The Timeless Wisdom Of Ron Swanson And His Universal Principle Of Commitment
You can’t have everything and why you need to stop trying to get it
Ron Swanson.
A champion among men. A hero above all. His words, like Atlas, carry the weight of the world. Wisdom emanates from his lips as they move beneath his award-winning mustache, adorned with flecks of savory steak from Mulligans.
He is timeless and so too is the wisdom of his words.
Wisdom is an ocean boiled down to a single drop of water. A few simple words that contain infinite power. Power to destroy your very soul if you are ready to be wrecked by its waves.
All of the wisest sayings are necessarily simple in nature. It is a requirement.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
“Deal with the faults of others as gently as your own.”
— Chinese Proverb
“A new broom sweeps clean but an old broom knows the corners.”
— Unknown
The simplicity of wisdom reveals the depth of understanding. As Einstein has been known to say, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
And of course, this simplicity underlies the wisdom of our steak-eating, whiskey-swilling teacher for today, Ron Swanson, who famously said:
“Never half-ass two things. Whole ass one thing.”
— Ron Swanson
If the wisdom of these words speaks to you, or even if you are unsure about the meaning of this simple, yet powerful phrase. Hang tight, because today we are going on a journey. A journey to the root of wisdom to show you the power of going whole-ass on your dreams and desires.
When I first set out to make a name for myself as a writer I was about as green as an early April leaf bud, just popping out of its shell for a taste of spring. Oh how those first few days in the sun and the rain were glorious. It was as if the whole world was patiently awaiting my arrival, and I, wanting of success, basked in the beauty of warm praise from those who admired my early growth.
“Oh my god….50 shares!? I’m famous!”
I thought, as I checked the stats on my breakout article.
Elated, I continued to write. But then the first cold snap of spring ripped through and mangled my fragile soul. I was helpless as I shivered through the night, clinging to what little stores of energy I had reserved for feeding this budding writer's dream.
For there were many other valuable and established pursuits in progress that required even greater attention. And so, when the sun did rise on my frosted half-open shell, I lay lifeless, never again to experience the warmth of an April afternoon.
It is impossible to do everything.
By ambitiously adding to the proverbial plate, we end up subtracting from our effectiveness in all other pursuits. And piling on every dream and activity that piques our curiosity has only one possible outcome…eventually, things fall off the plate.
When I made my first attempt at developing a writing career in 2017, I was a 29-year-old full-time college student working 30 hours a week as a professional carpenter while remodeling the gut-job of a home that my girlfriend Kassi and I purchased earlier that year.
Tie in friend and family gatherings and an attempt to maintain a semi-regular jam session with my musician buddies and it became impossible to add anything of substance to the schedule.
But foolishly, I tried. And I know I’m not alone in this. We all fall victim.
It’s a problem of human nature.
Maybe even more so now in our modern world with the endless bombardment of racially appropriated dance routines from vapid suburban Tik-Tok “influencers” and the rising tide of food porn producers on Instagram that spread open their steak and egg burritos like Sharon Stone spreads her perfect legs in Basic Instinct. And the commercialization of the world that tells us we can have it all, do it all, and be anything and everything our hearts desire.
And so maybe even more than half-assing two things, we become so divided in our time and energy that we try to quarter-ass 4 things.
Or worse yet, and I’m sure you can guess where I’m going, eighth-ass 8 things.
And we continue subdividing our ass to the nth degree until we become everything and yet, nothing.
It’s fucking ludicrous. But we do it. I do it!
And it gets us nowhere but frustrated because we cannot do it all. And worse yet, in our attempt to do everything we lose ourselves in the process because committing to nothing prevents us from ever discovering the depths of our being.
Look, I need to tell you something. Come close….We’ve been duped!
When your loving parents told you that you could grow up to be anything your heart desires they conveniently left out an important detail.
Before I tell you what it is, I just want you to know how sorry I am that you have to hear it from me, that I have to do this. You can be angry with me if you want, but please don’t DM me in anger.
Okay, here it goes.
The painful truth they didn’t want to tell you.
You can be anything, but you can’t be everything…
To be an Instagram food porn producer, traveling the world spreading burritos, you will have to give up your dreams of working in that brick and mortar tech startup with your 3 best friends from college. Because they need you there, day in, day out. No excuses….and the burritos ain't gonna spread themselves.
And perhaps you’ll try to half-ass both things. But eventually, the business dinners will get in the way of your food porn production and your startup friends will tire of being asked to film you spreading your dinner every night as you discuss the latest needs of the company.
They will begin to question your loyalty. Your commitment to the team. Until one day they become so disgusted that they throw your stupid phone against the restaurant wall while you are mid-spread on a queso covered steak burrito.
Eventually, you have to choose. Because both dreams will slip through your fingers if you try to divide yourself between them.
It’s time to go whole-ass and let one of these dreams die.
Sure, you can float through life without choosing, having never whole-assed anything, ducking out right before the pain of commitment strikes. And yes, you will avoid the anguish and frustration of giving your time and energy to something that may never turn out as you planned.
And you will avoid ever having to overcome the daily internal struggle with impatience that never, and I mean absolutely never, goes away.
You will conveniently escape facing down your FOMO and the immediate sting of pain that comes from sacrificing your time today for something else tomorrow, never knowing if tomorrow will come.
Yet in avoiding the struggle and pain of commitment and choosing to go whole-ass on one thing, we also avoid the beauty and pleasure, and the joy of the quiet moments spent in creation that most people will never come close to experiencing.
Because the true reward of commitment is not recognition, or praise, or money, or sex, or Likes, or shares or any other useless external fucking measurement that the world foolishly assumes validates you.
It is who you become through the process.
Because when you fully commit, giving your whole-ass, you change.
Something shifts inside of you. You cry. Not necessarily because you are sad, although there is sadness in killing off the other dreams you may have had, but because of how heavy your heart becomes with love for the commitment you have made.
Suddenly the world moves slower as if you are in deep meditation and your soul has come to rest, centered in your Hara. Every breath begins to count because every breath is commitment.
But you only get this experience if you go whole-ass.
So when Ron Swanson, with mustache full of steak and breath stinking of single-malt whiskey tells you to never half-ass two things, but to whole-ass one thing, you listen, and you listen good.
