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Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

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Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#101

Post by rdiddly »

atroyn wrote: post #48

I realized a while ago that inspiration isn't very helpful for getting you through adversity. Inspiration gets you going, but grit and discipline ultimately help you push through. I'm going to go against the grain of most of what's being said in this thread and say that the best way to get through adversity is to discard a goal-based mentality entirely, in favor of a system-based mentality. Figure out the stuff you h…

My experience confirms this approach. When I relied on passion as my compass, I had lots of good times, no doubt, but a lot of other boring-but-important stuff didn't get done. When I decided that how I feel about something in the moment doesn't necessarily matter that much, that's when I started succeeding, first in small and then big ways. And besides, soon you become passionate about the things you're doing, that used to be boring. So you end up having both, rather than just the one.

In short, I guess it's about getting over yourself, to find a new part of yourself that you didn't know about.

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#103

Post by tdkl »

Normal_gaussian wrote: post #99
_audakel wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medication like Zoloft helped a ton for me with these things

As a Brit, such statements just blow my mind. Giving a random stranger on the internet medical advice - and for a branded drug at that. "you may want to see a doctor, sometimes these things need medicated" seems like reasonable, responsible advice. But handing out specific drug recommendations - WTF?! I experienced the same thing when my American cousins were over last summer. Unsolicited and highly dangerous medical…

Must be something with the "magic pill for everything" PR that is popular in USA. Goes hand in hand with non existing public healthcare, so "market can handle that".

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#104

Post by Rustydave »

sagarkamat wrote: post #49

2 things 1) Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHWUCX6osgM 2) Reminding myself of my blessings in life. Most of us have many things to be thankful for, even in our worst moments Whatever you do, do not seek sympathy from others. It can be very comforting to vent your frustration to people and get their sympathy, but it does absolutely nothing for situation and only enforces y…

That speech is also on my motivational list

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#105

Post by rrggrr »

atroyn wrote: post #90
rrggrr wrote: post #88

Absurdism. Shake your head and laugh at the absurd struggles we endure as humans and subvert the inevitability and absurdity of it by persisting anyway. Continuing to show up and push is the ultimate satirical act of defiance against the human condition.

That's Camus right?

Yes, though I came upon it myself the hard way... adolescent angst.

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#106

Post by elt0n »

mathgeek wrote: post #29
elt0n wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some "successes" may lead to "failures" too.

All successes lead to failures, and all failures lead to successes. No one moment in life can be completely disjointed from any other. The only finality is when life ends, and even that can be philosophically extended through the effect one has on those to come.

True dat!

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#107

Post by devoply »

tdkl wrote: post #103
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brit, such statements just blow my mind. Giving a random stranger on the internet medical advice - and for a branded drug at that. "you may want to see a doctor, sometimes these things need medicated" seems like reasonable, responsible advice. But handing out specific drug recommendations - WTF?! I experienced the same thing when my American cousins were over last summer. Unsolicited and highly dangerous medical…

Must be something with the "magic pill for everything" PR that is popular in USA. Goes hand in hand with non existing public healthcare, so "market can handle that".

Now if they would only let you self-prescribe drugs we'd be all set.

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#108

Post by colechristensen »

tdkl wrote: post #103
Normal_gaussian wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brit, such statements just blow my mind. Giving a random stranger on the internet medical advice - and for a branded drug at that. "you may want to see a doctor, sometimes these things need medicated" seems like reasonable, responsible advice. But handing out specific drug recommendations - WTF?! I experienced the same thing when my American cousins were over last summer. Unsolicited and highly dangerous medical…

Must be something with the "magic pill for everything" PR that is popular in USA. Goes hand in hand with non existing public healthcare, so "market can handle that".

It's not just PR, it's a common American way of thinking.

From branded medications to diet books, "health" foods, and trends ad nauseam, there's a pervasive culture of cure-all objects and systems.

Then again, we don't have fine physical understanding of most mind disorders or the medications we use to treat them so if your doctor is effectively throwing darts at a board then why not internet strangers?

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#109

Post by mtzaldo »

Being aware of my own happiness. A while back I realized that true happiness y not a way, a goal, but it is something that every one has. So I realized that I was already happy. Then I found out that I express my happiness by the choices I made every day. That no matter how hard everything seems, from my own happiness I can choose from different options, even those from I'm not aware of. Then I read it from Buddhism, and I found also found out that the meaning of life is to be happy and be useful to others... since then I try to express my happiness by being helpful to others.

I know that it is sound like new-age-hippie stuff, but this idea has worked for me. I hope it helps.

Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?

#110

Post by update »

imgabe wrote: post #68

The only option if you want to succeed is to keep trying. A while ago I went to China. After visiting Hong Kong, where I had a few friends who lived there to help me out, and the city itself is fairly westernized and friendly to foreigners, I flew directly into Xi'an. Xi'an is where the Terra Cotta warriors are, but despite those being a fairly large tourist attraction, the city itself is very...Chinese. Very few peo…

> What inspired me to persevere was the simple fact that, really, it was the only way to get what I wanted. That's what it comes down to. Do you want the thing you're going after more than you want to avoid the obstacles in the way? If you do, you'll keep going.

This is how I go about life no matter what the obstacle.

From quitting smoking to making it rich (I've done one of these so far...)

"Just do it." It's a pretty simple, definitely hard though & certainly worth it.

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