338. become a monster
We’re living in a world that’s currently thriving on scarcity and fear. Where people choose to find comfort in passivity. Where it’s more acceptable to back down, than stand up. Where strong convictions often lead to exile.
However, it shouldn’t be wrong to exhibit strength. To be resolute in your beliefs. To stand firm for what you want out of life. At the same time that doesn’t mean any of us should treat those who do not share our exact views with contempt or malice. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be kind if you’re strong, but it does mean that if you can’t exhibit strength if you succumb to weakness.
So don’t be afraid. Don’t be docile. Don’t be idle. Don’t be weak. And most importantly, don’t be a dick.
Become a monster.
Be ruthlessly ambitious, and then learn how to control it.
At the end of the day, it’s always better to be warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.
326. new ideas
There are people who will never change their minds, not even when presented with new information. It’s okay to have a belief system because that’s how we make sense of the world, but there is a difference between being cautious about new ideas and being calcified.
Some people enjoy having discussions about what they believe in, welcoming new information as a means of progressively challenging who they were, in an attempt to consistently build and improve upon who they are. While others are closed off from any discussion to the point that they defend their belief system against any and all opposing thoughts, no matter how rational the argument. If at one point you both shared similar opinions, yet you decided to be open to new ideas and have since made changes to long held beliefs; you’ll likely be admonished for your transgressions with the person saying, “You’ve changed.” But isn’t that the point? You’re supposed to be open. To learn. To change. To grow.
What in nature stays the same its entire lifecycle? Nothing that I know of. Stagnation in an ever changing process is akin to death. Old habits — or in this case, belief systems — “die hard,” as they say.
I think it’s important that we maintain a sense of childhood wonderment as we progress through life. It’s very hard to have all the answers, and we should avoid those that do at all costs. We have to maintain a sense of openness about what we believe in. It’s okay to maintain rigidity in the process of developing a belief system, as long as we remain flexible in how it works itself out. If we are too tied to our ideas, then we run the risk of it eventually transforming into an identity that may not serve us in the long run.
Despite anyone’s beliefs, the one thing we can all agree on is that we all want to live a freer, healthier, more prosperous life, filled with love and adventure. But this can be very hard to find if you are so locked into an opinion that you completely shut off anything that could improve upon your current situation. It’s okay to have a belief system, but be able to differentiate between what is defining you versus what may be holding you back.
324. adrift
we’re all lost in the deep
fighting against the tide
that our monsters intend to keep.
adrift,
in a sea of confliction
we search in order to be found.
reaching,
for any connection, allowing us
to find our feet on solid ground.
it’s said, that anxiety
is quickly quelled by action.
and it’s known that grasping
makes finding easy.
yet, if we aren’t careful
our fear will anchor us into reaction.
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We’re lost in an ocean of opinion, not knowing where to look for the right answers. Much of the time, information is merely opinion, backed up only by what fortifies the accepted narrative. This is as true for the way we talk to ourselves about if we are worthy of that raise, as the way the news intends to inform us.
We are what we pay attention to. The ideas that we consume — about ourselves and the world at large — are what create the world we see. If we are fearful and looking for answers, we will grasp at the closest thing that makes sense to us. Unfortunately, the closest thing (or idea) isn’t always the right answer. You thinking you didn’t get that date because you weren’t enough, is an idea you believe because it fits your narrative about yourself. You thinking the sky is falling because the news continues to tell you so is an idea you believe because it fits the narrative that is being reinforced.
It’s not until we stop listening to the things that only serve to keep us down, and start recreating how we interact with this world, will we be able to approach life with a sense of conscious choice instead of continuing to react out of fear.
277. how the events unfold
There are a lot of bad things that can happen. If we aren’t careful, we can slip into a belief that the universe is conspiring against us. But it’s not. It’s our beliefs that set the tone for what we expect, and which lay the foundation for how we contextualize what happens.
Whether we are defiantly positive or indubitably negative, we go through the day subconsciously looking to confirm either belief. For example, we can view getting stuck in traffic in two totally different ways; in a positive sense, it gives us extra time to finish that podcast; adversely, it can be seen as the universe throwing obstacles in our way to keep us from getting to work at a reasonable pace.
It’s all in how we choose to see how the events unfold. And because there is a choice, it’s always going to be better to think things are happening for us, instead of to us.
83. rigidity
We’re tribal. We gravitate toward people, ideas, or things that resonate with us and captivate our sensibilities. It’s a safety mechanism to want to be part of a group, as there is safety in numbers, just as our inclusion makes us feel a sense of acceptance were we are more comfortable to take on tasks that further promote the group identity as a whole. Tribalism is a self-fulfilling prophecy, that provided us the security to culturally evolve over millennia. Yet, where there is one tribe, there is another with competing ideas or beliefs. And, while the world is probably the safest its ever been, we are more at war — not physically, but ideologically — with one another than ever before.
The tribal mentality that paved the way for modernity to take hold seems to be the same thing that is keeping us from taking the next great leap forward to creating a better world. We are all beholden to the tribes we belong to and the beliefs they’re based upon. It’s become our identity. Any thing that challenges those believes is a strike against our identity, so we lash out and double-down. No longer can I share my opinion on one thing, while you hold an opposing opinion, and accept it without a judgement or prejudice on me as a person or my level of intellect. What happened to free thought, openness, aggregation? Isn’t that how we creatively solve novel problems?
Your ideas equal you, but they shouldn’t define you. You should be a thing that thinks, collects new ideas, through new experiences, by seeking to understand new viewpoints, so that you can develop new strategies. Bruce Lee said it best; “absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.” We’re all too fucking busy defending our beliefs to actually listen to a different viewpoint that may give way to a better course of action. When differing opinions are presented, you should be able to entertain the idea without accepting it, not take offense because it’s contradictory. Yes, there are a lot of stupid people, but denouncing them straight away not only does a disservice to you, but also the other person. You’re both going to want to prove each other wrong, search for studies that confirm your ideological bias and go down the rabbit hole of separateness.
When you look at anything through the lens of ideology, you have strict boundaries that limit your capacity to be open and accepting of alternative thoughts and a chance to connect the dots in a different way. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism brought upon by the challenge a conflicting idea has on our identity. We’re fearful that all that we have identified with may be wrong. We’d rather be safer in our thoughts, thinking we’re right by defending all opposing ideas, than to entertain something new. But this rigid mentality is only going to keep us from being able to come up with the best path forward.