How To Take the Ride of Your Life

Ever flown in a plane? Sure you have. Chances are, you've probably flown tons of times, so much so that it's getting kinda boring. Wasn't like that the first time, though, was it? Do you remember the first time you took off in a plane? It was amazing - the roaring of the engines, getting thrust back into your seat, and watching the ground peel away from you, rising up over the trees, then the clouds... cars and buildings looking like ants on the ground. Do you know what it was that made that first flight so exciting? Distance and perspective. Within a minute, you had a completely different perspective on the world, because rather than being on the ground, you suddenly got 10,000 feet above it. But after taking as many flights as you have now, some of the excitement has worn off, I'm sure. Remember the first time you did what you do for a living? Remember what it felt like - the newness, the excitement? Or the first time you kissed someone you were so attracted to, you thought your toes would pop off? But what happens over time? You get used to it. The bazillionth time you treat a patient, massage a back, stick a needle in someone, or walk someone through a crisis... it can lose its magic. Just like those lips that once sent you over the moon, now just flap there, like the gaping mouth of a wide-mouthed bass. Bo-ring. How you get the magic back Imagine climbing not into a seat on a plane, but into a seat on the space shuttle. Whoa! That'd be a different ride, huh? Or a barnstorming plane, where you're ten feet over the ground, going 160 miles an hour? Change your distance, and you radically alter your perspective. But how do you do this in your life? The more time you spend looking at your life from the same distance and perspective, the easier it's going to be to get bored. If you look at your problems, the way you run your business, or where your life is headed the same way all the time... snnzzzzz. And chances are, even if you aren't snoring now, you will be sooner or later - because it's natural to put aspects of your life on auto-pilot. And auto-pilot is boring. So if you want to get out of your rut, you've gotta get off auto-pilot and change your perspective. And the best way to do that is to look at the questions you are asking. Because whether you realize it or not, you got where you are in life by asking questions and looking for answers. Questions like, - what will make me happy? - what do I want to do with my life? - who do I want to spend my time with? - how do I want to express myself in the world? Some of these questions, you asked your self. Some, you asked your heart. And when you got answers that worked, you stuck with them, for better or worse. [I say "better or worse" because the answers from our hearts are usually the ones that sustain us, sometimes indefinitely, and the answers from the self are those that almost always get stale at some point...] What happens when you get on auto-pilot is that you stop asking new questions, and get satisfied with the same old answers. Same answers, same perspective. Take that space shuttle ride - and then barnstorm To breathe life into whatever you are doing, I recommend taking two different rides, each with a specific purpose: The Space Shuttle: to pull back, zoom out, and see the big picture. This is where you ask yourself questions like: - Where am I going? - Do I know why I want to go there? - Do I need this in my life? - Am I headed in a direction that feeds my heart? Without clarity from the Space Shuttle level, you can get caught in "doing" mode, working away without a clue about where all your work is taking you. Then you look up one day and say, "How'd I get here? This isn't where I wanted to go!" The Barnstorm: to peer closely, zoom in, and see the minute details. This is where you ask yourself questions like: - How am I going about this? - Do I know why I'm doing it this way? - Am I present in what I'm doing? - Are my actions having the effect I'm looking for? Without clarity on the Barnstorm level, you could be acting without understanding how things work. Taking the how-to's for granted can have you frittering away unproductively, ineffectively, or at a far cry from the level of performance you could be enjoying if you knew why you were doing what you were doing. What to do on these rides? Ask, and you shall receive Once you get on the Space Shuttle or the Barnstormer, do what you used to do so well - ask those questions! Use the questions I wrote above to get you started, and then let your natural curiosity take over. Take the time to sit in Remembrance (being in your heart, and calling to the Divine Presence, however you relate to it, whatever name you call it), let it expand your heart's inner perspective, and then listen and feel what answers come to you. [And remember, the answers that expand your heart are more likely to "scratch the itch"... answers that sound good, but don't ring that tuning fork of truth in your heart, aren't going to have the same effect in your life.] "Affirmation of life is the spiritual act by which man ceases to live unreflectively and begins to devote himself to his life with reverence in order to raise it to its true value." - Albert Schweitzer