Complaining

Everyone loves to complain. People always have a problem with something in life. Sometimes people complain that they can't have certain things. Sometimes people complain that they don't have certain physical qualities that other people have. Sometimes people complain that it is too hot or too cold. Sometimes people complain that others are being annoying. Sometimes people complain that others have it easier than they do. The point is- people complain. Knowing that people complain is not difficult, but knowing why they complain and what they can do about it is difficult. So why do people complain? The most obvious reason is that they don't like something. That's how most people would reason their complaints. I don't like the weather, which is why I complain that it's too hot. What people don't really think about is why they don't like certain things. Why don't you like the weather? Why do you comlain that it's too hot? A deeper reason to why people complain is that they don't realize what they have and keep idolizing what they don't have. People complain that they can't have an Ipad. So what? The Ipad is just a tool used for entertainment. How much will it really benefit your life? Don't you already have enough to live on? People don't recognize the things they have and how fortunate they are to have those things. They always go after the things that don't matter and are just used for entertainment or glamour. While I make people sound really bad for this, it's important to keep in mind that society wants people to think this way. Think about it; don't advertisements sell things that people don't even need? They create a sense of need or desire in people for things that aren't necessary to have. They make people desire things they wouldn't care about in the first place. Advertisments do this in many ways, but I won't discuss them because it would get too off topic. The point is that it's not just people's fault they complain a lot. So what can we do about this? I normally would tell people to just stop complaining, but that doesn't help with the real problem. What we should do is appreciate the things we have and take a closer look at the things we want. Are those things really necessary for us to have? Or even if not, how much will they really enhance our life? Is it worth going after and complaining about? The main way we can avoid complaining is to recognize the things we have. That's why I really like the holiday Thanksgiving, because it makes aware of what we have (see post on thanksgiving). Don't complain. No one likes it and it doesn't help you at all.
-Smart

Concept of Time

Time is a very interesting idea. The concept is time is completely man made, but we rely on it very heavily. Until I started thinking about the concept of time, I never really knew the reliance we have on time. Time is used everywhere. I failed to see that and I think we failed to notice the impact time has on us because we are so used to the concept. But time truly is used in so much around us that I am surprised I never really thought about it until now. There is probably a lot that I don't understand about it now, but I just wanted to share some ideas I have about time. First of all, time is used in science a lot. What comes to mind is physics; things like speed, velocity, acceleration, power, current, and even more. Without time, these things don't exist and are not measurable. Take speed- distance over time. Without time you only have distance and you can't calculate speed. Time is also used for us to know when to do things. We know when to wake up, go to school or work, eat, and go to sleep thanks to time. Time tells us when events occur and lets people find each other in these events. Without time no one would be able to tell another person when they want to do something. The whole idea of "when" is gone without the concept of time. Another thing time does is tell us how long something is. We know how long an hour is because we have time. An hour is just a measure of time. Time tells us the duration of events in our life. Without time, we wouldn't know the duration of things. I also thought about what life would be like if the concept time was never introduced. Imagine that. Things would be so different that it was hard for me to imagine a world without time, but I tried my best because it's pretty interesting. How would people be able to know when things were? Would that even matter? People wouldn't even know how to ask when things are, because you can't answer the question of when without time, as I said earlier. People also wouldn't be able to know how long things are, but again, would that even matter? Does time make us too aware of the duration of things in our lives? Do we actually care to much about saving time? Anyway, without time no one would be able to know the duration of things. In a world without time, many words that we use to describe time would be gone. When, how long, duration, after, before, later, earlier, yesterday, tomorrow, hour, second, minute, now, soon, moment, forever, and more words that I can't think of now, are inapplicable. We use these words a lot, but in a world without time most if not all can't be used. There's no real practical application to this, I just thought it was interesting to share.
-Smart

Vision

"So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt." -Genesis 45:8
Recently I remembered the story of Joseph in the bible. Joseph was a man who probably had all the reason to believe his life could not be any worse. His own brothers disowned him and sold him to slavery because they hated him. It's bad enough being sold into slavery, but Joseph was sold by his own brothers. After that, he was able to gain favor with his master, and his master trusted Joseph with more and more responsibilities. When the master left the house, he left Joseph in charge. The master's wife found that Joseph was handsome and strong, and so she tried to have sex with him. Joseph knew that if he gave in to her, his master would be upset with him, and so would God. So Joseph decided to fight his desire to sleep with her and he literally ran away from her. She became upset with Joseph and made false accusations about him to his master, and he was thrown into prison. In prison, Joseph was able to gain favor with the prison keeper, and eventually with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Joseph was able to get the position of second in command of Egypt. His brothers went to Egypt during a famine, and he was able to help them. (If you want to read the whole story you should read Genesis. I think his story starts around chapter 37.) While Joseph's story has many amazing things in it, what I find amazing is his vision. The way he viewed his life is incredible. He had so many chances in his life to just give up and forget about any vision he ever had for his life, but he didn't. When nothing was going right for him, he was still able to look at the bigger picture of his life. Had he only focused on his current situation, he probably would have given up on life. He was able to see his life as a whole, not in parts. Many times we focus on different parts in life, and we forget that how the parts fit together is what really matters, not the parts themselves. Think of a puzzle; it's not one part that makes the picture, but the sum of the parts. When your vision is focused on only your current situation, you forget the bigger picture. In an earlier post I talked about relaxing. Use that time to see how the different times in your life fit together. Don't let your vision become to narrow. Never forget that there is more to life than your current situation. Maybe your life doesn't seem to make sense. Remember that there is going to be more to your life than your current situation. Keep your vision broad.
-Smart

Complacency

So recently I start thinking about complacency. First of all, it would be good to define complacency. Complacency means being satisfied with yourself and your current situation. Is this good? Well it sounds good, but many times it is not. When you are complacent in your life, you feel as if everything is right and you are doing fine. While most people want to be in this state of mind be careful- it is a dangerous state. Why? This sounds contradictory, but being complacent is not good for you. You can't grow when you are okay with where you are in life. And one of the most important things in life is to grow, but I will talk about that another time. When people life a complacent life, they like things to be repetitive, simple, and manageable. While this is not necessary bad, it's not doing anyone much good. When people's lives are repetitive, simple and manageable, they begin to feel comfortable in life. When they are comfortable, they don't like change, and their comfort zone gets bigger and bigger. You don't want that. While people think it's good to have a pretty comfortable life, it's not. It's much better to not have a super-comfortable life, because this causes you to backslide. Take a musician; if they are satisfied with their level of playing. they don't get better. Actually they usually get worse. The things that used to matter to them get sloppy, because they get complacent with their playing. What a good musician does is always tries to improve, always working to get better. They don't get complacent with their level of play, they constantly drive themselves to do better. This is how a good life is lived as well I believe. Always thirst for something more in your life. Don't get satisfied with where you are, keep pushing yourself to do more. Live an unsatisfied life. You might be thinking "whoa, that sounds like what gets people depressed". Some people who get depressed with themself are unsatisfied with their life. But they think they can't improve. That's the difference. Your unsatisfactory life should not lead to a mindset of hopelessness and defeat. Is supposed to be the mindset where you know you can do better, where you don't want to settle for less so you always improve yourself. Living a life that's not complacent means you always move forward, never quite settling down. Once you start getting complacent, you begin to backslide in life. So I encourage you, don't have a mindset of complacency, but a purposeful mindset.
-Smart