Life can be hard.

But you know what makes it harder? Not knowing why it is hard. And I think that economically, this is what a lot of us suffer from, because while we feel the pain, we don't actually know what is causing it. And rather than investigating and working it out for ourselves, we turn to popularised opinions to give us the answers, so we can lay blame on a set of conditions, even if it is not the cause at all.

Did you know wearing larger size clothing makes you fatter? After all, the majority of fat people wear larger sizes of clothing than peers of a similar height.

Correlation does not mean causation.

Similarly, we tend to focus on what we can see, or fell, as the case may be. We are prone to turn our attention to the surface, rather than what lays beneath. We talk about the "overnight success" without considering all of the years of practice to build the skills. We look at the "self-made wealth", without acknowledging all the support people, or the luck, involved along the way. We only look at the end point, and forget about the journey.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

My daughter asked me an interesting question this morning, that is both simple to answer, and also points to something far more profound.

"Why does time seem to go so fast when sleeping?"

She has realised that she goes to sleep and then opens her eyes ten or twelve hours later, as if very little time has passed at all, even though she knows it has. And, it is obviously because when we sleep, our awareness is not consciously active, so we aren't tracking time in the same way we would when we are awake. In fact, most of our senses are reduced into a type of short hibernation mode, dulling them down, otherwise we would keep waking up.

While many things happen along the journey of life that will shape our experience, we are only aware of some of them. This means that we will be influenced by all sorts of conditions and situations that we don't know about, but will still live the consequences of them. For instance, it doesn't really matter if you know much about economic theory and policy, financial planning, price discovery, tax systems, or anything about the monetary ecosystem at all - you are still going to be affected by it. It is the same as not knowing about the Krebs cycle, your body is still going to use it to create energy. And this is the problem with focusing on goals.

Thought, word, action.

This is the creative process. But the most important part of it is the action part, because without that, nothing physical gets created. We can think about our goals, we can plan what we are going to do, but if we do nothing, we are going to be at the mercy of the conditions, without us being able to have active influence over them. What we have to do to have directed influence is to act throughout the journey, to do the right things, at the right time, that lead us to our next stop, our next destination.

The quote above by Emerson could also be stated as "Life is a long series of destinations." Each movement takes us to a next moment, and the action from that moment takes us to the next. So, if we are looking at only the "highlight points" and not considering what are all the milestones, and what actions it is going to take to get there, we are unlikely to make it. We will however keep on moving, it just won't be under our own direction. We won't be the captain of our journey, we will be the boat, tossed about by the sea, going wherever the winds and currents take us.

It is still a journey.

We like to lay blame for our circumstances. When they are negative, we blame others, When they are positive, we blame ourselves. Most of us are not financially where we want to be, which means our circumstances are not ideal - so we blame the economy, the governments, the corporations, foreigners stealing houses and jobs, locals living off social services. Whatever and whoever. But, what was our active role in creating our situation? Did we do what we needed to do? Did we do what would most likely take us on a journey to where we wanted to be?

Probably not.

Because we tend to favour easy and convenient, and the results that we are looking for aren't easy or convenient to get. Getting fit by watching television whilst eating junk food is unlikely. Getting rich by being unemployed on the couch and spending time watching cat videos is unlikely too. And, it doesn't matter if you know what you need to do, if you aren't doing them, you may as well know nothing.

It is better to know what is causing the conditions only because it allows for correction and action to mitigate. But, if knowing but unwilling to do anything differently, well, that is on you. For instance, over the years here on Hive there have been plenty of people who have wanted to earn, but also wanted to act however they want, write about whatever they want. There is nothing wrong with that, but if what you write about and the way you act is not conducive to earning on Hive, well, you can do what you want, but not earn.

No one is forcing you to change.
No one is forcing you to stay the same.

And it is that second part that I think we need to consider, because while we are somewhat constrained by our circumstances, we all have the same 24 hours in a day to improve ourselves. To change ourselves. But, if we choose to remain unaware of our conditions, unaware of the things that affect us, and unaware of what actions we can take to improve our position, then, we may as well be asleep.

At least then, the time passes quickly.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]