21 Brutal Truths About The World That Might Make You Realign Your Priorities

I came across this thread on Quora, originally titled “What are some ugly truths of life?” They’re depressing, but also jarring and enlightening. Check out the full thread on Quora.
Alan
Alan

Poor people walk miles for food and rich people walk miles to digest it.

Jagir Jhaveri


People take the elevator to the roof-top gym – to use the stair master.

Geoffrey Walton


Good looking people have life on easy mode.

Chen Gong


Nice or kind ≠ good.

Amanda Mills


Disneyland had to re-engineer the “It’s a Small World” ride because passenger weight routinely exceeded design specs, causing the boats to bottom-out.

Geoffrey Walton


Nobody knows when their last goodbye is…

Karen Bansal


Love is one of the only areas of endeavor where extra effort, planning, investment, dedication or loyalty does not necessarily translate into success.

Jay Bazzinotti


A man works melting metals and plastics in a closed corrugated metal room in Dharavi, the largest slum in Mumbai. His lifespan is easily shortened by 30-40 years just because of his job. He can barely feed his family.

That man’s eight year old son is color sorting hundreds of thousands of bits and pieces of plastics on the roof above where his dad works so he has enough light to tell the difference between the colors.

Ugliest truth of all? Some of them have more hope for the future than some of us.

YGLvoices
Dharavi, Mumbai. Photo credit: YGLvoices

More than 1 million people live in this 535 acre area. Central Park in New York City is 843 acres. The official max capacity is 600,000 (without homes). Chew on that for a minute.

Amanda Tendler


People spend more time driving to the gym than they spend working out.

Geoffrey Walton


Following your dreams doesn’t always take you to them.

David Stewart


Life is not fair — and then you die.

Barry Hampe


Conviction, no matter how fervently held, does not create truth.

Jay Bazzinotti


California spends more, per capita, on incarcerated felons than on high school students.

Geoffrey Walton


Friends will come and go. It can be a hard thing to accept, but the people you spend time with now may not be around tomorrow. Lesson: There are so many amazing people in this world for you to meet and build relationships with.

You won’t always get what you want. People are going to be late. They will let you down. Things that you want won’t always be available. Lesson: Don’t look for happiness in material possessions, and if things don’t go your way learn to accept them. Life’s too short to stay miserable.

Some people may love you and some may not. There are may possible reasons such as jealousy, similarities between you, or maybe you just don’t hit it off with that person. Lesson: So what. It’s that persons problem to deal with not yours. Let them talk. You are perfect the way you are and you certainly don’t need their approval for self-esteem.

Nobody can transform your life-like you can. The support and help of others can only take you so far. You are going to have to look to yourself to make the really big changes in life. Lesson: Do things for yourself and learn to stand on your own two feet. People you rely on won’t be around forever and you don’t want to have to depend on others to get through life.

You are going to fail. “Only those who are asleep make no mistakes,” so the saying goes. Lesson: You can learn a lot from others but it’s your own failures that you will learn valuable lessons from. Learn from your failures.

Rain will sometimes cancel play. So, you went to the beach and it rained the whole time? Lesson: Don’t stress over things that you have no control. Learn to live with things that happen. You may not be able to change the past but how you can change how you react to things.

There may be no tomorrow. Let’s face it, I’m sure we all would like to live till we are 90 but that’s not always the case. There will be one day that is our last. Lesson: Make the most of each day. Make sure the people who you care most about really know how much you love them. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Spend time with the people you love and doing the things you love.

Someone will always have more. There will always be areas where people have more than you. Lesson: Just because they have more doesn’t always mean they’re happy. Focus on what you love and not what that thing you love can get you. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Vishal Sharma

I am the co-publisher of Thought Catalog. Follow me on Twitter. I also use a pen name called Holden Desalles.

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