‘What ‘Should’ We Do?’

‘What ought I to do’ is a question I have been plagued by frequently in the past. It always came with a sense of urgency and a feeling that if I didn’t do what I was ‘supposed to’ be doing, something would happen to cause me unhappiness.

Where did the idea come from that we need to ‘do’ something in order to be happy? When did we learn that we are not entitled to our inherent natural joy without having done something to have ‘earned’ it? Why do we delay gratification to a later date? And… does this time ever arrive? Do we ever feel we ‘deserve’ to rest?

There seems to be a fear (and I’ll let my readers come to their own conclusions on where it comes from) that unless we are busy and productive, we will somehow stagnate. There is a false belief that nothing good comes from ‘nothing’.

But what do we mean by nothing and what do we mean by being busy and productive? What precisely is it that makes us feel we have been productive? Is it the number of emails we have sent? Is it the hours we have sat at a desk? Or is more subtle than this? Is it more a feeling we have of a job well done?

And what is a ‘job well done’? Surely this depends entirely on what we are working towards. If our goal is to be a millionaire (each to their own..), doing door to door sales or sending outreach emails might feel productive to us. If our goal is to raise a healthy, happy family, time spent sharing an evening meal would feel equally so.

The point here I suppose is that when we know what we want, we know by default what we should do, and we ‘feel productive’ when we take steps in this direction.

What we want in life is entirely personal and something I will possibly make the subject of another blog in the future. But essentially no one should be able to tell you what you ‘ought’ to do, as it is your choice and yours alone where you want to go.

One of my personal goals is to share the insights I have gained from many years’ living a life that felt out of alignment with who I was. My ambition is to help save others time and suffering on their own journeys of self-discovery by writing things that hopefully connect with them.

I very much enjoyed writing this blog and I wonder if it was also a productive thing for me to have done? ‘Ought’ I to have done it?

Yes, I think so. I hope you agree!