Believe it or not, I’m never trying to be contrarian. Many think that I take joy in being contrary. I really don’t (though there are moments of gleeful contrarianism from time to time).
Mostly, I hate watching people suffer and torture themselves just because other people, who only want to make money off of them, told them to do something.
I don’t “do things differently” because I want to be difficult or stand out. I do what I do because it suffices, it’s simpler and it works. I don’t “do things differently” just because. There is always a reason.
Most of the time the reason is: “I just can’t do it any other way. Even if I wanted to.” There are real physical and/or emotional limitations that force me to pare things down and keep it simple. And I’ve watched so many others make the same decisions for themselves and see major differences in their business and their lives.
It is never a bad idea to have things that are simple and easy for you to use. Why, oh why, does that idea get met with contempt and derision? People are not stupid for being simple with their lives. Quite the contrary. I find they are the smartest people in the room. They know who they are, what they do and more importantly, where they don’t want to spend their money and energy.
This is important to me. I believe so many people take themselves out of business and out of living their life because they think they have to do or add all of these things that are not essential. I say it from experience. I thought I needed to say, do and be all the things before I could simplify. For some reason, I thought I had to at least try it that way and see for myself. And maybe I did need to.
But I don’t think everyone has or needs to make things more complicated before they can simplify. Plus the level of complexity (sold as “easier and automated”, all lies) is banana pants insane compared to 20 or even 10 years ago.
At the same time, I am looking more at the words I use in every day life. The day this post comes out is a Blue Moon (sorta kinda depending on your definition.) I’m realizing on a different level that we say, use and do things without truly understanding what they mean and what they intend. In the case of a Blue Moon, there are multiple definitions and one can rarely tell which one is being used. There are times of learning and innocence for sure. Though sometimes, many times, these unknown and undefined (or hidden) intentions give us complication that we never requested. I’m looking into the histories of other holidays, words and ideas – I’m finding the same exact thing.
As words and ideas get “borrowed” and co-opted from their original intent, not only is something lost and distorted, it can leave the current iteration being like a bad invasive AI image. Sure it works on one level. But it feels weird, gross and brings that energy to everything around it.
Now I’m not saying the phrase “once in a blue moon” is messing up our lives. I am saying that I (and probably millions of others) didn’t and still don’t understand what they were saying. Did they mean every 19 years, every 2-3 years or every few months? Because the difference between 19 years and 3 years is a big one.
The world is full of these examples. There things that I say, do and absorb without questioning or researching. If I even know what to research. (And even if I can do that research anymore.) Maybe that’s why I feel so strongly about it. Soon it might be hard to find the original, to find the history and the reason behind words. So being in a questioning and simplifying state is a way to keep some of the maligned (and just plain lazy) influence on our lives at bay.
It’s not contrary to know what you want and what you don’t want. To not buy into the latest and greatest that will “make life easier.” Quite UN-contrary to get down down to what matters.
It’s an asset, not a liability. And it can’t be taken away from you by anyone else. Where else does that happen in this lifetime?
I am grateful you read what I write but I don’t want that to be it for you. I want it to help you in some way. So at the end, some questions to think about.
Where are you a “contrarian” to the current world?
Have you had the experience of saying or doing something with an assumption that you later found was not as you thought it was? What was that like?
Do you know what you want and what you don’t? Where does that challenge others in your life? Where does that challenge you?
Until next time…
