No "All or nothing"?

[Zion]

What are the exceptions when it comes to situations & understandings involving an "All or nothing" mindset?

I've noticed its common advice within lots of self-development teachings to not steer in the direction of having an "all or nothing" mindset, as it can lead towards a path filled with multiple problems. Why is this? I understand that ideology can be a serious problem, though this "all or nothing" mindset seems to be practically inevitable in some cases. 

Some examples:

- Veganism (All Plants, No Animals Whatsoever)

- Meta Absolutes (Truth Or Not, No In Between)

- Limited Elements Of Reality (Genetics, Immune Function, 

- Love v.s Fear

- Moral v.s No Moral

- Purpose v.s No Purpose

- Healthy v.s Unhealthy Nutrition

- Longevity v.s Death

- Stress v.s Relaxed

- Angry v.s Accepting

- Sad v.s Happy

 

Notice how some of these have very preferable options, almost to the point of becoming abstinent of its opposite. Of course, I am biased towards these in some sense, though some of these are seemingly universally impracticable to choose its opposite. 

 

Now you may think; "Its all about balancing these to your own personal importances, & therefore finding your own personal exceptions." I'm struggling to do this because of so many contradictory options. For example, I'm currently vegan. Not for moral reasons, but primarily for environmental & health reasons. Within our modern world, environmentally & health-wise, veganism virtually checks every possible box. Though this is an "All or nothing" way of life..? 

 

I'd love to hear new perspectives as I feel very lost in this regard. Thanks

[Logan]

You need to think deeply for yourself. You’re letting culture make your decisions for you. 
Watch this:

 

And this:

 

[Zion]

@Logan Thank you

[Nahm]

@Zion

I knew a guy who carried the weight of expectations... and there for pressure, tension and stress. His primary motive was to be right. More specifically, to be seen and heard as right, and to always be avoiding the experience of being seen or heard as wrong. So he believed what is really grey, was black & white, and that he knew the ‘right’ black, or white. This led to carrying this somewhat intense focus to bigger & bigger pictures, leading to “all or nothing”. But that lead to the recognition all is nothing, grey appears as black & white, yet only in thought, in labelling. Yet never in perception or feeling. Never in direct experience, in a sense. Only in thoughts about it. Never in regard to himself, only in thought about. 

[LastThursday]

A lot of us are perfectionists. If we can't have it all, then we don't want it at all. Especially with self development it can be really easy to fall into a purity mindset, where if you don't do X to the exclusion of everything else, it's not worth doing at all. One way of having a purity mindset is to line everything up as polar opposites, one thing to be avoided and vilified and another to be embraced and loved. 

A more open way is to have an emphasis mindset. So, you don't exclude anything at all. Maybe you emphasise eating plants over meat. Maybe you emphasise water over alcohol. Maybe you emphasise gym work over smoking. The idea is to place your attention on and turn up the volume on the things which are currently important to you. Everything is then on a sliding scale from 100% to 0%. Over time you learn to adjust everything in a direction which suits your aspirations more.

[Logan]

@Zion You bet.