The most amazing thing!!

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote:

Lykeios wrote: ...I'm doing what I can out in the real world to help change things...

...However, it's fun AND enriching to have this community in which to talk about things...

...I don't think there's anything wrong with pursuing self-betterment first with the ultimate goal of bettering the world in the process. And yes, I may die tomorrow, but I will pay the ferryman his coin with a straight back and a head held high knowing I've done something to better the world...

...And if I don't die tomorrow, I will continue to strive, knowing my work is never done. Can you say the same?

I think these are outstanding sentiments. Balance in all things right? But balance does not mean we cant also experience the extremes. If we can live our lives in such a way that we have no regrets when its done that is the goal I think. And yes I can say that I strive every day to live this way.

I'm a pansexual gender-fluid Anarcho-communist Pagan Jedi...how much more extreme could I get!? Lol.

Also, I don't so much seek to end my life with NO regrets...I mean, having no regrets is a lovely sentiment, but if you have no regrets have you really lived at all? I regret things, but I don't let the regret consume me or keep me focused backwards into the past.

Maybe a better way to put it is no unresolved regrets.

I come back to the question that keeps showing up in my head: Does what you do define who you are or does who you are define what you do?

I feel the need to ask it because I think that what we are talking about may be more or less a thing depending on the individual and the what they are / were already doing. Should we examine these kinds of details to understand the nature of human developmental behaviors, what makes us tick and what creates change?

Proteus wrote: I come back to the question that keeps showing up in my head: Does what you do define who you are or does who you are define what you do?

I say neither one. It is a false dichotomy. The human brain does not work simply by reacting to the world around it using only past accomplishment. Instead it is a proactive forward thinker that is constantly predicting and constructing its experience of the world and in this process it uses past accomplishment only as a reference. Because of this I have control over how I perceive the world around me and I can define myself not by accomplishment but by my own internal sense of self that is as free from external influence as possible.

As I move forward it is important to maintain a high self-awareness because that leads to higher self-control over this predictive capability. In effect, I am the architect of my experience and the greater skill in that I have the more accurate my perception will be. I formulate a sense of self that is based upon my own internal variables utilizing my values, beliefs, and attitudes. I use these things to “understand” who I am rather than using external factors like accomplishment to simply define who I am. This sets my expectations of self as a subjective opinion defined by me and not through the judgement of others by what I do.

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote:

Proteus wrote: I come back to the question that keeps showing up in my head: Does what you do define who you are or does who you are define what you do?

I say neither one. It is a false dichotomy. The human brain does not work simply by reacting to the world around it using only past accomplishment.

Well, I agree. It isn't. But it often does that. The mind has infinite potential. But humans are lazy. They will often take the path of least resistance. And as such, they will often rely on instinctual gut reaction based on past experience. Simply because its easier than critical analysis.

Arisaig wrote: Well, I agree. It isn't. But it often does that. The mind has infinite potential. But humans are lazy. They will often take the path of least resistance. And as such, they will often rely on instinctual gut reaction based on past experience. Simply because its easier than critical analysis.

Exactly! But I would not categorize them as lazy but as asleep. These are the sheep that go through life ruled by fear and avoiding the challenges of life and the conflict inherent in that. Just going through life viscerally reacting instead of thoughtfully responding to their environment. These people are often defined as the victim mentalities or the entitled ones. They have a woeful lack of self awareness or awareness of their reality and they replace self responsibility with impotent excuse.

At the risk of sounding nitpicky... Which mind is it that has infinite potential, exactly? I can't confirm having ever encountered any such at all, at least not if I'm understanding what is meant by potential here correctly...

Gisteron wrote: At the risk of sounding nitpicky... Which mind is it that has infinite potential, exactly? I can't confirm having ever encountered any such at all, at least not if I'm understanding what is meant by potential here correctly...

Well I just chocked that up to metaphorical description but if we look at it another way would you consider the idea that the mind has infinite potential to conceive of something never before conceived of? And probably infinite is not a proper term here as it does not actually define a value. How about unlimited? We cant quantify a value to something we don't know exists, this makes the potential unlimited.

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote:

Arisaig wrote: Well, I agree. It isn't. But it often does that. The mind has infinite potential. But humans are lazy. They will often take the path of least resistance. And as such, they will often rely on instinctual gut reaction based on past experience. Simply because its easier than critical analysis.

Exactly! But I would not categorize them as lazy but as asleep. These are the sheep that go through life ruled by fear and avoiding the challenges of life and the conflict inherent in that. Just going through life viscerally reacting instead of thoughtfully responding to their environment. These people are often defined as the victim mentalities or the entitled ones. They have a woeful lack of self awareness or awareness of their reality and they replace self responsibility with impotent excuse.

What I get from this is then that your original premise is that many people are simply doing things that society labels as "self-help" or "self-improvement" trusting blindly in that it will lead somewhere, but they don't know where that somewhere is, as opposed to people who have a clear vision of who they want to be, and that don't waste time on what society labels as self-improvement, but on the things that will lead to their vision crystallizing.

Manu wrote: What I get from this is then that your original premise is that many people are simply doing things that society labels as "self-help" or "self-improvement" trusting blindly in that it will lead somewhere, but they don't know where that somewhere is, as opposed to people who have a clear vision of who they want to be, and that don't waste time on what society labels as self-improvement, but on the things that will lead to their vision crystallizing.

Sure I think that's a big part of it. It includes the concept of taking responsibility for your own well being instead of blaming everything you can think of in your life for where you are. For example, if you try to talk to one of these people about their career you hear all the time that they are in a dead end job through no fault of their own. They will have a 1000 excuses as to why - things are not the way they used to be, the govt has made it impossible to get ahead, school is just to expensive to go to, technical schools are all scams and on and on like this.

They are saying that "somebody should do more to make me more successful". They are blaming everything but themselves for their situation and in that refusing to take action to change it because after all, its not their fault! They wont face the fact that it is their fault and that it takes dedication and work and mistakes but never quitting and always trying for themselves! That is what makes success, not relying on any other person or organization to do this for you.