STOP FOLLOWING THE RECIPE

I was thinking today about if I was the sort of person to follow a recipe? Or do I like to bend the rules to life? For the last couple of months I feel as if I have been in a slump, not moving forward stressing too much about the what if and could have and should haves. I will say things to myself like “I will do X as soon as I sort out Y”. But who says I should wait? Why can’t I bring myself to do X now? What is Y never happens?

Images have nothing really to do with this post. They are just some experiments I have done with film. 

My best moments in life have happened when I have done things "My Way", I have lost my own life motto of "Fight Living the Ordinary Life". It is time to get myself out of this slump and move forward. 

Being such an OCD person I love lists, even more I love crossing things off lists. So I am writing myself a “to do list” and giving myself to my birthday to achieve all ten things. Why ten? Because I am OCD! And ten is such a neat number.

I am not yet ready to share my list, they are sitting in a post waiting for me to publish when I feel emotionally stronger. 

Along with my to do list I am going to re-read and think about a book I read not so long ago. The Ten Golden Rules: Ancient Wisdom from the Greek Philosophers on Living the Good Life. It is written by M. A. Soupios and Panos Mourdoukoutas.

In short the Golden Rules are:

1. Examine life, engage life with vengeance; always search for new pleasures and new destines to reach with your mind.

2. Worry only about the things that are in your control, the things that can be influenced and changed by your actions, not about the things that are beyond your capacity to direct or alter.

3. Treasure Friendship, the reciprocal attachment that fills the need for affiliation. Friendship cannot be acquired in the market place, but must be nurtured and treasured in relations imbued with trust and amity.

4. Experience True Pleasure. Avoid shallow and transient pleasures. Keep your life simple. Seek calming pleasures that contribute to peace of mind. True pleasure is disciplined and restrained.

5. Master Yourself. Resist any external force that might delimit thought and action; stop deceiving yourself, believing only what is personally useful and convenient; complete liberty necessitates a struggle within, a battle to subdue negative psychological and spiritual forces that preclude a healthy existence; self mastery requires ruthless candor.

6. Avoid Excess. Live life in harmony and balance. Avoid excesses. Even good things, pursued or attained without moderation, can become a source of misery and suffering. 

7. Be a Responsible Human Being. Approach yourself with honesty and thoroughness; maintain a kind of spiritual hygiene; stop the blame-shifting for your errors and shortcomings.

8. Don’t Be a Prosperous Fool. Prosperity by itself, is not a cure-all against an ill-led life, and may be a source of dangerous foolishness. Money is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the good life, for happiness and wisdom.

9. Don’t Do Evil to Others. Evildoing is a dangerous habit, a kind of reflex too quickly resorted to and too easily justified that has a lasting and damaging effect upon the quest for the good life. Harming others claims two victims—the receiver of the harm, and the victimizer, the one who does harm.

10. Kindness towards others tends to be rewarded. Kindness to others is a good habit that supports and reinforces the quest for the good life. Helping others bestows a sense of satisfaction that has two beneficiaries—the beneficiary, the receiver of the help, and the benefactor, the one who provides the help.