I’ve been discussing meditation and intuition a lot recently. I wanted to shake things up a bit and add some fire to the discussion. I’m talking about drive. Often, people will motivate them selves or marshal their willpower to do something that they know they should, but then it fizzles out. There is not enough drive to get it done. Without the drive, the internal resistance will slap you down a lot easier. Today we will start talking bout your drive – your “Why”.
Why it matters
My favorite author when it comes to money is Robert Kiyosaki. Many people criticize him for not writing “how to” books, but instead trying to get his readers to find it within themselves to become a rich person. The rich person they become will then do the right things to have the wealth and prosperity that was the goal in the first place. He knows that no matter how easy you make the path, people won’t take it if they don’t have the drive. If you have the drive, the path will rise to your feet.
This blog is not my first. I had an idea earlier of creating a blog that would be a link blog to the various sites I found on spirituality, and technology, but it wasn’t going to happen. I did not have a compelling reason for doing it. I did a few posts, and then just let stagnate. Later on, after I had worked on my clarity, and I had found the reason that I am here now, I did some soul searching as to how best to serve my purpose. The same thing kept coming up over and over: This blog. I was a little nervous at first, since my last one had been such a dismal failure. However, I had found my purpose. I resolved to give it everything I had. I started and have not stopped since. I ran into some resistance, but I have not let that stop me, and the external resistance is now giving way. This one is more work than the other one would have been as the other one would have been a simple link blog. The reason that the other one failed and this one is succeeding is because I have a compelling reason do to this one.
How to find your “Why”
I can hear it now: “That’s nice, John, but how is any of that going to help me?” I’ll tell you. As I said before, perseverance is extremely important in any endeavor. Certainly anything goal-worthy. Someone once said that 80% of success is in showing up. To keep showing up in the face of resistance takes drive, which is what this is all about.
By far, my favorite blogger is Steve Pavlina. He has some excellent articles on this topic, I will synopsize some of the topics, but I would suggest checking him out. One of the things he covers is the theory of “polarity”. The idea is that there are two big general compelling reasons: Serving yourself, and serving the world. By aligning with one of the two, and figuring out your purpose here, you can go much farther than you could if you stick to not really committing one way or another. One of the things that I find refreshing about Pavlina is that he does not pass moral judgment on choosing the path of service-to-self, citing that anyone who is out to serve themselves effectively cannot avoid benefiting the world as a side-effect. As you know, my slogan is “Find what works for you”, so that is what I suggest. Think of these as different modes of operation. Either will work, but this is a big choice as to what techs you can run down the line. The path of service-to-self is rooted in fear, and your goals and purpose will be in the area of making yourself invincible/all powerful. The path of service-to-the-world is rooted in love, and your goals and purpose will be in the area of loving and improving the world around you. Either polarity will work, but using compassion based techs in a service-to-self mode will either do nothing or crash the system. The same will happen if you are devoted to love and decide to use fear and the iron fist to resolve a situation. Once you go one way, you will find that there is momentum. That is why I suggest finding the one that works for you and then go with it. Yes, that means trying out the other one, too. How can you know which is the most effective unless you try it? Try it out for a while and see. Once you have your answer, dive in. In case you haven’t guessed, I am aligned with the service-to-the-world mode, or a “lightworker”. Inevitably, this skews my perspective. Service-to-self, or the “darkworker” path can be just as effective, but is not for me. Ultimately, they lead to the same place, however different the roads may be. For more on this topic, I suggest going here. This is a search of Pavlina’s site for the term “polarity”. There is much more worthwhile on his site, but that should get you started. Also check out this most excellent article on discovering your purpose. It may seem hokey. It may seem boring or unimportant. You may think of 1,000 other things to do, but when you figure out what your purpose should be, you gain clarity. Any time the going gets rough, or you wonder whether or not you should be doing something, check it against your purpose. The more in line you are with that, the better life gets. The main character in Unbreakable woke up with sadness every day until he realized and started living his reason for being here. It was not easy, nor was the aftermath, but it was worth it for the wonderful direction his life took.
I covered a lot of ground here. I do strongly suggest reading Pavlina because he breaks this material down in easier-to-digest pieces. How’s the homework coming? Are you noticing anything different? What is working and what doesn’t? Drop me a line with any suggestions, comments, or questions.
