How successful would you be if you weren’t afraid?
~ Shavon Ethridge
It’s a midday lunch among friends. A thirty-first milestone birthday, with mine creeping just around the corner. With more than fifteen years of friendship under our belts, we begin discussing our lives without the blahzay blahzay lead up. These guys are some of my closest brothers, closer than my biological. We talk for several hours in what seems like a half hour. We converse about all things and I realize that these conversations don’t happen nearly enough. I leave with a sense that people’s varying degrees of problems are all relative. I work diligently to reach my zenith and hope to perfect the man who some patient, compassionate woman would share her world with.
As previously mentioned, thirty-one is knocking on the door. I don’t feel my age, I actually feel as flexible as my twenty-five self with a sharper brain to boot. I don’t really do the new year’s resolutions thing, but on my birthday I do outline where I want to see myself one year later. I have attained my wildest dreams in my thirtieth year and found someone who could potentially be someone special.
The majority of my thirties have been spent attempting to complete the ’48 Laws of Power’, a book I would herald as the best text I’ve read. This book took upwards of eight months to read and apply. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t like to touch the same paper twice. In my ever-increasing thirst for knowledge, I like to devour a book, reflect and repeat. This book didn’t allow me that opportunity. I had to seriously take a look at things I was doing, what I wasn’t doing and what I needed to be doing. This book doubled as a history teacher and parable simultaneously.
Transgression of the Law
Prior to reading this piece, know that some of the laws will disturb you. They will downright sicken you. The danger is ignoring these teachings. Throwing the book aside as drivel will be to your detriment. I have to admit that my personality thrives on using my brain to deduct issues and my heart to feel out a situation. When someone says ‘strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter’ (Law 42) or ‘crush your enemy totally’ (Law 15), you may think to yourself “this is ugly”. You’re not alone in this train of thought. My mentality doesn’t shine light on at least one-third of this material, the huge division is that I understand others do think this way. The kicker with this book is that it speaks volumes about people’s nature. This fact may upset you, turn you off or make you cynical. I choose to use the information as armour to understand the people I’m dealing with day-to-day. Considering that my nature is jovial, I think it pertinent to guard myself against people who would take advantage of me. The kicker is to maintain your sense of self without being jaded after realizing some people use you as a pawn to attain the power they need.
Observance of the Law
I was unaware I subconsciously used power play tactics. I now understand the reasoning behind some of the things I do (Enter action with boldness – Law 28). Things that were foreign to me are now a part of my being (Assume formlessness – Law 48). I get it! Reading this allowed me to understand the code. You see things in a new light and your ability to judge a person’s character is much more fine tuned. Recognizing a person’s nature early can prevent you from suffering later on.
Keys to Power
The biggest tool garnered from this book is that fear is the greatest weapon in creating inertia. Enter into action with boldness, planning all the way to the end, mastering the art of timing, all of these and more can be used to benefit your life. While the examples from history are many and the maxims are weighty, it’s a necessary read for anyone interested in learning the inner workings of people’s minds. It could be children vying for position on the playground or two colleagues duking it out for a promotion, this reading explains many tactics used in the game of life. My most important takeaway is Law 48, be formless. This doesn’t mean be spineless, it means be adaptable. Some things I feel strongly about, most others I’m indifferent to, for the things I don’t have a particular opinion on – I try. This works twofold, one, I’ll form an opinion and two, I’m trying something new.
Reversal
Understand that this book isn’t a tool to take advantage of people. This is a tool for understanding and broadening your own mind. It’s easy to apply the lessons to illicit what you want, but I suppose this speaks to the nature of people. How good is your nature?
Carpe Diem Que
Too Deep for an Intro
8 FebWell, yes, ma’am, I do… I mean, I got everything I need right here with me. I got air in my lungs, a few blank sheets of paper. I mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what’s gonna happen or, who I’m gonna meet, where I’m gonna wind up. Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge and now here I am on the grandest ship in the world having champagne with you fine people. I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand you’re gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you… to make each day count.
~ Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCarpio), Titantic (1997)
We recognize the world, although now–not only because we have emerged from a dream–we look on it with new eyes. We are offered a new style that is thoroughly of this world, that celebrates the mundane. This new world of objects is still alien to the current idea of Realism. It employs various techniques that endow all things with a deeper meaning and reveal mysteries that always threaten the secure tranquility of simple and ingenuous things. This [art offers a] calm admiration of the magic of being, of the discovery that things already have their own faces, [this] means that the ground in which the most diverse ideas in the world can take root has been reconquered–albeit in new ways. For the new art it is a question of representing before our eyes, in an intuitive way, the fact, the interior figure, of the exterior world. (Franz Roh, Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism (1925).Magical Realism. Ed. L. P. Zamora and W. B. Faris. Durham: Duke UP, 1995. p. 15-32.)
I have a propensity to pull the trigger when something is presented. Decisive movements in the face of options is what luck is all about. Luck being defined as opportunity meeting preparedness. I believe a person makes their own luck. With this said, I decided to pull the trigger and move out on my own. The actions needed to execute the list was in the balance. This has been the reason for my sudden absence on the blogisphere. If last year was a year to strengthen my psyche and become more dominant within my skin. This year is the year for breaking down the walls. January, my journey went public. February, I’m out in the world (…once again!), for good this time.
I’ve been playing a tug-of-war battle in my mind with how I want to proceed with the blog. Sometimes I believe this is more preachy and relationship based than I intended. In the days since my last post, I’ve come to grips with the fact this is a lifestyle blog and more importantly than that, it’s about my lifestyle. After all, I can only speak for myself, right?
I don’t know if I wholly believe in the first quote. Waking up and planning your day by the seam of your pants is a great experience… for vacation. Planning for the future and preparing yourself thoroughly for whatever opportunity arrives must be viewed as the Right Bauer (yes, I’m an excellent euchre player). I have two friends whom I consult with on almost all my meteoric life events and the day-to-day mundane. These men are more like brothers than friends. I have been in concert with both frequently over the last two weeks. Our lives are chaotic and stapling time down for a life conference is difficult, but we do what we can. I can always count my adopted brothers to splash water on my ideas or at least temper them with a dose of the opposite side. I respect this because most people are either stewing in sour grapes or complete “yes men”. It takes a certain type of person to listen to criticize, let it marinate and devise a plan. I’ve often been credited with seeing the end, but the journey throughout is opaque with mist.
Two Roads diverged…
Between the both of them, stern lessons in the ’48 Laws of Power’ I’ve carefully mapped out how I want to attack this year. It’s a path, it may change, but the important thing is that it’s put down. If ever you question what your path for a given task will be, pen it on paper so it’s tangible and then plot accordingly.
Magical realism, I heard this term for the first time last week and it’s curious how I’ve watched many films under this subheading, but have never known the term. This term to me is the equivalent of a protagonist being yanked from the ordinary world and dropped into a new experience where they’re faced with choices. This is the exact mission I’m on. I’m dreamed about my first day in my apartment, just sitting there like “what now?”. I don’t dwell on it, but I understand one thing, things will change. In meshing with my beliefs, I believe it will change for the better. So, I attack it.
So. What now?
Well, I said I’ve made a concerted effort to not speak before something was accomplished and I’m going to continue along that path. I can say that when I move in, I will not be sitting around and basking in my independence. It’s an exciting time, yes, but not a time for lollygagging. I’m here to make waves and so should you. While most of the “resolution tourists” have long since given up on their statements (allowing me more freedom at the gym), you and I still continue to mush on. Find a path, if the end is what you envision, plot the way to make it there. Make it count, the hands of time don’t go in reverse.
Carpe Diem Que