Faith: The Final Frontier

Faith is the self-fulfilling prophecy spoken by your actions. It is your confidence in what you cannot see, combined with the preparation and sustained action toward what you hope to achieve. It is also a balance between fool-hardy wishful thinking and reality you can touch and take to the bank. Yet, faith is not the abstract, metaphysical wish, it has tangible elements. It just takes creativity, vision, and perseverance to connect the dots represented by those elements. Faith is as real as your will to live that reality.

Perhaps an example will help. You want to be a writer. You recognize that writing takes practice. You know that, each day, writers spend some time writing. You know that you need to improve your vocabulary. You know that you learn best by reading. Connect those dots to achieve your vision as a writer.

Set aside time each day to write. It could be in a journal, a computer, a notepad—as long as you are able to get your thoughts on paper and able to go back to read what you have written. You could even speak your thoughts into a tape recorder and transcribe them later. Subscribe to a magazine about writing. Read the articles to learn what others have done. Discover new ways to plan your time and organize your plot lines. Invest in a vocabulary builder, a dictionary, and a thesaurus. Play games with your friends where you identify a word of the day or use a new, similar word to replace a common word you always use. Now, you are on your way to achieving the vision of being a writer. After all, you are doing the things that a writer does. Continue to produce. Self-fulfilling prophecy… Faith is as real as your will to live that reality.

Wanting To Know Yourself for Yourself

You have been taught that you are singularly unique and required to strive toward perfection. You adopt approaches to the perfection question that either perpetuate a cycle of poor mental health, failed relationships, or both. Perfection, in truth, can only be achieved in the context of others. The peak of human experience is discerning through the uncertainty of difference among the multitude of “good” options.

You would rather be convinced rather than convicted. That way, you do not have to take responsibility for the choices you have made and the consequences that have resulted. You were just following the information you were given. Your self-absorption is your excuse and your curse. According to you, you know yourself. But, the knowledge does not result in sustainable choices. The knowledge results in over-thinking rather than doing.

Your excuse is solid. Because you know yourself, you do not place yourself in the position to explore new information. In effect, you refuse the need to grow in an area by steering away from situations that offer an opposing or more in-depth perspective. But, new and expanded information has a way of revealing itself regardless of your ignorance. At that moment, you stand paralyzed, or worse, dissonant acting out of a sense of obligation, guilt, or political correctness rather than clear conviction. You rationalize that you were forced by the situation into a limited set of choices. Not so! You refused to prepare and develop toward a sustainable, responsible handling of new knowledge.

To know yourself is to challenge your internal conversations and your comfortable reactions, to question your answers and your certainties about yourself. Life offers plateaus of arrival, but no end to the journey. You will make mistakes. You have made mistakes. You cannot redo much of what you have done, but you can purpose to engage in new experiences and formulate new directions and opinions. You can be sure of your choices based on the convictions you now hold. You can also, at the same time, be open and receptive to new information realizing that your current conviction could be unsustainable—incomplete and only a piece of the larger puzzle. This realization is not a failure that signals despair, but a motivator toward continued exploration.

Wanting To Know Finally

You have been taught that rightness is a settled question. You do not take time to discuss the questions at hand. In this way, you have no responsibility for inconsistencies.

You seem very adept at designating those things that are forbidden to us. It seems that the commitment to be wise is a commitment to NOT participate in many things. This seclusion makes good sense because many things exist that are unsustainable. You argue that to live by the allowances of freedom is to live reckless and without boundaries.

The danger in your belief is not so much that you shy away from detrimental activity but that you decline from any risk at all. To suspend the finality of your judgments long enough to investigate a reality and explore new information is to admit that you do not know everything—that maybe your past lack of participation was mistaken. You continue in your current understanding because you do not want to be wrong.

Rightness, in truth, is a social construction rooted in the norms of the group. The discussion of rightness is a discussion of sustainability and the long-term responsibility we all assume for the decisions we make today.

You must always remain open to integrating new information. Take responsibility for your decisions. Learn from them. But, do not define yourself by the information or the decisions. Being open to new information means being open to being wrong, accepting the consequences, and moving forward with the lesson learned. In this way, you are never condemned to be what your previous choices were. You are always learning. You have the opportunity to change.

This perspective is difficult because it requires that you allow others to change. It may also extend to a worldview that is less permanent than is comfortable. But, the reward is in the discovery and integration of lessons that add to your development of self. You will find that you engage more authentically, you explore with more wonder, and you genuinely appreciate people and ideas.

Wanting To Show Our Independence

You have been taught that independence is power. You seek to wield that power as an indication of your achievement. You, then, find yourself justifying your choices with apologies to those who counted on you.

The motivation to set yourself apart can, unchecked, isolate you from community. Wanting to set yourself apart can also motivate you toward sustainable contributions to the community. Your uniqueness can steel you to the deceptions to which others fall prey. You can think beyond the current moment to see our common future.

Independence, in truth, is recognition of the power you have even in the absence of titles, positions, and hierarchy. It is the discipline to utilize power with purpose, always having a reasoned approach to action. It is determining the wise course by whether it achieves a collective vision and satisfies a consensus need.

You must learn to distinguish between those that can be trusted and those who cannot. It is true that you are powerful. The promise of community is that other lights combined with yours can illuminate a brighter future. This requires risk. But, this risk is not blind. Those who will combine with you in community will complement your contribution and demonstrate discipline just as you must.

As comfortable and safe as it is to believe the contrary, you are not alone in your quest to succeed. But, this does not diminish the fact that each choice is ultimately yours to make. The risks and investments are yours to live with. You hold responsibility for your choices, but your freedom to make those choices is in the context of a larger community. Purpose gives power. Discipline is power. When we move, let us move together.

Wanting To Have an Answer Now

You have been taught that the process requires patience. You wait until you are unable to sit any longer. You, then, make decisions of convenience in the context of your current knowledge motivated by your immediate desires.

Your desire for a quick answer can seduce you into short cuts and suspect relationships. That same desire is a thirst for knowledge that keeps you searching, learning, and developing for a lifetime. Use that desire to motivate a determination toward preparedness.

Patience in the process, in truth, is an opportunity to work through the deficiencies you have. Practice a determined meditation—calm your anxiety through careful consideration of the inputs, the process, and potential consequences. Gain new knowledge through observation and reading. Focus on a state of being prepared. Become clearly aware of the opportunities around you. In time, sustainable use of process results in your ability to create your own opportunities.

It is not imperative that you know the master plan. You only have to be clear on your role and your next step. You will not achieve success without the process. Enjoy the process rather than wasting time trying to circumvent it or agonizing over the fact that the destination is unclear to you. Take pride in identifying your individual role and our collective responsibility. Be ready!

Redefining Process, Independence, Rightness, and Self (2 of 2)

You have been taught that the process requires patience. You wait until you are unable to sit any longer, and you make decisions of convenience in the context of your current knowledge. Process, in truth, is an opportunity to work through the deficiencies you have. You are both better prepared and more clearly aware of the opportunities around you. Sustainable use of process results in your ability to create your own opportunities.

You have been taught that independence is power. You seek to wield that power as an indication of your achievement. Independence, in truth, is recognition of the power you have even in the absence of titles, positions, and hierarchy. It is the discipline to utilize power with purpose, always having a reasoned approach to action.

You have been taught that rightness is a settled question. You do not take time to discuss the questions at hand. In this way, you have no responsibility for inconsistencies. Rightness, in truth, is a social construction rooted in the norms of the group. The discussion of rightness is a discussion of sustainability and the long-term responsibility we all assume for the decisions we make today.

You have been taught that you are singularly unique and required to strive toward perfection. You adopt approaches to the perfection question that either perpetuate a cycle of poor mental health, failed relationships, or both. You, in truth, reach perfection in the context of others. Discerning in the context of uncertainty and difference among the multitude of “good” options, that is the peak of human experience.

Overcoming rationalization is overcoming the willful misinterpretation of process, independence, rightness, and yourself. Choose sustainability. Produce with the consequence of interrelated community.

Redefining Process, Independence, Rightness, and Self (1 of 2)

I do not know exactly what you were born into, but I do know for certain that what you are today, right now, is not comparable in achievement and acclaim to what will be your success. How can I be so certain? I am certain because a disciplined approach to any endeavor will yield results. A sustained contribution to your own success will free you from any deficiencies that present themselves as fears. Your deficiencies only outline the primary learning and relationships required for your success.

Your powers of intellect can be used against you. Pride can push you toward your own destruction. You must dispel the thought that you can achieve success on your own—that you are smarter or stronger than others only due to your uniqueness. Do not reason that, in yourself alone, you are wise.

The most dangerous deception is the deception you perpetrate on yourself. Once you have begun to believe without hope of contradiction that your actions are honorable, you are most dangerous. Outside counsel is shrugged off. Voices from multiple sources and perspectives are disregarded. With fervor and passion, you do what you have purposed in your heart. Regardless of the lack of sustainability and consequences of your action, you refuse to discern the deception.

More than a few methods exist in preparation for our self-deceit. As with other deceptions, they appear on the surface as desirable traits. Yet, without the principles of individual role definition combined with responsibility to community, desirable traits become seducers toward quick fixes and unsustainable gratification.

Notice the central deception in rationalization, your desire to achieve success through unsustainable means, a short-term view of process, independence, rightness, and yourself.