The Blaring Message

I think it was June, sometime in the late 1970s.  I was employed as Human Resource (HR) Manager for an Orthodontic manufacturing company.  This was in Denver, Colorado and it was my first diversion from HR within the banking industry.  The department was small.  It was staffed with a VP of Operations/HR, my position, a benefits/compensation person and two administrative support staff.  The financial health of the company of course, was directly linked to sales and the ability of operations to meet and deliver the demand for our orthodontic products.

Waking up one morning, thinking about the routine of getting up and getting ready for work, I found myself totally engaged in mulling over the words, “for whom the bell tolls.”  Where was this thought coming from?  Why was it in my mind?  I surmised it had something to do with my dreams but I simply had no clue, no conscious connection to it.

Later at work that morning, I started conversations and shared with a few co-workers the message and my puzzlement over it.  It had grabbed my attention and wasn’t letting go.  As the day progressed, I finally had a chance to talk to Ray, my supervisor and to ask him the question which had been on my mind for a few days now. 

I knew things were slow and the company was going to be laying off some people.  Senior management had decided the previous week to soon lay off at least one person from each department.  Part of my job, after the announcement was made, would be to place ads in local papers announcing the layoff and to list specific job skills of some of our departing workers.  I would also be contacting nearby manufacturing companies who employed welders or used other trained factory skills. This would be an effort to try and create out placement opportunities.

Being occupied with making preparations for the layoff, I’d forgotten about the Human Resource Department.  However, burrowing itself at first, quietly and deeply hidden from my daily awareness, the question had begun in the last two days to loudly and repetitiously present itself to my awake mind.

So I asked it aloud this day.  “Ray, who in HR is going to be laid off?”   He replied, “you.”  I said, “You must be kidding.”  No, he responded, I’m not. 

Of course, of course.  I don’t know why it wasn’t obvious from the blaring message.  “Ask not for whom the bell tolls.” It tolls for thee!!

Before sunrise this day, thought, bubbling up from the stream of all knowledge, had already clearly addressed and correctly answered the unspoken question.  "We are divinely connected at all times." jrt

Finances - Of What Am I Convinced?

“And I would encourage you to understand that financial limitations exist because you do not accept that money flows freely to you as your belief allows it to happen.”

Dialogue on Awakening, Tom and Linda Carpenter

Waking up this morning, lying there, thinking about my dream, I realized that the really dominant and persistent thought in my mind right then, was the phrase, “of what am I convinced?”  Often at the end of a dream, I will become aware of a phrase.  It will present itself separate from the dream, seemingly just dangling in my mind, all by itself.  I’ve found if I take the time to explore the phrase, it will actually answer a question or provide insight into something I’ve been pondering for awhile. I noted this one and promised myself I’d think about it after I made sure I remembered the details of the dream.  Incidentally, it was a great dream, filled with joyous anticipation and beautiful colors.   

My first thought in thinking about “of what am I convinced” was to recognize that this was a response to my questioning a few days ago, how the above quote was true in my life.  I had been asking myself, what are the thoughts, maybe subtle ones, that I have about genuinely accepting that money flows freely to me as my belief allows it to happen.  I thought I was pretty familiar with beliefs I hold which could be road blocks to abundance of money.

“Of what am I convinced” was pointing me to consider thoughts of which my feelings are at a deeper level than just the possibility that a belief was true or not.  I recognize now that to be convinced is to know without a doubt.  To know without a doubt, to me, means that “it is.”  I am contrasting this with the idea of what I’ll call a “front-line or superficial belief.”  I think this is usually what we deal with when we talk about beliefs.  These are frequently thoughts that we think or consider could be true.  To think or consider something as true is to leave the door open that the outcome can be another way. 

I see immediately why I need to know and to be aware “of what I am convinced.” “Of what I am convinced,” goes deeper into my feeling experiences than that which I casually believe.  This level is a one-way street and in simple language, it TRUMPS “front-line and superficial beliefs.”    

What are my thoughts on the subject that I know here and now, without a doubt are true?  What are the unexamined thoughts which rise up in my mind, of which I am convinced and continue to repeat to myself, never recognizing their impact on my bank account?   I began to ask myself, listening for play back of messages I have heretofore accepted as truth and facts of reality itself.   

Of What Am I Convinced:

Money is hard to come by

Money doesn’t come to me freely as the air I breathe

You have to work for money

Money doesn’t grow on trees

You have to save your money in order to have money later in life

People have limited amounts of money

And more!!!

Asking for, making lists and identifying thoughts/beliefs, of which we are “convinced,” are real/true, can be powerful tools for discovering why things remain the same in our lives.  Conscious knowledge of what it is that we are convinced will sometimes cause certain conditions to simply fade away as we are no longer mentally and emotionally feeding them.  

It is definitely good to know, “Of what am I convinced?”  I thank my dream partners for bringing this tool to my awareness.

COMPETITION - THE PRICE WE PAY

  

To Compete Means to Oppose

Common Beliefs: 

      Life is based upon competition 

      Competition helps to make a person stronger   

      We are in competition for the abundance of earth’s goodies 

      We must compete for work, for land, homes, money, health, relationships, education. 

      Competition is natural.  It is the law of “survival of the fittest.”

       “Only the strong survive.”

To Be Considered: 

In America, as children, most of us are taught to compete against one another.  The idea of competition, consciously or not consciously so, I believe, often, begins in the home, amongst family members.  The pointing out of actions and abilities, the comparing of differences, giving distinctions and value to them, extends to the same occurring in school, on the job, in relationships, sports and beyond.   

As we grow, we learn to declare our actions, abilities and interests from others as being better than, the same (average) or not as good as and we go on to learn to compete against our self.  We judge and score our actions and abilities against other periods in our lives, concluding we are now better than, as good as or not as before.  We accept that it is natural to look back and to conclude the meaning and value of life activities based upon the number of years, age, $$$ amounts, locations, titles, possessions, events, etc.     

We believe comparing ourselves with others is a natural way to keep improving individually and collectively.  While continuing to seek stimulation of one’s interests and abilities is helpful in providing insight and pleasure for self and others, the measuring of activities within certain set boundaries and the subsequent judging of best, worse, average, etc., often stifles the desire for spontaneous self-discovery and enhancement of interests.  I believe the innate propensity to want to over come boredom, is truly the most natural tool to get movement and creative juices flowing.  

Instead, we look to the model, that in nature, animals compete with one another and the strongest one wins in order to perpetuate the best traits within the species.  We do not know if truly a dominate animal looks upon his/her “being the best, being the winner,” in the same light that humans do.  However, those who study animals and their behaviors often project and equate the meaning of one animal winning a physical struggle in the same light as they would for a human.  It is called “survival of the fittest.” This is just a story, used to “naturalize” human life as a competitive game. 

It translates into human models, somehow continuously measuring and identifying outcomes of human activities as indicative of smartest, strongest, best.  “Best of the species?”   

The early lessons of competition, the concepts of “survival of the fittest” and “only the strong survives,” have taught many to measure and judge ourselves against one another, using numbers to contain possibilities, giving value to the limited, summing up who and what we are with names and numbers. 

As long as we believe this is necessary to “survive,” we will not look for other ways to play in life.  There is I believe, a difference in playing a game of “survival” and living a creatively happy life. With our present beliefs in competition as being a helpful and necessary way of life, we will not discover how stressful this game has become. 

We will not remember that we have made up the game and can make up other games with rules of pleasure and joining, celebrating differences.