Are You a Human Being or a Human Doing?
- 3 questions to re-focus your life as a human being
He dropped to the floor in a slump, a brain aneurysm extinguishing his life in a flash.
No final goodbyes permitted to his wife and five adult children.
No chance to make life any better than the way he lived his life right up to that final moment.
As I attended the funeral of this man, the priest asked if anyone in the congregation would like to share a memory.
Each of his children rose and spoke about their father.
Each child spoke in turn of their father and his beingness. His kindness, patience, laser-like focus in any situation, his genuine service to others without seeking reward or recognition and his avoidance of harsh judgments towards himself or others.
By the fifth child, the only sound heard within the church were five fans all moving in tandem.
Five children were speaking to the memory of their father. Five fans were whirling.
As if life was calling me to pay closer attention.
So I reflected.
I knew that their father was a machinist, a welder. He had started a niche business in machining heavy equipment for the oil and gas industry. He became a worldwide consultant to others in the industry. This man also held several patents related to his work.
By all accounts measuring outside success, he had climbed and summited many mountains.
A Quality Human Being
Interestingly, each child chose to share stories about their father’s beingness, not his doingness.
The notable accomplishments of doing in his professional life ignored, passed over.
His doings ignored for something less measurable, less binary in our world.
The final summation of his human life remembered for the spiritual qualities of a human being, not a human doing.
There Were Greater Human Doings
Many a great man or woman has died, known for their doings in life.
Some have attempted to make it right before their deaths. To seek forgiveness for those they loved, and to quiet their anxious spirits by the end of their lives.
They had time to reflect on their lives as a human doing. It was easy to live as human doings; the world rewards this living with wealth, recognition, and power.
In the end, many considered a life dedicated to self-mastery of the spirit. They developed a respect and a desire to understand the deeper meaning in life.
We are Humans Doings Swimming in a Sea of Productivity Hacks
There is so much information in today’s world at our fingertips. Productivity hacks and optimization schedules inundate our daily lives.
Any skill hacked to its smallest parts and conquered with youtube clips and ebooks.
Technology threaded in our daily lives has made it easier than ever for anyone to excel. There are step counters, spreadsheets, electronic journals, and big data.
Technologies are ramping up our abilities to become better human doings.
But, technology will never change our ability to become better human beings.
The true spirit of a human is immeasurable by metrics in stock price or net worth statements.
We can’t quantify our spirits in sets and reps.
Becoming Human Beings Again
Three Question to ask yourself
1. Are you fulfilling your inner purpose?
“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau
Is all your time and energy spent on getting through your to-do list, on meeting your personal goals?
To fulfill a life, based in the outside world of getting things done.
Are you imitating others on their path, instead of your own?
What about your callings?
Finding your inner purpose is like trying to catch a butterfly. It can be fleeting and hard to capture.
Taking the time to catch your inner purpose may change the direction of your life.
If you struggle even to begin thinking about finding your inner purpose. See this post by Steve Pavlina.
2. Can you focus on service to others, rather than yourself?
If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day, go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month, get married.
If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody else.
-Chinese proverb
It seems a paradox that the more selfless service we give to others, the greater riches we receive.
Test it out for yourself.
3. Can you accept your imperfections in body and mind?
A person is given birth to contemplate a world, to reflect and to act according to it. A person isn’t perfect, but he is a part of perfection. -Cicero
Accepting your imperfections will allow you to drop the heavy stones you carry.
The stones of your failings, weaknesses and continual desires to have and do more. The anxiety of not being good enough. The constant chatter of disapproval of self within your mind.
Thus we continue with our insatiable need for productivity and optimization hacks — a way to quiet the chatter of disapproval.
We are crushing more into our days and weeks.
We are trying to be better human doings rather than human beings.
Accepting that we are not perfect will remove the pressure to do and allow you to return to the joy of being.
Life Re-focused
The world focuses on and rewards human doings.
A world of human doings driving for success. The hopes of achieving the worldly accoutrements of fame and fortune.
The “I did this” stamped on everything to ensure the world knows we are a success.
The elements of being human trampled underfoot by the need to perform, and to do.
Could you re-focus your light towards becoming a human being first, and then a human doing?
Three Ways to Be a Better Human Being
Reflect on your inner purpose in life, let that drive your to-do list.
Think of ways you can be of service to others without reward or recognition.
Accept that you are not perfect. Refrain from the continual chatter of disapproval.
Today, let your to-be list govern your to-do list.
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