Changing Your Beliefs Changes Your World

Believing is seeing. This is our spirit, soul and heart’s view of life. The mortal conundrum is: You see your world the way you believe it is. What you expect mysteriously turns out to be what happens. It’s all about where you place your attention. 

If you believe in lack and limitation, everywhere you turn limitations bar your way. It is hard to get what you need, much less what you want. You can have a whole lifetime, even endless lifetimes of lack. As long as you expect to get less than you need, you get less. If you believe in injustice, everywhere you look you will see injustice.

A great metaphor for life is “the holodeck” on the old television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the holodeck, a crewmember can create a personal fantasy program. He or she sets up the exact situation they want to experience. Then they get to experience that program as “reality.”

The program they set up might be mountain climbing, equestrian riding, combat against multiple foes, or whatever the crewmember could imagine. The holodeck is a great metaphor for your life. If you do not like what appears to be coming at you, change the programming. Change what you believe.

We all grew up believing that we have no control over what is happening outside ourselves. That what we think doesn’t really change what is happening beyond our immediate family or group of friends. That we are powerless to change the world. That God, or whatever we call God was up there, was outside of us. That we were just the created, having to put up with whatever was happening around us. It is true that we are the created, but that is the smallest part of who we are. We are also creators.

The big idea is: What we spend our days and nights focusing our attention on transforms into the world we create for ourselves. Just the fact that we focus our attention on it manifests it in our world. We may have difficulty with this law, but it is the law.

The universe is a lot like a clerk at Burger King. If you drove up to the window and said, “I want a hamburger with no lettuce, no tomatoes, no sauce, and no bun,” there would probably be a short pause. Then the clerk might say, “OK, you mean you just want a slab of hamburger meat?” If you say yes, they will probably say, “That will be four dollars and ninety-nine cents,” or whatever a hamburger costs.

The clerk wouldn’t say, “Are you nuts?” They would just deliver it to you as you requested. In that same unquestioning way, the universe delivers what you expect.

The universe can also be compared to a genie in The Arabian Nights. No matter what you focus on, the genie assumes that is what you want and says, “Your wish is my command.” The genie delivers whatever you are focusing your attention on. Your inner Genie focuses on the image your mind creates and ignores the polarity of wanting it or not wanting it. 

We must train ourselves to focus on our heart’s desires, and quit focusing on all the things we don’t like. It’s actually pretty simple when you figure it out.

So, my wish for you is that the difficulties in your life to be mainly in the planning and execution of your elaborate plans and dreams: once you have overcome all the difficulties, you get to experience such magnificent feelings of accomplishment.

If you immerse yourself in hobbies, sports or professions that have steep learning curves, you will never get bored. Pursue goals and dreams that makes your heart feel alive. Then you are “following your bliss.” Our school systems train us to think we are replaceable cogs in the mechanisms of society. Step out of that dreary picture and think like a Renaissance woman or man. 

The big idea is: You can create your world exactly the way you want it. It may take your whole life to accomplish it, but you are going to live that long anyway. Do not hold back from stepping into your dreams or ideals because of the difficulties. Life is long. You may as well have something to show for it in the end. There is such pleasure in achieving mastery of something you love, something most would shy away from because of the difficulties involved—then achieving it.

Your greatest joys come from having something to do that you can throw all your passion into. Imagine the great joy of having accomplished your splendid plans and dreams against all adversities. That is fulfillment.