playing the game to win?

1.  No, there is no "real world."  Not technically speaking.  The "real world" that people are speaking of - or rather, trying to push on you - is the "matrix" reality of work, pay bills and die, the end.   It can be hard to have a swarm of sheep around you trying to pound it in your head to do what they're doing, but just remember....misery loves company.  And the sheep like to police the other sheep.   Their reality is NOT your reality.  Each and every one of us is responsbile for carving out our own - unique - niche in this world.  And we are NOT obligated to just follow along with the status quo and be coerced into living the way everybody else lives.   If they want a "work, pay bills, die" reality.....then that's their choice.  But it doesn't have to be yours.  !   The world of the sheeple is all about trying to round up as many of the strays as possible and herd them back into the pen of the conventional status quo.   There's a difference between concerned love ones trying to offer up well intentioned advise that unfortunately conforms to the status quo and then having more than one person coming at you at the same time trying to pound the same matrix sheeple idealogy into your head.   The latter is obvious manipulation.  That's the sheep herders trying to round you up and reel you back in.  When that happens you'll have multiple people suddenly expressing the same fear and control-based matrix idealogy of "work, pay bills, die" and "Why do you have to be different!!   Just do what everybody else does and be 'normal'!  Stop rocking the boat!!!"  I've experienced it myself, in a related money/work way, so I know.  So hang tight and stand your ground and know your own truth/way and be confident in it.  Eventually they give it up.

2.  Losing $600 of your $900 is just one of those little life lessons.  You'll get the money back.    Money comes and goes.     

3.  Being evicted by your kooky landlord who has a penchant for petty misunderstandings and issues with communication and understanding boundaries, and who believes she knows what's best for you according to your higher good is a blessing in disguise.  Be glad you got out now, before something even worse happened (!) and file it away in the ever expanding file of Interesting Life Experiences and Colorful Characters.    We all have one of these files.  Life would be so boring if we didn't!   

4.  Keep your frequency up and maintain a confident, optimistic mindset that everything WILL work out for you.  Because it will...as long as you know this to be true.  Whatever it is that you'd ideally like, get an image of it in your mind and know that things will rearrange themselves and come together to work out for you.   Back in 2004 when I "made my first jump" and abruptly up and quit a secure job position in South Florida which was experiencing some major job and employment issues, I gleaned a bit of insight from my higher self that I'll pass on to you.  I had registered with a temp agency after quitting that job, and worked at my first assignment through them at this law firm.  Yucko job, and it's the same job that inspired the title of my article "What Are You Going to DO with Your Life?!?"   I had people surrounding me at this job doing something that sounds amazingly similar to what you described in your post.  I decided not to take a permanent job with this law firm and take my chances that I could find something better through my temp agency, despite the troubled job market.  And this was the real leap of faith test.  I knew that I just had to KNOW that I could get a better job, and it'll happen.  So one morning as I was thinking about this "big risk" I was taking, that's when my higher self came through the line and stressed some advise to me, "You HAVE to keep your frequency up.  You HAVE to, NO MATTER WHAT.  You may go as long as one month without working, but you HAVE to keep a positive mindset."  So, it really stressed to me how important my mindset was in ensuring that things would work out and come together for me.  That no matter how bad the situation got, possibly even going without working for over a month, worst case scenario - keep the chin up, think positive, and maintain a high frequency, because it has a major affect on the outcome of things.   So, I'll pass that tip along to you!     

Anyway, that's my feedback...

Haha this is funny. I also have had little direction for years, play poker on the side to support myself after going to uni and getting stoned often, missing classes and not giving a toss and opting out. Lost $1000 of my bankroll with a bet on Michael Owen to be top scorer at the World cup and have often been threatened with eviction from my dad. Strange this is, you're also getting attention from people trying to grind you down with all this 'grow up and be responsible' shit.

The 'real world' and 'reality'. Two phrases my parents love to use when telling me how to live. These people are trying to do a number on you when they offer advice. You say you feel free. Superb. Now take their advice, get a nice job, meet a girl, get a mortgage, get married, have kids and see how much freedom you have then. You scare people because you are not like them and they'll do their damn best to reel you in.  And the bastards are everywhere. I'm antisocial because wherever I go there are people who will try and feed me their stupid theories of how the world works and what I should do. It may get so frequent that you'll wonder if it's you that's got it all wrong and them who have got it all right. These idiots are mad.

Don't be a mug and lose that $300 you have. www.twoplustwo.com will be a good place to start and if you're interested in playing 6 handed no limit cash games I can teach you a few things I've learnt. www.bonuswhores.com for some more money. I love a trainwreck, how'd you lose $600? If you stay positive things will work out. After I lost $1000 on that bet I had $300 to my name, entered a $5 satellite and won a $110 tournament entry chip. Later that day I log on and go to the tournament lobby to enter the $100+$10 $10000 guaranteed. I enter, get knocked out with no money. Fine, only cost me $5. I look at the cashier and I've still the damn chip! Misclicked when signing up to the mtt and wasted $110 which was about  a quater of my bankroll at the time I try and get a refund but it's not possible, so I enter the next $10000 guaranteed and use the chip this time. Play like Stu Ungar, take 3rd and pocket $1350 and the universe has provided again

Ok, Completely not bombarding you with aliens, matrix, all that other crap.. Let me put it very simply

Define "win", Well i can tell you you wont be taking any of your money to the next place, or your car, and, nobody really knows what happens then, or what could happen tommorow, i agree with the statement misery loves company but it is a sad truth that money DOES help to be happier, so really its striking the balance between earning money, which maybe not for some people on this forum, but i find work quite rewarding you know, HELPING OTHER PEOPLE, and getting the bonus of having a bit to spend is nice too.

So, if you want my advice, take it slow, do what you love, normally you'll make it through so long as you give a bit of effort, but dont forget that this whole economy system is designed so we can get our food without hunting etc, it actually gives us more free time, and a much easier existence whether you like to believe it or not.

If you really do choose to do something you love, make sure you do well in it whatever it might be, even if its something you dont it has to be done and it like anything else has its purpose. Sometimes doing what you love be it say for example music, art, writing, anything, it might take a lot of effort and a lot of hard work before it pays off but so long as you enjoy yourself then you win.

That is the only way to "win" enjoy yourself, everyone knows this but few of us actually put it into practice because of the "difficulties" of it, when it really isnt that difficult unless you have priorities like luxury toilet paper and flash cars.

For many, the big home is a castle facade disguising a prison. For others it is a dream that propels an otherwise unsatisfied life. Then there are the rare few who don't really need the mortgage deduction. Taxation policies build empires.

Winning may be escaping.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I became a soldier so my son could become a farmer, so his son could be a poet."

"A man of status builds a mansion inversely proportional to the size his manliness, with a master bathroom large enough to house his wife's vanity"
~~carefulcarpenter

"On the way to the top a person loses their integrity and their identity"
~~M.Scott Peck Ph. D.

Hehe, yea I cashed out after going on a loosing streak. 

How did I loose $600?  Wow, I don't really remember... all I remember is sitting down one night at a $50 Max buy-in Pot Limit omaha high low game.  It was a VERY loose game, and this one guy sitting down was playing very horrible, playing every hand.  So I thought, "hey, let me make some money" forgetting my main rules "patience, discipline, timing and most of all HAVE FUN" which is how I won the money in the first place.  So anyways, at first I was patient, but then had a bad beat - hit a flush, board paired on the river.  That put me on tilt and all night long this guy (who ended up being up $200 at the end of the night) kept beating my made hands - higher kickers, bigger boats etc.  So that was my first bad night.. lost maybe $100-$150, after that I kept thinking about the money I had lost and didn't want to loose anymore - which of course lead to the fall out.

Good learning experience nonetheless.

Wow, you play high stakes!  But thats cool how it came back around.  Do you play a lot?  What kind of game, texas hold'em?  Any Omaha?  Omaha is my favorite, not so many swings and if you play tight, which happens to co-inside with being patient
and a good sense of timing and intuition, its pretty easy to make final tables and all.  When I was on my winning streak, I was flying... I KNEW each time I was going to make it, and I knew when I had the best hands.  It's cool how mentallity affects the game and even the cards you're dealt in a game.