shades

People who have never tried anything, have never failed at anything. They also make amazing self-righteous armchair critics of those who do. Treat it a bit as an entrepreneur would. In essence we all are, if we are employees, or company owners etc. Personally, it is a similar thing, with nothing ventured, nothing gained. Paralysis ensures nothing will happen, except to isolate you from work, workmates, friendships etc. Don't set out to fail, but if you do, adjust your approach and try something different, and if necessary, fail over and over again at things until you succeed. That success will taste so much better, given the down-times. Failure is often linked to shame, and this is sad, as true failure implies effort. Would we look down our noses at people who stormed the Normandy beaches because they got shot, died, and "failed" to make the objective of the day?

Martial arts can teach you a lot about yourself, and your personality, if you are paying attention to these things, have a good mind-set and have decent instructors / school: Life lessons you can take away : 1. You can develop your skills / physical ability way beyond what you thought were possible, breaking down the low-self esteem mindset. 2. You learn other people can hurt you if required... badly... you learn not to underestimate anyone, and you gain respect for others. 3. You learn there will ALWAYS be people with more, or less, ability than you. You learn to respect people of all abilities, for who they are. 4. You learn that power, whether physical or otherwise, requires control and restraint, and what is appropriate or not. 5. In gaining respect for others, you also learn to respect yourself. You realise respect comes from your actions, not by demanding it. 6. You learn important lessons about initiation of force. NAP fits in pretty well here. 7. You learn about self-awareness / situational awareness / self-knowledge. 8. You learn to get angry, then let it go. 9. You learn the benefits of self-discipline. 10. You learn about keeping an art-form alive in the present day. 11. You can learn relaxation techniques, how to care for your body, avoid and recover from injuries. (100% injury rate is common) 12. You can find people with similar interests and make new friends. Now if you have a lousy school or instructor, as some people unfortunately do, you may learn none of these things, and actually set yourself up for a nasty set of experiences in life. If anything doesn't fit well with you, leave, and find a better school for your art. If you go into martial arts with the wrong mind-set. ie. to kick-ass on your bullies etc. This is a poor place to come from. Get yourself happy and centered, before taking on a martial art, with no agenda other than to experience something new and interesting. HTH.

Health is a bit of an issue, due to some previous injuries, but I'm a lot more active now, and watch what I eat fairly well. Failure to maintain care of them leads to a lot of annoying pain, and left too long becomes a form of depression from the pain. I definately feel much better, and sleep better after exercise, so that is definately a valid point, with a solid scientific basis nowadays. At 40 in good shape, you realise you are strong, but lacking in flexibility and more prone to injury (or aware of that fact) than when you're younger, so I find I need to ease myself into more strenuous activities than expect an iron man performance from day one.I've read through, and you've hit the nail on the head with most of your comments there. I was caught up procrastinating and a lot of that comes through from fear of the unknown, or fear of not being able to complete what I set out to do and letting myself, or others (or future self) down. The solution is planning, but not get so caught up in the planning, that you get nothing done, and not expect perfect outcomes, but acceptable, excellent outcomes, as close to perfect as reasonable energy expenditure allows. Soon I'll have some more options / flexibility which is nice, but time is a-wasting, and waits for no man...

Thanks, I agree with much of what you've put forward here. Here our RE profits would be closer to 9-10% in many regions 15% if you'd bought in rather specific places.

Hey dsayers, Not much of a support system, just a few old friends. Parents and sister living in separate geographical locations, only see them occasionally. Support from fam has been pretty dismal at best, unfortunately. My friends have their own lives and issues clearly, but the ones that count, often demand the old ME Plus to meet their expectations. They would like to pigeon-hole me, and I'm just not that type of person. Yes, they avoid me if I tell them how I feel, and point out how they're acting. Unfortunately some of them seem to feel they need to see me as inadequate in their eyesm or they're not comfortable, which is sadly amusing in some ways, as they have unexamined lives themselves, with the flaws that go along with that. I've never felt to be in a good position to support others, I have helped them on the occasions when they've really needed it, and asked for it, but I can see in some ways how they might think I'm absent and aloof, but it's not really the case. Unfortunately, perception is 90% of people's reality. I appreciate that you'd like a response to your points, I've just started responding to everyone's posts and there is a lot to take in. Hey Timur, I'm in Perth, a bit far from those locations. (You'll all have to pardon me, I'm not used to this rather strange multi-quote reply system. It's doing my head in a bit). You're right. Raw philosophical response required, and that was a pre-emptive response to people just taking the opportunity to kick others while they're down. You'd need to understand that aspect of Australian "society", to really get it. For all the good things about Australia, we have some really sick/damaged individuals getting around. I'm fine with employers charging me out to clients, or making them profitable really. I can understand they are conducting a business, but to just do it endlessly and see little reward is not what I had in mind I guess. The options are work for myself, or work for myself by investing, which are effectively the same things. I have tried to run my own company, and that is definately one of the hardest things I ever tried... Gold, silver and oil? Well oil/gas was once good, but oil will enter it's twilight in the next 15-20 years as demand is removed. Silver is a really good investment, and if you get into PMs in 1999-2000 you would have cleaned up like a bandit. Interestingly PMs often track real-estate growth, they do not require management or maintenance, so are a stable get-rich-slow approach if you buy and sell at the appropriate times. Gold is for those who have already made it, and don't want lots of space for storage etc. I'm very aware that supporting a family is a costly venture in every respect, so correct financial moves are key. Australia's property market has entered a bubble and they're not sure where it will end up, usually these things bust.. badly, but with the money invested it would be catastrophic, if that occurred to our economy, and the so-called investors out there. Our reserve bank will pull every trick in the book to keep confidence in brick and mortar. Unfortunately with wages not tracking the outrageous housing prices, it's becoming evident this is not sustainable. Employers are literally taking a slash and burn approach to their workforces here, underpaying etc. to maximise returns for themselves, so higher wages for most, are nearly impossible as most are lucky to retain their jobs. Interesting approach. I've kind of done that with my retirement plan, and a few other things, but you're right, without organisation you just have a series of flighty, confusing thoughts flying around without a game-plan. I'll try and implement this a bit more as you've done. Hi, capital is not the issue, but the prices are definately inflated for established properties. Only developers etc. are making the real money or those that have renovation skill. A web-based business is an idea. Mine would be more of a cloud/virtualisation space. As for Bitcoin, I just can't see myself investing in a virtual currency like that, given what I know about it. I would consider that way too risky. Well, money is not a central tenet to myself, and in many ways I'm quite fulfilled, but to raise a family I realise that it is a necessary component, unless my wife rejoices in being poor alongside me, and I don't think it's fair to not provide the right level of security to family if I have any choice around that. My fight will have to be when I'm a bit older... but at that time I may have a lot of influence, and the ability to assist others who share the same outlook. I fully intend to succeed in life, I don't have anything to prove to the assholes of the world, most are already vaguely cognitive of the fact of what / who they are. We can only hope they reach some self-realisation of their own eventually. We are more super-primates than barely evolved ones, but we still share the same lizard-brain, and in some it is a lot more pronounced.

Lots of good feedback here. I'm sifting through each post, and gaining knowledge. Some of you are definately right, that sweeping generalizations don't really fit here. It's more how I feel in many ways, than all the actual reality of the situation. I should still expect more from others, but it is always a dissapointment when most let you down. I'm careful how I allocate resources and time to such people to minimise losses. I've achieved a lot of things over 21 years or so, helped a lot of people/organisations, but it feels like starting over, at the present time. It feels as if I can't risk making a wrong move anywhere at this stage, or an abyss of failure awaits. I feel unsupported at a rather critical time, but been there before and always survived. I can survive just about anything, I've discovered. I should appreciate that I'm in a lot better situation and state than many people, but of course I want my life to be better. I've worked as a support engineer, datacenter op/syadmin, sysadmin, network sysadmin, including some programming as a webdev/appdev, I've worked with all kinds of hardware, and software and environments large and small. Recently I've specialised more in virtualisation. I hate the office politics too, fortunately avoided much of it, but annoying when it comes along and drains everyone's productivity. I take on board your info on age. In the past it was normal for people to have kids young. It appears to only be an option for the already well-off, or those willing to use welfare to afford them at such an age.

Please move post to Self-Knowledge section, probably more suitable there.

He's probably actually jealous of something, or attention-seeking, and the best he can come up with, is to say you are boring. Either way, you should only respond with the friendship you actually receive. If apologies are not genuine, and just for show, treat them with the derision they deserve.Life is too short to burn energy on false friends. You're not here to entertain others, or fulfil gaps in your friend's personalities. (Me+) Fortunately it sounds as if he was upfront about it all and not going behind your back, (but that may be happening too). So at least everyone else can witness what an ass-hat he is being.

Need some advice. (Be nice please) Just hit 40 recently. Worked in I.T. for 21 years, and basically got nowhere. A useful idiot for others to leverage and make money off. (I do have talent/skills and a high IQ). Have an apartment with some equity and some decent retirement funds and pretty good with handling finances (now). May go back into the I.T. field for a while as it's all I know, but may be washed up by 45-50 and just relegated to doing odd-job consultancy type stuff. Considering investing in RE as a longer term investment, but our market fundamentals are pretty messed up (Australia). Been betrayed by just about everyone I know along the way, even so called close friends, learnt not to trust virtually anyone really. Tried to help people along the way, got burnt. People demanding loyalty, then just backstab me when it proved expiditious to do so. That's probably the bit that hurts the most. I have high expectations of myself, and kind of expect that from others, but clearly that is a flawed view, eventually came to that realisation. Witnessed lots of people manipulate the system to their advantage, lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead. They seem to do quite well, but I'm not one of them. Probably only a couple of people I can truly trust. Parents separated late in life. Sister is emotive, flighty and unstable, and believes in populist causes. Still have love for the family otherwise, but not much left for my Dad. Want to invest, and start a family, grow a different circle of friends, but seems pretty daunting from this position; certainly possible though. Can anyone offer some decent advice around what might be a good option to do next, and also around being an older dad, marrying a quality woman etc. Was considering a philosophy / podcast type deal, but appears to be already taken!