Advice: The Double-edged Blade

So i have a friend, who i know will read this eventually cuz this person's obsessed with blogs...and this person has been going thru a lot lately. one thing said though really got me thinking, "i've done nothing with my life." and to this person, i finally thought of what i should have said the other night so i thought rather than bringing it up again, i'd just post my thoughts on it, knowing that eventually they will be read by the right person. and if anybody else reads this and finds it useful...great. first a quote from one of my fave movies "Vanilla Sky": "every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."

Everyday we have is a new chance to start something great, or be something great...nothing is ever totally stationary, everything is always changing, and we can choose to change with it, against it, or not change at all. The choice is always ours.

Just because we haven't done anything up to this point in our lives doesn't mean we can't do anything, and it doesn't mean we have to accept it as the final word, and it doesn't mean we won't ever do anything great or worthwhile. Because what is worthwhile anyway? what standards are we using? are we measuring our accomplishments based on what society thinks we should be doing or should have already done by the time we hit 30? (or whatever age) or are we measuring our worth based on our own standards? and if we're measuring our worth based on the standards of others, isn't it time we stopped?

thus, the advice is this...if u think u haven't done anything worthwhile, if u feel like you've done nothing with ur life, if u feel useless, change it! sit down and figure out (or maybe u already know) what would make ur life worthwhile, what would make u feel like you've accomplished something in ur life, and then do it. But realize that there are often many steps to "greatness" it cannot be acheived overnight (only buddha achieved that, and even it wasn't overnight...it was simply in one lifetime). Figure out the steps, what do u want...really? How can u get it? Are u on the right track, are u taking the next step? or are u still running away...hoping that the answer will just magically fall into ur hands out on the road?

But i'm not stupid...not nearly ignorant enough not to realize that advice is an asshole of an opinion...and it is also ALWAYS a double edged blade. any advice we give out, typically is advice we should also be taking...well, at least the advice that's worth a damn. so i know, that as i say these things to my friend, i should also be doing them. however, in my defense, i think that i already am doing this...that i already am taking steps to get to a point where i won't feel like my entire life has been wasted, but "it's a long way to the top if ya wanna rock and roll." and i can only work on one thing at a time, one step...too bad we can't take multiple steps at a time, but that would be the equivalent of skipping class for an entire semester of school and then trying to take the test...we might be able to do it, but we probably won't pass it. and right now, for me, the way to get to what i want is very slow, and might require doing a lot of things i don't really want to do, like stay in nashville a lot longer than i would like, or work 2 jobs until i get caught up, but if i keep running how do i expect to ever get anywhere? u can run and run on a treadmill for hours, but when u stop, you'll still be in the same place u were in when u began..."wherever u go, there u are."