Focus and Discipline vs. Caring (Blog)

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

It has a more specific meaning for me because I regard it as "caring for" rather than "caring about." It means caring for people, animals, and the planet as a whole. The emphasis is on caring through action rather than just feeling the emotion.

A caring action could be something as simple as saying a few supportive words to someone or giving them a hug. Writing a new article would be another example if it's motivated by the desire to help people. Not eating animal products or buying leather are also actions motivated by caring. Bigger projects can be motivated by caring as well.

Still, you cannot care for everything equally, you still have to focus your caring onto a smaller target than "people, animals, and the planet".

For instance, it would be a caring action to feed someone who is starving. But since you cannot feed every starving person, you have to somehow choose who to care for and who not to care for. Same with giving out supportive advice or hugs; there's just not enough of you to go around.

But yes, when phrased this way, it is at least a more specific target than "focus". Best of luck and I'll look forward to seeing how this plays out in the coming year.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

Still, you cannot care for everything equally, you still have to focus your caring onto a smaller target than "people, animals, and the planet".

For instance, it would be a caring action to feed someone who is starving. But since you cannot feed every starving person, you have to somehow choose who to care for and who not to care for. Same with giving out supportive advice or hugs; there's just not enough of you to go around.

But yes, when phrased this way, it is at least a more specific target than "focus". Best of luck and I'll look forward to seeing how this plays out in the coming year.

It's really interesting how Steve's posts either connect with people or they don't. I can totally tell that you didn't really "get" this article at the same level that I did. I'm not saying you didn't understand it, but just that it didn't have any real meaning to you.

For me, it had a lot of meaning, but there are other articles that Steve has written which to me are like "Uhh, so what...what does that even mean?" while other people are saying "Oh my God, Steve this is the best article you have ever written! Will you be the father of my children!?" and I just want to roll my eyes, LOL.

It's so weird, but I'm starting to see that I think Steve channels this stuff for a very specific subset of people. Any article he writes is only aimed at like maybe 1% or 0.1% of the people on this forum, but for that 1% it's like "Holy Crap he's talking TO ME!"

Then the next 20 articles can be like "yeah, yeah...whatever" and then BAM another one that connects.

[Lauxa]

Originally Posted by impaul99

It's really interesting how Steve's posts either connect with people or they don't. I can totally tell that you didn't really "get" this article at the same level that I did. I'm not saying you didn't understand it, but just that it didn't have any real meaning to you.

For me, it had a lot of meaning, but there are other articles that Steve has written which to me are like "Uhh, so what...what does that even mean?" while other people are saying "Oh my God, Steve this is the best article you have ever written! Will you be the father of my children!?" and I just want to roll my eyes, LOL.

It's so weird, but I'm starting to see that I think Steve channels this stuff for a very specific subset of people. Any article he writes is only aimed at like maybe 1% or 0.1% of the people on this forum, but for that 1% it's like "Holy Crap he's talking TO ME!"

Then the next 20 articles can be like "yeah, yeah...whatever" and then BAM another one that connects.

Actually I think this post was a little scary for me. It keeps coming back to mind to haunt me. I am afraid of caring too much, afraid to be sucked into a black hole of others' needs and perhaps to somehow lose myself. Whenever I affirm on this I quickly feel a sense of overwhelm. So I wouldn't say that this post didn't connect for me, I'm just not sure how to process it yet.

Hopefully Steve will spend 2011 writing a ton of great posts on how caring is impacting his life and the joys and pitfalls of making this a top priority. I'm looking forward to reading them!