In the words of Peter McWilliams
At a glance it may appear too hard. Look again. Always look again.
The power of perseverance, of commitment, of discipline and of sight… are tools required to succeed in almost all areas of life (and business).
Too often we give up, or we fail to even try, because we’re conditioned to believe that only the great, only the powerful, only the privileged have the capacity to achieve. If by some misfortune you’re not born with a silver spoon in your mouth (poor you) then life is automatically mediocre.
Look again.
Only the insightful, disciplined, committed and patient (some would say stubborn) have the capacity to achieve.
These are not qualities we’re born with but personality quirks we develop through habit. Conversely, we can just as easily develop an attitude of defeatism. It’s a choice. One which requires awareness. (Check out my choice and habit tips here).
In the same way we can harness the power of positivity, we can acquire these coveted skills. I use the word coveted carefully here. To covet something literally means to desire something, typically belonging to another. It is only through conditioning you might believe you are not already in possession of these tools, and as such, you would covet another’s traits or position in life.
The universal laws teach us we’re all born equal and we all come from the same source energy. If this is true then in theory we all have access to the same “pick and mix sweet shop” as we transition into the physical realm. Think of passing through this pick and mix section as your opportunity to choose personality traits, quirks, skills and attributes as you design your ‘physical being’. Choose your bag of tricks with the same explosive joy of a child in a candy store with no spending (or sugar) limit and go crazy! Go on… make a list… what would you choose?
Then, with your bag of pick and mix sweets, go take your seat in the theatre of LIFE and ENJOY!
Now, you’re probably sat there thinking, yeah great theory H but I transitioned into the physical realm 20/30+ years ago and I picked the wrong damn bag of sweets!!
Wrong.
Look again.
What do you have? (Prod: Gratitude Exercise)
What don’t you want? (Prod: Self-critique & Acceptance Exercise)
What do you want to add? (Prod: Vision & Manifestation Exercise)
The universal sweet shop is always open. Go return what you don’t want and add in some new sugary delights.
If you want discipline, BE disciplined. Set daily goals and targets instead of monthly ones. Start in small manageable steps. Heck start with hourly goals if you need to!
If you want commitment, from yourself, from a partner, from a family member… BE committed. It sounds so obvious but if you’re struggling with this, commitment, or discipline, or perseverance, perhaps there’s something else we need to address first, the final quality I listed at the opening of this blog post.
Sight.
Look again.
At a glance it may appear too hard. Look again. Always look again.
That’s the third time in the space of ten minutes I’ve asked you to reconsider, readdress and take a different view of something.
What if the ability to always create options became a habit? What if the ability to recognise and differentiate your first, second and subsequent thoughts became routine? What IF you started to always look in, instead of looking out, for the answers?
What do you think you might develop? InSight?
Sight does not always have to be outward, in fact it increasingly NEEDS to be more inward. This is what McWilliams meant when he urges us to look again. He doesn’t intend for us to probe externally for answers that might not have transpired ‘at first glance’ in order to force an alternate reality. No. He intends for us to look to our universal sweet shop in which every answer to every question resides in its perfect gooey sparkly sugary goodness. Yum.
Nothing is ever too hard. That’s just a poorly conditioned mind talking. And whist I used perseverance, commitment and discipline as the examples in this post (simply because it’s ‘dry jan’ and i’m personally hanging on to these traits for dear life!), all ‘coveted’ quirks and skills can be acquired in the same way. The first step is sight. You HAVE to LOOK AGAIN.
Always practice gratitude, always practice self-love and acceptance, and always always ASK for what you want. Those sweets are yours for the taking.
Now, one last time, look again…
Look into your bag of sweets and tell me what you see 
With love