Beyond weather, Karma, and the Herd

Ultimately, there is only one of 4 ways we end up living:

1. Happy/vigorous:
Choosing growth, curiosity and courage as a default setting, not as a weekend activity.

2. The safe life:
You aim to avoid risk, avoid big highs (because the “fall” scares you), avoid exposure and spontaneity, and optimise for “nothing goes wrong”.

3. Live reactively:
You follow the herd, do what family/society says, and keep responding to events as they come - never truly designing your own life.

4. Life is karma (only suffering):
You pre-suppose that life is meant to be hard because of “past karma”, and your main strategy is only to endure.

Most people drift into and oscillate between 2, 3 and 4. The problem is that none of these were conscious choices.

The real question: How to choose option 1?
“Live happily” is easy advice, on the other hand choosing this option 1 as your default setting requires a fair degree of skill.

The “secret sauce” sits in three brutal but liberating practices:

Practice a) Fail, almost on purpose:
Treat failure as raw material, not a verdict.
Fail, analyse, extract one clear lesson, move. Repeat. When you can almost gleefully mine your failures for insight, you stop fearing life and start playing it fully. Failure stops being a fear when it becomes your favourite teacher.

Practice b) Take ruthless responsibility:
Everything that happens in your life is your responsibility.
Not your parents, spouse, boss, economy, friends...noone at all. Missed your flight because of traffic? You own it.
Got drenched in rain? You own it.
That level of ownership changes how you plan, act and grow.
Responsibility is not about blame. It is about reclaiming your power.

Practice c) You are not your mind:
Your thoughts and emotions are events, not commands.
You are the master; the mind is the tool. No thought or emotion should be allowed to drive the car of your life on its own.
You notice it, name it, and then choose your response. When you stop obeying every feeling, you start designing your reality.

When you make a), b), c) work together:
You are no longer scared of failing + you proactively start extracting lessons from life.
You stop outsourcing responsibility for your life.
You stop being a slave to passing thoughts & emotions.

Put together, you naturally drift towards option 1- living with happiness and vigour - not as a mood, but as a way of being.