“Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.”
People create their worlds with the tools they have directly at hand. Faulty tools produce faulty results. Repeated use of the same faulty tools produces the same faulty results. It is in this manner that those who fail to learn from the past doom themselves to repeat it.
12 Rules for Life, page 75.
Implications?
Assume you are in the “unwilling” category of people. (We are either unable or unwilling, and the only person with hope of a better life is the unwilling one who becomes willing.) This is the only reasonable perspective to have. The other perspective (that you are physically unable to make a change due to lack of intelligence, etc.) is black pill thinking that leads to unhappiness and cynicism.
In other words, are you a “cannot” or are you a “will not?” Don’t take the fatalist’s “cannot” path.
Assume your life tools are faulty until proven otherwise. It’s a reasonable assumption. Someone else is always smarter, faster, etc. Even masters seek to hone their skills.
Test that assumption by embarking on a never-ending effort to learn. Learning reveals gaps in your prior knowledge. By acquiring new knowledge and skills you will reveal the limits of your old knowledge.
In short:
- Willingness. Believe (despite evidence to the contrary you may believe exists at the moment) that it is possible to change.
- Openmindedness. Believe that it is possible to know and do different stuff than you know and do now.
- Action. Learn and do.
[E]very good example is a fateful challenge, and every hero, a judge. Michelangelo’s great perfect marble David cries out to the observer: “You could be more than you are.” When you dare aspire upward, you reveal the inadequacy of the present and the promise of the future.”
12 Rules for Life, page 83.
This chapter of the books is about choosing better friends and companions. “Make friends with people who want the best for you” is how the chapter ends.
Important! But first, let’s make and keep that inner resolution to aspire upwards and . . . keep trudging.