Your Life: Now With 33% More Reality

Our lives, for the most part, are ruled by patterns—routines we build and become used to that get us through each day with the greatest efficiency and least stress.

We have rules for how to act when we’re alone, rules for when we’re around others, and rules for how to behave when we’re challenged. We created some of them ourselves, and others we only inherited—from family, friends, society, or our environment.

Patterns keep us comfortable and functioning normally, but once in a while something comes along and throws a wrench in the gears. Every so often, “reality” steps in to remind us that there’s more to life than the small fraction of it we see from inside these patterns.

The normal response to a reality interruption is, “Hey, get out of my way so I can get back to being comfortable.” It’s a temporary distraction that we work to neutralize so we can resume life as usual as quickly as possible.

But what would your life be like if, instead of working to avoid reality interruptions, you actively tried to encourage them? What would the world look like to you if you took the chance to look at it from a different angle?

What would you learn? What would you want to learn? What have you always wondered about but never had the chance to explore?

Reality is only a burden when you try to avoid it to preserve your own comfort. But when you invite it into your life, you start to become more comfortable with the discomfort itself.

If you’d like to invite a little more reality into your life, here are few ideas you can use to get started:

Wake up early, stay up late: Who needs eight hours of sleep every night? I suppose some do, but I don’t think it’s as many as we think. I used to need nine hours of sleep every night just to get out of bed when I worked at a job I hated. Now that I’m excited about the work I do, I’m busier than ever, but rarely sleep more than six. Dreaming is nice, but living is even better. Life happens when you’re awake.

Tell the truth, even when it hurts: Most of our lives are spent lying to everyone around us. When we go out with friends we put on our social mask and hide our insecure side. When we’re with our families we tell them what they want to hear, usually regardless of the truth. We have a mask and a persona and a socially acceptable answer for almost every situation. But what if you just told the truth all the time? Would it liberate you?

Do something that scares you every day: Life lived always within your comfort zone is hardly a life lived at all. Rather than making risk-taking an occasional pursuit, what if you did it every day? What would your life be like if you spent 10 minutes each day doing something that scared you?

Say hello to a stranger: All the greatest people I’ve ever met were strangers first. So were all the worst. So was everyone in between. When you were a child, strangers were fascinating new friends just waiting to be made. What happened? Who do you see on a regular basis but you’ve never talked to? Here’s your chance.

Skip a deadline to do something important: Our lives are ruled by deadlines and mandates. If you’re working on something important to you, then the more deadlines the merrier, I say. But if you aren’t? Then what? What if you skipped one? What if you did something more important instead? Would your life fall apart? Would you lose your job, your family, and all your friends? Or would you come alive with a new sense of purpose? Only one way to find out…

Make art and show it to someone: Your most personal creations aren’t as sacred as you think, and if you have a gift, then why keep it to yourself? If the purpose of art is to change people, then people have to see/hear/touch/taste/smell it to be changed. Your art can’t exist in a vacuum; then it’s just matter. Only when you expose it can it do the job it’s meant for.

Take your own crazy advice for once: We have the solutions for everyone else’s problems in the world, but damn if it isn’t infinitely more difficult to find solutions for our own. The reason is actions come with consequences, and advice alone comes with no action and no responsibility. If you really believe in your own ideas, then apply them to yourself? What are you afraid of?

Tell someone a secret about yourself: To be truly alive is to be vulnerable. If you want to feel all the raw emotions that come with being human, then open yourself up to judgment and ridicule. You can shield yourself from it if you like, but what, really, will you have gained?

Stand up for something you believe in: Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.” When someone does something wrong in front of you, you have two actions to pick from: say something or do nothing. Both have consequences. In the end, which is worse?

Take the long way home: Patterns are easy to fall into, and even easier to remain stuck in. Sometimes patterns are necessary, but they always come at the cost of an opportunity to understand more about the world. Patterns hide 90% of reality and expedite the remaining 10% to the point that it almost doesn’t matter anymore. What if you took the side streets home tonight?

“Reality” is a highly subjective matter, but it’s also a rarity in almost any form. However you perceive it, I hope you find it a useful interruption to everyday life—something that makes you stop and see the world in a slightly different way.

How do you add more reality to your life? Let us know in the comments.

~~~~~

Image by: aliceinthepoetsheartland