How to improve self confidence? This is a question that is asked of me time and time again.
How to improve self confidence 101
Music has always been immensely uplifting and enriching for me, for as far back as I can remember.
I had always said that I would learn to play the piano when I retired. And then one night 20 years ago, I had a dream that I was playing the piano.
It felt absolutely wonderful, inspiring, energising.
As I woke up from the dream I realised, “Why do I have to wait until I retire?”
That day I hired a piano, found a piano teacher and started playing.
It is been a beautiful journey. I’m not the greatest pianist but I do so love making music on it.
My Self – Esteem work started in a similar way. I was struggling with my health and my work and with money. And I realised that I didn’t have to wait for these things to change in order to feel good, I just imagined feeling like work and health and money were abundant in my life now!
And it worked! And then I just kept following each insight as it popped up and this amazing Self – Esteem model emerged out of me. The video series, the book – the first draft almost complete!
So what, you might be thinking, does this have to do with the warrior and cubic centimetres of chance?
Well, Carlos Castaneda has written some fascinating work. He was an anthropologist who went searching in the Mexican desert for a teacher who would give him content for his Masters thesis in the study of mescaline and peyote, hallucinogens used by Native Americans.
He finds a teacher named Don Juan and the consequence of the relationship is eight books over a decade or more.
Don Juan is talking to Castaneda on one occasion and he says something like, “Life is always offering us cubic centimetres of chance that pass us by. The warrior is waiting patiently and alert and alive, ready to grab them as they pop up. The rest of us just watch them pass by and fall back into the ordinariness of everyday life.”
So I’ve talked previously about how we set goals and resolutions and we don’t stick to them. If in some way you are feeling that you want more from your life, that you want to find a new career or do things that are simply enriching and inspiring to you, then if your goal setting isn’t working too well, I suggest you just watch the cubic centimetres of chance that pop up around these issues and start to act on them.
The thoughts that pop into your head, the feelings and impulses to read a book, pursue a conversation with someone, ask a few questions, make a phone call…JUST ACT…NOW and keep acting, grabbing those cubic centimetres of chance.
Can you notice those momentary insights as they emerge into consciousness and act on them, and keep acting on them, rather than just watching them pass by and notice how your life begins to change?
I believe that Consciousness or Spirit is endlessly activating thoughts, intuitions and possibilities, which, if we listen to and follow can lead to immense fulfilment.
Putting goal setting aside, some of the time and engaging with these ‘cc’s of chance’ enables a spontaneous kind of flow and natural evolution to life. A series of uncontrived, authentic, joyful and energised movements toward what is fulfilling for us. Just notice. You’ve done it before.
One Sunday afternoon, having tea with some friends, one remarked: “Oh that sounds like the Sedona Method.”
That was it. That was the cubic centimetre of chance passing me by and I had an impulse to ask what he meant.
I could so easily have avoided the impulse and not asked the question!
I didn’t avoid it. As soon as the friends left, I downloaded the kindle version of the book and after that…the process was unstoppable.
And that is the point.
What followed was years of an immensely powerful technique for letting go of emotions that I used personally and with hundreds of my clients.
If I just take these three things, my piano playing, the Self – Esteem work and the Sedona Method – and there are many more – the fulfilment and joy and inspiration they have given me in my life is immeasurable!
How many things have you discovered and experienced in your life because you were the warrior, you grabbed those cubic centimetre of chance and didn’t let them pass you by?
How often have you missed them and let them pass by? I’ve missed many, I know.
What would your life look like if you really, really paid even more attention to the impulse to ask the question, buy the book, make the phone call, google it and keep acting?
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