The Importance Of Being Confused About Your Life

In this world, it seems that the people who have very clear, definite, and finite goals are the ones that attain them. People that are able to put their heads down and work. And work and work and work. But they work with direction. They work with conviction and the belief that they are making it to the promised land – whatever it is that is their promised land.

And they get there. The ones who put their heads down are for sure the people that make it. The people with blueprints. Blueprints for how their lives and the world are going to be better after all of the work that they are doing. Blueprints for practice, blueprints with goals. Blueprints with a different future.

And then there are people who seem to be more across the board in terms of work ethic.  Sometimes they work sporadically. Sometimes they work their hearts out. Sometimes it seems like they are not working. To the outside observer it seems like they aren’t working.  But they are. They are working through their confusion.

When you have a goal – a clearly defined, unquestionable goal that you can mobilize yourself and your entire being to get behind so that every action you take is toward this goal – achieving whatever it is you set out to do is the easy part.

If you are like most people, you do not live like this. If you want to make money, part of your conscience is in the back of your head saying “money is for greedy people.” If you want to write a book, part of you is saying “do you really want to be a writer? That’s a pretty solitary profession.” If you want to talk to the stranger next to you, part of you is telling you that you are going to look stupid.

People have conflicting beliefs that hold them back from wholeheartedly diving in/going after whatever it is that they want. Maybe part of that springs from peoples’ ability to imagine getting what they want and realizing that it is not going to change their lives. They realize that the promised land is kind of a hoax. At least the promised land that they have been promised in television and in movies.

Confusion is good. It means that people are questioning the promised land that they want to get to. It means that their actions are going to be scrutinized to a certain degree. The promised land that they have been told to want to go to. It means that people are working on new models for how to live.

But confusion is only good in the sense that it allows space for the creation of these new models. Confusion isn’t inherently good, but it allows the space for you to try to align your goals to something more important. More at the heart of the matter of living the good life.  Confusion isn’t a model for how to live. Confusion is empowering. If you use it.

If you are in a confusing state or point of your life, don’t be frustrated by it. Don’t settle. Please don’t. You owe it to yourself and the world not to settle. If you are confused about what you should do next, with whatever decision, invite the confusion. Persist through it. Think about it. Forget about it. Think about it some more. And relax. Something will come to you.

It is confusion that allows us to shake the foundations of our one dimensional models of the world. But living in pure confusion for extended periods of time can be too much. Jack Kerouac died of pure confusion.

So shake your models and grab onto new more fulfilling ones. Question why you do things and do things differently. And when you find yourself too imbedded into those models, when the grooves are too big on your record, questions things again. And shake things up.