Don't Do Something Else Instead

Insanity is doing what doesn't need to be done -- in preference for doing something requiring urgency and priority.  That is like filing one's fingernails, while the house is burning down around them.  It would seem rare that such a thing should happen -- but it is the commonplace rather than the exception.

We condition ourselves in precisely that way -- of going through a preprogrammed exercise routine -- rather than addressing the point of our momentary greatest concern -- thinking (hoping, actually), that we will eventually get there -- in good time, if at all.  Invariably, we usually run out of time, because all the things not necessary and urgent to do and consider, never got finished -- and so get put off for the next time, or the time thereafter.  In short, we never get around to doing what we really have to do, because all the distractions prevent us from getting there.

It seems like such a simple and obvious thing, but this capacity to deceive and distract ourselves, is a huge part of our conditioning -- that keeps us from getting to the point we absolutely need to get to.  In fact, many are conditioned to believe that is the point.  We must simply never get there -- but engage in all manner of distraction and entertainment -- and in the end, one simply runs out of time and money, or anything entertaining to do.

In the meantime, all the problems never attended to, have piled up -- into what seems to be an insurmountable mountain of hopeless debris one doesn't know where to begin -- and so defers it once again to another time.  Of course, things never get done in that manner -- but instead, one is always on vacation or at the bar, escaping from all those problems.  For unfortunately many, that is their lives and existence -- and so it is no surprise that they often end up homeless, and jobless, and not doing anything productive -- but escaping into their world of entertainment, illusion and addiction -- and having no idea how to escape it.

What would one expect?  How could one expect anything else?  So all the talk about grandiose goals, are merely another distraction from the basics that go unattended -- yet again.  To go far, we have to begin near -- and each step, gets us closer to our ultimate goal -- and not simply wishing it harder, while doing nothing to move in any direction.  Movement is change -- while no amount of wishful thinking -- makes a difference.  It is not enough to wish it were not so.

Yet many experts give such advice -- because it grows their business -- and they are all about.  Solving any problem, is not the answer.  Only increasing the magnitude of the problem and its hopelessness, ensures their future prospects.  What is a rare problem, must become an epidemic and flood of hopelessness, if they are to be successful -- whether that is obesity or diabetes, or all the other conditions for which it predisposes one greatly.

In fact, organizations must be established to promote its equality and acceptability -- and not that we should have a preference for any other condition.  But miraculously, a few started questioning that premise of non-discrimination of anything, anymore.  Some differences do matter -- even as much as they try to convince us that trivial things do -- but it is only "entertainment" anyway -- which are the only differences one should entertain.  A lot of people get lost in such worlds -- no longer knowing the difference, and in fact, preferring the illusion for all realities.  That is their drug of choice -- their preference for the arbitrary and needless, over the basic necessities.  It is all an indistinguishable blur.

Obviously such people need to be brought back into focus -- and with such practice and sharpening, they relentlessly move in the direction and preference of improvement -- as the driving force in their lives and the only thing that matters anymore.  Improvement are the means, and not the ends -- by which one gets anywhere.  Those fixated only on the ends, don't realize that those goals may change in the doing of anything -- which is the natural development and measure of any practice and productivity.

The ultimate objective is to change -- and movement makes that possible.  Change is the measure of movement -- and that is why we practice and cultivate movement.  It is what gets us there.  We are what we practice and cultivate.  That is the greater story of civilization -- and not that any great culture got there by staying stagnant and inert -- hoping that if they simply hang around long enough, life will rotate them to the top, by some mysterious, random process.

That's not how any one of us got here.  Always, somebody was trying to do better -- by their own understanding and circumstances.  That is the best one can do.  It doesn't guarantee any particular outcome -- but prepares us better for many different scenarios -- and not just the one.  The one, may not be the ideal, or even the preferred -- but the best reveals itself in the process.  The process is life working itself out -- in having all the information, and not simply the knowledge in each head -- often working against each other.

Thus the sum of the totality, is always much greater than just the sum of the parts -- but every individual, must still do their part.  It is for the greater (collective) wisdom and intelligence, to sort it all out -- and not for individuals to proclaim their all-encompassing wisdom -- in knowing better than any other part.  That is childish -- and the wise are always occupied in learning more than the little they know.  They do not presume that what they know, is everything that can be known.

Finding Out What Works for You

Most people have been conditioned to believe that whatever the majority thinks, makes it true -- which is an egregious error.  The fact of the matter is that most people will usually be wrong -- and only a rare few will be right.  The majority, or might, does not make it right -- but is usually an indication of error -- that should be investigated more deeply and thoroughly for the truth of the matter, from the appeal of the false.

That is to say, that what people wish to believe, is unerringly what they believe -- in preference to the actual truth of the matter.    Often, it is because it seems more complicated than it is -- because those who explain it, are not certain of what they speak, and misunderstand it themselves -- which doesn't stop them from assuming an air of authority that they know what they are talking about.  In fact, the less they know and are certain, the more they try to hide that fact -- and particularly, allow others to question their authority.

Most will encounter that somewhere along the line -- frequently early in their lives -- in people who have nothing of merit to say, but will insist on saying it incessantly, and unnecessarily, so that astute minds know to tune them out -- even at the risk of seeming inattentive and difficult -- because they simply are reluctant or refuse to go along with the crowd.  Primitive societies often regard such lack of adherence to the majority will, as a major breach of the social contract -- that the senior citizens have a right to impose on its junior members.

Most learn to simply go along to get along -- and never learn to think for themselves on any matter, but simply go with whatever others tell them is the truth -- even if they know it is outrageously false.  The prevailing thought is that the majority, makes it right -- and there is no higher truth than that, or their lives will be arduous and difficult.  But rather than being the easy way, it eventually makes life exceedingly difficult -- fin everything they do -- because they never develop the critical skill of thinking for themselves.

As a result, they will always need others to do all their thinking for them -- which a few, are always happy to do -- but that may not serve them the best.  It may in fact, be the cause of most of their problems -- as they become tools for other's self-aggrandizing lives.  It's not like there are many of the latter, but it often seems like it because they have to go through everybody, to find the few who are vulnerable to their exploitation and manipulations.  But we don't know that for a fact unless we first give them the benefit of the doubt -- that they are simply mistaken, rather than that the deception is deliberate and intentional -- and there is no correcting that.

At that point, one learns to avoid further contact and influence -- rather than waste more time, energy and other resources -- setting them straight.  Usually, such predators, run into a more ruthless one -- as their just desserts, and eliminate each other.  One hopes not to be around when such outbursts occur -- which is the major reason to avoid such contact.  But in so doing, one creates space for more positive contacts and influence -- rather than being entrapped in those vicious circles and cycles.

That is inevitably part of every life -- but the degree of success in dealing with them -- determines how far they go on in life, and quickly assess the dangers, risks and rewards.  One can't win them all -- nor should one try.  Those lessons are usually learned with age and experience -- while an unfortunate few, make a fatal error, that compromises and disables the rest of their lives.  Thus the advantage and wisdom of learning from experience -- and not just thinking to be able to do everything one could do as a young person yet to experience any major setbacks -- and skills for handling them.

That's how defeat and failure prepare one better to deal with life -- and not that one should only and always win -- hoping that will serve them unfailingly in life.  Thus, many arrive at a point and challenge they are ill-prepared to handle, and never recover, and go into endless decline -- at any age.  They think it is enough just to run with the crowd (mob), until the mob turns and abandons them -- and then they are lost, by themselves -- with no idea of what to do anymore.  And so they languish and perish, because the steady presence of others telling them what to do, no longer guides them.

Unfortunately, many "retire" to such a fate -- and implode in such a vacuum -- endlessly filling their days with as much entertainment and diversions that others present for them.  Everything they do, just becomes their entertainment -- whether that is eating or exercising, seeing the skills of others, or learning what they'll never use.  Meanwhile, they are distracted from all that they could be doing productively, and usefully in their own lives.  Eventually, they are mystified and baffled when everything goes wrong -- and they feel there is nothing they can do about it.

Nothing in life, has conditioned and prepared them for the moment.  It may be a health challenge, or a financial challenge, or even a physical one -- requiring them to think for themselves -- with no explanation by others on what is happening, and what to do.  Those are the moments of truth everyone must eventually face -- and are the tests of how much further one will go on.  That is the ultimate test of one's conditioning and fitness.   It will be unique for every individual.  No standardized test.  And that truly, is what life is -- and must be prepared for.