Someone quite recently mentioned a trendy topic to me about how hard people are working with seemingly little result. I recall remarking that I, too, have heard much carping about this experience from workers, in general, and especially business owners.  Frankly, I must admit I, too, have fallen prey to long hours, working days and nights, and weekends and feeling the drain of this overwhelming behavior.

I have confided in some friends that I have enjoyed setting up my life for quite some time for good balance and have failed recently. I have definitely admonished myself and promised to do better.  In fact, I realize now that the Universe is definitely sending me messages that a major overhaul is due.

First, almost a year ago, a new friend gifted me with the book, The Power of Now, a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle.  My initial feeling when she mentioned this book to me was that I have read so many similar books.  I thought I wouldn’t gain any new ideas.  I was right.  However, I regained insight.  After reading that book, my awareness of the effect of ego was enhanced.  Ideas I knew I had forgotten to keep in mind sprang up.  Although I often wax on about being positive and about how worrying is mainly an indulgence, I realized that I hadn’t been practicing, to the extent I had wished, what I had been preaching.  

One of the messages of this book that reverberated for me is that we are all a part of a greater whole and that using great force in a continuing effort without taking some time to relent creates a resistance that defeats one’s purpose.  So many members of Optimal Level and many of my friends and business associates are so fervent about their dreams.  They strive to reach high levels of success in their jobs or businesses and tend to apply too much pressure by working too many hours and working too hard.  That creates that old principle, “You get what you resist.”  The harder you try, the opposite of what you are trying to get persists.

So that book, The Power of Now, seems to have been my first message.  Then, at random, I chose a book for the September Optimal Level reading entitled, “When Everything Changes, Change Everything” by Neale Donald Walsch.   I chose that book based on what it ostensibly seemed to be about, how best to deal with change.  It was in large part about the mental and spiritual basis for change.  

Walsch’s book dealt a lot with changing our choices of thought, changing how we view truths, and creating our own reality.  The thrust of his message is that we create our own experiences, all change is for the better, that we must leave our egos to know the truth, and that as part of the greater whole we can create a joyful life and have what we want.  Again, what we resist persists. The conclusion of this book is that as a part of this great whole, we can go with the natural flow and experience joy as we choose it.  The message loud and clear was that if I want to change the dynamic of my current circumstances, I must let go of trying and striving and appreciate what is.

So now without actually having chosen two books out of interest, I wound up reading both and getting the repeated message.

Finally, I usually choose the book selections for Optimal Level a year in advance.  So for a year, the October reading was a book entitled, “Busting Loose from the Business Game.”  Having read the Amazon.com review, the promo copy on the cover of the book and the bullet points presented on the back cover, I thought this will be a great book for anyone in business to learn new helpful strategies and viewpoints.  But no, as I began to read the book, I realized I cannot use this book for our October reading.  Why?  Because although in totally different words than those in “When Everything Changes, Change Everything” the message was identical!  Who woulda thunk it?  I didn’t want to subject my Optimal Level members to two books in a row having the same message so I was forced to find a different reading for October.  

But there it was – the same message!  Oprah refers to this as God whispering.  What ever one calls it, I realize I am being hit over the head with the same message.

In “Busting Loose” Walsch says, “…life isn’t perfect and …. We create ups and downs, challenges, and the illusion of conflict and resistance in our daily experience.”  He goes on to state that we create a fantasy and compares our “so-called physical Universe” or as he calls it, “The Human Game” to a self-created holographic illusion.  Another key point he makes is “You don’t have to create wealth, financial abundance, prosperity, or business success.”  He says, “They are already yours.”  

He further states that in our current condition “All beliefs are lies.”  Therefore we have no power in this hologram or life of fake-belief.  He says that once we cross this “Busting Loose Point”: money will still appear to come from the Hologram “but you’ll know it doesn’t.”  According to Walsch, through thoughts and feelings of true appreciation for all that we have, for all that is, the storyline for how money appears in our lives is “just how you choose to express your infinite abundance for maximum enjoyment and fun.”

So, do I need a Mack truck to drive over me with the same message?  Am I listening?  Do I get that I am creating a lack of abundance, that it is I who am creating too much pressure to succeed and therefore keep reinforcing Einstein’s oft-stated quote that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”?  No, not me!  I get it!

So right now, as of this minute, I will change my foolish ways. No more illusion for me!  I will not work too hard, too much.  I will appreciate. I will relax!  Next time you see me, check in and ask how it’s working.