In an attempt to connect the chaos and divide it into our little folders, we overlook a lot of important truths about the nature of who or what we are dealing with, ourselves included. If you spend enough time thinking about anything, your brain takes off and creates patterns. After enough hibernation inside, those random patterns start to look a hell of a lot like facts and we risk forming our entire lives around these patterns. We may even nurture them and look after them. This certainty we desire is dangerous to the open mindedness that we value.
This is what I think we are talking about when we say ‘egocentric’. To be egocentric is to let your stories spill out into the realm of opinion, all dressed as facts. In an attempt to be kind to our egos, we sometimes lose track of what it means to be right. Right is situational and requires higher processing, compromise, time and tact. If you make the target big enough or become close minded enough then anyone can make their ego smile. Let’s ask more.
What about making the REAL you smile?
Tony Robbins always had a saying, “In your head, you’re dead.”, and as a rampant thinker myself, I try to refer to this when I reach that state of analysis paralysis. This doesn’t mean not to think, that would be absurd. But when the time comes to make something happen, if you’re in your head, you could be in big trouble. Conversations, stock buys, coffee drinking, oncoming traffic– it all has its time. You could end up lonely, broke, burnt or run over by a car. There are consequences if action isn’t taken at the right time.
To my knowledge, time doesn’t slow down or speed up for any of us. We can’t herd all the follies of the past or predict the future to any avail. It is action, present movement, that sets us free and makes things happen. Making things happen is what intention is all about. I believe that it is called “the present” for a reason… perhaps because it is a gift to be here, wherever we are, right now. How many coincidences and ambiguous turnouts have placed you in this absurd present moment you are in right now? The more often we choose to accept the presents that we are always being provided, the more present we are, and the more we have.
Back on the previous podcasts and blogs, we talked about intention a lot. We talked about how the motivation from within is what makes our work meaningful. If we intend on doing things to please other people or to conform to someone else’s standard, then we won’t enjoy our results.
Then we continued on, and talked about how our stories determine where we go and how honest feedback can untie us from those runaway trains we have created. Honesty pokes holes in our delusions and frees us to see the things we care about. Honesty puts the truth right in front of us. That’s why there is nothing more honest than taking action and seeing how it goes.
“I believe that it is called “the present” for a reason… perhaps because it is a gift to be here, wherever we are, right now.”
Today, though, I think it’s great to get out of our heads and talk about where to start out in the world, unchained from our thoughts and introspection. Let’s wander a little bit and leap out of the pages of the books we read. What can we do to set ourselves free and gain some momentum? How do we turn intention to action as quickly as possible? How do we start to see intention and action as nearly the same exact thing?
How do we find our “IN” from our intentions?
Leave a Reply