Whatever you’re doing, wherever you are it’s because you got yourself there. People can make influences on your life. However how you choose to sail down the stream is upto you. Whatever you want to imagine for your future you can create. You may be ‘locked’ into a job, ‘stuck’ in a country or in a ‘bad’ neighbourhood. Ultimately it’s upto you to make the choice of doing something about it. People even often blame external circumstances such as financial or medical issues. Both of these are still due to your position in life. You can still choose to be in a better spot financially or physically tomorrow or not. They may be external however they manifest internally. Some variables may be out of your control due to the situation you’re in. You just need to focus on the ones that are.
Thinking
Thinkning is the first and ultimate freedom. This has been discussed by lots of teachers; Echardt Tollie & Victor Frankl. Both discuss about if your mind is free your body can never be trapped. This is a difficult concept to grasp if you don’t understand it naturally. Will give you an example:
Working in the same place two of my friends described their jobs. One related it to being on a log in the ocean, barely being able to survive and just setting a drift waiting for a boat or island to float passed to pick them up. The other described it as chilling on cruise ship just casually shuffling sand off the boat creating their island.
It’s crazy how the mind creates our perception of what the world is. Control yours.
You can physically see how people think in there body.Their face has a natural frown or smile. Even the way they walk or communicate can be clear indications of how they are.
Everyone has the power to change this any and everyday. it’s not even about ‘controlling’ your mind. Just observing it’s thoughts. Try to look at them as objectively as possible and then act. Pausing your self before you react to something so you’re more aware of your response really helps your awareness. Practising breathe meditation for a few minutes a day could help you become more conscious of your actions.
Doing
”You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do”
After you accomplish a task you feel amazing. You’re stocked you did it. It’s always better after it’s done. Doesn’t matter how hard or cold or whater it was. Sometimes that’s makes it even better. After you do something that you think should be done or would be good to do you feel great after. Remember that the period between now and when you’ve completed the task is infinitely shorter then after. Why would you choose to submit just a little bit of time for infinite amount of time. You may even end up doing something that was a waste, or a mistake, or didn’t meet your expectations. Though after it’s done you feel stoked it’s done. Most regrets are from not doing something. Instead of feeling ok for that short amount of time, would it not be better to feel better for longer. There are multiple motivations books (The Practice, 5 Second Rule, Crushing It) that basically enforce the idea of just doing it. As small as the progress may be, it is still progress. Even just starting a task like writing the title, can start a land slide of momentum to get you going. You’re in a better position than you were before.
Sustenance
Whatever your body consumes it becomes. You are physically what you take. We all know too much of anything is going to have an effect on your body. Giving yourself the right sustenance and amount makes your body feel vitalized. Your body knows what it needs yet for some reason we tend to ignore it and just follow a routined habit. A great thing to do before and after eating is a body check. Actually feel what you want. Check if you’re actually hungry or what you do want to eat. Whilst actually enjoy the meal rather than mindlessly eating in front of a TV. After you’ve finished have some water and actually process the food before thinking you need more food. This will just help you be more incontrol of the world you’re making.
Substances
Interestingly an experience can happen once and alter your world forever. DIfferent ‘drugs’ alters the human perception. If used responsibly can have real life changing experiences. Even alcohol and marijuana are like social lubricants. They can help enhance your experience at any event. May help you just loosen up or get to know someone you may not have usually engaged with. The pitfall with these substances is they can be very easily abused because of the short term happiness and relief they can give the body. A good way to prevent going over board is try projecting yourself a day into the future and see if having the substance will actually bring you net overall happiness.
More intense drugs such as hallucinogens can have a real world warping effect or mind expanding experiences. Often alters someones subjective thoughts on the world. These should be looked back on as objectively as possible. Even a negative experience can be viewed positively. Even if that’s just not to do it again or to learn from the experience.
Ultimately how you choose to look and be in your world is up to you. That’s it. Fact. Only you can change it and control it for better or worse.
