Site Schedule

Noesis Obsession was launched in something of a hurry when I suddenly got an wonky working internet connection in my house. And as such, I didn’t had a schedule for when to post the articles on the site.

Now, as things estabilize themselves here, I’m able to tell that there will be three articles a week instead of seven, posted on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday; and a Super Awesome Links section on Fridays.

I hope anyone who´s been reading my articles finds them useful or at least enjoyable. If anyone has any comments I’d love to hear them, so don’t be shy and come on, speak up!

See ya around, and keep on rocking.

The Dangers Of Being Too Easily Offended

I didn’t knew there were people like that, but ever since I’ve been getting into the internet and seeing more people I’ve noticed that there are people who get offended a lot, and very easily.

I should have known that, of course, but since I’ve been living in the middle of nowhere for the last 10 years, I guess I missed that.

God knows that I don’t mind being called an idiot, and I usually point out my mistakes. I read the Daily Ass-Kicking by Chris Guillebeau on Twitter (who is, by the way, my super hero. He’s there at about the same level as batman)

And through my interactions with these kind of people and my own though processes, I’ve come to a very important revelation: It is very dangerous to not want to get your ass kicked.

I’m serious here guys, so bear with me.

I think we all agree that we all need a good ass kicking, most of us daily. But the dangers of not wanting to get your ass kicked (or being shown we’re wrong, or failing, or getting hurt, etc.) are bigger than we realize:

You don’t improve

If you want to get better at something, but only half want it and half don’t really want to work too hard, you will never get anywhere. It’s true that if you don’t know where you want to go you will never get anywhere, but you also need to want to get there. What better way to get going than someone coming up and saying “You’re not really doing anything, get working will ya?” and if you feel bad about it then perhaps you should feel bad for just pretending to do something.

You follow wrong conclusions

If no one comes up and tells you that you’re doing it wrong then you’ll never do it right. In fact, you might end up thinking that you’re doing it right and sucking without even realizing how bad you are. If you’re afraid of failing or looking dumb think about how shameful it must be to think you’re good just because you don’t want anyone to come up to you and tell you that you’re getting it wrong.

Your life stagnates

Without working constantly to improve your life and abilities you don’t stay the same, instead you slowly decay. A tool that isn’t used gets rusted and ends up unusable. The rule of thumb is that if you have a talent or skill and you don’t use it, you lose it.

The advantages of getting your ass kicked from time to time are great. But also beware that avoiding a good ass kicking can be very dangerous.

~Image By M. Gifford

Sins Of Omission

Sins of omission are different from common sins. If you steal, if you lie, it’s all done already once you finish, and you can choose to live with it, or confront your faults. You can confess and pay back, you can tell the truth. Even, if you have commited murder, you can still confront the ones who lost that person, and confess; even if you never are forgiven for it, you’ll still have paid back and confronted you actions.

You cannot confront a sin of omission, you can never pay it back, you can never fully repent.

What are they?  They are all the things you never did. The “I should have” or “Why didn’t I?”. The things that, once passed, will never come back. And maybe you’re thinking, “Well, if it’s gone, it’s gone, if you torture yourself with the past it’s your choice. Who cares if you didn’t said something important to someone, or if you didn’t returned someone’s coat?”

Those are not sins, those are simple omissions.

Sins are different, sins are a race of their own.

They are the moment when life called upon you, when it tells you “This is the moment, this is when you can be a hero” and you say “sorry, I’m not ready, someone else do it” and the opportunity was gone. Then you realize that no, there wasn’t anyone else to do it. Even if someone else tried, they still wouldn’t be able to do the same job you would have. Better or worse, when life calls upon you, it’s because it needs you not someone better, or with more experience, but you.

I’ll use an example of my own life. I had a friend, someone who I’ve known for years, almost ten years now. One day I had to move to a far away place. Our relationship could have been labeled as toxic, or maybe codependant. Anyway it wasn’t pretty, and I knew it. So I decided to quietly drift away from her. Stopped calling her, stopped hanging out with her and stopped reading the email address I had given her. She tried to contact me, and I only obliged when I absolutely had to

For a while it was fine. I stopped contact with all of my bad friendships and picked myself up well enough to put myself on the right road once again.

But then, by a twist of fate I learned something had happened to her. Something really bad and that she wanted me to help her, but wouldn’t ask me for it. What did I do then? Did I called her immediately? Marched to her house and ask her if she was alright or if she needed any help?

No. I did nothing.

In my opinion we weren’t that good friends anymore, and she could just be lying for all I knew. It definitely wasn’t beyond her to do so.

Then she disappeared, for some days, and came back pretending nothing had happened. She never told me anything, never accepted anything had happened to her. But I knew.

Even though she will never expect anything from me because as far as she knew I wasn’t aware of anything, I will always feel that I let her down. That it was the moment to show courage, to do something very important for her. But I didn’t do it. Life told me that was the moment to be a hero, to fight and to save someone in need. And I told it no. I wasn’t going to do it because I felt I shouldn’t have done so.

I will move on, and so will she, and so will the world.

But it won’t move the way it should.

~Image By Kafka4prez

Obsession

I learned about Obsession in a cooking show, and it has plagued my mind for years.

Like virtuosity, it’s something that I loved but couldn’t really put in words. I’m going to try to do it here.

In our current society obsession is something pretty much like a bad word. When someone is obsessed about something, he’s wrong, almost mad. You’re not supposed to care that much about something. It’s nice to like an activity and work at it in your spare time, but if you care about it too much you get obsessed and then it’s just not right.

I don’t think so.

I think it’s far worse to just go on about life without really caring about something. If you don’t care to the point of hurting, then you get no passion. You merely get a bunch of weekend hobbies you can talk about to your neighbors when they complain about their mind numbing jobs.

Passion brings the common every day drag into real life. Think about your life as it is now, if you’re like most people then your life isn’t really bad, but it isn’t super happy either. Now think about how it would feel like if you suddenly started caring about something to a point where people complain that you are obsessing about it. Let’s take music as an example and say that you are a common office drone who just discovered that he’d like to learn to play violin. Maybe you’ve always thought about it and wanted to learn, but violin is a very difficult instrument and people always told you that if your parents didn’t send you to violin classes as a kid you have no chance now. After all, violin takes about ten years just to be merely ‘good’ at it doesn’t it? And besides, you didn’t want to obsess about it.

But now you’re thirty and decide that, well, it can’t possibly hurt to try it, can it? And you have a bunch of free time after work now that your favorite soap opera ended. So you go to the music store, buy a simple violin and sign up for a couple of classes every week.

Then you learn the basics, practice your required hours, and take the jokes on lunch time at work with a simple smile. That’s fine, you just got a hobby and something you can brag about to others.

But suddenly, you realize that you can do this. You find yourself understanding how to do pretty things, and how better things are done. You see the way practice is bettering yourself and you start working harder because you want to make more beautiful music. You then stop caring about the required hours or about the jokes. You think only of the music that comes from your fingers, of getting the notes right, of doing more, and doing it better.

And people start noticing, worse, they start getting angry. It’s not right for you to prefer doing something to spending time with others, even if all you do with them is gossiping about the latest trash celebrity.

A non-obsessed person would give up, ashamed of the way he made other people feel. After all, people are more important than the things you love doing alone, so let’s just put down the violin and make useless small talk, right? Things go on as normal, and your life goes on a usual.

Or not.

Maybe as you’re alone trying to get things right again and again, you get the call. It’s not really a call, and for many it’s nothing more than a hunch, but it usually goes like this. You stop, and think “I could really do this. I could be good at this. I could become a professional.” It’s thrilling, it’s exciting, and it’s scary beyond anything.

Because if you think so, then the thing you are doing is becoming more and more important to you. You’re not feeling right just doing things, you want to really do it. You want to do it for others, you want to achieve a higher level than you would have ever thought of before.

This is the most vulnerable state for your obsession, and the time when most dreams crash. Because you want support. You want someone who understands how much you love the things you’re doing and that you’re afraid of going on because in the end you might only end up hurt and tired and a failure. And everybody will find a reason for you to quit.

It’s too much work with no warranties

It’s taking too much out of your job/family/social life

It’s not worth it to care about such useless dreams

It’s too late

Thousands of excuses, of reasons, they are everywhere and you don’t need to look far to find them.

But dreams aren’t about reasons. Dreams aren’t about being logical and seeing what is better for others or better for your job. It’s about seeing what is better for your soul, what feeds the core of your being and makes you want to get out of bed every morning. It’s about persistence, about things being worthy because you decide to make them worthy, because they matter to you.

And only obsession can nurture your dreams.

Obsession is closing yourself off to reasons, to criticism, to snide remarks about failure. It is striving for a higher level of skill. Of getting away from life for a few moments when there is only you and the beautiful things you can do. It is persisting, again and again, getting better, becoming one with your work.

Obsession isn’t delusion. Delusion means that you close yourself off to bettering, that you convince yourself that you are great the way you are even if you suck. Delusion is closing off to advice that betters your skills, and constructive criticism.

Obsession is a need for bettering, a need for scaling the curve of skill to reach the level that colors your ideal.

Obsession isn’t a dirty word. Obsession is something that everyone can use, and most people need. If you aren’t obsessed about something, then to what level do you care about things? About your work? About what makes you who you are?

~Image By Fernando

There’s No Reason For Greatness

Honestly speaking, there’s no practical reason to be remarkable, to be great. It’s not easy, it’s not rewarding most of the time, you usually end up with creepy fans (the sane ones are really cool though) and it requires so much sacrifice and work, it’s not what one would call cost effective.

So, why do it? Why even care about it?

Shouldn’t we all just focus on living a happy life, making our loved ones happy, give our children comfortable lives and retiring in peace, knowing we had a very pleasurable, comfortable life? What’s the point of risking so much with nearly no guarantees other than that it’s very possible we’ll fail horribly?

I don’t know.

I don’t know if there’s a point to greatness, to being remarkable, to being more than you are right now.

I do know how both lives feel though.

The common life is nice. You have a family, you have a job, you try to not get in any trouble and do the right thing. And above all, you try to be happy accepting who you are and thinking you have value just for being alive right now. Pretty nice, relaxed and non-threatening. I can’t say many things against it. I could try to be biased and say that you’ll sink into mediocrity and find yourself in desperation when the end comes, but I won’t. Because some people don’t really care what happens after you die and they just want to live in the moment, no caring about the things around them and trying to find new ways to be even more comfortable and happy. That’s a perfectly fine road to take if you chose it.

And then there’s greatness. The first thing you find out when you start on this path, is that you will never reach it. There is no inner alarm that tells you “Now! You have achieved greatness! You rock!”

The more you walk this path, the farther the end appears. And with each new accomplishment there are new sacrifices, changes and work. And on here I could also be biased and say that it’s too difficult, too much for too little, and that in the end you’ll lose all that you’ll gained and see your accomplishments vanish, but I won’t either. Because you get some pretty amazing things too. Changes, for once, good or bad feel great. You know that you are doing something, you can feel your own self changing, mentally, emotionally, physically; you can see yourself growing, changing with the world. You won’t get that feeling in any other way.

You also don’t have to remind yourself that you have value, that you are important because you are a living being. You already know in your heart that you matter, that the world is different because of your existence. People will tell you your life has touched them, the very world will look up at you in awe.

But it’s not just for the notoriety, it’s for the intoxicating feeling of it. It’s not happiness, not in any way. It is a kind of thrilling joy that feels like freefalling, or being submerged in ice cold water, or being struck by lightning; sometimes it feels like all of that at the same time. It is something that feels like it might kill, but that you would just as well die if it stops.

Greatness is not a destination, it is a journey, one that many people are not suited for, because Happiness is the lifeblood of our inner child. But Joy is the spark on our blood. And very few are willing to see their souls face to face.

Greatness has no reason to be. It promises nothing, and asks for a lot. But if you commit to it, and have a taste of it, you will find the thrilling feel of it in your lips cannot be obtained from anywhere else.

You will get out of life what you put into it, and by putting in time, you usually get security, comfort and happiness. But try putting your soul on it, and see how you cannot get anything better than true Greatness.

~Image belongs to Daquella Manera

Multiple Virtuosity

A while back, Chris Guillebeau wrote a post that had a deep effect on me. It was called The 14,600 Hours to Virtuosity. Few things stick in my mind so much as that article did. For some reason I was very drawn to this new concept of Virtuosity. I hadn’t heard it ever before, but it felt like something I’d always wanted. Of course, the idea of being famous and being paid a lot of money was pretty cool. But the more the idea turned in my head, the more I started to realize that those weren’t the things that kept me awake at night. It was the prospect of doing, and achieving, something amazing. I’ve always been a person of high ideals and focused on doing stuff (as opposed to having stuff) so this really hit the nail on what I would love to do.

But the arguments against virtuosity stopped me right on my tracks. After all, it really was a lonely journey, with lots of hard work on just one thing. I don’t like doing only one thing, and I don’t like long, lonely journeys.

It was the argument that virtuosity prevented you from learning other things which led me away from the pursuit of virtuosity. I did not want to stop learning about everything. I love learning and finding new and interesting things, and wasn’t ready to pay so much of my life for virtuosity.

But still, I kept liking it, and I know that when an idea won’t leave my mind it’s because my subconscious has something to say about it.

After a  while of thinking about it, I came up with the concept of Multiple Virtuosity. This is something that will allow you to achieve virtuosity in a variety of subjects while still leaving you a bit of leeway to pursue other interests.

First, what is exactly a virtuoso? What are the exact characteristics of virtuosity in a certain field?

You have to actually get down and write a list of all the things which to you would represent virtuosity.

If you’re a painter, then maybe it is a high degree of realism in your paintings, or maybe the use of different concepts in your subjects, perspective, all you can think of.

If you’re a musician maybe it’s timing, if you’re an athlete it would be achieving a certain time in your races. If you’re a writer then maybe it’s producing a great emotion in your readers, or awe them at the complexity of characters, themes and the depth of your world.

Whatever it is, you must get very clear on what virtuosity looks like when you have achieved it. Don’t think of titles, or a big paycheck, focus only on what you have absolute control. An athlete can’t get control over nike to get a huge amount of money, but he can decide to beat a certain time in the 100 mts race.

Decide what activity you want to achieve virtuosity in, and what you will pursue only for the enjoyment of it.

This is for the people who don’t want to achieve single virtuosity. A person who not only loves playing the cello, but also painting and running; or dancing, or anything else.

For most of us, it’s hard to chose just one. In fact, we wouldn’t want to pursue just one thing. After all, as far as we know this is the only life have to do all the things that we love. And while it is socially acceptable to dump decades of your life to the trash for the opportunity to spend a few of your last years playing golf or painting, once you look at the whole ideas it’s not difficult to poke holes in it.

Don’t feel like you have to sacrifice something for other in life. You may have to postpone something for a while, but at most it will be 2-3 years, not 2-3 decades.

So let’s say you like travel, writing and music; and want to achieve virtuosity in writing and music. That’s fine. Writing and music are very hard and take very long to achieve virtuosity in, but it’s perfectly manageable, and you can get travel too.

A good trick here is to find relations on the things you like to do. For example, acting singing and writing usually go together. You can mix sports with just about anything if you try. Even things that don’t look like they go together do have certain relationships, for example painting and sports and singing. Sports gives you good lung capacity (running or so) to sing, and you have a better awareness of the body that you can use for your paintings. Although I would advice that you try only two types of virtuosism if you want to reach really high levels of virtuosity.

Measure the cost

In his article Chris said that it would take 10 years of consistent practice 4 hours a day every day. Fine. Because if you have taken the decision to pursue virtuosity that is because you want to build a career out of it. That means that you are in it for the long haul.

Of course this decision shouldn’t be taken lightly. You have to think long and hard about what will be the effects on your life if you really commit to virtuosity. It’s going to be a long, hard and payless road most of the time. But remember that you aren’t doing it for fame or money, you are doing it because the pursuit of virtuosity and the work you do every day are the best things you can do.

You have to measure costs, and money won’t ever be able to pay for pursuing such a hard path. You have to pay for it in time, in lost sleep, in effort. Make sure you don’t pay with everything you have while pursuing the wrong road. That will destroy you.

Develop a strategy

Every great goal needs a plan to achieve it, or you will be left with nothing but wishes.

The trick here is that you have to structure your life in a way that allows you to pursue it all, and more importantly, you have to make it idiot proof.

That means making it simple enough that you won’t have any problem following it, but also making it complete enough that you can be sure that it will take you where you want to be. If you merely say:  spend 4 hours every day practicing guitar it is simple enough that you can wake up a couple hours earlier to practice and work a couple hours at night. But it also won’t help you get better consistently. It would be better to say: Spend 4 hours practicing every day, first get a good grasp of the basic notes, then be able to play a simple song, and progress in difficulty until I can play X song perfectly. That will get you a roadmap you can easily follow without overwhelming you, because if you keep following your plan you don’t have to hope you’ll get where you want to be. You’ll be sure of it.

Virtuosity is possible, no matter your age. Multiple virtuosity is more complicated, but it’s also possible if you really want it and are willing to put in the work.

But most importantly, only do it if you can’t live without trying it.

~ Image by asluthier

What you are, what you’re not, and what you think you are

“Know Thyself”

How true, and how little people actually follow such mandate. People think they are something, and more often than not, they are merely deluding themselves. Here’s a little clarification, for what it’s worth:

What you are

This isn’t your job, your family, your achievements, or possessions. This is YOU. This is what you are underneath your clothes, and titles. This is what is worth anything. In the end, who you are is defined by choices. Who you are when no one is watching, the choices you do when you know you won’t get caught.

Don’t try to rationalize anything, don’t delude yourself into believing the lies you tell yourself.

It’s your actions that count. Because every action is a decision. If you decide to do something, then that is because in that moment, you are that person.

What you’re not.

I won’t go into possessions and titles, we’ve already covered those up there. Besides, there are far more things that You Are Not, for example, a static being.

You’re not the person you were at 12, and you are not the person you’ll be in 10 years.

You are the road. You are the decision to change, even if you cannot take any other actions right now. You are the speed at which you are changing, not the static moments. You are the shame when you do something you know is wrong, and the joy at seeing yourself getting better.

I said that you are the choices you make, but you are also the speed at which you are changing. So many people think that if they’re just a talentless slob right now, they will be the same forever. And in taking that decision, and in believing that, they are reassuring that they will never be anything else.

Someone who acknowledges they do something wrong, but that believes they can get better isn’t the same as a person who does something wrong believing that they’re destined to always be like that.

Who you think you are.

Oh, boy, we finally arrive at the slimy theme of Delusion. How I hate delusion.

And let’s get something clear here, Delusion isn’t beliefs, it isn’t ideals or hope. It is sometimes confused with faith. Mostly by people who use the word Faith too loosely. But that’s something for a different article. Instead, let’s talk only about Delusion.

Delusion is the lies you tell yourself. Delusion is when you tell that it’s not bad for you to smoke two packs a day. It’s when you tell yourself that you don’t act because you have to protect yourself, not because you’re a coward. That you don’t fight for what you want because it’s not good to be too passionate about certain things, and that what you want isn’t important enough. That you aren’t important enough.

Delusion is the monster that whispers your downfall day and night. And it will take you down, bury you in a thousand lies until there is nothing left of you alive, until you are nothing more than a living corpse. No passion, no ideals, no courage.

Don’t let Delusion defeat you. If you hide out of cowardice, tell that to yourself. When you aren’t acting like the person you want to be, accept that. Accept that what you do is wrong, but that you aren’t going to stay like that. Take the decision to change, even if you keep making mistakes. The decisions you take for yourself change you. The change is what you are, not the lies that you hear in your head.

~Image By Laffy4k

Something Great Would Be Lost

“If You Give Up Something Great Would Be Lost”

I always say this when I want to encourage people to start things or to keep at them. I can’t remember if I read it somewhere or make it up. Probably I just read it.

But, is it really true, that something great would be lost if you give up? How can anybody be so sure that doing something wouldn’t result in pain or regret?

Well, there are some ways to be reasonably sure that what I say is true

You’re Going To Die

I know it sounds harsh, but at least you’re sure it’s the truth. At one point in life you’ll die and it’ll all be over. If you don’t do what you want to do, you won’t even have the memory. Everyone has ideas, but very few actually do them and crash (in the worst case scenario). Most people just wither away without either rising to the realm of the remarkable or falling into suck-land. Frankly, even if you suck and crash badly, you’ll still have something to look back on when death comes knocking.

I Never Mentioned It Would Be Pleasurable

People have this idea that life has to be pleasurable. You have to be comfortable, you have to have a warm house, you have to eat food that tastes good, be clean, be relaxed, be sterilized. What’s the point of that? Will you say in your deathbed “That big bed was very comfortable, I have great memories of lying in there, sleeping eight hours a day” or say “What has that bed seen! I remember all the days I lay awake thinking of the next project, working until 2 a.m., crashing after a bumpy adventure outside”

What most people think of as pleasure is actually comfort. It’s like lying in a warm bath. Nice, relaxing and calm. True pleasure can only be felt if it comes by the hand of struggle. You have to feel how a full day of exciting and hard work feels like to really admire a night of absolutely pleasurable sleep.

Most People Who Try To Shoot You Down Actually Suck

What to think if your friends, family, neighbors, etc. tell you that what you want to do is stupid and you’ll end up shaming yourself? Well, first you should go over what the project is, and who your friends and family are. Do you want to live your lives just like them? If yes, then by all means listen to them.

But if the idea of being perfectly normal like your friends, and doing the same things your whole family has done for generations fills you with dread; don’t listen to them. In fact, most people won’t even know what your project will come to. What they say is merely the instinctual reaction to someone pushing their comfort boundaries. Don’t worry about them, since their reactions say more about them and their beliefs than it says about you and your projects

If You Don’t Actually Do It You Will Most Surely Regret It

In the end, it won’t matter what you did. All the bad things go away when you die, and that will happen regardless of what you do. But you will be plagued by the regret of the things you didn’t do until the very last moment.

You cannot be sure of what’ll happen if you try, but if you give up you’ll never know.

What if there’s a considerable possibility you fail and end up sucking?

As a basic rule, even people who rise to greatness sucked at some point in their lives. They made stupid mistakes, took bad decisions, fell into traps which could have been averted. But the difference between them and people who go on all their lives sucking is that they realized that the only way to do something worth anything is to take the risk of sucking.

What you do here is not run to safety with your tail between your legs. You have to go over the consequences of failure and minimize the pain it would cause you.

If you want to start a company make sure you have a financial cushion for when things go bad. Start small, plan for emergencies, have a plan B if plan A seems to start sinking. And a plan C when plan B burns.

If You Give Up, At Least Something Will Be Lost.

I cannot assure you it’ll be good. But the world will lose something.

Maybe you would have succeeded after much struggling, and the world would have gained a company, a book, an athlete, a leader.

Or you could have failed. And the world would now lose the experience of someone, and now someone who would have succeeded after learning of your mistakes now have to fail.

At least we can be sure the world will lose the inspiration of someone who tried, regardless of the lack of guarantees.

The Need For Good Enemies

I keep being more and more astounded by the great need we all have for villains.

There are many people who would love for the world to be a utopia where there is no wrong, we all share everything and everyone gets a free baby panda. But I think that the old saying has its share of truth: Even evil serves its own purpose.

Here are a few of my reasons for the existence of villains:

They lift us from our conformity

What would it be like if we had a normal, fairly pleasurable life? No strains, no fights, nothing wrong for us to fix it. We spend our days living in a castle with a butler giving us a perfectly buttered toast and…and nothing. That’s it.

Doesn’t that bores you? I mean, without something that is wrong, without something that hurts us on a humane level, we wouldn’t be pushed to rise from our conformity. We wouldn’t feel the call to do something great, something that makes us better people than we were before.

They show us what is right and worth fighting for

This might seem odd, but they do. By seeing that there’s something wrong about what they do and being angry at that we find that what they do is wrong. When we see that someone hurts another person, we are angered at a higher level. In such struggles, we find out moral codes.

The give us courage

Fear of the evil villain only lasts so long. At a point, we decide that we cannot take such abuse anymore, and we have to rise. Each battle, each decision we take, they all give us courage.

They make us stronger

You could always get stronger by going to a gym everyday, of course, but you will never become as strong as fast as when you are fighting a strong villain.

We need evil, because we need to fight it and destroy it. We need a cause, we need something that matters. Obstacles, challenges, pains, struggles and evil wizards aren’t there for us to whine about them or to complain about how hard it is to defeat them. They are there for us to become stronger.

The greater the enemy, the stronger we become.

~Image belongs to Chad Davies

Things You Deem Acceptable

Since I commonly demand of myself much more than the average person, I have run into a bit of resistance. Some has been common “Give up” kind of resistance, and that’s pretty easy to deal with, I just keep doing what I want to and ignore it. Other has been harder to spot as real resistance, and has been of many different kinds, like when people brush me off as just bragging or telling people that they are useless or thinking that I’m some arrogant harpy. This of course made me feel bad, and my work speed plummeted. After all, it was one thing to meet resistance from strangers, and other to be hurting my friends by making them feel bad about themselves and ending up with them thinking I’m and arrogant bitch.

So I was having the doubt of just how much was too much. I usually have incorrect beliefs and my thinking process has a bit too many “magic happens” logic jumps so I could easily be doing things wrong.

But for some reason I couldn’t answer the question. I just couldn’t accept any of them.

When it hurts you, it’s too much But sometimes hurting is good, sometimes you just pass the point of no return when you’re hurting

You should do what you’re comfortable with But many things in life aren’t comfortable, and most of them lead to good things.

And after a while, when I was reading an article by Chris Guillebeau (as usual) the answer hit me in the head.

“those would have been acceptable answers from some people — but coming from her, I wondered if there was another story.”

Acceptable Answers. That was it.

The truth is that ANY answer will be acceptable for anyone who decides to accept it.  There is No ‘Too Much’ and nobody can tell you what it is.

You decide how much is too much, and just because I have decided that my too much isn’t in sight doesn’t means that other’s Too Much line isn’t far closer. They decide if for them it is too much to write 1000 words a week or 1000 words a day. And only they are responsible for that. I cannot do anything to change what others believe, but I believe that I can do anything I set my mind on. If others believe that there is only so much you can do, then that is their choice. Not mine.

I am most happy when I work myself off that my own body has to force me to stop. I love to have a to do list of 40 items and be working constantly. I want to get the most out of every moment I spend on this world, and that is why I do all of this.

A wise man (who, by the way, I didn’t even knew. The guy just sat next to me and started talking) once said:

“Do what you want. If it turns out that it doesn’t works, then you can do something else. You’re young, you can do it. Besides life is so long, and so short at the same time. You should do what you love.”

If going at it slow is what you love, then do so. If going at life exceeding the speed limit gets you passionate, then go for it too. But if you really want to go fast and are afraid to do it, don’t make people feel bad about it just so they don’t show you how unhappy you are.

~Image belongs to Rodrigo Da Cunha