I keep thinking the easiest way to make some money off my writing would be to write a self-help book. Then I realize that my philosophies on life are basically a slightly-moralized version of Chaos Theory and decide that no one looking for a self-help book would buy one that says the equivalent of “shit happens, get over it.” Even if that’s what they need to hear. Still, I gave it a shot at one point and tried to distill my thoughts into the specific sort of cheesy snippet phrases that self-help gurus always use. Picture them said in a calm, reflective manner. This is probably going to go nowhere, and I don’t really plan to do anything with it, but… hey, they’re words.

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Motivational Phrases

• Everything in the universe is constantly changing. Everything, at all times. You are changing, even if you do not know it.

• You cannot stop change in the universe, and you alone cannot force a desired change in the universe. It is hard to change even yourself by yourself. Some things, no man can make happen – and no one can reverse the changes that happened in the past, merely change what it made happen or possibly change it back. It still will have been changed.

• In groups, change becomes easier to manifest. You can change yourself rather simply when you have others to help you. With a large enough number, you can change the world. Though any change may not be the one you anticipated, or come in the way you had planned.

• Change is unknown. While some things can be predicted, many things cannot. We do not know what changes will come, or how we will react to them. Many people thus fear change, but it is simply a force of existence. How we react to change determines how the changes in our lives affect us.

• Happiness is not a possession. We cannot take it, cannot store it away. Happiness is a fleeting emotion, and what makes us happy changes as we change.

• Novelty – changes in our lives or perceptions – can make us happy. Repetition, even of things that used to make us happy, tends to make us bored, frustrated, and possibly sad. We have to allow change into our lives to become and remain happy.

• Change is not a single event, but a constantly-spiralling web of possibilities. Being open to change in any form it might take allows us to take advantage of any changes that might come. Only recognizing and responding to specific changes limits opportunities, forcing repetition and eventually rendering even change boring.

• Change can also take away things that made us happy. As change constantly happens to everyone, that sort of change will inevitably happen to everyone. Acceptance of the change allows us to move past it, to either change what it made happen, change it back to what it was, or find what new occurrences will make us happy again. The change will still have occurred, however, and must be recognized even if we wish to try and change it back.