“Take heed: you do not find what you do not seek.”
English Proverb
Beyond the Quote (56/365)
Obviously, right? Well… Maybe not so obvious. The concept is easily understood, of course. If you’re playing hide and seek with your kids, for example, and you send them off to hide, but you choose not to seek them out (that was mean of you), then they won’t be found. Until of course, they come out seeking you so that they can yell at you for not playing the game with them properly (and for being mean)! If you don’t seek, you won’t find. If you don’t go out looking for cars, you won’t find a car. If you don’t seek advice or help, you won’t find advice or help. If you don’t look for the good in people, you won’t find the good in people. Where this concept becomes, “not so obvious” is when you want to find but don’t know how to seek (or aren’t even aware that you’re not seeking).
When it comes to looking for a car, seeking is incredibly easy (almost too easy). We have websites, apps, commercials, friends, family, local dealerships, etc. that make seeking a breeze. In fact, what’s scary is that in today’s world, once the web knows you’re looking for a car, it will start seeking for you (by showing you car advertisements that follow you across the web). Once your friends and family know you’re seeking, they’ll start sending you car ideas, pictures, and websites. You’ll even start looking at the cars on the road differently because it’s a reoccurring thought in your mind. And what you might realize is that when it comes to material purchases, our environment is designed to make seeking “stuff” (aka spending money) as easy as possible. Heck, our environments are even laid out to make us seek out things (to consume or buy) that we didn’t even know we wanted in the first place! That’s the power (and danger) of advertising and multi-media.
In contrast, however, looking for the good in people might not be so easy. We all want to believe that looking for the good in people is something that we do, but how exactly do we find the good in people? Does your monkey mind let you break away from thoughts of judgement, comparison, and jealousy? Or are you finding the flaws, weaknesses, and mistakes in people that only make your monkey mind feel better without even realizing it? Are you able to seek past people’s flaws, weaknesses, and mistakes which are many times, glaring and obvious? Are you willing to do the work to reprogram your mind to see people in a more positive light? This is where the act of seeking takes on a more complex meaning.
How about the meaning of life? I’m sure we all, at some level, want to know what the meaning of our life is. But how do we seek out that answer? It’s not so obvious. Are you too distracted by the never ending timelines? Are the binge-worthy series eating up all of your down time? When was the last time you binged on seeking out the meaning of life/ living? You’d think that that would be a binge-worthy topic? But evidently, the ease of seeking TV shows beats the challenge of seeking out deep answers. And this same thought is true for other questions that you might want to know the answers to: How can I get past this obstacle? How can I become more happy? How can I improve the quality of my life? How can I live more presently? These are all questions that we might want to find out the answers to, but until we buckle down and learn how to seek properly (and actually do the proper seeking), we certainly won’t find. For me, seeking answers to any of life’s questions always starts with books and podcasts. They have opened up my mind to the depth of human thinking. And that’s where I recommend you start too—if, of course, you hope to find. Because, take heed, the answers won’t just find you.
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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