One Quick Question To Find Out How Important Something Actually Is
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Hey there!
It’s hard sometimes to get a handle on just how important something is that’s in your life.
How do you really know whether a habit, a product, a person, a direction, a commitment or any number of other aspects of your life are as important to you as you think they are?
Having a litmus test, a simple question you can ask and answer can make that judgment a lot easier, and prevent us from hanging on to things that we really don’t need.
And the good news is that it’s not a hard question to answer.
Hope this helps!
David
Raw YouTube Captioning
hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
short and sweet thing today just a
little tiny kind of litmus test
we often get very attached to our habits
we make assumptions about things that we
think are very productive or we think
are good for us or we think are things
that we need you know we have habits
should we keep those habits is there a
product that we really enjoy that we get
from time to time and and keep getting
because it’s convenient or because it’s
a service that’s easy to find a person
in our lives or relationship maybe
there’s a commitment lots of different
aspects of our lives that we continue to
deal with sometimes because the devil
known is better than the devil unknown
and sometimes because it’s just easier
to go with what you know and you know
there’s there’s one question that I
found that I think is really easy to ask
and forces us to determine whether or
not that thing that we’ve become
comfortable with is actually serving us
and that question is what would my life
actually be like without it so try to
imagine your life without that object
for me for the longest time it was
chocolate I mean I I just thought to
myself you know I’m just gonna figure
out how to work around chocolate cuz
it’s so much a part in my life and at
this point you know other than I think
maybe one or two times that I had
something that had some chocolate added
to it like I had a mocha at one point
but I’m talking about chocolate bars and
and and you know pure chocolate
chocolate is what I was looking at and
when I would imagine my life without it
I would imagine things like a a really
low level of satisfaction or I’d be
missing something or I wouldn’t have the
same energy because chocolate has
caffeine in it
and then that question became a very
different question to ask when
everything popped up about my sugar
level my blood sugar level my a1c and
all that stuff that happened earlier in
the year so what would my life really be
like without chocolate and other things
that had sugar and carbs and and didn’t
serve me in terms of keeping my health
my life would be great and it turns out
that that’s exactly the right answer as
opposed to the oh you know I’ll just
I’ll figure it out so when you’re
sitting there and you’re wondering
yourself is this relationship toxic is
this service that I keep purchasing this
app that I have or this this mailing
list that I’m on or this establishment
that I frequent from time to time this
food that I’m getting you know this
practice that I have is it really
serving me and if I got rid of it what
would my life really be like now my
question to you is and I’d love it if
you leave it in the comments below what
do you have going on in your life where
you thought to yourself you know maybe I
should really think about this
maybe I should really think about
whether or not I should continue with
this and how do you know right so I
wonder if the question what would your
life really be like without whatever
that is makes sense to you let me know
in the comments below I’d love to do
that if you’re watching this on vo to go
go put comments down there if you’re
watching on youtube go over to vo to go
go calm the link to the the the actual
blog post is below this video if you’re
on youtube because that’s where the
conversation is sane and polite I love
how polite you guys are to each other
we’ve had some controversial divisive
things on these videos and you guys have
handled it great you know once or twice
some guy comes along and is a jerk but
for the most part I mean I hope you see
how
how lovely you guys have all behaved
which i think is just great I mean it’s
I was hoping that this is the kind of
experience that I could generate and the
kind of ecology that I could generate
around this so leave a comment below let
me know if there’s something in your
life that you’re thinking hmm I really
should test this and if this test makes
sense if you’d like to subscribe to my
youtube channel I would love to have you
do that we’re doing one video a day and
you’ll find out when videos are released
if you simply click on my face there if
you don’t see a face look for a
subscribe button somewhere down the page
if you’d like to see the latest video
click on that frame and YouTube will
play it for you I’m David H Lawrence
xvii a thank you so much for watching
and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
I think the toughest path is moderation. But once you get the hang of it, it may be the easiest long term solution.
For example, it may be easier to cut out all carbs, or sweets, or whatever in the short term, but the desire may remain. This is why a lot of diets, or quitting smoking, etc. may fail. I try to find a path that doesn’t leave me completely without, but still satisfies.
Chocolate is a perfect example. Rather than have a high-calorie option every day (which I’d love, but my health would not), I buy a bag of something small (like Hershey’s kisses)… then just have one. But savor it. Really take the time to enjoy it rather than rush through the experience. For me, that’s enough.
Granted, there are some situations where moderation is not an option (such as alcohol or drugs).
Overall, though, finding that long term moderate path has generally worked best for me.
A great question to ponder. Thank you David. This brings to mind a question I kept asking myself a couple of years ago regarding food. The question to myself was “If I knew this food was killing me would I change what I eat?” To make it short, it was killing me and I did drastically change what I ate. What would my life be like without …..? Time to ruminate.
Specifically about chocolate. I had a serious addiction (no exaggeration) to chocolate until this year when I learned about and dealt with a magnesium deficiency in my diet. I now find that it just tastes “ok” and is merely another flavor instead of being a primary food group.
Hmmm. What would my life be like without worry?
Melissa, that’s mine too! In my case it seems to be learned from my upbringing, which makes it a hard habit to break. But it’s not impossible!
David, thanks. Your ideas are good reflections for us all.
Fantastic post! Life changer. There are so many things this will change.