Books, Self Improvement
Using a Lot of Compasses is Absolutely Disaster
Why are we feel so easy to get distracted is because we are using a lot of compasses
Human beings are absolutely unique. We are designed to never live without meaning, that’s why we are always moving in order to chase that meaning. Meaning has different types but mostly (in my personal experiences), it is in the shape of metaphysical things such as happiness, desire, success, love, calmness and so on although there are physical things such as our dream stuff.
In order to achieve that meaning, we surely arrange our steps, plan and strategy. It’s because everything in this world doesn’t happen instantly. Even if you want to eat instant noodles you have to get your ass up, pour water into a pan, and do some more steps until you are able to eat this shit. Even the process of human breath is not instant. Air enters through the nose and mouth, then passes through a small tracking process by nasal hairs, then goes to the trachea or windpipe, and many more processes until its oxygen then becomes carbon dioxide.
These two are just small cases that show us how unique reality is, where everything that we do always contains effort and process beyond it even if we are just breathing. If we zoom out the landscape, how about other meanings like our goals, our desire, our dream and so on? We talked about the top tier of our meaning, the top of our hierarchy. That must be a huge effort in order to get and achieve it, aye?
Honestly, life just gave me a new lesson a couple times ago. As a youngster where my age is 23, I know that people at this age are like a Galveston Storm. We feel like we have the power to rip a mountain from its root. We often entering a spiritual awakening on the midnight and thinking about why 1+1=2, questioning about beliefs, and complaining about how stupid our parents is. That’s good because “I think, therefore I’m” just like what Descartes says. This indicates that you are human.
However, this Galveston Storm is like a double-aged sword. When we act as if we have unlimited power, then we have a lot of goals in our life to achieve. It is fine to have such a huge spirit, we are still young and why not? But remember, we are human. As humans, we have our limits. We are creatures that are bound to both time and space. On average, we only live until the age of 60–80 depending on where we live. The only thing that is really unlimited is our imagination, am I wrong? We could imagine a pegasus although it doesn’t exist. We could imagine heaven and hell although we had never been there before. Interesting isn't it?
Wait, let me make a coffee. It is getting interesting. Ahh the combination of coffee and cigar always hits differently. If we realize ourself, we are more close to achieve our goal. The more we realize our limitation, the more effective our life is. Let say you create a meaning about becoming wealth. This wealth becomes the top tier of your hierarchy of meanings. You arrange your plan to become a wealthy person. But, as far as I live, I think the main problem of this system lies in the middle tier of hierarchy. The thing that causes us to struggle to fulfill our top hierarchy is we are using a lot of compasses.
What I mean about the compasses is the middle tier of your hierarchy which supports you to achieve your top hierarchy. Usually, it is in the shape of your dream job, business, education, skills and so on that will lead you to your top hierarchy. Usually, the youngsters will do anything and everything to achieve their top dreams. They act like a God who doesn’t have limitations and I’ll tell you why it is the cause of our problem.
The stronger our intention, the more motivated we are. But, we should be careful because the more we are getting motivated, then we will choose the hard work path over the smart work path. We feel to be a wealthy person, we should able to do everything, we should able to unlock every fucking skills on this planet, and perhaps it because your environment when you look at your friends who’s able to design while you don’t. Therefore, you decide to follow a designer course for 6 month, exhausted in the process, quit, and then get nothing. Or you look at your friends who have a skill to analyze data and coding, earn more wages than you, then you decide to do exactly the same steps as your designer course and end up with nothing.
It is good after all. It shows that you have a strong motivation and you are not afraid of trying. You are a hard working person, congratulations. But, I also want to congratulate the distraction because it is successful to disturb you. Instead of being a hard working person, let’s try to be a hard working person with smart steps. It is more effective and efficient to reach our goal. And again, self awareness is playing its crucial role. My point is, you have to know yourself and your priorities about what you really like. If you like writing, then you have to dig it until its core. Just use writing as your compass for a while until it’s done, then you may use another compass. Don’t use different compasses at the same time, it is less effective. Mark my words.
I remember Warren Buffet when he gave advice to his pilot. He tell his pilot that, there are three simply steps to really know our priority and fucked up the distraction. First, make a 25 list about your dreams. Secondly, do some self introspection and mark the top five of them. Third, watch the twenty list that you unmark. Then, you have to promise to yourself for God sake not to do this twenty shit because these twenty are often distracting you from your true priority. It drains a lot of our energy, money, and time.
I also remember when Angela Duckworth in his masterpiece entitled “Grit” said that, if you follow this priority set up method and know your priority, will you surely become a wealthy person, philanthropy, a hero for your country, or so on your top tier? Maybe not. But, you have a better chance of achieving something you care about — a greater chance of getting closer to where you want to be.
Ahh my coffee is gone cold I’m not wondering why. So happy can write this. Sunday afternoon always cozy for me, thanks God. That’s all from me, thanks for coming, good day from Jakarta and hope y’all find your true compass haha…
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Reference
Duckworth, Angela L., et al. “Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Journal of personality and social psychology 92.6 (2007): 1087.
