Living Mindlessly

Living Mindlessly

Being a grownup is so great. One of the many reasons is that I get all the support I want. I will tell you right now, there is a trick to getting the support you want, the support you need. In fact, this trick is super-ultra-mega important to having a life you love living. You might get mad, but I’m going to tell you anyway.

Are you ready?

Know what you want.

What do I want? How do I want to feel? What makes my life go the way I like it? How do I want to spend my time? Where to I feel most productive? What makes me choose?

If I want a happy life, I have to have a good idea of what my happy life looks like. It’s sounds ridiculous, but I’m here to tell you, most people haven’t got a clue.

On the one hand, we like to think of ourselves as independent thinkers with free will.

On the other hand, we have a tendency to be kind of mindlessly compliant.

You can tell that you’re in mindlessly compliant when you get to the end of the day and can’t really remember what you did, or feel the day flew by, or like it should still be last August. The mindless part is sort of obvious. The compliant part assumes you didn’t spend the day getting yelled at for not being a team player. Often, when we are stuck in mindlessly compliant, our internal dialog is mostly complaining.

So, if you are like me, that’s not the way we want to live.

What do I want? How do I want to feel? What makes my life go the way I like it? How do I want to spend my time? Where to I feel most productive? What makes me choose?

If I can’t just say right now what I want, I need to spend some time thinking about it. I like to have at minimum five things I want right near the top of my awareness most of the time. I want to feel peaceful and happy at my core. I want to enjoy each day. I want to feel like I’ve made a difference when I go to bed. I want a folding treadmill. I want to increase my readership.

Because I have those things right there, sort of thinking about them all the time, I make choices relevant to them. I want to feel peaceful, so when folks come around all crabby and stuff, I choose not to go there with them. Ha! How easy!

Because I want to enjoy each day, I make time to appreciate stuff. I make time to be still. I notice where I am in the week, and make room to breathe. The more I appreciate, the more I find to appreciate.

I pay attention to opportunities to feel like I helped, like I made a difference for someone.

Spending time discovering what I want gives me focus. When I know what I want, what my goals are, I know what kind of support I want, and because I respect my goals, I can ask for all the support I need.

How have I changed from mindless compliance, to mindful momentum?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 11142013