I am indebted to Anna Taglieri who inspired this conversation.
I know how things are going to
turn out.
Really I do. Honest! No, I'm not a seer. Nor am I psychic. I have no
special extra-sensory
powers
of perception. I'm just like you. I have exactly the same
Grade-Acommon
or
garden
variety of ordinary abilities as the ones you and everyone else has. I
look. And when I look, I notice things always
turn out
the way they
turn out.
Exactly this way. No other way. They've been
turning out
this way for
millennia.
They'll be
turning out
this way for another few more
millennia
to come. That's how I know how things are going to
turn out:
I look and I see they always
turn out
the way they
turn out.
You can
quote
me on that.
Let's make a distinction here - this one: interimly it seems as if I
have some
vote
in the way things
turn out.
Interimly it seems as if I can intervene. And yet no matter what I
think or
opine
or feel about it, it all still
turns out
the way it
turns out
anyway. No matter what I do about it (ie no matter what I
try to do about it), no matter what my thoughts are, no
matter what my
opinion
is about the way it
turns out,
no matter what I feel about it, and certainly no matter whether I
like the way it
turns out
or not, it just keeps
turning out
the way it
turns out
regardless of my thoughts and my
opinion
about it and my feelings, and it just doesn't care if I
like it or not.
And ... yet ... we all know of people who
have caused wide-spread, high-impact outcomes in life which are
different than (ie which are discontiguous with) what was
going to happen anyway,
mavericks
who have altered the course of destiny,
heroes
who have stood for that which was never going to be possible, and yet
brought it forth as our day-to-day reality anyway,
leaders
who stood for something bigger than themselves and had it happen
in the face ofno possibility it could ever happen.
Wait! If things
turn out
the way they
turn out
anyway regardless of what we think or
opine
or feel about it, how do they do that? If things
turn out
the way they
turn out
anyway regardless, how do these people alter the
inexorable
march of destiny? Indeed, is it possible to alter the way things
turn outat all? And if so (and this is a
bigIF right here), wherein lies the
power
to alter the course of that which is going to
turn out
the way it
turns out
anyway? Here's a
BIG
hint: it's not in what you think, it's not in your
opinions,
it's not in your feelings, and it's certainly not in whether or not you
like it going the way it's going. So wherein is it? What's its
access?
It's in who ... you're ... being (no, it's not in
what you're being: that's already fait
accompli - it's in who you're being). While you
have very little if no choice in the way it
turns out,
you have a lot if not total choice in who you bein the face of
it
turning out.
When we tell the truth about it, we human beings have never had much of
a
vote
in the way it
turns out.
Yet we have near total
power
to be who we're being. And ironically, people who are
powerful
in who they're being
in the face of
what
turns out,
also seem to be the ones who have an almost other-worldly ability to
live well with things
turning out,
whichever way they
turn out,
regardless of whatever
turns out,
and to
make a difference
with whatever
turns out
(and by the way, that's a great idea for the embossed inscription on a
businesscard
for
Werner's work).
What is it then, to exert
power
in who you're being? Or better said: wherein lies the
power
to exert
power
in who you're being? Two words: speaking, and
language.
While you really don't have much
power
over the way it
turns out,
and while you have little
power
(when you tell the truth about it) over your thoughts and over your
feelings, you have nearly total
power
over what comes out of your mouth ie over your speaking, over your
language.
Being responsible for your speaking ie being responsible for your
full on
deployment of
language,
is what it takes to have
power
in who you're being. It's never in what you think. It's not in your
opinions
about anything. It's never in what you feel about anything. It isn't
even whether you like it or if you
vote
for it or against it. It's who you're beingin the face of
it. Really.