Frames can't catch you when you're moving like that

I've had a difficult few months, and am only now getting re-orientated. I must admit, it is a long and tiresome process. Quit a job, get a new job, meet a woman, worry about her, get addicted to something, try to break the addiction...

...meanwhile, bills add up. Speeding tickets are handed out. People get sick. People are hospitalized. People die.

With all the challenges, I appreciate that people just want to give up. And even if they are strong enough not to give up, they go about life just trying to make things easier. I guess this is what hurts me the most about society. As things become more difficult, people take them for being unchallengeable. As a result, these things become more and more difficult and people become less and less willing to fight them.

Someone is always talking about 'picking your battles'. I think the common misconception is that the only battles worth fighting are the ones that have the highest payoff for a minimal amount of effort. These types of 'challenges' are somtimes called the "low, hanging fruit." My point is, forget about what is the easiest to accomplish... try to figure out what is the BEST thing to accomplish. Do it, no matter how hard. Cut things in your life that will make it easier for you to accomplish that one thing. When you accomplish it, the world (whether it's YOUR world, or the world in general) will be a better place.

With the amount of messages that are constantly thrown at us, we have a tendency to be overstimulated. I love having this conversation with my girlfriend while she is away in India, because she is constantly overstimulated. The whole environment, which is generally the case when you are thrust in a place that is extremely different (cultural shock), has a tendency to overwhelm. So much emotion, so much difficulty in doing small things, etc. These societies get this way, because people do not challenge things when they should. As such, things get harder and harder as time moves on.

Take the European way of life. If you were to try to introduce some of the things we have here into a remote area of France, imagine how the french would rebell. They would put up a stink and fight it until one party was completely dead. Here, we get upset and we just let it happen. Why? Because there are too many things to worry about. We just don't have the time for it.

The only thing I have found that combats this type of behaviour, is to cut things out of my life that further drain me. That's one good thing that I have noticed since I completely cut cable television out of my life. I finally have time for me and my brain to relax. To me, it's better to be lazy with my own thoughts than to be lazy while a television throws a constant barrage of messages at me. If you think about it, what is television? Is it a means to entertain? Is it a means to numb the mind? Personally, I just think it's a way for corporations to get into your homes at times when you are most vulnerable. They should really be paying us for the privilege, instead of us throwing away $100/month to invaded by their messages.

My point is this. We all lead busy, strenuous lives. They are all getting more and more strenuous as time goes on. If you want to be able to have the energy to fight for things that are important and not just the 'low, hanging fruit' than you must cut out things that overstimulate you. I'm not saying that it's television for everyone, but there is something that everyone can find that has little value to them. This can be sacrificed for something that creates more value, either for yourself, the world, or both. I may sound preachy here, but I encourage you to find it... you just may feel like you have more energy, and that you're more yourself.