When I started planning what is to come in January last year, everything was a blur. I binged on YouTube videos, did research on all who have done something similar before me, and then asked myself these 11 questions. Every single answer had to be a resounding yes, regardless of the outcome, before I gave myself the permission to proceed. These are the questions.
1. Can you pee in a bottle or outside in the bushes?
2. Can you poo in a bucket or into a hole you dig in the ground?
3. Can you not shower for days?
4. Can you still be mentally strong and alert when you can’t brush your teeth first thing in the morning and last thing before you go to bed?
5. Can you calmly think out and handle whatever situations that happen yourself, wherever you are, without complaining, blaming, being a victim and being paralysed by fear and doubt?
6. Can you take full responsibility for every single decision you make, right and wrong, and deal with the consequences as they happen?
7. Can you leave every place and every person you meet a little better or at least not worse off than before you came?
8. Can you accept, be kind to, keep your mouth shut and be like water with all the haters, the social media keyboard warriors, the ultra woke army, the ideologically and identity possessed, and all who will tell you how you should do something they haven’t done before and are not doing themselves?
9. Can you say no to all the people and the reasons that tell you that you should not be doing what you want, and pay attention to building brick by brick, a new life for yourself?
10. Can you be alone without feeling lonely?
11. Can you accept the worse that could happen despite all your preventive steps, and you’re lying in a ditch somewhere with 2 missing kidneys and dying from blood loss and hypothermia? (Camera zooms out from top, my lifeless eyes looking at the camera, snowflakes gently falling on my face and the snow slowly turning red around me. Fade to black.)
I hope this helps somewhat - the questions are specific to what I’m doing, but I believe there are a few that applies for other things too.
Always ask yourself, and be honest with your answer. Leave the wayang (theatrics) and superficiality for others - will doing this or not doing this be something that your future self be proud of, or regret?
That is the crux, and the most difficult questions are usually the most important ones.
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