If you’re the kind of person who this site is meant for, then you’re the type who strives to seek the Truth. You love knowledge and know that by learning, you’ll become a better person. You know that it’s your responsibility to face your demons and change yourself before you try to change the world. If this doesn’t describe you, leave now- you aren’t going to be able to handle these 10 brutal truths.

First, take a look at this list:

Life is not fair. Your circumstances don’t matter. There is no conspiracy. No one is coming to save you. It is no fault but your own. You are delusional. You are capable of bad things. Potential is worthless. You will fail. You will die alone.

If you think it seems bleak, it is. The natural state of the world is violence- the fact that we have a civilization at all is completely astounding, and that it’s as safe as it is should be taken as nothing less than miraculous.

As we go through this list, you may experience feelings of disagreement or, perhaps, you’ll even try to attack me, your humble writer, for making these claims. That feeling is called cognitive dissonance- it’s what happens when we receive information that conflicts with our worldview. If you are not happy with where you are in life, this information will either liberate you or cause you to lie to yourself to avoid it.

This is the final warning- turn back now if you are weak.

I. LIFE IS NOT FAIR

No one asks to be born, and to be born is to be thrown unwillingly into a world that does not care about you. From the beginning of your life, you are constrained by reality- you need food, water, shelter, money, and the means to gain these things. You will work, and work is hard. Much work is meaningless, and you will likely hate much of the work you do. You will have your freedom restricted by others and you will be robbed of your innocence continually by the harsh nature of the others who occupy this world. Whether you deserve any of this or not does not matter. Life does not offer sympathy and sympathy does not help you live.

II. YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES DON’T MATTER.

Because life is not fair, you may have been born poor, handicapped, stupid, or otherwise disadvantaged. Your parents may not both be together, or alive, and perhaps they never even wanted you to begin with. You may be the product of a drunken mistake. You must accept that, regardless, the world did not ask for you and certainly does not care about any of the above. You can spend your life blaming the world for these circumstances, and if you choose to do so, you will die a pathetic victim. Remember, there have been many people born poor, handicapped, stupid, or otherwise at a disadvantage who have gone down in history despite the odds.

The only difference between you and them is that they didn’t accept their fate.

III. THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY.

You are not so special that anyone cares enough to go out of their way to keep you from succeeding. People are generally egocentric, and no one thinks about you as much as you think about you. The notion that some group or government, secret or not, is so afraid of you that they’re going to go out of the way to keep you down is absolutely insane. The notion that you would be successful if not for these people out to get you is not only insane, it’s pathetic. The world only begins to oppose people when they’re actually creating change, not when they’re working at an entry level job or a miserable 9-5.

IV. NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU.

You are not a princess in a tower, and there are not knights in the world anymore. Why would anyone want to save you if you can’t even save yourself? You are not special, you don’t have some secret potential that some magic person will recognize and reward you for. Even if you won the lottery, you would not know what to do with yourself and you would be back where you started eventually. Your boss is not suddenly going to recognize you and give you a corner office for no reason. You are not going to marry a millionaire and never have to work again. Either you will change your life, or life will crush you- no can stop it but you.

V. IT IS NO FAULT BUT YOUR OWN.

You are promised nothing, and where you started was determined randomly. You can believe that everything that has ever happened to you has nothing to do with you, and maybe that was true when you were a child. However, you are not a child any more. If you don’t make rent because you spent your money on partying, you will get evicted. If you don’t make it to work because you’re hungover, your boss will fire you. You can blame your landlord for being an asshole or your boss for being too harsh, but that blame will not keep you warm when you are on the street, and that blame will not put gas in your car or food on your table. The only blame that can benefit you is blame you give yourself. Everything else is masturbation.

VI. YOU ARE DELUSIONAL.

There is scientific evidence to prove that you have a flawed perception of yourself. The Dunning-Kruger effect is the tendency for people who are incompetent to believe they are above average. Overconfidence bias is the tendency for people to be proportionally more wrong the more confident they are about it. You think you are better looking than you are. You think you are smarter than you are. What’s worse, the people with the least delusional judgement are depressed. If you are not honest with yourself about the reality of your abilities and your place in life, you cannot improve.

VII. YOU ARE CAPABLE OF BAD THINGS.

There is no major difference between you and the guards at the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. No one wakes up and says, “I’m going to be evil and go out of my way to be malicious today,” yet evil, malicious people exist. Everyone thinks they are a good person, yet bad people exist. If you do not believe you are capable of evil, you could have done (or be doing) evil things and have not realized it. You are capable of walking past a person who is bleeding out on the sidewalk and then rationalizing the fact of that action. You are capable of killing the innocent because you do not question authority.

VIII. POTENTIAL IS WORTHLESS.

No one cares what you are capable of. You could be the smartest person in the world, but if you don’t do anything with your intelligence, you are no better than the dumbest bastard alive. You could have the greatest ideas ever conceived, but if you do not make them into reality, you will be no better than the most unimaginative person who ever lived. Countless people are born gifted, exceptional, and full of potential and die without having done anything of meaning with their lives. Value must be created- potential must be actualized.

IX. YOU WILL FAIL.

Never, in the history of the world, did anyone ever sit down at a piano for the first time and play like Sergei Rachmaninoff or Kyle Landry. No one ever picked up a brush and immediately began painting like Michelangelo or Bryan Larsen. However, everyone that ever did anything useful absolutely spent more time creating useless, miserable failures before they did anything even resembling mediocrity. You will suck long before you are decent, and you will be decent long before you are good. You will fail, over, and over, and over again- and if you choose not to try out of fear, you will become the greatest failure of all.

X. YOU WILL DIE ALONE.

No matter what you do in this life, no one can die for you. Even if you have all the wealth in the world, you cannot pay someone to take your place. Even in you have your family around you, all they will be able to do is watch you pass away. This is inevitable, and if you do not live your life to the fullest, you will die alone and unfulfilled.

These are the 10 brutal truths of reality. However, they will only have power over you if you live in denial of them. Once you confront these bleak facts, you will be free from the delusions that lead the weak and foolish towards permanent failure and eternal mediocrity. Knowledge is power, and the more it hurts to know, the stronger you will become.

Life is not fair- but life rewards hard work. Your circumstances don’t matter- what you do despite them is what counts. There is no conspiracy- so the only thing holding you back is yourself. No one is coming to save you- now you don’t have to wait for a hero. It is no fault but your own- but you can take responsibility. You are delusional- but you can free yourself from your ignorance. You are capable of bad things- but you are also capable of true greatness. Potential is worthless- until you do something with it. You will fail- but nothing teaches better than failure. You will die alone- but you do not have to live that way.

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