Your Life Perspective
 

What is it that keeps you going, especially in times of adversity?

I realize this could be a very "deep" question for some people, but don't be shy...

Even after I felt the value of my life was nil, this symbol was why I kept going: Duty, discipline, fear, responsibility, honor.


After I took it off, hung it up, didn't look at it anymore... the feeling remained.

Like the man says,

"I am a man with a nuclear reactor in his chest. Instructions: Remain calm. Prepare to go."

"In times of adversity"? My experience with the real world, especially the real world professionally, is that all times are full of adversity. If they aren't, I'm not doing things right.

What keeps me going? The knowledge that somewhere out there one of my competitors is taking a shortcut and as soon as it pops up in front of me, I'll give him a haircut. Work is a constant grind. Again, if it's not, you're not doing it right. The Secret is to accept the grind as a part of yourself and to get off on it. I love the fact that I work harder and longer than any of my competitors and that they run in fear when they see me on the other end of something.

On the home front, it's family. In good times or bad, there's always something good going on somewhere, whether its going to a nephew's soccer game or listening to my son babble something incomprehensible. There are some very bad things going on in parts of my family, but there's lots of good to balance that out.

is there really a choice?

A deeper understanding of the bigger picture, and acceptance that this life was not meant to be easy. A belief that the perceived negatives I deal with are the norm, and an ability to see beyond them to the upcoming beauty they lead to. My own decision to pay close attention to diversity and try to learn from it, instead of trying to ignore what is happening in hopes it goes away. Embracing hardship as a path to becoming more than I am right now...and trying to enjoy the bumpy ride.

Knowing deep down, that this life is only as full as I make it...regardless of how hard it is at times.

quoted for truth - what's the alternative? giving in?

my stubbornness and ego are what keep me going..

of course there is.

The possibility of finding answers to some of my questions; or put another way basically the fact that there will be a tomorrow.

There's always tomorrow.

I've survived a lot of shit already, so why stop now? I know I can handle it, I just have to kick my own ass into gear and drive the hell over the mountain.

The majority of the average people in the world have survived far worse shit than I will EVER have to face, and they still manage to get out of bed every morning. In comparison, I have so many privileges... which would make me even more of a wuss-ass if I gave up early.

Basically, suck it up and deal. Things could be worse, and they'll probably get better over time.

The Choice is that Nietzsche thing... the thing about staring into the abyss. How it stares back.

I'd say one the best examples of the freedoms we have in life is the ability to choose if we don't want to live it anymore.

In times when I feel like I mean nothing, I realize that there are those who think so much of me. I can't let them down...Go IronPham!

I have a different take.

Most adversity can be planned for, even the unexpected. This leaves you only open to the catastrophic types of problems and in those cases you won't know until you have them.

Most peoples issues are self inflicted, and therefore can be avoided.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing can keep me going. I just go.

This might sound trite:
As far as we know, living beats the alternative.

i'm too much of a coward to end it myself, directly...it's not that i keep going for any reason, i am just here until i get a chance to leave...

in times of adversity, and in times of joy, i see it this way: life is temporary. you either believe in an afterlife or you don't.

if A: there is an afterlife, then whatever you do on this spinning ball of dirt wont make too much difference. no one will care if you were the CEO or the janitor. no one will care if you were fat or mr olympia.

if B: there is nothing after this, then, whatever you do won't matter at all. no one will care etc etc....

what makes adversity? when shit don't go like you want it to. well, when you are miserable, when everyone is against you, when you are facing seroius adversity, remember....in about 50 years (could be 50 minutes, you don't know, do you?) it won't matter. you fuck up at work. so what. is anyone gonna care 6 months from now? anyone gonna care 1 year from now? is it gonna matter when you die?

NOPE.

so, whatever has you down, if you look at it in the long range scheme of things, so fuckin what? some things will haunt you until you die (why did she leave me? why am i not attractive? why do i suck at everything i do?) but really, does the guy who she is with, the good looking guy, the guy who is good at everything, are his accomplishments gonna mean anything in 80 years?

NOPE.

don't be nihilistic about it, but put it into the long range perspective...enjoy what you have, what you can now...

sorry for the rambling...i could go on and on about this...i've thought about it for many years....

The chance to be alive and breathing

We're funny creatures, us human beings. We want what we don't have, and we don't want what we have. We spend all our time either grasping for what we don't have, or rejecting what we have. That grasping and rejecting is also known as "adversity".

When I can embrace what I have and embrace what I don't have, there IS no adversity.

I always figure that, "sooner or later, this shit has to stop." And then sooner or later, the shit does stop. It always does, sooner or later.

and then the cycle repeats. :)

i definitely agree that most people seem to look for reasons to be unhappy, or make mountains out of molehills, but all adversity isn't simply mental.

Everything and nothing.


It would take much too long to explain my philosophy, since it is nothing but uncanny contradictions and ironic truths that beg to be unbelieved by naysayers.


I'll try in a later state to not by a mystery wrapped in a conundrum inside an enigma, but that is all I can ever hope to be. I take it all in, mix and serve you absolutely nothing.

So... who is it, then, that points their finger at a situation and declares it "adversity"? You really think "adversity" exists out there in the abstract, in the absence of someone interpreting it as such?

What if instead of "adversity" I use the word "challenge" or "opportunity"?

Touchy Feely Sand-in-hoohah
 

You can do that. I encourage it. What I don't encourage is everybody doing that. And why not? Well, I say this:

SELF HELP WORDING RANT:

"Challenge" and "opportunity" versus "adversity" are awesome Tony Robbins posi-go-words. Why isn't adversity a positive word, again? Huh. Nope, I'm lost.

If I take a crap on two slices of white bre... okay, nevermind. Bad saying.

As Jesus, Prince, and Cher always declare: "You are what you do..." I.E. not how society spins the thesaurus to justify their complacency with sweater-wearing-latte-drinking nomenclature.

Sometimes life has adversity. Like a car wreck that kills your wife and kid. Like getting shot at in the desert by a 14 year old with an AKM. Like getting AIDS from your girlfriend. We don't refer to these things as challenges or opportunities because they insult common sense... they insult the lucky sucker that inherits their fruits.

Sure, sure... maybe you write a best-seller on emotional survival from the personal growth lessons you received from your hard times (positive). Maybe you say, "Fuck it!" and suck-start a Mossberg in your basement (negative). Maybe you just get a little bitter and consult the bourbon bottle (neutral).

(goes to tear band-aids off unsuspecting people)

Elvis: "Political correctness and excessive positive word reinforcement lower IQ points."

then you are just being politically correct. i suppose adversity has negative attached to it, but you can embrace it and learn from it just as much as any "opportunity".

Funny, I was under the impression that this thread was about MY life perspective. I'm sad to find out that my personal life perspective is so wrong, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for educating me.

I find human beings very strange. Why should a philosophy that includes accepting what's so and giving up one's resistance to life encounter so much resistance?

this thread is about sharing life perspectives. i thought people could discuss their beliefs. but yeah, guess i shouldn't have said anything since it is your perspective and not mine that i asked for.

Sure. Planned for is different to prevention though.

I know that I could be diagnosed with a painful and chronic disease tomorrow, this doesn't mean that I can do much about it. Likewise I could be in a car accident and have permanent damage from it.

Don't fool yourself. Most of us are lucky. The reality of life for many people is hardship. Many people have poor health or dependents who have poor health.

If you question this... look at MS, look at Huntington's disease, look at cancer. Sick people and their carers are hidden in hospitals, in nursing homes and in family houses. We don't see them at work, restaurants or such - they cannot attend.

I think an interesting aspect of generalized life perspective is how everyday feelings are labeled in Europe versus the US. Less PC boolsheet, less games. Ya might casually ask somebody how they're doing and they might just drop some like like: "Man, I've got explosive diarrhea and my wife was a real crab last night, whew!" on ya.

I know that in... oh, let's say France... a lot more people will tell you that they're just having a normal day. So-so, even. Not necessarily good, or awesome, or great-thanks-for-asking. Or maybe they're having a bad day and it is perfectly acceptable. I think that it is noteworthy that having a bad day in the US is actually a negative thing. I wanna embrace the philosophy that bad days are okay and they're okay because they make good days good.

I mean, they can't all be good. Why do we act as if they should be all good?

If ya plotted life on a line graph... perhaps it would be like the tides as it progressed along time. Gentle rolls in and out, up and down... with the high points and low points marking particularly deep but narrow spikes in emotion or fate or whatever.

...

(waits for the former Jetstream to drop the philosophy bomb after so much build-up)

the thought of what if i'm wrong about the world. what if i could make a real difference in the future it's the what ifs that keep me going

One is making a difference just by being, aren't they?

Well, one can hope.

What is it that keeps you going, especially in times of adversity?

I honestly don't know... I just want to

I've been lucky, I've had a awesome click of friends who have been a great motivational point for me. One gave me this peice of advice " Life is a gaint moutain of people climbing over one another reaching higher and higher, You've got to claw, climb and fight to get to the top and sometime along the way you'll find a few people who will help and climb with you and they be there if you ever falter or slip" I'm sure this doesn't make sence to everyone but it always kept me going

^^ That really is some great advice and a very nice view on life.

Personally, I keep going because I want to learn more about this world and about life. There are simply too many things I don't have a clue about or that I haven't experienced yet. Love is a good example.

And, generally, I like life and I don't like quitting on something, even when it goes bad.

Hope.

Hope that tomorrow is a better day that today.

You have to have hope....It's what makes life possible...

powered by my inner world.
 

I beleive we are all a conglomeration of the choices and paths we either chose or were lead down during our lives. even our bad decisions helped us learn and grow to be who we are now.

when i was young my mother was a single parent and providing for us took up a great deal of her time. I had my sister, who was a year older, and my brother, who is 8 years younger, to provide me with entertainment and drama. I was a loner even then and tended to stick to books. I read a great deal of Arthurian legend and world mythology from American Indian to Celtic to Chinese and Japanese. I took that time in my life to make several rules for my behavior and most of them I have adhered to throughout the years no matter how much it hurt. I have only one regret, sara. I wish I had been able to handle being happy then.

I keep going because I hope one day to fulfill my promise to myself to be a better man than my father is. He abandoned us when I was a kid and I want my children, if I ever have any, to know their father loves them very much.

I keep going because I feel that the only one I ever have to prove anything to is myself. I make a few friends and a lot of enemies doing this and even though I try to see things thru other peoples eyes I prefer for them to explain to me what they are thinking rather than attribute intelligence by assumption.

I have thought several times in my life that I was ready to die. I have a few conditions I like to have before I go. I want to owe noone...no bills at all. I want to go on my own terms, basically.

when things get difficult for me to handle I tend to recede into my own world inside my head. I have shaped a world with characters from books I have read and places I still wish to see. I am comfortable there and feel relaxed. I like to think it helps me look at the world with new eyes when I return.

I was just wondering, how that is possible ? even cyborgs , androits or just a mere conscienceless mechanical device have a purpose for them to strive forward or just keep striving. Even a table has a function that it serves for. Maybe I'm totally derailing and not see the purpose within those words of yours.

So... the appeal of life is greater than the appeal of not being alive.

At this point in my life, my answer is simple.

My children.

This is subject to change as life goes on.

Wait, wait-wait... you know cyborgs and androids?

"There is always a Plan B"...

I would like to know them. do YOU know them ?:oogle:

I know people that act like 'em. Turns out? They bleed, too.

Their motivation to go on living is to gain life merit badges.

My fellow human beings, so mysteriously similar and yet so alien, providing constant entertainment and anxiety, are a constant source of perspective.

There are still people out there I haven't pissed off.

I am a sum of quantum events allowing for particle interactions which constitute the bulk of physical reality. These events give rise to a vast chain of chemical reactions which ultimately support the biological and electrochemical processes that are necessary to facilitate some degree of cognizance and the ability to interact with the rest of the previously mentioned particle interactions.

I am a bipedal hominid on a small rocky planet orbiting a standard main sequence star in a relatively unassuming corner of the universe, a universe that is incomprehensibly vast.

Attempting to get a handle of what lies between the astronomically small and the astronomically huge is a good exercise in gaining perspective. It reminds me that the sum of my existence, as well as the sum of all our own, is a very tiny thing. It's hard to take our trivial matters seriously in the face of such vastness.

My sphere of influence my not reach very far, but it is my hope that any influence on my part will further our ability to understand our surroundings. Because it is that which ultimately makes us special.

Seriously?

You were part of my belief system. Perhaps I need to re-evaluate, because you haven't pissed me off yet.

Looking down from the apex or up from the depths, we're lucky to be here.

(My perspective varies from moment to moment, lending additional interest to this experience.)

Just one part of the many aspects that make the whole. Spend enough time around me, I *WILL* piss you off. Ask JimmyTheHut. Then I'll make you laugh your ass off the next moment. My personality seems to be solidly grounded in a state of ever changing chaos.

You're a lawyer?

no, but I did sleep with one. that count?

Yes, but only if you screwed their mouth-hole.

To the original:

Why would I stop?

I'm amazed that no one responded to this post yet... I love it, Professor Mayhem. For me, I came from a place where everything had meaning due to a divine presence in my life, etc etc... and now I've come to a place very much like yours, a realization of the pure scientific reality of our situation here on earth, and it's kind of a cool place. Religious people might find it terrifying, I suppose, but I find it remarkably liberating. Thanks for sharing.

All three holes, to be exact.

Yeah. I tend to think that people sell out the wonder of physical reality all too quickly for the sake of painting themselves into some sort of grandiose supernatural scenario.

I find the reality of what science teaches us to be far more awe-inspiring than any cultural notion of divinity we could ever dream up. It's a unique place to be in, and it can teach us quite a bit.

It's kind of depressing to think that there are people who feel "unfulfilled" or "trapped" by, well...everything in existence.

Do you think religion is still that popular in major world power nations?

...

We are what we do.

I'm not a table. I do not need function beyond my form. Sum, ergo sum, if you will.

I have a very real illness that places adversity in my life. I'm currently on a disability leave from work, and I constantly check various aspects of my health (heart rate, temperature, etc) to make sure that I'm not having any major complications. I keep having people tell me how hard it is and how unfair it is that I have to deal with this so young, but to me it's just what I deal with. I don't attribute it to some higher power or deeper meaning. I just live my life. I don't know how to do anything else.

I'm taking liberties by replying in defense of what willravel said, but I reckon we're on the same page on this one (and know for a fact he'll correct me if we're not).

Roulette wheel theory regarding life:

a life outlook?
i dont have one.

i have processes that are important to me, so i do them.
i try to protect them as well, but with variable success.
if there is a disposition or idea at the heart of these processes, i guess it'd look like this: discipline at the level of routine or structure; openness to emergent possibilities in the doing. attention to craft throughout--precision, detail. if you're going to try to do new things, precision is fundamental. it has to be clear on its own terms, whatever it is. clarity is linked to structure. structure is enabled by clarity.

learn your own system characteristics--which ones to fight, which ones to accept and accomodiate. i am not a terribly organized person, for example. i keep thinking that i should organize stuff around me more, but i dont do it.

life outlook...protect what you are doing. the cultural order within which we operate is not a rational place. protect what you do, then. protect it so that you can keep going. what matters is that you keep going.

i dont share the committments to "science" that alot of folk have expressed so far--not that i dont believe there is science, or that it cannot know about phenomena, but more because like any formal system, each scientific procedure is not closed (in the way mathematics systems are not closed---godel's theorem applies to most forms of knowledge. it is entirely possible to be interested in what is discovered or known and not take seriously all the claims about what is doscovered or known. galileo wrote in "the assayer" that he found an inverse ratio between what people actually know and the claims they make: they less the know, the more sure they are, the more sweeping the claims. the more they know, the more cautious the claims.
i think it's like that, these beliefs in "science", these assumptions about what it does, what its for. science is no more separate from other areas of social being than the economy is separate from other areas of social life. it is not a space that generates "objectivity" that enables anyone to hitch themselves to it at the level of claims as a device to get them off the hook: we are embedded phenomena, recursion does not get your outside of your own embeddeness necessarily--more often it simply repeats the parameters of one's embeddedness in the social-historical.

faced with stuff like that, you just move. you do what you do. you try to be clear. you try to keep going. it doesnt really matter what people think of it, or of what you produce through it. just make stuff and keep going.

Not to be the one stating the obvious, but a lot of thought process and background goes into such a non-existant perspective as this. I also stated, not in as so many words, nor obvious implications, that I as well do not hold a definite perspective, but yours and mine are the same. Though I can utter and claim that I have none, in actuality, I embrace them all, reject some, and combine various, all in order to use whichever most aptly fits in my theory of mind.

So goes having no discernable view, yet 447 words in addition, there it is. Behold.

:thumbsup:

Our very being is most complicated when we work to avoid complication.

Hope.

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. To know joy, I must also know sorrow.

Unseen Truth. Until now. Thank you.

For me, at least, I am not seeing science as being separate at all... it operates in me, through me, outside of me... it is reality that I am thoroughly embedded in. Perhaps "science" is the wrong word to use, I don't know. But it is opposed to a kind of metaphysical embeddedness that used to be my life perspective... which no longer applies. I see little inherent meaning in anything anymore, and I find that strangely refreshing. We are just... here. Atoms crashing around, cells pumping, trees breathing, rocks sitting... take your pick, it is all just HERE, and that's what makes it worth it to me, every day. Finding out what's here.

"What is that old zinger? Ya know... that old one. What doesn't kill me... puts me in a hospital bed in a vegetative state!" - Henry Rollins

the people around me like my family and close friends are there to help keep me going. I look up to a lot of influential and inspiring people and many quotes keep me going. for example-
'sunny days wouldnt be so special if it wasnt for rain, and joy wouldnt feel so good if it wasnt for pain'.

like it says, we wouldn't be able to enjoy our good experiences if we didn't have something bad to compare it to. This is why sometimes people with such pampered & wealthy lifestyles have some of the worst problems like those of depression and loneliness and acoholism because they are missing that sense of striving for something and going against the tide, and therefore they unconciously seek unhealthy substitutes for it.

also, -'life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance...in the rain.

Sometimes I find myself constantly focusing on the bad things and all the shit I have to deal with here and there, but this quote puts into perspective how theres always going to be shit happening in one's life, but one just has to make the best of it.

Never heard that one before, but it does make a lot of sense.

you hear some pretty broad claims like those talking to people about cars or bikes...friggin morons


to the OP...really...what the hell else is there to do?

has anyone said beer yet?

Hahahah!

(tips a Sam Adams at Casual User)

Amen.

My ancestors. Some worked low-paying factory jobs to provide for their children. Some gave up what little they had to move to this country and try for a better life. Some were used as cannon fodder in pointless wars. Some had to flee their homes in the face of advancing armies. Some had to leave their homelands because they followed the wrong religion or spoke the wrong language. Some were bound to their lords' land and used as slave labor with no hope of changing their condition. Compared to what they endured, the shit I have to deal with is nothing.

nope.
but my answer is dinner.
(with a beer if you must)

and now my son.
and his dinner.

Love... laughter, family, friends, helping others, good movies...

Lots of things keep me going... if we didn't have a little adversity, our lives would be boring, indeed. :)

I agree with Pig, there is no other choice. One can run away from that adversity but one runs because one obviously wants to keep going.

I just remind myself that it is nothing more than a temporary state of being. Back when I would become depressed or anxious or angered, I just reminded myself that it would end eventually. I like to think my stress has gone down considerably once I adopted that perspective. I have stood by my friends in order for them to realize there is some sort of light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't a freight train coming their way. Sometimes, one just needs to be reminded that one is not his sickness, or his depression, or his battles.

Some Responses:
@ratbastid-
Of course. How do you want something when it is available to you at all times? And just because we have something does not mean we stop wanting it. Example: do you stop wanting your lover? Of course not, you want them alot!

@ProfessorMayhem-
Brilliant outlook on the universe. Often I contemplate the vastness of both the microscopic and macroscopic worlds we are parts of.

Personally, there are three things that I love to learn about: physics, psychology, and philosophy. Physics details for us the framework for this universe. Psychology is the study of human thoughts and behaviors and humans are just part of this verse. Philosophy then is the search for how we ought to be not taking into account anything else. When I throw these three topics together, I always get this feeling (shivers down my spine) that the three are intimately interconnected, each is just a different perspective of the same thing. With that in mind, I could never end myself in a time of adversity without giving a good college-try at first figuring this out.

I have not run out sincere smiles.
When I receive one, I am fully fed.

When I reciprocate, I am fully fed.

Because whenever I've got something bad happening, I know that someone I've met needs me to be strong for them. Lifting other people up and lending a shoulder to cry on always helps me forget my own problems.

That and my children, and the prospect of grandchildren. Okay, and even more hope.

Yeah I agree with you about it being somewhat interconnected. Although the only thing I can remember that had a common connection is that theory about 4th dimension in Physics and Philosophy as well the theory about different the different paths that we take from point y to get x and z and when x and z meets it is still y or something in relation to that.

Anyway my philosophy in life at this moment. Alway do something with your life, since you'll never know when you'll cease to exist in this world.