How does one make the smallest decisions in life? How do you decide how to approach a creative project? Why even start a creative project? How do you decide if you should take up the habit of exercising regularly, or drinking tea instead of coffee every day?
How do you decide how to treat someone when you feel hurt by them? How do you decide what the limits of your kindness are? How do you navigate the grey space of moral and ethical dilemmas that have big consequences?
How do you decide if you should settle for what you have, or dream bigger and push for more? How do you decide what is enough? How do you know if seeing yourself as a good or bad person vs. a neutral person is more productive?
There are so many situations in life that require us to make choices, so which model or framework should you be using that makes decision-making like this easier on the mind?
By my observation, the right ideas are those that can set you free from the shackles of your own, and other people’s limiting beliefs. With the right ideas in mind, people with no water could gather the courage, inspiration, and knowledge to build a water supply system. Without an empowering perspective, they could easily settle for their current inefficient methods for getting water.
With the right mindset, a creative person could consider a creative block just a part of the process instead of taking things personally, getting discouraged, and completely giving up on their craft.
With an informed perspective, a reasoner could develop more humility to always check their thinking for biases and sharpen their thinking, communication, and reasoning skills and get closer and closer to truth over time, and even benefit others around them.
I think this is why I also feel interested in checking out and studying religion. Perhaps, by studying religions or different philosophies, or by coming across an insightful YouTube comment, or a remark made by a child, or by observing how another person lives their life, I could gather droplets of truth that would empower me if I adopted them in my life.
A lot of the time (if not all), actions stem from how we think about things. What if we could find the right ideas that added positivity to our lives and led us to brighter futures?
This possibility is what always keeps me curious, and this is why I have enjoyed recording some of the ideas I found useful on this website. Perhaps some of these ideas are useful for everyone, perhaps not. Perhaps I only understand the tip of the iceberg of these ideas and will have a developed understanding of them as I gain more life experience.
Whatever the case, I think I’ll always be a student searching for, and experimenting with the best ideas to live by.
Faiza 