You know the facts of life, right?
No, not those facts.
The other ones.
The ones that tell us how to live an enriching, successful, and happy life.
It doesn’t take long before they’re hard-coded,
And we accept them as true.
We believe them,
Get a great job; move up the corporate ladder, make lots of money, buy stuff—lots of stuff.
Is that what life’s about?
Many believe it to be.
Not me. Not anymore.
I decided to disbelieve them…
Beliefs…
I never thought about them much. Until I realized that beliefs are the OS of our subconscious—they are the programs that drive behaviour.
Beliefs, I learned, are what guide us. What influence us.
And yet, it wasn’t often that I stopped to pay attention to my fundamental beliefs.
That’s because they were hidden—buried—way deep, way down below the mundane stuff.
You know what I mean, right?
Those nattering inner voices that go something like, “Gee, I wonder what’s for supper?”
Or, “Man, if that dork doesn’t wrap up his presentation, I’m seriously pulling the plug on that projector.”
Beliefs. They’re always getting crowded out by that superficial stuff…
Way back, in a prior post, I suggested that I’d put it out there. Share my beliefs. Offer them up. In search of common ground.
So here goes. Here’s what I believe. Here are my 10 facts of life:
| I believe; life is intended to be easy and uncomplicated. When it’s not, it’s because we’re the ones gumming up the works.
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| I believe; life is meant to be fun, impromptu, relished; celebrated. Not shielded, boxed, planned and mapped out to the minutest detail.
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| I believe; there is danger in living a careful life.
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| I believe; there’s little value in most of society’s notions of a happy life.
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| I believe; life is more magical than it is logical and structured.
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| I believe; life is ripe with possibility and potential, not laden with limits and boundaries.
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| I don’t believe; in thinking outside the box. I believe; there is no box.
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| I believe; the key ingredients to a happy life include health, relationships, purpose, curiosity and adventure.
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| I believe; a whole pile of money is not a key ingredient for a happy life.
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| I believe; to experience true meaningful lives, we must always believe in ourselves
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And now…
Would you care to share your beliefs, your facts of life?
Well, I’ll try.
I believe: that my life has meaning and purpose. Working out what that is could take a long time but it’s worth it.
I believe: that I should live my life according to the Christian Bible. This, of course, means that I believe a whole lot more things, some of which might surprise you.
I believe: that you are free not to believe what I believe. But that as adults we should be able to sit down and reason together without fighting about it.
I believe: in not judging people by the way they look, their lifestyle, or even the things they say. That implies that if I think someone’s seriously wrong about something, I need to think hard before I say so.
I believe: that money isn’t the answer, but that hard work is the necessary obligation (and should be the daily joy) of all people who are capable of it. I’m not forgetting that sometimes hard work looks like play!
I believe: that hard work should be properly balanced with recreation and family.
I believe: that once you’ve discovered your purpose, the hard work you put into it will be your greatest joy. If you’re miserable in your job, you’re just doing the wrong job. I don’t really believe in retirement.
I believe: that learning is a lifelong process that should change you, and that we all need to spend a lot more time thinking. Society as a whole is getting dumber because we’re becoming passive thinkers.
I believe: that I should be looking for ways to help others through life where I can. Community is important, and many people in this world need help not because they’re lazy or stupid but because they’re the victims of circumstance.
I believe: in loving the unlovable. Often with gritted teeth, because I’m not nearly as loving as I’d like to be. But I’m working on it.
Well, that was an interesting exercise. I find I could add several more things! I agree with most of your beliefs, too, although I’d put a different slant on them because of my faith. And of course I recognize that my beliefs are conditioned by my past and by my present, and by what society as a whole believes. And that if you asked me to restate them tomorrow, they’d probably look different. The important thing is that I’m thinking about it! To quote Pascal (I don’t often get the chance to do that), “All our dignity then, consists in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavor then, to think well; this is the principle of morality.” Now if I could think like that, I’d be happy!
Hummm…..BELIEFS!
I believe that LOVE is the way…loving unconditionally, yourself and others. Not an easy one!
I believe that happiness arises from virtuous practices…(love)
I believe that by calming your mind, you calm your soul…(love)
I believe that one should be free to believe what one wants to believe, and not force one’s
beliefs on another…nor be forced to belief another’s beliefs. (confusing eh?) (love)
I believe that life should not be filled with regrets….however sometimes we let regrets fill our mind…(love)
I believe in a universal responsibility (love) (this is a hard one too…..like you said Mike…there is no box!!)
I believe that one should listen less to one’s mind and focus more with one’s heart. (love)
Living true to one’s beliefs….now there lies quite a feat!!!!!
Thanks Mike…for instigating this ‘pondering’ time!!
I forgot one….
I believe that everything happens for a reason!
Jane,
Lots of food for thought in what you wrote, and, as you suggested, there is certainly a lot of commonality in our beliefs. Your comment about society getting dumber both stuck a chord, and had me laughing out loud. And your Pascal quote, especially the part about endeavouring to think well, is priceless. I really do believe that thought is not only what influences behaviour, but outcomes too. Thanks for posting your beliefs. I do think it’s important to, as often as possible, take a step back and try to understand our fundamental beliefs. And, as you suggested, if they don’t totally mesh with those of another’s, then it’s incumbent to debate them respectfully (or just accept that different points of view are a sign of a healthy society).
Thanks for posting, Jeannine.
Interesting, too, that you also talk about the importance of respecting one another’s beliefs. Not being an opinionated fellow (now do you believe that one?), I’d of course, agree with you. Lastly, you’re absolutely right, there’s not much value in regret. Regret, to me, is an indication of Living at Effect, rather than at Cause. Or, put another way, living a life of constant regret is essentially living life as a victim…
Hey, didn’t you know you’re only “allowed” one comment per post?
(I’m kidding, I’m kidding)
So here’s a question for you… If everything happens for a reason… What’s the reason that all those things happen? And, who causes those things to happen in the first place? (OK, so 2 questions)…
Ah, that was the question that drove me to church… also the strong feeling that I could no longer sit on the fence and had to pick one side or the other. Michael, you’d see that as living at Cause, I think! Whatever beliefs we arrive at should be arrived at by long and careful thought, in my opinion; we are all called to challenge the beliefs programmed into us by family and society. In my case I challenged the secular unchurched world I grew up in, and went in the unfashionable direction. In the end I could only think of one reason and one “who”, and made the very hard decision to pitch my tent in that camp.
Jane,
Good for you for getting off that fence and, as you put it, pitching your tent. It must have been a tough thing to do. And yes, those beliefs embedded into us from such a young age can be hard to shake. You know what, from a professional perspective, fascinates me? Those embedded beliefs about money, success and careers. Probably because of my work with business owners and professionals, I find those conversations quite intriguing.
This assumption that happiness means the biggest possible salary, house, car etc. must be making countless people miserable… I wonder how many “Charles’s” there are out there? I live in an area where that mentality abounds, but I know several people who’ve given up the big salary in order to do work they find meaningful. Of course the media don’t want us to think that way because we won’t buy as much if we’re content!