As a human being,
you are wired to seek pleasure, and avoid pain.
To seek the wanted, and avoid the unwanted.
Now, as with anything,
there are upsides and downsides to this particular design.
One of those downsides is that it can actually get in the way
of your overall life satisfaction and success.
“Choose Your Consequences Consciously”
Some people become, quite literally, stuck in avoidance mode.
They imagine that there is something they can think, say or do,
(the right thing)
that enables them to avoid all consequences.
But the reality is
that this isn’t actually possible,
because we live in a time space reality
where one of the principal laws that governs this time space reality
is the law of cause-and-effect.
The law of cause and effect is simply that every effect
has a specific and predictable cause.
Every cause or action has a specific and predictable effect.
This means that everything that we currently have in our lives
is an effect that is a result of a specific cause.
If you simplify, this essentially means
that everything as a consequence.
Obviously, any consequence can be judged
as either positive or negative.
But also, if you whittle this down even further,
every negative consequence actually, in and of itself,
has a positive and negative.
And every positive consequence in and of itself,
has a positive and negative.
So that you can understand what I mean,
I'll give you some examples:
If you choose a simple life in the country
with far less pressure,
the consequence could be that you feel less stress and more peace.
But it could also be
that you fall out of touch with what’s happening in society
and will reap less financial reward.
And there are also upsides and downsides
to each one of these consequences.
For example,
let's say that we take the example
of falling out of touch with the rest of society.
The positive element of this could be
that you can hear your own thoughts much more clearly,
that there's less clutter in your mind,
and that you can be much more present with your own personal experience,
because there's so much less of “others”
to clutter your personal experience.
On the other hand,
a negative polarity of this particular item on our list
could be that by falling out of touch with society
you feel all of a sudden like you're the one that's left behind
and everyone else is moving at warp speed,
and suddenly you feel not only isolated,
but like you're the one who's ignorant and out of touch.
#2.
Most people only tell the truth
and are only genuinely honest
when they can reasonably guarantee
that there's not going to be any consequences for doing so.
But this is really out of reality.
I mean, way, way out of reality.
And I know you've experienced this in your personal life,
where somebody is only willing to share the truth with you
if you're not going to provide a consequence.
which is almost like:
“Don't have a reaction to what I'm about to say”.
Like I said, this is not in reality,
because everything you think, say or do has a consequence.
Whether you voice it or not.
There are consequences for not being honest
and not telling the truth.
Just as there are consequences for doing so.
The law of cause and effect applies to personal truth,
whether you voice it or not.
The question is:
Looking at the consequences, which ones will say yes to,
and why or why not?
For example,
let's imagine that you've cheated on your partner.
There are both upsides and downsides to telling or not telling.
Let's say that you decide not to tell them.
You have to live with that potential self hate
eating you alive inside.
Also, that isolation and separation
that is occurring when, essentially, you're having to live a double life.
If you do tell,
chances are that you're gonna be seen as the "bad guy"
by pretty much everyone in your social circle,
and you actually run the risk of losing the relationship.
Conversely, if you don’t tell the truth,
you get to avoid conflict with your partner,
keep the relationship
and not have to feel the intense shame
of them knowing that you betrayed their trust.
If you do tell the truth, you can feel the intense relief
of not keeping a secret.
You can also feel closer to your partner,
because you're actually standing squarely in the same reality.
Albeit, not a very great one.
And you've done right by society standards.
#3.
Any job you choose is gonna come with specific consequences.
For example, let's say that you join the military
and travel is an aspect of your job.
It's not one you can escape.
One person might see that as a positive consequence.
Why? Because they love the idea of seeing the world.
Another person may see that as a negative consequence.
Why? Because maybe they want to start a family
and to be honest, when you're on the road all the time
it's pretty hard to create security within a family.
Another example is:
Let’s say you start your own company.
The positive consequence is
you can set your own schedule and be your own boss
and don’t suffer from a financial glass ceiling anymore.
But, the company will be like a newborn, demanding 24-7 availability.
You will have much more responsibility.
And you will have to take large financial risks.
#4.
Let's look at something even as simple as swimming in the ocean.
There are certain risks involved with this, aren't there?
You can look at riptides,
you can look at stingrays,
you can look at shark bites,
you can look at jellyfish stings,
you can look at sunburns.
You can obviously take steps to mitigate a lot of these risks,
and you can look at statistics
to tell yourself how rare these occurrences actually are.
However, these risks still do exist.
In other words, they are potential unwanted consequences.
There are also potential positive consequences
to swimming in the ocean.
To feel the power of so much water,
as well as the way it takes your worries away.
To be part of a totally different world,
which the underwater world is,
and forget the concerns of your daily human life.
To play in the waves.
To be honest with you, all of these things I've just listed
may just be an experience worth coming to Earth in the first place for.
Ok, so what all this boils down to is really this:
If you really want genuine life satisfaction,
and for sure, if you want any kind of success,
instead of avoiding consequences,
what you have to do is to choose your consequences consciously.
You need to be willing to decide that
(fill in the blank with something you think, say or do)
is worth the consequence or potential consequence.
And when you do this,
you can only be empowered
by facing what those consequences might be,
accepting it and deciding what to do about it.
The reality is that all of these consequences,
which are the inevitable by-product of anything you say, think or do,
they're gonna be yours to live with alone.
So that should be what you think about
any time you're facing consequence.
Knowing this,
would you rather get on top of these consequences,
by consciously choosing them?
Or would you rather unconsciously choose them
and feel like a victim to those consequences
when they occur?
Most of us feel really good about choosing positive consequences.
Where we struggle
is when we have to choose a negative consequence.
But consciously choosing your negative consequences
is one of the most powerful things that you can do in life.
The element of free will inherent in doing so,
makes the experiencing of the unwanted
very different.
Many of the people who are so respected around the globe today,
and even throughout history,
are people who have done this.
They’ve essentially consciously chosen
some consequence they were aware that they were gonna face,
based off of feeling like some positive consequence
was actually worth it.
To understand more about this in depth,
you can watch my video titled:
“Want To Succeed? What Pain Will You Say Yes To?”.
Know that from where you are today,
there is no possible way for you to foresee everything.
What this means is there's no way,
when you're on the path of gaining awareness in general,
that you're going to be able to perceive
all of the potential negative and positive consequences
for anything you think, say or do.
Don't expect this of yourself.
Obviously, with different awarenesses and with different information,
all people make different decisions.
So, you would make a different decision
based off of different awareness or information that you have.
That's expected.
But this should not prevent you from playing the tape forward
with the awareness and information that you have today.
The first thing you need to do is to accept that without exception,
everything you think, say or do has a consequence.
Every cause has an effect.
There is no such thing
as a thought, word or action without a consequence.
Can you swallow that for me today?
Then, from there, in any situation that you might find yourself,
get into the habit of playing things out
and looking down the line
to see what some of the effects will be
of whatever you might think, decide, say or do.
Based off of doing this, which consequence is worth it?
What consequence will you choose and why?
Most people don't actually consciously
take care of the law of cause-and-effect.
They don't spend any time
deliberately trying to consciously get on top of it.
They don't consciously choose their consequences.
In fact, doing so is more of an unconscious process.
An instinctual process of inclination and avoidance.
This means that the idea of consciously choosing consequences
is a totally new concept.
But this, the idea of choosing your consequences consciously,
is a new concept that you have to try on for size.
I mean, I can't tell you what to do, right?
But believe me, try it on for size.
Why? Because this is a new concept
that has the capacity to put you squarely in your personal power.
Have a good week.
If you liked this video,
be sure to share it, like it, and also subscribe to my channel,
so you can see more content like this.
But I wanna personally thank you for taking the initiative
and having the bravery to step into the space of awareness.
Not only for yourself, but for the benefit of those around you.