With that reality, I begin this article. Our perceptions ultimately create our reality, not anything we "have" or "have not".

I have seen "the people that have everything" commit suicide and do other stupid things while staying alive in an outer sense putting on a show like it is all great in life. I have seen "people with nothing" be the most giving, honest, realistically happy existences. On the other hand, I have seen "the people that have everything" really be happy and have it all genuinely, and some "people with nothing" that beg for money and decry their situation instead of persistently making themselves "something". So, when I say something like sadness is thinking that happiness is purely caused outside of yourself in some way, you completely and utterly know what I mean. We must cause life, happiness and reality within ourselves first before we have it or you cannot look at a map and be at a place, you must actually travel the road like the map is not the actual territory or destination.

There is nothing that can replace persistence and causation. Not even winning the lottery or getting "all you want" given to you "easily" without the understanding to handle or the equivalent desire to really want and earn it. Indeed, persistence and causation are the map, territory and destination within and without you, they are nowhere else. Without those realities, you really do have nothing however much you get given "easily".

Reality is understanding what you have and using it to your best ability always. Real reality is not wanting something better, that is unproductive, even destructive fantasy. Indeed, appreciating what you have is making it better, not decrying it, putting it down or destroying it. The best we can do is accept then better things, the worst we can do is cry, stagnate and reject pathetically. So, start here: To become a real person that has the best, our minds must first be the best and persistently determined to make the best. That is where it starts, everything else is academic or in addition to where it all starts, in short, without determination and persistence to get better, all situations are nothing even if you "get what you want easily". The patient building of life, happiness and greatness within yourself then comes down to being determined to build it, does it not?

My name is Joshua Clayton, I am a freelance writer based in Inglewood, California. I also write under a few pen-names and aliases, but Joshua Clayton is my real name, and I write by that for the most part now. I am a philosophical writer and objective thinker and honest action taker. I also work at a senior center in Gardena, California as my day job, among other things, but primarily I am a writer.