 No Outside Factors by Alan Cohen Do you believe your destiny is determined by anyone or anything outside of you, or do you shape your future with thoughts you are thinking at this moment? At a west coast retreat I presented, one participant found many things to complain about; she did not like her room, her roommate, or the retreat center, which she found to be too rustic and lacking in creature comforts. After the retreat she went with another participant to stay at a luxury hotel and spa. There, her roommate reported, she also found many things not to her liking; everything was to expensive, the rooms were stuffy, and the people snobbish. In retrospect it became clear it was not the accommodations that brought this woman her experience, but the sense of discontent she brought to them. You can make anything out of anything. Nothing is absolutely any way; we are subject not to what is out there, but to the perceptual screens through which we filter what is out there. A Course in Miracles tells us, “My happiness depends on me.” I was visiting the home of a friend whose 13-year-old son announced that he wanted to have a birthday party. “What kind of party would you like to have?” his mom asked. “I want to have a casino party where we can gamble on lots of games!” the boy answered enthusiastically. I could see the energy in mom’s face drop, for she believed gambling is not a healthy pastime to teach children. Then, in a moment, I observed her countenance shift; her eyes lit up as she responded, “that’s a wonderful idea —all the kids can practice their math!” The prime factor in success is attitude. There are two kinds of people in the world: results people and excuses people.Results people get the job done no matter what is going on around them, while excuses people have a million different reasons why the job never gets done. Several years ago I hired a fellow to do a project for me. When I called him to check on how the project was going, he answered, “I’ve been really busy this week; next week I will handle it.” When I phoned him the following week he reported, “I haven’t been feeling well, but things are looking up — next week I will have a good report for you.” A week later he told me, “My girlfriend and I broke up over the weekend, and I have been emotionally distraught — but next week is the week.” There was, however, no next week, as it became clear this fellow gave his power away to everything outside himself, and retained very little for himself. As Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, noted, “When you are interested in something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed, you accept no excuses, only results.” Louis Pasteur revolutionized the medical world with his discovery of bacteria. On his deathbed, Pasteur told an associate, “I have made a big mistake. Now I realize that it not bacteria that cause disease, but the medium with which the bacteria come into contact.” The implications of this insight are staggering! No germs can make you sick unless you are an available host. No virus, negative thought, or criminal can get to you unless you are vibrating in harmony with them. When you are in a positive, loving frame of mind, in harmony with your spiritual nature and in the flow of life, you attract people and experiences that match this high vibration. If, however, you get into a rut of negative thinking and activity inharmonious with who you are, you become fair game for both physical and psychic germs. So our first and most important responsibility is to keep ourselves joyfully connected to the Great Stream; then we have access to support, protection, and well-being we could never achieve through anxious struggle or manipulation. When I was in Russia I visited a church containing an icon of Mother Mary venerated in the nineteenth century by the people in a small town. When a plague ravaged the surrounding area, killing most of the people in the region, no one in this town was touched by the disease. The environmental conditions were the same as those affecting the people who succumbed; medical law and statistics would dictate these devotees should have suffered the same fate — but they did not. Could it be possible the belief and devotion these people felt for and from Mother Mary, kept them in a protective vibration and offered the bacteria no welcome host? No outside factor can hurt you or save you. The next time you take all the factors into consideration, remember that no factor is more important than the recognition of who you truly are —a sovereign spiritual being — and the choices you make that proceed from that awareness. ¤ |
