In the beginning … there was NOTHING …
or at least an undifferentiated whole, which by all accounts is dang similar to there being nothing.
In a way the cover of this week’s New Scientist magazine prompted this post. They are highlighting the place of “NOTHING” in science … very cool.
Beginning with NOTHING
Think about it, when you hear a noise and upon looking don’t find anything out of order, if someone were to ask you what’s there, isn’t you’re immediate response, “Nothing.”? We typically take the experience of continuity as “nothing” … meaning nothing different, i.e.: things are as they were and seem to be continuing in that direction.
If you take “NOTHING” as the starting point for improvement than your immediate awareness must be things will be at least as good as they are right now.
This is a powerful position to begin from that if you just keep doing what you’re doing you’re likely to continue to have the experience you’re having.
Regardless of whether you consider the experience you’re having right now as positive or negative it’s just as powerful to begin from “NOTHING.”
If you are beginning from the perception that your current experience isn’t so good then A) you know it won’t get worst if you do nothing, i.e.: what you’ve been doing all along … in fact it will likely be just more of the same, and heck if you’re reading this your surviving … and you have access to a computer too! … and, B) just about any change has a likelihood of making things better.
If you are beginning from the perception that your current experience is okay or better, then it’s likely that if you just keep doing what you’ve been doing you will be able to continue having the experience you’re having, and probably with a bit of thought and action you might find a way to even up the experience you’re having a bit more.
I know this is a different way of thinking about NOTHING, i.e.: continuing as you are, doing what you’re doing … versus literally stopping all action and beginning a rapid movement towards entropy, but it is a perfectly valid way to begin using NOTHING as a starting point to initiate something remarkable.
Using NOTHING
There is a Japanese aesthetic concept that’s valuable here regarding the application of NOTHING to self improvement, “Wabi Sabi.” Wabi-sabi is a way of think about impermanence and simplicity. Maybe a better description of wabi-sabi to the Western ear would be austerity or spartan.
There are in fact similarities between Japanese wabi-sabi, and Greek stoicism in my opinion – especially if you think the Stoics who applied their philosophy to their live and in the world they inhabited like Marcus Aurelius. In both the philosophy of wabi-sabi and stoicism there is a great regard for nature and the lessons nature imparts.
Often, when I’m discussing self improvement or performance improvement with people they begin from the premise that this is something they need to do actively, i.e.: just being like they currently are is somehow not good enough. This drives them to pursue change, often for the sake of change. Yet they fail to stop their pursuit long enough to deeply consider what being like they are, without changing at all, i.e.: doing nothing (different), has gotten them so far.
Inevitably anyone who’s willing will find that there are both positives and negatives in their evaluation of where they are in their lives if they are honest with themselves. However, avoiding the trap of self-deception is amongst the most difficult of all things for most people to do on their own.
Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic the begins with the premise that things are beautiful unto themselves. While simplicity is valued, often so is a kind of imperfection … asymmetry verse perfect symmetry.
One of the arts where this can be found is in the art of Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) and another is in the art of Bonsai (growing miniature trees and shrubs in containers). In these arts is the distinctive, the juxtaposition of the elements in relation to one another, that forms the desired aesthetic trance, i.e.: the epiphany.
Applied to an individual’s life this thinking can generate profound insight and transformational opportunities. The trick is stepping into a position where the consideration you hold is that whatever “is” is “the perfect position to begin from” – not just “a” perfect position but “the” perfect position. This is the juxtaposition that beginning with the idea of NOTHING offers.
Applied NOTHING
Let’s start with the premise that there’s NOTHING you need to do different from what you’re doing that you can’t do from right where you are now, i.e.: NOTHING you need to change about yourself.
However, what I am suggesting is that you reposition yourself to ask how where you are right now offers you some unique benefit, or benefits, to opening up possibilities you haven’t yet considered.
Rather than beginning from asking what you need, that’s currently missing – reset and consider with what you have available to you right now what can you be doing that you’re not.
Now ask this next question of yourself,
“If I were doing all things I could be doing from where I am right now, in the direction that is most important to me, with just the resources I have available to me in this moment, what would be different for me thirty days from now?”
One of the things that you can be doing in addition to actively taking action about something or other, is actively giving up something you’re doing in the way you’re doing it … or actively giving up holding onto something, e.g.: an emotion, an idea, a relationship .. that you are holding onto that has locked you into some kind of paralysis from moving toward living your life fully.
Also, consider how learning to be actively waiting, or becoming what I call “actively passive” could be useful to you as well. This is a trait all incredibly successful people share, i.e. the ability to wait for the right moment to act and then acting without hesitation or restraint … Carpe Diem baby!!!
And, remember to include in what you could be doing,
doing NOTHING, where that would be most useful too.
