Do Not Be Fooled

Do not be fooled by these times. Fear wants us to believe that our possibilities have been substantially reduced, if not eliminated. Nothing could be further from the truth.  

Visionmakers are not merely passengers riding a roller coaster that is careening out of control. That is giving too much personal power to the circumstances and betrays the singular journey of the heart that we have been born to pursue.

A Visionmaker makes the circumstances that he or she wants through an allegiance to creativity over acceptance, courage over fear, and enterprise over entropy.

Easy to say, harder to do? Maybe. 

One of the biggest challenges is to release ourselves from the collective trance of consensus that fuels herd mentality. This is a false belief that we are caught up in a system in which we have no choice and are therefore victims of larger cycles that will ultimately destroy us. That kind of thinking ensures a platinum seat on the roller coaster. 

Second, we must gird ourselves against the daily drama and the ups and downs that provide a means of negative bonding with those around us. That doesn't mean that we should plant our head in the sand and pretend that calamity isn't happening.  Rather, it's the necessary detachment to observe what is occurring without being sucked into the vortex of crisis and lose our proactivity as a result. Fear seeks a following and is upheld through an infection of collective agreement.

Third, Visionmakers have no business allowing current circumstances to dictate their future.  One needs to be ready to pluck the future from the fingers of chance. Stay focussed. Being overwhelmed by fears about how things are and where they might be leading is an unnecessary distraction.

Visionmakers remain focussed on the journey of meaning, manage the conditions they meet, and remain ready to act. In this way, we become much larger than our challenges and our actions spring from a full and strong heart.

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.