D - Default

D- Default

Again, this is going to be quite a vague blog post. But that's because I don't have all the answers. And this is my place of trying to figure some of them out.

I do a lot of things 'by default'. When leaving my bedroom, I always turn off the light. When arriving at my friend's houses, I always pause for a moment, before raining the bell/ knocking on the door. When greeting my brother, I always call him by a strange name, hardly ever by his name. I do these things naturally, almost without meaning to.

Sometimes when I leave my bedroom, I press the light switch as though to turn it off- but it's already off, so it instead will be turned out. This defeats the objective - I'm turning it off because I won't be using it, and I want to save power. But I instead turn it on.

Sometimes when I see my brother in public I still call him by these silly names. I shouldn't, because it's most probably embarrassing for him when he is around his friends. But I do it by default. It just kind of happens.

And I think this happens a lot in our life. Our life gets such structure, that we just follow the structure by default, without pausing to think why we are doing it. In some cases, this is beneficial. For example, when you're in school, it's good to always remember that break finishes at half past, and to start walking to your lesson at twenty five past. It prevents you from being late, or having to hurry. Doing things by default in this way is good.

But sometimes it isn't. In summer, by default, we don't wake up until midday. We might do this every day for a week. Although the there's no harm in that, that means that half your day is wasted. If you just broke out of your pattern and set an alarm, instead of waiting to wake up naturally, this needn't happen. And then you could have half a day more to do something, and your life could improve.

I also think this is where phobias come from. Now, I don't have any evidence, it's just a thought. Often phobias form from bad past experiences. For example, if whenever you walk past a dog it barks at you, you might become scared of dogs due to its barks. This could lead you to start avoiding dogs. Maybe in small ways, such as crossing over the road. But then increasingly in larger and larger ways - avoiding a certain street, avoiding somebodies house, avoiding even looking at photos of them.

The issue spirals out of control quite rapidly. A dislike of a dog barking led to something much more.
If you had visited a different dog, yes it might have barked. But it also might not have. But because you didn't try, you don't know - and so you've built up this massive phobia in your head.

And so, I challenge you:
Think about what things you do by default. And think of how you can challenge them. 
I challenge you to change just one thing in your day today that you usually would have done by default. 

It might not improve your life in any way at all. In fact, it might make it more difficult - deciding to go on a run in the morning could make you late for school.

But, you'll never know if you don't try. And you might be pleasantly surprised.


Next up, E!

-An Alphabet of Thoughts


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The quote was taken from trusty ol' https://uk.pinterest.com/   )