By All of us have these images of ourselves in different roles that we try to live up to. This is normal in a sense, and is also the nature of the human condition. However, not all of us are able to create these roles in our daily lives. We have to be aware of them for them to become a part of us.
A common example is the need to be perfect in order to become someone else. If we’re not perfect, we can’t be ourselves. If we’re not ourselves, no one else will be either. We need to be ourselves for us to be. Because if we want something else to happen, then we have to be someone else to create it. We have to be ourselves to create it. If we don’t, we’ll be who we’re not.
A great example of this is in the famous Indian saying, “Be more than enough of those things you are not.” We have to be more than our job, our home, our spouse, our children. Yes, we are not of course, but we can become a better person if we are.
In the old adage, “Less is more”, you can be what you do. But in the context of what you do, the more you do less. How many of us do the things we do because we dont want to do those things, we dont want to do those things because we dont want to do those things, we dont want to do that because we dont want to do that because we dont want to do that.
For many people, the pursuit of happiness means the pursuit of the trivial. We may be interested in what is the latest gadget, but we dont think we have the time to learn a foreign language or learn how to play the piano or any of the more boring things we do when we are not pursuing our personal happiness.
I think the problem is that when we think about happiness, we forget to look at the bigger picture. A large part of happiness is about being present to what life has to offer. When you are looking at a shiny new phone, you can focus on what it is instead of what its worth. When you are looking at the latest gadget, you may have seen it but it is also a reminder of what you do not have.
We want our gadgets to be an incentive to be present. We don’t want to be distracted by them. All the time we spend looking at a phone instead of actually doing anything with it is time wasted. I feel you on this one.
A lot of people have a smartphone and the idea that you want to be there every second that you are glued to it with the use of a phone is appealing. I have a different set of desires though. My own habit of checking for new emails, texts, tweets, and Facebook updates while I am at work, at home, in the car, and in the grocery store is time that I could be spending on something else.
And that something else could be using your phone to read a book.
We’re not talking about an everyday habit here, but more a way of life. For years I’ve been telling friends that I could spend more time reading or studying instead of constantly checking my phone. It is, however, a habit that I have fallen into and I’m not ashamed to admit it. There are a myriad of reasons why you should use your phone less, and a lot of them are related to time.
Comments