Where to Now?

Principle Six states:

When you totally focus in the present moment, you can permanantly transform your consciousness to a success state of mind.


This principle is the most subtle of all ten and is yet the most powerful. It begs the question, "How long does it take to change your life?" The answer: "As long as it takes to change your mind." Change, in this sense, is transformation; which is a permanent alteration in one's consciousness. This obviously makes sense when you reflect on the fact that Mind-Set drives Behavior drives Results. That is, your toolbox of skills is no more powerful than the mental energy and focus that drives it.

Examples of being totally in the present, beyond time, are a heart attack,
a car accident (where your whole life flashes before you), being in the zone, change resulting from extreme stress, or simply coming to the realization that your life is empty and meaningless with what you are presently doing. These expeiences tend to disappear the past and the future. You truly experience, "This is the first day of the rest of your life;" and all the coming days are firsts!

A popular book has recently been written about this state of being (notice I didn't say state of mind, because you are quite literally "out of your mind.")titled, "The Power of Now." Such a state has been wiritten about in eloquent detail by J. Krisnamurti in several of his books. Obviously, the present point of focus does not have to come about through crisis. For example, some years ago I decided to give up teaching and research as a university professor at the peak of my career because I asked myself a simple question in an instance of total detachment: "What are you doing here?" The spontaneous answer that erupted from my deep subconscious was "I don't know?" But what I did know was that somethnig has radically changed. I just had to wait for my subconscious to ship it up to me whenever it felt I was ready for the "good" news.

I remember going home and sitting on my back porch, realizing that my life had irrevocably changed. I didn't know where I was headed to next, but I could no longer continue to push molecules around with lasers and pretend this was still my passion. I describe it as sailing out to sea with no map or direction and no sight of land. In other words, all I had was the future and a blank canvass. I also had a feeling of certainty of success. There was absolutely no question of success at wherever my intuition led me next.

The point is this, when you focus totally in the present moment, you create the space for your life to instantly change. The realization that results is a humbing experience of who you really are at the core of your being (not your degrees, awards, accomplishments, earnings, or anything of a material nature.) It is also a humbling realization of the source of your passion. You then discover that everything you have learned and experienced up that point has been preparation for what you will do with your life; success is a given!

So, as I have stated previously, when your skills and abilities are driven by passion for what you are naturally led to do, then you are destined to succeed.