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Life is what you make of it ?

vince

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Oct 8, 2007
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Hi,

So many times I've read that life is what you make of it. Especially in new age articles, but I've also heard it a lot from ordinary (non-religious) people.

I think that's utter crap. Sure, we make a lot of personal choices and I hope everyone makes the vital ones consciously. But you can't get around the fact that more than half of the stuff that determines your happiness is already predetermined at birth (being born in the West or 3rd world countries, skin color, looks, personality genes, childhood outlook etc..). Not to mention that the relatively small changeable part of one's life that remains is still influenced very strongly by surroundings and most importantly other people's action. It happens every day that people's life are ruined by being around the wrong jackass at the wrong time. Or accidents etc..

I think at the end of one's life cycle only very few people can say that they had the freedom to live how they wanted it and that shaping one's own life is generally a fairytale to keep us all going.

Please discuss.
 

nanook

a scream in a vortex
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
1,361
live is a never ending multiple choice test. choices are made on your inside. that's where the criteria are understood. its the internal live that you can embrace or deny. this is the first choice, not in a linear understanding of the word "first", but in a triangle way of looking at it.
 

Lux

Kraken down on piracy
Joined
Aug 6, 2009
Messages
1,458
I was just thinking about this yesterday. Thanks for starting the thread. :) Please keep in mind I am speaking only for myself.
When I see the words "life is what you make of it," what comes to mind is that you are in control your own happiness.

It means to me that despite the things out of your control, you are the one who chooses how to let them (other people, unfortunate events, the weather, etc.) affect you, if you let them affect you at all. And if they do affect you negatively you are in control over how oppressive or how long a duration you let it last. No one can make you feel bad if you don't let them.

I realize that someone imposing their will upon another can take away the persons choices in a situation, but the person can either wallow in that injustice, or they can grow from it. It doesn't cost money to try to and improve, nor to try to be a good person, so everyone is on an even playing field in that respect.

But then again this is all coming from someone who was fortunate enough to have never faced hunger, or living in a third world country, so I don't know what that person would say.
 

wildcat

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Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
3,622
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INTP
Hi,

So many times I've read that life is what you make of it. Especially in new age articles, but I've also heard it a lot from ordinary (non-religious) people.

I think that's utter crap. Sure, we make a lot of personal choices and I hope everyone makes the vital ones consciously. But you can't get around the fact that more than half of the stuff that determines your happiness is already predetermined at birth (being born in the West or 3rd world countries, skin color, looks, personality genes, childhood outlook etc..). Not to mention that the relatively small changeable part of one's life that remains is still influenced very strongly by surroundings and most importantly other people's action. It happens every day that people's life are ruined by being around the wrong jackass at the wrong time. Or accidents etc..

I think at the end of one's life cycle only very few people can say that they had the freedom to live how they wanted it and that shaping one's own life is generally a fairytale to keep us all going.

Please discuss.
Yes.
Freedom is illusion.
Life is what is left.

It is made already.
Now is never.

How do we perceive?
Perception is reconstruction.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Hi,

So many times I've read that life is what you make of it. Especially in new age articles, but I've also heard it a lot from ordinary (non-religious) people.

I think that's utter crap. Sure, we make a lot of personal choices and I hope everyone makes the vital ones consciously. But you can't get around the fact that more than half of the stuff that determines your happiness is already predetermined at birth (being born in the West or 3rd world countries, skin color, looks, personality genes, childhood outlook etc..). Not to mention that the relatively small changeable part of one's life that remains is still influenced very strongly by surroundings and most importantly other people's action. It happens every day that people's life are ruined by being around the wrong jackass at the wrong time. Or accidents etc..

I think at the end of one's life cycle only very few people can say that they had the freedom to live how they wanted it and that shaping one's own life is generally a fairytale to keep us all going.

Please discuss.

This of course is true except if you live in a first world country and you are persistent, you have a good chance of getting what you want.

Of course it is easy to be derailed by bad company, by alcohol or drugs, or by a surprisingly wide range of hypnotic cults.

Alcohol or drugs or hypnotic cults are seductive and a surprising number are seduced.

But on the other hand many learn to stand on their own two feet without the aid of alcohol, or drugs or hypnotic cults.

So in a first world country, rich in resources, it is possible and desirable to enrich oneself morally, culturally and materially.

We only have to make a start.
 

Skyward

Badoom~
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
1,084
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9w1
Hi,

So many times I've read that life is what you make of it. Especially in new age articles, but I've also heard it a lot from ordinary (non-religious) people.

I think that's utter crap. Sure, we make a lot of personal choices and I hope everyone makes the vital ones consciously. But you can't get around the fact that more than half of the stuff that determines your happiness is already predetermined at birth (being born in the West or 3rd world countries, skin color, looks, personality genes, childhood outlook etc..). Not to mention that the relatively small changeable part of one's life that remains is still influenced very strongly by surroundings and most importantly other people's action. It happens every day that people's life are ruined by being around the wrong jackass at the wrong time. Or accidents etc..

I think at the end of one's life cycle only very few people can say that they had the freedom to live how they wanted it and that shaping one's own life is generally a fairytale to keep us all going.

Please discuss.

Really, I just think you need the right mindset. There is no goal in life except do the best with what you have. Some people, though are just stuck with so little that they can't do much anyway... :cry:
 

Gen

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Apr 26, 2007
Messages
319
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INTP
The eternal optimist says differently. The person who never turns bitter and gives everyone a second chance does too.

'Life is what you make of it' means that you can either see that you're kinda hungry or that you are in fact not starving and some people are. Or that at least you have a loving spouse. Or you love to paint and that's great. 'Life is what you make of it' means that what you focus on is what your life becomes about. If you focus on the good things you're happy; if you focus on the bad things you're not. There is not one person who is happy with every facet of their life but somehow some people with little to be happy about are happier than others with plenty.
 

Fluffywolf

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Almost, except that you're not the only one making the choices in your life, and choices that are made don't just affect the choicemaker, but other people as well. And you still depend on many factors that you can not influence or change.

But if there's a choice, it's up to you to make it.
 

Munchies

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you can still make something of it rather than not. and life is what you make of it, even if it interferes with others lives, or if yours is being interfered with. There is still always something to make out of it.
 

BlackCat

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Nov 19, 2008
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If you think that life is what you make of it, then life is what you make of it. If you think of life otherwise, then it will turn out otherwise. You create your own reality with your mind, so yep.
 

teslashock

Geolectric
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Oct 27, 2009
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Yes I agree with BC. That expression has more to do with your outlook and how you respond in the face of adversity. It's about the output from your psyche, not the input from your external world.

Sure, it's more difficult for some to make lemonade given their extremely bitter, rotten, or otherwise unusable lemons. If mine are juicier than the average person's because I grew up in a middle class family in the US, then it's easier for me to make my lemonade taste sweeter. However, that doesn't mean that it's less possible for the one with rotten lemons to just mold their perspective in a way that doesn't see rotten as an impassable roadblock when making the juice.

That's all that expression means. :)
 

vince

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The eternal optimist says differently. The person who never turns bitter and gives everyone a second chance does too.

Again, turning bitter is possibly not a personal choice but often an effect of whatever happened to you. My point of this thread perhaps is to say that it's probably not realistic to think that nothing can break you.


There is not one person who is happy with every facet of their life but somehow some people with little to be happy about are happier than others with plenty.

That's very well said and that's what I at least strive to do.
 

Little_Sticks

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Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
1,358
Hi,

So many times I've read that life is what you make of it. Especially in new age articles, but I've also heard it a lot from ordinary (non-religious) people.

I think that's utter crap. Sure, we make a lot of personal choices and I hope everyone makes the vital ones consciously. But you can't get around the fact that more than half of the stuff that determines your happiness is already predetermined at birth (being born in the West or 3rd world countries, skin color, looks, personality genes, childhood outlook etc..). Not to mention that the relatively small changeable part of one's life that remains is still influenced very strongly by surroundings and most importantly other people's action. It happens every day that people's life are ruined by being around the wrong jackass at the wrong time. Or accidents etc..

I think at the end of one's life cycle only very few people can say that they had the freedom to live how they wanted it and that shaping one's own life is generally a fairytale to keep us all going.

Please discuss.

YEAH WELL

You could try this. This is my currently preferred mode of thought.

“Laughter brings you to reality as it is. The world is a play of God, a cosmic joke..."
 
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