Gen-X Wisdom. Please feel free to add to this.

Posted by BlownCamaro@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 32 comments

I shall begin with something so obvious; most never attain it - yet it is ALL around us.

Do you ever feel anxious? Like you forgot to do something, or maybe you didn't do enough on your day off. "Sigh, I've wasted another weekend..."

STOP DOING THIS. Now pay attention, because this is the important part.

Watch the animals. Do they worry about tomorrow? NEVER.

Do they try to make money to buy more stuff? NEVER.

Do they ever feel like they just wasted another day in their lives? NEVER.

Well, what do they do to remain happy and satisfied then?

Simple, only THREE things.

1) Eat.

2) Sleep.

3) Reproduce.

That's it. That's all there really is to life. All the rest is optional and the more you pile on, and the more you stray from these three essential things, the more stress and anxiety you will have.

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TenuousOgre@reddit

You forgot one, “Wear Sunscreen.” From Bas Lerman.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

Sunscreen? When we were young, we used cocoa butter for a HEALTHY tan! What ever happened to that?

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TenuousOgre@reddit

I do recall that, and just how sweet the tans were.

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KeekValien@reddit

Honestly, I envy how simple animal lives are eat, sleep, repeat. It's like they have it all figured out.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

That's my point. Why do we make our lives so complicated when they don't have to be? We're at the top of the food chain! It should be a cake walk for us.

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BillionTonsHyperbole@reddit

Well, it also often includes being eaten. So there's that.

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Yep. Everybody is in such a damn hurry these days; Everything has to be acquired in the fastest time possible so they can move on to the next thing. -- More entertainment. More cars. More houses. More vacations. More money. It's this impulse that people got now that's made nearly anything just, more convoluted. Do I need all those Television programs? No, but what about all those great shows I've been hearing about? Do I have to have a Smartphone? Yes, that is if I want to do business in some establishments, otherwise apparently my money just can't work without a credit card or a QR scanner. Drive through coffee? Please, I make my own, but then I can't make Frappuccinos and those are pretty darn good. I still go to the movies, but it's rarer still as there's not a lot I want to watch and the prices...When the hell did it get so expensive just to sit in a theatre for 2-3 hours? Well, what about music? Love it, but I haven't bought a CD or Vinyl in 20 years...and that's because YouTube serves up all the music I can stomach at just the price of the internet. And do I need Social Media? Well, not really. I got an email an such and only frequent those websites I need on the day-to-day, but here I am on Reddit doing all this typing and not getting paid for it.

Hmm...Maybe to 'Simplify' is a euphemism; a connotation. I can leave out quite a lot as there isn't a lot I need, yet with each passing year the 'Simplify' list gets larger; I know, at one time, I didn't need all that stuff, but why is it here now? Maybe it's a 'Defragmentation' of sorts. I organize my priorities and find I have space for a few extra things or worse, beloved friends and family die off and I find them taking a lot with them including some of those priorities I used to have. I don't know. Life can be simple, but lately it seems to be getting harder to make things easier. -- Maybe I'll just stay here awhile and see what happens.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

You definitely get it. I made this post just to give people a little "shake" and get them to think about what they are really doing with their lives. I've finally reached a point in mine where I can say I am "satisfied" and am not chasing "stuff" or "success" anymore. I have a peace in my life now that I've never felt before. And I think it's going to be even better when I start getting rid of some of this "stuff" I thought that I needed to be happy.

I think my consumerism is headed to a cure.

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linuxgeekmama@reddit

The reproducing bit is optional, too. You can have a fulfilling life without doing that. Ask a spoiled house cat.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

Neighbor's cat came over recently and wanted in the house. I let him in, and he commenced to biting and humping my blanket. When he "finished" (he's fixed!) he left. I feel both confused & violated. I'll never look at this blanket the same way again.

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kevbayer@reddit

Optional, but fun to at least go through the motions 😁

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AngryVegetarian@reddit

Stop comparing your raw footage to someone else's highlight reel! Now, most highlight reels aren't even real. You can rent cars, boats and mansions to look rich, you can buy likes and followers, even go into debt, to make yourself more important than you are. It's all fake. Quit comparing yourself to others!

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

The thing is... NOBODY really cares how much stuff you've got. Yeah, they might be jealous - but you'll never get a "Well, I gotta pat you on the back because you finally did it!" I've had many friends over the years resent my successes and not a single one celebrate them. I don't even think that those kinds of people exist.

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Lightningstruckagain@reddit

Perfect is the enemy of very good.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

Exactly. If we strive for perfection, we will miss out on all of the joy before it.

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SheriffBartholomew@reddit

My friend's grandma told us that if we're feeling depressed then we aren't working hard enough. I have found that working harder when I start feeling depressed does work for me. I understand that clinical depression does exist, and no amount of work will help someone with clinical depression, but a lot of people attribute being in a funk from a lack of productivity or an excess of time to depression, when it really isn't. So if you're feeling depressed, work harder.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

Very, very true. All joking aside, completing projects no matter how small does make me feel better.

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likely_victim@reddit

Don't sweat the small shit.
It's all small shit.

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tackleho@reddit

Expect the worst to avoid dissapointment.

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hikeonpast@reddit

Things like enjoying life and raising capable offspring belong on this list.

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BlownCamaro@reddit (OP)

#3.

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hikeonpast@reddit

There’s more to enjoying life than just sex, and plenty of folks reproduce yet don’t put the effort into raising kids that aren’t miscreants.

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NoGood2154@reddit

gif

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whiskeybridge@reddit

feh. this sounds like some shit a moderately intelligent kid would say. not an adult with decades of experience.

sure, i'm an animal, but i'm a human animal. we need meaning, and the fellowship of our peers. the whole "reproduce" thing alone involves 20 years of commitment to another being, and "eat, sleep and fuck" isn't the sum total of the advice i gave mine, nor should you give yours. purpose is our purpose, as opposed to mere existence.

as a reasoning animal, i can improve the world, not just endure it. i can improve myself, not just survive.

now, i've never wasted a weekend, or day, in my life. but i'm pretty sure those with actual anxiety will be fucking shocked to learn all they have to do is stop doing that.

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GladosPrime@reddit

"Stay Gold"

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S-L-F@reddit

As a gen-x mine are; 1. Eat 2. Sleep 3. Rave

Repeat.

But I could have been too influenced by dance music https://youtu.be/wBoRkg5-Ieg?si=lqs1_Id6jT2y140y But it seems to keep me, for one of us, relatively sane.

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