Also it’s tv lol

That's not true. Some of them just have good jobs and work their ass off. Some of them are in debt to live a certain lifestyle. Don't think it's fair to say people living the dream you had have everything paid for by their parents, just because you couldn't do it.

You say you’re afraid, but I read this and see someone who’s demonstrating strength and bravery in the face of serious consequences. I know this message doesn’t change your situation, but I just wanted to share that your comment touched me, and that I hope you’re able to gain the stability you seek. Also, happy cake day.

You sound to me like someone who is, however, facing and acknowledging their fears.

Try not to live like a monk, but now work to increase your income at each opportunity. Work like an immigrant. Make yourself a financial safety net. Once you know you can survive a year, or even a few months, without work you're starting to be able to relax.

Take every training program or government scheme or tax break/benefit you can get. Don't be too humble.

I went from poor terror to comfortable, and possibly am a paper millionaire now. I spent years working out how I'd reach the end of the month.

And I'm sorry to hear about your Dad. I know people in this sort of situation and it's been so tough for them. But it really does get better if you just grasp your opportunities, take am active interest in your work, and crack on.

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Pretty good! I worked on basic stability for the first ten years of my career, preferring a stable job in a corporate. That gave me, eventually, a skillset that was hot in the late nineties job market.

I also by then had a girlfriend and we had a house that was pleasant but not a big stretch. I then worked ten years contracting but although I enjoyed some pf the extra money I banked plenty and resisted big liabilities I saw some colleagues take on. I banked plenty.

Which meant I could take the next risk. Starting a business. Bootstrapped as other people's capital (like VCs) wouldn't have been available to me at that stage. The business made an effective loss for me for years but nowadays, another decade and a half, it's running well.

I'm by no means rich. Setting up a business, unless you snaffle an amazing sector, rarely makes you a millionaire. You can't spend loads either. You just have to work it hard and nurture something bigger. Eventually though it starts to mature.

So you can see how I've grabbed opportunities and climbed gently, avoiding the steep and risky route until I was ready to step it up a little.

Oh, and thanks for asking. How are you getting on?

Absolutely. It's a definite problem for people.

Check out personal finance subs about the path to financial independence. Once you achieve that the risks become easier to take. I spent twenty years working towards it.

Yeah, I was a victim of bad circumstances and needed to make sure they didn't get worse.

Winner mentality, risk it all on red style, can bring massive success but you just don't hear from the failures.

I'm old enough to know people who claimed to be making a fortune on crypto or forex or back in the late nineties with tech shares. Yet so often their lifestyle doesn't change and they one day go quiet. If pressed, some tell you they lost a pile. Then, as a result of the burn, they don't try again. That's loser mentality.

Autobot rule pls

It did provoke thought and that thought was, "this is stupid."

It's just not true or useful advice, and it's needlessly antagonistic.

Right? It was a yoga class. It probably went as deep as “next class session, maybe try the advanced pose instead of the “if you’re not feeling comfortable” pose I suggest afterwards” because nobody else in the yoga class cares if you don’t do it perfectly, or if you have to give up halfway thru trying and do the normal pose. It’s not that deep.

I know. And respectively I don’t think people take these things that literally.

I do feel that these kinds of simplified encouragements water-down the nuances of the world for some people. I know people (maybe you do too) who go through life with a “Put myself first” mentality and I would argue strongly against that. They might use stupid little three lines like this as a component of many justifications for that mentality.

I am not daft haha. I appreciate your specificity though

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So this is where we have to use the contextual meaning, and peel away from what is textual here.

1. The advice was at the “end” of the class. So maybe it could have been about yoga poses, but as a send away it seems very much like “go off and use my wisdom in the real world!” We all interpret things differently. But GOOD advice is very specific. If someone can misinterpret something so easily, it is inherently a bad attempt at communication, and thus, bad advice.

2. The tone of the advice was very harsh and aggressive. This is suggested by the use of the world “fucking” at the end of it. Now, I don’t claim to be a yogi, but from my limited knowledge, shanti, or inner peace, is kind of one of the goals of practicing yoga. I find a heavy conflict between achieving shanti and having an inner dialogue telling me “fucking” do things. Maybe I don’t fully understand the art so I, once again, can be wrong here.

3. If the advice was limited to just the first sentence then this would actually be a very positive and insightful message. It retains the advice to just dealing with failure. The addition of the second sentence derails the advice into a call for narcissism and individual selfishness, a very not Yoga principle. Yoga isn’t “think of yourself first/only”, Yoga teaches respect and consideration for others through namaste.

4. Words have meaning. Deliberate meaning. The length of our speech does not correlate with the heaviness of emotion it evokes. There is a call on your phone. You pick it up… “Mom died”… two words, three lines, an entire manuscript. Words, and the meanings those words convey can be very powerful. Never doubt that being of their length.

5. Lastly, Yoga is an art form, and art always contains a deeper meaning. I don’t know how many yogis you know, but many of them explore the teachings of it to find extrapolations of Yogas meaning into their life (and more than just posing). This phrase said by a yogi at the end of creating/performing their art. Look at the subreddit this was posted in; this is very intentionally meant to be about more than just Yoga.

So not only is this bad advice generally, but even in the context of Yoga it is bad advice. Namaste!

I apologize for coming off as having a hostile take. Maybe you (and me) interpret this as sage advice, but neither you nor I can speak on behalf of every interpretation this quote has for people. I am merely trying to safeguard the absolutist pull from this quote.

As per my third paragraph in my original comment, I do concede that there is value to be had in this line of thinking.

Thank you. I get very fed up with the entirety of “toxic positivity” and self-help promoting that people need to exist in a vacuum only containing themselves. It completely dismisses the reality that you will be involving with people. Instead of teaching people how to associate and cope with other human beings, these movements simply write off that you should just narcissistically proceed with your life.

It is so bad, and people listen to it. It ultimately affects people and I just want to help these people who suffer realize that the real world involves learning to deal with people.

I don’t think it is a hot take. I really just don’t like this bad advice. Maybe I am bias’d or something, idk.

Left my family for this. No regrets.

Thanks mate.