What's Next?

TAKING ACTION

Franz Kafka said that “A book must be an ice axe, to break the sea frozen within us. If the book in our hands does not wake us, as with a fist that hammers on the skull, then it isn't worth reading."The thing with this book is that it is just one long request for you to take action in your life. The information presented here and the inquiry opened in these pages are only context-free theories, stories, and open-ended questionsunusable without your commitment to applying them. They are dead unless you breathe life into them in the context of your own life. The impact the book has for you, like anything, is really up to you-and the sky's the limit.

What's next for you? It's up to you.

Enter your responses to the questions below in your journal.

• What is next for you?
• What new possibilities do you see for yourself?
• What obstacles do you see standing between you and those possibilities?
• What are you going to do about it?

THE AWARENESS TRAP

Consider the distinction between awareness and action. Awareness can be a tool to make something happen, or it can be a security blanket to wrap your “issues” up in, to protect and incubate them. Awareness is only one small part of having life work. We all know some amazingly aware people who are also amazingly ineffective. They may be able to analyze, advise,and sermonize, but they prefer to stop there-to cuddle up with their reasons and understanding rather than follow through on that knowledge with action. Awareness is a fairly early phase in the game of having life work. Transformation requires not necessarily that you understand,but that you change.

THINGS WILL ALWAYS GET IN YOUR WAY

In the context of “no possibility,” which I say is the condition of the drift in which we operate, what happens as soon as you begin to consider committing to something? The little “no possibility” goblins in your mind start sounding the alarm only moments after you have the idea. Then they begin shouting at you. They shout all the reasons why your idea won't work. All at once, they rant at you: ‘You don’t have the time.” “You don’t have the money.” “You failed last time you tried that.”“You're too lazy.”“Your parents won't let you.” “Your husband/wife won’t like it.”“You don’t have the education.” “You're too young.”“You're too old.” "You're too tall,short,fat, thin,pretty,ugly.” “A woman can't do that.” “A man can’t do this.” “You never follow through on these ideas.”“You don’t have enough support.”“You don't have the energy.” “You're too shy.”“The economy isn’t right.”“It’s already been done.” “You don’t deserve it.”

They are so loud that, even if there were an encouraging voice in there somewhere, assuring you that your idea is indeed possible, you wouldn't be able to hear it because of the din created by the screaming goblins.

Who wins? Ninety percent of the time the goblins win. Those pessimistic goblins represent interpretations that extinguish possibilities. They are incredibly powerful conversations that we have culturally and individually. We are so resigned to those “no possibility” conversations that people who voice alternative points of view are dismissed, debated, or even ridiculed as hopeless dreamers. We become “no possibility” goblins for each other (“Are you crazy?”“You need to finish college first.” “Where will you get the time?”).

Write about your “no possibility” goblins in your journal.

• What are some things you want, but don't have (not necessarily material things)?
• Why don't you have them? What obstacles are in your way?
• Do you ever notice an encouraging voice trying to be heard over the goblins, or is your sense of possibilities completely extinguished?
• Why do you suppose we listen to the 'no possibility' interpretations rather than have a conversation for possibility?

The “no possibility” conversation has all of us. What would it take for you to conquer that “no possibility” conversation? If the stakes were high enough, I promise you, you could beat almost any obstacles.

For example, what if someone called you up at the office at 5:00 P.M. promising you $10 million, tax-free, and all you had to do to collect is get yourself to the Mexico City airport by 6:00 A.M. the following morning?

Here come the goblins. In the first place, you only have thirteen hours to handle it. It's after-hours, so your travel agent is gone for the day. You just took a two-week vacation, so you don't have any vacation time left. You are swamped with work to catch up on. You spent all of your extra cash on the vacation and your credit cards are charged to the limit, so you don't have the money to buy a ticket to Mexico City. Explaining to your boss, co-workers, friends, and family that you are going to Mexico City to collect the $10 million you were promised is likely to raise a few eyebrows, to say the least. Maybe it's a con-what if you go through the whole ordeal for nothing? Even if you worked everything out, how are you going to get yourself to Mexico City by 6:00 A.M. the next morning?

The promise was legitimate. There really is $10 million waiting for you in Mexico City. Will you handle getting there? I'll bet you one million of that ten million dollars that you would-spending the time, effort,money,and risking the disapproval of others to do it.

There will always be things that you have to handle on the road to the accomplishment of your goals. That is a fact of life. We make up the part about those things being obstacles. What we call obstacles are simply features of the human condition-part of the package, like your arms and legs. If what you are looking for is a cure to being human, a way to eliminate the struggle of being human, you have been reading the wrong book

The interpretation that you can be made impotent by things like time,money,approval,education,and energy is an illusion.Your interpretation determines whether those resources run your life for you, or whether you stand for being powerful within the conditions and circumstances life delivers you.

DISCIPLINE

To support your process of being in action, do something every day that will bring consistency and discipline into your practices. Do the same thing, preferably at the same time. It doesn't matter whether it's taking a walk, writing in your journal, having dinner with your family, going to an aerobics class, beginning work at the same time every day, or anything else, so long as it is an activity that contributes to you. Through the discipline demanded by a simple, routine commitment, you will fortify your capacity to commit to and complete projects.

SURRENDER

In the drift, when people think of the word surrender, they usually think of giving up, quitting, losing, and being beaten. Surrender, in the sense I am using it,means something different. It means giving yourself over to that which matters to you. It means embracing what life serves you rather than resisting it or comparing it to something else.Surrendering allows you to experience satisfaction while you meet the demands of your commitments.

There are two ways to dedicate yourself to a project: (1) on your terms, or,(2) on the project's terms.The first avenue will inevitably cause frustration and conflict. Remember, the world doesn't care how you feel or what you think, it just keeps “world-ing.” You'll do yourself a great favor to accept the world on its terms. Choose the games you are committed to,and then surrender to the discipline of those games.

Surrendering allows you peace of mind, if not constant glee.The cost of taking a stand, of living as your commitments, is that a warm, fuzzy feeling will not always be available to you. Do you think that Martin Luther King, Jr., woke up every morning excited out of his mind about what was in front of him that day? What determined his actions,and determines the actions of any committed person,was his dedication to the possibility that his dreams could become reality. When you surrender to your commitments and to the discipline they entail, you experience peace as you move through life,regardless of what specific challenges you are facing day by day.

What difference would surrendering make in your experience? Explore that in your next journal entry.

• Where are you experiencing resistance in your life right now?
• Specifically, what is it that you are resisting?
• What is the payoff for resisting it rather than surrendering to it?
• What would surrendering to it mean? What would you have to do differently?
• What possibilities would surrendering to it open up that your resistance is keeping closed?

VISION

Remind yourself of why you undertook this project in the first place:

• What is your vision for your life?
• What is your vision for the world?
• What are the gifts you bring to the world?
• What would you be like if you were completely authentic,free, passionate?
• What is the experience of life you are looking for?
• Who are the people in your life that matter to you? What new contribution can you make to them?
• What are the commitments in life that matter to you?
• What's next for you?

I end our project with a challenge to you. Friedrich Nietzsche said “Life always gets harder toward the summit-the cold increases, responsibility increases.” My challenge to you is this: Climb always toward the summit.