Not Good Enough The Way You Are
Back To Tao-Te-Chi Informative Writings
Everywhere we go in our society today, we're told we're not good enough the way we are. We're told that we could look better, feel better, act better, or any number of other such things. The more important question however is "Why?" Not so much why we couldn't be better or why we shouldn't be better… because in general we always could be. The more important why is… "Why are they telling us that we're not good enough the way we are?"
In the end, it isn't because we're not good enough the way we are… because in most cases we are. There are always things we can do to better ourselves, fix ourselves, or improve our lives. That however, is a far cry from not being good enough the way we are. So, again… why are they telling us that we aren't good enough?
What most people fail to realize is that it actually has nothing to do with who we are, what we are, or even what we could be. It actually all comes down to one simple thing… to make money. More specifically, they are doing it to make money at your expense. Not out of any misguided attempts to better your life or improve your situation. It's all done to exploit your fear, your misery, your insecurity, and your overall sense of worthlessness in your own life.
The people that are marketing and selling the products know full well how to exploit you to make you buy their products. They know that if they present that you are not good enough, while in their ads show that the people there are good enough… then you will basically sell your soul to be "Just Like Them!" What everybody fails to understand is that these people aren't better off. They are simply paid actors who are pretending to be better off.
If you were given the opportunity to explore the lives of those people you see in the ads, then you would quickly realize that their lives aren't any different from yours. They have bosses that they have to answer to, they have the same ups and downs in relationships, the same issues over money, and even the same issues over not being good enough. The only difference between them and you is that they were paid to act a certain way it that commercial… That's it!
So then how come we buy into this stuff? Why do we sell ourselves out for what in the end equates to nothing? Why are we so quick to go out and buy all of these products that in the end are actually being used to hurt our lives… not help improve them?
The answer to these questions are basically the same… because we won't allow ourselves to be smart enough to know better, and because we truly don't think we ARE good enough the way we are. The problem is that this is indicative of a much bigger and deeper problem that we are ignoring. The fact that advertisers can exploit this weakness within us to make us buy stuff we don't even need, shows us that there is something with in us that needs to be fixed.
It's important not to confuse a couple of different situations. There is a difference between buying a product that you actually need and can use, and buying one because you're told you can't live without it. There is also a big difference between buying a product that has something in it that makes it more useable, and buying products that contain things that cost more money but do absolutely nothing. There is even a big difference between buying something that can be used to improve your life, and spending money on a delusion.
Because we as a society are obviously ill-equipped to know the difference between these things… proven by how readily we buy into them… tells us definitively that something about us isn't good enough. That is very different than EVERYTHING about you isn't good enough. If it's something that we can actually look at, address, and work to fix… then it isn't a failure on our part that we have it… it's only a failure when we refuse to do anything about it.
As many people are very fond of saying "ignorance is bliss." What most people fail to realize is that the ignorance is one of the most costly and expensive things on the planet. Ignorance comes at a huge price in our own lives. Unlike buying a product that you pay for just once… at least per individual item… ignorance is something you have to pay for over, and over, and over. Were not just talking about "payment" in the sense of your own life… we also mean financially too.
When you buy into a lot of these crap products, false claims, and manipulative marketing practices… you are required to spend money for nothing. If you spend 25% more to get half as much because you think it's double the value… no matter how you do the math, you are still paying extra for nothing! However what's even worse is when you truly believe that you're getting a deal. That you think the deal is so good that you do it over, and over, and over again. Not only do you buy into it once and essentially get ripped off… but you keep going back to do it again and again.
Of course what people fail to understand in the middle of all this, or that they refuse to see… is that they are encouraging it. That every time it happens you are basically endorsing the people for doing it. You are actually saying "Thank you for manipulating me and ripping me off!" Plus, you are saying very specifically that you are not smart enough to think for yourself or live your own life… that you need the other people to tell you what to think, how to feel, and what to buy.
If at the end of all this you're happy with that life, that you actually like having other people live your life for you… even though you are the one that remains 100% responsible for the consequences (even though you'd like them to be responsible)… then there's no issue! You're obviously happy in that world and don't ever want to come out… so who are we to try and help you to get out of it?
If on the other hand, you don't like living in that world (even if you still want to hold to the idea that everyone else will somehow ultimately be responsible for it) then that leaves you with but one choice… to work towards fixing it. To work towards improving your life so that this no longer needs to happen. Something that if it was as easy as it sounds, you would have done so a long, long time ago… you would have worked to improve your life many, many years back.
This also tells us that what we're dealing with isn't something "simple"… that it's something that has to be rather complex and most likely very complicated too. Otherwise it would be saying fully that we "suck"… that we are not good enough the way we are. Something that we know isn't true because it's not "us" that sucks… it's merely the situation that we find ourselves in. If we deal with these few things that we are working so hard to deny, that still have the power to completely ruin our lives, then we can actually work on improving things.
So in essence, we are buying into all of their crap, lies, and garbage simply to avoid looking at the reality of ourselves. After all, if we're all smart, capable, intelligent, people why then are we buying into such a blatant lie as "You aren't good enough the way you are?" In reality it only leaves two possibilities, 1) Something within us is interfering with our lives and allowing it to happen, or 2) We are in fact nowhere near as smart, capable, or intelligent as we like to think we are. There are no other possibilities that exist! All the other lies, crap, and garbage that we might like to hold onto is all a by-product of the same situation. It's all "stuff" being sold to us by other people who truly do not think we're smart enough to be able to know better.
Your life is in your hands… it's yours to do as you wish. You can choose to give other people control over it, blame them when it doesn't work out, decide the rest of the universe now owes you because of it, and do everything you can to destroy any sense of life you may have had. You can also choose to live your life based on your fears, insecurities, issues, and programming… in which case you will basically end up being a puppet in your own life and also work to destroy any sense of life you may have had. Or you can choose something more, something better… you can actually choose to LIVE your life!
The only reason you are so afraid of that possibility is because you haven't actually lived it yet. You know all the pain, fear, misery, regret, anxiety, and all the rest that comes from living based on your perception of what you think other people expect… that comes from living based on the idea that you should be a puppet in your own life… or more accurately that comes as the result of trying desperately to live by both of those very flawed, and misguided ideas.
However, you can't even begin to imagine how different your life could be because it is so completely outside of your experience. In everything we do in our life there is a reality behind it. The problem is we are so desperate to alter reality and turn it into fantasy that we don't care how much of our life we sacrifice to do it. Yet at every moment we do it, we are also in equal measure desperately trying to regain the reality we are working so hard to deny. This all means that no matter how hard you try, how much effort you think you put in, how much you sacrifice, or how much pain you are willing to endure to force it all to happen… it will always amount to nothing! It will always come out that you lose… because even if you "win" you are only playing against yourself… which means every time you "win" you also "lose."
If you think that this would up as zero (1 win + 1 loss = 0)… what about all the effort, pain, misery, and suffering you had to endure to get to that so-called zero? Seems to me that that represents a tremendous amount of loss that all adds up to nothing!
However as always, your life is in your hands to do with as you choose. If you want to live in denial, delusion, and the fantasy dream world… that is your 100% absolute right for living in a free society. No one, not even us, can take that away from you! If on the other hand you want to improve your life, explore what your life really has to offer, and discover what it really means to live in reality… then we will be more than happy to help you get there.
Because we believe you life is worth the effort… won't you let us help you learn to believe it too?
Copyright February 2009 - All Rights Reserved
ShareThis
