The four-minute mile. It was a statistical impossibility, unthinkable that a man turn his own legs over fast enough to run a mile in four minutes. Until Roger Bannister started to run. During an attempt on British record, Bannister ran a 4:03. It was then he “realized that the four-minute mile was not out of reach.” (Wikipedia) A year later, one windy day, Bannister ran a mile in a history 3:59.4. It only took 46 days for rival John Landy to break the new record.
The first skyscraper. Before the building was built that dared to touch the sky, people didn’t trust elevator systems. Until William LeBaron Jenney proposed the use of steel beams in the skeleton of a building, rather than bricks. The result was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, in 1885, ten stories high and 138 feet tall. In 2010, the Burj Khalifa towers over Dubai, 2717 feet and 160 floors.
A young woman cries and struggles over the thought of divorcing her husband of two years. No one will understand. People will judge her. She divorces. Happily she marries a second time. Inevitably she and her second husband fight. She is no longer afraid to go to the courthouse and file for divorce. She seriously considers it during each argument.
A man is waiting to interview for another position at an insurance company. He never thought his resume would look like this. He spent twenty years with the military before retiring and commencing his career in the private sector. He went into his first position imagining he would retire there. He did not retain that job. He found another, and then another. Now, he can’t imagine working anywhere for longer than 18 months.
Remember, vision is the ability to see your world, a strange and mystical combination of your heart’s eye and the world outside of you. Outside is what has already happened. It’s the record that hasn’t been broken. It’s the relationships you have already had or what you can see of others’ relationships. But the inside, where the core of the first Inspired Mind Guideline is based on your inner eye. Your intuition. Your sixth sense. The hairs standing up on the back of your neck.
Most important, my friend, is for you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. You have been skillfully and collectively taught in absolutes, about the important difference between black and white. I don’t need to tell you which color to prefer. There is a “right” way to do everything. The proper place to write your name on your paper. Certainly not at the bottom! The right volume of your voice. Not too loud! The appropriate method of maintaining relationships. No hitting and no yelling!
These so called truths become the standard. You and I, we absorb them in the interest of survival and then travel into adulthood with this baggage. The voice of our surrounding drown out the bellows of our heart until the heart simply gives up, reduced to a mere whisper.
Packed in our luggage is an understanding that “things” are a certain way. Nothing new is under the sun. Even though it would be nice to do something brilliant, there just isn’t time, when responsibilities stand in the way. This is what we call reality. But the true reality is that it is all perceptions. I am not debating the existence of right and wrong. I am talking about the infinite possibilities for every situation.
How many of those possibilities you can actually see. How many of those possibilities you think are a good idea. How many of those possibilities scare you. How many of those possibilities excited you.
It’s all in your head.
Think about it today, as you meander through your minutes, so sure of what you know. Take a second and consult yourself. What does your heart tell you? Are you meant to break the record? Can you see steel beams among the bricks? Believe in your perspective! Pursue the possibilties laid out for you. Do you want love? Consider someone who isn't "good on paper." How about a different career? Investigate others' jobs, check out schools, peruse the blogs. Want to move? Go there and imagine yourself in that place. Figure out how much it would cost to move.
Just don't be afraid to check it out. It's all in your head.
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