Expect Nothing about Life and Take Everything
Life is what it is. Period.
Life is wonderful by default when you stop trying to put your own spin on it.
The only thing to do in life is to hoist your sail and point it in the direction you want to go. Then row as hard as you can.
Expect Nothing
There are two aspects to this:
- Remove preconceptions about others actions
- Don’t expect that your actions will have the results you expect
Positive thinking is the art of pretending that something happened that either benefited you or will benefit you (putting a spin on your experience). This works great for a lot of people and it sure beats negative thinking but it has its problems.
You cannot know what life will throw at you in the next moment.
Don’t get into the habit of dreaming about the future, wishing things to be a certain way.
Don’t let the past plague your mind, it is not an accurate indicator of what your future will be.
Discard all of this and you will be left with nothing but the reality of what life is. Glorious in its freedoms and infinite possibilities.
Take Everything
You have this moment and every other moment in which to do something.
Make grand plans, goals and visions.
Translate them into actionable steps and start walking immediately.
Life carries on, all you can do is make your mark on it.
Take every bit of input, every breath, every sound, every sight and envelop it.
Choose your direction and walk. Live your life deliberately, it doesn’t matter if the direction you walk needs correcting later, correct in when you need.
Don’t deliberate on what might happen. Take a step and take everything in life.
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January 1st, 2009 at 11:22 am
A great New Year’s post! For me, “taking everything” isn’t as difficult as “expecting nothing”. lol Preconceptions, dreaming, and optimism have all bitten me before. I’ll try to expect less of the things that will forever remain outside of my control. Thanks for the reminder!
Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2009 at 11:45 am
@Goal Geek: Thanks Rick, I enjoyed your post on anticipating obstacles.
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I really like the theory about expecting nothing because I find that sometimes I expect way too much. It’s hard to change the way you view certain things but I am always working on it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
@Studenomics: Removing expectations also makes you much more flexible and receptive.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:41 am
Being able to accept exactly where you are in life, but still able to dream about where you want to go is a great mindset to have – but so difficult! It’s holding these two different, but complementary, ideas in your mind at once that will get you to where you want to go.
Nice post. So simple, yet so deceptively difficult.
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
@Amanda: It’s good to see that you know these are not contradictory ideas. Which makes it possible to go all out in both directions.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Great thoughts. So much is opened up to us when we remove our preconceptions and simply take what is offered.
May 5th, 2010 at 5:15 am
Life is what it is! Exactly right, so many people I know interpret things completely differently to how they actually are and it causes them a whole lot of grief.