TIME: CHAPTER 2

[Gibran]

 

 

Chapter 2

 

One of the most intriguing aspects of time is your relationship with it and one of the most amazing discoveries of your lifetime will commence once you understand my next principle: evolvement versus  involvement.

 

  Take a brief second to digest this: all of your future decisions will be determined by how much information you provide yourself about you to YOU! Again, it cannot be overemphasized that  time is the natural context from which you will construct your choices which, by design, keep track of your decisions. Also know for a certainty that bad choices can retard and impede the growth and maturity that are the naturally-occurring rewards of a good choice. And what routinely controls the underlying paradigm is whether or not you are an E (evolved) or an I (involved).

 

When you are involved in the process of making time work for you, there is always the very real chance that your awareness of SELF, which is essential to your emotional survival, will function more as a beacon of light that directs your planning rather than a dark shadow that colors everything you do with doubt.

 

Have you ever thought to consider just how ineffective you would be at making plans for your future if you do not possess the self-awareness to know who the hell you are!? I suspect, quite rightly, that very little can be accomplished minus the awareness needed to piece together a plan of action that is tailor-made to your own unique perspective. I wholeheartedly subscribe to the notion that “to inflate someone else is to deflate yourself”. Just think of all the countless hours you waste, trying to try on someone else’s swagger. DO YOU! Don’t deflate yourself. Inflate yourself.

 

CHAPTER THREE

OH Yeah, how about this. Before you take any leap of faith, please be certain that you are responsible enough to deal with the consequences of such ill-advised advice. Trust me, there is no true merit in being silly, so let’s not be naïve. In the spiritual world, if you wish to take a leap of faith, go right on because that is between you and God. However, in the physical world, anyone who is serious about SUCCESS should have little or no time to experiment. Leave that to the guys in the white coats in the laboratory because your quest is not experimentation but actualization. Did you get that? Actualization. And just what is this thing called actualization. Well, allow me to explain. Actualization is the end results or better yet, the visible proof of your goals being road-tested by your drive and determination.  Maybe what I should have said was that actualization is what happens when you believe in yourself enough to get your hands dirty.

 

In fact, if you are not involved in life, then you can’t possibly evolve. Know what happens? You DEVOLVE! Unlike involvement where there is active participation and investment in yourself, evolvement will occur without your participation because it is what happens when life goes on without you. Everything has evolved except you. Evolvement or more aptly, evolution, is the growth that progress will usher in whether you are ready for it or not.

 

Let me tell you a true story about someone I know. That person, a young, black male had the misfortune as countless other black men of going to prison. However, no matter how good a prisoner he had been, once he had gotten  home, things had changed. He was lost. What happened? Evolution, that’s what. Life had gone on without him, had kept right on evolving without my friend having a clue as to what was happening. And that is exactly what happens if you an E type personality. You are nothing more than a professional spectator in the affairs of your own life, a ‘stuck-on-stupid’ cheerleader, rah-rahing over the achievements of others. Go head on. Shake your pom-poms!

 

If possible, I would like to delve a wee bit deeper into the phenomenon, the nitty-gritty about ‘personal cooperation’ in the affairs of your own life. It is now, nor has it ever been, cool to blindly accept carte blanche that you will always act in your own best interests. Chances are good that you won”t. Ever been in love with the wrong person? Or what about attempting to change someone into someone you can more easily love?

 

Nonetheless, I argue that  before any real attempt at cooperation can be made, something else must be mastered first, and just what is that, you ask. Well, I will tell you. In a nutshell, what must occur is the ability to interpret what your needs are. Basically, what I am telling you is that ‘Interpretation and cooperation’ must work a team. If you fail to interpret what it is that you require to advance your cause, then you are doomed because how can you induce, compel, or coerce your abilities to cooperate in your ‘quest for success’ if you don’t know if you are coming or going.

 

If it wouldn’t be asking too much, I would eagerly encourage everyone to recall that the roots and origins of getting ahead in life is essentially to know where the goal is because any human activity that does not revolve around ‘living well’ is animal behavior. I wouldn’t insist on anyone attempting it, but I can imagine that there are, here and there, persons who have made it to the top simply via their instincts, but personally, I prefer to employ to utilize the God in me rather than the animal in me when it comes to doing what I do to make a dollar out of fifteen cents.

 

Furthermore, you must personally invoke your RIGHT TO SUCCESS! How far along the ROAD OF SUCCESS do you reasonably expect to travel when you have made no personal claim to it (success) . I mean, if you want a toll-free, no speed limit ride, then I invite you to get on the other path, THE HIGHWAY TO HELL.

 

What has remained constant in this ever-changing world in which we reside is the challenge to stop playing with yourself and to start working with yourself. So, there it is once more---cooperation. And I will add to this with a private Jewel which is this: Don’t handicap yourself by crippling your emotions!  Hmm, now I am compelled to wonder if you are a CHEATER or a BEATER?!

 

In our existence, there are  paradigms that I have termed “contexts” which are essentially the life-sized psychological compartments where we hide things. Not only are these contexts good hiding places for our emotions and fears, they also serve as a beachhead from which we launch our lil sneak attacks upon the world. These are emotional bunkers. And from time to time, when the world has something we need, we must make the deliberate decision to get what we require by either cheating the world out of it or by beating the world out of it. Which is your course of action?

 

Hopefully neither. To be successful in getting a need satisfied, what one must do is to simply build a bridge where your intentions MEETS your potential and GREETS your right to live well. 

[Delano]

@Gibran how would you define success?

[Gibran]

3 hours ago, Delano said:

@Gibran how would you define success?

Right now at this very moment,  my personal definition of success is to be free of pain. During the course of my life, I have had varying ideas of success but what has always remained constant is that I have come to define my individual success by how much my life hurts. I have, at times, though briefly, experienced financial success and equally as brief, I have known romantic success, but I have never been able to get a starring role in the big picture of my life so I have been forced to compartmentalize my "successes". This means a get-in-where-you-fit-in type of existence where most of what I've done has been like a paint-by-number behind the scene affair where I have taught myself to bake a cake out of crumbs.

[Delano]

Like the post,  I am studying time.

 

[Delano]

@Gibran we start out with ideals and optimism then the world takes our innocence. It is isn't easy to integrate experience and keep your heart, mind and soul intact.