Tag Archives: Process

Fishing for Results in a Sea of Certainty

Recently I’ve been eating a lot of fish. In fact yesterday, I amazed my friends with my announcement that I was regularly eating fish for breakfast. Well, not really. Surprised is probably a better word. Fish is really healthy. It’s too bad that people don’t have a natural craving for. Despite it’s obvious health benefits, many of my friends can’t stand the smell of it, let alone the taste. They say that it smells too, uh, fishy.

Catching fish is an interesting process. There are several different ways to catch fish. When most people think of catching fish, they usually imagine finding a place to sit close to the water, and have their fishing pole, and fishing gear nearby. Then you cast your line into the water, and wait for the fish to bite. Others like to use lures. And depending on what kind of fish you want to catch, you can use different lures. Like spinners, which you cast out, wait a few seconds, and then reel in. The lure spins as you reel it in, to create some type attraction for the fish that you want to catch.

I remember I was sitting with my brother once, on a lake in the mountains. We were fishing, and talking. He turned to me and said that this is one of those experiences, and you feel you must share this with others. Like when you find this interesting, and you want to show others. You want to see if they find this as interesting as you do. I don’t know if you’ve ever been able to experience something in such a way that you want to tell others about it, but I’m pretty sure you can imagine those things now that you’ve been able to experience in your own way.

Other ways to catch fish are commercial methods. For these, they use large nets to cast out, and catch many fish at once. This is kind of the opposite strategy. Instead of throwing out a small piece of bait, and trying to attract what you want, you go and find it. And grab it. In large quantities. It’s funny how that works.

Fishing for pleasure, you bait your hook, and hope the fish find you. And sometimes, sitting and waiting is the best part. Like with my brother. I don’t even remember if we caught anything, because I had such a good time just being able to enjoy the process.

Fishing for results, on the other hand, is something else entirely. You determine exactly what it is that you are after. You choose your tools, and you go and get exactly what it is that you want. You can use big nets, large boats, and whatever else you want to use at your disposal to get what you want, again and again, without any question that you will be successful.

And the cool thing about this is, is either way you can be successful. You can make a little effort, and enjoy the process of attracting what you want. Or you can determine exactly what it is that you want, and enjoy the certainty that you will undoubtedly get it. Again and again.

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The Road Is Better Than The Inn

I was having lunch with a friend of mine today, a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. He’s one of those people that even though you haven’t seen this person in a long time, when you meet up with them, you can just pick up where the two of you left off. Like when you learn something, like playing the piano, you can go for several years, but once you sit down, you can remember easily whatever it was that you learned so long ago. And it’s interesting how you can remember things, isn’t it?

So my friend was telling me about an addition he’s adding on to his house. He and his wife had been planning it for sometime, but they always think of a reason to not do it right away. Need money for this, have to buy that. You know how it is. And both are working full time, and trying their best to raise three kids. It’s no wonder they are so busy, they haven’t really been able to spend much quality time together. Which I think is a misnomer, because all time is really of the same quality, it’s how you can choose to spend your time is what really matters. Like you could spend time watching TV, or you could spend time working on a project that could make it easier for you to make money and improve yourself.

And he said that building the addition to the house was really turning into a special time for him and his wife. Both working together, on the same goal. Not that raising three kids isn’t working together on the same goal. I guess something happens when you spend time with somebody actually building something physical. It’s like you can stand back, and see the progress. You can look at your plans, and compare how you are doing with where you want to go. And my friend is actually not looking forward to finish the addition as much as he thought he would. He said he is really able to enjoy the process, rather than the expectation of an end result.

Like when I was a kid. I was in boy scouts, and every summer we’d go on these long hiking trips. Sometimes a week or longer. And although we went to some great, beautiful secluded spots with fantastic fishing, my fondest memories were hiking with my buddies, looking up at the mountain pass we were aiming for.

Some people look at life itself as a long process, ever changing, ever growing. The moment we begin to lose interest, or lose that spirit of wonder is when we fool ourselves into thinking that we have arrived. We get tricked into thinking that our everyday, day in, day out routine is what life is about.

One way you can jump start yourself off the same old same old routine is to look at experiences with fresh eyes. Ask yourself before falling to sleep every night, “What did I learn today?” And let the answers come in your dreams. You may be surprised to find that you knew the secret all along, you just needed to remember. 

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