Creating Your Own Life (Part 2)
This is a very important point. The past cannot be the true source of the present simply because it's just not real anymore. Only the present can be the source of the present. How your life unfolds (or unravels) is actually determined by the thousands of decisions, both big and small, that you make every moment, each and every day. And, since you're always able to choose your own responses to life, you are, ultimately, "response-able" or responsible. Others can advise you, of course, but only you have the final decision about your course of action. You cannot ever give away this ultimate responsibility. In fact, even if you decide to "not decide," that's still your decision, too.
Humans, however, often try to create a false linkage between what they did and why they did it. For example, have you ever heard this from one of your kids: "I hit him because he called me a name." The finger-pointing implication here is one of causality. The kid who threw the punch is implying that the name-caller is, somehow, the one responsible for his own violent response. However, the fact is that one kid chose to call the other a name, but then that kid chose to respond to the insult by hitting him. Trying to create a causal linkage between the two actions is to ignore the existence of free will. You don't do things "because" of what other people have done. You do things because you freely choose to do them. Period.
Your actions are triggered by your feelings, and your feelings are determined by your thoughts. However, your thoughts and the decisions that you make today are mostly generated by your deeply-held personal beliefs. Essentially, you are living your life out into your beliefs about "how things are." In fact, even life's so-called "meaning" for you finds its way into your beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, that you actually become the creator of your own experience in the world.
This is extremely important because the universe is compelled to support your definition of how you think life either is...or how you think that it "should" be. No matter how distorted your beliefs might be, the universe will automatically provide you with the validating evidence that "justifies" your continued support of those beliefs. For example, if you believe that "women will always betray me," then you'll likely create yourself to be around women who will prove themselves to be untrustworthy...at least to you. The universe, it seems, wants to make you right.
Because of this "law of attraction," you'll have to first change your distorted or unproductive beliefs if you want to attract new results in your life. In other words, you cant' get to the new results that you want from the old beliefs that you have. Whenever you become willing to change how you're looking at things, however, then the things that you're looking at will, quite mysteriously, begin to change, too.
Coming up in Part 3: Taking steps to change your "beliefs" about what's true for you.
Chuck writes,
ReplyDelete"Whenever you become willing to change how you're looking at things, however, then the things that you're looking at will, quite mysteriously, begin to change, too."
This is what I'm talking about. Perspectives... There are many ways to look at the same thing/person/situation in front of us. I believe there is a huge difference between pretending to be open-minded, and actually being able to see, or understand, another perspective. It takes willingness and courage. Yes, courage to step outside of the box of wanting to be "right" all the time.
The "mysterious" change that he's talking about... it really does happen. The mere act of seeing something differently changes the thing that it is... imagine that!
I apologize if this is too vague for you "S"s (Sensing preference) out there. Perhaps this line of thinking only appeals to "N"s (iNtuitives)?????