Get to work

It’s easy to be outraged.

Getting angry about the world’s evils is a fast and convenient way to appear righteous and respectable.

Nothing enrobes a man with an aura of conferred credibility quite like the act of being appalled by the failings and flaws of others.

But when our brief spells of fashionable moral indignation are over, the only things that remain are the results of actual effort.

We can complain, we can cry, we can condemn, and when it’s all said and done, either we will be among those who took action or we will be among those whose legacy is reducible to political posturing.

If the world’s injustices get you worked up, then feel free to get worked up, BUT don’t make the mistake of confusing getting worked up with getting to work.

If you want to be on the winning side of change, you have to get to work.

My final post before a brief hiatus

Well, folks, this is my 730th consecutive post.

That marks the completion of my second year challenge.

I have no idea what’s next. I know that I intend to continue writing everyday. I need that.

But I am currently going through a major transition in my life and I think a break would be nice.

So, I think I’ll take a couple of weeks (or longer) to read, relax, meditate, reflect and do everything I need to do in order to revamp and reload.

This has been a fun ride. I look forward to hopping back on the blog and offering my two cents very soon.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and comment on this blog over the past two years.

Of course, it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t leave you with a final thought. So, here’s today’s two cents:

No matter who you are or what you go through, you are a being of intrinsic value.

Nothing can take that away.

Love, respect, praise, and appreciation may not come from the people or places you expect, but if you persist in affirming your own dignity and self-worth, things will somehow work out for you.

At least that’s the way I see it (based on my current arbitrary vantage point which could change at anytime).

Cheers,

T.K. Coleman

Shatter my beliefs

The man who threatens to disprove my beliefs is my greatest ally.

For with the stripping away of my precious assumptions comes the dissolution of those boundaries and limitations created by my dogmatic attachment to a particular way of seeing.

In the loss of certainty is the emergence of possibility.

So, I bless those who come to my aid with their belief-smashing logic.

I praise those who dare to shatter my most cherished illusions.

I adore those who graciously undermine my claims to knowledge.

One cannot experience the bliss and freedom of shifting into a new paradigm unless he is first willing to undergo a crisis of faith.

At least that’s the way I see it (until I shift paradigms tomorrow morning).

Cheers,

T.K. Coleman

Optimism doesn’t begin with faith, belief, or trust

You can’t discover new possibilities until you look for them.

You won’t look for new possibilities unless you’re open to the idea that they actually exist.

You can’t be open to the idea that new possibilities actually exist, until you recognize that you don’t know most of what there is to know.

The presumption that one has seen it all precludes the act of searching for what one has not yet seen.

Optimism doesn’t begin with faith, belief, or trust. It begins with an affirmation of uncertainty.

The optimistic attitude is born out of one’s ability to imagine that there are sounds one has never heard, colors one has never seen, ideas one has never contemplated, lessons one has never been taught, and paths upon which one’s feet have never tread.

The pessimist has trouble with such notions because he thinks he knows. He is too sure of himself to entertain “wild fantasies” about unexplored worlds. The pessimist believes that if there really were unknown possibilities, they must surely be negative or, if positive, too insignificant to be worth considering.

So, he accepts his judgments as irrefutable facts and dismisses skeptical inquiry as a useless philosophical exercise.

The optimist, however, is one who is capable of unconvincing himself of what he thinks he knows.

He repeatedly asks himself, “how do I know that?”

And whenever he is unable to provide a reasonable defense of his pessimistic premises, he returns to his native state of unknowing.

And when one does not know, one is open.

And when one is open, there is little need for faith and “positive thinking.”

For hopelessness and despair simply cannot survive in a mind that refuses to be too sure of itself.

At least that’s the way I see it (but one can never be too sure).

Cheers,

T.K. Coleman

 

Friends and family

A friend is someone who loves to spend time with you. A brother is someone who’s still capable of loving you even when you can’t spend time with them.

A friend is someone who “gets you.” A sister is someone who has your back even when, after all your explanations, she still doesn’t have a clue why you do what you do.

Your fans celebrate your success.

Your friends celebrate your dreams.

Your brothers and sisters celebrate you.

Why I’m not a believer

I am not a believer.

That is, I don’t believe in having beliefs for the sake of having beliefs.

I am a thinker, a doer, an explorer, a creator, an adventurer.

I don’t believe in ideas. I contemplate them, I compare and contrast them, I use them, I wrestle with them, I write about them, I sing them, I paint them, I embody them, I play with them, I pretty much do everything but believe them.

I work with concepts in the same manner that an artist works with his materials or that a construction worker works with his tools; I pick them up and put them down according to my own interest, convenience, pleasure, and pragmatic consideration.

I have no loyalty to any paradigm or school of thought. My loyalty is to the felt experience of love, bliss, peace, harmony, and creative freedom.

I rendezvous with ideas towards that end.

Practical effectiveness and recreational usefulness is my full gamut of concern.

If you have “The Truth”, let’s see what I can do with it: Can I make music with it? Can I write poetry from it? Can I sing it? Can I improve my relationships with it? Will it make me feel happier, more content, or more peaceful? Will it make me more compassionate? Will it take my mind on an interesting trip? Will it connect me to God, The Universe, The Transpersonal Essence, or whatever term you use for Ultimate Reality? Will it expand my freedom? If not, you can keep it.

I have no use for detached dogmas and arbitrary abstractions regardless of how “truthful” their advocates deem them to be.

Give me possibilities with which I can play and I will choose them over a belief on any given day.

The potter and the observer

The potter works diligently with the clay and the observer sees nothing more than a grown-up who plays frivolously with mud. But in time, useful and beautiful pottery will be made. Then the observer will praise the potter for his persistence.

Keep molding the clay and do not allow the fluctuating concerns and shifting sensitivities of observers to lead you astray.

The observers need your creativity, but they wont be able to recognize it until you give them something to see. And you can’t give the observers something to see if you’re too busy looking at the same things as them.

Don’t observe. Focus!

There’s nothing here to believe

Please don’t believe in me.

Please don’t believe in anything I have to say or share.

Don’t give me that kind of authority.

Don’t allow my thoughts to become a burden to your spiritual path, your psychological unfoldment, or your personal development.

I have absolutely no clue what is right or wrong for you.

I have nothing to offer other than my own experiences, reflections, and subjective convictions.

Don’t take MY WORD for it. Take YOUR EXPERIENCE for it.

May your inner guidance ALWAYS trump the confidently asserted views of ANY teacher.

Instead of being jealous, become a student

Have you ever met someone who seems to have it easy?

What if, instead of automatically dismissing them as a lucky person who gets all the breaks, you considered the possibility, however slight, that their ease was the product of superior efficiency, superior stress-management skills, superior competency, superior networking, superior study habits, etc.?

In other words, what if you cultivated the practice of looking at yourself as an ever evolving entity who always has something to learn from the people around them?

This wont always be true, but you have a much better chance at developing your full potential if you learn from the people who are getting better results than you, as opposed to just assuming that the Universe likes them more than everyone else.

Sometimes, when we conclude that life is uniquely and insurmountably tough for us, that’s just another way of saying “I have nothing to learn. I have no need for improvements. I’m doing everything perfectly and all my difficulties are solely the result of life’s intrinsic unfairness towards me.”

Even if that’s how it really seems, that’s not the kind of perspective that’s going to take you anywhere worth going.

Personal Development: Belief not required

I don’t believe in therapy.

I don’t believe in positive thinking.

I don’t believe that church communities, 12-step programs, or self-help groups will benefit me.

I don’t believe in western medicine.

I don’t believe in alternative medicine and holistic health.

I don’t believe in New-Age mumbo jumbo like creative visualization, chakra energies, and the law of attraction.

I don’t believe in behavioral psychology, attachment theory, gestalt therapy, or neuro-lingustic programming.

I don’t believe in the seven highly habits, the silva method, or EST.

I don’t believe in that author, or that expert, or that book, or that person’s testimonial.

I do not believe!

I hear statements like this all the time from real people who are hungry for practical solutions to their problems.

When confronted with a suggestion (not necessarily from yours truly), they immediately go into a monologue about what they don’t believe.

For many of these people, a lack of belief in something is, all by itself, enough reason to dismiss most new proposals without discussion.

When people declare their list of non-beliefs to me, my response is usually, “well, luckily, personal development is not a religion and there are no belief requirements you need to meet in order to qualify.”

The willingness to experiment and explore is far more pivotal than is the ability to make oneself believe in the objective absolute truth of a particular theory, philosophy, or therapeutic technique.

If we truly want to learn and grow, we don’t need unwavering faith as much we need a sense of wonder, a spirit of adventure, and a mild dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Belief is nothing. The courage to try something new is everything.

Believing in exercise wont make you physically fit, but going to the gym and working out, even if you’re a skeptic, will.

When a scientist goes into his lab, he doesn’t say “hey I believe in this stuff with all my heart; rather he thinks “let’s investigate and see what happens.” Then he measures, probes, mixes, dissects, and so on, until he stumbles upon some observation worth noting.

In the end, he may or may not have a belief, but he definitely has a result. And that’s all he needs.

And that’s all you and I need.

Instead of trying to make yourself believe in something bigger and better, try taking more chances on activities and practices that offer you the opportunity to make new discoveries.

At least that’s the way I do it.

Cheers,

T.K. Coleman