All of life has been a preparation for this moment

People who are sadly mistaken, think that nothing is related to any other.  So it comes as quite a shock to them, to learn that they may have had a hand in the outcome they are presently experiencing.  It might be as obvious as their poor health and condition.  What they did -- or didn't do -- is the reason they are in the shape they're in, and not that they had no part in it.  

It is safe to say, that those who are the happiest and most content, are those who think they are mostly responsible for their own fate and outcomes -- and therefore do something about it, rather than lamenting how unfair life has been to them, and given them nothing they deserve.  In all likelihood, they have gotten what they deserved -- and if they don't like it, it is  time to look into their own actions and their consequences, and see the error of their ways and understanding.

For this, they don't need to begin with a perfect understanding and mastery, as though such a thing were possible -- and easy.  They simply have to get better at what they are doing -- just a little bit each day, and of course, they have to start -- and not think of more excuses not to.  All the excuses in the world, are no substitute for the tiniest bit of action -- in making a difference.  That is especially true when asking why most people age badly, while only a few age well.  Those latter, are those who have bettered their understanding of life -- and what it takes to be successful at it.

Not just to be successful at all the trivial ways people may become distracted at -- but deeply engaged in their own lives, so that it makes a difference -- in everything they do.  It might be even what they don't do anymore -- realizing it is bad for them, and leads to disastrous results.    That would include competing with others, and even oneself -- incessantly, as though it were good and a wise thing to do.  The inevitable result is an unnecessary and avoidable injury -- that leads to a premature and permanent impairment and disability -- no matter how many blows one thinks they can absorb.  It doesn't make them better and more impervious to damage.

It obviously predisposes one to injury -- and with that, a loss of that exercise, articulation and expression -- as happens to so many thinking to retain the recklessness of their youth by indulging in it as long as they can -- until they can't.  That is textbook denial -- rather than an understanding and acceptance of its consequences -- before it is too late.

The signs along the way are obvious -- and obviously trying to tell one something important -- but one has to be listening, or it falls on deaf ears.  That's why it is so important to want to learn.  If a person is not disposed in that way, no amount of teaching is going to make a difference.  One will simply resist it all the more -- thinking that is the proper function of their role in life -- to resist the efforts of every other.  Such a person can never benefit from the efforts of others; they reflexively try to undermine and undo it.  That's what they've been conditioned to do all their lives.

And ultimately, the person they undermine most, is themselves -- because they cannot help themselves. That's the way they are -- and have no way of being otherwise.  Such persons are beyond help.  Shit happens, and there's nothing they -- or anybody else, can do about it!  That's just the way the world is -- according to their understanding.  

So thinking it does make a difference -- makes the biggest difference, which is understanding before any further effort is applied.  Lacking this proper understanding, makes all further effort arbitrary, futile and counterproductive.  Then once the understanding is valid, the effort naturally follows -- but never  does before then.  

So, many people's efforts seem to be in vain, and the belief that it can't make a difference, no matter what -- because they don't have this understanding leading to proper effort.  And there, they do not inquire further -- but accept their dismal fates, as what must be -- and many will agree with them, and encourage them along the way.  They say they wish it could be otherwise, but they do nothing to prevent it.  Nothing will change, as long as people keep doing what they've always done before.  That is the reason it happens.

Always Be Changing

The characteristic that most distinguishes those living badly -- is their resistance to changing -- particularly when everything in life is demanding that they do, and rather than flowing with that intelligence (information), they choose to deny it -- thinking in that manner, that they can get everything else in the world, to conform to their demands and expectations for it.

And so life beats them down -- relentlessly and unmercifully until they either relent or succumb.  There just is no way of denying reality -- which is the sum total of intelligence, and not just one's own thinking to prevail over it.  That is the critical failure of life -- inevitably resulting in death, but even before that, destruction and injury along the way -- until that final moment.  But before that end becomes manifest, there is much that one can do to improve their chances of prolonging and enhancing their lives -- no matter what.

Life is always the choice between better or worse.  One need not know all the answers at first.  One simply can choose between better or worse -- in that particular moment, and that results in the next, and not that starting from zero, one has to choose the perfect solution from the many choices available -- while thinking that it doesn't matter, and that they are all the same, and will get them to the same place, despite all they do.

To their way of thinking, nothing makes a difference -- and so "shit just happens," and there's nothing anyone can do about it.  Of course such a perspective and outlook, will ensure many disasters in that life -- thinking that nothing they can do, makes any difference in their lives -- instead of the more prudent realization, that everything they do, makes a difference.  And because it does, they also have to allow and provide for a margin of error -- as well, not just from others, but also from oneself.  In that way, they leave very little to chance and error -- and more often than not, realize their desired outcomes.

That is often the difference between winning and losing -- in mere games, which is the conditioning we think to obtain in our play and games.  We are practicing and conditioning ourselves for that success -- of achieving that well-being and good fortune -- and moving beyond to the next level of challenge that ensures that response.  Not to rise to the next challenge, is the beginning of the end.

And so how does one condition themselves for that responsiveness?  That is too always be changing -- especially when in doubt as to the proper course.  One has to retain that ability to change -- no matter what.  Because even if one chooses poorly, one can choose and change again.  Conversely, even if one chooses wisely but then never changes again -- life will eventually pass them by, and leave them behind -- stuck in their ways, that while appropriate and advantageous in another time, no longer serves that purpose.

The great shift from the last century to this, is from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance -- and how one deals with it.  If one continues to consume as much as they can, that will be one's undoing -- in a world of plenty, when the advantage than goes to those who master restraint and discipline.  They will not clutter every inch of their living space so that there is no room to enjoy it.  That is the disease of the acquisitive and accumulative (possessive) personalities in times of scarcity -- that literally bury them when all manner of things are too abundant and accessible -- giving way to the excesses of the present in consumption for its own sake.

Sure, one can, but is it wise to do so?  When is enough, enough?  Even for the good things?  Even medicine abused, can be too much of a good thing.  Those were the excesses warned of even in the ancient times -- when assuredly, things were much scarcer -- even in the most prosperous civilizations.  But then, usually all the abundance could be had by only one --for their exclusive enjoyment, and so there was great striving to be that One.  Such a mentality now, is destructive and ruinous.  There is plenty to go around -- if nobody hoards it.

Hoarding is wanting things just for the sake of having them -- and not using them wisely, if at all.  In fact, that is a great part of the hoarder's joy -- that they never use it, or can enjoy doing so.  Eventually they hoard so much stuff that they just get buried in it -- thinking they can take it all with them into the afterlife.  And in that way, they sacrifice their present life -- not making the most of it, and the present time -- taking only what they truly need, and letting go of all the rest.

In that way, there is plenty to go around.  But not if they think they need to have it all -- and be that way for all eternity.