The best shit in life.
Unfortunately, it ain’t free.
When I say, “the best shit”, I’m thinking along the lines of a job that makes you want to get outta bed in the morning, a girl that makes people look twice, or some cagey looking abs that offend old ladies.
And when I say, “ain’t free”, I’m not saying that you can go out and get these things at The Dollar Store. I’m talking about sacrifices, choices, and hard work that turn into some of the most expensive lessons that life has to offer.
Cheap Lessons
When I was a kid, I can remember putting my hand on a hot stove and getting burned. If you have a normal functioning brain, you immediately learn that touching a hot stove is a bad idea.
And unless your name is Brennen, you never do it again.
This is a cheap lesson.
Expensive Lessons
As we get older, the lessons become less black and white.
We fall into a job we hate or we waste a few years of our lives on a relationship with someone that’s a shithead.
Both of these circumstances are the breeding grounds for expensive lessons. They cost us money, they steal our energy, and most importantly, they eat up our time.
The Good Stuff
Which invariably makes them valuable…. If we can learn from them.
You see, when I decided to keep burning my hand on the stove as a kid, it didn’t set me back very far. Yes, my mom would spank the shit outta me and yes, I couldn’t wipe my ass with that hand for a few days. But it never took me off my path.
The real problems start coming when we fail to learn from the lessons that cost the most.
Trample The Cheap & Seek The Costly
There’s no shortage of Dollar Store lessons out there for the taking. If we look for them, we can find them scattered all throughout our life. Although they might be useful for a cheap laugh in a newsletter someday, they don’t necessarily move the ball.
The real progress in life comes from the shit that lays dormant under the surface. The stuff that we know we need to fix and avoid for the same reason. These are the hard lessons and they’re the only ones that are worthwhile.
Because they hold the power to change the course of our lives. Whether that means making more money, finding the person of our dreams, or walking around the beach with a sixpack.
Shit, having the nerve to recognize them and the guts to act on the lessons they teach might even get us all three.
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