A Note On the Eve of 2022 (Patreon)

  I'd wanted to get a backer insight/preview up tonight, but I'd had some render issues, so look out for it during the week.

  That said, it seems a good time to simply reminisce and galvanize going into this New Year, being 2022. This will be a somewhat sentimental post, but for whatever reason I'm compelled to make it. If you're just here for the action (you degenerates!), keep an eye out (and hey, we're all here for the action at the end of the day, myself included, so no hard feelings).

  Any moment in time can be a chance for retrospection, but the end of the year gifts us a tangible and social opportunity to do so. Over the past year, something has gradually become more clear to me. Murky water slowly turned opaque as the sediment of restlessness subsides.

  Life is short. Really short, and it gets shorter the more you live it.

  I know a number of us here have struggles, mental, financial, physical, or social, that have kept us from pursuing the things we want to do, or becoming the person we want to be. I know plenty of us deal with mental health, trying to stay above water in an increasingly turbulent world. Many of us have turned inward, to our crutches and vices to find some semblance of solace that we can hang onto. I understand, and I've been there.

  I want to tell you that you will die far sooner than you imagine. And that's a good thing! I want you to evaluate the things in your life that you do, and take stock of how they contribute to who you want to become. Are they helping you, or are they standing in your way?

  If you don't know who you want to become, visualize it. There's no time limit; think it over, taking care to be both realistic and unabashedly optimistic. This isn't simply a thought exercise, but a goal. All goals start in the mind; through our actions and convictions, we manifest them in reality.

  There's no sense living in fear. You will never be totally rid of it, but you can tame it. When you recognize how short our time here is, you may develop a sense of urgency, and further, a sense of righteous recklessness. A sense of determination that you are to “get yours” while the getting is good (I.E., while you are present in this life. Right now).

  I know some of you may have been dealt a particularly difficult hand of cards in this life. For you, I'd simply say that whatever your situation is, there is still a prime version of you out there in the psycho-sphere. Life isn't fair, but you can be fair to yourself.

  I grew up with OCD. Not “meme” OCD, as in “I'm such a clean freak, I'm so OCD”, but actual “I'm losing my will to live because every day I'm turning a light-switch off/on 20 times, or picking up/setting down a book over and over and over to make sure all four corners touch simultaneously.” I also dealt with thought-loops running ad nauseam. Some people call OCD the “what if?” disease, as you can become paralyzed with indecision as your mind repeats these loops. I've been able to overcome it with great success, due in part to the addition of one life-changing word to the equation.

  “What if not?”

  You'll never know the perfect answer, or the perfect action, so you may as well do whatever the hell it is you want to do and find out. You've nothing to lose, and the whole world to gain.

  I'm not going to wish you a happy New Years. I don't wish, and I don't have faith. I have conviction based upon lived experience. Confirm your beliefs, or destroy them in search of something better. Live your life the way you define it, and live without fear.

  Let's manifest a bountiful and powerful 2022, together. 

  I love you all!