If you were to speak to an older person and you were to ask them, what was the most important moment in your life? What happened that changed everything? And I’m sure they would give you an answer or a series of answers, series of points. And I asked myself the same question, you know, because I’m old. Not really old, of course, because we always think that we are 10 years younger than the old people that we know.
But in reality, I am aging slowly but surely. That said, when I asked myself the same question, I realized, wait a moment. Every single moment of life has value because the assembled sum of those moments have produced the time I’m in right now. So, yes, I can go back in my memory and I can single out when I was 18 years old and I graduated from high school. And then my first serious job after high school for 1 year working in that stereo store I’ve spoken about before, Westway TV in my little village of Ucluelet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in Canada.
But really, there were so many of those moments. And so I heard a great quote the other day, everything matters. Everything. Every moment, every second, every time, every image, all of it creates the sum that is me. That is me.
So easy to say, of course, because we live in time. We don’t live outside of time. That’s the par view perhaps of God, but we don’t. We are mortal beings. So how am I going to become more aware of each and every moment that I occupy.
Well, I think at the very beginning, I have to say that I want to. This matters to me. I want to become more alive, if you will, to my surroundings, to the circumstances I find myself in. Because when you first awake at 20 years of age or so, you quickly realize that you are a set of givens, don’t you? I am sort of white.
I am 68 years old. I do have 2 children. I was born in Canada, a certain amount of intelligence, a certain amount of money, and all the rest is pure potential even for me. So when I’m 20 years old and I’m first awake, of course, the opportunities are even more interesting. That set of givens, unfortunately, hangs a lot of people because they don’t like, perhaps, their ethnicity.
They don’t like their intelligence, their education, their sex. I mean, gosh. It just goes on. All of these challenges are being presented almost on a daily basis through the Internet. Right?
It asks us to question everything and that’s, I think, somewhat incorrect because we have to realize that we do have this set of givens and then I’m alive. Okay. Now I want to be more aware. What’s the first step? It’s the desire to learn.
Learn how I am possibly going to do this. For me, of course, it’s about me because there is no one like me. There never has been and there never will be. I’ve said this many, many times. So, then what?
Well, people like Sadhguru suggest that we should be immediately aware of our surroundings. So I would suggest then, get yourself to a green space, a park, or perhaps a forested area, but parks are great because in a park you can take your shoes and socks off. You can then walk and feel the grass and then you can feel the wind on your face and the sun on your brow. You can look down and see the bugs. You can see the bees, the birds, and it just goes on, doesn’t it?
So you have the first step of awareness. Then in conversation with people, you begin to truly listen truly listen to what people are saying. And here I think a great realization comes to pass that you realize that most people are afraid, in my estimation. They’re afraid to be alive, as it’s stated. They’re somewhat out of control.
Their lives are not what they want their lives to be, but they don’t know what to do. But you do because now you’re beginning to observe. And then I think you get yourself to a school, to a university, some form of intellectual training. And after this intellectual training, of course, you will need a skill because the intellectual training, for the most part, unless you are a doctor, a dentist, a lawyer, you probably won’t be able to make a living, so you’ll have to be trained. I was trained as a salesman, as I’ve said, and it allowed me the time to reflect as well.
Every moment wasn’t selling so it was for me an ideal job, but I did well at it as you will as well. So after you’ve done these things you come back to the premise of our chat which is everything matters. Everything matters. And then, of course, how I present myself in the world matters. Do I know how to dress?
Really critical if you’re going to have any type of socially interactive life, for example, alright, gonna represent a firm, you have to know how to dress, and it’s relatively simple to find out how. Have to know how to eat. Have to know how to use a knife and fork properly. And then, can I dance? The answer always is yes.
Even if I dance poorly. I’ve said this before. Right? So everything matters and I reinforce this like a mantra on a daily basis. Everything matters.
And this, of course, is personal branding. Am I a Porsche? Am I a Nike? Am I a Mercedes Benz? What is my brand?
Everything matters. Everything matters. Everything matters. Everything matters. I reinforce this all the time.
And I’m promising myself that I’m going to grow. I’m going to become aware. And the more that I am aware, I think the happier I will be. Because in a certain sense, life is relatively simple. We’re supposed to be happy.
Aristotle, once again, often said this. We’re supposed to be happy, but happiness is hard. It’s very easy to be unhappy. So the more that I’m aware, the more that I work on me, the happier I will become. I’ll fix my financial conundrum if I have one.
Right? I’ll fix my spiritual concerns, and I ultimately will move forward. And it will be a good life. So when I’m an old person and I’m asked, what was the most important moment of your life? You can say, all of it.
All of it was great. Fantastic. No regrets. I have no regrets, but for sure, a lot of lessons. Many, many things I would not do again for sure.
I would not hurt the people I’ve hurt. I would not embarrass myself in certain social circumstance. Whatever. These are things I would not do again because everything matters. And you know what they say. You know what they say. If everything’s going to matter, then I’m going to need critical thinking. Of course. Because critical thinking is great, truly great, to help me grow and become aware. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.