Mindfulness
23 Oct 2017Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now! – Goethe
When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. That is–everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. – Steve Jobs
The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there.” – L.P. Hartley - The Go-Between - 1953 novel
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.” – The Prophet - Khalil Gibran
These are great quotes I’ve recently come across in my readings and the thing they have in common is the idea of change or human potential, that we are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for or believe. Living a life of intentionality. Being mindful in how we live our lives, instead of just blindly tripping our way through life and letting life and circumstances happen to us.
I’ve been thinking a lot about these concepts lately and the idea occurred to me that the way the vast majority of Americans live their lives is as Thoreau said, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” We go to work, we come home, we sit in front of the TV for hours, we eat horrible food that is horrible for our bodies, we mindlessly consume everything. We are voracious consumers, but of everything that is bad for us, of nothing of true lasting value. Very few of us ever really accomplish anything in our lives outside of our careers, if we even feel accomplished there. We consume, we are passive. We are vegetables. We are fat and lazy and stupid. We don’t want to learn anything, read anything substantive, do anything, be anything. We just wanna be left alone in our own misery. Just leave me alone. We watch Cops and 24 hour news and The Voice so that we can live vicariously through others. We do nothing. We are nothing.
That’s how I lived my life for many years until at the age of 41, 50 lbs or more overweight, out of a 6 year failed relationship with the mother of two of my children, I decided to change my life. I knew something had to change and that something was me. I started going to the gym and I’ve been going for a little over 3 years straight, but this isn’t a blog about the gym. It’s about wholeness and living a complete life and while I was going to the gym and getting my physical life in order, it was only recently that I realized that I can use that same comittment and discipline that I honed over three years in the gym to power all aspects of my life.
I don’t have to be glued to Facebook and other social media. I don’t have to be glued to the TV or the radio. I’m at a point in my life where I truly don’t understand people who say they are bored. How can you be bored when life is so short and there is so much to learn and do? 27 days ago I started the #100DaysofCode challenge on Twitter and I’ve accomplished so much. It’s amazing how much we can do when we turn off the distractions of life and live a life of intentionality and being mindful about what we are doing.
Living a life of intention means that for everything we do there is a purpose. We don’t just plop in front of the TV and veg out for hours on end, watching the same mindless BS. I actually haven’t even had cable TV for several years now and I believe it has helped to re-wire my brain. I probably only have 3 or 4 shows that I enjoy watching on TV, but I watch them on Netflix or CBS app and I intend to sit down and watch them. The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorites. Other than that, the TV is never just on to be on. I watch a lot of educational Youtube videos and have recently gotten into listening to podcasts, because the radio is more mindlessness. I’m convinced that no matter what channel you turn it to, they are all playing a setlist of maybe 10 songs if you’re lucky and they play the hell out of it. The same 10 songs over and over and over again and I can’t stand it. Why do I wanna listen to the exact same songs I’ve heard a million times? I love music but I can’t stand listening to the same shit all the time. There are actually long stretches of time where I won’t even turn the radio on in the car at all, unless NPR is on the air and I’ll listen to them.
And when you decide to live life this way you’ll find that the universe opens itself up to you in meaningful ways. You’ll encounter other people who live their lives this way, and you’ll come across other resources for living life this way almost as if by accident. You’ll be flooded with ideas for future projects and things to learn and do and see.
Don’t just be a passive consumer. Dead fish go with the flow. Learn something that is difficult and will take time. Read something important. Listen to others who are smarter and more accomplished than you, whether on Youtube or a podcast or through TED. Read War and Peace. You know you’ve been wanting to. Read 30 self development books in 6 months and blog about it. Run a 5k race. Run another one. Spend quality time with your family not glued to your smart phone. Turn that damn thing off once in awhile. Go outside for a walk. Take the dog for a walk. The kids. The wife. Cook a meal together. Take some classes. Write something. Help others. And when you do, “Speak your Truth even if your voice shakes!”
Do!
Be!
Life is a garden. Dig it! – Joe Dirt