or... doing is of the mind, being is of the body.
Man, there's so much need to achieve. Not only achieve but overachieve.
Tell me, what is this race that constantly has us needing to be better, must improve, evolve, and above all cannot fail?
Can't we be useless anymore?
I've mentioned before that I got into sales at a young age. 16 or 17. I'd worked on markets before that.
My mother had been telling me to "get a trade" so I went from a job I was happy at but had limited prospects, to work with some carpet fitters that were "friends" of the family. To get a trade. And like any young kid without much direction I found myself being blown along by the wind, doing something someone thought was good for me, and being used.
I was picked up at 6:30 am and brought back 12 hours later. So, long days. Long days doing something I had no interest in doing but believed it would give me a "trade" that no one could take away from me.
Question: If you don't want something, do you get pissed when someone takes it away from you?
I was on the UK Youth Training Scheme, or YTS. My first job, which I liked, was as a stock controller, and customer support in a trophy-making warehouse. I earned £25 per week. A normal wage would have been around 150 a week for my age. These carpet fitters promised to pay me a bonus each week, but they never did.
It was a shit job. I was like a zombie there, running on automatic. No fun, no interest, and working with a bunch of greedheads that just wanted a sap to do menial tasks. They took my father's tools refused to give them back, and got aggressive when I found another job.
A stock controller in a big engineering firm. They liked me, but it would take a couple of hours to get there and back on the bus. So same amount of weekly hours for the same amount of money. Another friend of the family got me a job at an electrical retailer - and I loved it. Double the money. Cycling to work. Great. But I'm not a salesman, still, people seemed to take to me.
The upshot here was that I fell into a role that took me thirty years to get out of. And being in sales always led to being influenced by greedheads. Your target increases this year. We need more calls in a week, more demonstrations, more quotes, better order-to-quote ratio.
And I did well. But it was never me.
And I saw some sales guys and it made me feel sick...
In the last job I had, before I worked for myself, we had a new Managing Director (a bit like a CEO). He knew nothing of our industry and I flew with him to Ireland to see one of our biggest clients. And while waiting in the airport lounge, I saw a few sales guys, in their suits, laptops open, working, jumping at any bleep that went off on their phones, iPads, and so on. Leaving overly polite messages on buyers' voicemails.
And I thought, fuck me, they look and sound desperate. Desperate for sales. Cardboard suits, cufflinks, and teeth. But man, can't you chill with a coffee and not have the laptop open while waiting for a plane?
I've gotta get out of this shit.
I would shovel dog shit on a Sunday for free and wonder...
...how is it that I can get out of bed early on a Sunday to volunteer at an animal sanctuary and pick up the shit from 80 dogs, to clear the grounds? How can I feel a sense of satisfaction clearing the shit from a chicken coup, and yet loathe going to work on a Monday morning, where I was paid to be suited and booted, a do my thing?
Because it wasn't my thing.
And I didn't feel that I was helping.
You learn to ignore the greedheads. Just another year, just another target, just another sales meeting listening to managers talking the same shit about stuff they don't really know - but it sounds good.
And what did they want? Overachievers.
In the Underachievers Manifesto book by Ray Bennett, in the chapter "The Results Speak for Themselves", he lists the following:
OVERACHIEVEMENT
frustration
angry colleagues
knee surgery
traffic jams
isolation
extremism
stock market crashes
heart disease
depression
UNDERACHIEVEMENT
serenity
peaceful work relations
moderate fitness
smooth commutes
friendship
humble faith
sustainable economic growth
low blood pressure
contentment
You might not agree to some of those but it certainly paints a picture.
Doing is of the mind. Being is of the body.
The mind wants more. The mind has ideas. It thinks things could be better. It seeks abundance, wealth, health, love, and success, to reinforce the self it thinks it is, and to strengthen the self-image of how it should look.
The mind is usually in a state of reaching. It's not settled in the space it is. It's occupied with to-do lists, plans, assessments, analysis, working stuff out, trying to achieve, trying not to fail, worrying over the future, affected by the past - ad infinitum.
The body has no ideas. It doesn't think anything. Unless its survival, well-being, or freedom is under threat, it doesn't have ideas that things could be better. It doesn't understand materialism, targets, and life coaches. It doesn't know its own self-image. It doesn't appreciate failure or mistakes, achieving and underachieving.
It just is.
And it's pulled around the world by the chains of the mind like some lap dog that just wants a warm corner to lie in and a bone to chew.
The mind is complex.
The body is simple.
The mind likes complexity while the body prefers simplicity.
But the mind is being watched by something that is simple.
Listen to the body sometimes. And also, look to something else...
When a thought appears, something else witnesses it. When the idea of achieving a thing is born, the same something notices it. When we celebrate successes or despise our failures, this same something is seeing it all. And it does not celebrate, it does not despise. It quietly watches.
While you are thinking, something is seeing it all.
Which one is the real you?
Rev. Thomo
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