Depending on people all the time is like re-election season—candidates are everywhere to annoy you until you vote for them.
The reality of all this is that, the more frequently these annoying candidates pop up, the less chance they have of us actually voting for them. And the reality of relying on people is that you lose appreciation when you don’t do things yourself.
Let’s Imagine
If you had a group of people working for you. You have the power to make them do anything at your dispense. That homework that you don’t feel like doing? Done. Coming up with an innovation for your company? Finished.
So where am I going with this?
What I’m really saying is that every single one of us is born an incompetent fool. You were not born a genius, and neither was Albert Einstein.
If we continue to depend on others to do everything for us, we will grow up to have a brain of a peacock. I learned this the hard way when I depended too much on others. I am that idiot who asks for homework answers when it had been long overdue. I just wanted an easy way out.
When test time came around, I had no idea how to answer some of the questions. Do you know why? Because most of it came from homework problems, which I did not do. So like the test images that you see floating around the internet, those were likely my leaked paper scores that went viral.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that life is like a huge test itself.
The homework that we all hate doing is the only way of passing our test. Everything that we perform daily is what we have learned throughout life.
Many of us depend on others because we are either too lazy or lack skills to do it. Whether it’d be calling for help or a favor, these things are the easy way out. It will add up over time to procrastination. Perhaps even decrease our potential intelligence that could have been gained.
Are you doing your homework?
Or are you asking around just to get answers?
So your grass needs some cutting; your dishes need some cleaning; that murky car of yours needs a wash. What are you waiting for? Don’t just depend on others to do it for you.
There’s an actual beauty of getting something done yourself. For example, when I had no idea how to make a video. I had to learn everything from scratch, and I mean everything.
From aiming the camera right, to holding my breath to keep the camera still, it was all a learning experience.
Where’s the beauty in all of this you wonder?
It’s that you see the whole technical side of what goes behind this. It’s that you understand how everything works, and that you aren’t living dubious.
Does it not bother you when you’re itching to know something, but you can’t exactly find the answer? It sure bothers me, like an itch that I can’t reach behind my back.
If there is one thing that feels great, it’s that you are educated. It’s that you are confidence because you know how it works. And it’s that you are able to relief that itch mentally.
(Or maybe even physically!)
But not everyone feels this way.
(Sadly)
Some rather not care about why things work the way they do. Fine by me. Not everyone wants to expand their brain to be more than the size of a peacock.
By not allowing yourself to learn things, you will never appreciate the details of it.
When I saw the technical side of video producing, I told myself I will never see movies and TV the same way. Perhaps this is a good or a bad thing to some. However, it gives you a different approach when you face similar situations again. You will see both sides differently. Maybe with less bias. (or even more!)
Here’s another example,
The people who take out your trash early in the morning go through something you probably do not notice. They wake up as early as 2 AM to get ready for work. For some, that’s the time that we go to bed. So by the time you wake up, the trash would have magically disappeared.
Do you also know that feeling of taking a test; when you feel great knowing all of the answers? The feeling of knowing how your life works is a very similar feeling to taking a test when you know each and every answers. So learn something each day. If you don’t know how to do something, learn to do it.
This post first appeared on Feel Driven.
