Imagine arriving at the intersection of two streets – one called “Envision” and the other called “Cooperate” and something wonderful happens… suddenly you’re able to see around the corner and serendipity is a regular occurrence. It’s a rather magical junction! I’m learning more about two ways of traveling that help me get to this place, both of which are needed in just the right amounts.
ENVISION: This path requires some imagination of what things might look like in the future. It’s a dreamlike sequence that doesn’t need the confines of consensus reality – in fact the “that will never work” type thinking inhibits it. It’s a road filled with open-ended questions without succinct answers like, “if money weren’t a limiting factor, what do you want to be doing in 10 years?” Or, “what would the future look like if you were freely living your core values?” Often there is a voice within us named Reason, Practicality or even Skeptic that doesn’t let us enjoy a few moments of picturing what could be down the road. To travel this road is to appreciate what those voices have to offer… and agree to travel without them.
COOPERATE: This path needs equal parts of imagination and faith because it relies on an intangible force. I call this force Universal Source, which encompasses broadly many religious views of spiritual reality without getting tied to a certain dogma (at best, just different road maps to the same destination). This view is a choice – one that Einstein spoke of when he said, “The most important decision we make is whether believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.” If it is indeed friendly I might as well learn how to cooperate with it. If is hostile, then fear will likely drive every action and that is not a way of traveling I want to pursue. I trust with Victor Hugo, that “all the forces in the world are not more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
THE INTERSECTION: When just enough dreaming into “what might be” is coupled with the right amount of trust that the Universe conspires with us, there is a place of confident anticipation from which I can enjoy this moment and keep reaching for the next. This is true even in a business context: when a well-designed product that is needed in the market place (supply) meets the desires of that market place (demand) people are satisfied and businesses sell products – everyone is happy.
Consider what your life could look like if you gave yourself the gift of momentarily suspending skepticism and dreamed into what you really wanted… and you trusted that when you put something on the wind the Universe responds. Would you wake up each day with a different reason to get out of bed? While I never know just how far or near the propitious intersection is and sometimes I get very lost along the way, that feeling of standing in the center of the intersection, smiling, knowing, happy and in awe is always worth the effort to get there.
