How many opportunities have I passed up because I did not allow my self to act upon clear instincts and give attention to what was being presented to me, especially when it felt like a good choice.
It is my belief that instincts come to us in the form of feeling. They are not empirical, they offer no proof. How could they, because instincts deliver possibility.
I believe our instincts are limitless.
Once we actually know something, by proving it through testing, or example or repetition, it becomes knowledge.
It is my belief that knowledge is limited.
Now, I am a fan of knowledge, and it is a prime focus for me to obtain worthwhile knowledge on a daily basis.
Case in point.
I have just finished the first draft of my next book, which is nonfiction and yet closely related to my novel, "Anything Is Possible." The title of my new book is: "What You Want Wants You" and it explores this immeasurable instinctual knowledge base that is available to all of us.
Through the exercise of writing "Anything Is Possible" Many tenets that I had absorbed from the sage wisdom of my father bubbled up in cogent form. These principles became the basis of "What You Want Wants You".
This book takes a keen look at and closely deals with a precious phenomenon that every human being possesses. And what is amazing to me is that only we human beings possess it at this high level.
It is called: Free Will.
It was during the writing of AIP that I discovered for myself that Free Will is a great determiner in the success that I have experienced as a human being.
To my mind it is truly the greatest gift of mankind.
Why?
We humans have a choice.
A cognizant choice.
A conscious choice.
We can say yes or no.
I used to think that animals such as lions had a choice, because they would go for the most desirable portion of a kill for themselves. Later on in my development, it became clear to me that a choice of this type was not conscious. It was a reactionary choice, built into them through eons of development at the molecular level.
So we humans possess this thing called 'Conscious' choice.
Yay! I think...
Because I find that our subconscious, this wonderland of the unknown that hints and suggests to us on a consistent basis, is easily dominated by our conscious minds.
Our conscious mind knows.
Our unconscious mind suggests.
It is my belief that what our conscious mind knows is only what we have decided, by our own Free Will, to accept as knowledge.
I believe that history will bear me out this. Throughout time immemorial, virtually any level of belief that we once held as truth, was accepted as such because the facts that supported that belief were what we knew and understood consciously at that time.
Yeah, I know, I'm in the deep end of the philosophical pool here.
Don't blame me! I'm simply following my instincts:)
So, I'd like to dwell for a moment on the opportunity side of possibility that is governed by our Free Will. I began this newsletter by admonishing my self for opportunities passed upon because I consciously ignored my instincts.
Here is an unfortunate tale that supports that statement.
In the mid 90's I had provided creative services to a start up company that was eventually sold to Microsoft. I had invested in the company shortly before it was sold to Microsoft and ended up riding that incredible money pony that saw my investment multiply by a factor of twenty. It kept on multiplying right into the crash that hit on April 4, 2000, when the Judicial Department declared Microsoft a monopoly.
The stock price was cut in half.
So here are the facts.
I was very busy producing a large show around the time of the crash. Two days before the stock took a huge fall, as I was going over my production schedule I was interrupted by an intruder.
It was my instinct.
And it told me to sell all of my Microsoft stock.
Cash out.
The date was April 2, 2000.
Did I follow this instinct?
This was my bad.
First of all, my Microsoft stock was much too high a percentage of my portfolio. Yet, even my high powered financial friends, one of whom owned his own nationally admired brokerage, suggested that the imbalance in my portfolio was okay because Microsoft was so strong by every measure. If I sold it, what was I going to buy that would even come close to the performance of my Microsoft stock?
So, when my instinct advised me to sell, I did not allow it. I fell back on my conscious knowledge backed by some pretty amazing brain trusts that belied my instinct. Within a day, my net worth was cut in half.
Now, this may be my most extreme example in regard to the consequences of not following that 'voice' inside of us that falls prey to our conscious mind. I can also site dozens of instances in which I followed my instincts and was richly rewarded.
A prime example is when I invested in that start up company in the first place. All my pundits, including my wife, thought I was crazy.
I believed in that instinct and acted upon it.
So, what have I learned from all of this?
Call me crazy, but I now listen with great admiration as well as a keen ear to the messages being delivered by my instincts. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I believe that they are messengers of the universe that are truly attempting to reach our consciousness if we grant them permission.
Free Will.
When I allow my instincts to deliver their message and when I act upon those messages, good things happen. It is when I have not allowed my instinctual wisdom to pass by the gatekeeper of my conscious mind that I have suffered most.
I know you have had similar experiences too.
I want to hear your thoughts on this.
