I choose three counter-intuitive topics from the long list of suggestions from this article. It seems counterintuitive that unhappiness comes from comparison. You’d assume that happiness would come from the pursuit to better yourself after the initial comparison, but that isn’t true.

Personally, I’ve experienced that feeling for myself. I’m a huge car guy, and when I see kids my age, driving around campus in their beautiful and expensive cars, I begin to compare myself. I can recall this moment very recently. I was walking to class, and I saw a car I always dreamed of owning. To my surprise a kid around my age was at the wheel and was enjoying every second of my dream. My first jealous thought was daddy’s money, but then I began to theorize if that isn’t the case. I questioned if the kid bought it from his hard work and determination in his chosen field. I questioned why I couldn’t do that for myself right now. I questioned what I could possibly do to make my dream come true. I get lost in these thoughts so often that it mostly ends in self hatred. Why couldn’t I be the one to come up with a genius idea to make me rich? What makes me so different from the rest? This comparison undoubtedly leads to unhappiness because of the level of success, or lack thereof, I’ve acquired in my lifetime. 

It seems counterintuitive that fearlessness leads to success because of how much in life there is to fear. Being a deep thinker leads to analyzing every possible outcome, therefore avoiding the less desirable conclusion.

Being able to live fearlessly will never be the path I choose to live my life. Although I do enjoy those “fuck it, what’s the worse that could happen” moments, they are very few and far between. Proceeding into a risky situation leads to analyzing the outcomes. Firstly, my mind always wanders to the more negative outcomes. I don’t fully understand why I do it, but I assume it’s a part of my survival instincts. The second part of the advice explains that, “The fear of failure is a huge liability, live fearlessly” I personally wouldn’t be able to maintain that mindset for an extensive period of time. As soon as the period of success subsides, the flow of negative thoughts will prevail. 

It seems counterintuitive that perfectionism never leads to perfection. Seems very odd why anyone would chase perfection in the first place if there was no perfect outcome.

Schools aggressively push their students to achieve the highest grades to acquire the perfect GPA. The essence of humanity is imperfect so why would any person expect perfection. Perfection in the real world doesn’t exist. Perfection takes planning, planning is a waste of time thus eliminating the possibility of perfection. “Imperfect action is a hundred times better than perfect planning,” ~Will Mitchell.

https://www.quora.com/Life-Lessons/What-life-lessons-are-counter-intuitive-or-go-against-common-sense-or-wisdom-For-example-being-loud-and-obnoxious-is-surprisingly-useful-effective-most-of-the-time

(Goddess Matula), (Will Mitchell)