” My grandfather told me…”to accomplish anything worthwhile, you must pay the price.” My dad taught me that nothing in life would come easy. That I would have to work for those things that I wanted. But work cannot be narrowly defined in only a physical sense. Work is also a mental, emotional and spiritual endeavor as well.
As I grew up, I also came to learn and appreciate that achievement, excellence and success is not a matter of destiny, fate, timing or being in the right place at the right time. For that would mean that we live by chance rather than being guided by intention. To live solely by chance would negate the value and virtue of our effort and commitment. Our perseverance and sacrifice. And ultimately, our purpose.
I learned that in order to “be” or “become” – you needed to intend to “be” or “become”. To be purposeful in your thoughts, words and deeds. I found that to live with intention – and intentionally – is to be guided by purpose.
There will always be a price to pay if you live with intention. If you are purposeful in all that you do. You will have to “give up” to “go up”. You will need to leave some of who and what you “are” behind in order to get to where you want to go. To become what and who you want to be requires sacrifice. And this isn’t easy.
I can assure you that the suffering you encounter along the way – whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual in nature – will be temporary. You are simply giving up comfort, familiarity and the certain in order to press ahead, grow and become what you were intended to be.
You are “trading up”. And after all, wasn’t that your intention? ”
In a conversation at work some time ago, the phrase “location, location, location” came into play.
Nothing to do with its inherent real estate connotation. But more so how one maintains a sense of presence in the real estate they happen to occupy in this moment. Not just where they find themselves. But more to the point, how they find themselves where they are now. Not in a week, month or year.
Now.
‘Cause when it comes down to it, if you aren’t here, then you cannot access what is to be gained from the moment. Not that each moment is going to be an epiphany. That is never the case. It is just that each moment has within it the capacity to become an epiphany.
A surprise. Never expected. Life changin’.
An epiphany.
It seems to me that there is a human tendency to believe that moments that seem a mistake, reflect a poor decision or turn out to be a failure are lost causes. A chance lost. Something not meant to be. Better left behind than kept, discerned and understood.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Everything we encounter in our lives has meaning. A purpose. A reason to be. And yet because things are not precisely what we imagined, we think all is lost. Wasted effort, commitment and direction.
We choose to leave the moment and place ourselves where we wish to be. A place begotten without the sacrifice, effort, discipline and effort. Then when we awake, and find ourselves at what seems to be the ultimate conclusion, we deflect, ignore, blame and avoid the outcome.
“Location, location location” has nothing to do with where you are. It has everything to do with being fully present where you are right here, right now. So that you can someday, become all that you were meant to be.
If you have the presence of mind and soul to capture and keep those multiple instances of missteps, defeat and failure, then you can access the wherewithal to maintain a presence in those moments yet to come.
When we “let it be”, we give our consent to allow things to play out.
This isn’t to say that we ever had the ultimate authority in these matters. We just like to think that we do. To “let it be” is an admission that we need to step back, defer our assumed jurisdiction and grant Him the opportunity to work things out. After all, His plans DO take precedence.
Once we can admit that personal command can be elusive and control is tenuous at best, we can cease and desist, cede our alleged authority, and let His will be done.
Regardless of the high praise we deem for our abilities, the importance we assign to our desires or the confidence we hold in the righteousness of our position, to “let go” assures us that we have correctly ordered our priorities and recognized our proper role.
At its core, to “let go” is choosing our surrender.
It is an acknowledgement that His loving order of things, “works best for us.”
As we endeavor to make the transition towards this “happy place”, less of our emotional and spiritual energy will be consumed on the superficial, transient and the petty.
We can conserve our precious personal resources. Create a reserve. And begin to reallocate it in another direction: outward. Once we reach this point, we can afford to “give it up”.
With less personal control and even surrender, things should spiral out of orbit – right? On the contrary; less sovereignty in this respect leads to greater independence, stability and well-being.
Control becomes an extension of our ego, and when left unchecked, has the potential to work against us – and – the greater good.
An ego run amok will falsely inflate our self-esteem. It will crowd out humility, creating within us a bogus sense of self-importance and security. It can become a very demanding companion.
For once you let it come to the table, it will remain there, begging to be fed.
Always desperate for attention, ego can enjoin us to perform all sorts of interpersonal gymnastics, cultivate manipulative behaviors and help perfect dishonesty. This is an exhausting and empty exercise.
When we learn to “let it be” and then find the courage to “let go”, we set ourselves on a trajectory towards the emotionally and spiritually fulfilling growth that can only be found when we “give it up”.
Abandoning our preoccupation with control and employing our innate humility to rein in ego, we can gain an essential element of independence.
No longer beholden to the transience of these self-made and self-destructive adversaries, we find our true center. With our overall sense of balance restored, and an enhanced sense of well-being imminent, we are positioned to give up more of our personal resources; our ‘self’.
As we can learn to syncopate our lives – altering its rhythm by putting the accent on thoughts, words and deeds not usually emphasized – we become attuned to an entirely different melody.
No longer distracted by our illusions of command and control or driven solely by ego, we have the opportunity to fulfill our potential and maximize our talents to a level that can only be achieved by openly sharing our abilities.
To “give it up”, is to share who and what we are in total, bringing light to places long kept dark, both within and without.
Once this path has been illuminated, it can lead us toward a lasting and positive personal transformation. By freeing our “selves” from our self-centered constraints, we gain true independence.
If only you can follow His gentle tug.
The more we allow ourselves to follow that pull, the more we recognize that it is where we were meant to be all along.
When we “give it up”, we shine the beacon of our better nature everywhere we go. Though we might start as but one point of light, over time, our radiance soon brings out the brilliance in others.
Our gift to them – “giving it up” – can become their gift of “giving it up” to others.
Only when we recognize these personal barriers – the ones that separate us from our gifts and from giving them fully to others – can they be dismantled and removed.
We can transform our lives and those around us when we become less concerned with control, no longer held captive by our ego. Absolved of maintaining such a high level of vigilance over our “selves”, we preserve more energy and retain more freedom to simply “be”.
When we can “give it up”, sharing more of what and who we are with others, our true “self” generates its own gravitational pull.
Just as we feel a gentle pull towards Him, others feel the gentle pull towards us.
The greater the orbit we allow our “selves” to venture into, while maintaining our synchronous orbit about Him, the more we are able to reveal the best that is in us, encouraging others to do the same.
All the good things in life He wants for us that can only come from “giving it up”.
When intention fully employed and acted upon intersects with an unflinching level of intensely personal investment, the result can be exponential. The product of you becoming a positive force multiplier.
An entity ever rippling outward.
You see, nothing we ever do in life exists in a vacuum. Your thoughts, words and actions convey your precise intention and personal investment to the public in every venture you pursue. Things that you hold dear are revealed to all each step you take to achieve it. Everything is seen, heard and felt by all of those around you.
The positive force of your choice, action and effort has the potential to be multiplied when those who witness that change in you then choose to embark upon a similar course and make it their very own.
That being said, when you push beyond physical limitations, imagined boundaries of comfort and personal obstacles, others will be led to do the same.
When you exert the mental acuity needed to eliminate distractions, have a short memory when it comes to mistakes and you can “be” totally present, others will witness those outcomes and choose to travel right down that same path along with you.
By stripping yourself of limitations imposed by selfish interests, the constraints of ego and moving beyond “me” to unleash a positive and lasting energy that can only be found in “we”, you will articulate a selflessness meant to be embraced and emulated by all.
Display the courage to give up yourself so that others may become the best version of themselves? Then all will be raised up – as well as you – in the process.
And finally, when you love your teammates and those around you enough to make them the center of your universe, you will be an exemplar of faith in them. An avenue to return your love of them with the same depth and commitment back to you.
So as you embark on the next step of your quest to become what you were intended to be, appreciate the positive force multiplier that lies within each one of you.
Understand how intention and investment cannot exist in a vacuum.
And that the impact of the intersection of your intentional action and your limitless investment therein is seen, heard and felt across all of your universe.
...my temporary assignment. 