A mirror to look in

A mirror to look in Source: JohnathanCharlesFurniture.com

24/7 Ambition And How To Know You’re On The Right Path

Ambition and comparing yourself to other people – everyone does it.

What’s the difference between getting up at 5:30 am versus getting up at 7:30 am? For one, when you get up at 5:30, there’s almost no one else walking around in the street.

As soon as your feet hit the pavement when walking out the front door, the sun is still hiding, and there isn’t a soul around. It seems like the wind is always cool.

Stuff your hands in your coat pocket and put your head down a bit, just enough to keep the cold breeze from brushing across your neck.

It’s like you’re alone in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s grand. And while most people talk about hating early mornings, it really is one of the greatest things out there.

Ambition and the benefits of the morning
The benefits of the morning
Source: RezonateMcGill.WordPress.com

For one, as simplistic as it is, there’s no one standing in line at the coffee shop. It’s just you when you walk in, and maybe the homeless guy laying on the couch, which reminds me…

They need to do something about them. How people pay thousands upon thousands of dollars per year and yet people are still homeless is beyond understanding.

Rich people are paying even more. Some out there are paying 40% – 50% in taxes.

This is why old people bitch about the government so much. They’re paying them a solid portion of their income. Anyway, I digress.

When you’re all alone, it’s just you and the streets. The feeling is great like you’ll accomplish everything that day, every task on your list.

If you’re up at 5:30 am but you can’t cross off every goal on your list at the end, then I don’t know what else to say to you. You better re-evaluate your life situation, more specifically, your work-ethic.

I guess the difference between enjoying the morning depends on your job. For me, getting up as early as possible is the shit. It’s the best.

Because I don’t work the way everyone else in society works. Most people go to an office or some other pre-determined place. Originally, the word “prison” came to mind, but it suddenly seemed like a bad idea to refer to it that way.

I’m not going to shit all over that way of working for a simple reason.

Let’s be honest. It isn’t that bad, having to go to work. For one, you’re surrounded by people that inevitably grow on you.

Eventually, they become your friends, just by the fact that you’re spending so much time with them. And workplace politics and rumors are hilarious to listen to, especially if you’re not directly involved.

However, it’s an obvious fact that the moment you step away, they talk shit about you too. But it’s permissible, isn’t it? People are gonna talk shit. That’s what they do.

And how could I leave out the people who’re doing physical labor every day? I mean, it has its strong points. But the work is much harder. Ultimately, it leaves you with a sense of satisfaction at the end because you worked your ass off. It’s an honest day’s work, as they say.

Moreover, working outside of traditional spheres and workforces can be an isolating experience.

And one thing people never tell you about ambition and self-employment is how it can become lonely. It’s a reality.

If you’re not comfortable with being alone, you will not like this kind of living. You have to ask yourself, “Do I actually like spending 90% of my time by myself?”

Be honest, because you might find the answer is “no,” and if it is “no,” it isn’t for you.

But the thing is, something can be done about it. You can find other people who’re living the same way. They’re out there, just make sure they’re hustling and not just sitting around doing drugs and shit, because they’ll reel you into it.

Where do you think the stereotype of the melancholy writer with a drinking problem comes from? It’s based on a truth. Writing, and more importantly, doing your OWN thing is solitary, by nature. It’s solitary because if everyone was doing it, the rewards of it wouldn’t be as good, and it takes more courage to go down a more unique – for lack of a better word – path.

Either way, you better find some like-minded individuals.

When you’re busy doing your thing, you have to turn off that mind for a little while sometimes.

It’s introspective by nature, and when you’re all alone, thinking, your mind goes into the abyss, like Rick James.

Rick James was an ambitious man
“Let’s Go To The Abyss Charlie Murphy!” 
Source: BriefCaseBlog.BlogSpot.com

“Work hard/Play hard” is a myth. It doesn’t exist, unless, of course, what’s meant by the saying is that you go extended periods of time where all you do is work, followed by a week of straight-up partying, and then back to the routine again.

However, these people who say, “Yeah, I work hard, play hard, man. At the office all day, forty hours a week, then I hang out with the boys and hit up the bars on the weekend.”

It makes me laugh out loud to myself. That’s not hard work. That’s average; it’s fucking the dog. Hard work is 60, 70, 80-hours a week.

No breaks. No time off. No “cheat” days. Day in, and day out.

A person’s got to approach this like it’s not something that you “do,” it’s who you are. It’s not a job or something that fills up your time. It’s your mission, and every ounce of your being is dedicated to it.

It’s easy to think 40 hours a week is “working hard” when nearly everyone else in your life is doing the same thing. You have no reference points, nothing to compare to.

If there is nothing to compare yourself to, it’s kind of hard to find out where you stand. A way of doing things becomes deeply ingrained and never subjected to critical thinking.

It’s simply the way you live life, like a fish in a fishbowl, unable to see the fact that they’re inside a glass container in someone’ house. How can a person know what they’re doing is screwed up if they’ve never looked into a mirror before?

The movie, Leatherface, reminds me of this. Even though it was a pretty bad movie, like most experiences, something could be learned from it.

In the opening scene, the cannibal family is sitting around the dinner table about to have a meal, when the camera begins to pan over to the right, slowly revealing a man tied up, gagged and bounded, in a chair with a frantic and freaked out look on his face.

His face is covered in blood. The scene goes on. The mother and uncle are trying to convince the youngest boy at the dinner table to cut this guy’s head off with a chainsaw.

Thomas Sawyer - Ambitious in another way
Thomas Sawyer AKA Leatherface. You don’t want to grow up in his household. 
Source: Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre.wikia.com

This example is obviously a hyperbolic representation of the point I’m illustrating.

But can you imagine what a totally isolated family would be like if not surrounded by others in a society? Without any contact with the outside world, the parents essentially have these kids controlled ideologically.

They determine what their beliefs and morals are, and how could the kids know if their way of living is weird if they know no one else?

If they’re just taking people’s heads off in the living room like it’s no big deal, eventually, that shit is just normal.

Other people are a mirror. They show you who you are. That’s part of the importance of having them around you; they reveal blind spots you may ignore.

There are things that you probably do that you don’t even realize unless you have good friends who keep it real and tell you about it. Although, a good friend who’s honest with you is hard to find.

Either way, you might not even find out how much you’re killing time and fucking the dog until you see someone else working. In an article I read a long time ago interviewing the rapper, 2 Chainz, he attributes the inspiration he found to work hard to Lil’ Wayne.

(Whether you like this type of music or not is pretty much irrelevant, I don’t listen to either of their music, but I have respect for anyone who’s at the top of their game and knows how to work hard).

Lil’ Wayne has one of the best reputations in the rap game, arguably, THE best. Time and time again, people in that scene talk about him and his inexorable work-ethic. He doesn’t quit. He never stops working.

2 Chainz explained that he didn’t even realize the extent of how hard one could work until he met Lil’ Wayne. His influence on the game is palpable, it’s self-evident.

And he basically, through osmosis, introduced him to the lifestyle, the concerts, all of it.

According to him, nobody in hip-hop even had tattoos until Lil’Wayne started getting them. After that, every single person had one. The elements of hip-hop that are mainstream now was just getting started twenty years ago on account of Lil’ Wayne.

As noted before, face tattoos are just one example, and when he first started going that, people thought he was absolutely crazy.

He’s been doing it for a long time. Now we’ve got people like 21 Savage with crosses tattooed in the middle of their eyebrows.

You need to find a mirror to look in. It’s not enough to think about what you did that day.

Self-improvement books are the shit for that. You can read auto-biographies of really successful people and find out exactly what they did to get where they are today. There’s a clear-cut explanation of what kind of work was necessary.

(He talks about Lil’ Wayne at 7:12)

You could say that this relates to the old-school and legendary “Master and The Apprentice” relationship between two people. However, it doesn’t have to be literal.

Your mentor, master, whatever you want to call it could be a number of different things. It could be friends, a father figure, a teacher, someone you work with, books music, anything.

You have to talk to other people and listen as if the things they have to say will change your life as if it’s something that you really need to hear and know.

They’ve had all kinds of problems, suffered through relationships, family issues, went on vacations, went to different places, had different hobbies, and so on and so forth. There are so many things they could teach you based on their experiences of the world that you might not have had.

Through that way of interacting, every person you talk to on a daily basis has something to teach you. It doesn’t matter who it is. Think about it, each person on this earth has a wealth of experiences to draw from. They are a mirror for a person to look in.