Manifest through Intent

We've all heard the idea that you make what you want in life. That you get what you ask for, be it positive or negative. I see it often in action on the ski slope: Henry Ford said it well. "Whether you think you can, or think you can't; you are right."

I was talking with a good friend of mine the other day, and he was frustrated. "Just wish it. Wish for what you want. You know, it says so in The Secret." And I understand this train of thought. I get why he was frustrated, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

I think there is a question of integrity, ego and intent here.

I believe that our path unfolds in front of us as a direct result of our integrity. I think that when we wish for things, like, I wish I had a pair of Elan Pogosticks, in white, with grey bindings in a 172.

I believe that those skis may show up in my future as a manifestation of other hard work I'm doing that will make that possible. I don't think you just wish for things, material items, and you are rewarded with them.

I think that the way it works is that if you live your life listening and giving as well as taking, if you honor your path, if you are willing to set your ego aside, and look for the lesson in every situation, good ones and bad ones, easy ones and hard ones, that you tend to stay on your path. And when you live with honor and integrity like that, I think you tend to attract other people into your life who feel similarly. These are people who are open to meaningful communication, who have learned or are also working on setting their ego aside.

When you get a group of people together that are more interested in communicating than in being right, you have a powerful impetus for both learning and change.

And its interesting that when you throw just one combative or ego attached person into that mix, how easily shaken a lot of the group can feel. Our old patterns can come to the surface, we are triggered into doubt and defensiveness.

Finding these moments of challenge to be moments of opportunity, for you to practice humility, patience, and to help someone who is in a place where their self worth is defined by the amount of the time they are right, and help bring them to a place where they are a part of the group rather than pulling the group apart helps you walk down your path well.

I believe that it is this kind of integrity that helps the "universe" put what we need in our path. I don't believe that its truly a manifestation but that when you live your life well, when you are unafraid to be transparent, when you practice it every day in spite of the fact that you will fail, your world and the people in it change materially.

Intent is the next piece, and I believe its twofold, my intention for my lifepath; so for me that means living transparently and loving well, which includes loving myself well, which includes honoring my boundaries, no matter how painful that may feel to someone else when they bump those boundaries. I believe its my responsibilty to tell them gently what has happened, but I also believe that integrity in my person includes being steadfast with that which honors my own moral code. My intention toward my own personal growth and health. Because if I don't have and enforce those clear boundaries, I can not give to anyone else from a place of strength, I only give by bleeding, and that kind of gift is no gift at all, its a gift with a heafty price to myself and to the one trying to recieve from me. So for me, lifepath would encompass spiritual, emotional, how I want to be in the world.

Intent in my career path is the other side of it, but its not so terribly different. I want to honor the things that make me feel like I am contributing as much as I can to the world around me, and that I am being filled up at the same time. Honoring my boundaries and checking to make sure I am walking on my path are the things that keep me working with integrity in this area, as well.

I think that when this happens, the net result may be that the path to those skis, if that material desire is important for my path, will unfold. Either in a financial ability to buy them, or a relationship that allows me to ski on them without taking a finanacial hit.

But I think that's the sticky point there. I don't think you just wish for Prada Jeans and wait around for them to materialize. Not to say that you couldn't have a life path that didnt' lead you to Prada Jeans. My point here is that manifestation of material needs and wants is a secondary side effect of living your life with intent, integrity, and humility.