A Repository of Deep and Common Sense Wisdom

In my path I've often had the thought that the highest kind of wisdom is what my parents were trying to teach me all along and that rather than talk about enlightenment or spiritual development we should just talk about maturity.  So, in that spirit, this blog post is going to be a running repository for common sense wisdom.  I'll throw in some deep and paradoxical nuggets too. Feel free to contact me to give suggestions for the list.

• In general, success requires hard work over time. And in general, the more time you spend doing something the better you will get at it. But this will take away from time you could spend at other things.  These kinds of trade-offs are inevitable.
  
• Sex won't make you happy forever.  Neither will romantic relationships, even the one you're thinking about right now.  They will make you feel like you do now, and also bring lots of unique pleasures and pains.
• Doing things that aren't in your own integrity will make you feel bad.
• There is no going back.  All of our actions change not just our futures, but who we will be in those futures.  Our values will change, our connections will change, our opportunities will change.  We will change the people around us. No matter what, the consequences of our actions are to some degree out of control and unpredictability in this no matter what, as our we ourselves, and this vulnerability is a birth place of surrender, passion, compassion.  Move wisely and give life your all.
  
• You will very, very likely never be the best at anything. (Except for being yourself, which you cannot fail at being the best at.)
• Things can always get better, though probably can never get perfect.  Helping others feels good, and so does helping myself.
• Since there is likely always going to be some pain in life, there will always be the option to focus on the pain.  Focusing on things still not being perfect hurts, while focusing on the ways things are better than before feels good.  Focusing on what can be improved increases my ability to help.  Perhaps at some point those of us (including myself!) who are under the delusion that everything can or should be perfect will one day be disabused of that idea.
• We only learn things by doing (which includes thinking), and when we do something we see things we couldn't see before, leading us to reassess what we thought.
• There are lots of good things to do. And your desires will keep changing.
• Solving big problems requires lots of people doing lots of different things. No one can do it alone. You can't do everything.
• Everything, taken alone, has some virtue, and everything, taken alone, has some destructive consequences. Taking everything as a whole leaves neither option.
• In assessing any situation, no matter how much knowledge you have there are always ways to be either optimistic or pessimistic about the future.
• It's impossible to know everything and there is no end to knowing (except in not-knowing, which taken all the way is the same as not doing anything).
• Whether you think we can know anything at all depends on your definition of "know." The only thing I know for sure is that something is happening.  Anything else I say I don't know for sure.