If Not This, Then What?

All we are is peace, love, and wisdom, and the power to create the illusion we’re not. – Jack Pransky

Every instant of our life is a choice point.

Through habit or conscious choice we decide what we’re going to do, or not do, and how we’re going to do it.

These choices come from our ground-of-being (GoB).

Our GoB is everything from our beliefs and values to the conditioned neural pathways and associated neuro-transmitters in our brains that create our emotions and “states-of-mind.”

*  *  *

We are subject to billions of stimuli and choice-points every day.

Because of the sheer volume, our brains learn to do two vital things: filter and develop habits.

Without the filtering of external stimuli we would go crazy. And without habits to guide and steer us we would be paralyzed by the sheer volume of decisions that could be made in a given day, hour, minute, even second.

So, we ignore certain things and we don’t consciously choose everything.

*  *  *

The most important thing we can do, if we want to experience peaceful, joyous and useful lives, is to be aware of how we create our lives – to understand that our states-of-mind, and being, come directly from our GoB.

At the foundation of our GoB is what we think we are. For so many of us, we made the “decision” about what we are, a long time ago, and have been proceeding accordingly since.

It’s likely that this “decision” was formed from multiple inputs (family/friends/peers/culture/advertising) and not necessarily all that consciously (especially since some of “it” comes from early life when we were pre-verbal).

*  *  *

I want you to ask yourself, based on a look at your results in life, what’s at the foundation of your GoB?

Are you acting as if you are peace, love and wisdom? Or are you coming from something else?

If it’s the latter, are you willing to consider that the truth is something different?

I believe it is and offer you the encouragement to re-make your GoB – and life – accordingly.

Similar Posts

  • The Certainty of Nothing

    “What I’ve experienced is that I can’t know the future. I can’t know if anything that I do will change what happens tomorrow. I can’t know with certainty, but what I do know is if I do nothing, nothing will change.” – James Orbinski This is true, rather bleak and incredibly inspiring. I know what…

  • Dreams vs. Goals

    A Goal Without a Plan is Only a Dream… – Brian Tracy Dreams are nice. They are wonderful. They are absolutely necessary. Without dreams the world wouldn’t change for the better. With dreams your life won’t change for the better. *  *  * But dreams are not enough. You must create, deploy and update a…

  • Because They’re Different

    Warning: more Seth-Godin-fawning ahead . . . . Today’s email from Seth had such a great message. It’s a great reason to employ the Platinum Rule (treat others how they would like to be treated). Treat people differently (i.e. in a way that honors and respects their uniqueness) because they are beautifully different. Create the skill…

  • The Power of Planning

    Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy! – Brian Tracy But do you do it? How planned are your days? Your weeks? Your months? Your years? So many people don’t plan because they think it limits spontaneity or creativity or adaptability, but…

  • Words Create Worlds

    I have long held humans are meaning-seeking and meaning-creating creatures. Language is our primary tool of meaning creation and transmission. The words we use create our lives, both individually and organizationally. If you work in an organization (of any sort, or size) the words that are chosen, and repeated, make a huge difference. Take a…

  • Decide Faster, and Better

    This is so good, I’m just including the entire text so you don’t have to click anything: How do you get to market faster the competition? How do you become more efficient without violating the laws of physics? How do you save time, money and frustration? It all comes down to decision hygiene: 1. Make…