To act or to be acted upon. That is the question. Every moment, every second of every day you are in either of these two states. You are either being acted upon or you are acting. Please realize that you are quite blessed to even have this option. After all you could be just a rock. A rock is only in one state and that is the acted upon state.
So Don’t be a Rock
Be an actor, an instigator, an agent, and causal factor in the progression of things. Be the one to cause things to happen, to muck things up now and then. Find a way to make it messy, stir the pot, be a trouble maker. Be the actor on the universe of things instead of waiting for the universe of things to act upon you.
To act is to be alive. To act is to progress. To act is to fail, to be disappointing, to suffer, and to struggle. However to act is also they way you progress, improve, accomplish things. Actors are in control of their destiny’s, rocks just get kicked around lot. When you are a rock you are victim to the elements around you, to the whims of those that act.
You may not always be able to resist being acted upon, sometimes you cannot avoid the cross-hairs of another person who chose to act upon you. However, if you find yourself in the driver seat more often than not, you will find that things just tend to go your way more often than not.
Stop being passive. Stop being a rock. Be instead a person who causes movement. You want to be the one in which the ripple is departing away from you and not toward you. Make your splash, be the disruptor instead of reacting to the disruption.
Actors are not always in control, but they are always in control of them own selves. Rocks are just sitting there doing nothing, hoping for some action. If you are not in the business of acting then you are just being a rock. Don’t be a rock.
Guy Reams
Great analogy Guy. I’m going to print this out and hang it on my wall.
Thanks for the inspirational writing, as always.
Thanks Paz, I have thought through this concept multiple times. In other thoughts I have considered that acting is really creating. So the only time you are really in action is when you are creating something. However, I have not quite got that thought developed yet.