Stop Explaining Yourself

Haven't you heard about the turtles that go all the way down?

There once was a man named Forrest Gump who decided to go on a run. But it was no ordinary run. He ran so much, for so long, that it became a national story. As his legs carried him all around America he captured the attention of the public, even attracting devoted disciples like an ancient prophet.

People became beyond confused. The media began to cook up theories about why he was running. Was he doing it for the homeless? Women’s rights? The environment? Animals? World peace? One day, a bunch of reporters pounded him with all those questions so much that he finally gave an answer.

“I just felt like running,” he said. But no one seemed satisfied by this response. And so the legend grew about this mysterious man and his motives. It couldn’t be because he just felt like it.

Yet that is all he continued to say.

I take great inspiration from Forrest Gump running for 1170 days and 16 hours with no explanation. I’ve observed a certain poisonous tendency in the human psyche that leads to you explaining yourself when it is far from necessary. Worst of all is when you find yourself explaining yourself to someone who you don’t even like. As if anticipating someone asking it, you give the ugly unprompted justification of why.

But the thing about why questions, as the great scientist Richard Feynman once talked about in such a classic way, is that they are tricky. Slippery, aye. It eventually becomes turtles all the way down.

Think:

Question: Why do you want to read that book?

Answer: So I can become more knowledgeable.

Question: Why do you want to become more knowledgeable?

Answer: So I can become more successful.

Question: Why do you want to become successful?

Answer: So I can have a higher quality of life.

Question: Why do you want to have a higher quality of life?

Answer: My guy, it is natural to want to have a higher quality of life.

Question: Why is it natural?

Answer: It is natural because…well, it is how we got wired through eons of evolution.

Question: Why were there eons of evolution?

Answer: Organisms have been evolving since the beginning of life.

Question: Why was there a beginning of life?

Answer: …That’s a bi—

Question: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Answer: Please leave me alone.

Explaining yourself is often a waste of emotions and energy.

And there is great importance to the why question. It’s critical to ask Vladimir Putin, “Hey Vladimir Putin, why are you waging war?” But if you’re reading this, you’re likely not a tyrannical authoritarian head of state playing chess with people’s lives. Likely you’re a good ole civilian. Maybe one who wants to do something new. Something exciting. But you’re scared of someone asking you why you want to play the piano, why you are learning Korean, or why you {insert whatever weird thing you’ve secretly always wanted to pursue}.

“I just felt like it” is the forever freeing phrase to have prepared in your pocket.

Living life like this is way cooler anyways. Just doing things with no explanation. Posting it. Launching it. Going to the class. Traveling to the country. Shooting the shot. I mean, look at Gump. He was a war hero, star running back at Alabama, and successful business owner who invested in Apple in the early days. He was too busy balling to be explaining himself. Be like Gump, damnit.

Forrest Gump (1994)