#228 Battling questions with questions

In the pursuit of our ambitions, we often create intricate plans, detailed routines, and exhaustive checklists.

But when these complexities start to feel more like obstacles than aids, it might be time to strip things back.

Where are you overcomplicating? Is it in the planning, the execution, or perhaps the goal itself?

Seeking the simplest way is not always the easiest. But more often than not, it’s the most effective.

If you think you know how to write a story but never do it, do you really know how to write a story?

If you think you know how to do a yoga pose but never do it, do you really know how to do that yoga pose?

If you think you know how to apologize for a mistake but never do it, do you really know how to apologize?

If you know what you want to do but aren’t doing it, do you really know what you want?

Because hidden beneath your goals and technical step-by-step instructions to accomplish them, there’s an obstacle course of personal context, personal beliefs, past experiences, and emotions.

And these, you won’t discover in books or videos.

These, you’ll encounter by doing.

And these, you’ll conquer by doing.

Eating junk food for dinner. Because that’s what you always did.

Having home-grown vegetables for lunch. Because that’s what you always did.

Scrolling through social media apps for 20 minutes. Because that’s what you always did.

Meditating for 20 minutes every morning. Because that’s what you always did.

Working 15-hour days. Because that’s what you always did.

Taking the time to relax, let the mind wander, and be with family. Because that’s what you always did.

Our lives are full of predictable pathways, paved and reinforced by our past and present actions.

But not all pathways are desirable.

Luckily the past doesn’t equal the future.

You can change your present actions to change the course of your pathway, away from a predictable future towards a desirable future.

I don’t care much for indifference.

But dismissal… that’s something else.

The more I dismiss something, the more curious I get.

Does it contradict my values?

Am I afraid?

Or am I pushing away something I secretly want?

I don’t know what it is about dismissal, my friend.

But I do know that the stronger the feelings, the more interesting it gets.