“Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why then should we desire to be deceived?”  — Joseph Butler

I wish that everyone was happy and free.  I wish governments only passed laws to prevent people from interfering in each others’ lives.  I wish that everyone was rational and reasonable, that store employees had a customer service attitude, that slow drivers wouldn’t drive in the left-hand lane, and that people wouldn’t park their shopping carts in the middle of the aisle in a supermarket.  I wish everyone would stop meddling in their neighbor’s business and caring what god they worshipped or failed to worship.  I wish nobody cared about the sexual preferences or practices of other people.

I wish people would stop trashing the planet, fighting wars, having babies they can’t take care of, spending money they don’t have, and doing anything that irritates me.  I wish there was something on TV worth watching.  I wish somebody would hand me ten million tax free dollars for sitting on my ass.  I wish pretty hula girls in grass skirts would serve me drinks and give me a massage on a Hawaiian beach, just because I want it.

There is a whole lot more I wish for, but unfortunately the world doesn’t seem to give a crap about that.  My desires do not transform the world or seemingly produce any effects at all except my own frustration.  I learned a long time ago that nobody was going to change their mind because I formulated a good argument.  I learned that I was not going to gain political freedom by debating politics and joining a crusade.  I learned that people were going to continue to go their own way no matter what I thought.   I learned I was unable to control anyone else.

Yes, you can have freedom in an unfree world, you can be happy in a country of unhappy people, and you can make good money in a bad economy.  But you aren’t going to have any of that or achieve your dreams by changing the world or by changing anyone in particular.

You have to accept reality.  A proper understanding of reality gives you the ability to make rational decisions for yourself and not have to depend upon the flawed outlook of others or the vagaries of chance.  If you want to be successful, you have to stop bitching about what you don’t like and instead work within the world of what actually exists whether you like it or not.

Francis Bacon said “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”  In other words, you can’t be effective if you don’t play by the rules of reality.  If your assumptions and premises are false you are going to make bad decisions.  If you operate based upon the way you wish things were, you’ll be wishing you hadn’t.  You can choose to use reality to your advantage and it will work wonders for you.  Alternatively you can ignore reality or wish it was something else, and it will end up giving you a quick kick to the groin when you least expect it.

You must be a persistent truth seeker.  You must discover and accept the way the world actually works and how people really behave in order to command nature.

“Proper assessment of reality can be as crucial to life as oxygen.  To try and make it through this world without a reasonable understanding of reality is like stumbling around in a dark room laden with land mines.” – Robert Ringer

Stop kidding yourself and pretending the world and the people in it are going to be what you want them to be.  Get real.  The truth shall set you free.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.