Conscious Creation, Law of Attraction, Manifesting, Magic…the act of deliberately creating our experience goes by many names, and of course there are a bazillion different methods, thoughts, ideas, and teachings floating around to choose from.  Today I want to share my ideas for laying a proper foundation for the Conscious Creation process.

We begin with the concept of Radical Responsibility. This is the somewhat fantastical and incredibly powerful idea that we are completely responsible for every single thing we experience. This isn’t to say that we are to “blame” for sucky things that come our way. If it rains on our parade we are not to blame. Rain happens. However, when we choose “Radical Responsibility” we choose the viewpoint that we are responsible for our own experience of rainy parade days and every other thing we experience, no matter how wonderful or how awful.

On the day our parade gets rained on we can choose to experience it as a frustrating day, a disappointing day, a failure. We can find someone to blame – the weatherman perhaps. Or we can choose to let go of blame (even self-blame, maybe especially self-blame) and choose a better perspective from the myriad of options always available.

This level of responsibility is foremost to our ability to consciously create the life we desire. And it is deeply intertwined with our motive, and hence, our motivation.

For years I worked in sales, and one of the things that I remember hearing often was the idea of one’s “Why”. “You can accomplish any goal you set if your ‘Why’ is big enough”, my sales trainers would say. Your “Why” was your reason, your driver, that thing that kept you going towards your goal.

I was taught that it pretty much didn’t matter what my “why” was if it was BIG enough. Small “whys” were not very powerful, but if your “why” was BIG enough, well you could do just about anything.

Some of the very successful salespeople I knew had really big dreams. These dreams were their “why” – they wanted to serve the planet in a big way, they wanted to give back to their communities and families, they wanted to travel the world, they wanted to contribute, they wanted to enjoy the luxuries that wealth can afford, they wanted to send their children to better schools.

Others had “whys” that were not things they saw in their future (the nicer home, the opportunity to travel, better schools for their children, etc.) but their “whys” were connected to things they desired to leave behind – experiences they didn’t want to have anymore – they didn’t want to be poor, they didn’t want to be in a job they hated, they didn’t want to work three jobs to make the rent.

These two viewpoints make the difference between motivation and inspiration. Generally we are motivated by things we don’t want and inspired by things we do want.

I totally get the motivation part – the part of us that says “Screw this, I’m tired of being fat, unhealthy, alone, poor, lonely, bored, in a job I hate, etc. We get tired of being in uncomfortable situations, and when the time comes that we’ve “suffered enough”, we then have the motivation we need to get us moving towards something better.

And once we choose a new direction and begin to focus on the “something better” we are choosing to live in Radical Responsibility Land.

Here’s the twist though, when we choose Radical Responsibility we MUST begin looking ahead at what we want. This is choosing Inspiration over Motivation.  Motivation has it’s place, but as conscious creators we must focus on what it is we want as opposed to what it is we are trying to get away from.  If we are running from something we are still dwelling in Victimland and have not yet crossed over into fully inhabiting Radical Responsibility.

I remember reading Pam Grout’s book E-Cubed and a quote JUMPED out at me. She was writing about this very idea of setting your sights on what you want, as opposed to what you don’t want. She said, “To be in the kingdom, as A Course in Miracles puts it, is to merely focus your full attention on it. YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO PERCEIVE NOTHING ELSE.” (Emphasis mine)

That shook me to my core. “You have to be willing to perceive nothing else.”

This is without a doubt the most radical implementation of Radical Responsibility I can think of presently.

What this also means is that IF we want to have the success we dream of, it is imperative that we look ahead to that success and STOP looking back at what it is we don’t want. This can be difficult when we are currently living in the very circumstances we don’t want.

This is the difference between playing to WIN, and playing NOT TO LOSE. We choose to be willing to perceive nothing else.

And this is the first step in creating the life you desire.

Choose to take Radical Responsibility for your experience, ALL of your experience. And then, focus on what it is you want and choose to be willing to perceive nothing else.

This takes practice. Staying curious helps. You can start with getting quiet for a few moments each day and spend that time really feeling what it is like to have the life you dream of…”perceiving nothing else” for those few moments.

Next time we’ll continue on to Step 2, but for now just the conscious decision to take responsibility for everything in your experience is where I suggest you focus. Stay curious. Look ahead to the dream that inspires you. Play to win.

See you in the winner’s circle!

Love & Magic,