We don’t solve a problem by focussing on the problem, but by focussing on solutions. Better yet, we don’t find the solution by focussing on the problem, but by focussing on new things.
This is easy, its the process of ideation.
- We start with accumulating new information we want,
- We then reach a point of saturation,
- We then step away from our work of accumulation,
- We finally reach a point of ideation (for example when we step into the shower, or go for a run…)
Thats it. Input, Process, Output.
This is something that took me a while to understand. My younger self would spend his time focussing on the problem, only to find dismayed that he had then compounded the problem and had exacerbated it. A bit like a kid picking a scab and never letting it heal.
We simply cannot find a solution to something if we are hanging on to the problem for dear life. This is what happens when people get addiction or live in fear. Horror vacui, ( ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’). Or in other words, humans will plug a hole with anything possible, they hate open loops.
For example, when someone is struggling, the solution is not to let them obssess over their problem, but to help introduce them to experience new things and focus on something else which might be more fruitful.
I awoke this morning, alarmed, uncomfortable, uneasy, because I had spend the better part of yesterday’s afternoon leaning on a coping mecanism to help me navigate the feeling of powerlessness. I had wanted to numb the numbness. And so, I awoke at 4.44, heart racing, feeling uncomfortable and overwhelmed by this vision I had been focussing on. And wondered if the way I was going was the only way possible. I then remembered a passage from James Allen “Environment is but your looking-glass…” which then prompted me that the contents of what I am envisionning are but the remnants of what I have been putting in my mind.
Which brought me to the understanding that ‘if we don’t take the trash out of our house, our house begins to stink‘. Or in other words, we must let go of the past, and clean out and make space for good fresh things to enter our lives. Keeping old rotting flowers isn’t romantic, and keeps us rooted in the past. We can’t hold on to a rotting piece of meat once its time is gone, if we do we’ll end up with parasites. The same is true of anything in our environment. Which is simply a projection of our internal world.
My father passed away not too long ago, and I’ve found myself imagining him watching down on me from above. This has given me more meaning in our Father above. This has brought the need to strive to build a life that I’m proud of, that I want to talk about. When we do so, we feel pride, not shame.
We build a life we’re proud of by focussing on what we want.
When I was younger and throughout my life, my father gave me gifts. And I now see that these gifts were Gods tests to see if I was ready to recieve material. I wasn’t. I failed, and faltered a few times, and ruined or lost the gifts he gave me, maybe because I felt angry at the time, or unappreciative. I was ungrateful. Ultimately I ruined those gifts. But I see the larger picture, these were trials for me to take care and appreciate what I had, not depreciate them. And only after his passing was I ready to fully appreciate what was his and take care of it. *
God, through my father, had only been preparing me for the times ahead. Shaping me for who I am today and who I am to become. To appreciate who and what I am and have. There are certain things God won’t trust you with if you’re not capable of appreciating them fully. You’d ruin them, which is why you must learn appreciation before you recieve anything.
We must burn the boats to what is holding us back, to our excuses, to our past, to what no longer serves us. We must strive to live up to everything we see and saw in our father. As man under God, our purpose is to create a life we are proud of, to lead by example, to live with courage and compassion. And to enjoy the fruits of our hard work, whatever they may be.
*This also brings me to the concept that a fathers son is a prince in preparation for the throne. Before a boy’s father passes away he cannot fully become a man, he cannot understand fully the responsibility his father carries on his shoulders for his father does it for him. And when the inevitable day comes to pass, the boy who had been in preparation up until that moment has no other path but to ascend to the role of the father. The prince becomes the King.
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