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SAME
OLD THING
YES!
YOU CAN SOLVE ALL OF
YOUR PROBLEMS BY DOING THE SAME OLD THING!
There's
nothing like doing the SAME OLD THING everyday. It's the totally overlooked
SECRET OF HAPPINESS That man has been searching for SINCE TIME BEGAN.
Get up every morning
at the same time. Brush your teeth in exactly the same way as every
other morning. Eat the same thing for breakfast every monday. Go to
the same job, come home to the same family, watch the same shows on
TV. Why does this make people happy? NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE!
But just think...
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IT MAKES
TINY THRILLS INTO BIG THRILLS.
Going to a
movie and buying some popcorn is no big deal. But it would be
a big deal IF YOU HAD JUST SPENT TEN YEARS IN PRISON. If you do
the same things in the same way everyday, then when you do something
a little differently it does becomes a Big Thrill. Someone else
who leads an unstructured life would have to try hangliding
or robbing a bank to experience the thrill you could get
just by walking around a different block on your daily 12.5 minute
walk between your shower and breakfast. You can experience immense
thrills without danger because you are into THE SAME OLD THING!
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BOREDOM
IS BEAUTIFUL
Boredom is
one of the things people hate most and will do anything to avoid.
People will do dangerous things they don't even like and get into
big trouble and wonder why later just to avoid being bored for
even a minute.
Still, if
you just let yourself be bored and keep on doing whats boring
you, you often find that after a while great things happen. Practicing
the piano everyday is boring, but you keep doing it anyway. Eventually
you find yourself at a party where, for the first time in you'r
life, beautiful mysterious strangers are anxious to go home with
you just because you can play a few tunes.
What is even
more amazing is that after a while you'r no longer bored while
doing these boring things. In fact, you start to enjoy them, then
you start to love them, and soon you can't live without them.
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TIME SMOOTHES
ALL STONES
Many problems
in life and the art of living are just too complex to solve quickly.
For instance the problem of where to put the rubber bands you
take off the newspaper each day, in the trash, on a doorknob,
or in the junk drawer in your kitchen. The answer is an individual
thing.
If you do
the same things everyday you eventually work out perfect solutions
to each problem! A perfect way of squeezing toothpaste out of
the tube, a perfect way of making your morning cup of coffee,
a perfect way of reading the newspaper. Then you combine all these
perfect operations into perfect systems. After a while you notice
your life has become simple and smooth, like one of those beautiful
shiny stones you find on the beach, all the rough edges worn away
by endless repetition. While you'r days become easier and easier,
until they seem to be totally effortless, you notice that you'r
getting more and more done. Eventually all the things you used
to run everywhichway trying so hard to achieve, like money, power,
fame, self respect, delicious food, good friends and good times,
seem to come pouring in out of nowhere in tremendous quantities
as if from a never ending stream. And all because you turned your
back on the new, the faddish, the latest "now" lifestyle in this
weeks magazine articles, and chose instead to follow the beautifully
boring timeless zen lifestyle that religious masters have endorsed
since time began:
THE
SAME OLD THING!
Other
Columns
Getting
Ready For The Digital Decade
What you WON'T have to know!
The
Big Question
You can learn so much about yourself from one tiny detail of your
behavior, like how you answer THE BIG QUESTION.
Spring
Cleaning
You're living in a zoo! Why not set some animals free?
Snap
Out Of It
It's time to make up your mind! Accept the slob you are or become
the slob you want to be!
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