Understanding yourself

 One of the most important things in life is to understand yourself. Unfortunately, many people get so lost in being a workaholic that they never really understand who they are. Not Really.

However, that just wasn't going to work for me I realized by the time I was 21 years old. I inherently knew I would self destruct by about 25 one way or another unless I learned a whole lot more about myself than I had discovered already. Luckily, I was able to keep going to college off and on  until I was 25 in addition to working at jobs. This worked for me especially studying things like Philosophy, and Cultural Anthropology and Psychology.

There was a course called "Personal Growth and Development" taught at Palomar College then in 1971 when I started going there and this course helped me a lot. Later in my late 20s or early 30s a friend of mine who had a teaching credential and a Master's degree in Psychology created what he called "The Siddhartha Model" which helped young people high school and college age get to know who they really were.

If you can get to know who you really are "Beyond whatever your parents want you to be" then often you have what it takes to survive to 30 years old and beyond.

Because that is the real trick isn't it. To try to force yourself to stay alive to 30 and if you are successful at this often you can be happy enough to live to 90 or more. 

So far, I have made it to 76 years old. But, without my present wife likely I would have been gone by 50.

Why is this?

Medically, it took a lot to survive past 50 and I didn't have much experience with Medical Doctors in my life simply because my father and grandfather didn't have any use for them beyond stitches or fixing a broken bone or something like this.

So, this sort of thing can influence a person a lot. For example, I got whooping cough because my parents were anti-Vaxers so I didn't even receive one vaccination in my life until I was required by law to have a tetanus Shot because a dog bit me in the hand in Glendale, California. So, my first and only vaccination until 1985 when I went to Asia was a Tetanus shot I received at age 15 required by law when you are bit by a dog in Glendale, California.

The point of this article is "unless you are your own best friend" it isn't that likely that you can survive until 30 or beyond.

So, understanding that people are going to come and go from your life and the only one that might be there all your life is you. 

So, if you don't make friends with yourself and get to know yourself then you are going to be one lonely person your whole life.

So, getting to understand and know yourself as a child and teen and 20 something is often the key to longevity if you want to live that long.

I have lived 76 years so far but like I said without my present wife I would have likely been gone by age 50.

So, I'm alive only by God's Grace to begin with.

By God's Grace