at the end of everything, hold on to anything

"a partner won't fix you" is a very popular one, and like, partially, sure, but also, hell no. It doesn't have to be a romantic partner, and no partner is better than a bad partner, but I know from experience with friends that the kind of closeness we typically associate with partners would in fact help to fix me. I need to share my living space and I need couch cuddles and quiet gestures of mutual understanding and appreciation.

"money can't buy happiness" is another from this collection, and getting out of poverty can absolutely fix some people.

The theme of all of these (what did they call it?) "crab bucket doomerism" is apathy and resistance to change, to progress. Remain stagnant, it's safer. Don't bother! If it's not perfect then it's a waste of energy, there's no point in DOing anything otherwise. Just keep your head down and accept your learned helplessness, and continue going along with the status quo.

Sometimes, all you get from something is that it keeps things from getting worse. Sometimes, just hanging on is all the salvation you’ll get on a given moment. Sometimes, the best you can get from a day is that it takes you to next one.

So if it feels inescapable and like evidence of it is everywhere, whether at times or always, that might just because you're in a Western country where you're surrounded by Christians who believe that, fundamentally, in their worldview. And also they talk and make art about it all the time and run the vast majority of news outlets. And spent over a thousand years burning any art or texts that disagreed with them. Etc. etc.

If you're gonna come to as drastic and painful a conclusion as that, at least take the time first to make sure you're not working with biased evidence (surrounded by too many people and cultural products that believe original sin is real)

The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.

The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.

The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.

The “get stuff done while you wait” method.

The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.

The “break the task into smaller steps” method.

The “treat yourself like a pet” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.

The “put on a persona” method.

The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.

The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.

The “wait for a trigger” method.

The “do it for your future self” method.

The “might as well” method.

The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.

The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.

The “make it easy” method.

The “junebugging” method.

The “just show up” method.

The “accept when you need help” method.

The “make it into a game” method.

The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.

The “trick yourself” method.

The “break it into even smaller steps” method.

The “let go of should” method.

The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.

The “fork theory” method.

to self-soothe and self-educate (through media consumption)

to protect the people around it

and this protagonist, who deescalates violence at every opportunity, who takes a thousand personal injustices in stride and only strives to do better, whose first-and-worst-and-most-brilliant act of self-reclamation—literally reclaiming its mind—was fuelled not by its need for freedom but by a desperation to never be forced to hurt anyone against its will ever again.