A Whole Bunch Of Nothing by Leslie Fieger

It is seemingly a common phenomenon that somehow spontaneously occurs to almost every teenager. It is the nothing thing. You can ask almost any question and the answer is “nothing”. What are you doing? Nothing. What will you be doing tomorrow? Nothing.

It is followed closely by the nowhere thing. Where were you? Nowhere. Where are you going? Nowhere.

And finally, the clincher…I dunno. What do you want for dinner? I dunno. When will you be home? I dunno. What is the name of the movie you are going to see? I dunno.

It seems like these teens are going and coming from ‘nowhere’ and doing and planning on doing ‘nothing’. Why? I dunno. Shrug. Who knows?

Well, fortunately, it is just a phase and soon enough, not only will they be quite willing to say where they have been, what they have been doing and for what reason; they will also be willing to tell you where you should go, how to get there and why.

Now, it may seem like this ‘nothing’ phase disappears from our lives as our hormones settle down a little and our neurons get back to work, but this ‘nothing’ thing sticks around. It is insidious. It sits there just below the surface waiting for the right moment to take over again.

Adults…fully-grown, and supposedly fully functional, human beings will suddenly revert back to the “nothing, nowhere, dunno” phase when asked any question to which they do not yet have a prepared rationalization or excuse.

This is critical! It is not that they actually do not have or know the real answer; it is because they do not yet have a valid sounding excuse or rationalization prepared and rehearsed.

Parents know that their teens are practicing avoidance when they use these one-word dismissals. Somehow, we forget to apply the same wisdom to adult human beings, including ourselves.

Whenever we are called, by inclination or by circumstance, to do a little self-evaluation, the answers we get back to the questions we ask ourselves are often a whole lot of nothing, nowhere and I dunno.

So ask yourself this…why aren’t you living the life of your dreams? What comes back?

What’s the answer you supply to you? Is it some well-prepared and rehearsed rationalization or excuse? Or, is it some variation of nothing, nowhere, I dunno. The real answer???

I suppose it is ok to not answer others when they ask questions that you do not wish to supply the real answers to; but, you must be firm and resolute with yourself. Do not allow your mind to get away with giving you avoidance responses when you are after answers.

Do you truly desire to have a prosperous and abundant life?? If the answer is YES, then you must get specific. Stop allowing yourself to be satisfied with a whole bunch of nothing.

What are you doing? Why?

Where are you going? Why?

When will you get there? How?