Living Better Small

Noise Noise Noise

All we hear is noise from every media channel we are exposed to. Filling up our senses, cluttering up our minds, drawing our attention away from our lives. Political turmoil, state of the economy, fashions, trends, businesses, and worst of all, celebrity gossip.

While it is valuable to stay informed on current events that effect our lives, it should not take up as much of our time and focus as they would have it take up. To many of us are constantly plugged in to the streaming news on our mobile devices. More than an hour a week focused on these externals is too much.

Turn off the news, put down the phone, and let the peace of silence settle into us. Focus instead inward on ourselves. THIS is where growth and improvement happen. THERE …… inside, self reflection, introspection, is where we can make a change. The changes we make in ourselves, change how we see the world and how we interact with the world. This, in turn, inspires others. THAT is how we make a difference.

Staying focused on the news all the time just gives us more reasons to complain. Makes us whiners. It just adds to the noise problem.

 

From the time we are really young we are asked “WHAT to you want to be when you grow up?” in some way shape or form. They are of course referring to what we would like to do for a profession. In so many ways and repeatedly, we are asked that question. And the institutions we are placed in (school and sometimes home) are designed to facilitate taking us on the path to a career.

This is to lead us down a path toward survival into adulthood, and ultimately what we define as “Success” in a job. As a society we define success as attaining a level of financial security high enough to be considered wealthy, or at least “well off” (different people draw the line in different places), AND have a job that is satisfying, fulfilling, even potentially life defining; this is what we call a career.

It is believed that “Success” is the path to happiness, to purpose.

Unfortunately for so most of us, that is not true.

There are those that feel that nothing gives them greater joy and purpose than to do their job and excel at it. Work hard, climb the ladder, put in the time, 60-80 hours a week, potentially make a difference. For those that can feel their life has meaning purely by this until the end of their days, God bless them. This post is not necessarily for them.

BUT, too often as people move into adulthood they realize “Success” is not enough to satisfy. Not enough to give their lives meaning/purpose. They long to have relationships, connections; to have a family. Also, their mental and/or physical health may be waning as as result of their professional drive. Unfortunately too many of us realize this too late in life. Long after we have invested enormous amounts of time and money into our success, we wake up and realize that we are empty inside and that the time invested behind us is greater than time to make it up ahead of us. This is truly a sad state of affairs.

This is because in general, “success” is NOT the path to happiness. “Wholeness” is. Some call it work/life balance (I just call it life balance).

But whatever you call it, the question we should be imposing on our youth is “WHO do you want to be when you grow up?”, not “WHAT”. Or more exactly “What kind of person do you want to be?”. This is a more wholistic approach as it encompasses our entire life. Our health, social life, AND professional life. It also addresses our greater responsibility to humanity. With this approach we can tailor our education and influences from the standpoint of making better people instead of better “worker bees”. We are supposed to be improving humanity, not feeding capitalism.

Long term sustainable happiness only comes with these three things:

Good Health

Passion

Strong Connections (relationships)

 

Their “success” is a trap.

This philosophy of Wholeness is really just Minimalism viewed from another perspective.

Every now and again I find myself amused when I incidentally receive a pearl of wisdom from a surprising source. Here are some many of us have received and maybe not given deserved thought to them:

 

“Everything is Awesome”

You may recall “The Lego Movie”. This song was the theme song for it, and it was an overnight (if only temporary) success. Of course it was, any song with a positive message has a way of imprinting on people. A simple phrase like “everything is awesome” spoken with enthusiasm has a way of being a catalyst to put people in a better mood; to put away their problems for a minute and see the beauty around them. Say it, then believe it, then soon we see the truth of it.

 

“No matter where you go, there you are”

This phrase is from an old Sci-Fi movie called “The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension”. The phrase is spoken only once in the entire cheesy movie, and it didn’t make much sense in the moment it was spoken. Nevertheless it is one I have held on to my whole life. I first heard it when I was very young and it didn’t mean anything to me then, but it started to take on meaning for me as I matured. It means: Our problems our inside us, not in the circumstances around us. Also, our solutions to those problems are inside us as well.

I’ve known too many people that try to resolve their problems by moving away, as they believe that the source of their problems is where they live, their city/community/town. The problem is, after they have moved and are living in a different environment, it doesn’t take long for their problems to follow them. Here is when the phrase applies “No matter where you go, there you are”.

 

“Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

This one comes from an old news broadcast where a citizen (her name was Sweet Brown) was speaking about a fire that blazed in her apartment complex. It was hilarious to say the least. I have placed the link right HERE. The phrase “ain’t nobody got time for that” caught on like wildfire. Me …… I happen to believe it’s a pearl of hidden wisdom (I may be alone here). I use that phrase a lot now. In a world where the news you hear is mostly fake and has no effect on our daily lives anyway. In a culture that influences us to covet things, care about the personal lives of celebrities, and spend excessive amounts of time on cosmetics to project an attractive image, the value of “Ain’t nobody got time for that” is beyond obvious to me.

 

“Be excellent to each other, ….. and PARTY ON DUDES!”

Those who are from my generation need no explanation about where this phrase came from. For the rest of you, it comes from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. This may be one of the biggest pieces of wisdom I have ever heard. The most positive message ever, and it has been presented to us by a couple of morons.

 

I would be interested in hearing some incidental pearls of wisdom some of you have picked up from unlikely sources. Please comment.