The best way to waste your life....is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to
just watch. Look for details. Report. Don't participate.
just watch. Look for details. Report. Don't participate.
Now, on face value, you could see how this could quickly make it up on to someone's refridgerator. This is classic "Go For It" thinking and, especially here in the West, we have made it a mantra. It sounds pretty good, right?
.... not so fast!
Let's do a bit of analyzing:
"The best way to waste your life" - well, right off the bat, the author has said, "Nutster, whenever you read this, I am going to try to get you to stop reading this right before the first set of dot..dot...dots." Who is anyone that walks this earth to tell anyone how to waste their life...let alone the very best way to do it.
Yet, being of open mind, I pressed on in my reading:
"is by taking notes" - OK, not only has this person told me the best way for me to waste my life but he is now hitting on one of my favorite things to do. I love to take notes. They aren't meticulous. Sometimes they are doodles. Sometimes they are multi-colored. Sometimes they are notes of my own mind dribbling down through my arm, to my fingeres, into the ink well and out the nib. I glean nuggets and pearls from my notes and throw out the vast majority of the rest. Without notes, how could you journal? Journaling is nothing but notes. If you blog, you are writing notes.....and you may have taken the notes you wrote, rearranged them, to create the notes you deliver to someone else.
Yet, I take few things personally. Onward:
"The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch" - OK....now, I am starting to get it. This guy is from the adrenalin school. It may not be Xtreme sports adeno rush variety but it runs along the same lines. He is now mandating people to "do." There is nothing wrong with that. Is it for everybody, however? You tell me. People probably ought to make sure that they have given that a try before they make some decisions for themselves.
And then, the author brings out the everyone's favorite: Sarcasm
"Look for details. Report. Don't Participate" - personally, sarcasm is not my favorite tool of persuasion. Sure, I'll throw it out there to be funny on occasion. Everytime I do, however, I know that I run the risk of alienating someone. Sarcasm is a dangerous explosive and should be handled with care. Looking beyond the sarcasm, details contain fascination for some. Most of our medical advances surround looking into the most minute of details. OK...so you aren't a nuclear physicist or research scientist...can you get value out of details? Yes. Look closer to the details of the world around you.....artists are known for their free thinking but much of their free thinking is that they are more sentient of the details that surround them. Can you get bogged down and draw rubbish out of worthless details, too? Of course.
The key - discernment.
The point of the post - mindlessly follow no advice whether it be the quote listed above...or the advice I have listed in this sentence. Think....discern...act (or don't)
John Lennon had it right - "whatever gets YOU through the night, is alright...it's alright."
What is it that "gets you through the night"?- What does "getting you through the night" mean to you? Does it mean literally just waking up the next day? Does it mean waking up with a smile? Does it mean getting up and jumping out of bed and jumping for joy to help others in the world? Does it mean exploring things that aren't part of your life now that may make you feel like you are upgrading or is you feeling that you are optimally living according to your standards? Do you have standards? Do you know what they are? Do they need to be changed? Are your standards so low that you don't feel they challenge you? Are some of your standards so high that they hold you back because they aren't your standards...they belong to someone else?
("Wow......did Nutster just say that it was OK to think about actually "downgrading" my standards? That's some crazy thinking.")
It's all good - you decide...whether you make the conscious decision or not. I love the word, "Decide". It literally means to "cut off all other possibilities." Decide to watch...decide to report...decide to actually be part of the game....decide to play a mix of the three. Decide whatever you want
Just don't not decide - and let me hear you complain about how life is working in a different way than you want or that it should if you never made a decision in the first place.
Think about it.....answer those questions I posed...decide - whatever gets you through the night, is alright...it's alright.
.... not so fast!
Let's do a bit of analyzing:
"The best way to waste your life" - well, right off the bat, the author has said, "Nutster, whenever you read this, I am going to try to get you to stop reading this right before the first set of dot..dot...dots." Who is anyone that walks this earth to tell anyone how to waste their life...let alone the very best way to do it.
Yet, being of open mind, I pressed on in my reading:
"is by taking notes" - OK, not only has this person told me the best way for me to waste my life but he is now hitting on one of my favorite things to do. I love to take notes. They aren't meticulous. Sometimes they are doodles. Sometimes they are multi-colored. Sometimes they are notes of my own mind dribbling down through my arm, to my fingeres, into the ink well and out the nib. I glean nuggets and pearls from my notes and throw out the vast majority of the rest. Without notes, how could you journal? Journaling is nothing but notes. If you blog, you are writing notes.....and you may have taken the notes you wrote, rearranged them, to create the notes you deliver to someone else.
Yet, I take few things personally. Onward:
"The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch" - OK....now, I am starting to get it. This guy is from the adrenalin school. It may not be Xtreme sports adeno rush variety but it runs along the same lines. He is now mandating people to "do." There is nothing wrong with that. Is it for everybody, however? You tell me. People probably ought to make sure that they have given that a try before they make some decisions for themselves.
And then, the author brings out the everyone's favorite: Sarcasm
"Look for details. Report. Don't Participate" - personally, sarcasm is not my favorite tool of persuasion. Sure, I'll throw it out there to be funny on occasion. Everytime I do, however, I know that I run the risk of alienating someone. Sarcasm is a dangerous explosive and should be handled with care. Looking beyond the sarcasm, details contain fascination for some. Most of our medical advances surround looking into the most minute of details. OK...so you aren't a nuclear physicist or research scientist...can you get value out of details? Yes. Look closer to the details of the world around you.....artists are known for their free thinking but much of their free thinking is that they are more sentient of the details that surround them. Can you get bogged down and draw rubbish out of worthless details, too? Of course.
The key - discernment.
The point of the post - mindlessly follow no advice whether it be the quote listed above...or the advice I have listed in this sentence. Think....discern...act (or don't)
John Lennon had it right - "whatever gets YOU through the night, is alright...it's alright."
What is it that "gets you through the night"?- What does "getting you through the night" mean to you? Does it mean literally just waking up the next day? Does it mean waking up with a smile? Does it mean getting up and jumping out of bed and jumping for joy to help others in the world? Does it mean exploring things that aren't part of your life now that may make you feel like you are upgrading or is you feeling that you are optimally living according to your standards? Do you have standards? Do you know what they are? Do they need to be changed? Are your standards so low that you don't feel they challenge you? Are some of your standards so high that they hold you back because they aren't your standards...they belong to someone else?
("Wow......did Nutster just say that it was OK to think about actually "downgrading" my standards? That's some crazy thinking.")
It's all good - you decide...whether you make the conscious decision or not. I love the word, "Decide". It literally means to "cut off all other possibilities." Decide to watch...decide to report...decide to actually be part of the game....decide to play a mix of the three. Decide whatever you want
Just don't not decide - and let me hear you complain about how life is working in a different way than you want or that it should if you never made a decision in the first place.
Think about it.....answer those questions I posed...decide - whatever gets you through the night, is alright...it's alright.
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