January 6, 2013
“When something doesn’t work in your life, assume that you’re operating on false information.”
Brilliant! I read that and thought, “I can skip the entire blame song and dance!” No more shaming myself into the fetal position because I’ve blown it, or digging for who’s right/who’s wrong. No more exhausting self-righteous indignation because ‘you’ aren’t making me happy.
Okay, so I notice I’m off-track and I move to doing something about it. Simple maybe, but not necessarily easy. Of course there will be barriers, and in most cases I won’t get 100% on track over night. But with that philosophy, I’ll be moving toward the light at the end of the tunnel rather than wandering around in the darkness of ‘aint this awful’.
One of the guiding principles of my life is that the moment one takes a step in the direction of a goal, the universe steps in with support in ways and forms one could never have imagined before taking that first step. Seriously, don’t take my word for it—try it!
When my son was around 14 he said, “Mom, I want to be a leader but I don’t know how and I don’t think I can ever be that”. The false information was that he could never be a leader because at the moment he didn’t know how. This may sound like weird advice to give a 14 year old, but I encouraged him to identify guys he thought were great leaders and immerse himself in reading about them. To this day he continues to surround himself with information and experiences that hone his leadership skills.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel! If something isn’t working, there’s a friend, or a book, or a class, or a website that will tell us anything we’ve ever wanted to know about just about everything. Our job is to recognize there’s something off kilter and acknowledge that we need to do something different.
So if something’s not working in your life, what’s one small step you can take today toward getting the information you need to get it on track?
“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.” Buddhist proverb
Your comment about “No more exhausting self-righteous indignation because ‘you’ aren’t making me happy” created a Ahhhh-ugh experience , this was the proverbial slap to the back of the head that I needed as I have been stuck recently by something more like ‘you’ are annoying me and I want ‘you’ to change so I can then, be happy and right. In reality I have been facing in the opposite direction being angry & complaining, which would never allow me to take a step in a positive direction. Thanks for the impeccable timing.
Oh LIsa, what a wonderful awareness–that aaahhh-ugh is so familiar!! Thank you 🙂 It’s funny, sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to notice we need to turn around. Love, Robyn