Life Knows What You Need
All through this morning, I seemed to be having a difficult time getting to the work I had committed to doing. Other, seemingly unrelated ideas kept presenting themselves.
I’ve learned to listen to that signal and obey the impulse to capture a thought when it first comes to me.
They all had a particular tone I’ve come to recognize, and that tone can be best characterized by the feeling, “I’d better write that down. There’s something there I can use.” I’ve learned to listen to that signal and obey the impulse to capture a thought when it first comes to me.
I started to berate myself a little for not being able to focus specifically on the task I thought I should have been doing, and I heard the voice I’ve come to recognize, respect and listen to say to me, “Well, what do you think you are doing?”
I had to stop and laugh out loud at myself because I instantly saw that what had seemed like interesting random thoughts were feeding directly into the project I’d set out to do.
I was a good part of the way through that project before I saw that life was giving me at that moment exactly what I needed to get my work done.
The ideas weren’t coming in the order I thought they should be coming, so my initial impulse was to toss them aside before I’d really heard and absorbed them.
It was a relief for me to finally learn that at any given moment, life really does have a better idea of what I need than I do. So now, when an idea presents itself to me, I listen carefully. The surprising part is, when I take the time to listen carefully, more often than not, it’s exactly what I need at that moment. It can take a moment to see that, so I take that moment.
It doesn’t have to be the idea I thought I needed at that moment.
Pretend you’re in a restaurant ordering a meal, You’ve decided on a full three-course meal. Certain dishes will obviously take longer than others to prepare. What would happen if you told the waitperson you were in a hurry to eat, and the first dish you wanted was an elaborate dessert that took the longest to prepare?
The waitperson would be forced to find a way to tell you that if you wanted to eat as soon as possible, you’d have to settle for the appetizer first.
What the waiter was trying to get across to you was that the restaurant would give you your food in the order you needed it. The fact that you wanted dessert first doesn’t mean dessert first would be the best thing for you or the way you’d get the most enjoyment out of your meal.
Wrapping your head around the truth that life has a better idea of what you need at any given moment than you do takes a bit of flexibility. I’ve noticed that the best lubricant for flexibility is curiosity.
If I’m curious when an idea comes to me, of course, I’ll take the time to listen to it before I summarily toss it aside.
This is one of the best things I can do for myself when I’m trying to write a blog, make a video, or create almost anything.
Life really does have a better sense of what I need at any given moment.
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