Advice from a life long mistake maker

I’ve noticed that I tend to write about things that make me angry. A lot makes make angry so I can see why that is, ha. I wanted to change things up a bit and give some advice though. I think that it is important to be informed but another thing that I think is important is finding your passion in life, or at least figuring out what makes you happy and pursuing it. I also think it is important to recognize your own abilities and what is important to you. Don’t listen to other people when choosing your life path, not even me. One thing that I always keep in mind is that no matter how many people you please, no matter how many people you love and who love you back. You die alone. In your last moments no one will be there with you in your head and doing the journey with you. So for me it is always important to live life to myself because I am the only guaranteed permanent fixture in my life. However I recognize that I am not everyone which leads me to my first major point.

You need to know who you are.  Don’t hide, don’t deceive, be honest. If you do not know who you are, find yourself. There are no excuses to this. You need nothing external to find your own moral compass. Think about what is important to you, what makes you angry and why, what you want and why, what you are good at, what you are bad at, what flaws you have, what flaws you should accept and what flaws you should work on. I think the biggest thing to figure out is what makes you passionate. What do you care about. My passions boil down to a deep belief in freedom and truth. I am extremely passionate about these things and they branch out into my many other passions such as gender justice, making documentaries, journalism, and politics. My sister is passionate about helping babies. That is what makes her happy and captures her imagination. My passion is not better than her’s and her’s is no better than mine. I think this is something else that is important to keep in mind. In passion difference is equal. Don’t every think that what you are passionate about is not good enough. If people say that what you want to do is pointless, ignore them. If people say that what you love isn’t good enough, ignore them. The only waste of time is doing something you do not wish to do, listening to people that you do not wish to. Don’t waste your life, energy, or happiness on haters.

Once you know yourself and know what you want to do, you need a goal. What do you want to do with your life? This can be a big goal or a small goal. It can be ‘become a photographer that finds new fauna in the amazon’ or ‘get a gender change operation’ or ‘come out to my parents’ or ‘go to college’. The goal in of itself does not matter to me, though it should to you. Having goals is important though, what you want to learn, what you want to do, having a goal keeps you going. Even if life gets difficult or it seems like the bad times will never end, having a goal gives you hope. Once you have a goal it is important to have a plan. If you need help with a plan you can always let me know, as I am excellent at plans. Go to people around you that are older than you, ask advice or your friends and brainstorm on your own. There are infinite ways to solve a problem so if you find no plan, you haven’t looked hard enough.  Lastly keep in mind that goals change and people change. I’ve changed my dreams at least five times in the past three years and each change makes me happier than the last. Just because you decided to do something doesn’t mean you are required to do it and changing your mind does not make you weak and it doesn’t make your last idea bad. The best way to live is flexibly, I always say.  There needs to be structure and aim but it needs to flow around life’s difficulties and changes. So think about who you are and what you want to do all the time but be free to change, grow and be stupid. Being stupid and making mistakes is undervalued and is one of the best tools for learning. Be hard on yourself but not too hard, life is a balance. I plan to return back to our regularly scheduled rants tomorrow so hopefully this wasn’t too much of a bore ;).