There is a familiar saying, “Be careful what you ask for; you just might get it.” Intention is a powerful thing. In the last few weeks, I’ve been sitting with another powerful concept, yet one that is not so present in our awareness: Pay attention to what you create; it will turn around and create you. Or said another way: We become what we create.
We’re creating things all the time. We create projects; we build businesses; we develop relationships. We tell stories, both to ourselves and to others, about who we are, about what we can do and what we can’t, about how life is treating us, about what happened to us in the past, and about what we see in our future. The more energy and commitment we give to those creations, the more they, in turn, create us. They shape our lives and the choices and decisions we make.
When what we create – a project, a business, a decision, a relationship, or a story – is in alignment with our deepest values and our soul mission, our creations become vehicles for our own growth and development. They become structures through which we can grow, evolve, and live into our greatest potential. And they will, in some way, also serve or support those around us.
However, when what we create is not in alignment with our soul mission and values, a split starts to occur deep within the heart of our being. The more energy and commitment we give to that creation, the gap between who we are and what we are living gets wider. Over time, we create emotional and physical constructs to protect us from the pain and dysfunction that comes from that gap. As we continue to follow the paths of our creations instead of the paths of our souls, and as we become more and more committed (and even attached!) to their success, we lose our connection with our true selves. Increasingly, we focus on supporting our creations rather than on creating things that will help us live into our greatest potential.
Today, we’re at a crossroads on every level of society. Perhaps the most fundamental invitation right now is to be aware that everything that we create as a society – whether in business, government, education, healthcare, or the arts – in turn, impacts who we are as a society and how we engage with one another. Going forward, the invitation is to bring conscious awareness and intention to every choice and decision we make, every new policy and structure we establish, and every new relationship in which we engage – to acknowledge that what we create, what we legislate, what we choose, how we act, will, in turn, create us.
So who do we want to be as a society? Or the even bigger question: Who are we as a society called to be? What are the longings deep within our collective heart – the longings that won’t let go of us? What kinds of new policies, forms, and structures is the collective heart asking us to create that can, in turn, help us to live into our greatest collective potential?
This is a conversation desperately wanting to happen. It’s a multi-faceted, long-term conversation. It wants to happen around dinner tables, in houses of worship, in civic meetings, at social gatherings, in education halls, and in government chambers. It’s a conversation that will evolve over time. And if we create space for that conversation and invite a greater potential to lead the way, in turn, it can expand how we see the world. It can have a significant impact on the choices and decisions we make going forward. If we create space for the conversation, the conversation will begin to create us.
We are conditioned to try to “fix” things. However, in the case of our current societal structures, trying to “fix” them will not work. As a poster I once saw said, “Never try to teach a pig to sing. It’s a waste of your time and it annoys the pig.” Trying to fix our current structures and systems is a waste of good time and energy, and it will just annoy those who are more comfortable with keeping the status quo or who benefit from the way things are now.
Instead, start with asking the three fundamental questions of Transformational Presence:
- What wants to happen? (Or, in this case, what wants to be created in service of something more than just us?)
- Who is that asking us to be? (How is it asking us to show up and engage with one another?)
- What is it asking us to do?
And then be it and do it. It’s that simple. Don’t worry about what’s not working. Just get busy creating what wants to be created.
The world will not change overnight. Yet your personal world might change more quickly than you expect! And as for the bigger world, don’t worry about how long it will take or how you will bring that potential to reality. Just get started. Engage others in this conversation. Keep paying attention to what the potential is asking for and say yes. Then your creation will serve both you and the world.
Step by step, month by month, year by year, things will change. Trust the process and don’t worry about seeing the outcome. It will happen in its own time. And you will have done your part to create a world that works.
P.S. If you found this post interesting or thought-provoking, make a comment below and let’s get a conversation going. This could be a great place to start!
