Alexandersmap

    Tag: Belief

    • Plot Twists

      “There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.” — André Gide, Autumn Leaves

      What is possible is often nothing more than what we believe to be possible. Where we believe the world is going. Where we believe our limits lie. What are beliefs but stories we tell ourselves?

      Beliefs ought to be questioned. Challenged. If only to see what’s on the other side of that belief. I believe our story depends on a plot twist or two to be compelling. But some people aren’t fans of plot twists in their lives. They favor a predictable story—all neatly lined up in sequential order. That’s nice, I suppose, but not what I believe.

      What some people call bad luck I call a plot twist. We ought to sit with the situation and ask ourselves a few questions: Why is this happening? What can we learn from it? Where is this leading us? How can we re-write our story to be more compelling? The hero’s journey demands that we transcend the challenges thrown at us and rise to a greater place.

      Life is nothing but one plot twist after another. What are we to do but learn and grow? Write, review, revise and make the next draft even better. Possibility is simply a better plot twist, realized through persistence and creativity.

    • Beyond the Walls of Belief

      “There are two different types of people in this world. Those who want to know and those who want to believe,” — Friedrich Nietzsche

      We all believe in something, but we ought to recognize the blinders we’ve put on as we wrap our minds around it. Beliefs are made to be challenged. And so we must be open to the provocation if we wish to grow beyond who we currently are.

      We know the world is full of people who want no such thing. Belief is a corridor with high walls. Zealous believers are inclined to believe just about anything that reinforces the core beliefs they came into the conversation with. We ought to reflect in that moment on our own core beliefs as well, that we may see the walls we’ve built.

      Growth comes from knowledge, not belief. Knowledge is the goal. Knowledge of universal truth, knowledge of the self, knowledge of becoming and reaching for our potential. Personal excellence may reside just beyond our reach, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still reach.

      The thing is, we ought to recognize what our inclinations are and learn to provoke and challenge ourselves with each step. When we’ve settled on a belief we tend to stay in place with it. I may believe that all people who voted differently than I did were fools or fanatics, but believing that puts me in a box from which I’ll never climb out of until I learn to see something else about those people. I walk through my community knowing roughly half of them would judge me ill-informed with my own vote. None of us have it all figured out, and judging others is just another wall built of belief. The better question is always, where do we go from here?

      Where is the path forward when everyone is building walls with their beliefs? We must become aware of who we are and where we have holes to fill in our own incomplete masterpiece. Each step on our journey offers insight into who we might be if we would only stop believing we’ve got it all figured out.

    • Stop Taking It for Granted

      “A man took his new hunting dog out on a trial hunt. Presently he shot a duck that fell into the lake. The dog walked over the water, picked the duck up and brought it to his master.
      The man was flabbergasted! He shot another duck. Once again, while he rubbed his eyes in disbelief, the dog walked over the water and retrieved the duck.
      Hardly daring to believe what he had seen, he called his neighbor for a shoot the following day. Once again, each time he or his neighbor hit a bird the dog would walk over the water and bring the bird in. The man said nothing. Neither did his neighbor.
      Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, he blurted out, “Did you notice anything strange about that dog?”
      The neighbor rubbed his chin pensively. “Yes,” he finally said. “Come to think of it, I did! The son of a gun can’t swim!”
      It isn’t as if life is not full of miracles. It’s more than that: it is miraculous, and anyone who stops taking it for granted will see it at once.” ― Anthony de Mello, The Prayer Of The Frog, Vol. 1

      We may choose to see what we want to see in this lifetime. The world at the moment offers many things from which we may react. But the reaction itself changes the way we see everything else in our lives. Thus, we move through our lives seeing everything through the lens of our beliefs and our reaction to things that challenge or support these beliefs.

      I can know that I’ve been held captive by my own beliefs, and also see what I believe holds others in theirs. But there’s the trap. One belief influences the other, and we move through life blind and captive behind our lenses.

      This way of seeing the world holds us captive until we release ourselves from this state. But it feels easier to just stay sheltered in our beliefs. When we stop trying to validate all we believe we may finally see just how miraculous this whole state of being alive truly is.

      At least that’s what I believe.

    • Beliefs and Revelations

      February one is a countdown day in the United States (2/1) and a count up day in the rest of the world (1/2). Don’t even get me started on the metric system. We tend to do things our own way here in the United States, and most of us won’t pretend that we get it all right all the time. But being right about things was never the point, it’s about confidently charging through life, believing in the cause we’ve signed up for as our birthright. Many times the world is looking for someone to look around and say, “I’ve got this!”, but more often than not they’re just patient with us.

      We see how damaging belief without facts can be. But humans need belief in something to get through their lives. Otherwise they have to ponder questions larger than themselves. Better to simply believe without thinking too much about it. Life seems easier when we give our agency to someone else. It’s like never really growing up and having parental figures tell us what to do, where to go, who to like and not like. What to believe. It’s all just stories we’re told to agree with. And most of it is bullshit. But it does the job of controlling the mob.

      We all have people in our lives who believe things we know are made up stories. Hug the flag, point the finger at others, blame the weakest and tell some clever story that makes everyone believe we’re all in this together. It’s a great recipe for power and influence, and it all hinges on belief.

      We can roll our eyes and shake our head at these people in our lives, but we ought to take a moment to question our own beliefs and who’s telling us stories. What’s real and what’s BS? It’s always been a matter of which story feels more aligned with the story we tell ourselves, which is often based on the way we’ve always seen the world. Belief is very hard to shake free from.

      We often don’t realize our beliefs are being challenged until we feel irritation at something or someone that calls our beliefs into question. This is a journey we resist, sometimes violently, but on the other side of it is revelation. It turns out the world is more nuanced than we dared to believe in the shelter of our own stories. Beliefs are fine for keeping us in line, but revelation is what moves our world in new directions.

      Whatever we believe is likely an old, favorite recipe that we cook up in our minds each day. Do you remember the first time you tried an oyster? One moment we believe we’d never eat something like that, the next we experience a revelation of briny goodness. Maybe shellfish isn’t your thing, but we can all think of something that similarly shook up our pallet and our belief in what is good.

      Revelation is profoundly moving when we encounter it head-on. And we only reach it by being open to seeing the world clearly (while beliefs are closed, revelations only come to us when we are open to them). So maybe try to see things differently today. It turns out it doesn’t matter whether we say February 1 or 1 February, so long as we know which day it really is. Today is a good day to look at the stories we tell ourselves and look for some revelations we never knew we needed.