Effort

Effort will never equal effortless and a life lived in constant effort is purely exhausting. Especially when effortless peace and fulfillment, is an option and your birthright. When you have a very solid sense of a separate self, a very strong personal will that separate self is very powerful. You can do a lot with that will, apply some solid technique, a ton of effort and a lot of hard work, and you will see results almost every time. Want to lose 10 lbs? Got a really solid separate self? Then it's just calories in and calories out. That's it, that's the whole story. So count all the calories, plan out every meal, start up a massive program for food and exercise, make it a constant focus, and you'll likely get there. Want to make a million dollars? Got a really solid separate self? Sign up for a really good manifest abundance 101 seminar, and bring a notebook and pen for clear and insightful how-to's.

If you have a sense of the mystery, if you known something deeper is animating this world, then your separate self is a bit soft. Your personal will is not so powerful because it's not fully in charge. To get something moving, you have to honor your "Yes!" But your yes, what I like to call your "delicious yes", is a place that only exists in this moment. Like the most natural, effortless, delicious thing to do right now and it doesn't come from a mental idea, but rather a visceral feeling. This is how you navigate. This is how you get over into the passenger seat, and let the mystery fully take the wheel. That very delicious option, in this moment, is actually where there is no separate self no personal will. Because all the mental ideas, and all the trying, efforting, and hard work, are courtesy of that personal will. And yours is too soft to really get you anywhere. It means you let the mystery drive while you engage and participate and marvel in the passenger seat. You surrender your "shoulds", "have to's", and trying, and lean into the delicious yes, but only in each moment, guiding moment to moment.