New Beginnings

Every week, we all need a new beginning, a new chance to start over.  Actually, we can have that every day -- several times a day if we need it.  Every morning when we awaken, we are blessed with a new day of life.  The Universe has given us another chance -- another opportunity to "make good."  How will we use it?

Some days, it feels as though we squander our gifts of the day.  Other days feel more fulfilling.

What if we could look at each day without attachment?  So often, the concepts of success or failure hold us in a vice-like grip and fear of failure keeps us from trying something new, something wonderful.

In my practice of Controlled Remote Viewing (see my website at www.IntuitiveSpecialists.com for more info about that) I think it keeps us from practicing, because the feedback photo is never what we pictured in our minds.  

How like life the practice of Controlled Remote Viewing is!  Each day is like that:  never usually what we pictured in our minds.

However, a lot of "CRVers" realize that overall, they describe the target pretty well.  The photo in the feedback envelope may not resemble what we imagined, but darned if we didn't do a bang up job of describing it, anyway!  

Life is made up of days which are made up of moments.  Looking back down the hill of life, we see that overall, we haven't failed nearly as badly as we feared.  We haven't maliciously slaughtered anyone, or lived a life of crime.  Sure, people do, but those are not my students or my readers.

So why do we fear failure so dreadfully?  What does failure mean?

That is the problem:  Most of us haven't really defined failure and what failure means to us, personally.  Failure, I believe, is comprised of many subliminal messages we've received through the years, passed to us via teachers, parents, friends and authorities.  Each of us has a plethora of personalities within -- frozen in time -- in that moment when we were disciplined too harshly for a small mistake.  Those moments and the accompanying messages create a life tapestry that hangs on the back wall of our subconscious mind.  

Beneath our conscious awareness, a part of ourselves continues to interpret that tapestry everyday and weighs how we feel about ourselves on how we measure up to the standards established there.

The problem is, you may be judging yourself based on an idea you formed as a 5-year old!

By throwing away these outdated standards, we could be freer to succeed.  

But how do you eliminate ideas and standards formed (and now buried) in the subconscious?  If you can't see them, how do you grab them to throw them out?

Well, perhaps you don't have to see them.  It may be enough just to know that they are there. Armed with this awareness, now you can work on letting go of the attachment you have to the idea of "success" and "failure."

I tell my students that every time they practice, it is a success.  Why?  Because they took that risk of being wrong.  Because they practiced a skill that a huge majority of people think is impossible.

Every time you practice, you are outstanding.  You are upping your game.  You are in a very elite group of people!

So let go of the need to be perfect, to always be right, and allow yourself to enjoy the process of learning and growing and improving.

Every really "successful" person has experienced failure.  Failure is a part of success, and the fear of it can cause us to not even try at life.  We don't want to risk it.

Brendon Burchard says to "honor the struggle." Struggle is part of the journey.

The journey is fraught with ups and downs, obstacles and other things, seen and unseen.  We have to march ahead in the dark and do our best.

So it is not that "success" or "failure" don't exist.  They do.  It's just that they are concepts defined differently in everyone's individual mindset.

You will fail and you will succeed.  But how you react to both of those is key.

Just be willing to experience life, with all of its successes and failures.  Risk failure.

Then you will succeed. 

Be aware of your successes and notice that, over time, they will outnumber your failures.

Recently, I was reading a book about Yoga by Rodney Yee.  He talks about how, in class, he can tell those who practice at home.  Those who don't always try so hard in class, as though they are following orders and are all about "doing it right."

Whereas those who practice at home flow and are present within themselves.  

I see that with Controlled Remote Viewing, too.  Those who practice on their own let go of the right or wrong of it, and become immersed in the fascination of it. 

"As you practice... on your own...try to cultivate an attitude of playfulness and acceptance.  Being present during your practice means allowing yourself to be aware of whatever physical sensations, emotions and thoughts are currently arising.  And if you approach your practice with a sense of curiosity, rather than self-judgement or competitiveness, you will not only find it easier to motivate yourself to practice, but you will also be able to be more present during the times when you do practice." (Moving Toward Balance by Rodney Yee)

So enjoy exploring the frontiers of your own consciousness and learning to be in touch with that intuitive, all-knowing part of yourself.