Where you go matters less than who you are when you go

about a year ago almost a year ago I made a video called you don't need a change of scenery but a change of character and I got some crap I mean uh constructive criticism about that um saying that how about people in war zones or people who are starving etc etc or people war and really challenging climates should they just change their thinking change their character or do they really need a change of place and uh whenever I hear these sort of extreme scenario arguments um I I sort of think that that I explained it

well enough that that some people the only obstacle to accepting that argument remains only to be those very extreme scenarios that none of them themselves have ever encountered and that's okay I don't mean to criticize anyone that's just means that we just sometimes justify our daily regular Behavior our really daily regular mistakes and and things that we could improve on WE justify it by going to such extreme examples so that we don't have to bother changing ourselves so much and I understand that so today I thought I'll just pick another thing that senica said about

the topic of rather than trying to outrun your problems that you should stay exactly where you are and deal with them headon that the only way is not around your problem but through your problem he said it is not nearly as important where you go as it is who you are when you go it sort of comes out to the same thing but it's a little softer isn't it it says it's not as important because of course no one would choose to live in a place that's hostile to them either physically or mentally and in

some capacity but the point is that we should be able to and we have many examples of this in history that we could endure whatever life throws at us because we're not in control of what life throws at us we can only try to adapt and make sure that we do the best that we can and I think it was also sen car epicus one of the stoics who said anywhere where a life can be led a good life can be led something like that I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea because when something is

truly unbearable to our constitution truly unbearable to life we sort of can live like that anyway and when we can live it will be mostly an issue of the way we think about it the way we cope with it rather than the place itself because that's not under our control but what is under our control is to make the best of it so whenever we feel in daily life that we have had enough of work have had enough of certain people have had enough of the cold we tend to want to change the scener we

think we need a change of scener we need to change the the location that we're at rather than changing what's wrong and don't we get angry don't we get resentful don't we resent the situations where were in or the people were around and don't we have that anger in us or that jealousy surely we've all been jealous surely we'll all do that at some point so what do we expect from going to another place aren't we going to be resentful people then and and angry people and jealous people how is that going to change just

because we're changing the place we're at at best it's a distraction and that's why I think some people many people think running away from your problems literally physically helps the situation because they get distracted from their usual situation and just jump into another one and it feels like a change in the positive direction but really all is it's distraction it's not dealing with the problems or not feeling the presence of the problems as much because again we're distracted and usually in our home environments whatever that may be our usual environments let's say we don't have

as many distractions so the problems feel more present they feel more imminent but really they're always the same if we have temper issues like I said if if we're envious people if we're overly ambitious people too competitive if we are are people who lie and cheat and deceive that's not going to change we're not going to change just because we change our location I am not changing as I am walking or at least I am not changing because I'm walking the solution is not to go to places that don't trigger our anger don't trigger our

resentment our jealousy our vices whatever they might be our faults but to work on the faults themselves and that seems obvious enough but we don't apply that in real life it's sort of like telling someone who has a fear of spiders to avoid any and all places that a spider might be in and that might be an okay precaution as one works on that problem but it no one would ever call it a solution and just in the same way if we run away from people or certain places or certain situations in life that we

perpetually are in we are not solving anything we're only delaying we're only distracting ourselves from the actual issue and how to drop your anger and your resentment is uh what I'm discussing in this video and what I discuss in almost every video in a different slightly different way philosophy is not to solve problems with a single idea a single quote a single discourse but rather is to look at the issue at hand the things that keep us from true happiness from the person we know we want to be we need to be by looking at

our faults and their remedies at a slightly different angle until we've looked at it from all angles and that's when we grasp the issue and that's when it clicks so each video is a slightly different angle on essentially the same few things that keep us from everything from the good life and I felt like it was time again for a walking video partly because right now I think it's below 30° my phone says it it feels like 16 or something but what it doesn't say is that it's beautiful there's no such thing as bad weather

we put that on the weather we say it's cold well we look at the temperature that's an objective fact and then we assign good or bad to it we say oh it's cold that's bad weather it's rain that's bad weather it's sunny and warm that's good weather and because of that Association that we put on it I have this whole Trail this state park to myself right now not a single person that I've come across and it's still beautiful and that's just of course the smallest possible example even just an analogy that we can give

to that really perception is everything that our thoughts color the situations that we're in we assign it the idea of good and bad and we judge it according to that and we do that ourselves no one is doing that to us and another reason I'm talking about it here is that just a few days ago whenever I was here last or the time before I too was just walking you know moving from one place to another but not really progressing because I was in my mind and my mind was running in circles um not necessarily

in a bad way but certainly I wasn't in the moment I was thinking about other stuff the past the future as we all do but really not not really getting anywhere just just thinking and just sort of repeating the same things and and not making any progress even though my body was moving and I heard that shriek that that classic shriek that that Hawks do it's very distinct I mean all of a sudden I was I was brought out of that state in which I was in this beautiful environment taking a nice walk and but

not really paying attention to it because I had all these things going on in my mind and that brought me out of it immediately I just wanted to look up to see where it came from and I saw three Hawks actually sort of going around hovering almost over me and uh presumably looking for little Critters in the among the grass and everything and I immediately thought to myself wow the I the things that go on in my head don't matter one bit as soon as I come out of my head just one inch everything that

was so important all of a sudden I realize has no importance to others to other animals to other people to the world it's really the world that I've built up in my own head that keeps me from living because as we said before the present moment is is all we have to live all of life takes place Moment by moment in the present moment and because I was thinking of the future in the past or whatever I was not in the moment so I was alive of course but I was not really living because I

was not in the present and similarly I looked at the Hawks and and thought wow all that really matters to them perhaps ever but especially right now in this moment is to look for food that's their mission and that's what's going on in their lives and that that has all the importance in the world to them to me doesen I never even think about it and that goes for all people Everyone Has This World built up inside of them that is so important and so and everything's so crucial and everything's so imminent and uh if

things don't go a very certain way it's going to end in catastrophe and their whole life is going to take a whole different turn and it's never going to be the same Etc we have to realize that we all do that we all have these worlds inside of our heads that don't matter to anyone else I mean just just go walk around in a City downtown area wherever wherever and take a look at all the people are running around coming going to work coming from work doing other things even if it's the weekend whatever they're

mission is for that day they're all walk walking around and it's all so important but it doesn't matter at all to us we don't even know who they are what they're doing and sometimes we find out about the mission of the day or the mission of the life of of someone else and we just think wow that just seems not at all that important I would never want to do that but to them it's everything but we're no different we do the same thing and we have to understand that none of it is required we

are not born with any of these requirements any of these missions any of these deadlines and uh all the people that we need to impress we're not born with that there's no God no entity no no nothing in nature that tells us that we have to do this and that our that our life depends on it there's none of it it's all self-imposed we've identified with these things we've become one with them so anything that threatens them anything that threatens our missions our goals for the day for the month the year or our careers Our

Lives all those missions we identify with them and anything that is good for them is good for us and anything that's bad for them has become bad for us and of course everything that we identify with or anything that we identify with could possibly identify with in the external world is open to attack is open for someone else to destroy it to ruin it to damage it or needs other people to go well it's not going to go well if certain people don't do certain things for those missions and that's why it's so dangerous and

identity runs deep one can and many people do identify with anything and everything one can identify with anything and as soon as we do that like I said it's opened up to the influence of the exter world and everything that can happen to it there so I've said it before and I'll say it many more times we have to drop those identities we have to stop trying to be and making it our mission to be a good such and such to have a good career to have a good relationship to have a good fulfillment of

our dreams that we've set many years before for who knows why probably in in emulation and jealousy of someone else that we too want to attain that to be as good as them or to be as influential as them as as like as them and we don't even think about it we make it our mission we make it our identity and every day we get up to satisfy and to service those goals and those identities not realizing that not only are they unnecessary but they are harmful to a good happy life but it's become habit

it's become identity to get up and every day to service them and because and we don't realize that all these things that we get up in service like a machine none of it is required none of it is necessary in fact like I said none of it is beneficial we have to pick things we have to set goals and desires and wants based on whether it contributes to our own happiness and to the happiness of others or to the well-being of others there's no point in chasing an identity that was inspired by another person or

by someone that you were in the past every stage of our life if you realize it is like a death we used to be babies and infants and Marcus orelis talks about this we used to be babies were no longer babies yet that person who was a baby is still alive yet that baby is gone that child has grown up now and still alive but where is the child in a way it's a death that person is gone now the person you used to be caring about the opinions of a particular person once you realize

that there were never someone that you should have cared about pleasing that you should care about impressing we you say wow how how how different I was back then thinking like this and and you can never even imagine almost that you ever were that person so that person technically didn't die but where are they that person's gone because an identity has been let go a mission has been let go an idea a belief an opinion a core value even sometimes is gone because it seemed like it was something good but then we realize it was

something not at all conducive to our happiness and that's what why Socrates says and that's why Socrates says an unexamined life is a life not worth living examine your beliefs examine your dreams your goals your ideals your missions and then take a look and see is this still valid it very well might be I'm not saying that anything you'll examine is going to be turn out to be a fraud in your whole life is going to turn out to be an illusion that's not what I'm saying at all but examine and re-examine your idea of

what a good career is your idea of what what a good life is what a good friendship Is What happiness is examine it if it holds up great then you know it does that it still does and if it doesn't also great because you were you were just walking around you were leading a life that you yourself did not agree with but you didn't know it because that old self that old person that is in a way dead now built up that belief that opinion and you're still servicing it you're still trying to please it

you're still trying to fulfill it but that that sense that rationality that that makes sense that that's a logical thing to do has long gone you're just not aware of it yet because you haven't re-examined there's so much that keeps us from living in the moment not so much living in the moment in the sense that many other people say but to have your attention on what is going on now or what is relevant to the now from the past or in the future meaning if someone asks you if the current situation demands that you

make a decision about something that you know of the future as in your intentions of course go to the Future and apply it to the situation that's what the situation demands that where that's where your attention should be right now it doesn't mean to always live in the moment and never think of the past and never the future it's quite enjoyable to think about the past certain great memories that we have or to think of the future in the way of looking forward to something that's all great and uh we can totally do that the

only problem is when we are prevented from being happy when those when the past and the future oppresses us that's when the problem comes in otherwise there's no problem in my opinion to think of the past and the future as long as one is in control of it right if you want to go to the past to some to some enjoyable memory and you can do that and come right back as soon as you want to that's great there's nothing wrong with living in the past in that way but we have to be in control

of our attention and what prevents us from being in control of our attention and therefore living in the present and therefore really living instead of just being alive Al and therefore being happy what prevents us from doing that the most our identities our missions our so-called obligations that oppressed us and the outside world doesn't see any of that that you're seeing and of course it's beautiful F to have ambition to have wishes dreams but shouldn't they be pursued in a happy way aren't those dreams and Ambitions and wishes there for a better happy life if

those wishes until they're fulfilled become a source of resentment for the present they're no good the outside world doesn't look at it that way the outside world doesn't see the problems that you are seeing in your life and another thing that struck me the other day when I was here after the Hawks was I Came Upon This this tree right here in the middle of this field and I thought wow this this image this scenery this tree these swaying these swaying leaves right here are always here whether I'm here or not whether I think of

them or not they're always just here gently swaying in the wind and then one tree is always just here doing the same thing however I look at it however I interpret it none of it matters matters it's just is it's just here and it does that regardless of what I do and that's all it is to live in the present to sometimes every now and then remind yourself of this simple fact that everything is just is and that we assign it the ideas of good or bad some might this might call this scene ugly some

might call it beautiful some might call it peaceful some might call it cold uncomfortable but it just is and I call it beautiful as I call everything beautiful so in that way I don't assign it anything but it's my choice to do that and I've chosen I've chosen to think of it like that as many of us choose to think of our problems as problems what they really are are just situations situations not good not bad not this or that they're just situations it's just what's going on and sometimes that's just how it has to

be that's just what needs to happen right now but we don't need to add to it by resenting it we don't need to add to it by hating it by being angry about it by letting it out on others what no one can control it's all because of our identities how does this scene how does what's going on right now how is the temperature and many other things relate to one of my missions that's what makes it good or bad if the cold right now is a bad thing for one of my missions then I

call it a bad thing but in reality there's no such thing so if we let go of those identities we let go of our anger if we let go of a particular identity we let go of particular resentment sadness anger disillusionment the whole notion that others are bad evil we're adding to whatever is going on and whatever is going on is you can call it fate you can call it chance you can call it random whatever it is it's not in your control and you're adding to it and that's not going to change depending on

where you go it's not going to get better just because you change your location if you don't change your faults but on the flip side if you do change your faults if you do work on the core issue wherever you go will be beautiful you won't have to you won't feel like you have to go somewhere else to have a different experience you will be happy of course there are some things that are more choiceworthy than others of course you're going to have your preferences you can prefer the cold over over the Heat or the

heat over the cold but you won't be unhappy you won't be resentful you won't be angry you won't feel like you are not living and that you are not allowed to live that you can't live until your external situations that that which is governed by fate or chance or whatever you want to call it that which is not in your control until that changes you won't feel like that needs to change so that you may be happy that you're allowed to be happy you're allowed to be happy now all those obligations those requirements that require

you to be unhappy right now to be angry they're self-imposed you can let go of them and always do the best that you can so truly where you go does not matter nearly as much as who you are when you go there