Aim for the gap, not the tree

Photo by Peter Zhurakhovsky on Unsplash

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:

‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!’

― William Hutchison Murray The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

The quote above is often used to point towards the power of committing to a course. There's another way of reading it - which is 'whatever we direct our minds towards, that's what we will create'. We see this play out again and again in our lives and our client's lives. The real takeaway from William Murray is to notice where our minds are pointing and then gently nudge our attention to what we would prefer to create.

Essentially our minds will take us where we are pointing. I remember years ago doing some skid training as part of a fun day out. The instructor explained that when we skid on a bend in a car we tend to look at the obstacle, the tree or telegraph pole on the bend, and because are looking at it (trying to avoid it!) it is most likely that we will hit it, because our instinctive system takes us in the direction we are looking. The lesson for I took away was that if you find yourself in a skid, look at the gap, not at the tree.

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

It seems to me that this applies in all of our thought-creations. Wherever we look, that's what we'll create for ourselves and that is therefore what we will experience. Our creative system is essentially neutral in its intention, our consciousness says "oh you're interested in that, you think it's relevant - I'll make that real for you". So if we start looking at the barriers to creating what we want, that's what we end up with.

We've all experienced this at 3am when a thought pops into our consciousness and despite our best efforts it is followed up by tens, hundreds and perhaps thousands of similar thoughts spiralling off and creating a sleep-denying whirlpool. Often in the morning we can't even remember what it was all about - thank goodness! (PS my suggestion is don't even try to remember!)

So if that's the negative side of living in a thought-created reality what's the upside? The upside is that it always works in the same way. If we point our minds toward what we prefer to create then consciousness will make it a reality and we will start to experience more and more thoughts that move us in that direction. Those thoughts may well become an idea, evolve into concept, then perhaps a model or description and ultimately come into form. That form may be a new habit, a new project, a new product or perhaps and entirely new experience of life.

I'm sure Goethe won't mind me tweaking his quote:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Your mind has genius, power, and magic in it!”