John-Roger, DSS, PAL&G Founder
Have you ever set a goal for yourself only to find yourself falling short of it? Maybe you have come very close but haven’t reached into the success of completion. Use the theater of the mind to envision your success—your accomplishment, completion and achievement. If you create this vision strongly enough it can happen for you. Even when a part of you seems to give up—consciously or otherwise—there is another part that can hold the vision. Then, perhaps when you least expect it, you will “suddenly” have accomplished your goal.
Once you have set a goal or direction for your self, you may experience a fear of failure, a fear of being unable to measure up and reach that goal. You’re in good company. I’m sure that everyone on the planet has experienced this fear. There are no real failures, however. The word failure is only your interpretation of a test you aren’t prepared to handle yet.
Perhaps the reason you aren’t prepared to handle it is that you haven’t imaged-in enough correct information. You haven’t gone over it enough in your mind, placed it in your emotions as confidence, or placed it in your body as a skill that you can produce when the test comes. These so-called failures aren’t recorded against you. You can simply say, “Yes, I failed that course. I guess I had better repeat it.” Or, “I guess I’m not cut out for that. I’ll start in another direction.”
The test does not record your failure; you record your failure. The test records your lack of preparation and reveals to you the work necessary for your success. Understanding this, you may see that your job is to go back, review the material you didn’t understand before and learn it this time. When you can approach life with the attitude that each step is a preparation for the next step, you’ll be in good territory.
How would you like it if, on the ladder to heaven, someone went ahead of you and built each rung perfectly so that you and each succeeding person could go up easily? That would be nice, wouldn’t it? How would you like it, however, if the person in front of you couldn’t even hammer a nail straight and left the rungs crooked and loose? Would you want to follow that person? You would probably prefer to follow the one who does things right, is careful and checks their work. And even when you follow such a person, you must be responsible for your own progression.
While it is wise to follow the best example you can find, it is also wise to check things out for yourself. At each step of the ladder, test to make sure that you are still firmly supported. Watch the step in front of you; make sure it’s solid. When it comes toward you, take it, and keep your eyes on it until it is below you. Then watch the next step as it comes. That way, you won’t be unsure of the step you’re on; you will already have prepared yourself by watchfulness, thoroughness and constant checking. You won’t stumble and fall over your work and the people below will be able to follow you safely.
When the time is right, you will awaken to the Light consciousness within you. One aspect of your awakening will be assuming responsibility for yourself and your actions. Suppose your neighbor recommends a car, you buy it and it turns out to be a car in need of repairs. Whose fault is it? Your neighbor’s? No way. It’s your fault. Why didn’t you check it out? Why didn’t you take it to your mechanic? Why didn’t you go through it more thoroughly?
The only true answer is simply that you didn’t. Don’t blame your neighbor. You don’t even have to blame yourself. Let the experience be your teacher. Learn from it; it’s been a valuable experience. When you get sick and tired of making dumb mistakes you’ll get a little smarter in your approach. I have often said, “When you get sick and tired of being tired and sick, you’ll change.” It’s rare that you’ll change prior to that point, however, unless you have someone who loves you enough to push you out of bed in the morning and get you on your way.
You were put here with something special inside you: the ability to contact Spirit within. With that spiritual energy you can contact universal mind and place success images into it through your own mind. When you have done this long enough, your positive images will weigh upon the universal mind and they will start to precipitate down into reality. To implement these positive images, universal mind chooses people whose minds are open-architects, engineers, scientists and similar individuals who have within them the creative urge to be open to what is new.
Baruch Bashan.
John-Roger, DSS
This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper, June 1987.