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Masterpiece. None of those paint layers is thicker than a single hair.
Can you imagine the patience and concentration that required? I’m going to propose that you be inspired by his approach as you carry out your big projects in the coming year. I think you will have the potential to create at least one labor of love.
Says Rob Brezsny… He is talking to Libras, but he could be talking to me too… I have, according to Source, have applied already 27 layers of ‘paint’ in creating my masterpiece, developing the technology to turn homo sapiens into human being.
What a perfect fit, I thought… and then I noticed, that the guiding is for Libras… and I am a Virgo… WTF… lol
‘You can’t move mountains by whispering at them,’ says singer-songwriter Pink. Strictly speaking, you can’t move mountains by shouting at them, either. But in a metaphorical sense, Pink is exactly right. Mild-mannered, low-key requests are not likely to precipitate movement in obstacles that resemble solid rock. And that’s my oracle for you in the coming months, Virgo. As you carry out the project of relocating or crumbling a certain mountain, be robust and spirited—and, if necessary, very loud.
Wow, that is a perfect fit too…
When you have a project, a project that deserves your full energies, almost any guidance will fit you like a glove.
These two ‘readings’ fit me so well because of the big project, but they also fit my personality: I am meticulous in making almost imperceptibly small steps in the right direction, and I also am quite the opposite of mild-mannered… anywhere, any time… NOT mild mannered.
Not forceful either… although occasionally I shout.
Yesterday I tested out the last of the 27 layers in creating my masterpiece.
It was disorienting for people… Good. Disorienting people is good.
The principle was: whatever makes sense it doesn’t work.
Humanity, the masses of humanity, have always looked to take steps that make sense, that are reasonable, and look where it has gotten us: The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. For most it doesn’t make sense to do anything… they are comfortable, or complacent and comfortable.
The rest are scared, uninspired, paralyzed by fear.
It is all because people are looking to do what makes sense… and what would work doesn’t fit that picture.
So they don’t do anything outside of what makes sense, and this is why the masses of humanity lives in quiet desperation, thinking: is this all there is?
We wait for inspiration, faith, hope from the outside, and we completely allow our lives be driven by circumstances.
I remember when I first heard the question: are you driving your life? Are you sitting in the driver’s seat?
And suddenly I saw that I was a back seat driver, criticizing the driver, but never took charge of the direction and the speed of the vehicle, my life.
This was back in 2006, maybe 2007. Big shock. Never would have realized it on my own.
After all I had a business, so that made me think that I was a driver, but I wasn’t.
It’s taken 13 years to where I am now, and if I ask Source: to what degree do I drive my life? The answer I get shocks me: 70%.
When I heard that question for the first time, that number was 7%… So I have come a long way… but there is more to go.
My students are where I was then… barely, if ever, do something that can be considered driving your life.
One of my students, a producer and seller of his Filipino clothing products, (beautiful, by the way) completely let go of the steering wheel when Christmas was getting near.
By yesterday he wasn’t driving his life, his business at all.
He felt uninspired.
Back at the beginning of the pandemic we had a private call, and I managed to dislodge him from the hopelessness this new are caused: he used to go to flea markets in New York City and sell his wares.
No markets due to the pandemic… but he somehow conjured inspiration from our conversation, and had been thriving, until Christmas.
But he lost the inspiration.
In the call I was measuring to what degree a student was getting what there was to get in the call… my 27th layer of paint… so to say. His number was 3 on the scale of 1-100.
He didn’t like his score, tried to argue… but there is nothing wrong with the score: the score is the score… Nothing wrong.
But after our group call yesterday, he emailed me this morning to say:
Hi! I think I know why I’m comfortable and not producing. I just listened to some of last week’s future self call, and getting inspired or inspiration is what’s missing with me right now. When I’m inspired I keep on creating, and right now (actually last few weeks) I stopped creating products, I have been just wanting to get rid of what I already have… this is how I dropped the ball.
Thank you and I will do the work and listen as if my life depended on it, because, ultimately, it does.
Yeah, when you get that inspiration doesn’t come from the outside, inspiration comes from doing what you need to do, i.e. driving your life, you really get that your life depends on you… and there is no help coming.
I remember when I first realized that no one is going to rescue me… And I had to realize it hundreds of times, before I realized that it’s not wrong… it is the order of the world, it is how it works. it is my job to rescue myself.
Whether it is rescuing myself from complacency, from hopelessness, from dispiritedness, from illness, from drop in business volume, or the furnace not working… It.is.my.job. Period.
And as long as I can count on myself to not lie down and die… as long as I can count on myself to do what I need to do, deal with what I need to deal with, good, bad, ugly… I am fine… and I am driving my life.
It is nearly the end of a horrible year, and the next year will be worse.
So it is time to pull on your big boy pants, buckle in, and drive that life… or you’ll be road kill.
No kidding.
In my series of courses, reasonably priced, I teach you the skills you need to deal with life… and to become an adult, not the child in the back seat.
Take the right steps to your freedom
