Everyone is entitled to having fun . PHOTO/COURTESY.
One of the things I tell people is that it’s important to work through your extremes. Whatever you think is a big deal in life, try to acquire it as fast as possible. Then will you realise that it is no big deal.
There is a time I had FOMO for hanging out. So I went on a one-year rampage. I was bar-hopping. I would start off the Friday night at 9pm and wouldn’t rest till 7am on Saturday. Soon enough, I was meeting with the same faces, the bouncers, the waitresses. I was attending almost every event in town. And then I came to a point where I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was done and tired. Now, I am just too happy to have a Friday night to myself.
And for me that has been my philosophy to life. Test out your extremes. Drink and get yourself high. See yourself at those moments when you are inebriated, wake up with a hangover or whatever in some couch. Two to three weekends, any intelligent person should be done with that.
You think a car is a big deal. Please do your best and get one quickly. If you can, get a loan. And acquire that car. Wait when something happens, an engine overhaul, see how you begin to hate it. Soon you will enjoy the bodaboda in peace. It is after you have seen the devil, that you can appreciate God.
You must go through your Saul moments. Only then can you become the Paul that you need to be.
It is after you have done the things that don’t matter that you realize what matters in life. You think it is great driving at high speeds, do it. Within a few months, you will just enjoy being a sloth on the road, giving way to people and having peace while at it.
You know how people were crying for a time when they would be doing nothing. Then lockdown came. And by the end of the week, many just wanted some activity in their life.
Until you have tasted something, you have no right to say it doesn’t matter. You can’t be trusted to have an opinion on something you have never had before. You think once you get your own house, you will be happy, please go ahead and get that house as fast as possible. Within a week, that house will seem very ordinary. You will wonder; “what was I dying for?”
I remember when we were young, my brother had this Sony Ericsson, it was just awesome. I kept imagining myself with one. I thought that would mark the best of life. Time forward, I am happy brandishing my cracked phone, and having a smaller Nokia on the side. It’s only after you have held an expensive phone that you realise there is no big deal, for most it is always down to phone calls and social apps. That’s the most we do with our phones.
Go write down a list of all your desires and fantasies and find ways of knocking them off. The earlier you do it, the quicker you can stumble upon wisdom and happiness.
First published on Ian Ortega’s Facebook page.