Embrace Better

Life is an evolving progression.  There is no stasis … no parking lot … no statutorial sanctum …

To embrace life, we have to embrace CHANGE.  We change or die!  And the world around us changes, so we have to adapt.  And the speed of change is ever-increasing. 

What got you to the age of two won’t get you through kindergarten; what got you through kindergarten won’t get you through middle school or high school … college … a job promotion … etc. … despite claims made otherwise by Robert Fulghum! 

In the process, we have to embrace TEMPORALITY, the need for GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT, the reality of DECAY / DEGENERATION and the need for RENEWAL / REGENERATION. 

We have to embrace going “WHERE NO MAN – especially US – HAS GONE BEFORE.”

We have to embrace TRANSFORMATION / “Metamorphosis”

Consider the caterpillar just emerging from its cocoon, thinking:

“Life will never be the same again!”

You will echo those words MANY times in your life

(or else you will not have lived fully!)

Embrace BEING!

Embrace BECOMING!

… a new YOU … emerging from a “bubble” of youthful, unfinished business.

… YOU, Inc. … getting seriously entrepreneurial … MAKING CREATIVE LIFE HAPPEN!

Embrace different and more distant horizons:

… New opportunity (otherwise, prepare to become bored and beleaguered)

… New “Neverlands” – places you “never Dreamed” you might end up.

… Uncertainty: It’s where creativity and adventure begin.

… “Nerd-Dom”: “Specialness” is cut from different cloth; weave your own.

… Solitude (It solidifies both IDENTITY and RESOLVE.)

… Globalism – it’s where the future is and where the biggest opportunities are.

And don’t shy from embracing tougher choices and engagements … they’re the stuff from which the greatest successes and grandest fulfillment are born.  They keep us honest and vigilant, and are altogether ennobling, “enlifening” and enabling.

Embrace GRIT:  It’s the stuff that molds champions!

Embrace CRITICISM: We can’t always see or appreciate our own limitations.

Embrace INTROSPECTION: Honest self-appraisal bears much fruit and avoids many pitfalls.   

Embrace HUMILITY: Smarter, wiser, faster and more skilled individuals abound and the more honestly we own up to not “knowing it all”, the more willingly we can learn, the more openly we accept diversity, and the more enthusiastically we can contribute. 

Embrace FAILURE:  It is from Failure we learn what works and what doesn’t, what not to do, how to do better … to do different … to be more assuredly and sustainably successful. 

Embrace BOUNDARIES: Boundaries are like guard rails to keep us from straying too far into dangerous or unproductive territory.  But also look for fertile, unplowed fields ahead where there are unbounded possibilities for productive and profitable engagement. 

“A canal boat has no need of a compass.”

George R. Hewitt

Embrace GIVING STUFF UP that no longer works or never did:

… SELF-CENTEREDNESS

… TRIBALISM

… Unfounded ASSUMPTIONS

… Unrealistic EXPECTATIONS

… Unwarranted ENTITLEMENTS

… BAD HABITS

… RATIONALIZATIONS

… IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION

The universe, from whose dust you were “begotten” and through whose “ether” and workings you must navigate, will much more likely embrace YOU. 

Embrace that part of “Living in the NOW” that connects most directly to a promising future.

“I spend a very substantial amount of my time preparing for the future

because that’s where I plan to spend most of my life.”

Attributed to William James

Embrace ACTION: It’s what gets stuff DONE and what moves us most opportunely from NOW to NEXT. 

Embrace MOMENTUM: It’s the only thing that will break the stand-off between an immoveable object and an irresistible force. 

Finally, embrace ABSURDITY!   It fosters a sense of humor and reinforces the foundations of creativity.  Come to think of it, BECOME ABSURDLY GOOD AT WHATEVER YOU DO!   Extremes in the pursuit of excellence and advancement – and in pursuit of life itself – are not only forgivable but establish lasting legacies.  Quartermaster

Free Will Debate

For this one, you may want to look up “Free Will” on the internet and pick a couple of TED talks for background. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/theres-no-such-thing-as-free-will/480750/   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH_VG_aqwoc

INTRODUCTION: A small but hard core mix of neuroscientists, philosophers and psychologists hold that hardly anything we do is an expression of “Free Will”.  That is,  we are, essentially, “Biological Robots” simply acting out what is in our DNA, including what has been “programmed into us” by our heredity and our environment … which includes “hard-wired” epigenetic alterations to our DNA.  The main point of this debate is that our behavior is mostly predictable!  If we screwed up or MISbehaved, it wasn’t because “the devil made me do it” (Flip Wilson), it was because that’s simply – or not so simply – who we are and what we do – and the only thing we could have been expected to do in given circumstances.  

[… never mind that it likely wouldn’t hold much water in a court of law!]

What this mix of scientists has done is to make some very astute observations of selected behaviors and genetic and epigenetic imprints in rats and monkeys and humans that support their assertion, and then they have extrapolated to behavior in general. 

The “clinching argument” is that, when they do the reverse … i.e., look for evidence of “Free Will” rather than for “Programmed Behavior” … they have a difficult time finding it! 

“People are unaware of what they are doing 47% of the time.” 

A key question here is: Why?  If there IS “Free Will”, why is it so hard to find and document? 

This discussion brings to mind the words of Martin Luther as he posted his “Ninety-Five Theses” in 1517:

“ … to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.

Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me.” 

A more operational question is: Why would anyone FREELY WILL themselves to do things that are personally harmful, destructive or self-sabotaging?  Hmmm …

Two other considerations are worth raising:

1.    The automation of at least some, and perhaps many, aspects of human behavior can help maximize productivity … like problem solving while not having to think about showering, shaving or brushing one’s teeth. 

a.    It’s a good thing our heart rhythm is “automated” or we’d go both nuts and exhausted just keeping the blood flowing!  However,   

2.    The automation of human behavior can make us “slaves” to whatever the driving forces are.  “Driving Forces” are really important!  (vida infra)

We might also ask a couple more esoteric questions:

What does this debate say about “Artificial Intelligence”?

What does it say about the squirrels digging holes in my back yard?

 Two additional elements worth considering are: HABITS and CONSEQUENCES.

Our friends fronting the “Free Will” debate do allow some small fraction of latitude in such things as obeying the speed limit … because we don‘t want to get a traffic ticket.   That’s a conscious, “Free Will” decision based on a potentially adverse consequence ... except that we’ve already established a BOUNDARY – the “speed limit” in our own minds – beyond which we will not go.  Here’s the catch: By free will, we established the boundary, but what keeps the boundary in place is the threat of consequences, making it LOOK LIKE an automated response.  Practically, who cares what you call it, just keep that boundary in place!   

So now to DRIVING FORCES [see also Maslow’s Pyramid of needs].  The three most critical internal driving forces of note are NEED, WANT/REWARD and AVOIDANCE OF HARM.  These arise from hard-wired biological survival mechanisms.  NEEDS have to be resolved before we can move on to WANTS (or so one might think!), and resolution of needs is an inextricable part of the cost-of-living.  REWARD makes life worth living and AVOIDANCE OF HARM makes living more sustainable.  Where FREE WILL comes into play is where we get to choose how we resolve our NEEDS (both present and future), what kinds of rewards we will find most “rewarding” (e.g., eating as many donuts, grease burgers and fries as possible or beating the latest rage video game versus building a vibrant, active, healthy and engaging lifestyle) and what kinds of harm we want to avoid (e.g., being eaten alive by zombies versus being unable to sustain a viable lifestyle.) 

“One definition of success might be:

refining our appetites

[e.g.,‘wanting’ what is most nobly and sustainably ‘good for us’] ,

while deepening our hunger

[e.g., for vibrant relationships and inspiring and enabling enlightenment –  

far above and beyond double bacon cheeseburgers].”

Yahia Lababidi [Annotated]

Free Will is, essentially, conscious choice.  How much of it have you got, or do you routinely engage?  The defining measure of free will may well be what we WON’T do, i.e., the degree to which we control impulsiveness and willingly defer and delay gratification.  Take, for example, the now ubiquitous marshmallow experiment: 

https://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet

Summation

An innate tendency to “Go with the flow” is going to look like … feel like … and yield results like we are being driven by unseen forces of Fate.  “Free Will” is exercised most intently and effectively by challenging the “flow”, by questioning “things being as they are”, and by daring to make them better.  Having a Purpose/Mission … a BECAUSE, paying attention, discerning and adding VALUE, setting boundaries/barriers, gating and bridling, and doing things “like you mean it” will send the “Free Will Doubters” packing!  This will all take a good deal of GRIT [ref., Angela Duckworth].  But what a difference it will make in realizing a purposeful, “Free Will” Destiny rather than succumbing to a sorry, “programmed” Fate!  I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with it!  Quartermaster