I’m a pragmatic person. When I want something to happen, I think about what I should DO. Seems logical, right? Cause begets effect. Stuff happens ‘cuz other stuff happened before it. Do something, make something happen. Duh.
But… even though I believe that the way I choose to BE affects the stuff I can make happen, I’ve always struggled a bit with the idea that BEING matters as much or more than doing.
Recently I had a major insight about this do-loop relationship between BEING and DOING and I wanted to share it.
BEING good at what you do opens doors”
The way I AM makes the options for my ACTION appear differently to me, naturally and authentically. DOING the right thing can become effortless.
When I’m angry, the most “logical” options that appear before me include things like yelling, acting spitefully, slipping that little dig in with all the nice things I feel I have to say. I drive people away.
When I’m emotionally detriggered, other options carry more weight in my heart, including patience, forgiveness and simply letting it go. I help more people and receive more gratitude from them.
When I’m courageous, I am more likely to want to do the difficult things that are the right thing to do, whether it’s picking up the phone to stop a negative spiral email chain or putting out a more aggressive business proposal that carries the promise of both risk and reward. I earn more respect from my colleagues and customers.
When I’m curious, I naturally listen better, ask better questions and find solutions to problems that other people don’t see. I’m invited into more conversations and treated as a trusted advisor.
When I’m focused on excellence, I catch more typos (maybe not all!), spend the extra time making sure my customers feel satisfied and find it easier to shut down work when I feel my abilities deteriorate so I can rest. My customers appreciate the effort and recommend me more.
When I choose to be trusting, I see ways people and the universe help me achieve my goals that paranoia refuses to reveal to me. Gratitude flows without my thinking about it
and I express it easily and authentically to others. I gain the trust of others effortlessly.
When I believe in others, they believe in themselves more easily.
When I own my reality, I find patience, resilience, endurance, faith, perseverance and humor that I didn’t know I had. I set my boundaries with compassion and without guilt. Others gravitate towards helping me and I have greater capacity to help them.
Embracing this being and doing relationship has allowed me to experiment more with them both. I am beginning to choose my BEING state in order to see which DOING options appear and it’s fun. Give it a try yourself. Let me know what happens.
