Malice, Stupidity, or Egalité Irréfléchie?

Anyone who has decided to strike off the mainstream path has experienced this: Strong admonitions and warnings against what they were doing, and pressures not do it.

It doesn't really matter what it is you're trying to change. If you're trying to become a nondrinker in a drinking culture, if you're trying to quit eating junk food, if you're trying to become a vegetarian or otherwise have a different diet, this will have happened to you.

If you decide to pursue a nontraditional career path (artist, entrepreneur, etc), you will have experienced this.

If you try to live a different lifestyle than the people around you - for instance, rising each day at 4:30AM and sleeping early instead of partying, you will have experienced this.

People will pressure and cajole you in many different ways to keep doing it the old way. Almost always, it will be phrased as though they're looking after your best interest.

22 Lessons from 22 Years of Life

Ideas are worthless without action. An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. [Friedrich Engels] Time is our most precious commodity. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. [Steve Jobs] Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and improve. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. [Winston Churchill] Be different. Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. [Apple] Planning is important -- being willing to abandon your plans when something better comes along is even more so. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. [Dwight D. Eisenhower] If a project seems too daunting, just take the first step. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. [Lao-tzu] Regardless of what or how much you know, everyone you meet can teach something if you are willing to learn. You can learn something from everyone you meet, even if it’s what not to do. [Abe Lincoln] Relationships are a lot of work -- the ones that matter are worth the effort. The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships. [Anthony Robbins] Not everyone needs to like you. I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. [Bill Cosby] Always give 100%. The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. [Ralph Waldo Emerson] Learn to appreciate the small things -- it makes life more fun. “Oh, smell the people!” yelled Dean with his face out the window sniffing. “Ah! God! Life!” [On the Road by Jack Kerouac] Be passionate about everything you do. Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring. [Ralph Waldo Emerson] Listen. All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. [Robert Louis Stevenson] Write. I hate writing, I love having written. [Dorothy Parker] Read. A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. [Abraham Lincoln] Travel. The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends. [Shirley Maclaine] There is no substitute for hard work. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. [Calvin Coolidge] Working for yourself is the way to go. Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any. [Mark Twain] Material possessions own you. Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. [Henry David Thoreau] Don’t be afraid to make mistakes -- it’s the best way to learn. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. [Thomas Edison] Adventure is always around the corner -- it just might not be the one you’re expecting. A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. [John Steinbeck] You don’t need permission to live your life the way you want to. Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. [Alan Keightlet]