Do We Invest it, or Do We Spend it?

How much of what we do in our lives is nothing more than extraneous crap? How much time do we spend just doing things for the sake of doing them and because we don't really have to put any effort into them, but that don't really do anything with any lasting significance? What happens when our jobs are there only to pay the bills? Do we create ways to have significance in other areas of our lives, or do we come home, vedge out in front of the tv, eat dinner, and go to bed? Where is that extra time spent? Do we invest it, or do we spend it?

I know it's easy when the work/jobs of life have worn us out to just let go and turn our extra time into "me time". It's the end of the day, everything has piled up, and it doesn't seem like it really matters all that much. I've been there. I've done that. Everyone has done that. Most us us still do it (myself included). What i've found over the years is that when i do that... When i spend my time just as "me time" i tend to get grumpy and easily irritated. I spend that time doing things that i know are pointless and useless, and my attitude shows it. When i turn around and instead invest that time in other people and other situations, i tend to have a much clearer and hopeful attitude about life. That time invested no longer seems like time wasted, and life has much more of a purpose.

Of course that in turn creates other problems like the pointless mediocrity of a purposeless job becomes that much more difficult when it is no longer surrounded by more pointless mediocrity. I guess you just can't win for losing. I so can't wait to get back into a job that actually has a purpose.

Image from Bright Meadow used under cc license.

So What?

I guess that i just don't get it sometimes. It amazes me how important it is to people, how important it is to me at times, to win. As time has gone by i'm starting to recognize more and more how driven we are, not only to do well and succeed, but to be number 1. Not that being number one is necessarily bad, but too often being number one comes at the cost of everything / everyone else.

I like to watch movies sometimes. They can be very entertaining. Every movie has a lesson. Every movie has a purpose. Every movie attempts to teach you something. At least every good movie does. Time and time again what i see in movies is the attempt to succeed. It is the attempt to overcome. It is the attempt to defeat everyone else and come out on top against all odds. It's about showing / proving to someone or something that you are better than them. There have been a couple of movies that i have seen lately that have had this common pattern, this common theme, and when i see them i walk away wondering, "So what?"

So the main character won, so what! He beat his opponent. He beat him soundly, so what! All he succeeded in doing is proving that he could win. The character won the battle, but in the end he lost the war. He overcame all of the obstacles. He defeated all the challenges. He succeeded! He won! So what? I saw a movie recently, i don't remember what it was, but i do remember walking away thinking. He won, who cares. I think that the statement would have been stronger and the movie better if he had in showing that he could win, instead of destroying and humiliating his opponent, rather let go and let his opponent win. I think it would have turned the movie from a mediocre one to a blockbuster. Instead, it was all about winning at the cost of everyone / everything else. Maybe the opponent deserved it? So what? Is the success worth the price? It's funny what people are capable of, what i am capable of, when it's all about Me, the big "I".

Image from Robby Garbett used under cc license.