#3 — You begin to love your craziness (Because is your uniqueness.)
1. You are OK with impermanence
The universe makes room for greatness.
That’s what I talk to myself about when I lose something I love.
As Steve Jobs used to say, “The dots only connect backward.”
- When I lost my childhood friends, I asked myself, “why?”
- When my partner left me, I cried a lot.
- When I got fired, I felt like hell.
At first, I couldn’t see it, but I needed to make room for new things and people.
A friend tells me once, “Sometimes you just have to believe in life, AG.”
And It’s curious by doing it, you feel less pain. Avoiding resistance and accepting things the way they are is a superpower. Flow is everything in life.
First sign: You become wiser when you understand that you need to lose things to spend time on other things.
2. You begin to treat people better than they treat you
I’m the person people call when they have a problem. But the one they don’t call when they’re out having fun.
I’m the person people turn to when life beats them down. But the one people avoid when they’re doing well.
I’m the person who opens people’s eyes. Who tells them, “You’re worth more than you think,” but I’m also the person they abandon when they convince themselves how much they’re worth.
I’m that friend who is always there unconditionally.
The friend that everyone loves but few care for.
A cactus friend. Because, like cactus, I need little maintenance, a splash of water (attention or love) from time to time, and that’s it.
And it sucks. But I’m OK with that.
They don’t know that, above all else (even them), I am my friend. I learned that the hard way. And first, there’s me, second, there’s me, and third, there’s me. Because if I don’t have me, I can’t help anyone.
But I help whenever possible because I want this world to be better.
Second sign: A sign of wisdom is discovering that giving is better than receiving. And you begin to give to others without expecting much in return because you internalize how much truth there is in the phrase, “If you want a better world, start by changing your world.” And by helping others (without forgetting about yourself), you lead by example.
3. You begin to love your craziness
If you live like everyone else, you will only live an average life.
I don’t live like everyone else.
Many people think I’m crazy, sick, and mentally retarded.
And I don’t care.
I don’t read what everyone reads… Murakami says that if you read what everyone else reads, you can only think like everyone else.
I don’t always do the same thing… The absolute insanity, Albert Einstein said, is to do the same thing every day and expect different results.
They look at me funny, I know.
“You’re too old to be playing the next Mark Manson.”
“In the only thing you look like Tim Ferris is how little hair you have.”
I don’t give a f*ck what they think.
I embrace my craziness and protect it like an exotic treasure.
- Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was put in a psychiatric ward after discovering that mortality increased when doctors did not wash their hands before interventions.
- Nicola Tesla was treated as a madman.
- Galileo was condemned and persecuted for asserting that the earth was round.
The crazy ones are not the few who do but the many who criticize, says “You can’t do it.”
And it’s normal for them to treat you as crazy when you tell them, “Watch me, I’ll do it.”
So if I am crazy, blessed be this madness that makes me think differently and wants to progress.
Third sign: You embrace your craziness because you know that what happens is that you can see things that others cannot. You are ahead of your time in your subject matter. And you understand that you are treated as crazy because you are an innovator, even if no one else sees it yet.
Believing in yourself despite everyone else is a sign of wisdom.
Never forget it, believe in yourself.
It’s not madness. It’s uniqueness you have.
A virtual hug
AG