You are NOT safe and you are NOT good enough

I feel that it is important to remember that acknowledging room for improvement does not have to be the same thing as believing your current state to be bad. Me, for instance. I know that I can be in better shape and I am working to be in better shape (lost three pounds so far this month), but that doesn't mean that I have to hate how I am now. I am working towards a better paying job (applied for one today) but I also realize that I'm still doing better financially than I ever have been. Something, some possible future state, being better doesn't make the current state bad.

One can seek improvement without being in such a negative frame of mind. Otherwise you'll always be unhappy because there is always room for improvement. You can always be healthier, wealthier, better at a specific task, etc. If having room for improvement means that you have to feel so poorly about where you are then achieving said improvement won't satisfy you, because it never ends. Be happy the way things are, but look forwards to the way things will be.

Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Every path is different. I will never deny that any where. My door is all ways open. In times where our focus is in question , good council is to be sought out. Seek or friends, I most remember in my life the day I realized I wasn't alone in a lot of my questions, nor did I have to choose to be. May the Force find you where you seek it.

If we aren't focusing our time and energy on achieving the knowledge of how to deal with reality, we are wasting our time?
I wonder - what does that look like to you? What does a person who isn't wasting their time do or think or feel?

Read this as an interested question for continuing the conversation - not as an attack or disagreement.

I'd just like to add that being honest with ourselves doesn't have to be brutal. I know what I need to work on to improve myself, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

If you listen to Watts, one of his discussions was in the pointlessness of trying to change oneself. The person who you are trying to change, is the one who is "not good enough" to begin with. While many would knee-jerk react to this by saying it's all pointless and getting depressed, Watts says this should be a major relief! You don't have to become a different person, because you who you are!

It reminds me of Einstein saying that you cannot fix a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.

This may seem contradictory, but I personally feel that we're all capable of being better. Just because we cannot change who we are, doesn't mean we cannot strive to be the best "us" that we can be!

Changing something out of fear, will only get you a fear-based change. If you can move past the fear, you may find a different path that couldn't be seen before.

This is just my opinion, and if I'm way off, feel free to say so. I apologize if I butchered the Watts and Einstein quotes, or missed the points with them completely, lol!

Brontyn wrote: Changing something out of fear, will only get you a fear-based change. If you can move past the fear, you may find a different path that couldn't be seen before.

I specifically wanted to thank you for this section. Well said.

I'd type that quote by Morgan Freeman in the Shawshank Redemption, if it wasn't so overused and if I could remember it. Here goes.

"Something something ... living, or so and so .... something dying." - Red

LOL!

Oh, Jedi, you warm my heart.

What are the positives we can take from this? What good information and insight can we glean?

Brontyn wrote: If you listen to Watts, one of his discussions was in the pointlessness of trying to change oneself. The person who you are trying to change, is the one who is "not good enough" to begin with. While many would knee-jerk react to this by saying it's all pointless and getting depressed, Watts says this should be a major relief! You don't have to become a different person, because you who you are!

This reminds me also of the movie Fight Club, when Tyler Durden says "self-improvement is masturbation!", referring to the fact that improvement for the sake of improvement is meaningless. Sacrifice is only meaningful if it has a purpose.

Hating yourself for not fitting a mold is a waste of time. You don't "rage against the machine" by becoming a cog in a newer, shinier one. Finding what you truly want, however, and doing it, should be a joyous experience, regardless of the sacrifice and frustration involved. And no amount of complacency or, conversely, hatred, is going to get it done. Action, however, will.

I love how everyone reacts differently in the light of their own existential nature. This thread honestly reminds me of a comic I saw earlier this week.