Renewing Self

Renewal Begins With Attention

We are all challenged to be more and do more every day. This phenomenal pressure of our time comes from the sheer ability of a person to do so much in such a little amount of time.

The amazing feats of the human race over the last 40 years is just magnificent. The internet, computers, globalization and the advancement of any socio-economic indicator that we can put forward is really unprecedented on such a scale in human history.

In seeing this side there is a even bigger challenge to each of us. Every day, we live in a new world. And this newness requires us to renew ourselves, our outlook and our approach. The old ideas are interesting to learn from – but they are not always as useful as they seem. Old paradigms and systems are not always right and require us to relook our approach to every day.

The great philosopher, Hume wrote about the continuity of nature. The basic idea is that we know that the sun is going to be there tomorrow, based on the fact that is was there yesterday and by the principle of the continuity of nature we can inductively reason that it will be there tomorrow. While this aspect of natural law would not change there are aspects that are more challenging.

We cannot realistically predict a lot of things as the underlying variables in society has never been at these levels. The world is incredibly complex and the new science is one of package complexity. Can we map the complexity in this package and in this package and then try to guess what is going to happen when we put the two together. No single entity or force can understand or constructively drive the current time into a single direction. It would take a planetary level (disastrous) event to do so.

Every day thus needs new skills, new approaches and new perspectives to combine. It is not okay to be stagnant and retract from society as it challenges require each one of us to express the ideas, strategies and future forward thinking that will allow us to solve the most basic problems in this new society. Progress has become dependent not on the individual but on the collective will of individuals – far more so that in any other time in history.

If today, we can be open to the possibility that there may be something new, some new wonder to explore and some wild idea that should take our fancy – then tomorrow may be a new day. This wonder and amazement will inspire ourselves, someone else, our children and their children one day.

Renewal is not always easy. We get faced with the reality of our own history and somehow limit our future achievements by our past. While it is real, it is also within our control. We have to realise that letting go of the past is the key to the present.

Many times we see two people walk down the road. For illustrative purposes lets say a beggar and a high powered CEO walks next to each other on the side of the road. To make it easy – lets say that both of them are the same age, same height, and even that they look the same. What makes them different from each other? Conceivably if they stopped, changed clothes, exchanged notes and spent some time with each other, they could go off and live each other’s lives. We are likely to find that the beggar got stuck in the past and that the high powered CEO is looking towards the future. The complexity of the world around them is similar – they both have to worry about the next meal that they will have, how to get from point A to point B and about tomorrow. The difference comes from looking differently at how to do that and the higher purpose of each.

Letting Go of the Old Pattern

This case highlights some practical things

We do now often enough spend time on contemplating what we do not know and taking steps to get to know more.

We must also not assume that happiness is the objective as that which makes us happy in the short term (e.g. a next meal) may not be the long term goal.

We can change our destiny by spending time with people that are similar to the destinies that we seek and learning from them what makes them different and then to link that to our own development path.

To stop being a beggar – you have to let go of being a beggar

Spiritual and emotional intelligence is about these ideas. The spirit is stronger than emotions and bigger than the intellect. It allows us to let go of the past and to deal with the present. It does not only ask what is the present but also what I should be doing in it.

The idea that truth motivates right action is a powerful. If what we are doing in every moment is driven by truth it always results in right action.

What are you doing today to have a strong spirit, to better understand your emotions and to enhance your intellect so that you can be a better member of this society?

There is a story of an athlete that was doing marvellous things. He set out on a small skip (boat) and came to his next challenge. This would be the greatest challenge of his life and would require all his skills after years of preparation. As his crew came in and the starting point of the next challenge was in sight, his skip (boat) broke down. He lost all hope and was in despair. He would have to abandon his lifelong dream and not do this challenge. The captain on his skip looked around and saw a much bigger boat close to them. He recognised that this boat belonged to a famous person and he phoned the head office of the persons company and asked to let them know that they have a broken down skip here, and that they are trying to take on this tremendous challenge.

Energy, Meaning and Practice

The famous person supported the cause, the larger boat was redirected and the man could complete the challenge. Afterwards the athlete was quite despondent and explained to the captain that all his preparation did not prepare him to see he should have been the one to see the larger boat and call the head office of the famous person.

We can learn some things here

A support structure makes it easier to see big challenges

It is easy to give up too soon

We need to learn to look for opportunity in our environment

Start with small things – things around you that need sorting out, things that can bring you closer to something that you desire and build up. Soon a lot of small changes leads to an avalanche of change, ideas and renewal. Keep doing small things and remaining true and in time a lot of big change would have happened. By contemplating and seeking the meaning of what we do – it allows us to start growing our ideas and build something greater than ourselves.

Who knows if the world will be here tomorrow? From Hume’s ideas we can relatively safely assume it will be. He wrote them almost a hundred years ago – so we hope that they are still relevant today. Will tomorrow be the same world as today? No, definitely not – for as the day will be new, so each person will be new and each idea, action and thought would never have occurred in the same order or significance. May you have great thoughts and actions today and tomorrow and may it make the world a better place.