Why do you need all those votes?

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

We all desire plenty of votes, let me give you a few examples.

Votes from our parents, to confirm we are enough.
Votes from our teachers, to confirm we are worthy students.
Votes from our employers, to confirm we make a great contribution.
Votes from our peers, to be recognised and feel like we belong to the tribe.
Votes from our friends and families all over social media, non-stop confirmation that we are loved.
Votes from our industry in the form of awards to prove that our company is among the best in the industry, in our region, in the world etc.

Why?

Everyone wants to be loved, feel good enough, feel recognised and we are constantly looking for this throughout our lives, it shows up everywhere!

Even when I’m writing this I need you to agree with me, that you can see what I’m saying is true, confirmation that I’m enough.

We are already enough, but we don’t wish to accept it.

This is the human experiment, the human drama, all of our individual stories acting out every single day, searching for approval, searching for acceptance, for love and belonging.

Look in the mirror and there you will find it all the votes you need!

[embed]https://youtu.be/eThXzUg1qQo[/embed]

You Are Enough

Michael de Groot

My Mind is not my own!

Hugh MacLeod

It doesn’t answer you, yet you speak to it often

In the quiet times when nothing is spoken
You have a conversation that isn’t real

You believe words are being spoken
And none of it is really a big deal

Those words that emerge from the confines of your brain
Don’t speak the truth but you believe them

Challenge them, challenge them, challenge them!
Create new ones that serve you better

Nobody is in charge, except you, you don’t
need to believe a single letter

They say thoughts create things, so choose the right ones
You’re not in control, you’ve not even learnt them

They appear out of nowhere like aliens out of space 
Hunt them down, I would, but it’s all in vain

Resistance is futile you’ve been assimilated 
Your mind is not your own, they have control of it.

When you examine what you actually do
You will appreciate it’s just a matter of habit.

My mind is not my own, but who actually owns it?
Ask everyone else, they also have no clue!

Michael de Groot

They recognised me!

Hugh MacLeod

Actually they didn’t, but I heard someone say this. They were so surprised that they were stopped on the street when recognised by a complete stranger (stalker).

Is that what we’re looking for?

Plastering our happy face all over the web, so someone will walk up to us and say; ‘Hey, aren’t you the girl/guy who talks rubbish on YouTube?’

Surely not? Surely yes!

Most of us on Social would love to achieve that recognition at some level. It’s an endorsement of all the hard work you’ve been putting in day in and day out, just so that a random person somewhere points at you (I’d be quite scared actually) and shouts out to you that they actually know you. And of course they have no idea who you are, all they’ve seen is an alter ego of you on the web, very likely talking complete non-sense.

Happy spotting!

Michael de Groot

Ancestors

I watched Stephen Fry on Netflix in his one-man show to launch his book called ‘More Fool Me’. It was a fantastic show of storytelling and anecdotes of his family, his life, the ups and downs and the ridiculous. Of course Stephen’s knowledge is incredible and he shared many interesting facts.

There was one fact though that stood out for me and that was the very simple fact that most of do not know the names of our great grandparents. Wow, I thought, is he really true? So I put it to the test with my own family and he was 100% correct, I really do not know the names of my great grandparents. I don’t even know the proper names of some of my grandparents, what’s wrong with me!

Well a few of them died before I was born, that’s grandparents and my parents never really spoke about them, let alone speak about their own grandparents. I definitely feel I missed out somehow or did I?

Photo by Cheryl Winn-Boujnida on Unsplash

It’s a shame that we’re so caught up in life’s stuff that we don’t even know our great grandparents’ names. So now I’m on a mission to find out their names. There are a few relatives still alive who I can ask, I’d better be quick, because you never know what might happen to them and then the info is lost.

I know these websites exist that you have to pay for to find your ancestors, but I’m not keen to share my personal data there, as who knows whose going to be hacking in to those in years to come.

And I know I have a chart somewhere that my father worked on during World War II, when he was hiding in an attic from the Germans, yes that really happened, he spent his teenage years in hiding. whilst he was in hiding he did do some work on researching his ancestors.

Ok I’m off on the hunt.

Happy hunting!

Michael de Groot

Priority

During my first Minimalist meet up the other day, the one attendee explained to me that productivity is a major issue for most people. The main reason being that there’s is so much distraction.

Whatever you are doing right now and hopefully that’s reading this article, that is your priority.

A priority for me is something that I have decided that I will be doing next for however long it takes to complete it. So for me that’s writing this article. I decided before I started that this would be my next priority. It helps that I’m on a train into Birmingham at the moment with very little to do and the decision was to either read something, waste time on social media or write about something I had learnt from a fellow minimalist. So I decided to write and allow this to be shared with others.

When you are spending time on Facebook then in that moment you’ve decided that this is your priority for however long you spend on it, which very likely will be quite a while.

There might be a dozen other things that need to be done in that moment, clearing out that cupboard, tidying up your clothing, changing the bed and many more tasks that will have to wait, because it’s not a priority.

Happy choosing!

Michael de Groot