Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Essential.

 Well, I did it. I really did. I still have a final draft of a paper due Friday, but I've submitted my semi-final draft into the writing center for an edit, and there's nothing more for me to do now but wait, and then do a not-too-long final pass once I get it back. Even if they say there's a lot of work to be done, I really don't care, I'm just going to do a quick editing pass, change things that really have to be changed.

I'm pretty clear that I want to do counseling, but I continue to be iffy about the how. Part of me wishes I'd chosen the other, more expensive counseling program. The teachers I've had have been very mixed, and the classes themselves have been very mixed. But honestly, I just need the certification. I'll have to learn to be good, on my own. Or better, find someone who can be a good mentor for me. And I've got a few people I can think of that might be willing and able to do that for me.

What I've really got to worry about is getting a decent internship, since that really will be an opportunity to learn a lot, along with a good supervisor. I should probably start looking around for that now.

I don't think counseling is unique in this respect. In any field you go into, there are people who really care about being excellent, and then there's a lot of people being good enough for most things, and some barely acceptable people. It's not the school you go to, or your schooling, that makes you one or the other. It's how you approach your work, how much you strive for excellence.

But man, I find that disappointing. It's been my pet project for a while, to create education that actually follows good pedagogy, along with good common sense, and good humanity. There is such a dearth of it. And I think it's because everybody is going 150 miles per hour with their hair on fire, trying to prop up a falling down burning building, that nobody has the bandwidth for the careful consideration necessary to think through and implement these things in a good way. It's all just bandaids. Maybe that's what's going on with our whole government. Everyone is moving so quickly, they keep making things worse, and feeling like they have to move even more quickly.

I'm currently thinking about a personal philosophy that I want to call "Essentialism" about doing what is really important, and putting a cap on all the other stuff. A limit. Not wasting time, money, energy, etc. This is not a new idea, nor is it my idea, but it feels like an important idea for me, for now. And probably for a lot of people. Our consumer, more is better, rush culture is making us all sick, making the earth sick. It doesn't lead to lasting happiness or satisfaction, it seems to lead to emptiness and waste and anxiety and depression.

What does make us happy is love, connection to others, time to savor and feel gratitude, being of service, using our gifts, being in nature and relation and reality. And yes, play, and creativity and beauty. But that doesn't have to be gotten via having lots of stuff.

As I sit in a room full of stuff that is waiting to be organized, I am made extremely aware that the having of lots of stuff comes at a steep price. It takes away your time. It takes away your peace of mind. It takes away your attention.

It's not a good idea to try and 'do all the things.' Because your time is limited and non-replenishable, and there is not enough of it to do all the things. You can only do a very few of the things. So rather than just going down the list, trying to do them all, it would be better to single out the most important ones, and do those first.

Do what's important, and let go of the rest. Have what's important, let go of the rest. I think that's kind of the idea of essentialism for me. 

"Important" is a very nebulous term, and the actual practice of doing this in a good way seems like something that could take a while to figure out. How to decide what's important. How to do this in a way that brings joy, and isn't just another way to feel shamed or like something is wrong with you or like you need to give up all the things that make you happy.

I'm pretty sure there's already a book called "essentialism" so maybe I add a subtitle to give a bit more meaning. Maybe "Essentialism: practical philosophy for joy and peace" or something like that to give the flavor.

In any case, I'm not really trying to sell anything, this is the philosophy and practice that I want to integrate into my own life, for my own joy and peace.

-I Out

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