Ask, Believe, ReceiveOctober 7 2007
| |
Recently I've been looking for a deeper logic to life. What makes things happen? How can we control our personal and communal destinies in new ways, better ways?
I have come to a remarkable conclusion and that is that religion, science, management theory, leadership theory and my personal experience, have all lead me to the same place. That place is, that we all seem to agree that in some way we are all co-creators of our future reality.
This does not not mean that reality has at its core simply a nothingness which we are left to mold in our mind into a somethingness. There is an out-there out there. It has very precise rules which govern how matter and energy interact to create the reality which we perceive. However beyond the framework of these rules there appears to be some flexibility or moldability that allows us to use our minds to help shape outcomes in our personal future.
The process of creating a vision of success prior to the achievement of success, is a common theme in all of the disciplines which I have named. Although each discipline provides a different explanation for how and why that vision is eventually transformed into physical reality they all agree that intensely envisioning success will greatly improve your chances of achieving success.
Where this connection has come home to me is that over time I have attempted projects, and dared to want things in my life for which there seemed very little hope of achievement. Eventually the process showed itself to work even when the normal mechanism connecting what I had, to what I wanted, seemed no to be available. In the end all of these explanations appear to me to be a cover for the raw truth in the statement of the principal "Ask, Believe, Receive."
However we are co-creators, not full fledged creators, of our future.
We co-create with the limitations imposed by laws of physics which do not, and may not ever, fully understand. We also co-create with those who have shared interest in the outcome which we envision. Leadership is all about the creation of a shared vision. Since we share our reality with other beings the eventual outcomes will necessarily represent a blend of our vision and theirs along with the uncertain constraints, or perhaps restraints, imposed by physics.
To understand what I am getting at, think of Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler the two main antagonists of World War II. Early on Hitler created and shared vision of a glorious future for the German people. This vision allowed the German people to at least temporarily overcome the reality of their depressed economy and repressed political situation. Later as Britain was placed under stress, Churchill was able to create an alternative vision of success and survival for the Allies. In the end Churchill's vision was held the most strongly in the most minds and so came to prevail.
The argument that there were external physical reasons for the fact that WW II turned out the way it did is absolutely true. Nothing happens in this world without a physical cause. However the way things usually unfold is that, we observe results first, and we then look for rational causes second. When we do look, they almost always exist.
There can be may be no "proof" of the principal "Ask, Believe, Receive" but there is a parallel in physics. We generally understand that gravity is not a force in the true sense. What it is, is a bending of the space time continuum caused by the presence of mass. The more mass, the greater the bending effect, and the greater the perceived gravitational force.
Could it be that there is a physical law that says that consciousness has the power to bend physical reality and that the more intense the conscious believe the bigger the effect? Or perhaps you'd prefer to believe that a strong personal vision helps us better perceive solutions that we would otherwise miss. Or maybe you'd like to believe that we all have guardian angels who negotiate our shared future outcomes among themselves. Whatever you choose to believe, the conclusion is the same. The stronger the shared vision of our future and the stronger our our shared belief in that possibility, the more probable it is that, that particular future will unfold.
... Ask, Believe, Receive ...
|
