What should one do in their 20s to avoid regrets in their 30s and 40s?
Noticed something funny?People in their 30’s purchase a house on a massive loan.Why?So that when they do become old, they can live in it.So what they do is buy a house for a 30 year mortgage or loan and work their ass off for the next 30 years to pay for the loan.Funny thing is - they are working like a dog - spending their entire youth chasing, running and making - so that they can live in a house during their old age.Funny right?And they do not even think of the possibility that - maybe, just maybe - they may die before hand or that something may happen before that - which can change the entire course of their lives.So what these people and many others like them do is - live for the future.First and foremost - How do you know you will live until the age of 40? or 30?How do you know you may not die within 1 year? Next month? Next week?How do you know?The fact is - no one knows!Everyone likes to assume or believe they will live until the ripe old age of 75 or 100. It is nice to have an Optimism Bias but it is better to be practical and realistic.No one knows if you or I will live until the age of 30 or 40.And whatever advice I may give you today - may not be applicable in another few years.Why?Because you have changed, people have changed, the environment has changed and our world has changed.Given a planet where the technology changes every few weeks - you seriously want someone to give you advice for the next 10 years?Well - if you really want something worthwhile to keep in mind and heart….here would be the advice I would give.Live everyday as if it were your last day on the planet.Do everything that needs to be done - so that if you were to die tomorrow - you would live your life knowing - you have no regrets.That doesn’t mean live it recklessly or take a credit card and blow it out it completely. What I mean is - do those things money cannot buy and those things that do not hurt others. And live in a manner that is true to your value system. And where ‘living for the future goes’ - cross that bridge when it arrives.Remember - do not waste what you have right now - for hopes and anticipation for a future you have not seen and do not know if it will ever come.That is why what you have right now - is called “The Present”.Loy Machedo
What does it feel like to be shot?
It depends a) where you’re shot, b) what you’ve been shot with, and c) how you’ve been shot.I drove cab for over 25 years, and was once shot in the abdomen with a .45 snub-nose revolver. I was stabbed in various places a number of times with different implements, too, but that’s another story.It was like being punched in the gut by a huge motherfucker and having the wind knocked out of you for a solid month. There was something purplish hanging out of my belly, which turned out to be part of my liver. The bullet was a hollowpoint and had done a lot of damage- just about blew my liver out.The pain was excruciating and unbelievable. I just wanted to die and get it over with. I was told later that I was very lucky, because the bottom of my liver had been blown out but would grow back. A few inches higher, the doctors told me, and that would have been it.To make matters worse, after getting several doses of morphine, it was discovered that I was allergic. It wasn’t killing the pain, and it was giving me a red rash, making me itch all over. Whee.The doctor switched me to Demerol, and that’s about the last thing I remember from that night.The following months were a Demerol-induced haze in which people came to visit me in hospital, but I was too out of it to remember. I was hooked up to an automatic painkiller gizmo that allowed me to self-medicate up to a point.When the pain started subsiding, my belly where I’d been shot started to cramp, which led to more excruciating pain. I had a belly full of staples where I’d been opened up in order to retrieve pieces of bullet. My stomach felt really strange, and the reason turned out to be that the doctors had cut my stomach in half to get it out of the way when they were doing surgery on my liver. My gall bladder was gone, and my pancreas was a mess, resulting in diabetes.Bottom line? Don’t try this at home, kids.