You Don't know what you are doing, but You act like You do.

They've been telling you this for years.

Pick a passion. Do what you love. Look for that sense of purpose. That sense of meaning that will drive you to move "forward". Whatever that means. Constantly moving that needle of self improvement. How we want to see ourselves in the future. A stronger and more confident version of yourself.

So you implement this. You get rigid with a routine and discipline. You start acting out what you WANT to be or at least what you think you want to be. Most likely, thought is your main driver and motivator in this scenario. You follow mental models and even manipulate older ones feed to you to fit more towards you. It makes you feel more unique. You "feel" more adjusted as a competent and productive individual.

We look up to people that think they know what they are doing. Understandable. We are masterful imitators. It's a mask. We only see a small portion of who they really are. The edited and condensed less messy version if you will. We don't necessarily see the struggle or the active process of trial and error for the most part. We look up to the cream of the crop. The survival bias.

How much does thinking that we know what we are doing is involved with establishing our "identity"?

We identify with the collection of ideas that we think we know what are doing and "moving forward". This is all conditioning from the past. In actuality, we are acting on some level of faith. We act from what we know into the unknown. Of course we take in account all the modes of reason and sense data from the world around us and then use that to establish and broaden the ideas we believe, but essentially when we think we know what we are doing, deep down there is still confusion. That confusion comes from insecurity. The insecurity of not having the awareness and stillness to be with the flow of what is. We gravitate so much towards the "what should be" that we escape the peaceful emptiness within ourselves. We miss the little things that could essentially broaden our awareness and being. so BE IT.

Can an identity become a type of distraction?

If we use identity to have us be more separate or more unique from the world around us, what does it actually do for us? It contributes more to fragmentation and less unity. You want to think of yourself as a unique snowflake. You are. But how does building up walls, labels, desires and interest integrate us into the totality of existence? Identity can be mask. Identity can be a wall that doesn't let us see ourselves without judgment and condemnation. When we can observe the nature of our inner workings, then we can start to see other people. The insecurities we see in others are just mirrors of our own unresolved issues.

We can only be as free as our attention. What are we seeing? What are we trying to manipulate?
Do we have these ideas or do these ideas and constructs have us?

Masks are comfortable.
Masks are convenient.
What are you hiding?

Do we even have that much control on what we believe or the narratives and stories we choose to follow? They are all part of the nature of thought. Thought is not only language based, but visual. Do you use words to describe what an elephant looks like in your head? Think about it.

On the idea of the illusion of control, we like to think that thought holds a great deal in molding action when in actuality action shapes thought. We act most of the time out of unconsciousness or emotive grounds. People may claim we are rational beings, but we are more rationalizing beings because we tend to create reasons for why we did something after we did it. That's how we learn. That's how we create more actions in the future.

You can make the claim that free will doesn't exist.
It's ok if it doesn't. It's a construct.
You can act as if it does exist and see what happens.
Live that experience. SEE what HAPPENS.

It comes down to seeing the distinction between "your ideas" and life as it is. Are you a slave to your own personalized ideology? Do you get caught in the compulsory nature of thought? The self is a product of the past. A collective distortion of experiences and memories. All fading and all factors of your own conditioning. So from these parts of the past that make up the self, we act on what we think we need to move forward. We can only do our best or what we think we know is our best from what we know at the time. Most of this sprouts from unawareness and unconsciousness. There is an underlying illusion of control. So even if there is are so many factors that dictate our actions, we can act as if we have more control than we actually do. We can take the limits in front of us and make them work to the best possible outcome. You can act as if you know what you are doing.

You might be driving the car, but who built the car? How much of that car are you actually driving?

So does it matter what you think? Does it matter what your methodology is if you don't actually act on it?

Best things to do.
Ask yourself questions. Do not over think it.
TRY IT. See what happens.
Observe. Test. Repeat. Learn.

Create it. Manifest what you think you want and start from there. You most likely don't know what you want, but Move towards what you think you want.

If you don't know what you are doing, ACT IT OUT!


DG