Life is good. The course of my life has provided me with a wealth of positive encounters, interactions, and experiences, both actual and prospective.
Sometimes, I feel like I have more things to see, say, and do than I have time to see, say, and do.
I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve said a lot, and I’ve done a lot – much more than most – and my imagination is more than a little staggered by how much more I have yet to see, say, and do.
Even after releasing whatever limits I might have imposed on myself, I still feel stretched by the prospect of fulfilling my life in all the ways I know this can happen for me in this lifetime.
Where my fulfillment is concerned, holding this prospect is a good place to be.
A Fundamental Choice
I can see that I have a fundamental choice – a choice that lies at the heart of who I am, and when I make it conscious, it serves to inform my every moment and to inspire my every move.
This choice is fundamental both to the behavior of my soul and to the conduct of my spirit – to what motivates me, on the one hand, and to what inspires me, on the other.
This fundamental choice can be summed up and posed as a simple, single question:
Where the course of my life is concerned, do I let it happen or do I make it happen?
More simply: do I let it be or do I make it so?
I can shed some light on this choice by putting the spotlight on “it”.
“It” = “this or that encounter”.
“It” = “this or that interaction”.
“It” = “this or that experience”.
I have the power to say “yes” or “no” to my encounters, interactions, and experiences.
In my daily interactions with the world, my personal satisfaction comes in the midst of having satisfying encounters, and my personal fulfillment comes in the wake of having fulfilling experiences.
In every moment of my waking life, I can presume to be and know and have enough to let my encounters, interactions, and experiences happen or . . . I can presume to know and have and do enough to make them happen – in ways that satisfy my needs and fulfill my desires.
The watchwords are “know and have” (for the soul) and “presume to know and have” (for the spirit).
What do I have when I know who I am?
And what can I presume to know and have when I make my move?
These are profound questions.
Let’s address each in turn.
As I Let It Happen
What do I have when I know who I am?
We’d all like to know that we’re getting closer to understanding, appreciating, and realizing the continuity of our fulfillment, and so, what is the yardstick by which I measure this continuity?
This question is actually, and surprisingly, easy to answer.
The degree to which I’ve realized the continuity of my fulfillment in the course of living my life is the extent to which I’ve manifested desired outcomes quickly and easily, with little or no effort.
In view of this yardstick, certain questions have power.
They have power because they contain assumptions (or presumptions) that color and influence the tone of my intentions and expectations to be, have, and do.
The wrong question can bring me down. The wrong question can drain my power.
For example, when I take a moment to compare the effects that the following two questions have on my sense of well-being, I’m surprised by how different they make me feel about my prospects:
Why do I have so little? versus Why do I have so much?
In reality, having per se is relative, from one moment to the next, from one person to the next.
When I ask the first question, my soul is compelled to search for negative responses, but when I ask the second question, my soul is drawn to responses that affirm my sense of promise.
When I take my focus away from material gain and put it on the riches of my soul, I suddenly realize just how easy it is to answer this question in the affirmative: why do I have so much?
The riches of soul are intangible.
They include innate capacities that make life worth living, such as presence and promise, as well as the inherent capacities to feel and to share peace and love with gratitude.
The essence of who I am is love because I have a soul, and the gratitude that I feel brings me peace, and the peace in turn makes it relatively easy for me to love and be grateful for what I have.
When I know who I am, I have the sense that I matter – really and truly. This basic sense of myself translates into a sense of promise, which translates further into a sense of worthiness.
With a robust sense of worthiness, I need not wait for others to reflect back to me the essence of who I am. In my encounters, I can do the reflecting, and I can do it accurately, faithfully, and positively.
As with all good habits, I can do this habitually, with presence and promise.
I can steer myself gently in the direction of asking …
- Why am I so calm and composed?
- Why do I believe in myself so much?
- Why do I trust my intuition so often?
- Why do I have so many positive encounters?
When I Make It Happen
What can I presume to know and have when I make a move?
When I make a move, and I know that I’ve made this move sucessfully in the past, and I feel assured that it’ll be successful yet again, any question of further success doesn’t come up. I just do it.
But before I make a move for the first time, or before I make yet another move, I just might hesitate before making it. “I’ve never done this before”, as a reason for passivity, becomes my excuse.
If two people, standing on the brink of the unknown in a safe situation, have a sense of worthiness, what distinguishes the one who makes a move from the one who makes an excuse not to move?
Or, what distinguishes the one who keeps moving from the one who stops moving?
There’s really only one answer to this question: transference – being ready, willing, and able to transfer positive images and feelings from previous positive encounters into the present moment.
This readiness, willingness, and ability is the essence of spirit, and there’s a cyclical dynamic at work that feeds this readiness, willingness, and ability.
When I establish and maintain habits that give me the wherewithal to act with confidence, I set up a continuous, virtuous cycle of attainment, achievement, and accomplishment.
Positive beliefs about myself in action lead to positive conduct, which yield positive effects, results, and outcomes, which in turn reinforce positive beliefs about myself in action.
But which habits?
Assuming that I already have the presence and the promise to enjoy positive encounters, what habits of mind and body predispose me towards having positive experiences?
What can I presume to know and have when I make a move for the first time? Essentially, it would be this: a positive expectation of success fed by at least one positive encounter from the past.
And if I have no such encounters from which to draw, then I am compelled to generate some through my innate capacities to feel and share some combination of peace, love, and gratitude.
Of course, where fear is involved, more is required than a positive expectation.
I can have a positive expectation and still hesitate.
I also need gumption in spite of whatever fear I might perceive on the other side of making a move.
I would do well to be ready, willing, and able to negotiate any fear of lack, loss, or death – be it reasonable or unreasonable, realistic or unrealistic.
A positive expectation of a positive experience, riding high on a previous positive encounter, allied with gumption in the face of fear, is really and truly spiritual.
With positive ‘gumpectations’, if you will, I can be charged with the conviction that I can have or do almost anything, anywhere, with anyone, at anytime.
If only life were so simple, but then, if it is, or if you believe it is, with conviction, then I’m willing to believe that your experience will reflect this simplicity or this conviction.
Let it be or make it so? Life is as simple or as complex as you make it.
Some Final Thoughts
You have a choice, and it’s a powerful choice: you can let it happen or you can make it happen.
You can let it be or you can make it so.
Your soul can let it happen or your spirit can draw on the promise of your soul to make it happen.
Your soul can let a particular encounter, interaction, or experience happen for you, knowing that said encounter, interaction, or experience aligns with your sense of promise.
Or your spirit can draw on the promise of your soul to make an encounter, interaction, or experience happen, knowing that its sense of possibility will expand to affirm the promise of your soul.
“To let it be or to make it so” is a fundamental choice.
It’s a powerful choice when you let it be one, and it becomes a powerful choice when you make it so.
In what area of your life would you like to apply it now?
Make a game of it, and while you’re at it, make up your own rules.
Here are my ground rules: cultivate presence, welcome peace; cultivate promise, welcome love; cultivate purpose, welcome passion; and be a wizard with the possibilities that arise for you.
Throughout your day, stay in touch with your points of resistance.
At each point, ask yourself: let it be or make it so?