Parents tell their children a lot about the willpower and discipline necessary to accomplish any mission. I remember that in the books of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, the importance of having a strong will was often emphasized. Although it was an idea I didn't like in my teenage years, over time I started to care about the will issue as well.
Who can deny the importance of willpower? On the other hand, to what extent does it make sense for a person to spend every day struggling with her/himself? Work harder, eat less, spend less, and don't smoke. Moreover, there are very few people who can implement all these recommendations. And I think I'm one of these people. I managed to quit smoking at the beginning of this year, and I don't think I'll ever start again.
In North America, there is an idiom like ”smoking like a Turk". Another version of this idiom is “smoking like an Iranian.” I had heard this from the owner of a bar where I went to have a beer with my friends. I'm not sure whether it is true. My close friends continue to smoke like Turks, it seems that I am not a member of a rational generation. Or the friends I have chosen may be problematic.
Just as smoking is a habit, so is not smoking. Two things are necessary to a person: Good friends and good habits. I think I have good friends, putting aside their flaws like smoking. As for my habits, it's a little complicated. It's good for my health to walk 5 kilometers every day. However, I also have a bad habit of questioning my decisions over and over again.
Lao Tzu's book Tao The Ching emphasizes the importance of letting oneself go with the flow. I had read the English translation of this book by Ursula K. LeGuin. More precisely, the Turkish version of the book was translated from Chinese to English by Ursula K. LeGuin. This book, which is considered the sacred text of Taoism, was about the road and the power of the road. While life was told through the image of the river, the virtues of being caught in the flow were mentioned.
Following the advice to get carried away with the flow, I decided to publish an article every day on Hive. It will be good for me if this turns into a habit. Maybe one day I'll be like the butcher who didn't need to blunt the knife mentioned in Tao The Ching. The master butcher learned the anatomy of animals thoroughly, so he did his job effortlessly, and therefore his knife never blunted. Although it is not appropriate for the spirit of our time to tear animals apart with a knife, I think it is a nice analogy.
Actions that are often repeated and become a habit can indeed be performed with low effort. It's like a person doesn't pay attention to where she/he is passing on the way home from work.
And sometimes I say that maybe the main thing is that a person knows what she/he doesn't know. Because if we are aware of what we don't know, we may have a desire to find out. If we have enough willpower and energy, we can even learn that thing. We begin to practice what we have learned, and eventually, we can turn it into a habit. So we can reach the stage of not knowing what Lao Tzu states a lot in his book.
Many wise people have put forward useful opinions. However, the dynamics of daily life can be different. I think it's best to take a middle ground and move forward.
Thank you for reading.
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It is always good advise not to go to the extremes and to be moderate when delaing with life
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