“It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.”
I am old. And pretty much alone in the world. Not lonely. Alone.
How I do is entirely up to me. No support system, no cushion, flying without a net.
The notion has different effect on people. The effect is on their actions… or more precisely, on the attitude with which they take the actions.
- Most people become cautious. Cautious means you divide your attention, you divide your power to do the action, and to look around. Ineffectiveness.
Cautious is an attitude that makes you produce a lot of waste.I used to be more cautious. For example, when I would fill the 4oz bottles with the remedy: I would put it slowly, so I don’t overfill them and spill.
I would spill every bottle.Yesterday I filled a bunch of bottles, and none spilled. I wasn’t cautious. I was present. I was aware. I was coordinated. I was precise. My attention wasn’t divided.
Somehow the fear, which feeds cautious, left.My hunch is it came with the change of diet, and with the change in everything else.
When you are in survival in your health, in your money, in your relationships, in your work, with survival comes fear: afraid to not survive, and comes cautiousness.
And with cautiousness comes the splitting of power you can put in any activity… somehow and unwittingly causing reason to fear survival. Your fear gives reason for more fear. - Many people become self-conscious. Self-consciousness is an over-emphasizing the role of other people’s opinion, the importance of what other people think about you.What is underneath is is an unexpressed hope that other people will rescue you, that you are not alone, that your survival will be made easier by other people, because … because they like you?
If cautious forced you to do the things you need to do with your hands tied behind your back… i.e. not with your full power, being self-conscious, caring about what other people think about you will make you impatient, campaign person… doing things for show.Lying.
Flashy.No substance, no real work, less and less “earning what you want”.
You are prostituting yourself… Not much fulfillment in that.EVEN if the person whose opinion really matters to you is me… when you do things to please me, you are missing the point…
- Yesterday I read about a hundred quotes about fools…And another hundred from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Because I have been perturbed and have been contemplating why people are not learning anything.
According to King Solomon, there is one major thing that differentiates a wise person from a fool: how he or she receives instruction and correction. (See, for example, Proverbs 1:5; 9:8–9; 10:8; 12:15; 15:12; 17:10; and 19:20.)A wise person:
- Listens without being defensive.
- Accepts responsibility without blame.
- Changes without delay.
If you are dealing with a wise person, talking is helpful. They soak up feedback and use it to adjust their lives for the better. Your input can truly make a difference.
If you are dealing with a fool, however, talking is a waste of your time. They resist change. The problem is never “in the room.” It’s always out there somewhere—something you can neither access nor address.
By chance I typed in the name of a picture, fools and wise people. When you pit one thing and the opposite, suddenly you start seeing things that otherwise they are hidden, or make no sense.Behaviors, attitudes.
That fools think differently, learn differently, because they are animated by mistaken beliefs…
So the third thing, the third attitude that people have when things really matter is this:Fools rely only on their own knowledge, on what they can see. They take guidance from no one, they will go it alone.
And therein lies the issue it is worth for me to talk about.
Last night I had very restless sleep… Nearly all night I was half-awake, activating capacities, this way and that.
I knew there was a reason for that… there was something to see… that it was an answer to a question, but what was the question?I just realized: fool is a person who operates with only a few distinctions, and therefore sees very little of reality, and even that is mostly skin-deep.
A fool is a person who has too few intangible capacities to use in living in the world. They have a hammer and a screwdriver… that is their tool box. And try and succeed in reducing everything to the hammer and screwdriver level… But reality is a lot more complex… so a fool is out of touch.
Fools. The hallmark of a fool is that they don’t know they are a fool.When they read: they see what they already “know” to be true. When they do an assignment… they hear what they have always heard. So they have a sense that they are smart.
Hearing something new is NOT the fool’s dominion. New is not comfortable. New may make you work to digest it. New may point out that you are on the wrong track.So, when they feel forced to “face the tiger”, to see something worth seeing… they quit. Or hide in the tall grass, like poop. Or cry “bloody murder”. Or slink away, slide away… but by all means, avoid seeing what they need to see.
- When your attitude is that you are ok, you are doing the right thing, you know what is good, what is true… then you are a fool… and it shows up best in your relationship to changing.
You are of the opinion that the government, the system, the weather, the health care system, your spouse, need to change. Maybe even your health need to change. Maybe you need to get smarter…Without ever feeling the need to change yourself.
A few weeks ago, a business acquaintance called to discuss a challenge he was facing at work. As usual, I began with a few questions, trying to understand the context and the issues involved.It quickly became apparent that he didn’t want to change. In fact, the entire conversation was about why he couldn’t change, why he didn’t need to change, and why he wasn’t responsible for the results he was getting.
Ten minutes into the discussion, I realized I was dealing with a fool. There was no point in continuing the conversation. More talk would not change anything.
I am old. The quality of my life depend only on me, my actions, my attitudes. My health, my money, my relationships, my fulfillment. All in my own hands. Work together, synergistically.
It’s scary on one hand, and reassuring on the other.
I would not have it any other way.
I remember when I always had one eye out to see who could rescue me if and when I got into trouble… which, obvious now! happened with a certain regularity.
It was mostly about money.
Maybe this is the first time I am willing to declare that I will not hope, not ask for, and not accept handouts.
My mother called me a whore when I was little… and it’s taken me almost seventy years to actually get the gift in that.
Work for what I need, and make others work for what they need.
Bring total integrity to life.
There is still more cleaning up to do. More reading to do. More power in more actions to do. In all four areas of my life.
The deeper I go to see more, the more I see and the more power I have. The less I am a fool.
