The Power of Necessity

In a world of abundance, the hardest thing to see and understand, is necessity -- and its power to organize and achieve human purpose.  That challenge is one's primary environment, and so it was often said in times past, that necessity was the mother of invention -- and in its absence, everything was much less likely -- because it is the organizational driver of every activity -- and not understanding that purpose, doomed one to futility -- whether that be winning a game, earning a livelihood, or ensuring one's health and well-being.  One has to have that focus and clarity -- especially in a world of confusion and uncertainty.  Obviously, that will assure a great competitive and survival advantage -- when many have lost that edge, or never learned it in the first place.

Life is not automatic -- assuring the same outcome for everyone, no matter what one does -- or does not do.  Rather, everything one does, and doesn't do -- matters.  That is the world of personal reality -- and success, and greatly explains the extent to which one is effective and efficient in anything they do. They have to perfect their understanding as much as possible before their undertaking, and not simply hope to attain it at the end -- like so much wishful-thinking.  Those who begin with that clarity and focus, are much more likely to experience success at anything they do.

That means even understanding what they do NOT know -- and are operating under faulty premises that got them into their present mess -- so more effort and struggle in that same pattern, is not going to solve their dilemma, but entrap them further.  Thus the concept of NOT DOING -- or beginning all over again with nothing, can be an effective strategy when things are not going so well -- though one may persist at it unsuccessfully for years, if not all one's life.  At some point, they must wake up and smell what is happening -- and where they got everything wrong.

And that is the beginning of wisdom -- and any success.  Otherwise, it is all sound and fury -- amounting to, and signifying nothing of any great significance or meaning.  But once one achieves the smallest of successes, they can go on to build much greater ones -- seemingly without much greater effort.  That is the power of necessity -- only what is necessary, and eliminating what is not -- ruthlessly, and building one's health and well-building on that structure.

Of course not everybody achieves that -- even living to an old age.  It is easy to mistake quantity for quality, and just add up the years -- but those years are dependent on how well one built that structure.  That is not a random outcome but the summation and accumulation of everything one has done -- to get to that point.  Those lessons are easily lost -- in a world in which everything and anything is possible -- for the ridiculous to the sublime.  Each has to cultivate that appreciation and distinction individually -- and not in the mass media model of one size fits all -- no matter how badly.  That has never worked -- and conveys no survival advantage.

And by survive, we mean to thrive -- and not just simply hang on for as long as we can -- bloodied and bruised, until finally we let go.  One hopes to cultivate and live a much better life than that.  That is entirely reasonable -- in this day and age, for nearly everyone, and not just the 1% -- and that 1% is not determined by privilege and advantage -- but where everybody goes from here.  It doesn't matter how great a head start anyone begins with -- if they don't know where the end is.  For all they know, they may be heading in the wrong direction -- secure in the knowledge, that they know everything that can be known.

And the truth is never like that.  It always has to be discovered in the present moment -- as the only truth that matters.  What seems to work for others, is not necessarily the reason it works in every case -- and especially this case.  The situation may be entirely different from what one thinks it is -- and it is not the thinking that makes it so, but the reality of the situation -- obviously.  That is the difference between correlation and causation -- and knowing that difference above all else.  Especially from the very beginning.

That is usually easier said than done -- and when the group immediately disintegrates into those who have a clear understanding of where they are and what they are doing, and those who believe that anything is equal to anything else -- because they simply say so.  That is not enough to secure and assure a successful outcome in everything they do and undertake.  That clarity is ensured by doing nothing for as long as necessary to know that one is beginning with no previous misconception and misunderstanding -- when everyone is eager to get underway -- doing what they think is most important to do.

For most, that is simply doing more of the same -- whether that  is working out well or not.  That is often all they know -- and think that is all there is to know -- even if it is not working!  It doesn't matter that it has ever worked either -- and everyone says it is so, and not working for everyone else also.  That "might" makes "right," they have been taught to believe.  But it doesn't matter how many people say it is true, if it just doesn't work -- or everyone will just be deluded -- instead of finding out what really works.

For this, there is great advantage for independent thought -- which is the bedrock of scientific inquiry -- and not simply repeating everything everyone else has learned.  It is not the conformity and repetition that gives power to truth -- but whether it is successfully challenged each time and comes up with the same unmistakable result.  That's when one is on to something.  It works the first time, and every time thereafter.  Then one knows something worth knowing.

Better -- Not More

Quality of life is about "better" -- and not simply "more" of the same, which implies that at some point, there is a transformative leap into a wholly different realm of experience than simply a linear progression along the predictable course.  As such, it is difficult to measure -- or to predict -- because it is a leap into the unknown and unexpected, and so the inquiring mind, has to be open to outcomes that exceed their expectations -- because that great success, would have been unimaginable starting out.

And that is what every great leap in consciousness has been -- and not merely bigger and better clubs for subduing all the others -- although admittedly, a few are still operating on that level.  But that should be well regarded as "kindergarten," and not a major thrust forward in evolution -- which is the greater meaning and purpose of life in every aspect.

In this ultimate game, the goal posts are always being moved, so one has to be prepared and poised, to move in any dimension effectively -- and not just the fixed objective for time immemorial.  That is how their youthful strategies fail them in time -- and simply remaining as they used to be, is no longer a winning strategy -- but finds them competing less successfully with each year, until they give up and drop out for the remainder of their lives -- which can be as soon as no one is there to tell them what to do with every moment of their lives.

At some point of their upbringing, it is hoped that they assume that responsibility and control themselves -- and become one less person to have to nurture, with a real possibility that they find a better way for generations to come.  One must then allow for the possibility that there is more than meets the eye of possible outcomes -- and provide for that possibility as well, leaving a margin for error, that could also work marvelously in their favor -- beyond their wildest expectations.

In these times, in this age, that would be the real possibility of not only living extraordinarily long lives (as have already been achieved), but doing so without the accompanying condition of deterioration -- heretofore regarded as inevitable and normal -- rather than merely predictable due to a lack of better understanding.  That is to say, that what we think to be true, is simply wrong, and we have to realize that -- rather than devoting all our resources to defending and rationalizing that as the only possible outcome.

That was the way it was for many years -- preparatory to a breakout, and breakthrough.    Society hits a wall, but that gets everybody thinking along the same conclusion -- that everything we thought was right, was presumed, but never proven.  It just seemed so rational, that one would have been a fool to question those premises and presumptions -- so one is best proceeding with caution, rather than being the first to hop on every passing bandwagon -- thinking they are on the road to paradise and unmistakable certainty.

Nowhere is that more true, than in the instruction of the health sciences -- in which one frequently is instructed to give 110%, when it is more prudent and productive to know the 10%, that accounts for 90% of the favorable results -- and when played out over a sufficient amount of time, compounds to an overwhelming sum that could not have been imagined starting with such a modest effort.  But then, the reason for their modest effort, was in admitting and realizing they could be wrong -- yet proceeded cautiously, in contrast to those who gambled 110%, certain that things could only go their way.

That is an egregious and often irrecoverable mistake -- but not unlike those who are overly certain of anything -- until they are no longer certain of anything, anymore -- and their lives and well-being, are totally in the hands of others.  It need never get to that point -- if one leaves open the possibility that one could be wrong, and not simply proceeding more certainly, despite all the warning signs along the way.  They probably mean something.

Life is precisely that way.  Things don't work out because one is wrong -- and needs to better their understanding of the process, and not simply apply more force and conviction -- and everything will be all right.  It doesn't work that way.  All that can be known, is not already known -- but remains to be discovered, in each and every moment.  The thought is not the actuality -- because one can be mistaken in thinking of the actuality; it may in fact, have nothing to do with the actuality.  That is how so many can be so wrong -- having been taught that their knowledge was an absolute certainty -- but never proven to be so, in the actuality.

One should not mistake the hypothesis (theory), for the reality of the matter -- particularly, when the results are unpredictable, and more contradictory despite our certainty.  Simply hearing it repeated over and over again by many different people, does not make it any truer.

Exercise should not be hard, and made harder -- but rather easy, and made easier -- in order to remain productive and doable all one's days.  One hopes to achieve effortless movement throughout the full range of that possibility -- and not simply handling the most weight (resistance) only at a single point along that full articulation, which is what most people's conditioning program consists of.  They develop strength in only one position -- rather than the full range of movement, which is a development entirely different.

That disproportion of strength along the full range of movement, is what particularly makes older bodybuilders look so peculiar -- because the muscle, instead of expressing a full development, obviously and disturbingly express that imbalance, and disproportion.  It is not pleasing to the eye, but points out the vulnerability of maintaining such imbalance -- at a critical moment of failure.  At such a moment, one can be totally incapacitated -- often experienced alarmingly but commonly to the previously impervious -- by an Achilles tendon tear, and then try as they might, all momentary effort is realized as futile -- and should desist, rather than increase -- thinking to will one's way to a more favorable outcome.

Injuries are nature's way of advising one to slow down -- and better learn to work within one's momentary capabilities -- which are always changing, and rightly so.  But that could also lead to a better understanding and way of moving and doing things -- than simply running faster, jumping higher, and lifting more -- as the best, or only solution.  In this manner, evolutionary progress is made, and not simply more of the same.  Even with 110% of the effort.  Or 110% of the certainty.

Rather, one has taken a step back, in order to leap farther forward.