01 Oct 2019
- Do what you love
- Be of service
- Don’t be an @$$hole
- Don’t join a cult
- Own your stuff, don’t let it own you
There is much to unpack with these rules.
“How do I know what I love?”
“Service to whom? For what?”
“Define @$$hole.”
“What is a cult?”
It’s a process. Sages throughout the ages have attempted to elucidate on these and other questions. Having said that, anything worth remembering should be easy to remember and continue to enrich each time it is remembered. These are just suggestions.
It’s a big elephant, so let’s start in with a few small bites of commentary:
Few in life are so fortunate to know exactly what they love. Luckier still are those whose love matches their entelechy, the thing that they were born to do. The jackpot is for those who love what they are good at doing, at a time when it rewards them handsomely, within legal/logistical parameters.
Doing what you love involves knowing yourself. Being aware of your energy management. There are people, things, and situations that bring you up, and others that suck all the life out of you. Be aware of your posture when you are around them. It’s how your body talks to you.
Doing what you love is ENERGIZING! Doing what you love is not merely to satisfy an addiction or disengage from your humanity. It energizes you and others to be more productive, to create more beauty, order, love, beneficence. It serves in greater capacity than whatever it is that you received in the doing. Service should be productive, creative, ENERGIZING!
An @$$hole is loosely defined as someone who maliciously engages life as a zero-sum game where they intend to get as much they can while destroying it for others. Life is not zero sum. Choose to be a productive collaborator, creating more energizing good.
Avoid those whose entire modus operandi is self-serving drama. You know them, “full frontal assault” types who come at you all flash, superficial style, big words, unblinking intense eye contact, sucking all the attention in the room to themselves, seeing how they can use the person in front of them, and marking every potential threat to their spotlight for future destruction. It’s hard not to notice them the first time and get sucked into their excitement. Learn after you’ve been burned, then avoid them like the vampires they are.
Sometimes, those vampires are more subtle, maybe part of a system that has them well trained to get you when you are vulnerable. Know a cult recruiter when you see one and RUN! Anyone, anything that asks you to abdicate your thinking without allowing you to run a few tests before you sign full on probably does not have your best interest in mind. Try it now on the rules above. Reason it out and see if it works for you. Test drives are encouraged! Any system worth its salt is always open to discussion and suggestions.
While you are thinking of great rebuttals and exceptions, ask yourself how much of your “reasons” are really “excuses” because you need to deal with baggage. Some of them are likely to be excuses. Usually they are deep-rooted something from way back because someone who was responsible for you had not completely dealt with their baggage and it goes back four generations (or something to that effect) and took it out on you. They aren’t here now. Even if they are, you are not helpless and unthinking. Now is not then. You can accept that NOW is different. Better. Live in NOW. Own your stuff. No one is judging.
Speak kindly, encouragingly, lovingly, and truthfully to yourself. Wisdom states to “love others as yourself”, not better than or instead of yourself. You are the only constant in your life, and it is time to be best friends with you.
Mama's Rules 