music culture

Just A Few Random Thoughts…

You live in the most exciting time of humanity. Millions of ideas, philosophies, stories and inspirations are within easy reach. You can easily tap into vast libraries of information unfathomed by previous generations at the touch of a button. Millions of books by thinkers which span the spectrum of skills, trades thoughts and dreams are all effortlessly delivered to your front door for you to consume.

But how, exactly, is this applicable to your life? There answer is obvious – broadening your range of mental vision, increasing both your minds RAM and ROM (sorry for the computer analogy), learning exciting new trades, skills, ways of thinking and interpreting life, and taking your thought process to an entirely new, exciting and ultra-efficient level. Yes, I’m addicted to reading. I’ve already gone through three books this year (Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman, Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science by Bob Katzby and Generation Me by Jean M. Twenge) and the month isn’t even over yet. Ever since leaving organized schooling, my thirst for knowledge has grown 10-fold. The more I read, the more I realize I know nothing.

Some of us simply are better off pursuing personal knowledge in an unstructured format. Or maybe it’s because I’m free to consume knowledge purely by people whose words actually resonate with me. That is one of the most important keys to forwarding yourself, your understanding of the world and happiness overall – aligning yourself and consuming knowledge from those who you acquiesce with.

Society has its problems and difficulties, people have their problems and difficulties. There are a myriad of reasons this is. I don’t need to spell them out for you, or even speak on solutions (no one is really listening anyway). Let’s not ignore them though; it is an absolutely worthwhile task to focus on making the world better to live in for all of us (hypocritical I am not – I am spending my day tomorrow volunteering). But for right now, this moment – the first step to making a better world is improving yourself (this isn’t narcissistic…you exist in this world, and by improving yourself and your interactions with others, you serve to improve the world).

Your mind is only happiest and at peace when you are functioning at your highest potential. To reach your stride, it’s necessary to truly give yourself adequate fuel to accomplish what you want to in your fleeting moments present on earth (and yes, they are fleeting – a human lifespan is a blink of an eye when placed next to the timeline of reality). By fuel I mean knowledge, and by expanding your understanding of your reality.

As creatures in a socially-connected world, we all seek understanding and acceptance of our peers. But more than that, we want the praise of our peers. Many go beyond this – they want the spotlight, and they want it perpetually. This is selfish, and like many mental states will ultimately lead to disappointment and frustration. It’s an impossibility anyway, with so many thousands vying for the rest of society’s attention; people who are full of fluff and simply desire adoration for no real accomplishment are slowly being lost in the fray.

Art should be a personal expression, nothing more, nothing less. Those making it and trying to shove it down people’s throats via cheesy and loud marketing messages aren’t artists in the true sense of the world. They’re missing the point entirely. You shouldn’t support them, unless of course you exist on that same, shallow plane of existence. I know you’re better than that.

Every thought, action and word – every single moment we experience touches our conscious and unconscious minds to influence us in subtle ways. Some of us are conscious of this. Some of us are not. Regardless of how aware you are of how things in your life affect you, you have more control then you realize. Our minds act like a giant filter – but even the best filter will eventually allow poisons to leak through. If you alter your life to not cross paths with those poisons altogether, you will relieve yourself of more stress than you realize. Make change in yourself, your actions, your life for the better, and make it happen now – because this moment is all there is.

© 2005-2009 Adam Singer.