Acting & Doing

What to Know & Consider About Our Actions & Doings?

We all know that our actions lead to results… that our actions bring consequences, which we might or might not want.

Yet, so often can we watch ourselves & others around us doing things we told ourselves that we don’t want to do them or won’t do them any more or struggling with doing things we are telling ourselves to do, in the very moment, & still don’t do it.

So it might be of interest & relevance to get a bit deeper into the nature & secrets of our actions & why we do what we do or struggle doing the thing we want to do.

Actions vs. Habits

It might be valuable, even crucial, to differentiate our conscious & intended actions from the purely habitual repeated daily doings. It’s a pretty well known phenomenon nowadays that humans are run by two completely different systems – the quick & slow thinking as Daniel Kahnemann names the two systems. They are also known as System 1 & System 2 or maybe more practical for the common use the pilot & the autopilot. The pilot is the slow thinking, your conscious consideration & contemplation. The autopilot on the other hand is your quick thinking which is, as it says, an automated process. Although most people think that they make their daily decisions & that they know what they are doing & why they are doing it, most of our life, around 95%, is run by our autopilot, while only around 5% of our daily actions & decisions are made consciously & with intention.

So be careful, if your life is run by actions or simply doings.

Nature of Actions: intended, conscious, result of a motivation, have a direction & goal

Nature of Doings: the negation of the action-nature & they are the result of past decisions & actions, which have been done so often, that the body does them automatically, without the mind having to get involved.

Importance of Your SELF-IMAGE

First, it’s important to know & understand that you act in alignment with your self-image. Above the entrance into the oracle of Delhi were the words “Know Thyself” engraved. In these two words lies a huge wisdom & secret – a huge deal of the answers the people who got there were seeking.

If you know yourself, you know what to expect of you. What you will do or won’t do. Therewith you also know, within a range, what kind of results you can expect. And this is already a huge part of telling your future beings & comings.

According to this view point is pour self-image, our identity the blueprint, which our actions follow, express & bring to life. This leads to the conclusion that we have to get deeper into the topic of our self-image & identity, which we have to control & re-adjust, where needed, to correct the programming of our actions & ensure that we act in alignment with our values & goals – the person we want to be & become.

Instant & Sudden BREAKTHROUGH & Turning Points

Besides the unconscious, silent impact & control which our self-image has on our every day actions, every now & then you might have experienced on yourself & saw it by others, that people sometimes change from one moment to another.

Individuals can have a strong enough wish or need for something, that they get to a point where they just can’t stand it any more, where enough is enough & something within them shifts dramatically, so that the once just ‘I should’ or ‘it would be nice’ becomes a must & a non-negotiable must, that they ensure their new them. They raise their standard from one moment to another, that enables them to completely turn their life around & the way they perform & show up.

So… if there are things in your life you would like to change, & you wanted to change them for quite some time already, but didn’t get anywhere far with this attempt & idea… it might be an interesting & valuable question for you to ask yourself:

What is that strong enough wish & need within you?

that ‘finally’ & actually gets you doing & changing something

What is it, within you, that triggers the urge for no longer, no more… for that’s not me & for sure that’s not going to be me & my future…!!

What makes you higher the default of your thermostat, to ensure that you will always show up in a certain way & on a certain level? To ensure that your thermostat rings a bell when the temperature has been too low for too cold, so that you kick in the heater to meat your new normal, your new you, again.

NOTE: The transition has to take place, not just mentally, but also emotionally & physically – for it to be expressed in the outside, your actions & doings.

SURRENDER

As important as it is to show up for you, your aspirations & your life, as important is it to know when to let go & to let life doing its job. It’s a pretty foreign concept in the western societies, which are strongly ruled by the intellect, & are dominated by control & the power of ones own force. Yet, people become more & more aware that their will & willing, their doing & forcing can only get you so far, in times.

While people might view the art of surrendering as an expression of weakness & lack of responsibility – to let life its own way, surrendering to its wisdom & power -, this is actually a false perspective. To think, that letting go, trusting & having faith, that things will figure themselves out, find their way, doesn’t take less energy, will-power or determination. The other way around! It takes an enormous resource of self-control, of understanding, that you might not be the only intelligent being / something that there is, & that you might not have all the answers & informations to create & lead to the best solutions. It takes an enormous belief, not just into life, but also oneself, by trusting, that you are strong enough & capable enough to deal with & manage whatever life brings you.

It requires a positive answer to the most important decision we all have to make, according to A. Einstein

if we believe in a hostile or friendly universe…

only when you believe in a friendly universe will you be able to ease up & let go & allow life to do its magic, trusting that everything will be alright & maybe, just maybe, but maybe even better than anything you could have imagined.

Trust vs. Control

I think that we habitually fail to give this topic the attention & importance that it deserves.

The need to control & force everything & everyone, if oneself, the people around us & almost everything happening & thing in process, is so usual & normal, even asked for, in the western world, that it doesn’t arise to most people’s concerns that there might exist other ways of doing & approaching things.

It’s viewed as an expression of strength & determination, & yes, it does contain these components. But it is so much more! You only have to try to dominate other people & circumstances, when you are unsure about their loyalty & their best intentions… with other words, when you worry & fear, when you doubt & are insecure.

Forcing & controlling things & people is only hardly an expression of love or support. It’s not what brings the best out of anyone involved. It’s much rather like the form you put around vegetable & fruits, into which they will grow & by which their size & form will be determined.

It’s the letting go & allowing life to do what it does best, living & growing. Life’s very nature is change & change has to mean growth & evolving, in some ways, because dying & decreasing is the opposite to living & being alive, so letting life off its rains should mean giving permission to further development, exploration & increase.

It’s insane to think that you gain the best performance & results, by holding back, by putting things & people into cages – even when they are golden cages. A cage is a cage & it sets boundaries & limits by its very definition.

So whenever you actively get involved into life by intended & conscious decisions, you make an indirect statement, that you think that you have more information than life does, that you know it better & take things & yourself in your own hands.

It is a ‘no’ towards life’s flow & natural expression of evolvement & growth.

Responsibility

This isn’t supposed to get involved in life’s being & expression – unfolding. We do have minds to do exactly that. To reflect upon things, to evaluate them & ourselves & to change, re-direct & adjust, where needed.

You have to process the informations that are getting into your system telling you that you threw your seeds on a very dry ground, so that you can pick them up & re-locate them onto a more fruitful ground. You have to intentionally nurture the seeds you want to grow & flourish to eventually blossom & carry fruits. It’s crucial to be open-minded & reflective, to realize when you are on the wrong track & have to increase your performance & actions.

Still, although your minds power & abilities are plentiful & quite impressive, it’s the realm of the known & old. It’s the archive of old memories, experiences & stories. They are valuable & important, but as Marshall Goldsmith said:

“What got you here won’t get you there.”

In addition to A Einsteins famous quote:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

The realm of the future & the possible is the unknown, unseen & unheard.

And the humanly access to the riches & wisdom of this area is our intuition & creativity. It is what comes up, when you have practices a grafted that often, that you can let go of this intended & controlled effort & allow the magic & easiness of the children’s play get intermingled with it to create new realities, imagine new worlds, truths & possibilities.

It’s the muse that inspires to new, bolder attempts & visions.

Humans highest state of performance, the flow state, requires to give up the slow mental control, to a degree, to allow life work & express itself through you. Don’t reduce yourself & your own performance to your own knowledge, experience & physical resources, when there are ways to dick into the forces & endless energy & wisdom of nature itself. The very same nature that created you out of some cells, that keeps the world turning & the planets on their orbits.