Get real.

be-realistic-memeIf you’re trying to change the world, whether it’s through advocating for the RBE or your own idea, it’s easy to slip into hopelessness. Often, “hopeless” is actually overwhelm: a state where there are so many things you’re aware of that have to be done, you don’t know where to start.You’re stuck. Or it seems so.

And in the stuck-ness, doubts creep in, which can lead to you questioning why you’re even trying to do what you’re doing.

Action, any action whatsoever and however small, can break the feeling of overwhelm before it becomes hopelessness. In the moment it doesn’t really matter what action you take, so long as it is something that moves something forward. As you continue with that action, you’ll find yourself back in the saddle emotionally and in practical every day reality. And you’ll have avoided the paralyzing feeling of hopelessness.

You have all you need to accomplish what you’re after.

Another helpful thing to remember is this: Don’t focus too much on the overall objective. If your goal is to make the RBE a reality, don’t focus on that so much. Focusing on the big goal, such as eliminating money, or capitalism, or any other aspect of the status quo, makes you aware of the size and complexity of what we’re doing. Most people can’t handle that when looked at for too long. Focused on for even a little time can paralyze nearly everyone. You’ll question your ability to pull something like that off.

A little more analysis
The critical mind (the one that tells you to “be realistic”) wants us to have all the answers, answers to questions we don’t need answers to right now. Your friends and acquaintances and the strangers you talk to about your plans often come from this part of their heads when they tell you you’re stupid, crazy, a pipe dreamer or a Utopian for trying to do what you’re doing.

They ask  questions about “how” and “when” and “with what resources” etc.  These people as well as the critical mind can be helpful under the right circumstances. But they don’t have the answers to these questions and, until the problem presents itself, neither do we usually. So faced with such questions without the need for the answers, we get discouraged, feel overwhelmed and embarrassed, lose hope then feel helpless because we have no answers to such questions right now, all the while feeling instinctively that we actually can make this thing happen. After all, it was the thought that you could that got you started in the first place.

 

we-must-allow-the-enormity
This.

But we don’t need those answers right now when we’re not facing the problem the questions are pointing to.  Those answers will come. You just have to trust that the answers will come in the time they’re needed. This is where you really need to be acquainted with the non-rational part of your being, that part that doesn’t rely on “being realistic” to make things happen. This part of “you” is what creates luck.

It’s the part of you that had you find this blog, however you found it. It’s the part of you that had you start what you’re doing. It connects you with others. Creates circumstances that produce interesting “coincidences”: events which coincide with your intent producing exactly what you need at the right time with the right resources all on hand.

We must not let the petty details demoralize us.

And all the details are petty. We must allow enormity of the task to inspire us. So, if you can’t watch the US debates or the presidential elections without losing hope, then don’t watch them. If you can’t do research on the Red Shields, the Koch Brothers or what’s really going on in Syria without losing hope in what you’re doing, then don’t do that research!

It all starts with someone…just like you
How do you think this system, the banks, the governments, the markets, the ideologies came about?

Did they just fall into society fully-baked, ready to implement and all sorted? No. All these things are the product of human ingenuity. All these things came through people. People no different than you or me. They were no more inherently – inherently – remarkable than you or I. So really have to ask yourself a couple questions:

  1. Who ARE you to think you can’t do what you’re setting out to do?
  2. Why are you allowing someone else’s opinion sway you from doing it?

There’s a reason you’re doing this work. The key to inspiration is to know what that reason is. I mean really know it, like you know you’re alive and conscious.

Despondency is part of the path. Doubt is just old thoughts coming up as if to say “are you sure?”  “You really want this?”  Those questions are meant to be waypoints for the next leap towards what you know is possible, not as questions about whether you can actually do it.

3 thoughts on “Get real.

  1. And all the details are petty. We must allow enormity of the task to inspire us. So, if you can’t watch the US debates or the presidential elections without losing hope, then don’t watch them. If you can’t do research on the Red Shields, the Koch Brothers or what’s really going on in Syria without losing hope in what you’re doing, then don’t do that research!

    How do you stay informed if you don’t research them?

    1. The key is maintaining your perspective while researching. Not getting hooked. Not being swayed. In most cases though, if you’re focused on an accomplishment focusing on that to the exclusion of all else is the preferred option. Otherwise one’s effectiveness can suffer.

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