There’s a scene from the HBO show, Bored to Death, where the character played by Ted Danson is informed that he has cancer. It hits him hard. He says, “I don’t want to die. I haven’t figured anything out yet.”
I’ve been on a wonderful journey my whole life of seeking to figure things out. It’s why I read Think and Grow Rich when I was 15, studied meditation and Eastern thought in my early 20’s, became a life coach at 30, and a shaman at 36. It’s led me to the heights of many mountain tops in North and South America, with stacks of journals along the way. Yet, most of the time, this principle is still something I sit with on a daily basis: “Trying to figure things out.”
It’s a powerful moment in one’s life when they move beyond the need to figure things out. What came through in a meditation recently is this:
“Stop thinking that you need to “figure out” the way. That is exhausting. Instead, just seek to keep yourself in balance, seek to be in your heart at all times, and simply open to the moment. What you need to do will be right there.”
I don’t know why about every week and a half, I seem to have an existential crisis. I once again become invariably concerned with, “What I am doing?” and “How am I going to get there?”
Why do these two questions seem to run my life?
It gives me a headache.
I know I should just relax and surrender, seek to be in balance mentally and emotionally and then see what the universe brings me. Yet, every 10 days or so, I forget this and go back to a place of “needing to figure it all out”.
Why do I do this?
After our trip to Greece a few years ago, I had a realization: That if my life wasn’t about winning, what would it open me up to?
There is a freedom when you get off the hamster wheel. Just breathing a calm, centered, purposeful moment right now is glorious.
But like many people out there, I’ve spent my life trying to win at everything. In school, with sports, in the different jobs that I’ve held. Also, as a coach and speaker, wanting to win and be successful. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with achieving. We often fulfill our purpose by being in action in service to others. Yet, when you’re always focused on the “next” step, which is what a life spent dedicated to winning often becomes, you can miss something.
I used to say that the most important thing in the world is, “What you do NEXT.” That’s not necessarily true for me anymore. It’s not what you do next, but rather what’s underneath your next movement. It’s what is behind the thought impulse that drives your action. What’s actuallymost important is your starting point. Is it a starting point of stillness? Of the heart? Of a grounded consciousness?
Or is it some bit of chaos?
Because your next movement, whatever it is, will be informed by what just preceded it. Hence the importance of slowing down and connecting to the heart center, as many times as it takes throughout the day.
Give up the need to figure things out.
Step off that hamster wheel.
Breathe in the present moment.
Open to the Truth that is there.