In real life, we often find ourselves forced to engage in activities that hold little practical value. For example, students are required to study classical Japanese literature, grammar-heavy English, and a history curriculum that often neglects modern history. Unless one finds enjoyment in these subjects, they rarely have any practical application in everyday life. However, these subjects are mandatory for academic advancement, leaving students with no choice but to endure them.
This pattern continues into adulthood. For example, dealing with a mountain of paperwork just to file taxes, attending unproductive meetings that only benefit those in power, and commuting to an office for jobs that can be done remotely. We tolerate these tasks because they generate income, and we have no choice but to accept them for financial reasons.
Unquestioningly complying with these demands can lead to a state of mental stagnation, affecting your real life. This makes you more susceptible to media influence and propaganda, leading to the careless squandering of your valuable time on frivolous pursuits.
Indeed, living too rationally can be problematic for a human being. However, continually engaging in low-utility activities can leave you perpetually on the brink of financial instability, forcing you to obey company orders until late at night. This leads to being overwhelmed by daily tasks, cutting into your sleep and free time.
Therefore, by making your life somewhat rational and incorporating practical actions, you can significantly improve your overall satisfaction with life.
Grounding Idealists
Balancing idealism, high perspectives, and spirituality with pragmatic actions, execution, and rationality is essential for improving life satisfaction. Leaning too far in either direction can cause problems, and finding this middle ground is not easy.
This often leads to dichotomies where individuals have knowledge but cannot act or take reckless actions without considering risks. This section addresses those who lean too heavily toward idealism and extensive knowledge.
Knowledge required to pass university exams or professional qualifications is different from the knowledge needed for practical living. They are entirely different. While these forms of knowledge train the mind, applying them directly to real life is highly dangerous. This is evident from English teachers who cannot speak English and business professors who have never run a business. There are also history professors who have never conducted field research and world history teachers who struggle with ancient characters. Realize this soon.
Given that Japan was defeated in war, it is unlikely that the victorious nations would allow high-quality education for the defeated. While not everything is fabricated, a sufficient amount of misinformation is embedded to avoid suspicion.
Hence, from a practical perspective, it is crucial to obtain primary information. To acquire this, you must take action and learn from your experiences. What you read in books and learn from textbooks often diverges from reality, but realizing this through personal experience gives you an advantage. Most people plan without recognizing these discrepancies, so understanding them sets you apart.
Even if the information is factual, its value diminishes once it becomes common knowledge. Competing in a saturated market is a losing battle, and information found in books is often outdated.
However, society is full of traps designed to make people believe in lies under the guise of common sense. The most significant of these is peer pressure. To navigate society successfully, you must outwardly conform to these norms. Acting and speaking too differently from those around you can lead to social isolation, making practical living difficult.
Demonstrate adaptability by blending in with your surroundings while relying on your firsthand information when it matters. For example, there are many high-priced products that lack practical value but are popular due to brand value or trends. If a colleague recommends such items, do not criticize them—just choose not to buy them.
Enhancing Practicality
To enhance practicality, do not start anything special. Doing so would waste time and energy. Base your actions on existing habits and preferences, and live rationally.
For instance, consider the pros and cons of cooking at home versus buying ready-made meals from a convenience store or supermarket. Going out of your way to shop for healthy ingredients, cooking, and cleaning up afterward when you are exhausted is counterproductive. Instead, occasionally buy ready-made meals from a nearby convenience store to save time and energy. The key is moderation. While home-cooked meals have health benefits, reserve this for when you are not exhausted or on weekends. This way, you can allocate time and energy efficiently.
Before making a significant purchase, check the resale value of the item. Compare the purchase price with the potential resale price on platforms like eBay. Buy items with the intention of selling them later. This way, you become familiar with the resale market. Do not do this for every cheap purchase, as researching prices and handling packaging and shipping can be time-consuming and counterproductive. Avoid low-value activities and redirect your time to more fulfilling and rational pursuits. The threshold for what constitutes a high-value purchase depends on your current income. As your income increases, reduce the effort spent on small transactions and focus on larger financial opportunities. Again, this helps free up time and energy.
If reselling or engaging in side hustles like blogging, social media, or Uber Eats starts generating additional income, understand what can be business expensed and what cannot. Laptops, printers, smartphones, electric bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and even rental apartments can be expensed, reducing your tax burden. This is effective when your income from employment and side jobs reaches a certain level. Save on taxes while considering the resale value of your purchases. This can potentially allow you to acquire these items at no cost. Learn about points systems and the benefits of credit cards that accumulate points. High-value items are advantageous when expensed, so engage in “point activities” to maximize benefits.
Accumulate points and use them when the your currency strengthens. The highest return is on airline miles. When the yen is strong, travel abroad and look for products within the tax-free limit of 200,000 yen to resell in Japan. This reverse approach mirrors what many foreigners do when visiting Japan. If you dislike traveling, find another use for the points. For travel enthusiasts, this approach is highly beneficial. Even during yen weakness, you can create travel videos for YouTube, anticipating fewer competitors.
If you feel that you lack time and energy for your hobbies or side jobs, consider moving closer to your workplace. This reduces commuting time, allowing you to secure more sleep and study time for your side hustles.
Once you start taking various actions, collect unique data from your experiences. Analyze which actions yielded the most profit. Typically, 20% of your actions generate 80% of your profits. Focus on this 20%. This data is exclusive to you, so avoid sharing it with friends. Boasting about success can have significant drawbacks. If you encounter genuine primary information being shared on social media, appreciate and utilize it.
In essence, the key is to eliminate unnecessary actions and reallocate your time and energy to more productive activities. Do not force yourself to engage in activities you dislike for immediate profit. Instead, integrate these principles into your existing habits and preferences. By doing so, you will naturally enhance your quality of life.
This is where the true strength of idealists and those with high awareness and perspectives shines. Use the time, energy, and financial resources generated by practical actions to pursue what you genuinely want to do. This not only enhances your life satisfaction but also benefits society.
Additionally, individuals who train their thinking in this way develop the ability to identify core patterns and principles, allowing them to apply a single success across various scenarios.
Conclusion
Recognize why Japanese education emphasizes memorization of knowledge and understand the underlying intentions. Question the practicality of knowledge that lacks real-world applicability. Maintain skepticism toward knowledge that is difficult to verify in real life.
Even if you discover the essence through actual actions, avoid easily asserting it or criticizing others’ mistakes. Instead, use that knowledge practically.
Enhancing practicality allows you to create time, energy, and financial resources, enabling you to pursue what you truly want to do. This improves your overall life satisfaction.
Conversely, living too rationally can lower the quality of life. Idealism, abstraction, play, meaning in life, social contribution, and spirituality are equally important.
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