[Mega Thread] Personal Life-Learned Lessons - In & Outside of Pokemon

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This is an interesting one…

As we all age & mature in this hobby together, we as a general community have had many different backgrounds than one another. Each one of us have gone down different roads, pursued different occupations, and experienced life in general differently than one another. In this, I feel It is always important in life to have a time of reflection. To think back on our own experiences and learn & grow from them.

Our experiences, good or bad, they have shaped and molded us to the men and & women we are today. I also believe these experiences can be in some ways great insight or heeds of warnings to others that may face similar experiences in their life.

I feel a lot of things discussed on this forum are amazing concentrations of Pokemon knowledge & data that will stand the tests of time inside this hobby. With that, I think it would be disingenuous to separate this personal knowledge from the individual person’s life experiences they went through to obtain or have the revelations of knowledge they bring to the hobby.

Again the purpose of this thread is to share life lessons and things you have learned while being involved or has influenced you to become part of the Pokemon community. Please Share!

Obviously this thread can become deeply personal for obvious reasons. If you would like to share anonymously, please make another account and share on this thread.

ANY PERSONAL NAMES AND/OR IDENTIFIERS WILL BE REMOVED FOR OBVIOUS REASONS



To start this all off, I will share my Life Lesson:

No one truly cares about you & your life happiness except for YOU.

This seems depressing, yes, but the more you understand this, the happier you will become in your life.
I don’t understand why it became the norm to live someone else’s dream or to live up to someone else’s expectations instead of who YOU truly want to become. Thankfully my parent’s weren’t like this and gave me the freedom to choose my own path for myself instead of a pre-constructed path they demanded out of me.
If you are providing for those who you love & are taking care of yourself, whatever you find happiness in should be sought after and accepted as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else.

In today’s culture, It is easy to fall pray to other’s judgement, but when you stop caring about those voices and treat them as negative distractions, it can truly set you free.

Obviously Pokemon isn’t the “sexiest” thing to do in society’s eyes as a hobby or “investment”. Even people within my family don’t know exactly what I enjoy doing within the space, but I hate that we have to explain the money side of things before the art appreciation or the connections to the IP we all have.

So that is one of my life lessons I have learned. Enjoy the things that bring you happiness because we aren’t out here forever. Just because it isn’t the social norm doesn’t make it wrong. My wife and I still have Dave & Buster dates and she has a collection of Shark plushies she enjoys.

“Being an adult sucks, why not live life happy for a change?”

I’d love to hear what others have to say.

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2 things,

“Collect for yourself and no one else”. Life is all one big rat race and the only times I seem to lose out is when I listen to others and make decisions on what they say, not what is best for me.

This leads into the second one, “Nobody has your interests in mind except you”. Everyone has lots of input of how everyone else should live, the things they should buy, where their priorities should be, etc. But all of it doesnt really matter when it comes to do what you want and what works for your life.

Those are ones that I always have to remember when collecting and in life.

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I would say a Life Lesson for me is the importance of money, it’s all-encompassing nature, how so many of the problems in your life can be traced back to it at some ultimate level, how so many others who have plenty of it are completely oblivious to its importance, and how every person in the world is competing for it with every physical and mental weapon at their disposal.

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Oh 100%
Looking at you “Top 10 cards to buy RIGHT NOW or you’ll MISS OUT BIG :money_mouth_face::money_mouth_face::money_mouth_face:”

Good points @lyleberr
Thanks for sharing :smiling_face::pray:t2:

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Ya I would say it’s not how much you have of it, but what you choose to do with it. However big or small amount you have :relieved:

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Just saying that while illustration charizard is nice, i dont collect charizard specifically nor need more than one of them :joy:

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A financial/life lesson I’ll share is to do your best to prepare for the future, but don’t overdo it. Yes it’s very important to prepare for the future, but you need to make sure you aren’t just living for the future.

I didn’t grow up with much money, and so I spent so much of my mental energy in my teens and early 20s on maximizing my savings, planning every dollar, and in turn not “living” much. Because of the magic of compound interest, I’m glad I was careful early on in my career, but it became all encompassing. If I spent money on going out to eat, or on anything that didn’t feel “responsible”, I was guilt stricken.

Later in my 20s, I had a medical scare where I thought I may kick the bucket, but spoiler alert, I didn’t :slight_smile: that did though make me realize I was so hyper focused on preparing for the future, that it was impacting my ability to enjoy the present. That realization allowed me to jump back into collecting without the guilt that had always plagued me before.

To boil it down, think and prepare for the future, but know what’s really needed for that, and all the while make sure you enjoy the ride.

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My advice? A lot of your potential is determined by the relationships you hold with others. You can also only manage a limited number of relationships at one time.

There are people in this world who build things up and take you with them and people who are only good at tearing things down. Prioritize your relationships. Plant the seeds to start new and beneficial friendships with the right people. Cut the liabilities out of your life.

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These are some principles I try and live by. However, it is a constant work in progress since these things are so much more easier said than done.

  1. Things are never good or bad on its own. It is our judgement of these things that makes it good and bad. Why should I focus on things that will never be in my control. It would only do me good to focus on things which are completely under my control, which is only my faculty of thoughts and reasoning.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning.

  1. Dread, worry, anxiety etc are responses to an imagined future, while humiliation, regret, sadness, etc. are responses to a remembered past. Suffering in life literally requires you to not be living in the present moment. Knowing this can be a very liberating fact.

“Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all, – the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.” – Seneca

  1. It does not take much to be kind in life, cause true kindness is unconquerable. In chaos, always be kind. Almost everyone is facing some kind of adversity that we are unaware of, so a little kindness can always go a long way. There are no evil people in the world but only misguided people.

“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius

  1. Years and years of sitting and laziness have really affected my mobility and flexibility. Having some form of dynamic and static stretching movements daily can go a long way to improve posture, joint health, overall flexibility and mobility, specially as I am growing older. It can be good to do this on its own, or be a supplementary to ones strength training routine.

Cheers!

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Wipe until you see white (or red).

Change your bed sheets at least once a week, preferably twice.

An electric toothbrush is one of the best low-cost investments you can make for your health.

Be more concerned with ingredients lists than caloric content (Less ingredients generally means better)

Literally do everything you can to avoid physical conflict no matter the circumstances.

A lack of sleep, or sleeping much less than a healthy amount is not something to be proud of and should not be used as a measuring stick for hard work or value.

Have a shoe bin/storage at your front door and never wear shoes you wear outside beyond that point. Your feet will thank you, and you will walk much less dirt into the house.

Meal prep is great, but it can get boring by the 3rd or 4th day of the week. Look into ‘buffet style’ meal prep that you can access when you are a little over what you prepared for the week. It will save you money and increase your chances of eating everything you prepared.

Make sure you eat soluble and insoluble fiber as a focal point of at least 1 of your meals per day, or at the very least your snacks. (This is related to my first point).

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I will say I am guilty of being too much of a penny pincher. Life is too short to not enjoy what you have + help others with what you earn.

Thank you for sharing Will :]

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I unfortunately have had many sour friendships due to toxic people in the past. I learned very fast that some people don’t want to change or compromise. They want you to contort to their will. Thankfully I wasn’t afraid to drop those toxic friendships when I was younger.

Thank you for sharing Scott :rabbit:

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Those are some great Quotes @mrbubbles ! I know @smpratte would enjoy reading some of them as I am sure he may know a couple of them already.

Something that goes along with this quote that has struck with me as well:

Reflection is a very important aspect to life as to setting goals for the future. It brings humility and acknowledgment of growth. If you cringe at your past self, congratulations, you have grown in some way or another from whence you were.

Reflection for too long of a time can be damaging.
Just like driving a car. If you are constantly looking at your rear view mirror while driving, chances are you aren’t moving forward. You are driving backwards.

Thank you for sharing <3

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This is a great one! 3lb of taco meat is my go-to when meal prepping. It is always so easy (after it’s made) to pop it into the microwave and dress the Tacos up with lettus, tomatoes, cheese, all inside a corn tortilla! Meals prepping saves me thousands and not enough people do it!

Thank you for sharing Milhouse :]

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Buy what you like and have a good time doing it. Life is limited. Penny pinching is limited, but if within constraints of life(?), understandably it’s a thrill to appease ones appetite on a deal. There are pros and cons as it could continue falling, would you sill be happy with your purchase on you “deal”? I hope so, because you should be buying fun stuff you like anyhow.

Outside of Pokemon, lol economy looks rough for folks and there’s some love for agitators, which is so unnecessary and bottom barrel. If you stay focused on original track that has shown previous success, ~over time, you will likely prevail with continued fortunate treasures, amassed over time and through the trenches of uncertainty. (as in keep buying more cards, you’ll be surprised at the opportunity to sell down the road, and lucky you if you have a larger collection). However during the times, less knowledgeable folks may want to pod up and expand/evolve some of their strategies, if financial reward was of consideration.

And the journey along the way will be rewarding with experiences, adtl. understanding, and better prepped for the days ahead. Or learn how not to do what you did, unless you had a fantastic time along the way. Entertainment and good memories are priceless.

Aside from money and greed, you can be happy within means so enjoy yourself if present situation allows. If that means a 500k charizard purchase or a $50 charizard purchase, to each their own.

I hope everyone has continued good time within Pokemon, amongst the crazy tides of volatile economy. Had couple beers, think it looks fine.

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Get out of my head

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Cheers :beers:

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Changing sheets twice a week? Sheeesh. I’m such a dirty man (I mean I do it waay less for the environment of course :joy:)!

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Put your water heater to 130 degrees. Maybe even more.

Remove the flow restrictor from your showerhead. You will come out of the shower feeling like you were in a waterfall instead, of well, feeling wet.

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One thing that I learned that is very important is to be careful of who you can trust. Before I really interacted with anyone in collecting, I only just used e4 and older forums for research on past releases of cards.

It was great to start getting involved and interacting with the community, but there are some types of people out there that will only lie, never tell the whole truth, or just may be toxic (ex. Rude or conceited).

However, most people I have met in person are very nice and you can tell they obviously love collecting and being part of the hobby. I’ll always try to make an effort and say hi at an event to someone if I know they will be there.

Some of the best people I’ve met were at regional tournaments, or conventions (I only ever had a couple bad interactions), unfortunately the same can’t be said for Instagram :melting_face: (I always go back and forth on just deleting it lol).

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