We all want to be better people. We all want to do better.
But sometimes, some days, we just need to survive.
External factors show up.
Internal factors bubble up.
There is no instruction manual.
There is no such thing as normal.
As long as you’re not negatively effecting other people, it’s okay to just do what you have to do to make it through to the next day, the next hour, the next minute, the next choice, the next breath.
It’s not just easy, it’s as natural and normal as breathing.
I know I have been guilty of judging others negatively, but what I was actually doing was projecting negative thoughts about my own flaws onto them. And I’m not accessing my long term memory when I think of examples of this.
I’m not sure if becoming more accepting of human nature comes with age or with experience. I just know that as I’ve gotten older, and had more experience interacting with more and more people, I am (slowly) becoming more accepting of the fact that to be human is to be irrational.
I think that if we all take a minute to look back on some of our decisions in just our recent past, we’ll find the actions of an irrational person.
Studying philosophy has helped me with this. Reading books by Robert Greene has specifically helped me with this a lot in recent years.
To accept our human nature, is to be forgiving, to have empathy.
We need more of a lot of things in this world, but empathy, that is something that a majority of us can agree upon. Something free, simple, within all of our ability to control and influence.
Having more compassion for myself and empathy for others is an evergreen new years resolution for me. Being more aware and accepting of the irrationality of human nature has helped provide fuel for my ability to empathize to grow.
Anarchy Journal Constitutional 