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    The Ramblin' Rover
    Stories from Outside of the Box
    23-07-2008
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.On the box and social conditioning

    So... I have finally managed to start writing my second post. I have had some comments on the rather long period between my first and second piece of text, and I must admit it wasn’t really my intention to take so much time to create a follow-up post. It hasn’t been easy to start up my ambitious plan. I have been trying to integrate it into my daily workload. I would like to compare it with pushing a chariot. A little bit of power is needed to get it moving, especially if it’s an uphill push with a lot of friction and resistance. So what I did these last few weeks was rearranging the luggage that’s on this chariot and disposing the objects I don’t really need. I’ve also lubricated the wheels and I found some people who offered to help me with this pushing job. And I realized I might have to take a few steps back to guarantee a smoother start. More on that later in this post or the next one... I can reassure everybody now that the wagon has now started to move and the next posts will now follow each other on an accelerated pace. I hope to be able to produce two to three posts a week.

    On the other hand, I’m not discontent with these comments. It proves that there’s a little bit of curiosity and anticipation towards what is going to come next.  I also appreciate the skepticism. This elevates the expectations and hence the pressure on my little experiment, but it also contributes to its chance of producing a bigger, more satisfying result. Enough meta-information. In this second post, I’m going to give a clearer few on my personal situation and the title and sub-title of this blog.
     
    Let me start by explaining the subtitle: “Stories from outside of the box”. I would define the “box” I’m talking about as the set of explicit or implicit rules that society imposes on us and that, in my opinion, causes people to become some modern kind of slaves. Actually, it’s not really these rules that create the box. It’s much more our own mind that causes us to stay within the confines of it. To make our lifes a little bit easier, we have all accepted to live by the paradigm that is common to our culture.

    The purpose of my experiment is to make some of the cardboard sides of the box visible and to show a set of new, more appropriate and healthier rules. It’s not that easy tough. It’s comparable to swimming against the current of a river. Once you see these sides of the box and you’ve realized they are just an artificial confound and you’re able to push away the top of the box and smell the fresh air, a lot of people will start trying to pull you back in, for a few fear-related reasons.

    First of all, they are fearful of the unknown.  If it’s possible to push off the top of the box and to get out, it might also be possible for some of the things that are outside of the box to get inside. Who knows what might happen then! Secondly, they probably like you a lot and they don’t want you to get hurt or even get killed. If they are a whiteness to your discovery, there’s a chance that they don’t want to let you go. They are also afraid of having to make a decision. Once they have seen you disappear through the formerly unexposed exit of the box and they have come to grips with the fact that you might not be returning, they will have to make a decision for themselves. Will they also take this huge step into the unknown? What a dreadful thought! The alternative is even worse: they might have to stay inside of the box, knowing that there’s “something out there”. Conclusion: do not let other people decide on your departure from the box.  They will have to make their own choices.

    In his book, Timothy Ferriss talks a lot about lack of money, time and mobility that cause us to not being able to do what we really want to do. He doesn’t really comment on the social aspect (only between the lines) and I’ve found out that this is a big issue for me right now. I think my comments on these social implications of leading a luxurious live might be my biggest contribution to the book.

    Starting from our youngest years, we are encouraged by our parents, teachers and nannies to color within’ the lines of a drawing. And that can be taken very litteraly. But did you ever wonder what might happen if nobody told that kid to act that way? Would he or she keep on drawing outside of the lines? Is it a bad thing or a crime to do so? What if we gave that child a blank piece of paper and give it the freedom of doing whatever it likes to do with it.

    Yes, we live in a world in which our acts have an influence on the well-being of other people and yes, we should – to a certain extent – make sure that we do not heavily harm our fellow men and women. But could it be possible that we have gone a step too far in our self-induced set of rules, values and norms? I would say: let’s found out!

    Luckily, I’ve always had a few true friends that pointed me out every once in a while how ridicule some of these rules, values and norms are. A few years ago we had a collective epiphany, from which the concept Arominit (on which later more) originated. We noticed that most people don’t really know what they are doing with their lives or what they should do with it. As a kid, you think adults know everything and you assume that they know what is best for you. That paradigm got turned upside down instantaneously. From that moment on, I’ve tried to put quite a few of these rules to the test and I‘ve found out that most of them are not true. As a matter of fact, it’s in my opinion that a lot of them are even harmful to the individual and to society itself as a whole! That’s where the nickname “The Ramblin’ Rover” came from. I found this term in an Irish folk song and it defines a character that wanders around in the world and loves to find out the true meaning of life by trying out new things and living on the edge. That’s kind off what I have done in these last few years and that’s what I would like to keep on doing for the rest of my life.

    Let me finish this post with some lyrics I wrote in the time Arominit just got started...

    Heyo, what’s up with you? You seem a little narrow-mindend                                                   
    Everything society taught you seems to have you blinded                                                                 
    It’s right in front of you, but your unable to find it                                                                     
    Although it’s coming right at you, you’re still running behind it
    I know what you think of us, we look so open-minded
    Destiny offered us a great deal and we signed it
    An unstopable positivity is what keeps us bindend
    We found what you were looking for, we found Arominit

    23-07-2008 om 00:00 geschreven door Jamez  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 3/5 - (1 Stemmen)
    04-07-2008
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.An old man, a secret message and a good book...
    Klik op de afbeelding om de link te volgen

    Imagine that you are walking through a street and you encounter an old, strange man who stops you and says he has a message for you. "It contains good news as well as bad; which one do you want to hear first?", he explains quietly. I still believe in happy endings, so given this situation I would let him start off with the bad news. Now imagine he tells you that you only have three more years to live. "You won't be ill in that period and your passing away will be a very peacefull, quiet one. You will die in your sleep without noticing anything of your own demise." I expect I would be a little bit confused  by this time and I would be wondering who this guy is. "Well,...what's the good news?", I would reply after having pulled myself together. "I'm a very wealthy man", the man proclaims undisturbed. "And I want to offer you the possibility of doing everything you have ever wanted to do in your life during your last three years on this planet." By now I'm even more confused, but I do like this perspective a lot more than the initial one. "So," the old man continues, "what would you like to do?".

    That's the question I would like to answer for myself in the next few weeks. For starters, I'm (finaly) finishing school in a few months and I'm a litlle bit relucant to go and find a dull nine-to-five job in which I will find myself listening all day to a boring colleague complaining about every fly that dares to cross his or her desk. Ok, maybe I'm exagerating and stereotyping a little bit, but am I really that far off? Maybe I've had my share of bad experiences during internships and student jobs and there are probably a lot of interesting jobs out there. But somebody showed me something completely different. That someone is Timothy Ferriss, author of the book "The Four Hour Workweek" and owner of an arsenal of degrees, world records and national as well as international titles in various disciplines. I must admit that I'm usually pretty sceptic towards get-rich-quick schemes and quick fixes, but this time something's different. Tim explains his theories in a clear step-by-step format and it all sounds very reasonable. I read his booking during my last exams (yes, it is at times like that you find the time to read good books ;)) and I couldn't wait untill the day I would be able to start testing his teachings. Today is that day.

    The first time somebody told me about the existence of this book was over a year ago, when Frank Bekkers, CEO of CityLive, adviced everybody who was attending that day's meeting in his own contageously enthousiastic way to read "one of the best books that were ever written". Earlier this year two friends of mine who read the book, convinced me to do the same - on seperate occasions, that is. They were all right, this really is a book for me! In this #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, the author explains how he has found a way to get cured from a disease that is spread more widely then the HIV-virus: people's notion that they have to work really hard for a really long time to enjoy a relatively quiet retirement. In real life, IF you reach retirement you either a) are to old to do all the things that you have ever wanted to do b) have got so used to a regular, boring life that you have long forgotten what where once your dreams or c) still haven't earned enough money to do all the things you wanted to do (I'm talking a lot about doing here, because I'm a rather experience-oriented person, but this can also apply to having/possesing or being - I will explain this in more detail in a later post). Tim reveals another way of living, by not postponing enjoyment, but dividing your retirement into mini-retirements and spreading them over the course of your life. Sounds good to me! :)

    What I am going to do in these next few weeks, is reading the book again and doing the assignments that are at the end of each chapter. I will post my findings here, combined with other posts, in which I will reflect on subjects ranging from evolutions in our society to the latest trends in bikini fashion. :p I'm very aware of the fact that some people might be sceptic, in disbelieve and even offended by the content of my reports, because some of the ideas I will be posting here will be far out. I will not be personally offended by this, because I see it as my mission to step as far as possible outside of the confined dimensions of the "box" that our society opposes on us. It's time to bend some unwritten (and why not some written) rules.

    For more information on Timothy's book: www.fourhourworkweek.com


    (For those who are wondering why I'm writing this in English, I'm going to answer this question once: if I had only three more years to live and I had all the money at my disposition, I would probably not stay in Belgium and I would meet a lot of new friends all over the world. That's why!) 

    04-07-2008 om 00:00 geschreven door Jamez  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 5/5 - (4 Stemmen)

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