2981: Being a Savage by Steve Pavlina on Embracing Your Choices in Life

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2981 Being a Savage by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com And I'm your narrator Justin Malik reading you blogs every single day of the year including holidays

[00:00:13] Which means I will be here tomorrow reading to you. It's a holiday for us in the United States Thanksgiving and I'll have a Thanksgiving post actually But today business as usual so with that let's get right to it as we optimize your life

[00:00:31] Being a Savage by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com If I were to create a resume or CV for myself, it would start out something like this 1989 arrested for misdemeanor petty theft 1990 arrested for misdemeanor petty theft second time 1991 arrested for felony grand theft 1989 to 1991 UC Berkeley expelled

[00:01:02] 1992 retail sales associate six dollars an hour fired. I Tried to plug myself into a system designed to mold me into a regular job-wielding citizen But for some reason that system didn't work for me They kept spitting me out with an error message

[00:01:20] If you're able to conform to such an environment and be happy and fulfilled on that path That's wonderful But if you're struggling to fit into a system that keeps spitting you back out again Perhaps your path of fulfillment is elsewhere

[00:01:35] Does it make sense to keep embracing a system that doesn't really want you? If you can't hold down a steady job pay your bills on time and stay out of trouble It doesn't mean you're broken

[00:01:46] Perhaps it simply means that the path you're trying to follow isn't a good match for you Your path of fulfillment is uniquely your own you won't get there by doing what's expected of you

[00:01:58] You can't play by the rules. You've been taught to follow those rules don't work for you When you find yourself in a system where happiness and prosperity can't coexist for you

[00:02:09] You'll sabotage yourself either you'll hold back and do the bare minimum or you'll do something that gets you kicked out So why bother? Yes, you have needs to satisfy But it's a heck of a lot easier to pay your bills when you're happy and fulfilled

[00:02:25] It's a lot easier to generate abundant income when you feel good And it's a lot more intelligent than sacrificing your health due to stress and overwhelm Making money and being happy are not in conflict Although the system often makes it hard to enjoy both at the same time

[00:02:42] Stop asking what should I do now? That question only brings up what others expect of you the shoulds are nothing but social programming Free people don't have shoulds. They have choices Shoulds don't create happiness and fulfillment nor do they create prosperity

[00:03:03] Shoulds are really good at creating stress though Instead ask yourself What kind of person do I desire to become? When you take the time to understand what this person is like It's easier to decide what to do and you'll be able to see plain as day

[00:03:20] Why you and the system don't get along very well If you wish to be a person who's free creative abundant caring Honorable and generous then ask yourself which choices will move you in that direction Can you see why a part of you would sabotage the cubicle job?

[00:03:39] If you desire freedom and flexibility then avoid situations that trap Confine or limit you choose a path that allows you to keep your options open If you want to experience abundance Then don't choose a path that ensures scarcity or limitation

[00:03:56] Choose a path that has a shot of leading to prosperity Say no to non prosperous choices like a job with a fixed paycheck If you want to express your creativity Then don't choose a path where someone else tells you what to do and how to do it

[00:04:12] Choose a path where creativity is rewarded and not punished If you want to be more courageous, then don't choose a safe path Choose a path that will push you to stretch beyond your comfort zone If the path won't build your courage, then it's not your path

[00:04:28] You won't have clarity about your path until you resolve what kind of person you wish to be Now you may look at your path and say that is not an easy path

[00:04:38] No, it's not an easy path at all. If you want the easy path, it follows a system How has that path been working for you so far? On one side we have the easy path on the other side We have the path of happiness fulfillment

[00:04:53] prosperity and all the other yummy stuff you desire If you don't totally commit yourself to the fulfilling path You'll find yourself on the easy path by default The easy path is automatic. The fulfilling path can only be consciously chosen To choose the fulfilling path

[00:05:11] You have to be ready to leave behind the comfort of the safety in numbers path and embark on a journey That's uniquely your own you must be willing to visit places where there are no teachers No mentors no bosses no parents to guide you

[00:05:27] Knowing that you're perfectly capable of guiding yourself The easy path is someone else's path. It looks easy because it's been done before For the same reasons it's also incredibly boring

[00:05:40] If you dislike boredom as much as I do you'll sabotage yourself each time you try to follow that path You realize just how pointless it is to spend your precious life doing what's already been done Do you really want to live a rerun? Why bother?

[00:05:56] As you can see by my resume it didn't take me long to realize that my path didn't look like that of my peers The benefit of this kind of resume is that I didn't have the option of pretending that I could still succeed within the system

[00:06:10] I had to choose some other path It hasn't been easy. It's been awesome Of course my resume looks a lot nicer in recent years But in all honesty, I take more pride in how it began

[00:06:23] My past screw-ups helped me realize that I can't play by someone else's rules I can't be happy doing what society might expect of me I have to follow my own path and do what I believe is best

[00:06:37] If I try to follow the system I get really bored and listless When I try to compensate for its shortcomings It spits me out as a criminal or reject a defective person As it turns out the system does this to millions of people

[00:06:52] So is it really the people who are the problem? Being a savage isn't so bad once you get used to it You just listen to the post titled being a savage by Steve Pavlina of stevepavlina.com

[00:07:10] Thank you to Steve. I could definitely relate to some of this not getting arrested But when he talks about wishing to be a person that's free and creative It's funny because growing up I actually thought that being a high-paid executive working in an office would be amazing

[00:07:28] But the older I got the more I realized that it doesn't fit with what I'm looking for I changed and that's normal That's actually another piece of this puzzle It's good to rethink these things from time to time to see where you stand

[00:07:42] Because on one day maybe the security is what you value most But on the next day, maybe it's freedom or independence We're constantly in that flux And I want to reiterate what he said if the norm is working for you and you're fine with that

[00:07:58] That's great. No need to change or question everything and potentially sabotage yourself Because the off-path route definitely isn't for everyone But anyway for me it took having that cubicle job to really understand what I truly wanted

[00:08:15] Which was to own my own company where I could have both freedom and creativity to try new things that I couldn't have done otherwise Or maybe I could have with spare time, but it would have been too much to be frank

[00:08:28] The takeaway I think is the questions he asked Who do you want to become and then what can you do today to start walking that path? So thank you to Steve for this one. Thank you for being here

[00:08:40] Have a great rest of your day walk that path today, and I'll see you tomorrow for the Thanksgiving show with the Thanksgiving post Where your optimal life awaits