Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-Dylan Thomas
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From Reddit: click

TIFU my whole life. My regrets as a 46 year old, and advice to others at a crossroad

Summary: 46 y/o John realizes his wife has been cheating on him for the last 10 years and that he has a very superficial relationship with his son. He looks back on his life and shares advice.

I encourage you to read the whole post, as well as the inspiring comments that follow before reading on.

*Jeopardy waiting music*

John let his fire die in his zombilicious pursuit of success.

This is the template for success followed by John that has been systematically programmed into us by society since the time we could understand success:

• Go to school, get good grades
• Find a job, start a career
• Get married, start a family (2 cars and 1.7 kids)
• Get a mortgage, buy a house
• Save for retirement and train your 1.7 kids to follow the same template

Boom, you're a success! These are the trappings of "success", but for me, this version of success is a trap. It's sooo limiting, and mostly serves to propogate the destructive consumer society that created it. This culture and those in control of it are better served by greedy, zombified consumers than by a lucid population who are following their passions and are alive.

If we distill success down to it's primary constituent, we will find that success is just another name for happiness. In the end, all these steps to success are all for the attainment of happiness.

 

Ah! There's the crux of it. Through this new lens, I can better map out an ideal path to success:

• Know yourself. Get to know who you are beneath of all the layers of ego. Who are you beneath all the titles, and labels that comprise your identity. From there, get to know what you like, what you don't like. What is the nature of your fire?
• Feed the fire. Fuel your passions. Learn about things you're interested in and become and expert at them.

By knowing yourself, you will know your soul mate(s), and once you're an expert at something, you can make a living from it.  That's my hope, at least lol and that's where I'm going from here!

Don't be John. Do not go gentle into that good night. There's no better place than here, and no better time than now =)