A single sentence could change your life. These philosophies are meant to shake you out of complacency. They're meant to bring you back down to earth to make you aware of your presence in the world.
When it hits home, it'll give you the inspiration to get out there and kick ass. These are philosophies that will get you through difficult times and philosophies that will give you some tough love. Some will come from well-known ancient philosophers and some come from strangers passing on a little known street.
Each of them have the power to shift your perspective and alter the way you live. Here are 15 philosophies that will change your life. Well, come to a Locke's first stop.
A classic. This, too, shall pass. You're going through tough times.
So you're going to be cold, wet or hungry. You're going to be boiling hot, full to the point of being sick and bored, of being cooped up in your house. Whatever a situation you're stuck in right now, know that it isn't permanent.
At some point, the pendulum will swing and you'll end up on the other side, descending into a hole because of where you are now is pointless. Whether you're having an incredible time or a terrible time, telling yourself this too shall pass. Will remind you that at some point even the good things will end.
And if you're struggling right now, the bad won't last. It will pass. It doesn't get any easier.
You get better. We think the more that we do something, the easier it'll get. It can feel frustrating when you still feel that pain, when you're still putting everything into it and struggling just as much.
But what you don't realize is that as you get better, you're also moving the goalposts. You're going a little faster, pushing a little harder. So the task isn't going to get easier as you actively make it harder.
But that doesn't mean you're still at the same place you started. You are moving, my friend, so keep moving. You're never going to feel like doing it.
You're never going to feel like doing the laundry. You're never going to be fully ready and feel like starting a side hustle. Waiting until you feel like doing it could keep you waiting forever.
You're allowing your fear and laziness to dictate your life. You're going to have to do it anyway, and you're going to feel the same way you do now with a little more stress. So why not just do it now?
You need to do it eventually. So make it eventually be be right now. Everyone's drunk on something.
One of life's difficult truths is that everyone has an obsession. Everyone is ruled by something apart from themselves and their logical thoughts. It could be money.
Constant work, love, hurt, hate. When you're so engrossed by something that it dominates your thoughts, behaviors and lifestyle, you're drunk on it. You can use someone's obsession to your advantage.
You can connect with them that way. You just know you have to find out what it is. First, never half ass.
Two things. Whole abs. One thing.
If you've ever watched the show, Parks and Rec, which we think you should, it's a great show. You'd be familiar with the character Ron Swanson. He's snarky, sarcastic, and, you know, he often hits the nail right on the head.
And as he says, when you take on too many things and spread yourself too thin, you do yourself and your work a disservice. Whatever you're going to do is going to be mediocre average just because you're half assing it. You should focus your attention and effort fully on a single task.
Put all of your energy into one thing, nail it, and then move on to the next one whole ass. That one thing. Okay?
Be the kind of person who doesn't need second chances. We all make mistakes. We are not perfect.
But poor decisions aren't mistakes. They're selfish choices. If you've made so many of these poor decisions that someone in your life has cut you off and let go of you, then let it go.
You've already messed it up there. Instead of continuing to torment them. Become the kind of person who doesn't need second chances in the first place.
Life will go on whether you choose to board the train or stay on the platform. As you stand on the platform, the train comes into the station. You're scared.
You have no idea what you will get or where you'll go. Once you board that train. It could be great or it could be bad.
As the seconds tick by and you try to decide whether to board or not. You look at the platform, at the warm and comfortable, unfamiliar, and you make your decision. That train is going to leave, whether you're on it or not.
Man is condemned to be free. This is an existentialist viewpoint by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. We place so much value on freedom.
We think we've fought for it and we deserve it. But actually, freedom isn't always the choice or privilege we think it is. It's an inescapable part of human existence.
This choice can be a burden because while we are free to choose our actions, we aren't to choose whether we want to make the choice or not. These choices come with consequences, and we have to live with them. You are responsible for defining yourself and giving meaning to your life, and you can't escape this responsibility by blaming fate, destiny, or divine.
Well, he who has a way to live, can bear almost any. How This quote is by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and it's echoed in the book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Now, Frankl's entire family was killed in Holocaust concentration camps, but he survived.
He endured horrendous conditions, but he survived. In his book, he says it's because he developed a why for his life. His why extended beyond the people he loved and lost his life was unbelievably difficult.
But he pushed forward because there's power in meaning and purpose. If you want to feel like this, life isn't for nothing, you have to find your meaning, whatever it is, however big or small. That's the only way you can bear the how, the challenges, the grief and the heart.
What is your why? You can't step into the same river twice. This one comes from ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus.
He wanted us to see that life is in constant flux. Nothing is permanent in life, nor in nature. The people and things that we love will come and go and be replaced by new people and things.
Just as a rivers water is always flowing and constantly changing, so too is everything in the universe. The water you step into at one moment is not the same water you would step into even a few seconds later. Even if you step into it the same way.
It would have changed from a moment ago because new water would have flown in under you. No moment will ever be the same as the one that's just past. If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? Okay, so this one sounds a bit wordy, but listen to it again because every sentence hits home.
Sage and scholar Hillel the elder really got it right with this one. So first, if you don't stand for yourself, who will stand for you? You can't expect other people to believe in you if you don't believe in yourself.
You need to advocate for yourself. You have to care for yourself. That is your responsibility.
The next line. And if I am only for myself, what am I? Tells you about communal responsibility and empathy.
It's important to care for yourself. But you can't be self-centered because that diminishes your humanity. You have to care for others.
You have to be a part of a community. And lastly, and if not now, then when? Whatever you're going to do, do it now.
Okay? Don't delay important actions. You might miss your opportunity if you do.
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. Albert Camus was a French philosopher who said that the societal expectations and constraints we are bound by can be suffocating. Instead of giving in to this suffocation, the only way we can fight it is to rebel against it.
Freedom is not about political or social liberty, but about autonomy and self-determination. Screw what the rest of the world says. What are your personal values and beliefs?
And how can you live in a way that aligns with them? Because that is freedom. To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
Even though you have your own values, beliefs and principles, you must always question them. Never believe you are right. Never believe that you know it all or that you are right and you've got it all figured out.
Questioning your own beliefs is a sign of intellectual maturity. It means you're doing the right thing. Our first principles are deeply ingrained and taken as truths.
But where do they come from? Your conditioning, challenging your most deeply held views, shows that you're wise and that you value rationality and open mindedness. The Masters tools will never dismantle the Master's house.
This one comes from writer and civil rights activist Audre Lorde. Her. We can't use the tools of oppressive systems to overcome that oppression.
We have to use innovative, radical and transformative methods to fight against the system. Some things are so deeply ingrained within the fabric of social, political and economic systems that we need to completely overhaul how we tackle them. It's complicated and we've got a lot of work to do.
But this quote reminds us of where we should start. And finally, what you get by achieving your goals is not as important as who you become by achieving your goals. Striving for the ultimate end result is in our nature, right?
We can't help ourselves. Sometimes we'll do everything we can to get what we want, and we're fueled by that desire. But it's strange when you get what you want, and that euphoric feeling seems to fall instead of ascending.
The truth is that as we work toward reaching our goals, we change our priorities shift slightly under pressure. We make sacrifices we may not have made otherwise. Whether we're happy with a change or not, the person who strived for that goal is not the same person who reaches it.
And it's important to remember this so that along the journey you can make sure the person you're becoming is someone that you're proud of. Now I lecture. We hope that some of these sentences and philosophies have really clicked for you today.
We hope you walk away from this with a newfound motivation, understanding, and acceptance. And of course, we'd like to know what's the one sentence or philosophy that changed your life and where did you hear it? We would love to know.
So please share your wisdom with the community. We'll see you back here next time, my friend. Take care.
