How can you be sure

It may seem like an easy question. When do you know something? Is it at the end of the poker game where you win and might say ‘I told you so’, or when you make a turn and crash your car into another one thinking ‘I knew it’. That doesn’t sound so difficult, does it?
But what if your questions are ‘is this the work I want to do till I grow old’ or ‘is this girl worth rethinking one to 26 thousand decisions’? When can you trust someone with your problems? When can you do anything you like without feeling ashamed even the tiniest bit? When can you be 100 percent sure to call some place ‘home’?

The answer is: we can’t be sure, ever. Except maybe that instant of a second where our perception meets our expectation. But as soon as that happens there is no open question anymore. For the interesting answers that probably means that your life is about to end. Then you can finally say: that pizza in that small restaurant in 1999 was truly the best I’ve ever had.
So, how can we find our answers until then? What base shall we build our decisions onto? How to live a life without regrets?
I don’t know – nobody does (or else they’re lying)!
The only thing you can do is to learn to accept and to live with the decisions you once made!

Entscheidungsfreudiges Abwarten

Dieser Eintrag ist eigentlich 8 Tage alt. Aber eben doch nicht. Sind Entscheidungen also wirklich so schwer zu treffen? Treffen wir nicht tausende Entscheidungen pro Tag? Was macht eine gute Entscheidung aus? Ist es wichtig, dass alle möglichen Kriterien miteinbezogen werden?
Das Problem an so einer Auswahlmöglichkeitsfestlegung ist wohl unser eigenes Unwissen. Und natürlich unsere Angst davor. Jemand der sich seiner selbst nicht bewusst ist, neigt auch zu schnellen Entscheidungen, hat er doch nichts zu befürchten, da er doch nichts weiß. Gut, also grundsätzlich würde ich sagen, ist es schon gut einiges zu wissen. Beim Fallschirmsprung allerdings nicht 10 Minuten überlegen zu müssen um den Fallschirm auszulösen ist trotzdem ein erheblicher Vorteil. Das mag jetzt banal klingen – aber viele Antworten aus denen wir auswählen müssen sind dies auch. Wir wissen es bloß nicht.
Moment – wissen wir jetzt zuviel und können uns dadurch nicht entscheiden, oder doch zu wenig? Man könnte eventuell sagen: das Wissen, dass wir zu wenig wissen ist schon Wissen genug um unsere Auswahlgeschwindigkeit in die Länge zu ziehen. Doch was können wir jetzt dagegen tun? Wie können wir Spontanität trainieren?

Wie wäre es zB damit kurze Texte über selbst er- oder gefundene Themen zu verfassen. Diese sollen sich verständlich anhören und in irgendeiner Weise doch aus der Nase gezogen sein. Und, nein, meine Einträge beruhen auf jahrelangen wissenschaftlichen Studien mit vielen Formeln und Ergebnissen. Oder doch nicht?
Heutige Aufgabe: überrasche dich selbst!

Surprise:
..with dance at YouTube ~ and Mr. Vader is worth the wait
..with pictures from icanhascheezburger.com ~ bite me!
..or with interesting text ~ see “Der Ausdämpfer” by Mr. Haipl

How to cry over spilled milk

If your problem is to be understood metaphorical the answer might be: don’t cry – someone else will, probably nine month later. But that’s not what I meant. A typical reaction is to blame someone else. Especially, when others are around. Typically, it’s even someone you believe in. Your god, parents, siblings or your companion. So, if you are the one blamed for someone else’s mistakes you’re allowed to feel honored.
It’s worse when you know it’s your own fault. Cause, let’s be honest, where is the fun in being stupid? On the other hand, there is some fun in that. This expression makes even more sense when you know that my case is about a dislocated arm. Alright, we’ve come to the realisation phase and know it has been our own mistake. So, how do we work it out? Now, don’t say: with the other arm, I didn’t mean that.

One of the most important things is to learn to live with wrong decisions. You have different ways to do that. One would be to regret these decisions and try to memorise them each time you have to make comparable decisions again. Another one is to deny any responsibility and blame your life or other unimportant ghosts you believe in for all times. Anyway, my favourite one is to regret nothing at all. Enjoy every pain and flaw and make the best out of it. That’s really hard and hurts a lot, but there’s no better feeling than the knowledge of being infallible.
Who said it wasn’t our plan to wipe out ourselves at all?

You don’t fool me

On certain things in life we have absolutely no influence whatsoever. People die everyday and most of us may not be the cause for that ..I hope ..well, at least I’m not the one pushing cigarettes into your mouth. No discussion about the hard-fought vitamin sticks here – that’s not what I meant. There are specific events in everyones life where our predictions are just correct. We know what is going to happen (see When we see the blood prior to the cut). We know what would be the appropriate thing to do. Still, we don’t do it or do something else.
This may raise the questions on the existence of determination, free will, spirits, ghosts and the perfect chocolate cream. Alright, maybe I drifted a bit away. The problem comes with the environment we see everything in. More theoretically, it’s our own angle of view we rely on. So, when you see yourself standing in the supermarket in front of the beverages, you find yourself thinking about a free decision which drink to purchase. As soon as you virtually make one step back, you see hundreds of advertisements for the drink you are about to indulge. Switch to the third person view and zoom out of the store. You’ll see your workplace and your free will of choosing right that department store. The bird’s-eye view gives you further insight into your working environment where your colleges told you about that specific shopping centre. And this goes on and on.

If we’d finally zoom out the entire universe and, as wee addition, would be able to understand it. We’d probably find out that everything has it’s reasons and determination. Regardless, we can’t blame the higher reason instead of the rapist. Everybody has a choice, because we don’t know any life but ours.
It’s up to you!

To know what you want

How do you make the right decisions about your future? How to decide if you want to study or start working, to start a family or to climb the business ladder, to go abroad or to settle down? Such choices influence probably a period of five to 10 years of your life. When you think about children the commitment lasts even longer. (Even without commitment the monetary issues will hound you!) So shall we write a chart with all positives and negatives or just hand over the steering wheel to our guts?
I think a lot of truth goes down the toilet, so your digestive tracts are pretty good as it comes to the small questions in life. But when it’s about the massive questions, I think you’re doing good in investing as much time as possible to evaluate the various outcomes. Sometimes it’s helpful to ask people you don’t know well. They don’t care much about your feelings, which is the reason they will tell you their opinion for sure most of the time.

Another suggestion is to tell your questions as what they are – just questions, but not as crucial points and the ‘big search for a solution’. Most people couldn’t even imagine the situation you’re actually in, so why bother them with your core issues. Also, why should you bother yourself with hours of answers you could make abstract movies out of nobody would want to watch instead of taking sleeping pills?
yvan eht nioJ!

When the world is not enough

Water. The source of all life as we know it. Also, the most important resource for some action sports. If it doesn’t come pouring from above and instead is lying on the ground. In the more solid state, of course. What’s even better than sliding down a mountain atop of water crystals? Doing so and thinking of nothing else! I would almost compare this extraordinary feeling to diving somewhere entirely free. Being weightless. Genial, if you ignore the pain in your bones and muscles, when your last ‘sliding down the hills with full physical exertion’ experience happened already some while ago.
The art is, as in most disciplines, going to the edge of everything possible without stepping over. You’ll succeed when you stop and don’t need immediate medical attention.

What’s more, when you realise you did something you couldn’t do yesterday, you get this great feeling of live experience. Every step forward means further possibilities and a mind more open to other influences. Most of the time there is no wrong decision except standing still and doing nothing. Nevertheless, every new experience bears also the risk of failure. Often, even failures will help you on, but sometimes.. well, we got pretty good medical support.
No risks, no organ donations!

When it’s not about knowledge

Some say it’s all about wisdom and experience. You are what you learn to be. I know that I know little, but what does it matter? Someone who knows 50 percent more is not necessary 50 percent better. Well, it may apply to a language translation Computer. On the other hand, if you know more does it mean that you decide slower because you have to think about more aspects, or does it give you the option to think about more possibilities?
In the case of the language translation system it would reduce the evaluation speed. So what about the complex human mind? Are we really able to think harder or is thinking what we do even when we’re trying to think about nothing?

Does it make us happier to know more? Do we want to be happier? I think it has nothing to do with knowledge at all. It is about specific personal demands. When the only thing you request is a glass of water, you’ll be fine in most places you stray. Just try to remember that some weirdo filled 97 percent of earth surface with water that’s a bit salty. However, if you make yourself a highly sophisticated 25-year career and social plan for your future, the only thing you’ll probably get is a headache, gastric problems or the issue of making your last exit before reaching upper management.
Happiness must be some kind of marketing gag!