My ten-year old son is a Star Wars freak.
He likes to watch the movies (yes, he’s seen all seven a total of fifteen times and counting) and the cartoons (seen all of those too including Star Wars Rebels and the re-runs.) He can play the Star Wars theme tune on his Melodica and build a fully functioning lego Death Star in under 24-hour hours, break it down and then create something completely unimagined in George Lucas’s galactic mind before breakfast the next morning.
He’s amazed Harrison Ford can look so old and be so young and have the time to appear in the Indiana Jones’ movies but he recognizes Indy is as cool as Han Solo and he’s learning to understand that it’s really just the same guy with a different hat. Princess Leia however, is more difficult to figure out and anyway, he prefers Chewbacca.
We saw The Force Awakens a couple of moaths or so ago and every morning since then as I’m leaving for work he takes a deep breath, stands dead still and bows his head very gently, “may the force be with you Daddy,” he says solemnly, one hand raised for dramatic effect. I nod back and raise my hand slowly, showing him I also understand and accept his force and can be dramatic too, “may the force be with you too son.” He looks at me with innocence and trust. We smile. “Is the force real Daddy?”
Great question kid!
You see, my son’s teachers at school don’t believe it is real but I do. We call it many different things and recognize it in many different ways; for some it’s called Karma, it’s the Laws of Attraction, it’s The Secret, it’s doing good then doing well, it’s being grateful, it’s loving your neighbor, it’s that overpowering feeling you get all over when you see someone succeed.
It’s all of those things and more; it’s the warmth of the early morning sun on your back as you walk along a deserted beach, it’s the cooling blanket of the rain, the smell of seasons changing and the taste bud pops of pleasure.
My son would also like it if the force did his homework for him and delivered a life-time supply of freshly fired Margareta pizza, but this is where his childlike innocence and naivety need some help and guidance.
Just because he wants something doesn’t mean he can have it.
The force is one of those things you have to believe in to be able to see it work and that belief has to go beyond mere words and nods of wishing something real. It has to be something you ‘be’, something you ‘are’. You have to actually live it and then everything is it. It seems easy for some, difficult for others. “Be-Live” it.
Too many people, particularly in working office environments, are distracted by the mass hypnosis of someone else’s reality and they don’t really believe in this unseen force, this power of the universes, this energy within and how one person can have such a dramatic effect on everything he or she comes into contact with.
Let me re-phrase that; they sometimes say they believe but they don’t. Not really. It’s obviously just lip-service, shallow words parrot style. These people tend to fixate on themselves, their suffering and the problems they have (real and imagined) and this starts a vicious cycle of more suffering and more pain and more problems (real and imagined), which gives them more to complain about and so life struggles on, randomly lurching from one crisis (real and imagined) to another with no end in sight and no light in anyone’s tunnel. It’s poor me time! And you and you and you and you better feel sorry for me! It’s all about me! My god, why aren’t you feeling sorry for me?! What do I do now?
I’m sure we all have stories of our co-workers who fall into this poor me stereotype without them even knowing they’re stuck in a rut. You know the sort: you’re in the middle of a conversation or meeting and you can hear this person arrive before they make an appearance because it’s important everyone’s attention is drawn in to their sad little world. Doors slam, feet stomp, groans of the burdens of existence fill the air. If drama was a queen these guys would rule the world.
Then they physically arrive in a whirlwind of disturbance, complain about something that nobody really understands and definitely don’t care about, and then take control of the conversation. You can literally feel the energy being sucked out of the room.
And then it goes dark. Eyes begin to roll back and any semblance of hope for a positive day flies out of the windows. If you recognize that scenario, rest assured you are not alone!
I know it’s a two-way street and if I’m asking for people to wake-up and change I’ve also got to walk-the-walk. If I’m asking for you to take responsibility for your own actions and to understand you have a choice for each and every thing, then I have to make the same commitment. And I do. At least I consciously try.
There are a lot of people like me.
Our numbers are growing and our collective consciousness gets stronger by the day. We have to be the ones who live by example and lead by our actions. We need to understand that we are all part of The One, The Force if you like.
In Bali they say, Tat Twam Asi, which is one of the pillars of Hindu Dharma, the predominant belief system on the island. It means I am You and You are Me. It is a belief in the energy of all that is and how our thoughts in turn create actions.
It should lead us to commit conscious acts of kindness, to be humble and loving and caring and honest. These aren’t the sorts of words and ideas you would normally hear around the average boardroom or in a monthly ExComm meeting or in business per se, but more and more people are tuning in so you better get used to them.
So if you’re a Poor Me … my advice to you is to make the change! Make it now! Leave your baggage at the door because it’s never too late to stop what you’re doing, look around, take a deep breath and feel the force! Feel the love. It’s there all around you, all the time. Tune in.
Think of ways you can make peoples lives better instead of dragging them down into the disturbing dungeons you’ve created in the darkest doomsday depths of your mind. Leave that life in the past and wake up to your future, as scary as that fear of change is, because the future is bright. It’s everything you can imagine it to be!
Believe.
I take a deep breath, stand dead still and bow my head very gently, “may the force be you!”
Andy writes on a variety of topics related to property, real estate, the customer experience, mindset training and local/international trends for Seven Stones Indonesia. You can read some of his blogs here.
Seven Stones Indonesia is a property company headquartered in Bali, Indonesia, with a mission to help people who are interested in buying and selling residential and commercial real estate.
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