5 Life Lessons from Fight Club

Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton (which was first a book by Chuck Palahniuk, almost the full book here), should be required viewing for all Americans. This movie is genius.

If you havn't seen it (you should) the story line exists in a confusing world poised on the brink of mayhem, where Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a projectionist, waiter, and anarchic genius, comes up with an idea to create clubs in which young men can escape their humdrum existence and prove themselves in barehanded fights. The movie is full of stuff that we can take away to use in our lives...

"You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. Reject the importance of material possessions. "

Like Tyler Durden says, "We are consumers. We're the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession." In this life, especially in the US, so many people think your life is what you own, you have to have stuff to be important, screw that. Take it from the people in New Orleans, "stuff" can be gone in a second.

American corporations have brainwashed us to think this (which is a great marketing strategy because they make more money if we do), and most Americans are too dumb to see that they are mindless consumers, buying things they don't need and spending money they don't have (hence the mortgage/debt crisis that is slowly wrecking our economy) . To be truly happy you don't buy more stuff, you build what people or nature can't take away from you, like knowledge, memories and inner strength.

"This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time."

Life is short, planning and acting for the future is important, but living for today is the most important. Don't spend your whole life saying, "I'm gonna kill myself working today and not have any fun in a dead end job so I can make a little money and so I can enjoy tomorrow.." Because chances are, you'll die tomorrow.

"Only after disaster can we be resurrected."

Without pain, without sacrifice there would not be good times in life. You have to have seen dark to have the light. Only after pain can we know the true good times. It's like breaking a bone, if it heals correctly in comes back stronger. That is how the soul works too. Sure there may be a scar, but you are stronger for it. Inner strength is a beautiful thing.

"You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else."

For all you cocky bastards out there, what made you special? We all came from the same place and we are going back to the same the same dirt. What makes you special? Oh, you made some money last year and you drive a fast car? Congratulations, get in line. Somebody will always be better than you in life, get over yourself.

"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."

To all the pretenders and liars who fake it, just because you talk to the talk doesn't mean you are successful. All these people buying things to make themselves seem important are just sticking feathers up there butt. You are the condition of your soul, not the materials you own. To be successful is not to live in a 6,000 sqft home and drive a Bentley, its working everyday to do what you think is right and being happy doing it, that's success.

Life Lessons from Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most famous, successful and hard-working inventors in history. When he died in 1931 he held 1093 patents in his name. Some of his most used inventions were the light bulb and the gramophone.

Obviously Edison did not obtain over 1000 patents by luck, every successful man has some driving force of values behind him. Here are a few values from Edison that lead to his success.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

One of the problems in life is that people just give up too soon. I think quite a big bit of this because of social programming and the expectations set by society. It’s seen as pretty normal to try once or maybe a few times and then give up.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Now, how do you reframe failure? How do you look at it so you don’t feel overwhelmed and give up? Well, you can look at failure as a part of a process. You look at it as ways that won’t work. You draw lessons from those ways. Then you let that go, focus on the present and try again (this time perhaps in a different way).

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”

Useful information is good. But you have to put it to use sometime or you’ll never reap any benefits or success. This is a pretty common problem when you for instance get interested in personal development. You get a lot of books, programs etc. and you study them. And then you get more.

“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

Just going for it, taking action and doing something isn’t enough. You have to ask yourself if what you are doing is useful? Or is it just another way to keep yourself busy, to keep yourself from doing what you really want to do?

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

There is a myth that geniuses mostly just are geniuses and can do great things pretty much as easily as you and I tie our shoelaces. But what is seldom mentioned or seen is how much the really successful people work. And how far the people that just practice, practice, practice can go.

Everyone has some potential in them, to be successful is to understand your potential and put it into action. Not everyone can invent the light bulb, or run a 4 minute mile, or be a Navy Seal but everyone can take what God gave them and turn that into something special. Everyone has a gift, you just have to find it.

-Derived from Personal Development with The Positivity Blog by Henrik Edberg

A year later, any smarter?

Its been a little under a year since my last post. My original idea for this blog was to seek the truth about everything, I guess, I think that is something that every college age kid sets out to do and then realizes that it sounds stupid. Do you ever look back at what you wrote and think, man I was dumb? I guess that's good, maybe it means I am a little smarter now.

I have a couple of things I have been thinking about lately and I wanted to write them down:

Love of money and the image of money is killing Americans (or at least the American Dollar)- it doesn't take a genius to see that the people in our economy are starting to feel the repercussions of errant spending habits driven by the one-upers in todays society. Its a race to see who can drive the nicest car or live in the nicest house, biggest tv's, etc. Home foreclosures in Atlanta hit an all time high a month or so back, consumer debt is at an all time high. All of these things are leading to one big event. A major downturn in the economy. Which leads me to my next question.

Our tax system is hurting the economy and its dumb- Why do you have to hire a professional just to tell you how much you owe? George Washington would be ashamed. Why don’t we go to a flat sales tax and completely eliminate the income tax that we know. A sales tax would promote savings, and savings, not spending, is what ultimately will power the economy, and bring power back to the dollar. Money that is saved earns interest and the more interest earned the more money people have. The more money people have, the more buying potential, the more potential, the more people will be able to buy things. Who will suffer? The IRS, creditors, credit card companies, and banks that loan people money that can't afford it. Do I care if these people have a job? No. Could you imagine instead of -10% in interest that is paid in credit cards, Americans make 10% interest in the markets? That’s a 20% increase in wealth. We need to tax spending to promote savings, and instead of all the money we waste to operate the IRS, use those funds to educate Americans on investing and provide investment services.

The key to life?- there are many keys

Success is not something you have its something you do- Living successfully is something that you can do everyday, success breads good things and wealth. To be successful is to do the right thing.

Life is a series of healthy balances- this equilibrium must be obtained to enjoy life to its fullest. Play must be balanced with work, your diet must be balanced, financially you must balance spending with savings. Finding that perfect equilibrium, or close to it, will make life pretty sweet. Its the people that spend everything or save everything that don't have security or fun, its the kid that eats cake for breakfast that gets fat, and its the people that work all the time that die of a heart attack.

One key to life- always trying to do the right thing.