YOLO

"Kids" at the current time are completely misunderstanding this saying. "You only live once".

They use these words as an excuse to act completely and utterly stupid.

You only live once, so you should make the most of it, don't settle with having a average life unless that's what you want, go for your dreams and make sure you have a happy life with no regrets.

Picture all those teenagers who now use "YOLO" as an excuse to drink too much, take drugs, go home with someone you don't really know and have unprotected sex, 10 years later they will sit there thinking back to all the stupid mistakes they made, maybe with a child they had with a stranger, a STD that can never be cured, brain damage from alcohol or drugs... or maybe they won't even survive that long living that life. 

This is NOT making the most of your life, this is being an idiot who's trying to get themselves in serious trouble!

What YOLO is, is the principle of not saying "No, I'm too scared" to a dream you have all ways wanted to do, either to your self or anyone else! Don't let fear of the unknown stop you from accomplishing things in your life! 

When you are old your biggest regrets will be the dreams you never worked to make true! Make sure you try as much as you can to make your life what you want it to be so you won't have to look back and be disappointed in yourself. 

You will not be on your deathbed thinking "Yes I remember that party when I was 17, where I got SOOOO drunk and went home with that really cute guy! I barely remember what happened the next day but I woke up in his bed! THAT WAS LIKE SO TOTALLY AWESOME!" 

No. 

Just no.

This is a wonderful saying that tries to motivate people to follow their dreams and live a happy life! Use it for that! Not as a excuse to throw a rebellion against your parents.

The current way of following the saying is dangerous for your own health and others, not a way to be cool.

PS: I would like to add that even tho I mainly target young teenagers with this post there are many older morons who deserve a proper slap for still feeling the need to do this stuff.

Addiction

The word addiction should be split into two parts, one for the people who are physically addicted to stuff, drugs, alcohol ect... And another part for the ones that are addicted to chocolate, video games and such.

When someone tells me "I'm addicted to *****" I take that as a serious thing, as in you cannot go a day without it without feeling sick, even if you have a busy day where you don't have time to get bored and miss it you still feel sick from the lack of it. 

In my opinion this is addiction.These are the people I feel sorry for and want to help!

The people who say they are addicted to chocolate... It annoys me to be honest. I've seen a lot of addiction go about and to me it's a sensitive subject and I don't like it when people claim to be "addicted" and expect sympathy from the people around them just because they like eating chocolate when bored.

If you have ever been addicted to a substance that does not give you a physical effect from using it, let's continue using chocolate as an example for now: You have had a super busy day! Where you had no time to get bored and think "what to do now" at the end of the day, think back. Have you had any chocolate that day? Did you go around missing it all day? That's unlikely.

Some people convince themselves they are addicted to activities they enjoy, or they use the word "addiction" as an excuse to continue doing it. I do not respect these addictions to be completely honest, I am aware that the word addiction means : mood altering substance or behavior despite adverse consequences. So really it does cover it all! I can be addicted to tapping a pen on the table and making that annoying little clicking noise over and over... As long as I like it and keep doing it instead of doing homework, I am addicted!

But really can you compare this with being addicted to crack? Or alcohol? No! You can't. This is why there should be two different words for these completely different situations you can be in because one deserves a lot more attention then the other.

The "strong" kind of addiction, drugs and alcohol and such, these need medical help, not all become addicted to these either but you can actually get physically addicted to it, where you get really really sick if you don't have it, that's an addiction that you need to get help with and a lot of people continue having troubles with it their entire life.

This "weaker" kind of addiction is more of a mental addiction,  you want to do that instead of facing what you really should do, cos this is an easier way out.

It's not a medical condition that I will feel sorry for you for having if you just prefer playing a video game instead of doing real life stuff, it is hard to stop doing what feels better over what is hard work and effort. Video games are designed to make you want to play more, and do better, but that does not mean every person that ever plays it will get addicted, only some people do, mostly people that want to hide from reality, focusing on a game distracts you from other worries you might have and makes you only feel what is then happening in the game.

If it becomes a problem for you living your life because of a video game, is this an addiction that needs therapy? Or is the real thing you need help with the stuff that made you want to escape reality in the first place? If you focus your efforts on making your life better instead of playing this game then you will no longer feel the need to hide inside a game.

If your sad and eat chocolate then deal with what makes you sad, don't eat chocolate to feel better. This is about dealing with your problems and taking control of your life instead of dealing with the consequences of not doing it in the first place.

In general I feel if you just deal with your problems in life and don't tell yourself your "addicted" to stuff you enjoy doing but who has no actual effect on you physically you will be better off. 

I enjoy chocolate probably more then the average person, but I know not to eat it whenever I feel like it, it's simple enough that you resist your urge to eat it sometimes. Self control is not fun all the time, but nothing good comes for free. 

So the point of this rant... How can we call these two things addiction? The same word? It feels wrong to me. 

Change it

Are you really displeased with how your life is at the moment? Can't sleep at night because there is so much stuff on your mind that you could only hope to ever get off it!

You know what is the only way to fix it? Do something about it! 
Even if you fail at changing anything, at least you tried, and it's not like  not trying at all was helping either?

All most anything can be fixed with effort and time, but there is rarely a quick fix sadly!

If you want to change your life, only you can do this, and you are going to have to work hard no matter how little or big the part you want to change is.

You want a change? YOU have to change! No one else can help you, it's got to be all you, all the way.

ESPECIALLY if you are the problem, if you are not happy with yourself, how can anyone else fix that for you? Step up to the plate, not for anyone or anything else then for yourself, change how you think and in the end you will be happier.

If you manage to go through this alone, you will come out a so much stronger person that you would ever believe you could be! It's an amazing feeling when you can say you don't call someone else every time you don't know what to do, you just fix it, it's kinda called... being a independent adult actually!

When you are at a point where you fix your own problems, be the problem love, money, depression or anything else really, when you fix it all yourself, and you don't just sit around crying about it expecting some miracle to come along... then you my friend, are an independent human being! Go you!

Some people need to just man up and sort it themselves, and I am hoping that reading this will motivate some of them to do so. But odds are it will most likely make them feel a bit more shit about themselves and they will sit on their arse and think " I wish someone else could make me feel better now ".

If you get insulted by this and I annoyed you now, maybe you are one of those people who need to change something then? Because if you are happy with yourself you will simply nod in agreement!

Just want to add that I do not mean this to all people in all cases, if you get bullied or in real trouble, off course you should ask for help from other people! But I'm assuming people can see what I mean unless you are trying to look for something to say I was wrong about! :p 

And if you say you can't change, then at least don't whine about it not changing.

Higher Education

I got a problem with how the general higher education is done considering student motivation and followup to make sure they do what they need to.

I realize that in that after high school you are pretty much meant to be taking care of your own learning and finishing school on your own. But... how does this work really... before and up to high school you get a lot of help from teachers and the school does it's very best to help you succeed and pass your exams. 

And as soon as you get to the education that is going to make or break your future career it's your responsibility, no one to look over your shoulder, no one to make sure you do actually study, and no one to check if you really are ready for your exams when they come up. Kids that go right from high school to some form for higher education. It's kind of a shock for kids how much they can now decide what they do or not do considering school, a lot of them can't handle doing this on their own yet. 

You are much more likely to finish your exams well if you go back to school later in life, then you know how to take responsibility and you know you have to work hard to get it done, but a lot of people have never been faced with this before! It's not their fault they fail... They are kind of set up to fail to be honest.

If the government hire someone, maybe a shrink or just someone who can talk to these kids, so they have someone to give them an idea of how much school work they need to do each week not to get totally screwed over by the exams at the end of a semester. It might cost them a bit, but how many of these kids who fail their exams will end up living on disability checks in the end? Not all, but a fair amount! Quite sure it would be better off in the long run to just pay some people to help them in the start instead, and a lot of people would be happier! It would change quite a few lives. 

Holiday Traditions

While doing a paper for social studies about how the typical Norwegian family celebrates a few different holidays I had a realization.. What about the people that don't have family around, who don't have a bunch of traditions to go through, who spend these holidays alone. What do they do?

I actually have NO clue what those people do! At all! But I've come up with some theories!

1. They pool together money for a massive party! People from all across the country come to this one house where they celebrate the fact that they don't have to do ANY silly traditions that your family insists you should! They hire people from all across the world to entertain them! Loads of drinks and food served! And just party the entire day!

2. It's a conspiracy .... These are the people that watch over us.. and keep us in line... And on holidays when everyone is doing stuff.. They sneak into the houses while you go to church, visit family or stuff like that! Plant video cameras in your house and watches your every move! Dun dun dun... Scary shit! 

3. Giant squids stole their family and is keeping them hostage for as long as these people take to gather all of Norway's Oil supply and give it to them! 

BUT, on a more serious note: why are they alone? I'm sure they all got some friends that could have room for one more at their table! If they want to be alone sure, but I'm quite convinced they would still appreciate the offer. Most people don't wish to be alone, especially not during holidays, take a friend into your home and let them be a party of your family for a day instead. 

I love you all lonely people! <3 You can come visit me any holiday! (This statement does not count for my friends who might want to take advantage.)

Motivation

Motivation, do you have to wait for it to come to you, or make it yourself?

Either way you don't get much done without it! 

The biggest issue for me is motivating myself to do stuff that I should, but don't HAVE to do...

Especially if only I benefit from it! Maybe that's some kind of backwards selfishness! 

- Clean the house because it annoys me it's dusty... Not worth it. Clean the house because a friend is coming over... Done in 5 min. 

- Cook dinner for yourself? Nope! Cook dinner for guests? Well off course!  How many dishes!?

Maybe I should start promising my friends I will do my studies two nights a week... wonder if that would be enough to motivate me!

Usually other people fail at motivating each other... To some extent I believe it is possible, everyone has to find what motivates them and maybe someone else can help you find that thing. 

But motivation by force and guilt can only get you that far. You have to find that spark inside yourself, the part of you that when you feel like giving up and just going to bed and sleep for a year it tells you that you can keep going, you are too strong to give up now! That little spark is what everyone needs to succeed in life. Pretty much that simple! Your life is shit? Motivation will keep you going for as long as it takes for you to find a way to change it! 

I personally find mine when I'm low by just relaxing and thinking to myself, where am I at if I don't do this, is it going to be very bad or semi bad... Then I start by doing the stuff that is going to be really bad if I don't bother with, and usually by the time I finish that I think to myself "Ugh now it's barely anything left, if I do the rest too I can do nothing at all for ages!" 

By thinking this way I usually get stuff done quite fast, as the temptation of not having to do anything usually outweighs my need to sit still. 

But I'm quite curious on how people find their motivation to be honest, so for the first time I'm asking! How do you find your motivation to do stuff when you just do not want to do anything at all?

Cause and effect

Fascinating subject! This concept seems to be completely lost on some people in this world. I thought it was quite well known how this works, but off course I have a tendency to overestimate the human race now a days. 

So this is how it works:

-You break a window over your head? - It will rain glass on your face

-You don't want to eat healthy? - You will be unhealthy

-You sow flower seeds in your yard - You get a pretty garden

-You hug someone - You get a hug (yay! :D)

(The following situations are fictional and not based on a true story or person.)

 Now if this is manageable let's go advanced:

-You as a kid bully someone  - They become your future boss and make your life hell

-You talk shit about your friends behind their back - You don't have any good friends 

I can go on and on with examples all night but let's stop here, I hope the people who this concerns get the idea by now. 

What I'm trying to say in short is : If you act like a douche, it's going to come back and bite you in the arse!

And a tip to the people who listen to the ones that don't get this concept, when they come to you and ask: "Why did this happend to me, it's so unfair." 

Just tell them.. tell them they had it coming... tell them it's their own fault.... tell them to think BEFORE they act. Not doing this have hurt a lot of people over the times, and all because of them not bothering to think what the results might be. It is unfair to everyone involved.