When giving a lecture before an audience of ethnobotany/entheogen enthusiasts, Terence Mckenna offered the following advice to those who dared to venture along the psychedelic path: “refuse to be paralyzed by astonishment.”
Category: Broaden Your Horizons
The World Doesn’t Pay You Enough to be Nasty
There’s a reason why we like to get nasty. It’s a lot easier to start a fight than it is to take charge of your life when things seem out of control. Our desire to manipulate others often stems from the need to compensate for our own inability to feel a sense of agency in relation to our goals. We enjoy pulling other people’s strings because those are usually the only strings we know how to pull.
Look for an Excuse to Succeed
The only game worth playing is the one where you get to create the adventure of defining what it means to be smart and successful on your own terms. And you don’t get to play that game if you spend your time listening to people who are hellbent on making you afraid of your ambitions.
Work on Your Dreams as If You’re Awake
The world is filled with people who dream of a day when they’ll be able to do a particular thing full-time, but there’s a common problem that plagues many of those who fall in this category: apart from what they say or put on their resume, their talent is a secret.
“Self-Authentic” Is Not a Synonym for “Self-Deprecating”
It takes honesty to be frank about your obstacles. It takes the same to be frank about your opportunities. Keep on keeping it real, but don’t let your obstacles monopolize your concept of self-authenticity.
“Obvious” Is Not a Synonym for “Real”
We’re not made apathetic by life itself. We’re made apathetic by our assumption that we would never have to endure creative challenges as a prerequisite for perceiving beauty.
You Don’t Have to Be a Fool to Deschool
Growing up as a child, I remember watching “pro-education” commercials with slogans like “Don’t be a fool, Stay in School” or “The mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Where I’m from, the term “drop-out” generates just about the same effect as the term “dope-dealer.”
Did it Really Work For You?
You don’t have to be happy, but you probably shouldn’t be the person who talks about how important a product is for people’s happiness if your life looks like a glaring counterexample. If you’re going to fight for a particular point of view, then you should at least try to look satisfied with the life it gave you.
What a Tragedy
When people are young and very small, when their appetites are most ripe for learning, we tell them “now these are the important books that responsible people read.” Then we proceed to rob them of the most important components of reading: getting to be the one who chooses the book, getting to be the one who chooses when reading should be done, and getting to be the one who decides what parts of the book are worth remembering.
Trust In the Power of Your Asking
Take a chance on the power of your asking. Give your relationships an opportunity to work on the basis of sincerity and sympathy. You’ll have a lot more fun that way. Don’t pull out a fire extinguisher if all you need to do is ask someone to blow out a candle.