Tapping Into The Power of Your Past
May 7th, 2020 // 1:34 pm @ Scott Manning
Recently, I was talking with my Grandmaster from Martial Arts (who is like a father to me), and we were discussing the implications and societal dynamics of any crisis. Of course, in particular we focused on this current crisis; whether you consider the coronavirus, the lockdown, the economic shutdown, or perhaps all of the above as the crisis, is up to you.
As we talked about this, my Grandmaster – a man who combines both eastern and western cultures and insights – as he always does, turned it into a teaching moment and a life lesson.
I don’t know a person who better lives with and articulates the Art of War tactics more than Grandmaster Park, yet in his own subtle way. It is always been such a great privilege for me and one of my life’s greatest gifts to have met him.
It’s a remarkable thing to go back through your life and think of every major decision, event, success, failure, person, experience, etc. that you’ve been impacted by and that has led you to where you are (how you think, act, feel), right now.
It’s an exercise that you ought to do at least once a year perhaps far more frequently. I’m not a dweller on the past in any way, shape, or form. However, I am a cherisher and an appreciator of the past and everything that made today possible. And with that, all that will guide and determine the future because of the wisdom gained through experiences that serve as catalyst for your confidence and clarity of the future.
Someday I will write a book dedicated to him with an alternating chapter of one of his life lessons with one of my own. It will certainly be the most powerful thing I have ever written altogether in one place.
This exercise I just gave to you… if it doesn’t pull butterflies up from your belly, stream tears out of your eyes, tug at your heart strings, and bring a smile to your face then you aren’t in tune and in touch with the greatest power that you have. It’s one that no one can take away from you, they can’t restrict you from it, they can’t lock it in your house, they can’t sanitize it, they can’t tame the super powers in you. Only you can suppress or unleash it.
I’m telling you right now: while I always say that your life is lived in the future, if you don’t want to become a complacent underachiever with no ambition and motivation…
Your power comes from your past and gives you confidence for your future. This leads to certainty even when there doesn’t seem to be any because it comes from within not all around.
So, the other thing that goes on your list of things that make you who you are is of course crisis. Some are inflicted upon us, some we have no control over, and others we do to ourselves with mistakes that we all make throughout our life time. Often the greatest crisis we face is our own way of thinking and perception of things that stimulate, among other things, fear or self-doubt.
Which leads me to Grandmaster Park’s message and I’m going to save it for next week but the point he made was this…
In every crisis there are two things:
One: Danger
There is danger in this case of death, health implications, job loss, financial ruin, liberties being limited, inability to trust information. The greater danger though, is that we will succumb to any of the above and become a victim with a feeling of helplessness instead of resourcefulness.
The other aspect of a crisis is of course…
Two: Opportunity
And we’ve touched this on the surface in terms of your opportunity of what you can do to maximize it and to use the ‘shutdown’ to make the most of the cards you’ve been dealt.
However, there is far more substantial opportunity than what has been discussed and laid out. Inside of every crisis there are responsible lessons that can be learned and actions taken so that (like every other life experience you have ever had) this turns into the building blocks of your future in ways that you can’t even possibly predict or know – just yet. As long as you are assessing it, using it, and thinking about it in this way, you will find this to become one of the most opportune times in your entire life.
Just like all of the others that led you to where you are, made you who you are, and have helped make possible the person that you have become.
We’ll pick up here next week.
Remember, what you focus on you get more of. There is a lot of truth to that in those very two words: Danger and Opportunity.
If you want to find your successful way out of a crisis, which one of the two sides that exist do you think you should be focusing on?
Into the Danger, you will struggle and perish;
through Opportunity you will survive and thrive.
Category : Blog