The Secret Sauce

Dear Diary,

I've discovered the secret sauce of life -


are you ready?

It's not a cliffhanger - it's ...
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Compassion !!!!!!!!!!

 I've recently gotten a tattoo that I look at (when I remember that it exists on my wrist) to remind myself to have more of it. For myself and for others. Think about it - people live their lives how they believe that it ought to be lived...therefore they make decisions based off of how they actually think a good life should be ( unless they are self-hating/destructive...but in those cases, aren't those people in their own way living the best that they think that they deserve? :( seek help readers who feel this way, within yourself or a reliable system or support). They aren't trying to live life in a way that they think is a bad way to live. Even if they boast being bad, they actually are boasting that "bad" types of things are actually good. People seek good in all different types of ways. And sometimes it can be hard to accept this because you might see universal truths of good and bad, obviously better or worse decisions, and a shitload of assumptions about their internal motivations versus their passions and desires versus their literal actions. But at the end of the day - don't we want the best for ourselves and for others?
I mean ideally, don't we want everyone to thrive in some manner of "goodness", whatever that is to us personally? Personally, I have a high threshold for criticism, but NOT for harmful actions that people take with the intent to harm rather than benefit, and NOT for people who are careless about the negative consequences of their words and actions on others. People without moral responsibility towards the welfare of others? Not okay. At all. But compassion besides that, I think, is the secret sauce of life. Does this guy seem lazy? Maybe he's in a rut and needs a break in life because honestly he doesn't have it in him to do better right now and you can't push your expectations on different types of people in the same fashion that works well for yourself. I need a straightforward talking-to, personally, to do better for myself - but others can't take that. It hurts their feelings lol.  I mean, I still try this approach when I think that it's necessary (because I know that I could make them take action this way with enough passion and certainty in my voice), but I try other methods for a lot of people. For example, praise can be a lifesaving way to help someone, if it's gone about in the right way. Rather than discourage people for their negative traits, why not bring their positive traits to light? And I don't mean superficially, but real things that are good in them - their own compassion, their ability to work hard, their love for their family that extends in their life, their ability to speak well to people, or whatever it is that their cherish about themselves and is actually a good thing that you'd like them to be more of! Bring positivity into their minds and encourage them to help others - that's the secret sauce of cohabiting in a society of people that dammit, can be really emotional sometimes.
-That Girl, sharing secrets