The Moments In Between

So I've been writing this blog for a little over a week now, and as the days go on, I find myself stuck sometimes, like today--trying to figure out what I want to say that I haven't all ready said.  I look around for something interesting to talk about and find myself at an impasse.

But you told me the possibilities were endless! you say.  You said inspiration was easy to come by!

And it's true.  Those two things haven't changed.  What's changed is my ability to make those possibilities and inspiration into something that is, in my opinion, worth reading.  And that, I suppose, is the hard part.

I could, for instance, talk to you about my gaming addiction with World of Warcraft.  I could talk to you about a few Kickstarter projects I pledged to last year.  I could even wax poetic, or talk about a new song I heard that I thought was interesting (or an old one that made me think of something interesting).  But none of those things have yet inspired me to write something interesting about them.

What keeps sticking in my head, however, is this idea that we live in a manufactured culture--one that spends millions (and likely billions) of dollars every year telling us that we need to buy something in order to be happy.  To fit in, we need to wear the latest styles.  To be considered wealthy, we need to have the latest gadgets.  To be fulfilled, we need to have these things in our homes.  And to be all that we can be, we need to buy organic, or take these drugs, or use these beauty products.

And I'd say I'm frustrated with it, but even I want to look pretty.  I want to be thin and healthy.  I want to live the way rich people do, and have investing problems like they do.  I want to have a personal lawyer who helps me with my taxes.  Hell, I even want a new TV, though I'm pretty sure the one we have is still good.

So I'm trapped--living in this ideal that someone else has created for me because they want me to live like this.  I'm a sheep being herded to the next big thing by the corporate shepherds and their political sheep dogs.

And maybe I don't want to be a sheep any more.

So here's this moment--this moment between deciding that something should be changed and coming up with a plan of action.  And suppose I made up that plan of action; there'd be another moment just like this one where I'd have to stop going over my plan and decide to actually follow through with it.

And I imagine a lot of us get caught up in those "in between" moments.  We doubt ourselves.  We're afraid of change.  And we're afraid of being wrong.

And I imagine most of us fall back into old habits.  We eat that extra cookie, or buy that thing we don't really need, sending ourselves further into debt.  We fall into the trap that tells us we aren't happy because we're not like all those people we admire and want to be.

And we decide that maybe it's easier being one of the sheep.

Yesterday, I read an article by @Sadhguru that talked about managerial skills and the hallmarks of good leaders.  I expect it was intended for business leaders and the like, but I decided to read it anyway.  And I want to share with you something that he said:

Desires drive people: desire to possess, desire to achieve, desire to be recognised. If today you desire a new smartphone, tomorrow you’ll want something else. If I give you the whole planet and make you the queen, will you be fulfilled? No, you’ll want the moon and the stars. That is why turning inwards is very important. You’ll do things more consciously. Right now the world is functioning compulsively and that’s our problem.

So that started me thinking about the way we do things in the world: the way we choose to live, the way we look for answers, the way in which, in short, we do everything.  Do I do something to fulfill a desire, or do I do something that is fulfilling?  Do I stay a sheep and believe that what I'm being told is the truth, or do I pull the wool off of my eyes and find my own truth?

I'll leave you with one last article by @JohnCheese of Cracked.com.  He talks about what it takes to really make a change in your life--the things that need to happen to make it happen.


It only takes one little step--one moment that goes from thought to action--to leave behind the person we are, and to become the person we want to be.  So please, don't get stuck in all the moments in between.