ogre just woke up after a long night of illegal substance abuse.
But a good camera in the right hands captures the beauty in every object, no matter how mundane — like this ring of keys. And how it accomplishes this feat can teach you a lot about life.
On good friendships, judging others, and finding happiness.
The Harry Potter saga dominated most of my childhood and adolescence — and as any good kid’s book, it contains a hearty amount of lessons for adults as well.
The adventures of the orphaned boy who on his eleventh birthday found out he was a wizard — the only one able to stop an evil overlord from sinking the world into darkness — became wildly successful. The seven books together sold over 500 million copies that, if laid end-to-end, would span the equator over 16 times.
The stories about friendship, courage, love, wisdom, and good versus evil turned author J.K…
No, you won’t miss anything “important.”
I never understood why people watched the news.
When I was a kid, they were on every evening after dinner. It was always the same-old, same-old. Some politicians fought about some law, some terrorists wanted to blow up some city, and some natural disaster plagued some country. Yawn.
At one point, I didn’t buy into the hype of the world is ending anymore. It’s completely wrong anyway. If you look at the facts on a global scale, life for humans is better than it has ever been before.
When I moved out, I started an experiment — and stopped watching…
Being angry isn’t worth it, ever.
I was six years old when I first called my teacher a stupid cow, the most insulting words my first-grade brain could cook up in a fit of rage. Seven years when I started punching a sofa in the middle of class. Eight years when I was excluded from a field trip for being too rowdy. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
One of my distinct childhood memories is ripping a notebook to shreds and kicking dents in a steel door when my mum locked me in the basement. Ah, good old times!
If there’s one thing I’ve…
