Gary felt like giving up. His idea to create an online agency to harness the wisdom and experience of recent retirees had failed to raise any of the capital he needed to pay the coders and designers and the marketing.
He felt frustrated and angry with the situation. The thoughts that kept spinning around his head were full of unanswerable questions followed by worst case scenarios. His mood was black.
He went for a walk and sat down on a park bench. He didn’t notice the blue sky and bright day. He didn’t notice the birds singing in the shrubbery. He was looking down, lost in his mental chaos.
An older man accompanied by a young lady walked by and then stopped a little away from Gary. They were standing by a hibiscus tree in full bloom with little honey-eaters plunging in and out of the pink and white flowers.
They were oblivious to Gary and in deep conversation. The lady made a shrill exclamation that captured Gary’s attention. He lifted his head and turned towards the couple. Their backs were turned to Gary so he couldn’t see their faces. But he could hear the conversation.
The old man said “Carrie, you are always being powerful. You can’t help it. It’s just the way we all are.”
“But Granddad, how can you say that!” exclaimed the lady. It wasn’t a question, it was a disagreement.
“Look darling, look how powerfully you are refuting what I say; look how powerfully I’m stating what I say” said the grandfather. “Look at how powerful all your beliefs of conviction are, how powerful you are with the knowledge you are certain of.”
“Yes, but that’s different” argued the granddaughter.
“Is it really?” asked the old man. “OK, right now you are uncertain about taking this next step in your career. Can you see that too is being powerful, albeit powerful about being uncertain? Can’t you feel how powerful your uncertainty is?”
The young lady paused in reflection. “So how does that help me?”
“Well, shifting from uncertainty to being willing to try something different requires your same power. Just choose to use it to be powerful in doing something different instead of being powerful in uncertainty.”
Carrie kept silent, pondering what her grandfather had just said.
Taking the opportunity, the grandfather carried on “We cannot help but be powerful at all times; it is the way we’ve been created. We are full of life, the most powerful force in the universe.
We can be powerfully positive or negative; powerfully uncertain or neutral.
We can even be powerfully confused or powerfully disinterested.
We can be powerfully stuck or powerfully wavering between one option or the other.
What appears mild is actually powerfully mild.
We always have the choice of changing our mind about things, and continue being powerful in another direction of our choice.”
Gary realised he’d become interested in this conversation.
He realised he was being powerfully focussed on the negative.
He suddenly knew he could change all that.
His gloom cleared and he felt a resurgence of energy.
He got up and left for his office, he had things he could do.
He gave silent thanks to the couple who just happened to be nearby at that time.
