Mindset
Mastering the Art of Living
“A Master in the Art of Living draws no distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind, and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his version of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves it up to others to decide whether he is working or playing, to himself he’s always doing both.”
– L.P. Jacks
I heard this poem the other day, shared by the author’s son at a Ted-Talk.
Profound!
It’s the real concept of living a balanced life. Creating this life takes time and intention, but the essence is listening to your heart as you work your way through life. Recognizing what aligns with your energy and what does not.
Too many of us ignore the signs, ignore the feelings, and plod on with life expecting at some point along the way that fulfillment will rear its wonderful head.
It doesn’t work that way. You need to listen as you work your way through each experience, each stage, each moment. Evaluate how it made you feel, and recognize its worth.
As you do, and as you find your work of choice, you’ll begin to realize that work doesn’t feel like a job anymore, it is just what you do. Play isn’t contrived but simply explored regularly. Both become blurred by their synergy.
You aren’t working, you are being in the effort. It might not be easy, likely isn’t easy. But you are doing the hard you love.
Further education is simply an extension of this internal compass, not burdened by having to do it, but immersed in the opportunity to play with it like a new medium of artwork.
That’s it really, you do the next thing, not because you need to accomplish the next thing, but because it just feels right. It’s a part of your expression, just like singing or dancing. You don’t sing because you have to, you sing because you want to.
As the poem says, others may perceive you are at work because you are at work, but that doesn’t mean you are working. Only you define the feeling.
I think this is the journey we are on, to slowly fabricate our lives, listening more acutely to our internal dialogue and owning the dissonance. Not allow ourselves to accept the job, the relationship, or the situation because that’s what is expected by society, our community, or ultimately ourselves.
Stop, evaluate, revise, and set a new course. Life is a series of experiments, each one helping to refine a better outcome. Slowly taking us to a place of mastery.
But we have to begin by listening and then doing something about it.
Don’t accept what doesn’t feel right.
Master the Art of Living.
