What Can You Do When You Don’t Know What To Do?
Applied mindfulness opens you to doing something.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time sitting at my keyboard today, trying to find the words to write, the story I want to tell as I share my weekly philosophy with you. Nothing was coming to mind.
Am I feeling depressed? No. Do I feel uncertain? Not particularly, no. Am I sad, hungry, flustered? Nope. Have I been doom-scrolling and making myself feel lost? Not really.
So why am I unable to come up with a topic today? Maybe because a lot is happening. At least in the world, there is. My life, overall, is relatively stable. But then again, personally, a lot is going on. I’m working on finishing and promoting my next book, continuing to write in that series, plotting what to write next, and also working my part-time and volunteer jobs.
Eventually, this idea came to me. What can you do when you don’t know what to do? There is, of course, no singular answer. This is going to be utterly situational. Yet recognizing and acknowledging that goes a long way toward taking action.
As my favorite green Muppet said, and I always take to heart,
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
This is not about giving something a try. It’s about doing versus half-assing or paying lip service to a thing. And this brings me to what you can do when you don’t know what to do.
What to do? Do something
This is easier said than done. But one of the things that most holds anyone back is inaction.
Part of why the United States is in the position it is right now is because of inaction. More eligible voters didn’t bother to vote than did. Inaction and not voting have brought us to this utterly ridiculous place.
More than once, because of inaction, I went nowhere in my life. A relationship that might have been wasn’t addressed, an entrepreneurial idea unexplored, a trip not taken, and so on. I made no choices or decisions and did nothing.
What can you do when you don’t know what to do? Do something. But, and this is an important caveat, it should be something intentional.
This is where we address Yoda’s “there is no try.” When Luke says he’ll try to lift his X-Wing out of the swamp, Yoda recognizes that he’s basically saying, “Yeah, sure, whatever. I don’t buy it, but I’ll do this to appease you.” That’s not doing, and that’s the point of the quote.
Do something means intent is behind it. But how do you get to and apply intent?
Mindfulness for intent
To do something intentionally requires active conscious awareness. That means being in the here and now, being present, and in this moment. When you do that, you can recognize and acknowledge your experiences as they are.
Ergo, being present and consciously aware, you can recognize and acknowledge who, what, where, how, and why you are. Recognize to see it for what it is; acknowledge to accept what you see. If you skip recognition and acknowledgement, you remove your power to do anything about it. You’re creating that half-ass situation where little to nothing can be done consciously.
Mindfulness is the application of active conscious awareness. Yes, it truly is that simple. To become mindful, you need to be present, here and now, because mindfulness can’t be applied to either the past or the future.
Then, being consciously aware now, you can ask questions that give you insight into your mindset/headspace/psyche self, like:
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What are my intentions here?
- Is my approach positive or negative?
- What am I doing (or not doing)?
All of this opens you to being able to do something with intent. And intent is how you make change happen that impacts your life.
Intent is direction. It’s doing something with aim, a goal, a plan, or at least a vague notion.
The blank screen I stared at for an hour or more is now being filled with this idea because I did something with intent. I started this exploration of what you can do when you don’t know what to do.
What to do and situational awareness
As I stated at the start, doing something is usually impacted by situations. What you can do when staring at a blank screen is different from standing in a line, stuck in traffic, deciding to click on that link or not, and so on.
A large part of this is because not knowing what to do tends to also be completely situational. Why don’t you know what to do? Is it the product of something you created or resulting from what another person/entity presented to you? Is it about the time/season/location you’re at? Does it involve only you or others?
No matter the reason, when you don’t know what to do, you can do something intentional. But being aware of your environment and your surroundings is going to impact that. Hence, situational awareness.
Read the room. Be aware of what’s happening both within and without. Pause and reflect on your own headspace. But recognize and acknowledge that you have more power to guide your life experience than you probably realize. Hence, what you can do when you don’t know what to do is do something with intent.
You deserve and are worthy of directing your life experience as you desire to. Be the most you that you can be as you walk the paths you desire to.
What will you do next time you don’t know what to do?
This is the seventh-hundred-sixty-sixth (766) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share my philosophy because I desire to make a difference in the world and help as many people as I can to find their empowerment with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to share and/or repost where it might do good for you and others.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
Also, please check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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