Wanted

Watched "Wanted" again last night. I like it. I bought it. At the end of the movie the protagonist (using the term loosely) turns to the camera and says... "what the *bleep* have YOU done lately?!"

So far (twice now) this phrase predictably fired off three little jolts in my head, like three firecrackers chained together and some big Stoogie lit the short fuse of the first one with that statement.

The noise attracts two tribes on horseback that meet at the corpus callosum. The scary guys in their war paint, disciplined, intent on their purpose, oblivious to "comfort zones" who carry one creed: act. And the mongol-gypsies who show up to see what the noise was about, whose creed is it is more important to be than to do and distrust anything smacking of rigidity.

The warriors, never quite satisfied, who can't figure out how to consistently achieve their agendas and the mongols, who want to be satisfied, just with who they are, but fall back into the habits that mine the comfort zone and lend to distraction rather than a contented center. Each of them have one half of the puzzle, refuse to let go of their piece, because they realize its value, but refuse to put them together because they think they are so different. And the three little explosions were around the following neural web weaving this all together:

1. Will power. This is not a trait, it's a limited resource. It works like a muscle. We have a small amount to work with each day, and it can be used up. This is not some character flaw, like the Victorians thought, but is something that has to be managed for what it is before it can be strengthened. Pick your battles each day, make 'em small, if you can.

So the first tribe is all about this. It just needs to back off on the *amount* it thinks it can accomplish each day. If this tribe carves something out to pursue, with sheer will-power, and if they have to exercise this forever, they will fail. They need to understand why. There will be times some of the reserves are needed for other situational things and there won't be enough to sustain the long-term program. Luckily, there is some stuff over in the other tribes' hunting grounds that help.

2. 95% of our behavior is habit. Habit requires no will-power, and actually, often requires will-power NOT to do. A new habit can be established in about 30 days if performed each day. It takes longer if the days aren't consecutive. For the mongol tribe, these habits allow one to flow through the day, to take a walk without having to problem-solve balance and gravity every second, freeing the mind to experience the moment. But many of these habits kind of snuck up on us and may not even have our best interests in mind.

So the Mongols working with the Warriors could start to use that fractional will-power that's available in a fixed ration each day just long enough to get a new habit launched. Over time, working together, they can replace all of those accidental, limiting and self-defeating habits with habits designed to enrich, enliven and experience life more fully.

That is if they remember the third thing...

3. Just because something is important, doesn't mean you are going to remember it, unless you constantly remind yourself.

How many times have we come back to something this way? Someone says something, we read something, we see something, we already know it's true. We know it's important and it would make a big difference in our day to day quality of life to keep in mind, but we had forgotten about it. Until reminded. Write it down. Make it a habit to review these personal insights regularly, and this is probably one of the most beneficial habits we could install. What's the difference, after all, between ignorance and wisdom forgotten?