When something happens in your life, regardless of what this event
is, it has no meaning. It is neutral, without any meaning whatsoever.
Consider this phrase, “Your life is empty and meaningless!”
Upon hearing this phrase, you may become upset or defensive. But
this phrase has no meaning. It is up to you and your language to give it meaning.
This is exactly my point: We are “meaning making machines.”
For centuries, we have needed to be able to see an event and to interpret
danger or safety, immediately! This is still a necessity! And so we are meaning-making
machines. Something happens, and our brain searches through all of the past networks
that we have, looking to match patterns so we can make an instant decision of
safe or dangerous.
Our meaning is constantly a comparison of our past experiences projected
to the future. Something happens, and we immediately tell ourselves a story about
what it means. Then we store it in the past. When we want to create our future,
we don’t step into an empty future; rather, we step into a future that is
filled with our interpretations about what has happened in the past.
For example, a salesperson in real estate learns how to make a presentation
to someone who is going to sell his or her own home. The realtor has it down word
for word! Next he picks up the phone and calls a “for sale by owner ad.”
The home owner is rude and aggressive, and tells him that he is the fifth realtor
to call them. They insist that they are selling their own home and hang up!
This person now has a negative impression to put into their past
regarding prospecting to for sale by owners. The next time he wants to pick up
the phone and create a future for himself through prospecting, he will not step
into a blank future, he will step into the previous negative past experience!
Put enough of these together, and it will be difficult to get him to prospect.
The reality of it is that the rejection had no meaning until you
gave it one. The fact was that the homeowner said NO! You made it mean
something about you! You could have made it mean that you are bothering them,
that you are imposing, that you are a bad sales person. You might have made it
mean that this is tough, that it will never work, that you’ll never be successful
in sales, that you are a failure and a disappointment!
You made up a story about what happened and now you are living your
interpretation of what it means. You live this as if it is the truth! All of your
thoughts, feelings and actions are based on this lie that you made up.
This is an example of inauthentic living. You believe that your story
is the truth and react accordingly. Your story is an illusion. Your story is simply
what you made up about what happened in your striving to give meaning to all things.
The challenge is to take the negative past out of the future. Your
goal is to have your future be empty of the negative past and meaningless—with
no inherent meaning until you say so.
When you achieve this level of reaction to events, you will be enlightened.
You will now have the freedom to choose fascination over frustration, good over
evil, calm over upset. When you step into the freedom to interpret, you can then
select to create whatever reality you want. You can choose your response.
Think about this and try it on. Identify the “stories”
you have been telling yourself. Do your interpretations serve you? Notice what
you say about what has happened and exercise the freedom to choose a different
interpretation. PE
