Spiritual or Worldly?
I offer two types of input: Spiritual and Worldly.
I use the word “input” rather than advice because most people are conditioned to ignore advice. A computer gets input. If it registers, it’s accepted; if it doesn’t, it’s rejected.
The spiritual input falls into the category of getting to know yourself better. That means that you subtract layers of conditioning and discover that you are deeper than those layers.
My worldly input isn’t as deep, but it is useful.
The other day I was on the phone with our seminar coordinator, Hali and we were talking about some 18 year old twins whose mother gave them each a $100 allowance. I inquired why they didn’t have at least a part-time job at that age. She didn’t know. I then offered some worldly “advice”: “She’s conditioning them for a world that doesn’t exist.”
I am not opposed to giving 18 year olds a helping hand; lord knows, others helped me long after that age came and went. But this isn’t about 18 year olds or monetary assistance; it’s about setting ourselves and others up to fail.
What a rude awakening it is to find out that what you thought was the way it worked and the actual way is quite different. Take the graduate of law school. They just spent four years studying one subject: The law. Let’s even pretend they graduated at the top of their class. That means they know a lot about the law. Then they go out and practice it and find out the worldly law is worlds apart from their knowledge base.
On-the-job training accounts for much more than we’ll ever learn in a formal setting. Hands-on training results in our book reviews more closely reflecting the worldly view.
This takes me back to the spiritual. We have to get out of our heads to get more worldly, and, at the same time, deeper.
To become more worldly we have to take life as it comes more often. Our response to what life brings is going to determine the quality of our life, not our storybook game plan that’s subject to all sorts of worldly disappointments.
I believe in planning and have learned that it’s useful to be worldly enough to adopt Plan B or C or D when someone runs your detailed manifesto through the shredder.
Oftentimes, Plan B or C or D is much deeper than your original idea. You would have never gotten there unless you were flexible enough to become more worldly.
You set yourself up for failure when your plans are always in hard cement. The pleasant irony is that you become more spiritual when you become more worldly.
All the best,
John
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