THE PHILOSOPHERS EXCHANGE

A. I am attempting to control that which can not be controlled. B.Why waste your energy in that direction? A. I can’t help it, it’s a habit that has me by the throat. A habit both learned and genetic. A habit that not only controls my thoughts and emotions but also my actions. My experience of course then follows these things. Why can’t things just flow easily all of the time? B. If you did not experience stagnation, how would you know flow? A. So are you saying it is good to experience stagnation? B. No, I am saying it is good to live in flow, but in order to do that you may have to live in stagnation. Then you will have the desire and motivation to not only live in flow but also to stay in flow and each time you find yourself once again in stagnation your desire for living in flow will increase. When this happens your periods of stagnation will lessen both in frequency and in duration. A. So you are saying that it is good to live in stagnation. B. Ahhh…. Seems that if I am not careful here, this conversation may start to stagnate. A. Ha! Ha! Ha! B. You are right, of course. I suppose I contradicted myself. A. Don’t feel bad, that’s our way, us humans. We say something, do another, feel one way, think another, act a certain way then observe another act exactly the same only to get angry at them. B. Yes, we humans are very mysterious creatures. A. Right, but that’s not all. We also trick our self in other ways. We actually convince ourselves that we can’t be, do, or have something that in reality we can. B. True unless you are the exception. A. There is always the exception my friend, there is always the exception. And the exception has no more inherent talent than the rest of us. The only difference is in their perspective. They still have all those doubts that the rest of us have. But they do something we don’t. B. What’s that. A. They doubt their doubt. They question themselves when they ketch themselves in the can’t mode. And then they make a conscious effort. To shift out of the can’t mode into the can mode. Then they seal their new agreement. And the way they seal it is with action. B. What kind of action? A. An action in the direction of the “I can”. B. I see. So the “I can’t” becomes the “I might” becomes the “I will” becomes the “I can” becomes the “I am.” A. Yes, exactly, the evolution of the “I can’t” through doubt, fear and insecurities until one day inevitably arriving in the realm of the “I have done.” Each time this is accomplished our potential is altered. B. Hmmm. I can see how the one who chooses this path would inevitably be transformed. As what they thought they couldn’t do becomes one day doable and they realize they have been fooling themselves into a false belief.