Get real

Part of make believe is that you know it isn’t real.

When we begin to take things as real that are not real, we are, technically “insane.”

Now, what is our culture aimed at?  What is your participation in your life aimed at?  Is it aimed at understanding what is fundamental, what is real?  Or is it aimed at artificialities?

How much do you believe what you hear or see on the radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, movies, or internet?

How much do you believe what you hear or see in your personal relationships?

How much of it is real?

In the realm of fitness, you’ll often hear advice like “you have to see yourself as being thin…” or “you have to see yourself succeeding.”  This type of visualization practice can be helpful, but usually only in elite athletes, who’ve already succeeded at “seeing themselves succeed” at things by actually doing them.

We hold the brain, and the product(s) of the brain – our mind and thoughts – in such high regard these days, that we forget that only one thing changes the brain – action.

Passivity, motionlessness, inaction – all are death.

Action.  Activity.  Doing.  Movement.  Physical doing.  Those things change the brain.  In turn they change the mind, and change our thoughts.

So what good are your thoughts?  Get rid of them.

Get more action.

Go where you want to be…

A good friend of mine, Sam, developed an incredibly unique approach to life. He said (at least) a couple of things that always intrigued me, and that have stuck with me over the years.

One of those things is the title of this post – Go where you want to be.

The first time I heard Sam say this was in reference to finding a parking spot, of all things.

We were going to meet up at a club in DC to hear a band play, and I spent about fifteen minutes looking for a spot. When I got into the bar, there was Sam, having a beer, looking relaxed, as usual.

“How’s it going, Josh?” he asked.
“Great. Took me forever to find a spot though!”
“Huh,” Sam said.

We talked some more, the band played, and then it was time to go. We walked out of the front of the bar and there was Sam’s car! Parked right in front! I hadn’t even noticed it on my way in.

“Nice spot!” I said.
Sam looked at me and paused, as he did once in a while – usually after I’d said something earlier related to a life-philosophy idea, and the time had come to talk about it.
“You have to go where you want to be Josh” he said.
I stared at him like he’d just told me I should eat a banana.
“What?”
“Yeah. I just go where I want to be. If I’m looking for a spot, I don’t drive all around the place looking for one. I drive right up to the front of the place first. That’s where I want to park. Usually, there’s a spot right there for me. When there’s not, I work my way out from where I want to be – not vice versa.”

We parted for the evening, but the words have never left me.

I think about this a lot, and apply it to much more than parking, and I think you should too. Think about places in your life right now, where you aren’t going where you want to be.

Then turn around and go there instead.