Beyond the Contradictions of Age-Old Advice

 My parents had a lot of books when I was growing up. Browsing through them and finding interesting books to read was one of the things I enjoyed. One day, I found a book that was a collection of wise words and axioms. My mom said, 'That's a great book that will help guide your life,' and she highly recommended it. So, I started to read.

At the beginning, I was enjoying it, thinking I was learning a lot. Then I began to notice contradictions among the axioms. For example, one axiom said, 'There is no tree that won't fall if you axe it ten times,' which means 'never give up.' I was all pumped up, vowing never to give up. However, a few chapters later, there was an axiom that said, 'If you can't climb the tree, don't even look up that tree,' implying 'don't waste your energy on things that won't work.'

I was pissed. I thought it was wisdom, but wisdom my ass. Anyone could say such random things. I put the book away. It was many years later when I picked up that book again.

The truth is that all the books, advices, axioms out there are answers to some questions, solutions to some problems. It’s my job to find out what my questions or problems are. Once I know, I can find the answers and solutions, because they are already out there. The challenge is knowing what questions and problems I have.

The questions and problems we have can't be determined by anybody else. They come from within us when we consciously think about them.

My issue is that we are not encouraged to consciously think about them, and as a result, many of us don’t. That’s what I do - I help people consciously think about who they are and what they want to create in this life.

One of the common question is: I don’t like this situation, should I keep working on it or should I look for something else? But the question is wrong. Instead, ask yourself what you want to create in your life, how important it is to you, and how much this situation contributes to achieving it. Once you have the answer to these questions, the answer is already there, either don’t give up or look for something else already.

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