7 Life Philosophies That Give You An Unfair Advantage In Life
It's all about knowing the 'why' behind your actions.
Just dance | ShutterstockAs I teeter on the edge of what many consider a major life milestone (40 years), I feel reflective. I’m people-watching at a Sofia cafe. I see people of different styles, shapes, and compositions stroll past, rushing to work. Many are lost in thought.
It’s difficult to gauge what’s going on in their lives. But these people likely experience life entirely differently from one another. We can have the same job, but one is miserable, and the other is happy. Knowing why this is comes from philosophy.
Here are 7 life philosophies that give you an unfair advantage in life:
1. The quickest way to misery is to overestimate your thoughts and underestimate your actions
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Intuition will tell you what to do, but will not give you a reason. The ego will provide you with the direction to go, giving you a million reasons for doing so.
It’s a common human tendency to overestimate our abilities. For instance, a study found that 80 percent of drivers rate themselves above average: a statistical impossibility. This is also seen in how people assess their popularity and cognitive skills.
The real problem arises when people, due to incompetence, not only make incorrect decisions and draw wrong conclusions but also can't recognize their mistakes. This lack of awareness can lead to serious consequences.
2. An imbalanced body contributes to unnecessary anxiety, which steals from your most energized, authentic you
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To maintain harmony in your body, the best thing you can do is avoid stimulants. Energy drinks, marketed as physical and mental enhancers, contain stimulants such as guarana and caffeine and are known to have cardiovascular side effects, including cardiac arrhythmia and arterial hypertension.
3. It’s better to hurt someone’s feelings by being true to yourself than to be nice while smothering your own self-expression
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Our daily lives consist of absorbing unrealistic expectations from the media for what we should look like and how our romantic relationships should be. It’s no wonder that our social media is merely a presentation of who we think we should be and not a reflection of who we are. So, rather than letting fear drive our self-expression, we must learn to accept ourselves for who we are.
4. Many people at any given moment will be doing seemingly ‘better’ than you
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It’s easy to fall into comparing yourself to others and to feel low as a result. But we’re all on our path. What they are doing has nothing to do with you. We’re all facing our unique obstacles. Have others be a source of inspiration, but if you feel worse through comparison, you must put on blinders and get back to doing it your way.
5. Your life will become much easier when you stop expecting it to be easy
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Whether it's your friends or family, we are constantly being let down by those we care about (and who care about us). But perhaps it's because we have high expectations of those around us.
We can't expect people to always do what we want, and we can't blame them when we are let down. We have to meet people where they are, which means bridging the gap from our expectations to their reality.
6. You are not that different
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You are no less than anyone else. We’re all human, we’re all weird, we’re all capable of evil, and we’re all nervous about what others think. We are all connected in our uniqueness.
A 2017 study found that when you feel like everyone around you is having more fun and spending more time with friends, it can make you feel bad about yourself, even if it's not true. Social media perpetuates the idea that other people are more social than you, researchers say. People often fail to post about their failures, which gives off a fake impression of everything being hunky-dory all the time. (Spoiler alert: It's not.)
7. Fear might seem like a negative force, but it's actually incredibly positive
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We misunderstand fear. We dislike the feeling and label it harmful. But if a wolf is running towards you with teeth snarling, the sense of dread is saving you from standing still and dying. In the same way, when you feel fear in your everyday life, it signals to you the presence of something highly significant. If you’re scared to get on a stage to talk, that fear shows you what’s worth doing, not what to avoid. There is an opportunity here. What you fear is always a doorway to a better life.
