Harder Work Dissolves Problems
If you work harder, a pressing problem(s) that is present will dissolve on its own. In addition, the current work one is engaged in will be enhanced for the better, well beyond its earlier scope and possibility for success.
Make the Full Effort
We normally believe that putting out a certain amount of physical effort will produce a commensurate result. Though, this is of course true, there is also another perspective. It is that if we give in to life and make the necessary full effort -- expending all of our energies -- life will take over and complete the work in no time. For example, when a consultant overcame his hesitation and fully took up a difficult and challenging work, he realized half way through that the remainder had already been completed! There is yet another dimension to making a full, determined effort. Whenever you work hard, more work, more money, and new opportunities are likely to fly your way in the days that follow -- often arriving from the most unexpected sources. Action Plan: As situations arise, consider where you can make a greater effort. Then take up that work in full. Thereafter, notice if life supports your effort with sudden good fortune.
Sabrina's Father's Hard Work
In the film Sabrina Sabrina's father's sacrifice of hard work and purity of not fawning for money, attracts/enables her to accomplish greatly through her relationship with the very good and very wealthy Linus.
Erin's Effort Attracts Vast Result
Erin Brockovich makes one final great physical effort in her case which attracts the missing piece of the puzzle that enables her clients to win a #300 million settlement.
One's Great Efforts/Hard Work are Fulfilled by Life, Attracts Positive Life Response
-By making the full effort and expending all of one's energy, life takes over and fulfills what one could not fulfill on one's own. In other words, life supports your extra effort and takes up where you left off.
-If you work harder, a pressing problem(s) that is already there will dissolve on its own; plus the current work will be enhanced well beyond its earlier scope.
LIFE RESPONSE EXAMPLES
-A salesperson at a computer center was relatively new to the sales force, and in his first few months his sales were modest compared to the veterans who were already there awhile. Each month when sales were tallied he seemed to come up just short of the veterans results (for example, they would get $50000 in sales; he would get $40000). A few times he was asked to come in on weekends to work, which he did. During one period just after the end of year holiday rush he was asked to come in a weekend after he had already worked five days straight during the week. In the past he wouldn't have agreed to such a request for need of rest, and other reasons.
Reluctantly, he accepted the invitation to come in on that weekend. After five minutes in the store a customer walked in and ordered $30000 in sales, nearly equal to a months worth of sales for him in the past. In addition, in the next few weeks even higher than usual sales accumulated for the remainder of that month. At the end of the month most of the veterans sales tallied around $50-60000. Our salesperson, however, accumulated $110000 in sales, the highest total monthly sales in the computer center's history. He ended up making more money in that month than in any month previous in his life. He created immediate prosperity in life by changing an attitude. He also had more energy than before because just because he made the extra effort. In addition, as a result of that effort he became more confident, prosperous, and happy, which in of itself made him feel even more energetic.
-A man who was reluctant to clean a swimming pool made the decision to over come his reluctance, and began to make the mental effort to figure out what compounds would be needed to clean the pool. As a result of this a professional pool cleaner suddenly appears on the scene to take up where he left off.
Hard Work Attracts
Hard work doesn't just attract expected results for extra effort, but also attracts life response results. You see this especially for those who are lazy or less likely to make the extra effort.
Extra Effort Attracts Infinity in the Matter
Going the extra mile -- whether for a customer or someone else -- attracts the Infinite potential hidden within it.
Effort in One Area Attracts in Another
One powerful principle of life is that when we make a full effort in one area, it may fail or modestly succeed, yet produce great results in another.
A perfect example of this recently occurred with US President Obama at the Copenhagen conference. There he tried very hard to get the nations of the world to agree on a global environmental strategy. And yet the results he elicited were modest for all the effort he put in.
And yet something else happened. When he arrived back in Washington, he unexpectedly received word that he had secured the vote of the US senator that would insure that his health care legislation would pass without a filibuster.
As we see, an effort in one area that produces modest results can manifest in another with startling outcomes. It is actually a common dynamic of life that goes unnoticed. And yet if we look around, we can see the correspondence between our inner and outer efforts, and the changes that suddenly spring forward from the most unexpected quarters.
Effort in Challenging Situations Causes Life to Open Up
Each time you make the full effort and push through a difficult or challenging work, life opens up quickly thereafter -- especially when it was accomplished through a positive, cheerful attitude, and an adventurous, open-to-all spirit.
Life Takes Over When You Make the Exhaustive Effort
When you make the full effort to complete a project of considerable value, life responds and brings good fortune in closely related areas. It is as if life took up the exhaustive effort and swept you towards benefit that the project was undertaken for in the first place.
Effort to Attract Money when Funds are Low
If funds, money are low, a 1% increase in work effort will attract much more of it.
Willingness to Work Attracts
If you are currently unemployed, having an overflowing interest in working - not just wanting a job that gives a salary - gets anyone employment. I.e. life will respond on its own, often from seemingly from out of nowhere, to this urge. This rule has no exceptions.
The same is true of those who seek promotions. In spite of the atmosphere of politics, intrigues, and corruption in some offices, he who has acquired the knowledge of the higher post and is a willing worker, will readily get promoted. Those who are denied promotions are those who crave for the higher post with higher remuneration but are averse to work.
Invocation of Spirit readily gets one a job or longed for promotion because it energises his faculties. (MSS, slightly modified)
A Quiet Endurance to Success
A quiet endurance is the sure way to success. (The Mother)
Work Started, Delayed Will Come Back
What cannot be done today will surely be done later on. No effort for progress has ever been made in vain. (The Mother) [E.g.. we have seen that a real effort taken up that cannot be completed due to other circumstances, will come back with a vengeance at another time in the future. -editor]
Persistent Honesty Prevails
In human affairs, resort to righteousness ends up as the delusion of self-righteousness, because he who carries the day is not the righteous one but the person who is stronger in the given circumstance. In that way life is amoral; i.e. it rewards the more organised, not the more honest. However, persistence in this righteous course over a long period of time can prevail, can bring the result. As the I Ching says: "Persistence in the Righteous Course Brings Reward''. In that strength of persistence, honesty will prevail. (Paraphrase of MSS)
Work Attracts More Work, Money
As a consultant, I am dependent on securing clients for my work. My living is thus dependent on having a steady flow of customers. One of the interesting phenomena of life I have observed repeatedly is that as soon as I perform a service for a client, other clients or potential clients suddenly start contacting me requesting more work. Until I perform that original job, all is silent; but as soon as I do that first work, calls start coming in from all directions unsolicited! The principle is that when we do a work it tends to attract more work. I have seen the same phenomenon at work when it comes to money. Before doing a work with a client, money due does not readily come in. However, as soon as I do a work (in this case with the client), receivables suddenly appear in my mailbox that or the next day. Again, the principle is that when we do a work, it attracts money; until then, receivables due are held in suspension.
The Response that Changed My Life
Life Response is the phenomenon that occurs when an individual alters his consciousness on some way, and as a result, sudden good fortune descends on that person. E.g., as a result of overcoming a negative attitude, an ongoing problem suddenly disappears, or a golden opportunity suddenly and most unexpectedly presents itself. It occurs quite often in people's lives, though we are normally unaware of its occurrence. The key however is to invoke it consciously so that we are able to elicit these miraculous-like results on demand. We can evoke life response in this way by first developing an understanding of its subtle workings, and then by applying the right inner and outer behaviors that tend to attract these miraculous-like results. Sometimes the response that comes alters the very course of our lives, as I believe the following incident will attest to.
By December 1974, I had graduated Syracuse University and was living with my parents in New York City. After working as part of a group of four house painters, who also happened to be close friends, I headed west to California by van. When I settled into the San Francisco Bay area, I was free, but as yet unable to sustain myself due to lack of work. The truth is I made little effort to secure that work, since I was enjoying my freedom too much!
Soon thereafter, I met a woman there with whom I got involved. I drove back to New York, and from there flew to Brussels, Belgium where I met up with her. Together we then went on a wild bus excursion across the continent, from Amsterdam to Athens. After enjoying Athens and having a mystical experience at the Acropolis, my friend informed me that she planned to continue on to the Middle East in order to visit Egypt and Israel. However, realizing that I had strayed too far off the path, I informed her that I could go no further. And so in a dramatic scene worthy of a romantic film, we said our tearful goodbyes and separated at the Athens airport. From there I flew on to Geneva, Switzerland and then across the Atlantic to New York.
A year earlier, I had intended to go to the Graduate School of Journalism in Berkeley when I first ventured to California months earlier, but on arrival there, I decided not to attend. Nor, did I take to working in order to support myself, as mentioned before. Therefore, I floundered on my first stay in California. This time, however, as I mulled over my future from my parents home in New York, I was determined that if I returned to California, I would make a serious go of it -- i.e. I would seriously seek out and secure work to sustain myself.
As it turned out, a friend of my family had moved to California years before, and now was a very wealthy businessman in Southern California. From New York, I called this gentleman by phone, and he offered me a job at one of his giant Lumber City retail outlets in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. And so once again, I headed across country, this time by Greyhound bus, and arrived once more in California. (I accumulated a lot of road mileage during these years!)
Before I headed south to Los Angeles, I met up with old friends in San Francisco, and stayed at their home for several months. During that time, I painted the large house we all lived in, and then I used the money I earned to purchase a used car. With a means of transportation, I then drove down to Los Angeles with a friend to work at one of the Lumber City outlets run by the (previously alluded to) wealthy friend of my parents. After several months, I settled in and worked every day -- driving from my Santa Monica beach home to the inland valley suburb where my outdoor retail job was located.
One day I decided to drive to an area not far from downtown LA, and visit the ''East West Center"�, a sort of mini ashram dedicated to a blending of eastern and western spirituality and culture. That day I met a woman there who told me of people living in the nearby San Fernando Valley who were importing gift items from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry India. I had a keen interest in the sage and seer's teachings for several years and was looking to find an outlet to pursue them in the LA area. I hoped that the East-West Center would serve that purpose, which was the reason I visited that place that day. However, I was also looking to blend my spiritual interests with real work experience. I.e. I wanted my work to be an application of -- an extension of -- the spiritual knowledge I had begun to embrace. Thus, when I learned of the potential opportunity of working with the devotees who lived in the Valley, I was eager to meet them.
Shortly thereafter, I set up an appointment and visited their home. It did not take but a few moments to see that there was a powerful connection between us. Realizing our great mutual interest, we quickly arranged that I would begin selling their products by going door to door at appropriate retail outlets in the LA region. It was not only fun and invigorating being outdoors in the warm, golden sunshine during the winter months, but financially and spiritually rewarding as well. Most importantly, I had now established an entirely new direction in my life.
As it turned out, I would continue selling and working with these same individuals in a variety of capacities for the next 30 years. In fact, Growth Online itself began as a collaborative effort that was a direct outgrowth of that relationship.
And so it was on that day so long ago in Los Angeles that I made the connection with the people at Mother's Service Society that changed the course of my life. That relationship not only aided me in my spiritual pursuits, but also provided me with a practical outlet by which I could apply these inner principles. In that way, I had finally melded together two cornerstones of my life -- spirit and work -- creating a new unity of purpose.
However, none of this would have happened if I hadn't made one critical decision. It was when I decided to seriously work. When in New York and later in San Francisco I committed to working at my parents friend's Lumber City outlet in Los Angeles, I set in motion events that changed the course of my life. It created the vast opening that allowed me to come in contact with the Aurobindo followers in the San Fernando Valley. That inner and outer commitment to hard work attracted the fulfillment of my heart's desire. Or to put it another way, overcoming my poor attitude toward work brought me my very life's purpose.
In fact, everything that has happened to me over the next 30 years -- the sales company I built in the San Francisco Bay Area, the computer training and consulting company I founded there (GuruSoftware), the birth and development of Growth Online, the books I have written on Life Response and other subjects -- all emerged from that fateful time in December 1975 when I decided to seriously work, which attracted the individuals who would shape my life.
The Missing Life Response Book
I am having a preliminary version of my book 'The Miraculous Phenomenon of Life Response' published through Lulu Press, an online system. The end user can obtain a copy of the book directly on demand at the Lulu web site. Recently, I uploaded two consecutive upgrades of the book, about five days apart. I also ordered a copy of the finished product that would be generated for each. Normally it takes around three weeks to get the book so that I can ascertain its quality. The first one however arrived surprisingly within a week. I then expected the second one to arrive similarly. However, after 2 or 3 weeks, there was no sign of the second version of the book. Concerned about it had been lost, I contacted Lulu's technical support, but alas, they told me that I should just be patient and it will come in the normally allotted 2-3 week period. However, a week later, I still hadn't received the package, and I was concerned. I had after all a number of plans in the works once the book arrived.
As it turns out, the other day I went into the back area of my home and noticed that the vertical drain was clogged with leaves and mud. Workers had been doing some construction around that area which blocked me from noticing the problem for a number of weeks. However, now that they were finished, I saw the clogging and I was now very concerned because rains were on their way. I was alarmed that if the drain remained stopped up, the water would back up on the roof and then seep through the ceiling of the work area of my home.
At first, I was reluctant to do anything about it, but then I went down to speak to the manager. Unfortunately, she was not going to be in for a while. However, when I went to my mailbox instead, I received a most unexpected check from the State of California for some unclaimed property that was now due to me. I thought that was a nice little response to overcoming my reluctance to deal with the drain.
An hour later, I went down again and this time my manager was there. I told her about my gutter situation, and she said she would put someone on it immediately. As I was about to leave her office, she most surprisingly mentioned that she had a package for me. I thought that was odd since I had not received a notice in my mailbox of the fact. She then pulled out my parcel from the pile, and I instantly knew it was the book I had been waiting for! I also realized that it might have been sitting in that stack with the other packages for weeks. In the end, because I overcame my reluctance to act on the drain and was persistent in trying to contact the manger, I not only received a most unusual and timely check from the State of California, but I found my missing book. As a result, I was now able to resume one of the most important marketing campaigns -- to find a publisher -- of my life.
PS: As a result of finding the book, I was very energized, and that intensity enabled me to nearly instantly attract a perfect list of literary agents, something I had struggled to find since last June. It just fit the pattern of all the other things that had happened in the last several hours. It was to be the final of four consecutive mini responses that were in my mind all inextricably connected.
We normally believe that putting out a certain amount of physical energy will produce a certain finite result. However, there is another perspective. It is that by making the full effort and expending all of one's energy, life takes over and fulfills what one could not fulfill on one's own. In other words, life supports your extra effort and takes up where you left off. This in turn reenergizes you as you are pleased by the unexpected greater result.
For an example of this phenomenon let's revisit a story described earlier that indicates how increased effort brings a new found level of success and prosperity, which in turn leads to happiness and an increase in energy:
A salesperson at a computer center was relatively new to the sales force, and in his first few months his sales were modest compared to the veterans who were already there awhile. Each month when sales were tallied he seemed to come up just short of the veterans results (for example, they would get $50000 in sales; he would get $40000). A few times he was asked to come in on weekends to work, which he did. During one period just after the end of year holiday rush he was asked to come in a weekend after he had already worked five days straight during the week. In the past he wouldn't have agreed to such a request for need of rest, and other reasons.
Reluctantly, he accepted the invitation to come in on that weekend. After five minutes in the store a customer walked in and ordered $30000 in sales, nearly equal to a months worth of sales for him in the past. In addition, in the next few weeks even higher than usual sales accumulated for the remainder of that month. At the end of the month most of the veterans sales tallied around $50-60000. Our salesperson, however, accumulated $110000 in sales, the highest total monthly sales in the computer center's history. He ended up making more money in that month than in any month previous in his life. He created immediate prosperity in life by changing an attitude. He also had more energy than before because just because he made the extra effort. In addition, as a result of that effort he became more confident, prosperous, and happy, which in of itself made him feel even more energetic.
Our conclusion then is that a higher level of effort can actually increase rather than decrease one's energy level. It can even invoke a positive response from life as in the above instance.
Here's another example:
In Dee Hock's book Birth of the Chaordic Age, he describes an extraordinary situation where he is trying to get the visa credit card scheme under way. At one point things apparently are not going well in most aspects of his life. He is reduced to learning franchise banking at a branch. At one point while working in the bank he and his assistant were unable to balance the books at the end of the day. His assistant suggests that the missing deposit is in the basement in the garbage. He is humiliated by this turn of fortune in his life, considering his previous position, but shakes that off is pride, and goes through 10 barrels of garbage to find it. At one point his co-worker says she has found it. Hock then narrates that only a few days later an official told him that Bank of America decided to go ahead and franchise the BankAmericard credit card scheme he had worked to develop, and needed his help in the implementation. This was a great moment in his life, and in the history of credit card use.
It was his willingness to put out the last bit of effort in going through the garbage that led to this great positive "life response."
SELF-ANALYSIS:
-Think about a few situations where you took an extra effort which led to a very positive opening in your life. What caused you to make that extra effort? Was it caused by life's pressures? Can you instead make making an extra effort part of your own initiative rather than life's compulsion?
-Examine situations in your life where you need to take a greater amount of energy or effort. Take that extra effort. Thereafter see if you have a whole new level of capacity, energy, and success that wasn't there before.
At first I thought this would be an easy topic. Five things that bring me happiness. Simple. But then I started to actually think about it. What makes me happy might not make you happy (and vice versa).
So I asked around the Matador team for what they thought brings them happiness, hoping for at least a couple of unanimous points. The responses were as random and varied as lottery results.
The more common replies were related to friends, family and health. While all of these do bring most people happiness, my concern was with those who preferred being alone and people in poor health.
If I included these things, what does this mean for them? Is it impossible for the loners and the sick to be happy? I don’t think so.
Anything external that we chase cannot bring everlasting happiness, only temporary and fleeting happiness; at some point it will let us down.
Many things that we think will bring us happiness — a new car, new house, more friends — usually just cause us more pain and suffering. We’re constantly worried someone’s going to scratch or bump our vehicle, rob our home, or break our hearts and hurt our feelings. A source of true happiness would not be able to cause us any suffering.
To find happiness is a lofty goal and takes a dedication that most of us aren’t willing to give, even though it’s in our own best interests. Instead, we continue to try to shape the world outside us, rather than trying to fix the inside.
Here are five points to ponder as you search for your own happiness:
1. Introspection
Facing your demons…being a victim. ‘Everything is always fucked up for me, nobody understands’. It took me years of not being honest with myself, running from the truth, denying what was in my face, blaming everybody else. ‘She’s nasty, she’s fucked up…look at her, look at them’…but then there was a common denominator: Me. – Liza Jessie Peterson
If we can’t face ourselves and recognize that we are the source of our own happiness, what chance do we have? Happiness is not “out there.” It’s in here. Easy to say, hard to put into practice.
But the first step to solving a problem is to recognize the source of it. Once we admit to ourselves that we — and only we — are responsible for our own happiness, then we can move forward in trying to attain it.
2. Freedom
I do think people could fall into the trap of understanding freedom as ‘I do what I like’. I don’t really think that’s freedom because you’re still bound by your desires. So where is the freedom? Freedom would be…you understand your desires, the compulsion of those desires, the addiction of that, and you are able to transcend that. Otherwise…your passion is determining your behaviour. – Father Lancy Prabhu
Freedom as we know it in the Westernized world is not true freedom. And this “freedom” will not bring us happiness. One need look no further than free-market capitalism. Go on, you’re free to do whatever you want.
Combine this with our society’s way of making us feel inadequate and marketing manipulation by the media (who, ironically, are exercising their freedom), and we find ourselves always wanting. This wanting and the attachment to things we’ve managed to accumulate are the banes to our happiness. We must free ourselves from our own desires to find true happiness.
3. Compassion
Why are we compassionate towards friends and family, but rarely towards strangers? It’s because we share a connection with our family and friends, either through blood or through similar interests.
What if we could find a connection with complete strangers? With the rest of humanity? Might it make us more compassionate towards everybody? Because we do share something common: everybody — no exceptions — wants to be happy.
This desire to be happy is the motivating force behind every single thing that we do, from the moment we wake up to the time we fall asleep. So recognizing that the people we see on TV, the people we pass on the street, the people we’ve never seen and never will see — want to be happy. Just like us.
Compassion gained through accepting this will make us better humans, will help us help each other, and will help to make ourselves happy.
4. Generosity
The mind has a very bad habit, which we call self-cherishing. And I call it ‘What about me?’…it’s a bore. And it’s a drag. And nobody wants to hear it. So you can just shut up…and get off of it. And give. That’s all. GIVE. Be here and give. Connect with people…and you’re so busy giving, you don’t have time to think about yourself…um, you’re gonna be a lot happier. – Baghavan Das
This is closely linked to compassion. After gaining compassion comes our willingness to help out others, even complete strangers.
5. Contentment
If you substitute ‘content’ for ‘happy’ you’ll probably find that you’re happy. ‘Cause we’ve associated happiness with laughing and smiling…throwing beach balls to your children…and I’ve never been that guy.
So I’ve thought maybe I’m not happy. If you switch it for content…the practice of contentment…’oh god I’m happy. I’m a happy man. Oh, look at me! – Billy Connolly
I would venture to guess that all of us, anyone right now who is reading this article, has everything they need to be happy. So why does continued happiness seem so elusive?
In general, we may say we’re happy. We might even have those moments where we sit back and realize how privileged we are, count our lucky stars, and genuinely feel like we have the world in our palms.
But how long does this last? How long until the next person pisses us off, until we see the next thing we “need,” until the next feelings of anxiousness steal away our happiness? If we can make the wanting stop and be content with what we have, we would find we can be more consistently happy.
If you work harder, a pressing problem(s) that is present will dissolve on its own. In addition, the current work one is engaged in will be enhanced for the better, well beyond its earlier scope and possibility for success.
Make the Full Effort
We normally believe that putting out a certain amount of physical effort will produce a commensurate result. Though, this is of course true, there is also another perspective. It is that if we give in to life and make the necessary full effort -- expending all of our energies -- life will take over and complete the work in no time. For example, when a consultant overcame his hesitation and fully took up a difficult and challenging work, he realized half way through that the remainder had already been completed! There is yet another dimension to making a full, determined effort. Whenever you work hard, more work, more money, and new opportunities are likely to fly your way in the days that follow -- often arriving from the most unexpected sources. Action Plan: As situations arise, consider where you can make a greater effort. Then take up that work in full. Thereafter, notice if life supports your effort with sudden good fortune.
Sabrina's Father's Hard Work
In the film Sabrina Sabrina's father's sacrifice of hard work and purity of not fawning for money, attracts/enables her to accomplish greatly through her relationship with the very good and very wealthy Linus.
Erin's Effort Attracts Vast Result
Erin Brockovich makes one final great physical effort in her case which attracts the missing piece of the puzzle that enables her clients to win a #300 million settlement.
One's Great Efforts/Hard Work are Fulfilled by Life, Attracts Positive Life Response
-By making the full effort and expending all of one's energy, life takes over and fulfills what one could not fulfill on one's own. In other words, life supports your extra effort and takes up where you left off.
-If you work harder, a pressing problem(s) that is already there will dissolve on its own; plus the current work will be enhanced well beyond its earlier scope.
LIFE RESPONSE EXAMPLES
-A salesperson at a computer center was relatively new to the sales force, and in his first few months his sales were modest compared to the veterans who were already there awhile. Each month when sales were tallied he seemed to come up just short of the veterans results (for example, they would get $50000 in sales; he would get $40000). A few times he was asked to come in on weekends to work, which he did. During one period just after the end of year holiday rush he was asked to come in a weekend after he had already worked five days straight during the week. In the past he wouldn't have agreed to such a request for need of rest, and other reasons.
Reluctantly, he accepted the invitation to come in on that weekend. After five minutes in the store a customer walked in and ordered $30000 in sales, nearly equal to a months worth of sales for him in the past. In addition, in the next few weeks even higher than usual sales accumulated for the remainder of that month. At the end of the month most of the veterans sales tallied around $50-60000. Our salesperson, however, accumulated $110000 in sales, the highest total monthly sales in the computer center's history. He ended up making more money in that month than in any month previous in his life. He created immediate prosperity in life by changing an attitude. He also had more energy than before because just because he made the extra effort. In addition, as a result of that effort he became more confident, prosperous, and happy, which in of itself made him feel even more energetic.
-A man who was reluctant to clean a swimming pool made the decision to over come his reluctance, and began to make the mental effort to figure out what compounds would be needed to clean the pool. As a result of this a professional pool cleaner suddenly appears on the scene to take up where he left off.
Hard Work Attracts
Hard work doesn't just attract expected results for extra effort, but also attracts life response results. You see this especially for those who are lazy or less likely to make the extra effort.
Extra Effort Attracts Infinity in the Matter
Going the extra mile -- whether for a customer or someone else -- attracts the Infinite potential hidden within it.
Effort in One Area Attracts in Another
One powerful principle of life is that when we make a full effort in one area, it may fail or modestly succeed, yet produce great results in another.
A perfect example of this recently occurred with US President Obama at the Copenhagen conference. There he tried very hard to get the nations of the world to agree on a global environmental strategy. And yet the results he elicited were modest for all the effort he put in.
And yet something else happened. When he arrived back in Washington, he unexpectedly received word that he had secured the vote of the US senator that would insure that his health care legislation would pass without a filibuster.
As we see, an effort in one area that produces modest results can manifest in another with startling outcomes. It is actually a common dynamic of life that goes unnoticed. And yet if we look around, we can see the correspondence between our inner and outer efforts, and the changes that suddenly spring forward from the most unexpected quarters.
Effort in Challenging Situations Causes Life to Open Up
Each time you make the full effort and push through a difficult or challenging work, life opens up quickly thereafter -- especially when it was accomplished through a positive, cheerful attitude, and an adventurous, open-to-all spirit.
Life Takes Over When You Make the Exhaustive Effort
When you make the full effort to complete a project of considerable value, life responds and brings good fortune in closely related areas. It is as if life took up the exhaustive effort and swept you towards benefit that the project was undertaken for in the first place.
Effort to Attract Money when Funds are Low
If funds, money are low, a 1% increase in work effort will attract much more of it.
Willingness to Work Attracts
If you are currently unemployed, having an overflowing interest in working - not just wanting a job that gives a salary - gets anyone employment. I.e. life will respond on its own, often from seemingly from out of nowhere, to this urge. This rule has no exceptions.
The same is true of those who seek promotions. In spite of the atmosphere of politics, intrigues, and corruption in some offices, he who has acquired the knowledge of the higher post and is a willing worker, will readily get promoted. Those who are denied promotions are those who crave for the higher post with higher remuneration but are averse to work.
Invocation of Spirit readily gets one a job or longed for promotion because it energises his faculties. (MSS, slightly modified)
A Quiet Endurance to Success
A quiet endurance is the sure way to success. (The Mother)
Work Started, Delayed Will Come Back
What cannot be done today will surely be done later on. No effort for progress has ever been made in vain. (The Mother) [E.g.. we have seen that a real effort taken up that cannot be completed due to other circumstances, will come back with a vengeance at another time in the future. -editor]
Persistent Honesty Prevails
In human affairs, resort to righteousness ends up as the delusion of self-righteousness, because he who carries the day is not the righteous one but the person who is stronger in the given circumstance. In that way life is amoral; i.e. it rewards the more organised, not the more honest. However, persistence in this righteous course over a long period of time can prevail, can bring the result. As the I Ching says: "Persistence in the Righteous Course Brings Reward''. In that strength of persistence, honesty will prevail. (Paraphrase of MSS)
Work Attracts More Work, Money
As a consultant, I am dependent on securing clients for my work. My living is thus dependent on having a steady flow of customers. One of the interesting phenomena of life I have observed repeatedly is that as soon as I perform a service for a client, other clients or potential clients suddenly start contacting me requesting more work. Until I perform that original job, all is silent; but as soon as I do that first work, calls start coming in from all directions unsolicited! The principle is that when we do a work it tends to attract more work. I have seen the same phenomenon at work when it comes to money. Before doing a work with a client, money due does not readily come in. However, as soon as I do a work (in this case with the client), receivables suddenly appear in my mailbox that or the next day. Again, the principle is that when we do a work, it attracts money; until then, receivables due are held in suspension.
The Response that Changed My Life
Life Response is the phenomenon that occurs when an individual alters his consciousness on some way, and as a result, sudden good fortune descends on that person. E.g., as a result of overcoming a negative attitude, an ongoing problem suddenly disappears, or a golden opportunity suddenly and most unexpectedly presents itself. It occurs quite often in people's lives, though we are normally unaware of its occurrence. The key however is to invoke it consciously so that we are able to elicit these miraculous-like results on demand. We can evoke life response in this way by first developing an understanding of its subtle workings, and then by applying the right inner and outer behaviors that tend to attract these miraculous-like results. Sometimes the response that comes alters the very course of our lives, as I believe the following incident will attest to.
By December 1974, I had graduated Syracuse University and was living with my parents in New York City. After working as part of a group of four house painters, who also happened to be close friends, I headed west to California by van. When I settled into the San Francisco Bay area, I was free, but as yet unable to sustain myself due to lack of work. The truth is I made little effort to secure that work, since I was enjoying my freedom too much!
Soon thereafter, I met a woman there with whom I got involved. I drove back to New York, and from there flew to Brussels, Belgium where I met up with her. Together we then went on a wild bus excursion across the continent, from Amsterdam to Athens. After enjoying Athens and having a mystical experience at the Acropolis, my friend informed me that she planned to continue on to the Middle East in order to visit Egypt and Israel. However, realizing that I had strayed too far off the path, I informed her that I could go no further. And so in a dramatic scene worthy of a romantic film, we said our tearful goodbyes and separated at the Athens airport. From there I flew on to Geneva, Switzerland and then across the Atlantic to New York.
A year earlier, I had intended to go to the Graduate School of Journalism in Berkeley when I first ventured to California months earlier, but on arrival there, I decided not to attend. Nor, did I take to working in order to support myself, as mentioned before. Therefore, I floundered on my first stay in California. This time, however, as I mulled over my future from my parents home in New York, I was determined that if I returned to California, I would make a serious go of it -- i.e. I would seriously seek out and secure work to sustain myself.
As it turned out, a friend of my family had moved to California years before, and now was a very wealthy businessman in Southern California. From New York, I called this gentleman by phone, and he offered me a job at one of his giant Lumber City retail outlets in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. And so once again, I headed across country, this time by Greyhound bus, and arrived once more in California. (I accumulated a lot of road mileage during these years!)
Before I headed south to Los Angeles, I met up with old friends in San Francisco, and stayed at their home for several months. During that time, I painted the large house we all lived in, and then I used the money I earned to purchase a used car. With a means of transportation, I then drove down to Los Angeles with a friend to work at one of the Lumber City outlets run by the (previously alluded to) wealthy friend of my parents. After several months, I settled in and worked every day -- driving from my Santa Monica beach home to the inland valley suburb where my outdoor retail job was located.
One day I decided to drive to an area not far from downtown LA, and visit the ''East West Center"�, a sort of mini ashram dedicated to a blending of eastern and western spirituality and culture. That day I met a woman there who told me of people living in the nearby San Fernando Valley who were importing gift items from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry India. I had a keen interest in the sage and seer's teachings for several years and was looking to find an outlet to pursue them in the LA area. I hoped that the East-West Center would serve that purpose, which was the reason I visited that place that day. However, I was also looking to blend my spiritual interests with real work experience. I.e. I wanted my work to be an application of -- an extension of -- the spiritual knowledge I had begun to embrace. Thus, when I learned of the potential opportunity of working with the devotees who lived in the Valley, I was eager to meet them.
Shortly thereafter, I set up an appointment and visited their home. It did not take but a few moments to see that there was a powerful connection between us. Realizing our great mutual interest, we quickly arranged that I would begin selling their products by going door to door at appropriate retail outlets in the LA region. It was not only fun and invigorating being outdoors in the warm, golden sunshine during the winter months, but financially and spiritually rewarding as well. Most importantly, I had now established an entirely new direction in my life.
As it turned out, I would continue selling and working with these same individuals in a variety of capacities for the next 30 years. In fact, Growth Online itself began as a collaborative effort that was a direct outgrowth of that relationship.
And so it was on that day so long ago in Los Angeles that I made the connection with the people at Mother's Service Society that changed the course of my life. That relationship not only aided me in my spiritual pursuits, but also provided me with a practical outlet by which I could apply these inner principles. In that way, I had finally melded together two cornerstones of my life -- spirit and work -- creating a new unity of purpose.
However, none of this would have happened if I hadn't made one critical decision. It was when I decided to seriously work. When in New York and later in San Francisco I committed to working at my parents friend's Lumber City outlet in Los Angeles, I set in motion events that changed the course of my life. It created the vast opening that allowed me to come in contact with the Aurobindo followers in the San Fernando Valley. That inner and outer commitment to hard work attracted the fulfillment of my heart's desire. Or to put it another way, overcoming my poor attitude toward work brought me my very life's purpose.
In fact, everything that has happened to me over the next 30 years -- the sales company I built in the San Francisco Bay Area, the computer training and consulting company I founded there (GuruSoftware), the birth and development of Growth Online, the books I have written on Life Response and other subjects -- all emerged from that fateful time in December 1975 when I decided to seriously work, which attracted the individuals who would shape my life.
The Missing Life Response Book
I am having a preliminary version of my book 'The Miraculous Phenomenon of Life Response' published through Lulu Press, an online system. The end user can obtain a copy of the book directly on demand at the Lulu web site. Recently, I uploaded two consecutive upgrades of the book, about five days apart. I also ordered a copy of the finished product that would be generated for each. Normally it takes around three weeks to get the book so that I can ascertain its quality. The first one however arrived surprisingly within a week. I then expected the second one to arrive similarly. However, after 2 or 3 weeks, there was no sign of the second version of the book. Concerned about it had been lost, I contacted Lulu's technical support, but alas, they told me that I should just be patient and it will come in the normally allotted 2-3 week period. However, a week later, I still hadn't received the package, and I was concerned. I had after all a number of plans in the works once the book arrived.
As it turns out, the other day I went into the back area of my home and noticed that the vertical drain was clogged with leaves and mud. Workers had been doing some construction around that area which blocked me from noticing the problem for a number of weeks. However, now that they were finished, I saw the clogging and I was now very concerned because rains were on their way. I was alarmed that if the drain remained stopped up, the water would back up on the roof and then seep through the ceiling of the work area of my home.
At first, I was reluctant to do anything about it, but then I went down to speak to the manager. Unfortunately, she was not going to be in for a while. However, when I went to my mailbox instead, I received a most unexpected check from the State of California for some unclaimed property that was now due to me. I thought that was a nice little response to overcoming my reluctance to deal with the drain.
An hour later, I went down again and this time my manager was there. I told her about my gutter situation, and she said she would put someone on it immediately. As I was about to leave her office, she most surprisingly mentioned that she had a package for me. I thought that was odd since I had not received a notice in my mailbox of the fact. She then pulled out my parcel from the pile, and I instantly knew it was the book I had been waiting for! I also realized that it might have been sitting in that stack with the other packages for weeks. In the end, because I overcame my reluctance to act on the drain and was persistent in trying to contact the manger, I not only received a most unusual and timely check from the State of California, but I found my missing book. As a result, I was now able to resume one of the most important marketing campaigns -- to find a publisher -- of my life.
PS: As a result of finding the book, I was very energized, and that intensity enabled me to nearly instantly attract a perfect list of literary agents, something I had struggled to find since last June. It just fit the pattern of all the other things that had happened in the last several hours. It was to be the final of four consecutive mini responses that were in my mind all inextricably connected.
We normally believe that putting out a certain amount of physical energy will produce a certain finite result. However, there is another perspective. It is that by making the full effort and expending all of one's energy, life takes over and fulfills what one could not fulfill on one's own. In other words, life supports your extra effort and takes up where you left off. This in turn reenergizes you as you are pleased by the unexpected greater result.
For an example of this phenomenon let's revisit a story described earlier that indicates how increased effort brings a new found level of success and prosperity, which in turn leads to happiness and an increase in energy:
A salesperson at a computer center was relatively new to the sales force, and in his first few months his sales were modest compared to the veterans who were already there awhile. Each month when sales were tallied he seemed to come up just short of the veterans results (for example, they would get $50000 in sales; he would get $40000). A few times he was asked to come in on weekends to work, which he did. During one period just after the end of year holiday rush he was asked to come in a weekend after he had already worked five days straight during the week. In the past he wouldn't have agreed to such a request for need of rest, and other reasons.
Reluctantly, he accepted the invitation to come in on that weekend. After five minutes in the store a customer walked in and ordered $30000 in sales, nearly equal to a months worth of sales for him in the past. In addition, in the next few weeks even higher than usual sales accumulated for the remainder of that month. At the end of the month most of the veterans sales tallied around $50-60000. Our salesperson, however, accumulated $110000 in sales, the highest total monthly sales in the computer center's history. He ended up making more money in that month than in any month previous in his life. He created immediate prosperity in life by changing an attitude. He also had more energy than before because just because he made the extra effort. In addition, as a result of that effort he became more confident, prosperous, and happy, which in of itself made him feel even more energetic.
Our conclusion then is that a higher level of effort can actually increase rather than decrease one's energy level. It can even invoke a positive response from life as in the above instance.
Here's another example:
In Dee Hock's book Birth of the Chaordic Age, he describes an extraordinary situation where he is trying to get the visa credit card scheme under way. At one point things apparently are not going well in most aspects of his life. He is reduced to learning franchise banking at a branch. At one point while working in the bank he and his assistant were unable to balance the books at the end of the day. His assistant suggests that the missing deposit is in the basement in the garbage. He is humiliated by this turn of fortune in his life, considering his previous position, but shakes that off is pride, and goes through 10 barrels of garbage to find it. At one point his co-worker says she has found it. Hock then narrates that only a few days later an official told him that Bank of America decided to go ahead and franchise the BankAmericard credit card scheme he had worked to develop, and needed his help in the implementation. This was a great moment in his life, and in the history of credit card use.
It was his willingness to put out the last bit of effort in going through the garbage that led to this great positive "life response."
SELF-ANALYSIS:
-Think about a few situations where you took an extra effort which led to a very positive opening in your life. What caused you to make that extra effort? Was it caused by life's pressures? Can you instead make making an extra effort part of your own initiative rather than life's compulsion?
-Examine situations in your life where you need to take a greater amount of energy or effort. Take that extra effort. Thereafter see if you have a whole new level of capacity, energy, and success that wasn't there before.
At first I thought this would be an easy topic. Five things that bring me happiness. Simple. But then I started to actually think about it. What makes me happy might not make you happy (and vice versa).
So I asked around the Matador team for what they thought brings them happiness, hoping for at least a couple of unanimous points. The responses were as random and varied as lottery results.
The more common replies were related to friends, family and health. While all of these do bring most people happiness, my concern was with those who preferred being alone and people in poor health.
If I included these things, what does this mean for them? Is it impossible for the loners and the sick to be happy? I don’t think so.
Anything external that we chase cannot bring everlasting happiness, only temporary and fleeting happiness; at some point it will let us down.
Many things that we think will bring us happiness — a new car, new house, more friends — usually just cause us more pain and suffering. We’re constantly worried someone’s going to scratch or bump our vehicle, rob our home, or break our hearts and hurt our feelings. A source of true happiness would not be able to cause us any suffering.
To find happiness is a lofty goal and takes a dedication that most of us aren’t willing to give, even though it’s in our own best interests. Instead, we continue to try to shape the world outside us, rather than trying to fix the inside.
Here are five points to ponder as you search for your own happiness:
1. Introspection
Facing your demons…being a victim. ‘Everything is always fucked up for me, nobody understands’. It took me years of not being honest with myself, running from the truth, denying what was in my face, blaming everybody else. ‘She’s nasty, she’s fucked up…look at her, look at them’…but then there was a common denominator: Me. – Liza Jessie Peterson
If we can’t face ourselves and recognize that we are the source of our own happiness, what chance do we have? Happiness is not “out there.” It’s in here. Easy to say, hard to put into practice.
But the first step to solving a problem is to recognize the source of it. Once we admit to ourselves that we — and only we — are responsible for our own happiness, then we can move forward in trying to attain it.
2. Freedom
I do think people could fall into the trap of understanding freedom as ‘I do what I like’. I don’t really think that’s freedom because you’re still bound by your desires. So where is the freedom? Freedom would be…you understand your desires, the compulsion of those desires, the addiction of that, and you are able to transcend that. Otherwise…your passion is determining your behaviour. – Father Lancy Prabhu
Freedom as we know it in the Westernized world is not true freedom. And this “freedom” will not bring us happiness. One need look no further than free-market capitalism. Go on, you’re free to do whatever you want.
Combine this with our society’s way of making us feel inadequate and marketing manipulation by the media (who, ironically, are exercising their freedom), and we find ourselves always wanting. This wanting and the attachment to things we’ve managed to accumulate are the banes to our happiness. We must free ourselves from our own desires to find true happiness.
3. Compassion
Why are we compassionate towards friends and family, but rarely towards strangers? It’s because we share a connection with our family and friends, either through blood or through similar interests.
What if we could find a connection with complete strangers? With the rest of humanity? Might it make us more compassionate towards everybody? Because we do share something common: everybody — no exceptions — wants to be happy.
This desire to be happy is the motivating force behind every single thing that we do, from the moment we wake up to the time we fall asleep. So recognizing that the people we see on TV, the people we pass on the street, the people we’ve never seen and never will see — want to be happy. Just like us.
Compassion gained through accepting this will make us better humans, will help us help each other, and will help to make ourselves happy.
4. Generosity
The mind has a very bad habit, which we call self-cherishing. And I call it ‘What about me?’…it’s a bore. And it’s a drag. And nobody wants to hear it. So you can just shut up…and get off of it. And give. That’s all. GIVE. Be here and give. Connect with people…and you’re so busy giving, you don’t have time to think about yourself…um, you’re gonna be a lot happier. – Baghavan Das
This is closely linked to compassion. After gaining compassion comes our willingness to help out others, even complete strangers.
5. Contentment
If you substitute ‘content’ for ‘happy’ you’ll probably find that you’re happy. ‘Cause we’ve associated happiness with laughing and smiling…throwing beach balls to your children…and I’ve never been that guy.
So I’ve thought maybe I’m not happy. If you switch it for content…the practice of contentment…’oh god I’m happy. I’m a happy man. Oh, look at me! – Billy Connolly
I would venture to guess that all of us, anyone right now who is reading this article, has everything they need to be happy. So why does continued happiness seem so elusive?
In general, we may say we’re happy. We might even have those moments where we sit back and realize how privileged we are, count our lucky stars, and genuinely feel like we have the world in our palms.
But how long does this last? How long until the next person pisses us off, until we see the next thing we “need,” until the next feelings of anxiousness steal away our happiness? If we can make the wanting stop and be content with what we have, we would find we can be more consistently happy.
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