Beware! If you focus intently on what you want, you may get it!
Say you’re climbing a hill. It’s a stony hill, and steep. But you’re determined to reach the top, and even though it’s a difficult climb, there’s little doubt that you will reach it.
But wait. I have a question for you: Why do you want to reach the top?
“To see the view.”
Why do you want to see the view?
“To feel the wonder and awe of what I see.”
And there we come to it, your true desire – to experience wonder and awe. That’s the end you seek, and you only imagined that reaching the top would be the means the that end. Even though it has seemed so to you, reaching the top is not your goal. It is only a detail. Your goal is to feel wonder and awe. So claim that goal, and let go of the means. Let go of the details.
Do you really think that YOU know the best means to the ends you desire? There are powers in this universe that are far better at details than you and I! Set your intention on what you truly want, which you have discerned by asking “Why?” over and over, but leave the mystery of the details to those more creative powers (which some might call your Higher Power. Which I call your Totality of Self.) Let go of controlling the details, and be willing to dwell in the unknown for a bit. Trust that the means to your end will become clear to you.
Now you’re back on the stony hillside, climbing. And because you’re not so focused on reaching the top, you’re more available to seeing to what’s right in front of you, and so you notice the tiny, beautiful flowers growing between the rocks. You keep climbing, amazed at the beauty between the rocks. (Maybe you even feel some wonder and awe!) And you may think, “I will be so thrilled when I reach the top and see the view!”
Then, to your left, you see an unmarked and not much used trail. Because your commitment to reach the top is no longer your main focus, you decide to follow the “less traveled” trail.
The trail leads to an overlook, and the view is truly awesome. There is a village in the far distance that you’ve never seen before, and it intrigues you. You spend the rest of the day at the overlook, looking at the beauty before you, and you do experience wonder and awe. As the sun begins to lower, you decide to go back to your car and drive to the little village, check it out, see what it has to offer.
There, if I were telling the story (which I am), you find a little store front for rent, and you know it would be perfect to sell your creative endeavors, or as a massage studio, or perhaps the little café you’ve dreamed of having, or…
And so the story goes, the story of the first day of the rest of your life. And all because you let go of focusing on details, and instead focused on what you truly wanted, the feeling state you wanted to experience.
What feeling state do you want to experience?