You surrender the arrogance of
your controlled intellect to bask patiently in the world of obscured images,
plans, and knowledge, which are pressing, as if of their own accord, to take
shape. Trusting that larger forces than yourself are at work in your life, you
will give up the demand for outcome you think you want and learn to make room
for surprises.
― Carol Osborn How Would Confucius
Ask for a Raise?
Osborn speaks of certain “Principles
of Inner Excellence,” which she gleaned from her study of the I Ching and years
of business practice. They are Surrender, Faith, Compassion, and Receiving. Essentially,
our success and prosperity grow out of our surrender to conditions that we
cannot change. They require our faith that they actually work for us,
compassion for others and ourself when things seem to be going against us, and
finally a sense of receiving that informs us that despite our seeming lack of
control we do in fact harvest successes that grow out of our willingness to
allow our success even in difficult times.
Most of us frustrate ourselves
with hurry. We try to drive a straight line on a winding highway that is more
like an ever-expanding upward spiral than a direct route to the top. When we
cease controlling or at least trying to control externals and focus on steering
ourselves along the most efficient pathways, we discover prosperity in unexpected
waysides.
Everyone I know has had some
event they referred to as synchronicity. Some credit the saints or angels, or
our ever-vigilant spirit guides. I give credit to the Divine within, which ones
me with all things, people, and events; but I only benefit when I let it work
the way it works with my own mind and will wide open and in harmony with my
heart.
As I review these Principles, I
see that surrender without faith is resignation, while faith without yielding
to our higher power and inner guidance is little more than stubborn resistance.
There is no compassion without either surrender or faith and we cannot receive
what we do not see because we will not see it for our efforts to have it our
way or not at all. This understanding raises the question of how much of my own
life do I still over control.
As I consider prosperity as a
self-existent constant, with the only variable being our awareness of it, I
realize that by decontrolling my view point and my way of being to allow the
unusual and the unpredictable to work together with my own efforts, I
experience more of better and almost always the best of life.
One of our presidents said, “When
the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The question is whether the tough
drive head on into the fray or find a more effective way. We exhaust ourselves
forcing ourselves to work at jobs we hate or even making ourselves do anything
that we feel inclined to avoid. But, experience and written business wisdom
reveals that we sometimes require a step back and a breather in order to resee
our situation. We need to take an occasional wellness day for our mental,
physical, and financial health. Even our relationships blossom more beautifully
when we approach all of life with the peace, assurance, gratitude, and love arising
from our pauses in the headlong rush of achievement.
Now, I release my iron grip from
the wheel and allow the inner Divine to steer me into delightful and surprising
prosperity, which is much greater than that arising from my tightly controlled
activities. And so it is that I prosper now.
John
John Lusk
“First
you ask definitely for direction, then it will enter your consciousness as a
definite thought; then in your turn you give it back the thought and it will
give you back the thing. It answers every question, solves every problem; it is
the solution to every difficulty.” Ernest Holmes
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