Decision is the Ultimate Power

I finally got around to setting up a blog so I can write unsolicited opinions on a variety of topics of interest to me. Wow, that sounded super egotistical. Oh well, everyone knows its all about me right?

In truth, it IS all about you. Life is about you learning, trying things, finding what you like and just as importantly, don't like. Life is about creating and expanding the Universe through experience.

I have been on an exciting journey the past couple of years. I had an epiphany and I realized most of the stuff I worry about doesn't matter. It changed my entire perspective on life. I realized for the most part, being right doesn't matter. Sure it matters if you are a civil engineer building a bridge but in a discussion with another human, being right is overrated. That small but profound realization led me to other equally earth shattering realizations.

I realized it does not matter what other people think about me. Another epic realization but one that lead me to understand what it means to let go. Letting go is perhaps the single most valuable lesson one can learn in life. It means that while I certainly want people to like me, if they don't it does not affect my emotional state.

Ah, your emotional state. Most people only have a cursory understanding of what that means and most have a very skewed sense of what theirs is. Dale Carnegie once said "Never underestimate the human capacity to delude oneself." Most people rationalize their life and pretend they are happy, most of the time, but it usually catches up with them when they are alone because you can't really fool yourself. They realize they are not happy but they usually don't know how to change that.

It is an interesting truth that everything everyone does is motivated by wanting to be happier. Mother Theresa helped the poor for many reasons but in the end it fulfilled her and made her happy to do so. Osama Bin Ladin orchestrated attacks against the US perhaps because he saw it as justice but ultimately he did it because it made him feel better.

Good and evil is a matter of perseption, and dates, but everyone is motivated by wanting to be happy. Unfortunately most dont realize they have all the power they need to be happy whenever they want because they have control over their emotional state.

Now I will concede most people dont really know how to manage their emotional state. Most are like a ship without a rudder being battered about by the vagaries of the day. Some guy made them mad, they were upset by the news in the paper, they saw someome doing something they did not like and they let all these things adversely affect them.

If you have never thought about it or dont believe you can control it or dont care then sure your life will be an emotional rollercoaster. But it does not have to be so. You have control of your emotions. You can decide to let go. You can focus on what you want to see instead of what you dont.

Decision is the Ultimate Power. My favorite phrase.

There are many ways to learn control of your emotional state but it requires you learn mental focus. I have learned it through Budo. Martial arts, particularly Iaido (the use of the Japanese sword) is a tremendous way to learn mental focus because the sword demands your attention, lest you injure yourself.

Martial arts is a very dynamic way of practicing mental focus and control of your emotional state. Yoga is also a great method of learning mental focus.

But the fact is you can learn mental focus doing any activity from Chess to swimming to rock climbing to meditating. If you set out an intent to improve your ability to mentally focus on what you want, you will get better at it and that skill will serve you well in your every day life.

So it seems it IS all about you because if you improve your emotional state, if you learn to be happy, then you are in a far better position to help others, if you so choose.

Decision IS the ultimate power and once you realize that, everything will change.

Celebrate Life. Be Unique.
Techboy