[Silenced]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not necessarily indifferent, it just got to point where the only emotions I knew were pain and sadness, and it was killing me inside. Now I'm half dead, yearning to live but waiting to die. I can't form real relationships with people because I don't view them as such, and I'm not motivated to take on life because I don't see myself as being truly alive. My only real passion comes from hatred, something my rational mind won't ever allow me to embrace.

Have you ever tried anti-depressants or a therapist. If that fails there is cocaine or several other drugs you might like. This is not a joke. Nor is it meant to be mean.

 

[TheAudioDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silenced /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you ever tried anti-depressants or a therapist. If that fails there is cocaine or several other drugs you might like. This is not a joke. Nor is it meant to be mean.

You mean music isn't an anti-depressant and/or therapy?

< Look how happy they all are!

Although, it might cost the same as cocaine and other drugs...

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Camper /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow! I thought there would be some pretty cool stories but for the most part it's been like waiting outside the Dentist's office for a root canal. Of course life blows. It's up to you to find compromises (gray poupon) that make the caca sandwiches a little more tasty. If you choose to grovel in the quagmire of what life offers, you deserve it. Let's end the pity party and figure out how to make life worth waking up for. I'm sure if everyone gave you disappointment in their lives, you'd find your trials aren't so bad. If you could hear testimonies of some of our successful members, they would tell you they have calloused behinds on their way through life. They figured out how to take from life what they wanted and stopped taking what was given. New year........ PS I was that troubled kid. I had many people trying to help and no one understood the weight of it all. It wasn't until people stopped trying to help and said to hell with you if you aren't willing to help yourself that I started finding self confidence and direction of purpose in life. I've learned that if you lend people a hand, they will be better for it. If you give them a handout, they never change.

That's pretty much it.

Though I disagree about the root canal.

I had one a few years back and it wasn't anything like the dread I had for it. My dentist and his staff are way cool, so I just relaxed and it wasn't half bad. I only needed aspirin for a day or two.

Life deals out some pretty bad crap. I've been there and so have a lot of other people.

The critical points are to accept whatever happened and to stop thinking about it. Sitting around thinking about whatever happened only makes you miserable. It never, ever makes things better. So stop. Pick yourself up and try something else. That's all you can do. There's always a new direction to try.

Further, no one ever feels sorry for someone stuck on a past hurt. You'll get a little sympathy and most won't be outwardly mean to you, but no one wants to hang around someone mired in misery. Again, pick yourself up and go on. Don't tell people about the bad stuff unless you know someone going through the crap. Then it's OK to swap war stories and tell him or her how you got out of it. That actually serves a purpose instead of being a pity onanist.

 

[That dude]

I just want to go back to the time when I was of acceptable weight and put the damn fork down! I once, when I was 8 or 9 years old, accidentally gave $50 to a beggar on the street cause I mistook it for a $1 note. It hurt like hell but it taught me to be more alert and careful.

Happy New Year Guys...

 

[dj_mocok]

All I want is just to sleep on Jennifer Connelly's lap in spring time.

 

[Leonchan]

I'd wish I wasn't so much of a slacker back then, I didn't give a damn about anything, and that has gotten me nowhere. I missed out on a lot of stuff too, because I didn't took the opportunity or messed it up when it was right in front of me. My esteem was low, and never tried my best.

 

[Afrodisiac]

From what I can see with the money people spend as a result of Head-Fi recommendations, I would have never joined; there's a limit to the amount of hobbies my wallet can sustain

 

[Kpalsm]

I've had a rough life, but I've no regrets either, save perhaps one. I wish I had been more musically active in my younger years, as in learning to play an instrument. I love playing bass now, and I started when I was 18. I can only imagine how good I would be now if I had started when I was 12. It's much easier to learn anything as a child than it is as an adult, at least I find, though I'm getting pretty good

 

[Happy Camper]

If I could do one thing over, I would have kept my zipper locked until I could figure out what it was all about. A child at 17 should not be having babies. Our child died (8 mos) and neither of us had children again. I regret that decision.

 

[lmilhan]

Holy crap. Hearing about other people's horrible lives/problems makes me realize just how great my life is...


At any rate, my "mulligan" would be to invest 15% of my annual income starting at age 13 (when I got my first paying job), and continued to do that for the rest of my working life. I would have invested in well diversified, low cost indexed mutual funds - a total bond market fund, a total domestic stock market fund, and total international stock market fund. I would have gone with an asset allocation that matched my age in bonds and the rest in stock (this asset allocation would change each year as I aged, of course). I would have followed this investing plan to the letter, and I would have never, ever deviated from the plan, regardless of how well (or poorly) the stock market performed from year to year. All the while I would have avoided Debt completely (except MAYBE for a low interest mortgage for a modest house).

If I could take a mulligan and follow that investing plan, I estimate that I could retire in about 11 years at age 50, and I would be quite (independently) wealthy - to the point where I could very comfortably live off of the interest earned by the enormous nest egg that I had accumulated.

But since I can't change the past, I will continue forward with my plan - I'll still be ok, with a very tidy sum waiting for me at retirement, but sadly that will not be until I am around the "normal" retirement age (65).


So my mulligan is a bit long winded, but for all of you young folks out there I want to shout the following message to you: FOLLOW THAT INVESTING PLAN TO THE LETTER IF YOU WANT TO RETIRE AND BE INDEPENDENTLY WEALTHY AT AN EARLY AGE! THE EARLIER YOU START, THE MORE WEALTHY YOU WILL BECOME, AND THE SOONER YOU CAN RETIRE.

Trust me on this one, I know what I am talking about...

I wish someone would have beaten this investing advice into my head when I was a youngster.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not necessarily indifferent, it just got to point where the only emotions I knew were pain and sadness, and it was killing me inside. Now I'm half dead, yearning to live but waiting to die. I can't form real relationships with people because I don't view them as such, and I'm not motivated to take on life because I don't see myself as being truly alive. My only real passion comes from hatred, something my rational mind won't ever allow me to embrace.

You might seek out WHY the greater aspect of yourself chose to create your existence and challenge you with all these negative things. Though, how successful anyone is in that endeavour depends on how sincere they are.

As for the OPs question: I have too many times I wish I'd thought out my decisions better. Sometimes these happen daily and I wonder What I was thinking when I made a stupid choice.

 

[Pepsi]

Mine would definitely be keeping my zipper locked also. Being a stupid horny 17 year old, i got the meanest ill minded girl pregnant. She told her family, and all they were worried about was saving face, they all agreed to having an abortion, and so i watched on the sidelines as she got drunk, smoked, and rolled X with my child, eventually leading to its death. I don't know what i would want another crack at, not getting her pregnant or fighting harder to stop the abortion.

 

[righteousball]

Not to play second fiddle, but I suspect my life has degrees of similarities to what kirosia's described here. The relationship with people thing, and the not motivated thing. Both are very difficult and painful, and not helped by the sentiments of people like happy camper.

Apart from trying to figure out what mulligan means, mine would be: Throughout 1999 I went through a number of relationship-related events back to back that have probably destroyed my self-esteem. And honest to god, that's probably you can see me here in a forum, doing the interwebs social circuit today: the need to prove that I am not a loser. I need to not care about what you might think of me, which in itself came out of a series of decisions in the first place. I'd like to undo those.

 

[Happy Camper]

Brothers, tough love is sometimes a hard pill. I'm going through hardships in my life now like I never have. There will be a tomorrow. It's up to me to direct my foot and hand. How I decide will determine my life. As stacked as the world seems to me now, I know there will be an end when I take one problem at a time and resolve it one way or another.

No one is a loser. Every person has value to mankind and they have to find where they fit in. We aren't pre-positioned and slotted to a life of failure or pain. It's how we deal with the problems that make us who we are.

I hope everyone will have a better year and gain the strength to rise above their issues a better person (in your eyes) for them.

 

[righteousball]

See, perhaps those words are what you need to feel better - maybe you have been brought up to feel that you *need* to take that POV or you'd feel guilty about something at some point, but for me, those are ultimately empty words. They don't point me in the right direction, and I can't help but feel accused when I see those kinds of messages. It's not like I don't make an effort.

I've been a student of positive reinforcement for a very long time, but let me just say that in my life experience, cause and effect links in life is generally very weak and skewed. Most of my efforts have unintended effects, or they go wasted because what I see as important is at odds with what others feel, and then they tend to just strike me out on technicalities. "not logical enough" - since when has logic gotten people anywhere? Most decisions I've made on the premise of sound logic ("this way I can save $xxx", "this way I don't have to run back again") have rarely made me happy, if ever.