Category: Your Best Life
The posts in this section contain insights to help you understand your habits so you can reshape them and/or use them constructively.
Progress and Human Consciousness
I grew up before we had the internet. I recall being a Freshman in University when I first learned about the world wide web. It was fascinating, and completely out of control. Web sites were ill-designed and obnoxious while IRC chat rooms unleashed the keyboard warrior in many a introvert. It was indeed a very interesting time. I would equate it to walking into a candy store with more candy than you could ever conceive and not knowing where to start. As we began to get our bearings with how to utilize the internet the technology jolted ahead at full speed. I remember writing papers in college about various technologies that were obsolete within a few short years. Social media platforms like Friendster and Facebook refined the interface and processes of IRC, including the ability to add pictures. This resulted in us being more connected as a planet than we had ever been before.
Playing Catch Up
Although technology has advanced it still feels like we are struggling to understand how to use it. Now that we can access the internet on our mobile phones there is really no getting away from the abundance in the web. Every day I learn about a startup company designing a new app that is meant to make our lives easier and more convenient in some way. Laziness is the fuel for these innovative designs! The world wants so much more without having to work hard for it. Is this a blessing or a curse? Are we headed towards a society that is completely dependent upon technology to function?
Tribal Times
It was only 400 years ago that humans who inhabited this great country were deeply connected to nature and in tune with its song. Communities thrived as the expansion of human consciousness was revered. The tribal warriors of that time relied on their potential. They cultivated what was needed for themselves and their tribe from within and lived a life of awareness and glory. The men of those days protected their women and made every effort to provide for them. Nowadays I see men getting pedicures and speaking about women as though they are objects. I am not placing blame on men for this transformation, as it works both ways. I am simply pointing out the dramatic change on every level that can take place in the matter of a few centuries. The rate at which we are advancing now can either mean that we will be completely void of intelligence, honor, and emotion in the next 400 years, or else we will implode.
Beginning of the End
I had a breakfast meeting yesterday with a man who runs a very successful Project Management consulting firm. We found ourselves spending around ten minutes talking about President Trump because it is just simply hard not to. His take on the condition of the world today is that we are reaching our lowest point. He said we are reaching ‘Kali Yuga’. This is the last of four stages the world goes through, according to the Vedas. Hindus believe that human civilization degenerates spiritually during the Kali Yuga. It was an interesting point, and not an uncommon one. I continue to hear from people that it has to get worse before it can get better. Perhaps our technological advancements are a diversion. Perhaps if we run fast enough ahead we will miss the finer details of the Kali Yuga phase.
Human consciousness is evolving for some but the mighty dollar is still God for many. While 50 million lonely people are swiping their lives away on Tinder there is a demise in progress. Technology and the internet have become a knock-off pair of rose-colored glasses and we can’t help but keep them strapped on. What is the alternative? Something to think about.
You and the Internet
We are living in a very interesting time. Whereas once we relied on an Encyclopedia to get information, now it’s at the tip of our fingers. Literally, you can type anything into a search engine and get more information than you bargained for. We absorb in every direction: the internet, billboards, magazines, television, movies, and social media sites. We have morphed into sponges, taking in every fact, alternate fact, opinion, instapic, snapchat, tweet, and everything in between. Has this made us more productive? Walk into any coffee shop and you’ll see at least a handful of glossy-eyed patrons staring into their laptops. What are they looking for that they haven’t found yet? What is in that abyss of a screen that promises answers, solutions, and escape? Just…about…everything.
Curiosity Complete
I think it’s great. I think access to information and social networks and insights is a wonderful thing if one can use that information and make a contribution with it. I am not talking about donating to charity type of contribution. I’m talking about learning something constructive and then utilizing that to give something back to society. For example, nowadays one can learn to pay an instrument via Youtube videos. That is amazing! I remember wanting to learn the violin when I was in high school but my parents couldn’t afford lessons. After learning the violin you could volunteer to play at a retirement home. That is a contribution! You have absorbed and contributed and mastered the overflow of information rather than allowing it to master you. Alternatively, if after you have learned the violin you move on to learn another instrument right away, or spend 8 hours/day on a social media web site, then you have been overtaken by the information.
Take a career student for example. This is someone who has the ability to spend 40 years in college picking courses at random just because they want to learn. After 40 years they may know a lot about a lot of different subjects, but they haven’t contributed what they have learned to society. When we use what we know constructively with the objective of impacting our society in a greater way we have created purpose for our lives. In the process we have improved our world. Who doesn’t want to improve the world? If any of you have kids or plan to have kids then I would hope that improving the world is on your agenda! Even if you don’t have kids, don’t you want to live in a better world? Imagine if the Wright brothers learned to fly and then kept it to themselves. Not only would they hold the rest of us up from starting to fly but they themselves would not be able to continue flying. The impact you have on the world, like a boomerang, comes right back to you.
Search, then Act
You are living in your society so it is in your best interested to contribute to it. We are all students of life, and these days of the information super highway. We have the capacity and the ability to learn massive amounts of information in a controlled fashion. We all can be heroes as we are unlimited in what and how much we can learn. It is up to us if we want to remain a sponge and simply absorb everything or if we want to take stock of what we know and start contributing. Bring what you learn to life outside of your screen and share your knowledge with the world. We are drowning in information so lets pause for a moment and step away. Let’s assess if we have absorbed something that we can share. It might not be the violin but it might be an inspiring story that we read about in an online article. Share that story with your family at the dinner table. Bring awareness to yourself when you spend time on the internet and become allies with the information available to you. Strive to balance the act of absorbing and contributing.