Sunday Story...live like a ?

Sunday Story…live like a?

One of the questions I frequently ask my students goes like this:
…If you knew on Saturday that you were going to be thrown in the middle of the ocean with no hope of rescue for 3 hours and you did NOT know how to swim today, how much would swim lessons be worth to you today? AND how hard would you apply yourself to those lessons? The answer is pretty obvious isn’t it? Those lessons would be invaluable and you would be the most attentive student on the planet. Anyone know where I am going with this?

Sure you should apply yourself to your lessons…martial arts, school, work. Any learning environment is providing lessons to you all the time. Are you paying attention to those lessons like your life depends on it? If you knew the punch you were learning or the choke would save your life tomorrow would you practice it differently? If the report you are writing right now would earn you a million dollars next month would you write it differently? Are you doing million dollar work? Will your training today save your life tomorrow?

This is a pretty obvious question and answer. Of course we would train differently if we knew our life depended on it today or there was a million dollars on the line tomorrow. This is why we look at champion fights or championship games the way we do…at the end the victor gets bragging rights, the rings, the checks, and the adulation. So did those champions just get lucky and show up that day for the big game? Of course, not they trained for years before that game or that match.
Obviously, you should train hard, work hard, and live like a champion. BUT (here it comes) what about all those lessons and teachings that are not so obvious. It’s easy to apply yourself to the things you want to do. What are you doing about the OTHER things? Things like looking at the patterns of your life, the stuff that keeps coming up, the situations that occur over and over again. The stuff in your relationships that happen time after time…maybe you are constantly having drama around money with your significant other, children, and boss. Why is that? What are you doing to cause that? What do you need to heal to move on? Are you even looking and listening to that lesson? Are you willing to attack those lessons like your life depends on it? Because it does you know. The stress caused by these lessons occurring time after time after time is killing you, robbing you of optimum health and fitness.

The lessons the universe is serving up are important to the health and healing of your soul. Ask yourself why do the same things keep happening to me? What am I meant to learn from this situation? Train your focus on the why of it. AND then start contemplating on what you need to do differently to create a different outcome. Because if you don’t do something differently you will just get more of what you already have. If your life is full of challenges about money, start looking at your belief system about money. Don’t bemoan the fact that every time you get some money it disappears and it isn’t your fault. Maybe your relationships are full of drama and trauma. Let’s look at your part in those dramas and find what YOU are doing to call those energies forward. Because your life is about you, it is your movie and you are the main character.

Start playing full out my friends. Not just on the training mat. Not just in the class room. Not just on the job. But in the interior of your life. Start playing full out on the field of your soul. What price is your happiness, what price is the evolution of your soul? Because it isn’t going to just happen. Just like you are not just going to happen to run a marathon or earn your doctorate. This is part of the Master’s journey, the Master’s work…it isn’t just physical fitness, or mental acuity, or emotional harmony although it is all of those things. It is about creating a soul’s journey that will leave your next journey clear of obstacles. And the only way you are going to get on that road is by looking very closely at your life. Clearly inspect the things, situations, and people that keep ‘popping” up. Is the same person saying the same things year after year? Don’t you think you should do something about that? Maybe if you catch the signs early enough you can save yourself some heartache.

Let’s apply the same focus we do to our studies, our training, our work, our play, our friends, and our environments to the landscape of our souls. Spend some time meditating (listening), spend some time praying (speaking), but most of all spend some time inspecting all the canyons, streams, forests and deserts of your interior being. If you don’t like what it looks like learn some lessons. And start working on some solutions that will yield different results than the ones you already got. Talk to someone if need be. Someone who is not attached to the outcome. Get out of your little box and start playing like your life and a million bucks were on the line. Because just maybe they are.

So…how are you living your life? Are you living like a champion, like a Buddha, like a Christ? Just wondering you know.

Namaste

John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”

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