Are The Answers Within You?

The other day I was reading one of the greatest books of all time: The Analects by Confucius.

One line in Book 15 stuck out, "I once did not eat all day and did not sleep all night in order to think, but there was no benefit. It would have been better to study." 

It reminded me of a lie so many of us have bought into - that all the answers are "inside of us."

Confucius says that's a bunch of BS. 

The answers are not within us. They are OUTSIDE of us - they are external.

You can't just close your eyes and meditate and somehow magically have the answers to life's hard problems pop into your head.

There are a whole bunch of dumb books and magazines telling you about 'the truth within.' It sounds great. Too bad it's simply not true. 

A few years ago, a friend of mine met a girl and married her in like a month. I asked him if he thought that was a wise idea. He told me that he had sat in silence and meditated and he received a clear answer from the Universe that this was the girl to marry.

A few months later I was hanging out with him again and I asked, "Hey where is your wife?" He told me that he was divorcing her because he had now gotten new 'clarity' from 'within' that she was no longer the right girl for him.

Kind of hilarious, I know. But I can't laugh. We have all made stupid mistakes when we thought we were following our gut.

Meditation might be good for lowering your blood pressure and relaxing, but for finding the answers to life it's a pretty poor way according to Confucius.

Look, I don't care how you measure success.

If you are spiritual, maybe you consider Martin Luther King, JR. or Gandhi successful.

Or if you're an artist you consider Picasso or Mozart successful.

Or if you like money you consider Sam Walton or Bill Gates successful.

Or if you like sports you consider Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan successful...

Guess what? Every one of those people got there BY STUDYING other people and external principles.

Picasso spent his whole life studying, so did Sam Walton, Gandhi, and Tiger Woods.

Michael Jordan had coaches. He didn't meditate to learn how to shoot a basketball.

As the proverb says, "Study to show thyself approved."