Choice: Their Surplus Availability Should Not Influence Your Demand.
In terms of color, think of your mind as a clear surface. Your good thoughts are light colors and the not so good thoughts are dark colors. Practically, when it comes to painting, it takes a lot of light colors to remove a small drop of dark color.
The information we consume through reading, listening or watching are colors, and so are our experiences. And, we paint our lives from both of them. Our consumption and experiences eventually, directly or indirectly, shape our thoughts. You consume too much dark colors, you become swayed by the dark. You experience just a drop of dark, for example, receiving an unpleasant news or someone irritating you, and a lot of light would be required to balance you back to being and feeling light.
Due to our natural curiosity, it is impossible to only consume light colors, you know, trying not to appear bored when every single thing you do always works out without a sweat, no struggle whatsoever — even Eve wanted some variety. And, the world has been designed by the decision makers, to make sure it is impossible for people to only consume light colors. Since we are likely to encounter both dark and light colors, it’s best to be ready.
You are what you consume (eat), for every fatty cheeseburger (dark colors), a bunch of salad is required. Eat enough cheeseburgers and a year of only salad would become your penance — if you’re to survive.
Understanding how the scales work, that a little bit of one requires a whole lot of the better, we are then responsible for the quantity of our consumption.
Our wise ancestors knowing this truth and knowing our susceptibility of falling prey, the wise ones sent words of wisdom far ahead of our generation to warn us when they said, paraphrasing: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” While we know it is impractical to not encounter any opposite of the three, the wise ones knew that too, still they made us aware of the standard.
Do you want to be a good person? Do you want to be a happy person? Well, that’s good because you have all the power to choose. You choose what you consume. It seems like common sense, like a “duh!” statement but I wasn’t always cognizant of my ability to choose otherwise and my ability to seek another option that’s more conducive for me. You don’t have to eat the cake because it’s made available to you, you could choose not to eat at all or go find something you want to consume instead. The important factor is you choose what you consume. You choose what to consume. The choosing is done by you.
I used to blame the media for showing junk instead of worth but really it doesn’t matter what the media chooses — what only matters is what we choose from what’s available. The trick however is for a person to be lured to think junk is the only option available because of the “noise” and “flashiness” and what seems to be“overabundance” of junk. But that’s not true. The surplus availability of junk should not influence your demand, your desire or your consumption of junk. For while the false, the dreadful and wrong is often louder and readily available, the good is also available. It just isn’t loud. It isn’t in your face, and it requires work. You have to know to seek the good and now you know. You have to want to (or make yourself) seek the good and you have to go seek the good. But it is available. And it is available to you — regardless of your past experiences or present circumstance. To be a good person and to be a happy person is forever an option, it just has standards.
It is important we both understand this:
You have the power to choose what you want to consume for that which you consume, consumes you. We do not have an auto eraser to mysteriously erase every dark color we paint our minds with — No, we do not. Out of what’s in you, do your actions flow. Luckily, we do have light colors also available. It just takes a lot more work to consume a bunch of light colors just to reduce or remove one dark color. Are you likely to put in that work? Can you make yourself put in the work? or are you more likely to go the easier route and submit to being overtaken by the dark colors?
It should come as no surprise that majority of people you will meet choose the easier option. When you combine what they listen to with what they watch, it make sense how they talk like they do and what they choose to want. Listen to Jamie Foxx in this part of the roundtable talk, emphasis on 49:20 through 49:45. Intentionality is not a mistake.
People who are genuinely happy, work for that happiness. While most of the work is inaction, avoidance or requires minimal effort and can be as “simple” as identifying people/co-workers/friends who spill a lot of bad news and avoiding those people, it’s still work. Choosing to watch a sensible, positive movie instead of a diabolical, mind staining, sleepless night inducing video is still a choice. It could be as “simple” as choosing a quiet time instead of being overwhelmed by voices. While most of the maintenance work requires minimal effort, choose to believe, genuinely happy people do put in work.
They are not happy by accident or by mistake.
When you turn on the TV, generally you have a bunch of channels available to watch. You scroll from one option to the other till you find a light color information to consume, should you not find any — turning off the TV is an option. And that option I am finding seems to be a huge one because those who have trained their minds and viciously guard their happiness recognizes they can in fact turn off the TV, that it is an option. Winning for them is good consumption or no consumption. Help me get better or leave me where I’m at. But people who do not have the same tenacity, forget they can turn off the TV, so instead they find something fairly “interesting” to watch. Winning in that state is “I turned on the TV to watch something, so I will” but they forget each dark color takes them further back from where they are. Those who are genuinely happy are not happy by accident or by mistake. They put in work.
That which you want, you can get. If what you get isn’t what you want, then change what you did to get it and go do what’s required of you, no matter how many light colors you have to apply, to get what you want. Your actions are not entirely your own, it’s the secretion of what you’ve consumed.
It is much easier to be light and remain light, if you do not consume any dark. Then you won’t have to work so hard to reduce the impact of the dark. It is better not to get stuck in a sinking sand than trying to find your way out of it. Being able to say No, being able to remove yourself from situations and conversations that doesn’t benefit your happiness, being able to identify yourself as someone who is ready to be good and happy, being able to protect that decision — all of that comes down to you choosing who you want to be and putting your energy where your choice is. Do all you can to be light, even if you have to wear a sign on your neck. I used to know someone who would tell you at the start of an interaction “no bad news”, letting you know what type of information to share with him, after all these years, I finally understand why.
Do you want to be a good person? Do you want to be a happy person? Well, that’s good, because you have all the power.
Choose Good. Choose Happy. Choose Wisely +
Consume Wisely. Consume Happy. Consume Good =
Be Good. Be Happy. Be Wise.
With Love,
Famous Steve.
