Can We Do Without the Trouble and Toil?

Sometimes I wonder what all this trouble and toil is for. I mean we all do it; trudge to work, struggle with responsibilities, stress over things that cause us grief. But why? Why do we do these things when we know they hold no value for us? I know that struggling against adversity and persevering through hardship builds character and prepares you for life’s ever harder challenges, but there does seem to be part of that struggle that produces nothing but negative. Take for example the problem people have with debt. I know there are a few people out there who are just pain irresponsible and don’t really care. However, I know a lot of people who are responsible, diligent, and reasonable when it comes to their money and they are still buried under a mountain of debt. Unfortunately, yours truly being one of them. Sometimes, it feels like an oppressive weight that just won’t go away, no matter what you do, and every effort you take to move forward and take a step ahead is just slammed with the reality of yet another bill, more bad news, another crisis that needs to be settled now, only to push you back even further.

I heard an old story once about a rich man who went on a South American tour. He was on a river boat excursion and talked to the old man manning the boat. The old man told him he had sailed up and down the river for decades, giving tours, catching fish, going home to his wife, children, and their little hut, and felt content with life. To the rich man, this concept seemed ridiculous, wherein he told the old man he might just invest a lot of money to create a huge tourist industry of river tours and fishing trips so when he earned enough money he could retire and live in a secluded home in the woods. The old man looked at him and just simply asked ‘wouldn’t that be the same thing I have then?’

At times I have interpreted this story differently. Sometimes the meaning of it to me is that no matter what you do, peace and security is a driving factor for all people. Other times, I’ve seen it illustrate the difference between men who desire power, and men who desire tranquility, sometimes it’s capitalism versus communism, other times it’s about the perceived inequities of life, and still others it’s a story about the foolishness of youth and the wisdom of age.

There are good times and there are bad times and as clichéd as that might sound it is true. I’d like to think that my bad times may come to an end and it would be smooth sailing afterwards. But the truth is, good and bad ebb and flow much like the river in the old man’s story. The trick is to not let the bad times drag you down too much, so much so that you drowned in your own misery. As dire as things may seem, circumstances can get better. Sometimes it takes a new perspective, and sometimes it takes sacrifice, even of things you care about or really want, if only to preserve an even greater love. I know life is not fair, but it’s your life and letting yourself get too mired in the muck and sludge that drudgery and despair bring certainly isn’t fair to you. So be good to yourself.

Thanks for reading.

Questions and Comments are welcome.

DouglasHClark.com

The 15 Minute Daydream

By Douglas Clark

Okay, so finding 10-15 minutes out of my day to just daydream turned out to be a little harder than I thought. But then I realized, I go for a 2 mile run at least twice a week, so I’d do it then. Usually, I listen to my ipod while I run and just zone out. Most of the time I don’t really even pay attention to anything; it makes the run go by faster. This time however, I paid attention to my mind’s wandering. So, in no particular order here are the top five things I found myself being drawn to:

          1. Character development and further plot twists for a  novel I’m about to start

          2. Oddly enough, bagels

          3. Sex (yup, I’m a guy)

          4. The condos being constructed near my apartment (I want one)

          5. Possibly running a marathon, or a half marathon, or just starting with a 5k.

If there were others I didn’t pay enough attention to them for them to register in my memory. What’s funny is that when I started out, I thought allowing myself to daydream would bring me to a fantasy land of magical or sci fi type wonders. Turns out, my mind is currently entrenched in more realistic things. Now that’s not to say if I took more time my thoughts might become more outlandish. Who knows? I’m pretty sure that because I’m older now and required to carry more responsibilities, it weighs me down just a bit when it comes to letting my mind release from all of those things I need to control. Kids seem to possess an infinite reservoir of imagination and creative thinking, mostly because they aren’t encumbered by the pragmatic, somewhat cynical, and harsh realities of life.

I’ve always strived to hold on to that youthful wonder. I think far too often, people let go of dreams and desires and replace them with chores and menial tasks and call it being responsible. I actually think that is kind of depressing. Don’t you? Well, that’s why I let myself daydream. The kid in me has more to say, and I need to listen to him every once in a while. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.
Questions and Comments are welcome.

DouglasHClark.com

What Shapes Your Desire?

Douglas Clark
-Head writer, The Inspiration Engine

“If you greatly desire something, have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it.”

-Brendan Francis

What is want? I’m not talking about the basic wants humans all need, like water, food, shelter, and companionship. I’m asking about the want for something not needed, but truly desired. Desire can be a funny thing. It can give you direction by helping you to discard the superfluous, keep you focused, determined and motivated. But desire can also hinder your life by making you close minded to new things, ridged in your attitude and perspective, and in the worst cases, lead to obsession. Once desire becomes an obsession, there’s a whole new world of problems to deal with.

There are things I have wanted for a long time. I’ve desired them. Specifically, being a published author for one, finding true love (as cliché as it sounds), a life of leisure, and a youthfulness throughout my days. Now I’d say on a certain level, all of those things are possible, at least to one degree or another. But why do I want them? Why are my wants and desires in line with some people and wildly out of synch with others? Our life experiences and relationships help mold and create an ideal that helps to drive our life’s activities. 

I’ve often wondered about when I was 10, if we didn’t move from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, how different my life would be. It was a profound life event for me, obviously at 10 years old something like that would affect just about anyone. But how much of that contributed to who I am now? I can tell you that for the first two years after we moved, I became reclusive, much more introspective and hid inside my own imagination. I found solace in Science Fiction and Fantasy. TV, movies and stories dealing with space, time travel, other worlds, dimensions, and the like spoke to me in a way sports, hobbies, or other things could not. Eventually the want to create those things on my own took hold and there you have it. This was the nucleus of my desire to begin writing. My life altering event of moving helped spur my creative life as a dreamer and writer.

So where do you go after you’ve identified where and why you have a want? I would say judging just how powerful that want is must happen. If you truly want something, I would say a feeling of almost uncontrollable action should take place. Not so much that you are possessed, but that you feel the value of committing to that want. When you know the superfluous and extraneous minutiae of life can be done away with and you still feel fulfilled driving toward you desire, that is when that want becomes a passion. And there’s nothing wrong with passion, as long as it’s tempered with reason, otherwise you fall into the trap of obsession.  

Do you know what your wants are? Are you controlled by them? Even worse, are you so beaten down that you’ve forgotten what it is you truly want? I believe self-examination is important from time to time to make sure I am not wasting my life away. There have been times when I came to the realization that I Was completely off course. What a wonderful yet sobering feeling. Remember, as long as you are alive, there’s still time to change course. Give it a try.

Thanks for reading.

Questions and comments are welcome.

DouglasHClark.com

What Do You Need?

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed” – Mahatma Gandhi

Depending on how you look at it “What do you need?” is either a rather innocuous question or a very profound inquiry about life.  Answering that question when it comes to basic survival is easy: food, water, and shelter.  But since when has answering life’s questions every truly been easy?  If you think about it for a few minutes, what do you really need?  When I say need, I mean what do you need to be happy, successful, content; those sorts of things. 

Now I know we’ve all heard it, or said it.  It’s that line where we say we need something because it is so awesome or cool, or it would make things so much better than they are right now.  I remember thinking when I was a teenager thinking “I need a car”, or “I need to get a Playstation.”  Yeah, it’s funny how our priorities seem so out of whack when we re-examine them years later.  I obviously didn’t need a car or a playstation; the truth is I really wanted them.  And that’s a big difference, between need and want.  Sometimes it’s hard to make the distinction.

You can look at it from this perspective.  If something is going to give you lasting inner peace, contentment, or understanding, I’d say you need it.  If something is going to provide stability and security, I’d say you need it.  If something provides a distraction, fill an emptiness brought about my envy or greed, you don’t need it, you want it.  I think too often people have wants that go unfulfilled for so long, those wants become what seem like needs because nothing else will satisfy their desire.  But that still is not need.  It is an unhealthy want.  And really, what you should strive to do is eliminate unhealthy elements in your life.  Purging those destructive and limiting wants will show you what you really need.

I’ll tell you, I want a high paying job; I want a big house; I want to take trips to Europe. I don’t need any of those things.  I need to see my daughter every day; I need to give her a hug and kiss and tell her I love her; I need to express myself, mostly through writing or I feel stifled and depressed; I need to be free to make my own choices.  I guess you can say I need mental freedom most of all.  When I weigh the pros and cons of it all, most of the stuff society tells us we need, is just stuff.  Sometimes we need to be reminded of what’s important so we don’t want for things we don’t need. 

Think about it.

Thanks for reading.  Comments and questions are welcome.

Why is it so hard to get motivated?

How many times have you asked yourself “How can I motivate myself?”  It’s a fair question; motivation is important and necessary to accomplishing your goals and mission in life.  Without motivation, you just sit there on the couch.  Without motivation, you wander, meander, and drift.  Without motivation, there is nothing.  So how do we get this mythical motivation?  What causes the stirring emotions within us that fuel the drive and impulse of creativity, igniting the fires of motivation?  Well, the answer is simple.  It’s desire.  Want.  If you really have a true desire and want to attain something, someone, a job, a title, a goal, the championship, whatever, you NEED the desire to go after it. 

Have you ever doubted your motivation while doing something?  Ever thought maybe you were wasting your time?  It might be that the desire to pursue that goal was waning. Maybe you didn’t really want what you thought you wanted.  I’ve literally stopped what I was doing right in the middle because I knew my desire for it was just gone.  I used to work as a diner cook a long time ago when I was in college.  It was a fun job but hardly worth the headache.  I gained the respect of pretty much everyone there, except One of the owners.  He decided on night to chew me and a coworker out because he was in a bad mood.  Well, we both quit right there. We told the guy we were done as soon as our shift was over.  And we stuck to our convictions.  See, the desire to be there was small, and the paycheck was the only real thing keeping us there.  Once we were disrespected for no reason we realized there was no sufficient desire to stay.  So, our motivation to leave grew exponentially. 

Okay, so if you have the desire to accomplish your mission, your motivation will surge.  If your desire wanes, your motivation will plummet.  The real test is identifying your desire.  So it comes down to one simple thing:  What do you desire?