As you go through your life, you are on a general quest to better yourself, right? I’m not necessarily talking about becoming “enlightened” or trying to become a world leader (although props to you if those are your goals), but rather I am referring to the simple concept of wanting your life to become everything that you dream it can be.
I know that I have personally never met anyone who felt that their life was complete and that they didn’t really have anything else that they wanted to be, do, or have.
So, unless you are one of those people (if they even exist), then you are trying to get something done. Maybe it is to make more money, perhaps you are wanting to excel in personal relationships, maybe you just want to catalog the many different species of dust bunnies in your house. Whatever your goal is, then that is your goal, and you are working towards it.
That being said, see if you agree with the sentiment of the following statement:
“In order to accomplish my goals, I have a clear plan of action that will take me from where I am now to where I want to be, and I will not stray from my path no matter what!”
True or False: That statement is the correct way to accomplish your goals, and that type of commitment should be commended.
What?!?
We’ve all been told for years, including right here on this blog, about the importance of making a commitment to our goals, and then sticking to that commitment over the long-term in order to see those goals turn into reality.
However, it isn’t the “commitment” part of the above statement that is incorrect, but rather the “I will not stray from my path no matter what” part.
You see, it is our human propensity towards needing to be able to see the entire journey before we even take the first step that tends to keep most people well inside a “safety zone” that resides far from the happiness, freedom, or accomplishment that they long for.
As Bob Proctor says in the movie, ‘The Secret‘, most people who have ever accomplished anything didn’t know how they were going to do it. Bob does not talk very much about that concept in the movie, although the message that he is sending is very clear:
Despite the fact that having a plan of action is a good thing, in almost every case, things happen along the way that you could not possibly have foreseen.
In fact, as you pat yourself on the back for sticking to your plan and attaining a goal that you have accomplished in your life, take a moment to think back on the journey. How often did your plan get modified – if even slightly – based on your evaluation of any given set of facts that were in front of you? Would the word “often” even cover it, or would we need to bump that up to something more powerful like every single day?
The point that I am making is that by only sticking to one direct path – and by refusing to get off of that path – you will be losing the benefit of one of the most powerful concepts behind the Law of Attraction and conscious creation, and that concept is called INSPIRED ACTION.
Inspired action happens whenever you focus on a very specific goal – money, relationships, dust bunnies – and the Universe taps you on the shoulder to get your attention, and then points you in a particular direction.
You are basically being told “Go over there, and you will find a way to catalog dust bunnies!”
The problem with inspired action is that most people don’t understand it. They look in the direction that they are being inspired to go in, they don’t directly see whatever their goal is, so they shrug off the inspired action, and keep right on going with their original plan of action.
Then, when they get to the end of the road that they had mapped out for themselves, but don’t quite find the pot at the end of the rainbow they had expected, they suddenly remember that one time when they had the hunch to go in a different direction, but chose to ignore it.
By then, it is too late. Inspired action depends very much on timing. When the Universe says to do something, you should do it. Do you remember that old series of E.F. Hutton commercials that were on in the 1970’s/80’s? The tag line was “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen!”
Well, that is YOUR job in the creative process – to listen. By staying focused consistently on your goals, by visualizing frequently what your success looks like, and by believing that you deserve whatever it is that you are trying to attain, the Universe WILL tap you on the shoulder and tell you how to get what you want.
However, if you shrug off that tap because it doesn’t make any sense, or because you can’t logically understand how taking that action could get you to your goal, then you will miss the proverbial boat.
The real irony to that fact is that had you taken action when you were inspired to do so, even though it didn’t seem logical at the time, it would have resolved into being based very much on logic and science once all of the pieces were in place.
Over at The Fast Lane1, you can check out both a real-life story by Napoleon Hill that illustrates this concept, as well as a fictional story that also drives the point home. The take away fact from both of the stories is that a certain end result was desired, and the path to get that end result was shown, but not necessarily from the direction that it had been expected.
Brad Isaac over at Achieve-IT2 has put together a very effective tool for getting the “creative juices” flowing in order to call upon the power of Inspired Action, and I highly recommend that you check it out. I have done similar exercises myself, and as of the date of this writing – January 22, 2007 – I was blindsided with my most recent inspired action less than 2 hours ago, and I wasn’t even thinking about the goal at the time!
And finally, Elyse at Choosing Prosperity3 has a post that includes definitions from Abraham-Hicks that illustrate the difference between motivation and inspired action. It is a critical difference, and one that many people frequently don’t recognize.
In closing, please know that inspired action is usually pretty obvious. Everyone has random thoughts, ideas, or musings about their lives and their goals, and that is more of a background noise that is simply part of who we are. Listen to it and enjoy it because it makes up your level of uniqueness.
However, inspired action that comes as a result of consistent focus and visualization is usually much more direct, and will normally come at you when you least expect it.
It is actually a pleasant surprise, though, because when it happens, you will realize that you have just been handed a key that will unlock the doorways into the future that you want.
Do yourself a favor and use it.
Footnotes:
1 – The Fast Lane
2 – Achieve-IT