Welcome to this week’s edition
of my newsletter. In this week’s edition we continue our look at the nine
steps to change.
How might the
elephant’s vision get changed?
If you will recall at the end of last week’s newsletter
we began our discussion about the elephant that had been trained to stay
within a twenty-foot circle. In this week’s edition I would like to continue
our discussion and look at how this elephant’s vision could be changed.
Don’t worry if you don’t
remember the story. Here is the link to last week’s newsletter –
http://www.richbits.com/RBArchives/60sRB_step3.htm.
Today we are going to be
looking at “Create a Burning Desire” which is step 4 - of the nine steps to
overcoming our resistance to change using the example of our elephant. Within
the process of “Creating a Burning Desire” there are four stages to create an
idea that will provide us the necessary thrust to achieve our goal.
The four stages of idea
development
Each new reality we create
will go through four stages of development:
1. The
first stage is call inspiration. Inspire means “to breathe
life into.” In this step we could be inspired by the possibility of life
getting better, picturing our life in a new way, outside the circle. When the
elephant smells the aroma from roasting peanuts wafting through the air this
is when the light dawns for the elephant, and he begins to think about those
peanuts in the popcorn stand at the carnival’s main entrance. This is the
beginning of a vision of what life could be outside his circle. The elephant’s
natural hunger for peanuts and his vision of enjoying the eating inspires this
vision.
2. The
second stage in the development of an idea is desire. The
elephant’s vision of eating his peanuts becomes clearer and clearer, so
powerful that he can almost taste the peanuts. Through the visualization
process, the elephant’s appetite for peanuts has become a burning desire
to have them.
3. The
third stage in the development of the elephant’s vision is enthusiasm. At
this point, the vision will seem real. This is where the elephant sees himself
eating the peanuts and enjoying the experience. This is the stage of vision
development where the idea of freedom, in a reality outside the circle,
replaces the old vision of reality. This is when the elephant chooses to BE
the one outside the circle eating peanuts, changing his attitude from wanting
to enthusiastic anticipation.
4. The
fourth stage in developing a goal or vision is action.
That’s when the elephant breaks his bondage from the old reality of a
twenty-foot circle and begins his move out of the circle toward the popcorn
stand and the peanuts he enjoyed in his vision.
Like the trained elephant
Our subconscious mind, like
the trained elephant, runs our life because that is its job. But our elephant
can only go so far, and then it’s stopped, controlled by a vision of reality
that can look like a twenty-foot circle.
The elephant can see outside
the circle and maybe imagine what it would be like out there eating peanuts,
but he can’t go there. He is controlled by the memory of many leg-bruising
attempts at freedom. Many times he has tried to break free by charging full
speed to a sudden and painful stop at the end of an unforgiving chain, finally
giving in to the fact that there’s no reality outside that twenty-foot circle.
When we reflect on our past
can we remember any sudden stops? That’s when we were told that we were not
good enough, fast enough or smart enough to do what we dreamed we would
someday do. Did we chose to put much importance in these messages? If we did,
then we have been replaying these ideas for ourselves about those limitations
ever since. That’s OUR twenty-foot circle, our vision.
The invisible chain
Take another look at what
binds us. Notice that the chain is not really there. Someone or something
convinced us that the chain would stop us, and we gave credibility to that
limitation.
The “chains” that binds us are
figments of our powerful imagination built out of nothing more powerful than
our concept of reality. We won’t need to remove these chains, because we will
be replacing them with a new vision of ourselves being happy, outside that
circle, BEING free. To break out, our subconscious mind (the elephant) will
need us to supply it with a new vision. Changing the quality of our life is
that simple. It begins with a vision.
Our new vision will begin when
we are inspired with the possibility of having what’s just
outside the circle. The more we think about having it, the more we will allow
ourselves to desire it. When our desire turns from wanting into
believing that we can have it, our desire becomes a determined intention and
then finally shows up as powerful enthusiastic anticipation. At
that point, we will have chosen to BE the one who will have the life we have
always wanted.
One of life’s greatest truths
is what we believe creates our reality. The problem is that most
of us run our lives thinking that the exact opposite it true, that reality
creates our beliefs. We tend to believe only in what we can see, and we have
hard evidence to support that belief. Unfortunately, for as long as we believe
only in the evidence of things seen, we’ll be stuck in a life based on “that’s
just the way it is”.
The real truth is, “stuff”
happens because we believe that it will, because we expect it. Most of us have
based our concept of reality on the “seeing is believing” philosophy. To find
our way past our belief system, we must know that our life is run by a vision,
a concept of reality that can be easily replaced with a new vision.
I will talk more about visions
next week. In the mean time, spend some time this week thinking about some of
the visions that run your life.
Please join us next week when
we continue our discussion. I am please to announce that my new blog is now up
and running. I would like to invite you to visit it at
www.richbits.com/Blog. Have a wonderful week ahead and I look forward to
talking with you next time.
