Life is quite possibly one of the most abstract and mind-boggling things you can attempt to comprehend.

Who am I? Where am I going? What is my purpose? What kind of life should I live? Do I really exist? Why am I here? The list goes on infinitely from there. If you want to know the answers to these question I'm sure you will find plenty of sources in the 100s section of your local library that will get you started. Rather than tell you your destination and give you a detailed road map that has your route highlighted in red, I will provide something far more useful. As anyone who has ever planned for a road trip knows, conditions will change and anything that can go wrong will. For that reason, a concrete guide is useless when navigating life. There is no way to know what opportunities or complications that you may encounter during your journey. The path ahead of you and the objects on it will always be constantly changing; there is no way that you can control this. What you can control is how well you spot these opportunities and hazards ahead of time, thus giving yourself time to prepare. It is this preparation that is the key to successfully hitchhiking through life, and the only way to know what to prepare for is by arming yourself with knowledge. So grab your copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Life and get started. It's going to be a long trip. Before delving too deeply into the finer points of hitchhiking through life, it must first be clarified as to what exactly this guide will provide you. As this works title suggests, it will simply be a guide to living life as if you were a hitchhiker. Thinking in terms of hitchhiking, lifes purpose becomes painstakingly clear: all you need to do is get from Point A to Point B, but how exactly do you accomplish this? As with any journey, you will have to pack your bags with whatever it is you might need. You will have to be prepared to adapt to the ever-changing conditions of the road. Most of all, you will have to determine where exactly Point B is and use that goal to shape the course of your journey. With all of the challenges that will inevitably be encountered, successfully hitchhiking through life may seem like an unattainable goal. Dont panic. As with anything, hitchhiking through life can be broken down into a science. So lets start that the beginning and work our way to the end, and hopefully youll pick up a few things along the way.

Imagine being confronted with an impossibly difficult math problem to solve. Given the circumstances you are in, it is not vital to your survival to solve it. Based on that, should you feel inadequate simply because you lacked whatever knowledge was required to solve that particular problem? The answer is no, and the reason behind it is a little tool that hitchhikers like to call practicality. Practicality is defined as doing something useful based on experience and intelligence, rather than dealing purely in the theoretical aspects of a situation. To simplify that, it means looking at a situation, seeing what needs to be done, and then doing what needs to be done in the most efficient way possible. In the case of the math problem mentioned above, unless you actually had to solve that problem to accomplish your goals, solving it and by extension knowing how to solve it is not at all practical. Hitchhikers must be practical if they are to prosper. In many cases, a problem can be solved very simply by ignoring all of the deeper theoretical aspects of the situation and instead focusing on what the actual problem is and then applying what you know to come up with a solution. Consider a familiar circumstance; you go to start your car in the morning to drive to work. You put your key into the ignition, but instead of the vehicles engine whirring to life, it just lazily turns over. With your theoretical knowledge of mechanics, you know that you are supposed to run a full twelve point inspection on the different components of your car to determine what exactly is preventing the engine from fully activating. Of course, by thinking practically, you deduce that the problem must be originating from the engine itself, most likely a problem with the battery. Here is where doing the practical thing comes into play. The theoretical thing you are supposed to do is fully inspect the car in hopes of isolating the problem a process that could take all of an hour. The practical thing to do is go right to the battery and check to make sure it is powered and properly connected. Given that the practical thing to do is typically also the correct thing to do, you will end up saving yourself forty-five minutes of unnecessary searching. This is the main point to consider when regarding practicality: is it more effective to go through the full process of what is supposed to be done, or skip the irrelevant steps and focusing directly on solving the problem at hand? This discussion of practicality leads right in to a similarly related topic: intelligence. In order to examine this concept properly, we both need to be on the same page regarding it. So what exactly is 2

intelligence? The majority of people would tell you that it is simply a measure of how much a person knows. That may be correct from a certain point of view, but there is a much more useful way to regard intelligence. It is not just what you know, but how well you can apply what you know. So once again, you must look at the lessons learned from practicality: some things that you learn possess more practical applications than others. You may have learned how to divide logarithmic equations in your advanced calculus class, but if you are working as a cashier at grocery store, then the skill that will serve the most use will be simple addition. Of course, you will encounter a wide variety of situations in life, all of which will require their own set of skills and knowledge. For that reason it is important to understand both how to divide logarithms and how to add, since one day you may be working as a clerk, but the next you may be a forecaster using advanced logarithms to determine coming economic trends. The key though, is being able to analyze your situation and determine what constitutes as intelligence in order to solve whatever task has been put before you. Adaptability is the next item to consider as you take into account the vital skills that every hitchhiker should possess. As you travel down the road of life, you may know exactly where your are going and know exactly how you are going to get there. Although it is good to have a plan, it is even more important to be prepared to alter that plan. You may find that the road is blocked and you need to take a detour. You may find that a bridge is out and you need to find a completely different road to take. You may end up hitching a ride from a car that takes you to a different place than you destination. All of these occurrences, along with an infinite amount of others, can and will happen. For this reason, you must be prepared to alter your plans and work with whatever circumstances you find yourself in to the best of your ability. When you are sailing a ship, there is no way that you can control what direction the wind is going to blow. So when you find the wind blowing you away from destination, there are two different options that you have: you can keep trying to sail against to gale and let your sails be destroyed, or you can adjust you sails and let the wind take you where it may. Youll be moving either way, but which option will allow you to travel farther?

With all of these skills packed in your hitchhiking travel bag, it may seem like you are set to head off on you journey. But wait, there is still one vital tool that you may have forgotten to pack. This tool could be considered the Swiss Army Knife of life, since it carries with it the means to get you through practically any situation. Its a little object that lifes hitchhikers like to call common sense. Packing this item may seem obvious; it is called common sense after all. As it turns out, common sense is not quite as common as it should be. For various reasons, a number of hitchhikers either forget or ignore this resource. Just because it is so frequently over looked however, does not mean that it is not useful. Your common sense actually happens to be the most useful and user-friendly tool that you could possibly possess: on its own, it is capable of getting you through any circumstance that life may throw at you. Of course, having more than just common sense like intelligence is helpful, but if all you have is common sense, you will do better than most. Picture yourself riding a bicycle and coming to a steep, winding drop in the path. What should you do? Use your common sense. If you get off of your bicycle and walk it down the slope, you may reach the bottom slower, but you will reach it with far less risk to yourself. Your other option is to keep riding straight down the path. Once you reach a speed of about forty miles per hour you will probably lose control of the bicycle and seriously maim yourself. So mull that over for a while. Which does you common sense think is the better choice to make? So your bags are packed and you are ready to go. Right? Not exactly. You still need to understand how exactly you get from Point A to Point B. There is only one way to effectively be able to do this. Yes, you guessed it! The key is planning ahead. So just how do you do that? In order to successfully plan ahead for your journey down lifes road, you must at least have a general idea as to what exactly you will encounter. Lets start with obvious, and most prominent one: intersections. As with any path, lifes road is not entirely straight; there will come times when you come to an intersection and are forced to make a decision. Which way will I go? Since this is such a complex subject, lets focus on one aspect of it at a time. To start, there is a fascinating concept known as the paradox of choice. The premise behind this idea is quite simply this: the more choices that you have, the more anxiety you will feel when making your decision and the more regret you will feel afterwards as you contemplate what 4

might have been had you chosen something different. For this reason, the best hitchhikers always strive to eliminate unnecessary options when they must make a decision. By reducing ten different paths down to three, your odds of choosing the best one are exponentially higher. Consider that you were at an ice cream parlor and had the option of choosing between fifty different flavors, eighty different toppings, and ten different cones. Now assume that there is only one combination of the different items that is right for you. This then means that the odds of you choosing the right ice cream cone are one to thirty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. Although you may not even be fully aware of it, this creates a considerable amount of anxiety leading up to you decision. Even after you finally mange to make a selection, you are then faced with the though, I wonder what one of the other combinations would have tasted like. What then is the simplest way to avoid this massive amount of unnecessary mental strain? It is simply a matter of whittling down your options. Of those options of ice cream, toppings, and cones, which are the ones that you know with absolute certainty you want? If you were able to narrow your options down to three flavors, two toppings, and one cone, you suddenly have a one to five chance of choosing the perfect ice cream cone. Never try to work with more information than is needed. Get right down to the heart of the matter and then make you decision. Not only will you save yourself considerable time before hand, you will be able to avoid the wasting time afterwards regretting the options that you did not take. With an understanding of exactly how the mechanics of choice work, the matter of actually making a decision can be fully addressed. No matter what choice you are faced with, there is a very simple process that can be used to facilitate you in coming to your conclusion. Before you even arrive at an intersection, you must have at least a general idea as to where you are going. Without this, it will be very difficult to determine which path is the best one to take, since you will have no sense of direction in guiding your choice. Once you do know what direction you are heading, do the obvious thing and take note of the different paths that lie before you. Knowing where you want to go, look at these different paths and immediately eliminate the ones that go in a direction that is opposite to where you want to go. Next, analyze the remaining paths and determine what advantages and disadvantages will result from 5

taking each one. Keeping your observations and conclusions in mind, all that is left to do is actually make your decision, and be prepared to accept whatever consequences it may bring. No matter what method you use to reach your decision, you are always left to reflect upon the consequences. There is definitely a reason why the past is called the past. The reason is simply because what has happened has already happened and cannot be changed. This logic seems easy enough to follow, but as with many concepts, quite a few hitchhikers fail to grasp it. What would have happened if I had gone left instead of right at that last intersection? Does it matter? In the majority of cases, there is no way to go backwards on life's road and select a different path to go down. So with that in mind, what is the point of wasting useful time thinking about something that you absolutely cannot change, when you could be thinking about the road ahead? Of course, it is definitely helpful to acknowledge when you have made a mistake and determine how similar mistakes can be avoided in the future; this does not mean that you should brood over your mistake and think about what life would be like if you had made a different choice. There is no bigger waste of time than regret. Although hitchhikers may have a difficult time avoiding this hazard completely, with time and experience, this obstacle and can be avoided, or at least walked through quickly. How do you know if you will make the right decision when you reach an intersection? As is often the case, there is no absolute way of knowing how well you will be able to judge the situation. For this reason it is imperative that you possess a useful device known as confidence. No hitchhiker can afford to stand around at an intersection fretting over whether or not he will make the right decision. As long as you look at your options and do what seems most logical, the odds are that you will make the right choice. Since you cannot go back anyway, there is no sense in brooding over what might have been; you just have to remain confident that you made the right choice and make the best of whatever might come of it. It is vital to note that there is a difference between trusting yourself to make the right choice and believing that you are immune to making the wrong choice. This is called overconfidence, and it is a very good way to end up walking off a cliff. Be confident in your decisions, but always make sure that you give every choice the amount of consideration that it is due. 6

Time to start the journey? Not yet. There is still one integral topic that has yet to be discussed. You know that your goal is get from Point A to Point B, and you know what you need to do to get there, so whats left to discuss? Have you figured out where exactly Point B is? To make the immense journey of life a little easier to comprehend, it helps to break up your destinations into several classes. Firstly, there are your immediate goals. Where will you be an hour from now? That is something you must know. Although this destination may be one of the easiest to determine, it can also be one of the most influential on your overall journey. Just like a snowball rolled down a hill, your immediate choices will eventually grow to define where you will end up. Sometimes you come to an intersection along the road of life and must quickly determine which way you will go. When you make your decision, keep in mind at least the general direction you want to be heading. The destinations you set for yourself now will eventually lead you to you ultimate destination. Building on that, are you short-term destinations. What is the next town you'll be stopping at along the road? To successfully travel, you must know where you are going to be spending the night and where you will be eating your next meal. In order to effectively choose these destinations, you must develop at least a general idea of where your larger destinations are. These short-term destination should act as stepping stone of sorts, helping to lead you in the general direction of your larger destination. Consider these destinations carefully, where you stop and how long you stay will define how well you will be able to reach the next tier of destinations. Long-term destinations make up that next tier. As the name implies, these destinations will not be reached over night. Say you were in Kansas, you may set a long-term goal to reach Nevada. These goals play an extremely pivotal role in setting the course for your ultimate destination is. In order to set a long-term goal, you must have a fairly concrete idea as to where your final destination is. You don't want to arrive in Nevada and find that you really wanted to end up in Florida. It could very easily be said that these goals can unalterably define where you will eventually arrive. Once you get to Nevada, chances are you won't have time to hitchhike your way back East. For this reason, it is vital that long-term destination

be considered carefully: they will be one of the last intersections you reach before arriving at your final destination. It is this ultimate destination that not only shapes the course of your life, but is also the most subject to change. This destination may be where you intended to end up or it may be somewhere entirely unexpected. Regardless of whether or not you arrive where you wanted, it is vital to the success of your journey through life to eventually know where you want your final destination to be. It is this destination that helps guide the course that your life will take. If you want to eventually arrive in San Francisco from New York, you may not know exactly which road you will take, but you will know to at least head west. By establishing this destination, all of your more immediate destinations will become clearer, since the purpose of your prior goals is to eventually reach your ultimate goal. When you first set your final destination it maybe limitless, however as your journey progresses and you find your route to be less flexible, your ultimate destination will become more refined; some may say more realistic. You will always be able to alter your final destination if you choose to do so, but keep in mind, the farther along you go in your journey, the more rigid your path becomes. What makes a good final destination and how do you know whether you will be able to reach it or not? Those questions that is yours to answer. Finally, after all of the previous preparation and discussion, we have finally gotten to the nittygritty: actually hitchhiking. There are two kinds of hitchhikers in this world. Some are the kind who sit on the side of a deserted road waiting for nonexistent cars to come. Then, there are the others who when they see that there are no cars to hitch rides from are just as okay with walking through life as they are with taking a ride. In case you didnt guess, the latter type are usually the ones who get through their journeys better. The reason for this is simple: opportunities, just like cars, are something that you take advantage of when you can, but can live just as well without. So when opportunities do present themselves, how can you determine if it is the right opportunity for you to take? There are three general factors to consider before you climb aboard an opportunity and let is whisk you away. First, take into account where this opportunity will take you. If it takes you away from where you want to go, it is probably best not to take it. Next, consider what cost is involved with taking this opportunity. Some 8

opportunities will have high costs, while some will be risk free. Pay close attention to this part, sometimes the cost of an opportunity is very difficult to see. Lastly, consider the possibility that another, better opportunity may be just around the corner. If you were to pass up the opportunity in front of you right now, how likely is it that a better opportunity will come along and offer you a ride? This kind of consideration can be pretty tricky and in some cases the stakes can be very high. So what do you do when you find that you have passed up a great opportunity? Remember the previous discussion about the hazards of regret? If you do, then you will know that the answer is simple, just keep walking and make sure you dont make the same mistake again. Here is the part of the guide where things get pretty abstract. In other words, the previous lessons may have been pretty obvious and easy to agree with. These next ones may be a bit harder to swallow. I hope you brought a glass of water, because here comes the first concept: helping others or helping yourself? Take note that this is not saying that you should help others and completely neglect your own goals, but rather that hitchhiking through life is, or at least should be, a collective effort. It is inevitable that you will cross paths with other hitchhikers as you make your way through life. Sometimes they will ask you for help, other times you may ask them for help. Given what circumstances you find yourself in, you may refuse to help others. There is no inherent problem with this, just keep in mind that if you do not contribute to the collective effort, then you should not expect any help from it. Obviously, this system of collective hitchhiking is not flawless. In order for it to work, everyone has to be willing to do their part, and sadly, there are too many hitchhikers who are content with being carried along by others. Nevertheless, working as a team does have a tendency to further the overall journey of all of lifes hitchhikers and should be regarded as an extra tool for overcoming obstacles too large for any one hitchhiker to conquer. Resignation is the final word that all hitchhikers should learn. There will always be matters that are outside of your control. No matter how prepared you are, no matter what skills and tools that you have with you, there are always factors that are simply beyond the scope of your ability to regulate. By accepting this, you will be able to focus more on how to prepare for what you may encounter rather than 9

worry about events that you have yet to come across. Considering upcoming tribulations is useful when it comes to the matter of planning ahead, but that is where it should stop. Use the possibilities of the future to prepare, but do not fixate on the future merely for the sake of imaging terrible possibilities without coming up with solutions to them. To put this lesson bluntly, you cannot control whether or not it rains, but you can make sure that you packed an umbrella. Keeping that in mind is the key to efficient hitchhiking. Some things will always be out of your control; you cant change that. What you can control is how you adapt to these changing conditions and make the best out of them. So how do you end a guide like this? What wisdom could possibly be used to tie everything that has been said up into a neat little bow? It was a pretty tricky question to grapple with. Given its general appeal to the majority of the population, I have found that, when all else fails, Star Wars is always the best option to take. Following that logic, here is a pithy bit of wisdom from the musings of Han Solo: Lifes like a big game of sabacc, you throw all your cards on the table and hope no one sees that youre bluffing. And that is exactly what life is. There is no way that you can control what cards you get dealt, that is always left up to chance. Even though you cannot control what hand you get, you can control what you do with those cards. To use a clich, you have to know when to hold you cards and when to fold them. A great deal of life is about calculated risk. No matter what you do with you cards, you must have confidence that you are doing the right thing, and be prepared to accept that your decision could have good or bad consequences. As with any card game, you also have your priorities. Whether they involve winning this round or winning the entire tournament, your goals will define what you do with your cards and how you choose to handle them. Most important of all, there come times in life when you dont have any opportunities to choose from and you find yourself in a trying circumstance; when this happens, you just have to work with what you have, and hope no one realizes that what you have isnt much.

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