Why dowedo the things wedo? I have a ton of actions and behaviors that I cyclically repeat over and over in my waking and sleeping life. Some happen several times a minute, some only once every five years. It seems to be true that we chose our steps in life, and they aren’t thrust upon us by some wicked outside force. We either consciously, or maybe subconsciously act out our inner commitments and strong-held beliefs all throughout our day.
I sometimes ask myself, (which is a strange statement right? Who am I really? Two people, who can converse with each other?) “why is it, that I do the things I do?” One easy example is this blog itself. I can ask myself at 1:32 am after a long day of work, ‘Why self, would I stay up this late to agonize over writing an article that may not have any point to it all?” This is not part of my career. I don’t make income from it. I sometimes don’t enjoy the tension of deciding on a topic either. I could answer myself, that ‘I don’t know why I do what I do…”
All week long, at our restaurant, I have been examining the details of a building and equipment upgrade project. The original kernel of this idea was quite simple, and it has now exploded into a full blown intensive and expensive possible proposition. After cussing and discussing at hours on end I have picked apart the importance and the options available for this expansion. Before the quotes have even arrived, I know that I have far exceeded our initial small mental budget. So then, Why would I go ahead and attempt to do this thing at all? What takes us from thought to action, on an endeavor like this?
Why dowedo the things wedo?
After long conversations with my beautiful wife, I mentioned that really, we need a long term gameplan to measure the worthiness of this large scale upgrade to the business. We need some context, an generalized equation, or a bullet-pointed screenplay manuscript to try to fit this current decision into. We need to know where it is that we really want to arrive at, out in the liquid vast future of space, in order to make plans now, to navigate toward it.
So far, we still haven’t come up with those plans 🙂
Same thing as this blog I’m writing tonight. It sure would be more effective, to have an idea of some target or purpose that I am aiming to achieve, to know what to try and convey to you right now. If I had the context of a future book idea, or themed series, or YouTube channel that I wanted to create, based on these blogs, then I may be able to craft them with determined ambition. Right now, it’s basically about not breaking an almost six year weekly date with myself and a keyboard… that’s it.
The other day, I used a remote control to switch from Netflix to the antenna channels on my TV. I used a button indicated with INPUT. There were several options, only two or maybe three did anything at all. I changed the SOURCE, that was feeding images to the flat 55 or whatever inch screen. With the simple click of a button, I could access a whole new world of content, by switching the source.
Several years ago, the SOURCE input of my spiritual life was changed. It may have been by a remote control that my subconscious held, but I know that I spoke out loud a request for it too. Ever since then, a entirely new and different menu of mental items has shown up on the inner watching screen of my mind. That one significant change, certainly has had a TON to do, with why I do the things I do…
So, nowhere near perfect, I do choose different paths that are available to me now, Thank God. I choose different actions at 1:54 in the morning, than I used to. And maybe the answers of “why dowedo the things wedo”, is more about our inner relationship with the true source of God… or lack thereof, than anything else…
With Love, I might see you here next week 🙂
Sincerely,
Aaron Nichols
THANK YOU Aaron ! ! !