Manifesting.

I have a tendency manifest things. What is interesting (perhaps only to me) is that when I have a sense of longing for something, I tend to meditate on it a great deal until the propituous moment for satiating my longing occurs. As a result of these meditations, I will also take small, safeguarded actions, similar to dipping one's foot into the swimming pool to test the temperature of the water without blindly jumping in. Typically, my meditations always result in action which ultimately takes the form of goal achievement. This phenomena is something I call "manifesting".

Perhaps I'm not humble enough to say that I am surpised by things that happen in life. While there is always the realm of chance, I don't believe in coincidence. I don't believe that things "just happen", or as that terrible cliche goes, "Bad things happen to good people." I know when I'm screwing up, when I'm not on my game, when I'm being lazy, or, when, for whatever reason I'm neglecting to be an active participant in the business of managing my life. I have often found that if I fail to be accountable for my behavior or rash decisions, something will always come along to turn the heat up until I can no longer stand myself. My chi will be off, my spirit will receive it's karmic lashings, and at the end of it, I know that I have only myself to blame. As a result, I've learned that if I'm patient and persistent, steady, honest and realistic about what I really want, then things have a way of working out. The key to this maintaining focus. In the face of temptation to go completely rogue, it's more rewarding to stay the course.

Beyond patience, timing is everything, too. Beyond timing, it's a matter of thinking ahead. Beyond thinking ahead, it's a matter of maintaining multiple perspectives. Intransigent, tunnel vision is the ultimate end to this Darwinian state of thought. My father used to say that the sign of a good chess player is having the ability to think not only in terms your opponent's frame of mind, but simultaneously in terms of the pro's and con's of five strategic moves ahead. Stagnation is death. Game over. Do not pass go. Go directly to jail. And yet, in moments of so-called failure, this is how I know that failure itself is merely creating the space for a much better and more worthwhile pursuit. If something doesn't work out, then I must not have really wanted it.

Next.