The Two Basic Approaches to Life

There are two basic ways in which we can approach our lives.

The first approach is the goal-oriented approach. We can decide on the optimal conditions in our life that we wish to realize, set goals to realize these conditions, and utilize our human energy, i.e. our Personal Power, to realize these conditions.

This approach enables us to radically alter the initial set of conditions that we inherited from our upbringing.

The second approach is what might be called the Zen approach. Using this approach, we do not strive to achieve goals or alter our present circumstances. Instead, we simply use our Personal Power to perceive our lives as being ideal exactly as they are and appreciate all that we have and all that we are right here and right now.

Both are valid approaches, and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Likewise, we may utilize both approaches at various times in our lives, and in fact, it is invariably necessary that we do so.

Here and Now is the One Moment of Experience. That being the case, we might argue that there is no need to establish and pursue goals. Since we can only experience our lives in This Present Moment, we are always right here, right now. Therefore, all we need to do is to perceive our lives better in order to experience our lives in a better way. The ability to realize the experience of happiness and well-being here and now is the ultimate expression of Personal Power.

That being said, we are by nature creatures of action. It is necessary for us to learn to do things and become proficient at them. Just as we can use our Personal Power to simply think better thoughts in This Present Moment, we can also utilize our Personal Power to take actions in This Present Moment that we perceive will in some way improve the quality of our lives.

Viewed in this way, there is no conflict between the goal-oriented approach and the Zen approach to living. We take action in This Present Moment to either think better thoughts about our lives, and perceive it as perfect as it is here and now, or we take an action because we believe it will enhance our lives in some way. Both "Acts of Power" accomplish the same goal: to improve the quality of our lives.

We can, if we wish, approach our goals from a state of completion. That is, we can perceive life as being perfect exactly as it is here and now, and then strive to achieve a goal simply because we want to, because we want to experience a different set of condions in our lives.

Take exercise as an example. If we are not accustomed to exercising, exercise can be an unpleasant and exhausting affair. Surely we'd be better off just perceiving that our bodies and our level of fitness are perfectly fine right here and right now; therefore there is no need to exert ourselves physically in that manner.

However, we may recognize that our lives may be enhanced by becoming more physically fit. Exercising may enable us to become physically stronger, have more endurance, and perhaps look and feel better. Therefore, we can pursue the goal of physical fitness through exercise, enjoying the process along the way as much as the end result.

In contrast, we may take the Zen approach and decide that we don't really need to do anything. We can, in fact, sit on our couch all day and just have a great attitude about life and be happy without really exerting ourselves. And as long as we are genuinely happy doing so, that approach is fine. There is certainly a time and place for doing nothing and simply exercising our perceptual muscles to perceive our lives as being just fine exactly as they are, and in fact, many of us would be highly benefit from becoming more skilled at doing just that.

It is important to recognize that at various times in our lives our challenge will be to take action and achieve particular goals, and at other times, our challenge will be to adopt a Zen-like approach and simply perceive our lives as being just fine as they are right here and right now. The key is to always be fluid and able to adapt well to the challenge of This Present Moment, whatever it may be.

The Fluid Perspective

What is a fluid perspective? A fluid perspective is the ability to adjust one's perspective to the demands of This Present Moment so as to maximize one's ability to experience well-being right here and right now.

If we have a rigid perspective that remains fixed regardless of what events and circumstances occur, our sense of well-being will end up depending upon whether the events and circumstances properly correspond to our rigid perspective.

For instance, if we only accept warm sunny days, we will have a difficult time enjoying our lives whenever it is cold and cloudy out. If we loathe being caught in traffic and long lines, we will become impatient and agitated every time we find ourselves stuck in one of them. If we are attached to the idea of our favorite team winning, we will be disappointed when they lose.

Conversely, if we have a fluid perspective, we will find a way to appreciate cloudy and cold days. We will find a way to turn being stuck in traffic and long lines into quality time. And we will be able to allow life be just fine even if our team loses.

It is perfectly fine to have preferences. It is perfectly acceptable to prefer warm sunny days to cloudy ones, quick, free-flowing traffic and lines to backed up traffic and lines, and our team winning to losing. But where we tend to go wrong is when we remain attached to these preferences even when our circumstances are clearly otherwise.

There are two basic types of circumstances: those we have control over, and those that we have no control over. For circumstances we have control over, we can take an action to change them. For circumstances over which we have no direct control, the only thing we can change is our perspective in relation to them. A fluid perspective enables us to adjust our perspective to accept circumstances that we would normally reject and resist with a rigid perspective.

Developing a fluid perspective takes practice. The way to practice is simply to find ways to appreciate circumstances that we would normally find undesirable. For example, the next time we find ourselves in a long line or stuck in traffic, instead of going through our usual routine of annoyance and impatience, we can simply practice patience. We can smile and think to ourselves how wonderful it is to be exactly right where we are here and now.

Obviously, we may not inherently feel this way. But we can act as if we do. When we make the effort to accept a normally undesirable circumstance, we find that we can in fact feel OK in these moments. With practice, we can develop the ability to feel just as good when we are stuck in traffic as we do when we are relaxing by a pool on a hot sunny day with a nice cool drink in hand.

The practice of adjusting our perspective in the face of undesirable circumstances is a form of "spiritual weightlifting," and can greatly enhance our Personal Power, which in turn can enhance the quality of our Moment of experience, and thus, our lives as a whole. This is because it is very seldom that our lives are an ongoing highlight reel of ideal circumstances. We all experience "down time," and plenty of it. It is very easy to feel good and be happy when our circumstances perfectly match our expectations and everything is going well. It is much more difficult to feel good when our circumstances fall short of our expectations and things do not go according to plan. If we can learn to adopt a fluid perspective and improve the quality of our "down time, this will improve the quality of our life experience as a whole. With practice, we can learn to feel good in This Present Moment while facing circumstances that in the past may have caused us considerable discomfort.

It should be mentioned that there may be times when we encounter extreme circumstances during which we cannot reasonably expect to fully adopt a fluid perspective to feel perfectly fine in those moments. Examples of these include when encountering a serious illness, or dealing with the sudden, untimely loss of a loved one. However, even while these extreme circumstances may not be reasonably overcome simply by adopting a fluid perspective, our ongoing practice at doing so in less-extreme conditions will at the very least enable us to adopt a perspective in these circumstances that is more fluid than it would have been otherwise, which will enable us to better cope with the pain even while not fully eliminating it.