Cat Pillar

The Cost of Success?

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Inquiry into my belief structures has revealed yet another fascinating aspect I want to explore.

 

This idea that we create our own reality and are largely responsible for the life we experience has been one I've been trying to play with, but I have found I have never been able to fully commit myself to a "successful" mindset.

 

Now, I have an idea of why this is occurring.

 

I am afraid that there will be consequences for being successful. Say that I am able to realize my dream of becoming a professional musician...will that create an imbalance/debt that will result in a great loss of some kind? Or perhaps, will my candle burn brighter at the cost of burning shorter?

 

I have this belief that everything comes with a price, and if I dare to be too successful the price will be higher than I want to pay.

 

To further complicate things, I wonder if the very belief that this is so may in turn cause it to be true. For instance, if this belief is present and I become successful, something bad may happen, whereas if I never had the belief in the first place or could somehow eliminate it, it would no longer be an issue.

 

I know I think too much, worry too much...but I'm an extremely cautious person. Well, most of the time. When I act on impulse it usually bites me in the ass.

 

Grah...y'know, it's so frustrating having answers sitting there but being afraid to trust them.

 

If I were not attached to the outcome, it would not be an issue.

 

Damnit, I answered my own question. Why are the answers so frustratingly simple? This same answer could be applied to countless conditions of my existence.

 

So, there it is. The core fear, that I am in danger some how. That I have something to lose if I don't act in the right way. Is it that ol' Christian upbringing rearing its ugly head again? Or is there truly something to gain and something to lose?

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We all just want comfort, a place to be, and a clear path to follow

When we lack comfort we feel on edge and when we're not on edge we take up too much space it seems

So many rich and talented people out there, they almost feel like a competition but they're not

The important thing is to make yourself happy, they're thinking that too and that's why they become successful at things they're good at because doing there things is their happy place

When these things stop being good for one reason or another, things don't get done and what used to be fun becomes work

Overthinking is not necessary, just do what you love and you wont have any problems

When we just do things we love, everything else just finds its place to us

If you draw and draw good, people would like to see more pretty pictures

And good music attracts music lovers

They will want more not because you asked them to but because they asked you to

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Success will only cost as your fears whisper if you compromise yourself to get there - meaning the success is more important than that which roused the heart in the first place. Same as with meditation, if you pay attention to phenomena instead of that which is generating them, you will lose the phenomena. Investing your time into something isn't a guarantee that there will be such "cost" - good questions to raise but how can one really ascribe concrete value to certain things? "when the ego isn't attached to the outcome" then there is better basis for the fundamentals to root, grow, bear fruit. When performing it is the fundamentals that shine through...watch a sporting event or musical performance and you can tell who puts in the time on the fundamentals and who doesn't.

 

You think that you can front when revelation comes? Yeah...you can't front on that :lol:

 

 

Conversely...what do think the cost will be for having the potential and wasting it?

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I can't seem to rub two nickels together - always a great ideas person, but lacked the motivation for 'success'. I've finally come to the conclusion (or maybe just a decision) that I was 'successful' in a prior incarnation and haven't the need for piling up the stuck energy we call money. I've also come to the conclusion that I was terribly impoverished in a prior existence, (I do get flashes of a prior existence when I was a child in a dirt-poor location). This second decision helps me live with the fact that I am comfortable in this existence (I'm living on a pension, but comfortable); rationalizing it this way helps me live with the terrible inequity that exists in this world. so much of it just depends on where you were born.

 

I'm totally unable to promote myself. I am unable to thrust myself ahead of others for the purpose of 'succeeding'. I don't even know what Succeeding is any more. I used to think I knew, but I no longer do....

 

If we let life come at us one day at a time and flow with it, then success will be ours - just not the world's definition of success. Following your heart with your musical talent *should* bring about the result that's perfect for you. In theory. But this is what I cling to because of my own frustrations about success. Mainly I have problem with the guilt of having so much, not having to struggle as so many others do.

 

I seem to have guilt about everything. Guilt about what my ancestors did, guilt about my own actions prior to learning differently. I know this 'hovering guilt' is a very big part of my being unable to push myself ahead of others - which is what we have to do if we're going to Succeed on the world's terms.

 

But I think about the TTC when I get into this. One of the three treasures is that the Sage knows to 'Never be the first' - what this says to me is that perhaps those of us who dance to a different drummer - those of us that question our own existence and look for the Real Stuff in life - just don't have the same instinct to push ourselves ahead. It goes against the grain of the Tao, if you think about it.

 

Maybe we're supposed to just Be what we are and let the river of Life take it where it wants to take us. It sure makes me feel better, anyway....

Edited by manitou
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If I were not attached to the outcome, it would not be an issue.

 

So, there it is. The core fear, that I am in danger some how. That I have something to lose if I don't act in the right way. Is it that ol' Christian upbringing rearing its ugly head again? Or is there truly something to gain and something to lose?

 

Energetically speaking, you have a fear of doing the wrong thing. That fear is being fed by a punishment karma which is coming from your spiritual experiences of punishing others, which has now been corrected to 100% with infinite potential, zero to the power of minus infinity.

 

In a nutshell, the karma was feeding the fear and the fear was weakening your thinking. Attachment to dualistic thinking (e.g. reward and punishment, winning and losing, profit and loss) only limits us and prevents us from realizing our own Infinite Potential.

 

Really, you want to get away from using the conceptual mind to solve your problems and connect to your insight and spontaneity. In Fourth Way terms, this would be your higher intellectual and higher emotional centers.

 

Real answers come from our insight, not from our conceptual minds. I say 'real' because the answer has the necessary energetic information to resolve the issue or problem.

 

Sincerely,

 

-Adam

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Find your own passion, compulsion, love and play. Don't do it for success or because someone told you to. Flow with where life takes you. Let karma, retribution, rewards and even gods can take care of themselves, I don't know if those things are true or useful, but they're not much fun.

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Find your own passion, compulsion, love and play. Don't do it for success or because someone told you to. Flow with where life takes you. Let karma, retribution, rewards and even gods can take care of themselves, I don't know if those things are true or useful, but they're not much fun.

 

the measure of success. see above.

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We all just want comfort, a place to be, and a clear path to follow

When we lack comfort we feel on edge and when we're not on edge we take up too much space it seems

So many rich and talented people out there, they almost feel like a competition but they're not

The important thing is to make yourself happy, they're thinking that too and that's why they become successful at things they're good at because doing there things is their happy place

When these things stop being good for one reason or another, things don't get done and what used to be fun becomes work

Overthinking is not necessary, just do what you love and you wont have any problems

When we just do things we love, everything else just finds its place to us

If you draw and draw good, people would like to see more pretty pictures

And good music attracts music lovers

They will want more not because you asked them to but because they asked you to

 

Find your own passion, compulsion, love and play. Don't do it for success or because someone told you to. Flow with where life takes you. Let karma, retribution, rewards and even gods can take care of themselves, I don't know if those things are true or useful, but they're not much fun.

 

Be and do what I love. That's what I'm trying to do, I'm just having a hard time dealing with my insecurities. Removing the attachment to outcome is much easier said than done.

 

------------------------------------------

 

But I think about the TTC when I get into this. One of the three treasures is that the Sage knows to 'Never be the first' - what this says to me is that perhaps those of us who dance to a different drummer - those of us that question our own existence and look for the Real Stuff in life - just don't have the same instinct to push ourselves ahead. It goes against the grain of the Tao, if you think about it.

 

Maybe we're supposed to just Be what we are and let the river of Life take it where it wants to take us. It sure makes me feel better, anyway....

 

This is one of the things I have difficulty with. Letting go has always been hard for me, especially when it comes to trying to balance that with pursuing my passions.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

No shit!?

 

I know, right!?

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Success will only cost as your fears whisper if you compromise yourself to get there - meaning the success is more important than that which roused the heart in the first place. Same as with meditation, if you pay attention to phenomena instead of that which is generating them, you will lose the phenomena. Investing your time into something isn't a guarantee that there will be such "cost" - good questions to raise but how can one really ascribe concrete value to certain things? "when the ego isn't attached to the outcome" then there is better basis for the fundamentals to root, grow, bear fruit. When performing it is the fundamentals that shine through...watch a sporting event or musical performance and you can tell who puts in the time on the fundamentals and who doesn't.

 

You think that you can front when revelation comes? Yeah...you can't front on that :lol:

 

 

Conversely...what do think the cost will be for having the potential and wasting it?

 

Oh, I'm well aware of how the fundmanetals affect performance. I've played in two bands. :P

 

I don't know that there'd be any cost other than regret for wasting potential...again, if I weren't attached to the outcome, there would be no cost at all to wasting potential.

 

---------------------------------------

 

Energetically speaking, you have a fear of doing the wrong thing. That fear is being fed by a punishment karma which is coming from your spiritual experiences of punishing others, which has now been corrected to 100% with infinite potential, zero to the power of minus infinity.

 

In a nutshell, the karma was feeding the fear and the fear was weakening your thinking. Attachment to dualistic thinking (e.g. reward and punishment, winning and losing, profit and loss) only limits us and prevents us from realizing our own Infinite Potential.

 

Really, you want to get away from using the conceptual mind to solve your problems and connect to your insight and spontaneity. In Fourth Way terms, this would be your higher intellectual and higher emotional centers.

 

Real answers come from our insight, not from our conceptual minds. I say 'real' because the answer has the necessary energetic information to resolve the issue or problem.

 

Sincerely,

 

-Adam

 

The fear of doing the wrong thing isn't just energetic, it's psychological. That was burned into me at a young age with a fundamentalist Christian upbringing.

 

It will be interesting to note if I experience any difference as a result of your energetic changes. I have not noted anything thus far.

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Welp, some people are afraid of spiders, even small ones

Kinda irrational but unlike the "wrong thing", spiders do exist

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Welp, some people are afraid of spiders, even small ones

Kinda irrational but unlike the "wrong thing", spiders do exist

I was very afraid if spiders. Because I trusted that they bite me and that they are very agressive. All emotion is an indicator of your believe.

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Changing believes might cause fears to come up. All you have to do is be willing to allow yourself to feel the fear in the first place. Not be afraid of feeling fear. Then you can ask, "why do i feel this way?"

 

"because I'm afraid that I will starve from the hunger!" so thats it. Now you can begin the process of surrender and clearing. Clarity is very important. Believe in the opposite just for fun.

 

Now say and believe with 100% trust "I will not starve from hunger, there is food for everyone and people will provide me food or Tao will show me the way towards food everytime i feel hungry. I have been granted food all the days of my life and I am worthy of it. Secondly, death does not exist. When my time comes, I will know it and there will be no regret, no suprise, no confusion, only knowingness and being. I am here not to die, but to live. Death is only the end of my focus upon this specific life."

 

You can just make up stuff as you go. Believing is trusting, surrendering. Like falling into love. You fall into the believe, by letting go of yourself, with all your heart and mind.

 

Changing believes might cause fears to come... Oh wait... I already did that part :lol:

Edited by Everything

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