What Do You Do When No One Is Looking

Kia Ora,

Good Evening, from New Zealand, Friends and Colleagues

Inspired by Psychology Today

Children at Play

When children play they will usually pretend that getting to the tree before they get tagged is monumentally important. They will in those next few moments of the game give every ounce of their soul and being to not getting tagged.

They will run as hard as they can, laughing and screaming, not because it actually is critical, but because they are pretending with all of their being that it is. They are investing everything in the moment by choice.

They do this, not because someone will applaud or praise the moment or the action, but far more importantly, because it allows them to form a new temporary reality, to participate in the moment, in a creative playful way.

Important Stuff

We were those children once. But when we exited our playful space, our minds told us that, "This is important" so we put our choices through a harsh filter of logic which became our decision maker.
As a result we got pushed aside by our mother's voices, or a teacher or some other authority figure, behind a wagging finger, that played a formative role in shaping our attitudes in early years.

Suspend Inclinations

But what if, instead, we were to come at our values by our own choices? Between ourselves and the persons that we intuitively sense ourselves to be. It would be not unlike what we had done as those committed children, who set our values to make the game important.
What if we work to recreate that playful space again for ourselves?
What if nobody, ourselves included, keeps score?
What if we imagine that nobody is watching?
What if we were to do something, and nobody would ever know that it was us who did it?

Here to Help

We all say “look I really just want to help people"
But just for a moment, imagine that you help someone and it remains a total secret; nobody except you will ever know that it was you, not even the person you choose to help.

The possibility of self-aggrandizement as a motive is removed. There is no possibility to be great by being seen to live your values and be celebrated for it.
What then…………………

What Do You Do When No One is Looking?

Kia Koa, Kia Kaha

Hamish🧐