The time in your day can flow like a river. You can easily let the current carry you along. This may be what people mean when they say just “go with the flow”. This strategy of handling interactions and events can be easy and less stressful than other methods. One potential risk however is that when “going with the flow”, you are subject to end up where ever the current carries you whenever it carries you there. One possible alternative is to swim. Swimming is more demanding than floating. You may sometimes feel as though you are swimming against strong current. No strategy of decision making and interacting is perfect. However, swimming may land you in a more desired place more often. Ask yourself this question. Do you often pass the time in your day or large portions of it by simply reacting, sleep walking or otherwise conducting your actions and interactions with very little conscious decision making?

For example, when someone asks us a question or makes a statement to us we often react by saying the first thing that comes to mind without thinking. When we hear things or see things we often simply react with sounds and expressions of our own without a single thought. Often times our actions and responses just come from habits, conditioning or emotion instead of purpose. We have a certain reaction to an event because that’s the reaction we were taught or we’ve always done it that way. If someone says a derogatory remark to me my habit may be to get down on myself or to get mad or to get even. I may not choose that path because it’s best for me I may choose it because I learned it or formed a habit of it and no longer even think about it.

A child asks a dad a question while the dad is watching a ball game. The dad will answer without thinking in order to quickly eliminate the distraction. The dad in this example does not realize that every question from a child is an attempt on the child’s part to reach out. A parent should see every such event as an opportunity. An opportunity to teach, guide or set an example. Likewise, in general, when we are in the presence of others there are opportunities happening every second. Opportunities to create or change the perception people have of us. These events are opportunities we could use to encourage others or be a positive influence on them.

What if we chose our words, chose our steps and even chose the expressions on our faces more often? It is possible that if more of our actions, reactions and interactions were driven by purpose that we then would have greater influence over the direction our life takes. We could have greater influence over others and how they see us. We could have greater influence over how we feel about ourselves. How much would the quality of our relationships of all types improve if we were much more purposeful in our interactions with others? How much would our health improve if more conscious decision making were involved in what we put in our bodies and what we do to them? Without deeper thought, the events in our lives and our reactions to them could just be lost opportunities that pass without us even noticing. Driven by purpose, our reactions to the events in our lives could sum up over time to greatly increase the influence we have over our own lives and everything in them.

The biggest challenge among many with this strategy is the strength required. Floating can be effortless but swimming requires strength and stamina. Like anything else requiring such attributes practice is required. But what muscles need to be strengthened? How do I strengthen mental and spiritual muscles? How and where do I practice?

Click any one of the following links for some simple examples of where and how to address these questions in areas that may be of particular interest to you.

Click here for more examples of events and reactions and further simplification of the idea of purpose driven reactions.