Yesterday, I was listening to an interview with Tim Ferriss. He mentioned his idea that by inviting voluntary suffering to our lives, we are preparing ourselves for the times when we face involuntary suffering.
I accept the concept, but I cannot practice it since my current life is already full of involuntary unpleasantness (not exactly suffering, I admit). However, when I have to deal with unpleasantness every second of my wakeful hours and even my dreams are molded by the daily horrors, I have no time to invite suffering on top of everything. When you put out fires all day, you do not start one.
Tim’s advice is good for people of leisure who have time and money and seek some antidote to their cushy life. Instead of drugs, bring some edge to your life by experiencing deprivation, cold, and maybe hunger! I approve.
The other notable moment in the interview was the thought that most of us are reactive, rather than proactive in everyday life. As a result, creativity and building up our individuality are crushed. How many of us have time to embark on self-assigned and self-initiated projects every day or even at all? This reactive way of existence has been another problem of mine for the past months. I have not had time to do something that I have designed, thought about, craved, envisioned. I have been losing sight of my identity.
I need to go back to some foundational work in my mind and decide on what my mission is. Yes, everyone of us should decide on what their mission is. The mission can be re-visited, re-evaluated and re-adjusted with time, but we need to remember what we are doing with our precious little time on this earth.
On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful that I exist! I am also grateful for having time to muse about the meaning of my existence. Is this too egotistical? Not at all. If you appreciate yourself and find your true identity, you would be able to help others in a meaningful way. If you are miserable, feel bad about yourself, the only thing you can bring in people's life is misery and disaster. So, celebrate yourself, your freedom and the precious days when you have the time to realize what you stand for. Today, I will cook for many hours, but this will be a proactive expression of myself. As far as my work unpleasantness goes, I should remember this quote from this link: “Those that matter don’t mind, and those that mind don’t matter.”
Recently, I had also found some solace in this great talk by Martin Rossman.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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