The shared wisdom of Jocko Willink and Eckhart Tolle
The Nerd, the Navy SEAL, and The Power of (taking action) Now
It was in a period of crisis many years ago that I picked up a copy of Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. I was desperate enough for some psychological relief that I could get past the associations of ‘woo-woo’ and ‘new age’ which had biased my opinion of it before I had even read a page. And it was a breath of air. Reading each page gave a feeling of relief, of hope, and a challenge.
I return to the book frequently — reading a paragraph in the morning like a kind of daily prayer, and as a reminder to stop wasting time worrying, and to focus on the present. (I’ve increasingly adopted these pseudo-religious rituals — a morning and night-time “prayer” — without the corrupt absurdities of organized religion — and feel a lot better for it).
Critics of the book sometimes characterize it as encouraging a certain passivity, or detrimental acceptance of bad situations. But anyone who has read the book closely knows that this is not really true. The book is much more challenging than that. For me the key passages addressing this are here:
If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. No excuses. No negativity….
He goes on:
Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.
And finally:
…is there something that you “should” be doing but are not doing it? Get up and do it now.
There is no “woo” here. This is about as hard-nosed advice as you will ever get. And as I re-read it recently, I was reminded of my other favorite unlikely guru; all round hard-ass, unforgiving, and unrelenting Jocko Willink:
If you’re so smart, why can’t you come up with a quick solution? Why cant you realize that overthinking is causing the problem harm? …
Quit thinking so much, and take action.
Two very different people, with two very different lives, coming to almost identical conclusions. If there are some truths in this world this is likely one of them.
Stop worrying, analyzing and overthinking. Be in the present moment, and if there is something you know you need to do. Do it. Now.
Bonus video for the chronic over-analyzers, “perfectionists” and anyone struggling with making decisions and taking action.
Thanks for reading and much love to you, dear friend.
