Intentions and Patience

I occasionally get emails from TSS readers who have spent 50 years or more thinking the wrong way (not their fault, but nonetheless an issue) such that their quicksand is as thick as Glaswegian porridge. He or she then spends a couple of months following Transformation and expects all the magic to have turned up already.

I know how that feels because being patient is my biggest Achilles heel. I want it yesterday.

When I was growing up the only music we had access to at home was a 1950’s gramophone that was left in a will to my parents. They inherited it with a dozen vinyl (records) of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals. We played them over and over until we were word perfect even by age ten. Oklahoma, South pacific and, Carousel were my parents’ favorites. The opening song from Oklahoma (in the video) is a standard endearing song. I found it uplifting then and I find it so today.

When we didn’t have a TV we put on the record and as a family sang it loud and happily. At the time my mother was dying of cancer and very impatient about the lack of effective treatments, my father was unemployed and frustrated by the lack of opportunity, my siblings and I were being bullied at school and just wanted to be adults so we could fight back. Yet we sang our hearts out, in a way I think it helped us all get a higher energy and for a few minutes forget our impatience.

My reason for including it? Because when I get impatient and frustrated today I sing it out loud when in the shower. It works wonders. It is a tonic to me. I am sure you will have your own pump-me-up favorite songs, but if you don’t have one feel free to adopt this one.

After the bamboo seed is planted, you don’t see anything for approximately five years, other than a tiny shoot. All of its growth happens underground; a complex root system that extends vertically and horizontally in the earth begins to form.

At the end of the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo grows until it is approximately 25 meters tall.

Many things in life, personal and professional, are like the Chinese bamboo. You work, invest time, energy, do everything possible to nurture your growth and, sometimes, you don’t see anything for weeks, months or even years. But if you have the patience to keep working, to keep persisting and nurturing, your fifth year will arrive and with it will come changes that you hadn’t even dreamed of.
Remember that one must be very daring to reach great heights, and at the same time, a lot of depth to stay grounded.

Taken from ALEPH by Paulo Coelho

I got the following email from a reader of TSS in Europe:

Dear Trevor,

First I wanted to Thank you for the book T.S.S. It really is a gift to me. I have been reading it three times and I do follow the steps every day.
I stop watching the news, I stop gossiping , I don’t allow any negative thoughts in my head (which is difficult with 3 children and a baby. :))

I do take my quiet time in the morning. And after this I take my notebook to write some visuals down. The problem is this…Why does something I visualize about become reality the other way around.

Let’s say I visualize about an improvement of my financial situation and immediately it gets worse. Or I write down my gratefulness about my sweet children, and they become Godzilla’s. What is it I do wrong? I make the visual positive, and in the past. I be aware I am not against something, instead of be for.

I really struggle with this for a long time now.

Do you recognize this?

Dear X,

Thanks for the feedback and question. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have lived a certain way with a certain mindset for quite a long time so it takes time, effort… and patience… to figure all this out. The steps are simple, but not at all easy. When one has lived a negative way for a long time it is hard to create a visual without at the same time also visualizing what we are against (or covering up). Hence, if we visualize wealth, it is hard to not also at the same time to visualize the lack of wealth one currently has. This is an improvement on just visualizing lack, but it is not yet optimum. It takes practice and discipline. Think of it like being a massive cargo ship at sea heading in the wrong direction and suddenly the Captain realizes this and starts to turn it around. He calls for all reverse, then hard to port… but for several more miles the ship continues in the same unwanted direction. He feels the resistance, feels the engines straining in reverse, but still the ship glides forward. Then in one magical moment it all changes and the ship starts to turn. The momentum shifts. Same with life. Just stick to the visualizing and one day it all magically changes. The good Captain trusts the ship and his decision making. The bad Captain doubts himself and his crew (your spirit guides) and changes to starboard, half ahead etc. and disaster follows.

Stick with it. Don’t second-guess yourself and I look forward to another message from you soon with the story of “you’ll never believe what happened,” which I get every day and love to hear.

Cheers
Trev

Dear Trevor,

Thank you for your email a couple of months a go. And guess what….. it worked. I was troubling with my company. I was doubting if it was the right thing to do in my life. I was doubting if I was going to make it and if the investments and the risks I took were worth it.

So…. it turned out that I won the best retailer award 2017. So I was worried for nothing.

Thanks to the insights your book gave me.

I am really grateful.

Thank you.

When impatience gets the better of us there are mental games we can play. We imagine success as already here. Doing so feels silly at first, but as we day dream a bit longer, stand in front of a mirror and pump our fists, singing ‘Oh what a beautiful morning’ at the top of our lungs, impatience slips away.

Golfer Rory Mcillroy said in a recent TV interview (2019 at The Player’s Championship) that he had become frustrated and impatient with his lack of title wins. He said he had had a very nice chat with a retired golfer and that golfer (I forget the name) said ‘It is like waiting for Christmas. You know Christmas will come, but you feel agitated and excited waiting for it, but you can’t make it come any faster. Just play as if you know Christmas is coming one day.’ Rory won the championship by one shot and in the last two holes played so relaxed it was if he knew Christmas was coming.

Relax, sing, smile.

Christmas is coming.

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