Are You Living To Survive, Or Surviving To Live?

Why do you do what you do? This is a question I’ve pondered for a long time, even sparking a YouTube mini-series back in 2012 asking my fellow martial artists why they do what they do…

The question is: why do you do anything in life?

The truth is, we can often become weighed down by all of the things that we have taken on for ourselves—bitten off more than we could chew, as it were—that we don’t end up doing things because we want to do them; rather, we do things because we are forced to do them. Where is the passion? Where is the zest for life? Where is the creativity?

Sadly, the pursuit for such qualities is often overshadowed by the burden we have ultimately placed on ourselves. 

“I have a mortgage.”
“I have a car note.”
“I have a family.”
“I have a dog.”

Sorrowful is the one who has bitten off more than they could chew in pursuit of what they thought they wanted at the time. Joyful is the one who has thought twice before they pursued that which they only believed to want in that moment.

Life is a game of chess, not checkers—we will always be accountable for the very actions that we have chosen for ourselves; so much so that we become enslaved to them. Thus, emphasis should not be placed around the move that you have just made; rather, the move that you are going to make after this one.

Interestingly, there has been a recent movement more toward minimalism in popular culture; and, though there are merits to such a pursuit, I challenge this pursuit with a more freeing and lasting one—making conscious choices.

“Will purchasing this home result in me becoming house-poor?”
“Will buying this car result in me having to pay it off over a 20-year period, such that I’d have to keep my s*itty job?”
“If I bust this nut, am I ready to be locked-in for the rest of my life?”
“Am I ready to walk this thing every single day?”

Conscious choices, not vain minimalism, is the key. Freeing ourselves up by not weighing ourselves down is the pursuit. Living joyfully in all that we do because we have decided to do it is the aim. It is only the brash, the ignorant, the selfish, that think that it is anything otherwise.

So, now, I ask you—why do you do what you do?

-think consciously this time.