I saw someone use a quote on their social media page this morning.
The quote is from Confucius which says, “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
I think about this with regards to my life. I think about this with regards to my happiness or to the levels of which I have worked to either gain momentum or look to find a better ground. How often have I gone at it with all I have or all of my heart?
On the other side, how often have I gone cheap or weak and hoped for the best?
How many times have I quit or given up?
How many times did I do an injustice to myself by forgiving my personal laziness with excuses that rationalize my reasons why I failed myself?
These are good ideas to consider because . . .
I think about this when the pain in my back is too much for me to handle or when the pressure on my brow causes my eyes to crunch down and my neck to tilt forward with an expression of frustration, snarled at the corner of my lips. I think about this when I find myself centered in the ideas of contempt and regret. While looking around at others who managed to continue or live on, regardless of what happens, I have lost myself to the resentful ideas that somehow, I gave up on myself; therefore, since I was unhappy – my unhappiness impacted the lives of those involved with me. Both selfishly and unfortunately, I can see what this has done or how this has damaged my past as well as my future – unless, of course, I choose to change or take my life to the next best level.
Whatever you do – do it well.
Do this with everything you have.
Do not go halfway and wonder why you’ve never made it very far.
You’ve already gone much farther than you think.
(no?)
I have often thought about the true measure of what it takes to perfect our lives. I consider the work this takes to be perfect at something (or at anything) we love. At the same time, and like on old suggestion reminds me, as we strive for progress instead of perfection, how often do we find ourselves in the crosshairs of our own persecution?
If this is so, how often have we allowed the internal critic of the inner whispers? How many times have we given way to this and allowed that internal critic to put us down? Have we done this to the point where we fail to try or even make an effort to move forward?
I have . . .
I have thought about Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule which essentially means that according to his estimation, it takes 10,000 hours of dedication to perfect one’s craft.
I often wonder how many hours I’ve put in or how many hours are behind me.
How many hours have I wasted with a haphazard approach or how about the times when I was halfway, half-hearted or more from a lazy perspective?
How many times have I sought through half-measures, just to say “Hey, I put my time in” and how many times have I walked away disappointed?
More than the hours we put in to either perfecting our craft or more than the time we share with people or more than the time we offer love (or so-called love), how much time have we wasted just to go through the motions? How many times have we showed up, or at least seemingly, but beneath the layers of our skin is a truth that surges and flushes through our bloodstream and the surge of truth contradicts our efforts because deep down we know that we didn’t give our best. We never gave our “all” and why?
Why not?
What’s the hold-up?
What’s the dilemma or the internal ideas which are obviously unresolved?
If you are going to do something – then do it.
Don’t stop. Don’t waste time.
Don’t give in to distractions.
If you do, correct yourself then keep going until you cross the items off of your list
(successfully).
Dylan Thomas wrote: “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
This means whatever you do, do this with everything you have.
Life is short and time is running out.
There’s a song that sings, “Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.”
The moments between us, even now before the hour when the sun comes up, this minute right here is absolutely irretrievable once its gone.
So, make it count.
Make everything you do worthwhile.
Let this grow from here so that the momentum of your love moves at a pace that is beyond unstoppable.
Even if you fail, then fail wonderfully.
Go at everything with everything you have.
Make your life happen and refuse to give up or to give way and reject the mottos of words that sound like, “I can’t” or the terms of what seems like an otherwise impossibility.
“Everything is impossible, until it’s done.”
In this case, do everything as if you can overcome any and every impossibility.
Go. Be. Do.
I love these three words.
In my eyes, none of this was possible.
For me to be where I am now was never a possible idea.
Yet, here I am.
To me, nothing I could do was ever enough.
I never believed in my ability.
I never assumed that I would ever be anything more than the unfortunate prediction in my head.
I certainly never believed that I could surpass the limitations that other people held against me, let alone the limitations I set upon myself.
But – I’d like to get back to that rule of 10,000 hours.
I have been at this thing called “my life” now for 18,641 days, which equals at least 447,384 hours (and counting).
That’s a lot of hours.
This is a number that exceeds the 10,000 hour mark by far.
However, how many hours have I slept through life while walking around awake?
How long have I wandered through my days only existing rather than living?
How many hours have I devoted to complaining?
How many hours have I been half-hearted or internally lazy or worse, how many hours have I devoted to procrastinating tasks instead of achieving my best conceived plans or aiming for my goals?
How many hours have I wasted sitting in the bathroom on the toilet, reading the stupid or silly nothingness on my social media or sitting behind a desk, scrolling through stupid or mindless reels on social media feeds of people in my life or my friends?
(Or should I say so-called friends?)
How many hours have I wasted listening to people who “claim” to know what life is like?
But yet, they really haven’t got a clue. But somehow, I buy into their rhetoric or filter through their conspiracies and waste my time arguing against a propaganda which literally has nothing to do with me.
How often have I devoted my attention to lessons from so-called teachers who are otherwise named as someone of importance? What about the people who are considered to be “famous” with a chain of followers? What about the time I allowed myself to invest in those who profess themselves as experts? Yet, all they are is human. Still, human or otherwise, faults and flaws, people buy into their philosophies as if to be taken as some kind of guru.
If you want to love – then love
If you want to live – then live.
Do not give up.
Do not settle.
Do not allow yourself to drown in the consequences of your doubt or your fears.
Do not let another day go by without reveling your heart, no matter what the results might be.
Do not allow yourself to be misled by irrational worries or fears that you are somehow inadequate or insufficient or inefficient.
Plain and simple, never believe that you are not enough. It’s really not worth it . . .
Do not go at life as if you have already failed because if the saying is true that “Man is as he thinketh,” or to remove pronouns and gender and to neutralize the argument, if we are who we think we are, then what has to take place for us to think better of ourselves?
What has to happen for us to go at something and to go all the way, with no stones unturned and no regrets in place?
Nothing comes to the half-hearted, except for a halfway or an underappreciated outcome, which we only suppose as luck and still, undeserving, we look at this and say, “Yeah well . . . I wonder how long this high will last?”
This is an item of and an example of depressive thinking which diminishes any and all of our best efforts to the statement of, “Why bother?”
Enough with the questions. Enough with the problems or challenges.
Enough with the worrisome obstacles.
Just go
Just be
Just do
If you are going to do something – then do it.
But be determined.
I say this as I move through a new opportunity to live my life through an alternate plan. I am not where I thought I would be at this point; however, I am not where I was nor am I living in the state of constant discomfort (with the exception of my back, of course). As I look to create this new list of tasks and aims for completion, I have to resurrect my secret of endurance to keep my pace from being stoppable.
I have to remember that nothing will happen if I do nothing to make life happen. Or, and elsewise, I can certainly allow life to take its turn with my fate – or I can take every moment that comes to me – and make them count.
I am unsure of my next trip or where to go.
But my bucket list is more about experiences than places to go and people to see.
I have chosen to give myself a list of new items each week.
Yesterday was a new meal which I have never cooked before.
This was good, but I’m looking for better.
I want more for myself because ultimately, I am looking for the best. I want to live fully, actively, wholeheartedly and plainly or purely because whatever I do from this point onwards, whether its my search for a great bowl of soup or to live my life at a better level of awareness; or if I want to perfect a great bowl of my Mother’s mashed potatoes; or if I find myself on a trip to nowhere or on a train to somewhere, I want to take my trusty little laptop with me. I want to live beyond measure. I want to dedicate my life to living every minute because whether I’m late to the party or not, it only pays to enjoy myself – I’m sure it’s later than we think.
Here it comes – today.
So, go at it
with all you have.
The Written Addiction 