Guide to Agency: 6

A Road Agent keeps her/his eye on the horizon so he/she isn't surprised.

There are a million pitfalls to fall into.

A million ways to be beat down.

Nothing can ever be predicted.

But everything can be dealt with.

The Trap

There is one trap that each and every one of us falls into.

The one that tells us we have to be the kind of people that are free from all falsehood and all hypocrisy. It is impossible, there is no way to live your life never telling a lie. And there is no way to live you life without being a hypocrite. If I told you that I was a man without hypocrisy I would in fact be a liar.

The trap is getting so caught up in trying to live up to an unattainable expectation that you get nothing else done in your life. Sure I watch TV, read Science Fiction novels, go drinking with my friends. In my own way I hold down a job, make money to pay rent. That makes me a liar when it comes to everything that I have put down in this little guide.

But what did I say at the beginning. This, all of this is real.

We can live free and unfettered. We can have real liberty and freedom. It is within our grasp. Sometimes that is only for a moment, or a week, or a year. But who knows, maybe if we each take a step in the right direction, we could make it a lifetime. But most people instead of taking any kind of steps to being happy, because they may look foolish if they fail. Or they are afraid of what their co-workers, friends or family feel about it, they just sit and do nothing.

We will all fail.

That is what we do.

There is nothing that will ever prevent us from botching most everything that we do. You will fail someone, they will fail you. But if you just sit in the trap of fear, then you will never do anything. It is this endless cycle, this loop, a maze that you must overcome in your own mind. Stepping out of the system may be very different for you, than it is for me. But if you take no action. If you live your life waiting for someone else to come along and change what you don't like for you, then expect to wait forever.

So ignore The Trap. Walk out of it. Someone is always going to try and make you feel like shit for pretty much anything that you do. So don't worry about it. Make life the way you want it to be. Write your own rules, make your own guidelines. Then when they don't work; edit, rewrite, scrap them completely and start all over again.

That is the only way to escape.

Freedom

You escape a trap and find yourself in a new place.

Free from the judgement of others. Free from guilt. And there are a million things that you can do with that new found freedom. But the most important is learn how to deal with your own emotions, and your own situations. You never know what life is going to bring to you. But you will always know who you are and how you will deal with it.

So think.

What happens if the life you just walked away from is the only thing you know? What happens if all of your friends reject the new trajectory of your life? How will you deal with these things? If you can seek your own heart and mind out you can predict the future. You can prepare yourself for what is coming down the line. Because you don't really have to know what is going to happen, you just have to know who you are, and how you are going to deal with things.

And when something is brewing on the horizon, you do what you can to know how to deal with it.

You aren't always going to be able to prevent a surprise, a low blow from god knows where. But at least you know who you are, and how you want to react.

Knowing yourself is the best way to look to the horizon.

You can't be surprised if you know who you are in the world.

File under Agency.