r0dman.com

Anyone who has read a few posts from this site – r0dman.com would realise that I have a few issues with the way that people live their lives. Not so much individuals, but large demographics.

It’s not so much that I don’t approve – it doesn’t actually affect me, it’s that I see so many people failing to perform and I would honestly like to see them achieve.

We’re on this planet for a maximum of what, 100 years? It sounds like a long time but as a 25 years old I already realise that I am a 1/4 of the way through a best case scenario.

I think about my parents, newspaper articles, stories of grandparents, movies, and so on and what people have and haven’t achieved in their lives. Everyone effectively lives the same life;

1. Go to school
2. Go to work
3. Buy a house
4. Have children
5. Wait for the children to leave the house
6. Retire
7. Wait to die

Granted that’s a fairly subjective way of looking at it all, but if you break it down, it is what most people do with their life and what many more will do.

People are concerned with the small things along the way. For instance during the younger working years they might be able to buy a nice motorbike. Their friends at the time will tell them that they have “made it”. Years on they will have seen their children through school, and being so “successful” they will have funded their children’s tertiary education. The children move out, they retire at 65 and then go on a three week cruise with their wife. They have won the game of life.

…Or have they? Chances are this same person has spent the last 45 years working a job that they hate. They always wanted more time with the kids but couldn’t afford to work fewer hours because of the mortgage. Their kids are on track to live the same life as them because of how they were brought up, and unfortunately the cruise was a challenge more than anything else because they had to spend so much time in close quarters with their wife who they have lost touch with after years of stress and neglect due to their work.

As children we have these dreams of being all sorts of things. I remember wanting to own a black Porsche 911, being a BMX champion, live in a rainforest, and so on. Things that most adults would put in the “unobtainable” category. Are they really that ridiculous though?

Granted nowadays I lust over a Porsche but know full well that the money spent on one would help me attain many other things ($200,000 would bring in enough income every year for me to justify taking a day off of work every week).

These supposedly unobtainable goals are the ones that keep us excited and ideally, happy. I strongly believe that if I’m not happy, my wife won’t be happy. This means that while I always take her into account, from time to time I need to be honest to her about what I want from life. The alternative is “forgetting it” and ultimately living a life of regret.

Our society breeds mediocrity and no one can break you out of this mold aside from yourself. If you are very lucky a close friend or loved one may push you, but ultimately it’s up to you to make the choice to break free.

Start to define what you want from life, then start living your life in the direction of achieving your goals.

It’s not to say that you need to always be meeting goals and turning your life into some sort of statistical report, it’s just important to make sure that you are where you want to be or on track to where you want to be. Goals could be as simple as “be happy” or be ridiculously complex too. My goals are relatively simple, although will require some effort from myself and my partner.

I want to remain free, happy and healthy. I DON’T want the same lifestyle until the day I die. I don’t want the same job, same bills, same day to day frustrations and hassles. I want the both of us to be able to change when we need it. When our lifestyle becomes one that doesn’t facilitate a good relationship, we’ll change. Ultimately everyone has the ability to do this, it’s just that many people tie themselves down and then it all becomes too hard.

Think about what you would like and start to work towards it. Try not to think too much about possessions, they will come with the lifestyle that you want to attain.

If life isn’t how you pictured it would be, make some dreams.

This is purely just ranting from my head. No direction and no research done.

Over the last six months to a year I have changed my diet, lifestyle and general habits considerably.

• I am eating a LOT less meat, from at least 10 meals a week (often more), down to just two or three.
• I am no longer consuming milk, and have cut my general consumption of dairy products down a lot.
• I am eating more fruit and vegetables, and generally trying to stay properly hydrated at all times.
• I am exercising more, specifically weight training.
• I am drinking far less alcohol than I used to, and less regularly too.

As an example, nowadays when I drink alcohol, I really feel it the next day. I used to be able to go out and have at least 20 standard drinks in a night, often many more, and as long as I’d had a decent glass of water before bed I would feel fine the next day. Nowadays I can have a half a dozen drinks and the next day my head is killing me.

Obviously our habits, traditions and general day to day living as humans are brought on by the way our ancestors have lived their lives. Are humans, for example, only able to consume large amounts of alcohol with large amounts of meat? Is it possible that only people that drink milk are able to “handle” smoking better? If you consume predominantly fried foods, is your body able to cope with energy drinks better? Will they have the same affect on you as they do someone who has a diet made up of more fruit and vegetables?

I’m sure there are plenty of foods, drinks, activities and habits that are linked. Complimentary foods if you will.

I think the way that I feel physically is also due predominantly to the fact that I am well hydrated most of the time. It’s like I’m setting a high standard for my body. When I go and have a big night drinking, I’m very dehydrated and by body tells me this by giving me a throbbing headache the next day. After a decent mountain bike ride it will often do the same as I’m usually unable to drink enough water during that time (I can only carry 3 litres with me).

It’s interesting. Not bad, not good, not anything subjective. Just another one of those things I’ve come across and still haven’t figured out what it really means or where it’s relevancy fits in to my life.

The world is over populated. No one can dispute that. We don’t have enough food, we don’t have a sustainable way forwards, and realistically for a healthy world we need to stop procreating at our current rate.

There’s plenty of information/propaganda/etc on the topic out there. If you break it down to the basics, essentially humans have reduced the number of situations in their life in which they can end. Medicine is lengthening our lives considerably. People are far less likely to die from disease nowadays. Food, albeit debatable as to whether or not it is healthy, is able to be produced in greater and greater quantities as the population increases.

World Population Growth

My fiancee and I have spoken a fair bit about the possibility of not having children. Not to the point where we have made a decision on whether or not to have kids,but it’s nice to know that the option is there (especially when the female in the relationship brings it up!).

I’m well aware by now, that I over think my decisions. I rarely act on impulse – maybe when I’m drunk or something. When it’s a life changing decision, like career, relationships, buying property and so on, I really think it through. It’s a good thing sometimes, but for having children, I ask myself “How can I bring a child into this world”.

Maybe it’s my cynical view on the earth – my need for something more. I’m not happy with the way that the human race lives. Our lifestyle, diet, and general values are just so misplaced – and it only appears to be getting worse. While I’m happy to be the odd one out and hold my “different” opinions, given what I know and what I believe in, wouldn’t it be irresponsible to force a child to live in that world?

One thing is for sure, we need to drop our population. Is this one of those situations where we say “what difference can one person make?” or should we really act on our beliefs? Obviously someone needs to have children, otherwise there is no future for the human race, but whether or not I am one of those people, I’m yet to decide.

It’s amazing how things have changed. In the last 50 years, Australians have gone from a population of early school leavers, to pushing a large number of year 12 graduates into tertiary education.

While there is clearly a place for these organisations, I think it is unfair to be encouraging those who aren’t academics to continue studying after they finish up at school.

Take myself for instance. I went to a good private school in Adelaide, and from year 9 onwards I was asked “what uni degree will you do?”. Not “do you want to study after year 12?” or “have you thought of getting a trade?”. Nope, always about the uni. In the end, after being encouraged by my teachers, my parents and my mates to go to uni, I enrolled and gained entry into a Software Engineering degree. Two months in, I realised that it just wasn’t for me. I’m not able to learn by having someone tell me something to my face, I need to do it myself, and the course content was not for me. I saw out that semester, and nothing changed, so I quit and started working full-time.

It was always my dream to work in IT, and I was always told that in order for that to happen I’d need a degree, but it’s just blatant misinformation. Now that I’m out in the real world I realise how many people who work in my industry don’t have a degree. Many of them have certifications from companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Novell and so on, but very few have a degree – and most that do have a degree have one in Business Management or something completely unrelated like that.

Now I’m not disputing that degrees are important. There are many jobs that require a large amount of study to do it well, and rightly so. My friend is a dentist, my fiancee is an teacher and one of my other mates is now a lawyer. It just annoys me when I see teenagers convinced that they should go to uni so they can finish an obscure degree that won’t help them at all.

Why encourage your child to start their adult life with even more study after spending the last 13 years in the books, and a $20,000 debt before they truly know what they want to do with their life? If they have 100% direction and know that they want to be a doctor, then great. But if they “think” they want to be a personal trainer, there’s no point pushing them into a Science degree only for them to quit after doing it for two and a half years.

Honestly, whatever happened to learning the job that you need to do, on the job? Are employers too cheap to train people nowadays?

It’s obvious that universities want (and probably need) more and more money, so they offer more and more courses and degrees to do this. Because of the wider range of degrees, more people are going to uni to study, and because more people are considering study, more of the image driven parents are encouraging (and often forcing) their kids to study “with their best interest at heart”.

Everybody has their own direction and everybody learns differently. Be true to yourself and follow your own path.

In a world where we are surrounded by so much negativity, it’s my belief that no matter what, we should always look for the positives in the negatives. Throughout our lives we are faced with all sorts of negative happenings. This might be something small like a co-worker being a nuisance to you at work, or bigger things like having a partner cheat on you. The list is endless if you want to dwell on it!

With a negative mind, you can become frustrated, hurt and eventually depressed by these sorts of things, but if you view them in a positive light you become a much stronger person for it.

Take my parents for instance – they broke up when I was around 14. At the time my world came crashing down and I didn’t really know what to think. I lost the constant in my life – my home no longer housed a family, and my parents didn’t even speak anymore! Looking back on it all – they used to argue at home and it wasn’t the best environment to be growing up in (don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t any hitting or drunken rage or that sort of thing happening). My mum was just impossible to my father, and my dad pretty much just hated his life. While the divorce was hard for everyone, nowadays my dad is enjoying his life, and my mum has the freedom to do what she wants. The whole thing has made me much closer to my sister, and I have become a much stronger person because of it. With time to think about it, I can’t see there being any positives from my parents staying together.

Stay calm and stay composed – look for the positives in the negatives that surround your life, and enjoy them. There are plenty.