LEARNING FROM LOSERS

This article is a funny look at two people who invalidated life and spent their whole lives paralyzed by thought.

HAMLET AND ARNOLD

The following two examples are of people who were constantly stuck in their heads and consequently never really lived. Unfortunately, the two never recovered. 

These guys lost a lot of Present Moments. These guys hardly truly lived in Present Time. These guys were pretty big losers. 

But we can learn from them. We can learn from their stories. Meet Hamlet and Arnold. 

First batter up: Hamlet. The prince of Denmark, heir to the throne, and forever tortured by his own mind. 

It’s not entirely all his fault. Talking to your dead father and processing his demands of killing your uncle could overwhelm just about anyone. But for 90% of William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet really doesn’t do much. He complains. He bickers. He dwells and struts and fruts his hour upon the stage and tragically he ignores his girlfriend Ophelia, the one person who truly loves him. 

Hamlet thinks and thinks, yet does little to nothing. Every time he commits to an act, he screws up or backs out at the last second. And it isn’t until the final Act that Hamlet finally... Well, just read the play!

Now on to Arnold. This poor bastard. Like Arnold, Hamlet wasn’t very present. 

We don’t really know much about Arnold. He died tragically. Secretly, I think it was boredom. The only thing the dude left was a pie chart, and curiously it was of how he spent his time

Let’s see how he did. 

Numbers don’t lie. But we got to read them. So let’s see them. 

Time spent dwelling about the past. 45%

Time spent dreading the future: a whopping 35%

Time spent distracted by trivial things that really didn’t matter and that he actually didn’t like doing…. 10%

General complaining: 10%

And actual-time living: 0.03%

Everybody knows an Arnold in their lives. He could be a relative, he could be a friend, but everybody knows a person like him. 

We’re uncertain of his age, occupation, or his philosophy about life, and that might be a good thing. The less we delve into the psyche of Arnold the better. However, the more we can study how ineffective and miserable Arnold’s life was, the better we can steer clear and not be like him.

Hamlet and Arnold both spent their time miserably lost in their own minds and seldom ever lived in the present moment, and consequently both of them seldom enjoyed their Present Time on Earth. 

Hamlet and Arnold barely lived. They are warnings. They are cautionary tales. If you take away anything from this book, I urge you to take away this. You don’t have to be like these two losers.