Wednesday, July 10, 2013

After Denial

After Denial 

I see denial as a type of blindness, and although it's serious and could persist for the rest of my life that part is optional. There is treatment and even a cure for Denial, if I can take my denials one at a time,

Much of my life I approached problems with the attitude I was taught: Do better! Try harder! And while there may have been times in my life when I held back effort knowingly, for the most part I did the best I could at the time. I think most humans operate that way. If someone isn't telling me what to do, I go at it to succeed. If it would be possible to try harder, I would need to become aware of what it was that was causing me to hold back.

I can remember times when my parents told me to do something I didn't want to do, like was the dishes. Once I realized I had to do a good job or do it over, and that I would be at it until it was finished I figured out how to do the task and get it behind me.

So my problem is not about trying hard or doing better, it's about not doing. I don't do some of the things that are most important to my success. And I don't necessarily mean work or business success. Sometimes it's doing something I know I'd enjoy, or doing something to take care of myself or a million other things.

My friend Denial allows me to say I'm happy, I'm fine, life is good, blah, blah, blah. And I'm not really lying because something is missing. That missing thing is Awareness. And isn't awareness the magic elixir? Certainly once I'm aware of the thing I'm not doing I'll just jump in and do it. Who was it talking about "Git 'er dun" some time not too long ago?

We Americans just love to roll up our sleeves and knock that baby out in no time. And that might work if the job is cutting the grass or something like that. A task that's well defined and limited. The end point is obvious and achievable in a predictable amount of time. But some things require more of me. They want what's inside. So, when I great through my friend Denial with the gift of Awareness, then I meet my other pair of blinders, Resistance.

All the Awareness in the world is helpless against the power of Resistance. Come back tomorrow and we'll talk about making another new friend.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Awarenes in and of itself can make you miserable!

Unknown said...

Awarenes in and of itself can make you miserable!