The tough part about life is the ABSOLUTES:
Two plus two is four, and no more!
Half of two twice is half of four once.
And how about this …
“Everything you deserve is going to take
everything you’ve got!”
For starters, our genes are our genes. That’s it! We’re absolutely and unequivocally stuck with the genes we’ve got for the duration … except for mutations, which are almost always deleterious. And one thing more: Your genes may be “Special”, but it remains to be seen what you will do with them.
And TIME doesn’t stop. It keeps moving. Seconds turn into minutes, etc., with absolute regularity.
A vastly underappreciated absolute is that the body is built to run on “natural” fuel and nutrition … Yuck! (It’s actually very adaptable but is optimally “tuned” to be most efficient with “natural” fuel and nutrition … and not so much otherwise.) [Check out “7 Keys to Awesome Health” by Jana L. Fortner, N.D.]
And Olympians don’t get to be Olympians without pushing themselves to the absolute limits of their endurance … which allows them to build capacity to the absolute limits their genes will allow. [While “doping” can help add capacity, it isn’t allowed … another absolute.]
Red lights are red lights for a reason.
And drinking and driving and drugging and driving and texting and driving absolutely do not mix. Period!
Eat too much sugar, salt and fat, and you’re going to become obese, have high blood pressure, be at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, assorted non-descript miseries and a shortened life. (But don’t they have pills for that … or surgical interventions … or – “well, I can always ‘walk my way back’ to health, if and when I decide it’s time to do so!”)
The good news and bad news about ABSOLUTES is that “slippage” is rarely fatal … until it IS. Destiny is forgiving enough and provides sufficient latitude to fly substantially under the radar of absolutes until we “Get It” – otherwise the species would never have survived! You can uneventfully roll through stop signs, providing there are no other vehicles or police to contend with. And you can load up on an occasional high calorie meal without dire consequences, unless you make it a habit, or it becomes an obsession or an addiction.
Unfortunately, our natural inclination is one of pushing the maximum boundaries that “slippage” from absolutes will allow. More bluntly, we are hell-bent on seeing how much we can get away with! The unrelenting “Pleasure Center” in the brain demands full (and absolute) engagement. If a little is good, more has to be better. And NOW would be never-so-much-too-soon to go ahead and indulge!
Behavior modifications BACK toward absolutes from the edges of a slippage abyss CAN happen. A non-fatal heart attack will often, but not always, lead to positive lifestyle changes in diet and exercise. A diagnosis of lung cancer, COPD or emphysema will often, but not always, trigger a resolve to stop smoking. Dire destitution from drug and alcohol abuse will often, but not always, trigger a resolve to get help in sobering up. And a near disaster encountered at high speed can lead to more responsible driving.
But there are points of no return –
points beyond which it is impossible to reclaim our full potential
and completely “right the ship”.
In 2014, Oprah Winfrey began a national tour for a program entitled “The Life You Want”.
https://www.facebook.com/lifeyouwanttour. I was curious about how a pursuit of “The Life You Want” might align with absolutes … given that most of our gut-level “wants” fly about as far as one can get in the opposite direction.
It turns out that she raised the ante far above and beyond gut level wants, such as:
- … all the cheese cake, chocolate cake and ice cream sundaes you can eat;
- … all the TV you can watch;
- … all the video games you can play;
- … all the “Nothing” you’d like to do;
- … all the cruises you’d like to take;
- … all the alcohol and drugs you might like to indulge;
- … etc.
She, and the VIP team she assembled, talked about things that were … well … more ULTIMATE or ABSOLUTE wants, such as:
“ … the things that matter in life …
things like joy, resilience, awe, connection and gratitude.”
It turns out that such things are akin to core elements in Maslow’s epitomic “Self Actualization”.
We might add such things as HEALTH, SECURITY, SUSTAINABILITY, SELF-ESTEEM, ALLIANCES and ASSOCIATIONS, SELF-EFFICACY, SELF CONFIDENCE, sense of CONTROL, FREEDOM FROM CONSTRAINT, and ABILITY TO CONTRIBUTE.
Such ascendant Life Mastery goals/ambitions/objectives – ultimate “WANTS” – are not attained with “catch-as-catch-can” wishes, hopes and dreams, total happenstance, or Fate, but by totally committed personal Vectoring toward absolute reckonings.
While absolutes and perfection may be unachievable, excellence is not. And both absolutes and perfection are at least approachable – even as “onward through the fog and fuzziness” we go. The reward for trying is not guaranteed. But the penalties for not giving it our best shot are.
Point to Ponder
Those who are legitimately and measurably “making it”
are investing incredible amounts of time and energy
in absolutes.
So how do we cope with absolutes? Be AWARE, ACKNOWLEDGE, ACCEPT and ALIGN with absolutes. Do the highest, most “right” thing you can do NOW in the circumstances you find yourself NOW, and keep striving to do better. It’s only a matter of time until the absolutes catch up with us … one way or the other. Quartermaster
“Choose something like a star …”
Robert Frost
