“Often, once we learn to see, we assume we’ve always known. And that allows us to believe that the things we can’t see, we’ll never be able to see.” ~ Seth Godin ~
When I was teaching my youngest son, Karlyle, how to drive, it brought me back to what it is like to learn a new skill.
We pulled out of the driveway in 1st gear. Karlyle was so nervous, even though the shift into gear went smoothly.
“Hey Karlyle, we are on the road now, there isn’t any traffic, let’s try 2nd gear. I know you can do it…”
We made another smooth transition and started roaring down the road at a speedy 30 km/hr.
“Mum! It is so fast! Everything is so fast! Ahhhhh…”
To Karlyle, in that moment, everything was new and the world was racing by. The details of how to drive had to be held in his conscious awareness. He needed to think about every detail: clutch in, off gas, shift gear, keep looking ahead rather than at your feet, slowly clutch out, slowly gas on…
“Karlyle, eyes on the road - not on your feet!”
Until a new skill becomes automatic and has moved into the unconscious mind, it takes a lot of effort to perform. It is outside the realm of our comfort zone until we stick with it, practicing it over and over, to normalize it.
But then, once we know how to do something, we tend to forget that there was a time when we didn’t know it. (Consider the Seth Godin quote, above). This can actually lead to contraction, rather than expansion, because we forget that there is a place that exists beyond what we know. We know what we know because we see it in our life. We believe it to be true … and we tend to then believe that there is nothing else. We embody the principles of safe driving, for instance, because we have learned and practiced them until they have become automatic. Perhaps we can type without looking, grow a garden, boil water, make breakfast, find our way around town… At one time we didn’t have the understanding to perform these routines, but now we can go about a whole day effortlessly. And this can lead us to living on a kind of autopilot.
What haven’t we brought our attention to, that exists just outside of what we already know? OH SO MUCH!
Science of Mind is all about building our consciousness by expanding our present awareness. It is about considering new ideas, beliefs and perspectives. It is about growing and changing in new, and sometimes unexpected, ways. Every time we learn new ‘stuff’, we gain a bigger experience of life.
When I was a kid, there were times I felt trapped in my parents’ home. Once I learned how to drive, well, a whole new world opened up to me. Life is like that. And we need to keep the learning up, if we want to continue to feel free.
Ernest Holmes, who wrote the book, The Science of Mind, offered options:
“The Science of Mind gives us the passion for a new possibility, along with precise and clear directions for building a new matrix of mind and manifestation”.
Holmes’ teacher, Emma Curtis Hopkins, exclaimed, “Let us choose to imagine life, conceiving only Good.” What does she mean by that?
Well, she was inviting us to expand our awareness beyond what we think we know about what is possible for us in our lives. Curtis Hopkins suggested that we write down the biggest ideas of our lives, the highest ideas of Good that our inner vision may hold for the world in which we live. Instead of practicing this, we tend to put a circle around our apparent possibilities, with this circumference inevitably being limited because it is based around only what we already know today. Curtis Hopkins wanted us to dream big, bigger and even BIGGER. She knew that, in this Infinite Life, there is so much more for us to experience than what we limit ourselves to.
Ernest Holmes added:
“Activate the constructive imagination and hold, in thought and feeling, the intention and energy for healing and co-creation.”
More recently, author and business expert, Seth Godin, had this to say on the matter of how to step into positive leadership of our own lives:
“Expertise is about learning new ways to notice”. Imagine your best life! “Science of Mind shows us how to stop boring Life, by waking up to the fact that we are here in Life-school to learn the principles of world-making, and for the evolving of self and society.” ~ Ernest Holmes
What are we here to do? … GROW! We are here to learn something new - to stretch ourselves in any way we can. Perhaps we might stretch through developing a new skill, beginning a new hobby, or opening our minds to new ways of thinking. Notice how you react to life… whether you are ‘mad’ or you are calm… what is the thought underneath the thought that got you there? Everything we experience has a lesson for us.
Learning is our natural state of being. By consciously growing in understanding, we open to new ways of seeing the world. This, in turn, offers us new ways to live, to be prosperous and to be happy. It unlocks creative ways to solve problems and create solutions.
To quote Dr Seuss (from his classic book by the same name), once you surrender into ‘learner’s mind’; opening up the world for yourself, “Oh, the places you’ll go!”
Seth Godin ended his most recent blog post by writing,
“There’s always something just below the surface… the elements that most people simply don’t notice. But we can, if we choose.”
Let’s choose to remember that there is always something more to learn and experience than that which we think we know already. There is an infinite life waiting for us to accept our place within it. Each day, I invite you to take a step forward into new territory (in any way that draws you from your soul). After time and some practice, to quote Dr. Seuss again, “KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
TRANSFORM Your Experience…. PRACTICE
~ Think of a big vision - a big hairy audacious idea.
~ Write about it in full detail.
~ Notice: What are limitations might you be putting on your idea?
~ Use your imagination to think past these limitations. (Then what?)
~ What does your vision look like now, without the restrictions? Write that.
~ Read: Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr Suess
~ Read: Seth Godin’s latest blog…
The things you can’t see blog by Seth Godin
Do you remember all the elements you didn’t used to notice?
It might be the way you see typography now, or the tuning of an orchestra. Or the alignment in the mouldings of a house you’re inspecting or the way an engine sounds… (or whether you put a ‘u’ in moulding)
Expertise is about learning new ways to notice.
Often, once we learn to see, we assume we’ve always known. And that allows us to believe that the things we can’t see, we’ll never be able to see.
But it doesn’t work that way unless we get complacent.
There’s always something just below the surface, the elements that most people simply don’t notice. But we can if we choose.
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