Why is it we often avoid the urges that we should be indulging, but end up instead succumbing to the urges that only get us in trouble?
We hear stories all the time about people not having the strength to overcome urges to do drugs, drink themselves to death, or cheat on their significant other…we fall into these sicknesses and some are never able to properly stop the urges. Other urges such as always walking the tightrope of mundane, day-after-day living isn’t as deadly or bad as those mentioned above…but it certainly isn’t good either.
When we have the urge to live life we don’t allow ourselves to, most of us run back to the treadmill of monotony. For example, if I have the urge to throw caution to the wind and try living in Italy for a year, why don’t I follow through with that? When I have the urge to not work on Tuesday and instead go to the beach with my wife and just sit in the sand all day…I don’t do that either. Why?
It’s because we were “preprogrammed by the factory” and our minds won’t let us stray too far from the herd and when we do have the courage to break away something at some point typically triggers us back to the factory default settings. We can’t completely escape all aspects of the ‘default settings’ but I think we can strive for more ‘creative thinking’ and ‘creative doing’ in our lives.
I’m sure some of you can come up with endless excuses as to why you live that same boring existence day to day…but I call B.S. on every excuse you got. You’re either in denial or so blinded by the default that you can’t see clearly.
Do you honestly think your purpose in life is to conform and not push the limits?
Conformity breeds the same thinking, not new thinking; but as a society we make fun of those that have different ideas, different lifestyles, different clothes, and different hair which puts more pressure on you to conform. Stop making fun of creative, outside the box people and society can start cultivating non-conformity which can lead to new ideas and quite possibly to new creative solutions.
All this comes back around to the original question about urges. It’s almost easier to succumb to the urge of drugs and eventually disappear from the world and live under the bridge than it is to be strong and stray away from the herd and live that outside the box life.
The herd contains so much power…yet they/ we don’t use it to force our government to reform or to force an evolution in the education system. The herd uses that power simply to keep the others in the herd…mindless. This herd of ours has the numbers to do anything we want yet conformity has delivered fear to our doorstep.
We have choices…conformity or non-conformity? Being you or simply being one of many? Finding your voice or allowing your voice to be blended in with a billion others? Fighting for your art or simply being that cubicle worker?
Individual talents and unique ways of thinking inside a larger framework will always give you the BEST results.
Great read Matt. Thanks for this!
Cheers Dave, I appreciate the supprt! And I agree with those words of yours…the struggle for individual thinkers against that larger framework can be punishing, but we/ they need to fight for those creative thoughts.