philosophy

If you are like most people in the USA and much of the "developed world", you like to think it is possible to have it all: partner, children, big house, career of your dreams, exotic vacations, good health, etc.  Substitute your particular goals as appropriate.

If I had known what it would be like to have it all - I might have been willing to settle for less. 
Lily Tomlin 

We also like to think this way when it comes to the environment: big house big car, cheap energy, clean environment, there are probably lots of areas where we think we can have it all, but it is complete delusion, and the sooner we admit it, the sooner we can get away from "wanting it all", and on to "wanting what really matters to us".  It is important to differentiate between these two concepts, because what really matters are those things we would give up everything else to have.

Years ago when I started training in martial arts, I adopted a simple philosophy about injuries.  If during a match, either of us got hurt, it was my fault.  In life most of us spend far too much time trying to assign blame to others when bad things happen. This is not only a waste of time and energy, it is also usually a lie.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.

Theodore Roosevelt

Whenever I see a problem, I like to ask myself one simple question: was this a problem for the caveman?  All of our problems big and small fall into one of the following caveman categories:

1. It was a problem for the caveman. 
2. We don't know if it was a problem for the caveman.
3. It wasn't a problem for the caveman.