Tell Me What To Do - Except Think Big

Harry Potter is one boy in a long line of mythical heroes who have reminded the human race that we are so much more than we think we are, so much more powerful than we seem to know. Jesus said that we would someday do even greater works than He; should we not take Him at His word? And should not "someday" be today? - Marianne Williamson

Think big. Do it today. You can do it. Just do it.

Every motivation speaker and author from Wayne Dyer - if you're in the New Age set - to Tom Peters to Robert Kiyosaki are saying basically the same thing. (I'm often saying something different, but...) Expand our mindset. Broaden our context. Obviously repeating the mantra "Think Big, Think Impossible" alone clearly isn't enough.

I didn't want to write this post and was going to answer a question a friend asked Friday: What do I do if I don't know what my passion is? But something happened to me this weekend I debated on whether I should share. But it's very relevant.

Interesting to look at word vocation. In Latin, it's a bidding, an invitation. In French, it's tied to voice.

\Vo*ca"tion\, n. [L. vocatio a bidding, invitation, fr. vocare to call, fr. vox, vocis, voice: cf. F. vocation. See
{Vocal}.] 1. A call; a summons...

I think we suspect if we hear the bidding, the invitation from our authentic voice there may be no declining.

One of our biggest (unconscious no doubt) fears is that our calling, our passion (once discovered) may be TOO BIG for us. And that right there is a pretty good reason we don't go asking too many questions. I'm not sure that knowing that Jesus said that we would someday do even greater works than He is all that reassuring. In fact, we sometimes suspect it could well be that big. Sh*t, that's a mighty tall order. So I'm just not going to go there...The unstated agreement: Don't ask, don't tell.

About a year ago I completed a course titled Planetary Leadership. I think the title alone was meant to purposefully provoke anxiety in its participants. You'll see why that practice of cutting through anxiety early is necessary shortly.

I went down that path of deciding I was hell-bent on asking (What is my purpose? for instance) no matter how much I feared a response a few years ago after a lifetime of the alternative.

What happens when you listen to your wee voice (nod to Hugh, or what I see as more akin to an authentic tune) is that the wee voice doesn't see you as wee at all. It's the strong and silent type and you begin to pay attention. It's really your inner Elder. It may feel alien to you as it's so wise and self-assured. It encourages you to take on big things -- as big as you really are -- especially if you seek its advice.

We're not going to hear our Elder without invitation and even then we miss its calling out to us because we let it drift by (remember I said it might feel alien at first) while we're mumbling to ourselves, Huh, what was that? Oh [looking over our shoulder without absorbing the message] must be talking to someone else. Never mind.

Don't worry about what the epiphany actually is now as I'd like to roll it out with a little more fanfare. I think up all kinds of ideas all the time without necessitating a lot of communication with this authentic voice. But if it is about an important decision or I'm at a crossroads or I need a stunning breakthrough the quality and texture of response is night-and-day different from more mundane thinking. I think Howard Schultz captured this visceral wham! exactly as I've felt it in describing what happened during his pivotal trip to Milan that changed the course of Starbucks (previously Starbucks had been solely a coffee-roasting company and not a cafe):

"The trade show made less impact on him than the visit to Italy itself. He was knocked out by Milan, a city of 1,500 espresso bars where people drank coffee outside the home at least once a day. He was entranced above all by the theatrical, perhaps operatic, nature of the barista's movements...Howard was already imagining the concept transferred to Seattle and beyond. An instant insight grew into a grand vision. This would work.

"The barista moved so gracefully that it looked as though he was grinding coffee beans, pulling shots of espresso, and steaming milk at the same time, all the while conversing merrily with customers. It was great theatre... It was like an epiphany. It was so immediate and physical that I was shaking." - My Sister is A Barista

Once you hear your authentic tune resonating and reverberating loud and clear (and that itself takes practice) what typically happens is then afterwards you are vibrating a euphoric, sure melody and the idea just grows grander and...

Then smack. The next day a dampening effect rolls in like a fog layer on gloomy wisps of self-doubt. Big time dreary. There must be some mistake. That's a BIG responsibility. I don't want to let anyone down. Maybe you got your Evelyns confused here. And it's a lot of work, you know. Wow... Yikes! Who am I to pull this off?

Yes, who do you think you are, echoes the Voice of Judgment, as Michael Ray names this counter-voice (or as many more call the Ego).

I hardly noticed that the Voice of Judgment was completely off the day before - don't know where, don't care. And there was no doubt the Elder had been taking to me; it was distinctly tailored and when it hit my pulse quickened and I was shaking exactly as I've experienced before and exactly as Schultz' describes his own intuitive flash.

I had forgotten that the Voice of Judgment often comes back with full fury after the Elder talks sense to you.

Every internal conflict is between this Elder, this inner tune, this song of my Self and on the other side the Ego, or the Voice of Judgment. The Voice of Judgment is like a child's imaginary friend that has taken on the contours of reality merely because of my insistence that it's real. Those windmills were actual opponents -- at least to Don Quixote.

From a neurological perspective what is probably happening was explained quite well in computer animation and fictional narrative by the recent hybrid documentary, What the Bleep Do I Know? My neural net is hard-wired by repetition and is quite expectant of a biochemical hit related to feelings of self-doubt and despair. The only way to break apart these ingrained patterns of neural connections is by purposefully interrupting them rather than falling in line with the stimulus-response addiction; and self-observation is one key technique for withdrawing from the reactionary addiction.

So I continue the path of the warrior (or is it warrioress?) and slash the dense thicket of neural connections that give rise to the Voice of Judgment's fortress whose chief aim is to hijack my mind. The warrioress' chief aim is liberation.

I've learned that this chatter between the Elder and the Voice of Judgment - well it often appears more like a raging battle - can at most slightly delay me but it certainly can't sabotage me the way it used to. I observe and write in my journal and allow the feelings to drift by and dissipate. There's no denying the clarity and resonance of the Elder's tune I heard. My conviction is strong. And that anxiety? Yeah, it's just the windmills whirring, I sigh. Just windmills.

Comments

[hugh macleodh]

Heh. Joseph Campbell would call listening to your authentic voice as "heeding the call".

And his warning for those that don't is fairly unambiguous:

"If the call is not answered, then life dries up."

Traditional marketing works by appealing to two main things:

1. Rational. "washes 30% whiter" etc.

2. Vanity. "You deserve to spoil yourself by purchasing one of our products" etc.

Both are fairly.... hmmmmm uninspiring, especially the latter, which is basically a form of self-necrophilia.

What I'm interested in is how to apply marketing to tap into the "myth"... making and selling products as way with engaging in The Dance, the actual life souce, rather than the pretend life source.

Yep. People at work think I'm nuts. Then again, I wrote The Hughtrain and they didn't. Heh.

[jeremy johnston]

A calling is something you must give up your entire life for. It is not something to be taken lightly. The sacrifice one must make is huge and the catch is the reward is not on this earth but in heaven. If we are willing to give up our lively hood and embrace the calling of our Lord than miraculous things will happen, we have only to prepare ourselves to serve and put away selfish desires.

[john roedel]

Three and a halfs later I find this....

What I just read was the tonic for my broken, confused, and ever numbing heart. So...thank you is not quite good enough...but it is all I can give.

thank you.

[HaZZZy]

You seem to have arrived at a hearts' place... I am still wandering....
have I always been here?
Always staring through the same eyes..
I get so tired of waiting....
Do you ever get tired of waiting?

sincerely Hans