No, I’m not talking about book learnin’.

It’s about certainty.

A good friend of mine has incredible talent, a sharp mind and a very caring, sharing nature - all of the ingredients for success.  Yet, he found it difficult to let go of some of the things that were holding him back.  I’m sure that each of you has had a similar experience.  I know I have.

In the past 15 years, I’ve been able to release myself from these fear-based bonds.  How?  I’ve come to learn that everything I need shows up when I need it; not always in the timeframe I’d like, but always when I need it.  This knowledge allows me to avoid a great deal of fear, anxiety and stress in my life.  The absence of these limiters helps me enjoy greater success than I would otherwise.  How did I get to this stage?

There are three stages of development in creating the knowledge (certainty) that the things you need will always be there for you.  The three stages are trust, belief and knowledge.  In the beginning we trust that things will show up when we need them.  At this level we don’t have much evidence on which to base this trust, we are taking a leap of faith. 

As we see things showing up when we need them, we begin to believe that this is always the case.  When we see this reality in EVERY situation we face, even those that seem devastating, we know with absolute certainty that everything we need shows up when we need it.  At this point, our fears are easily set aside allowing us to move forward.

It’s counter-intuitive, but you can accelerate your progress through the three stages by examining any troublesome situation you’ve faced with the question “What showed up that made it easier to deal with this situation?”  Here’s an example of how examining a situation retrospectively can accelerate your progress toward knowledge. 

Recently, my wife had car problems.  It was on a day in which I had only one very early appointment.  I was able to make it back in time to swap vehicles to allow her to get to work.  I called several repair places and found one with an opening to fix the problem.  They were able to get the part they needed in time to get my wife to work the following day - a day in which I had no openings in my schedule at all.  It’s awareness borne out by situation after situation that allows you to KNOW that whatever you need will show up when you need it. 

Within days of sharing these thoughts with my friend, a potential problem was avoided by something, completely unexpected, showing up in time.  Smiling as he shared his good news with me, he also related three other, less troublesome, situations in which what he needed showed up as if on cue.  He’s well on his way to achieving stage three - certain knowledge.

Tags: counter-intuitive thinking, increase profits without adding resources

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.