Influencing Life's Direction

8 points

5 years ago

I heard the greatest little self-help trick the other day. You've probably been doing this for years or it comes naturally to you. The idea is to think of taming a wild horse and how at first the horse doesn't trust you and it might not go in the direction you want to go. But you go along for the ride, petting the horse, letting it decide where to go and being happy with any direction. With tons of patience you keep at this for a long time until finally the horse has bonded with you. He trusts you, and you can for the first time, carefully, gently, suggest he turn left or right. If you pull left or right too violently or suddenly, you'll spook the horse, lose his trust, and be back to having no control. So you have to make very gentle left or right suggestions. Over time you get better and better at it and at some point you really can say you've "tamed" it and getting the horse to take you to your correct destination is no problem at all.

The horse is a metaphor for life and becoming a master at getting your life to go the direction you want is the same process. But the way you slowly bond with life is to let life take you any direction it wants at first. The way you express you are okay with this is to be grateful for anything life throws at you. The way you "spook the horse" and have to start all over again is to try and pick the direction too soon. You have to bank tons and tons of gratitude for all sorts of little things before life will let you take the reins and suggest a new course.

The challenge is to 180 your thinking when you are unhappy with any situation and look for the good. Sometimes you have to resort to stuff like "well, I'm grateful there was hot water in the shower today." or other stuff we often take for granted. But over and over you don't let yourself get down or depressed, you keep looking for ways to say "thanks life! I'm super grateful for today's direction!" And just like with the horse you have to be patient, only once you have enough gratitude banked do you dare suggest life go the way YOU want.

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X64vpuY-Npg