Time is precious. We all know that. Yet, although we know how special time is for each of us, we still often tend to set aside its importance, believing that we have a lot of it ahead of us.
The expectancy of a person in this developed world of the twenty-first century is 80 years. This seems to be a very long time at first glance, but when you compare it to the length of our ancestors’ period of existence million years ago, you’ll realize that eight decades is really a short period of time. In fact, you are lucky enough to reach your 80s these days!
The typical life cycle goes like learning how to walk and talk, developing attitude and personality until reaching 18 years old, graduating college, and landing a job— then the real-life starts at this moment.
Real-life begins at 22-23 to 65 years old since it gets relatively hard to function as an individual after the time span given. Because as with age comes various disabilities that make it hard to walk, think, or live properly. Health declines past 65 years old, so it only makes sense.
So, these questions remain: How do we spend our time wisely in our best years? Is it necessary to work a 9-5 job, living from paycheck-to-paycheck until the time of retirement? Is it normal to desperately wish that it’s already the weekend to finally enjoy life? The answers to these questions lie within your heart.
Once you reach the age of 25, you will only have 2085 weeks (or 40 years) left to appreciate life. However, the problem is that most people don’t take the best advantage of it because we are not taught how to live right. In schools, we were only taught academic lessons like Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, but not life.
One of the best books that can help you make the best out of life is the Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. This unique masterpiece points out the five most important lessons that people learn too late in life:
The Law of Compulsive Behavior
No man is an island. No one has ever accomplished something great alone. In looking for someone you’ll be in your journey, you will encounter people who mask themselves as nice, hardworking, and charming. But don’t ever let the image distract you from who they are, or else you will lose years of valuable time.
A person’s character gets formed by the habits they created in the early stages of their life. You have to examine this. These habits are what drive people to repeat particular actions. Close closely into such patterns.
It is essential to measure the relative strength of their character by assessing how well they handle adversity, how well they adapt, their patience, how they work with other people, and their capacity to learn things.
The law of compulsive behavior states that people don’t do anything just once in their life. They inevitably redo any bad actions. So, if you want to have good people around you, gravitate towards people who exhibit strength and stay away from toxic ones.
The Law of Short-Sightedness
It is human nature to desire things that you don’t have and continually desire more. How many times have you told yourself, “Once I get this, I’ll be contented”? And then, after actually getting it, your eyes landed on a newly released limited edition item and began another “I will be contented next time around” cycle?
Admit it or not, people proceed into liking something else the moment they get what they want. This phenomenon is termed the-grass-is-always-greener syndrome.
Sometimes we tend to like things thinking that they will make us happy just to find out later that getting what we thought we have always wanted isn’t satisfying. And although we know this, we still pursue our next desire with the hopes of grasping happiness the next time around.
Let’s take a relationship, for example. Relationships aren’t always exciting. It isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Once you spend a lot of time with your partner, it becomes a little boring. This may be why many people look at other people even though they are already in a relationship.
Rather than looking for the perfect man or woman who will keep the butterflies in your stomach, accept their shortcomings and imperfections. Try to find the charm in their weaknesses, make the most out of their weaknesses and learn the art of compromising.
See Through People’s Mask
People are like the moon, which only shows the side it wants people to see. They wear hundred different masks to show off themselves in the best possible way they can, portraying a different image than who they truly are.
Other people may sit at the table with you, sharing funny jokes and lending an ear to seem interested in your ideas, but behind that mask may lie negative bias and debauchery against you. Corrupted politicians are examples of that.
Fortunately, all masks that we wear have cracks on them. Thus, no matter how hard we try to hide our feelings, there are times that they just leak out uncontrollably. Sometimes we cannot control our facial expressions, body tension, nervous gestures, and vocal inflection.
People learn too late in life that if someone likes and is comfortable with you, they will not be so protective of their body and stand near you without awkward tension. If someone has special feelings for you, their pupils will dilate, and their eyes will widen at the sight of you.
The Law of Irrationality
We always make plans for ourselves, thinking that we are the ones in control of our fates. But the truth is, most of the time, our emotions dominate us.
Our irrational emotions make us see only the things that we want to see, and this disconnection from reality can be a source of a bad decision that can ruin our life. Emotional impulses constantly guide us, and so we tend to seek pleasure, dodge pain, and do things that will comfort our ego.
