Some things just don’t make any sense.
In fact, the longer we’re in this “personal growth” business and interact with people who say they want change in their lives, the more “don’t make no sense” kinda stuff we see and hear.
Take the following, for example:
1. Crying about a problem but refusing to take action to fix it.
2. Working to change another person (good luck!) instead of yourself.
3. Refusing to do anything extra at your job unless you’re paid for it and wondering why you don’t get a promotion.
4. Using ‘player’ tactics to find a mate and wondering why everyone is so fake.
5. Hiding your true feelings and then wondering why no one ‘gets’ you.
6. Spending money you don’t have and then wondering why you’re broke.
7. Watching television every night but complaining you have no time to do anything.
8. Abusing your body with food, alcohol, or drugs to feel better and making yourself sick in the process.
9. Thinking about starting something for longer than it would take to actually do it.
10. Blaming other people for the problems in your life.
There are probably 100 more we could list, but we’d just belabor the point and waste your time. The truth is, there is no quick fix to find happiness or success.
There is simply an action by you and a result.
If the result isn’t what you want, it’s time to change the action.
Which finally does make some sense.
Speaking of action, Declutter Clinic is open for business. It’s a multimedia, online course that will show you how to remove the clutter in your home and create a Base of Operations to live the lifestyle you want. It makes complete sense to set up the systems and attitudes that will allow you to live your best life, doesn’t it? We even show you how to make a few bucks off your junk to go toward the life you really want to be living.
If this sounds like your cup of tea (we get to say that one more time while we’re still in England!), head on over to Declutter Clinic and check it out. We’ll see you there.
About Betsy
I agree completely about getting rid of television from your life - without it, it gives you the time to develop a deeper, more meaningful life. Almost eight years ago we gave our t.v. away and in that time we have had time to read, write and think for ourselves, we wouldn’t change that even if we could.
Hi, Cheryl. I know it’s not for everyone, but we’re in agreement with you. We still watch the occasional show or movie on our laptop, but there’s a big difference in sitting down for an hour for a specific reason and turning the tv on in the evening and watching until bedtime with no real agenda. It’s easy to become a habit, and it takes hours of your life away every single day if you don’t learn to set limits.
Oh yes, I really had to laugh at your list—it was as if you broke into my head and stole my list of “pet peeves—things that truly make no sense at all.”
Humans are a long way off from being the “logical species” we imagine ourselves to be. The elaborate stories we’ll concoct in our minds to avoid actually taking personal responsibility for the quality of life we experience is almost frightening.
I think that most of us are not willing—or even aware—that we’re in charge of our own emotions. How often do we say things like, “He/She/They/It makes me so mad!” At the heart of this revealing comment is the deep-seated belief that we are victims of our external world around us and are truly powerless to control how we feel about it, or what we can do about it. We don’t act; we react. We don’t shape our daily experience, but instead we’re in a perpetual state of “damage control.”
Of course by no means am I suggesting that I’ve personally managed to move beyond this epidemic of insanity the grips human kind … we all have our days of playing the “victim” in one way or another. But I do know that moment we make the decision to take full, 100% responsibility for everything that happens in our lives is the moment we can began to transform our complete experience.
As far as the TV goes, I truly feel that it is the “opiate” the “masses” plug into every night to anesthetize themselves from the inner turmoil that rages within for living what Thoreau described as “lives of quiet desperation” . I think that most people—deep down—don’t even know what kind of life they’d like to be experiencing because they spend so much time numbly plugged into the simulated lives of “Desperate Housewives” (Or whatever!)
There’s a full .37 cents worth of my .02 cents on the subject.
There is wisdom in both the post and the comments but insight is sometimes like hindsight, too late to overcome the thought pattern we find ourselves caught up in. I laugh at the list and while I don’t find myself doing these things at this stage of my life, I am sure I embraced some of them at one time or another.
Right now I have moved from OZ to London to pursue a different life, I refer to it as jumping into the abyss, a type of leap of faith. It was and is to a large extent flying blind and while I haven’t necessarily landed on my feet, I don’t believe I landed on my face (okay, not all the time). I think the key is to put absolutely no pressure on the outcome but put all your energy, conviction and faith into trying. In this situation, preference is given to a life where you are working towards and living elements of our preferred life - rather than existing in the confines of one you don’t find what you need or the happiness you seek.
I prefer to not put a dollar value on my feedback because personally I think the right insights offered freely and openly and hopefully at the right time are pure gold!
P.S. Betsy - just decide they are a harmless steak dinners in waiting or milkshake makers and all will be well. And I will decide spiders from my country don’t have eight legs, are hairy and jump! (One irrational fear holder to another)
Michelle, it sounds as if you are in the midst of a great adventure! And I love your focus on the journey, not the destination. That’s the best way to go, the most enjoyable, and ironically the one that will actually get you to the right destination (even if it isn’t the one you first expected). And thanks for the advice on the cows…I’m still working on it!
I like it when I get more than 2 cents of value from a 2-cent opinion, TraNque!
It is true that we often project our own shortcomings onto other people. We focus on what might prompt our destructive behavior instead of the actual behavior. Once you change this around it can be incredibly uncomfortable…before it becomes incredibly freeing, of course. It takes guts to uncover your self-deception, as you so effectively demonstrate! Glad to see you back in the conversation again, TraNque. We’ve missed you!