[In this
little story we describe how one fictional character expresses in the
course of a single day a number of the keyideas on personal growth presented at Growth Online.]
Rosa Sanchez awoke on a beautiful spring
morning in the Central Valley of Northern California. After a few momentsgazing out the
window at the hills in the distance, it dawned on her that
that she now has
far more energy than she used to
have
at this time of the day. Normally, it took at least a cup of coffee to get rid of the
morning cobwebs.
She wondered whatit was exactly that
was giving her this new-foundenergy?
She thought about it for a moment, and then begin to
understand. Well, for one, she
she'd really been
energized
and excited by her new job. Just a few
months ago,Rosa was struggling to find the right type of job.
However, at that time she made a
90-day personal
commitment to move to the next level in her life. She read about the idea
that there was a process of growth that
one can
follow to take ourselves to the next level of achievement and success in
life. She decided to follow this process, focusing on elevating her career
to the next level. As a result, life responded with a wonderful new job!
As she gazed out the
window, she wondered what it was that
enabled her to acquire this job. What did she do that made life respond to her efforts?
She then recalled that the
first thing she did at the time was to acquire a number of new
skills in the areas of
business and project management.
That effort in of itself really energized her. Then,
when she fully committed to finding a
good position in thatfield, and also made a corresponding "inner effort" to overcome her
reluctance to seek out work aggressively, everything started to go right
and fit into place.
Life seemed to come to her, as work offers seemed to arrive from seemingly out of nowhere.
She received solicitations for work from people she didn't even make an
effort to contact!
This response
to her efforts, including the actual job she got, gave her an
enormous boost. No wonder she felt so energized this
beautiful spring morning! Adding to
this was the fact that she had reduced her carbohydrate intake, lost twenty
pounds, updated her wardrobe to match, and looked
great. Rosa was operating on full
throttle!
Rosa then
walked away from the window, showered, dressed herself in one of
her new outfits, and set off to work.
When
she arrived at her job
that morning at IntegralNet, she noticed her friend Alicia down the hallway, and waved to
her. When Rosa first arrived at her new job, she had felt a certain tension with Alice. There
always seemed to be something about Alicia that bothered
her.
Fortunately, back at that time,
Rosa remembered the idea that if one can overcome such negative
feelings towards another, good things can
suddenly
start happening. In fact, on one
particular day last month, Rosa was really feeling
a bit irritated by Alicia, yet
somehow managed to
catch herself and control her feelings. She was even able to turn her irritation
into the smallest amount of goodfeeling towards her friend. On further thought about
this incident, Rosa realized that
later on that day her boss called her
in and told her that she had been named project manager for the company's
largestbig product push! That
gave Rosa far more responsibility than she ever had in
the past. It also placed
her in a much higher-level job position, which meant a boost in
both her status and her
salary. At the time, it was hard
for Rosa to equate
her change in attitude toward Alicia with the
sudden new opportunity that came to herbut minutes after; but
Rosa was now sure
there was a connection!
Changing an attitude
and then experiencing a sudden,
miraculous-like "life
response" was a phenomenonthat Rosa had begun to get used to. She had seen this
miracle at work at least a few times in the months she'd
been working onthe new job. For example,
she saw that each time she overcame her irritation,
something good would happen to her shortly thereafter.
Life would somehow present her with something positive shortly thereafter,
in the form of good news, such as positive development on a project, or
positive news on the home front, etc.. Often the response seemed to come
from seemingly out of nowhere, as people she hadn't heard from in years
would suddenly call, or someone from half way around the world offered a
new opportunity for the firm,
and in other peculiar
ways.
As a
result of this this, Rosa made the commitment to overcomeall
suchnegative attitude
and feelings
in her life,right down to the smallest details of her
moment-to-moment existence. She had decided back
then that whenever she was bothered or irritated about something, she would
catch herself, insteadof
dwelling on what bothered her about another person,
or annoyed her about a difficult situation. Rosa then went a step further.
She also made the unusual commitment to consider
how such negative flashes related to particular
aspectsof her
overall
character, such as her childhood conflicts with her
father, and the problems she had with boyfriends in the past that she had never
really confronted. This overall daring and brave approachto life enabled Rosa to see
her own true nature in a much clearer light; plus helped her uncover a
number of particular negative qualities in her being that needed scrubbing.
[ep]
One direct result of thiseffort of inner self-improvement was that
she was becomingcalmer and
more balanced. In fact, the other day, when Tom came into her
office, and,as usual, carried on a bit too much as he is want to
do, she remembered how she was able to get over her
irritation, and just go with the flow of things. In fact,
in that meeting she reversed her
attitudeof impatience towards Tom to such a degree that she
actuallylistened to
him
very attentively;even encouraging him
about his ideas on taking
their project in a new direction. Instead of pushing him
awayin irritation,
Rosa's new-found calm enabled her to have a
relaxed, friendly interaction
with Tom, in which new
potentials and possibilities
of work revealed themselves.
Now, a week later, Rosa recalled how Tom's suggestions
in that meeting were absolutely
crucial to the eventual success of their project.
If she had remainedbothered
and
irritated,
she may have never heard Tom's important suggestions as
a result, and their wonderful recent success
on the project might never have
happened.
On reflection, Rosa
realized that
being calm, balanced, and open to others, devoid of any negative feelings
and
poor attitudes, certainly opened the way to very positive things occurring
in her life, as she clearly saw in the way life responded to her on the project.
Speaking of which! In the
first stages of the project Rosa was presented with tasks that she didn't exactly find to
her liking. As a result, she
either put them on the back burner or simply
ignored them. It was only later on that she would
realize just how important these tasks were to the outcome of the project's success.
Fortunately, as it turned out, at some point thereafter, she had visited Growth Online, and read about the need to
overcome one's reluctances
in life. She read about the
fact that life presents situations to us that we want to avoid
and not deal with;
perhaps because
of a missing skill, or a lack of confidence,
or some other fear. She read
there that
what life presents to you is often more important than
what's on your own personal agenda; more important than
own wants and preferences
After seeing how
her avoidance of what life presented
had put her
in a hole in the early part of the project, Rosa became more attentive to,and proactive towards what life
presented her, to the events unfolding at each point in time on the project. Instead of fighting
what life presented her, she embraced it.
Most interestingly, she noticed that every time
she overcame her reluctance and gave into the flow of things, whole new possibilities opened up
for her. Not only did the work she feared doing
govery smoothly, but new, unexpected things
turned up on the project. Things she never thought possible just seemed to
come from out of nowhere. Once again, she realized that by
overcoming a negative attitude -- in this case her reluctance -- life seemed
to miraculously respond in kind.
Rosa by now had really been intrigued by these
ideas about changingour attitudes toward others and
life, including the importance of accepting what life presented
to her. Now as she looked down the hall at Alicia, she
felt a small shiver inside, as she knew that her life was not only different on the
outside, but was also quite different on the inside,
within herself. She understood that these ideas were
far more than abstract concepts or principles, but were practical,hidden truths of life that were having
very real and direct effects on her life. As a result,
Rosa now was beginning to view the world through new eyes.
Most intriguing
to Rosa was the concept of how
taking certain actions, like a conscious change in one's attitude or overcoming a
reluctance, triggered miraculous "life responses;" where
positive things start suddenly happening from seemingly out of nowhere. Rosa smiled and felt a
rush of energy just thinking about this concept as she made her way toward her office this bright spring
morning.
When she arrived at her office Rosa sat down
on her leather chair, started up her computer, and thought about looking at her email.
Then she caught herself, and decided that she would try something new. Instead of clicking on
the Connect button on her screen to retrieve her email, Rosa paused, and
then remembered to
"offer" the activity she was about to do to a higher power. She had read about
the idea of "consecration," and thought why not try it
now. So she relaxed, concentrated herself, and then thought to
herself "I offer what I am about to do to the higher power. I have faith in its
action to bring about the best results." Then she continued on with
the work. A few seconds thereafter, she opened her email and noticed the usual assortment of
messages. On closer examination, she saw an email from her supervisor. Rosa
opened up the message and read that she had been invited to a high-level management
meeting regarding the strategic direction of her
division.
She was thrilled by this message; understanding that this meant she was
now to be involved in the decision-making process for her entire division! This was
a breakthrough in her career. She was ecstatic and overjoyed. She also had the
presence of mind to perceive that it was once again another of those little life responses;
this time
in response to her "offering" of the email task to the higher power a moment before.
She shook her head in
wonder. A moment later, as her
thoughts drifted back to her present situation, she realized that the
meeting would start in 30 minutes!
A half hour later Rosa was understandably a
little anxious about the meeting; after all she had no real experience in the areas
that were to be
discussed. Remembering the earlier "offering up" technique, Rosa
tried it again just before
she walked in the door for the meeting.
An hour later when she walked out of the
meeting, Rosa was amazed at how well the meeting went; how clear and understandable
everything was; how amenable everyone was to one another; and perhaps, most significantly,
how much she had actually participated in the discussion! "I guess this opening to a higher
Source method really works after all," she thought to herself
as she walked down the hall after the meeting. It was another
"wow" in her life.
After lunch Rosa returned to her office to
work on her big project again. She looked for a file on her computer and had a little
trouble finding it. She also looked for her
project management software
manual and couldn't find that
either. Sherri dropped by the office at that very
moment, and saw Rosa in a state of confusion.
Rosa looked up and said "I can't find anything around here!" Sherri
smiled sympathetically at her friend, to which Rosa
said sardonically "Sure it's easy for you,
you're organized to the hilt! This place is a mess!"
Rosa slumped back into her
chair, not knowing where to start. She had to do something
about the intolerable state of her desk. Once again she
remembered an area of the personal growth section of Growth Online
where they talked
about the different aspects of personal organization. She wrote herself a note to reread
that section when she got a chance. After a moment of reflection
on the situation, Rosa was actually already
committed to changing this aspect of her life as well.
An hour later, she told her two helpers that
she needed a little quiet time. So she walked down the hall and went to the company's
business library. She took a seat at one of the
high-speed
Internet connected computers and went directly to
The
Power of Organization section of Growth Online. The
part of
the article that really got her attention were
the list of determining factors that indicated whether
or not one was organized, including:
The way we organize physical things around us-such as our
home, our paperwork, our finance, etc.
The way we manage our time, our schedules, our work
How systematized certain aspects of our lives are -- such as
having systems for our finances, schedules, appointments, and to dos.
She wrote
them down with the understanding that she was
going to come up with a plan to right this wrong in her life.
When Rosa
lifted her head up a moment after, she saw Tomof all people standing before her! Tom said
that he was told that Rosa was in the
library and so he had decided to come over and tell her the good news. "What good news?"
Rosa asked. Tom told her that the first phase of the project had been completed; three
days ahead of schedule! Tom said that the programming work had gone much faster than
expected. Rosa was elated by the news! Then a little voice in the back of her mind
reminded her that she had just made a commitment to better organize herself. "Yes, I
remember," she thought, "the site said that if you change an attitude or make a
commitment for improvement, such as I just did to better organize myself, life
suddenly responds in kind." This news about the early completion of the first phase of the project
certainly seemed like an instant life response to her
decision to organize her life better. Even before she
actually made the actual effort she got the response. Just the desire to improve
one's self can bring about a sudden positive life response!It
was another "wow;"
within a few minutes of the previous ones!
Rosa now had returned to her
daily job chores. She was so
energized by the turn of event for the day that at one
point she began to softly sing to her self.Then a moment later she quickly got up from
her chair, but whap!, she banged her leg into the corner of the table. Her first reaction
was of course expression of pain,
followedby a fear that she had done something serious to her leg.
However, she caught herself, stayed calm, and pushed the idea of something being broken
or damaged out of her head. In fact, she
decided not to give it all a second thought. Twenty minutes later, she realized that after that
initial moment of the incident, she did not remember having a
single twinge of pain from that little accident. She remembered
reading awhile back that reacting to and thinking the worst about one's physical
pain only increased it. In
fact, the other day she had a similar situation when she felt a sharp pain in her side.
Rather than dwelling on it, giving in to it, having fear about it, which would have surely
kept the pain intact, she ignored it, and again, a few minutes later, noticed in retrospect
that it had completely disappeared from that moment forward.
"What a day!," she thought.
On the way home, as she made her way through the traffic
spilling out of Silicon Valley, she thought about how she had begun to gain control over
her life; how she felt so much more happy, alive, energized, and in control.
But what felt
best was that she had begun to understand the deepest secrets of life, a feeling which
enriched her to the core of her being. Rosa then decided that in addition to exploring ways to
better organize herself, she wanted to understand more
about those hidden secrets of life and existence that were alluded
to at the Growth Online site. She was also interested
in learning more about why and how life in our universe came into being,
how we came to be who we are, what we humans are really up of, and where we
are headed in our human evolution; all topics addressed at Growth Online. In particular, she
really wanted to learn more about those magical
"life responses;" how to trigger them,
and how to live one's daily life filled with
thesesmall and large miracles.
As her thoughts drifted to the traffic
ahead, she felt a soft peace and tranquility envelop her. She had reached
a point beyond feeling and thought, and bathed in what felt to be
a higher presence.
