03.30.2022 Tags: #Big_Picture_Ideas Links: The concepts that drive my life > Intention Intention then implementation I feel like this concept is quite an important one that I have stumbled upon fairly recently. It really feels like it all started when I first looked into obsidian and Zettlekasten in the first place. The idea of how things are connected truly fascinated me and I wanted to think about it more and more. Not only did I find the idea of a "web of knowledge" pretty cool, but there has been something else bothering me recently. It really started when I was filling out my daily stats and I was putting the values in for what my diet was for the day when I realized, "Why the hell am I doing this, what does a 4 out of 5 on my daily diet even mean?". This question bugged me, but I just filed it away in my task inbox as something to be looked after at a latter date. But then it really started eating at me. "Why do I do the things that I do?". I think just over a few days of marinating in the back of my head I slowly started to realize the magnitude of what this question actually meant. I started to ask the question "Why?" whenever I did anything, and the more I answered the more I realized all my ideas were connected together at some point or another. The idea that all these seemingly separate topics need to connect is something that I also just stumbled upon, but a bit further back than when I came up with the idea of intention and implementation. I felt as though all the ideas I had were really just disconnected, and that I would try to focus on one idea only to fail and throw it to the side. I think that intentionality is the link between all of my ideas. I had been looking for a strong bridge to cross the gap and I think that this may be it. Whenever I would ask myself why, I would be shuttled through the network of all my ideas. Let's look at an example so you can see what I mean. I ask myself every morning why do I take a cold shower. Well I take a cold shower because it helps build my discipline. Okay, but why do I need to build any discipline? That one is easy, discipline is very important for keeping me on track with my goals, and doing things even though I may not always want to do them. Why do I want to stay on track with my goals? The only way to actually achieve my goals is through being consistent in what I do over a long period of time. Okay but why do I want to achieve my goals? I want to achieve my goals because my goals are important to reaching my true dream. Sure that is great but why do you want a dream? Well that is the whole purpose for being alive obviously! From just asking a simple question about taking a shower, we managed to really get up there and discuss the meaning of life! That is why the question of "Why?" is truly so powerful. It can act as a map of thoughts, feelings and ideas. A good way to really make sure that what your doing is the right thing for you is by just seeing if the actions your taking right now link back up to a larger part of your life. If they don't then well maybe you shouldn't spend your time doing it as much. Why do you eat chips all day? Well I like to eat them. Okay why do you like to eat them? uhh they taste good? As you can see, the intentions behind the things we can do can either stretch on up to our purpose in life, or it can be pretty open and shut. Now before we continue with implementation, I just wanted to make a quick disclaimer. I do realize that this line of thinking requires a bit of honesty. Often times the people that are addicted to things will rationalize what they are doing to avoid guilt. If you asked them why they are doing something, they will give you an answer that makes them sound 100% confident that they are truly doing what is best for them. While it can be tricky to always say what may be best for you, there are a lot of obvious examples of things that really shouldn't be something that you try and justify. False justifications are very real, and something that anyone can fall into so it is important to always be vigilant. Though to be fair, if you are working hard to improve yourself, you already have a good amount of maturity and honesty with yourself to begin with, otherwise you wouldn't even be trying to change! Maturity isn't really something anyone can teach, it is just one of those things that ripen with age. (Hopefully, some people never get there.) Now that the idea of intentionality is kinda sorta well understood, I would like to move onto the idea of implementation. This idea thankfully is much easier to explain and thus will require a lot less writing. Once you have an idea in your head, and have determined it to be a good idea after questioning your intentions, all you have left to do is simply ask "How do I do this?". If you want bonus points you can even ask yourself, "How do I BEST do this?". That is pretty much it. I can't really offer much advice as to how to best solve your problems since every problem is unique to every person. I also can't give you an IQ test to determine your logical thinking, but I trust you. That is pretty much all there is to it, just cold, dead logic. This is one reason why I love the philosophy of stoicism so much, because it helps with this very idea. Using logic to dissolve our issues to see how we can best put them back together. The topic of stoicism is vast, and better saved for more writings, but all you need to know here is that stoicism is the main vehicle that I use in order tp solve most* of my issues. I really love the idea of intention then implementation because it truly gives you a strong sense of Clarity, another idea I hold in very high regard. By linking together ideas by asking questions, we can get a better picture of how we operate as a whole, and once we understand that we can use these systems to reach our goals.
