Intellect and Awareness - The Dynamic Duo

In my last post entitled “Be aware of your instincts”; I discussed “The Intellect” and how it interacts with our three-part nature. I stated that while it is a valuable tool in solving empirical problems, it is not very useful alone in solving the one-of-a-kind personal problems we find in life. I have already shared with you a few of my successes; now let me share with you an area of personal setback. It's not an area I'm proud of but I share it in order help you to not make the same mistakes I made and to say that it's not important what happens to us in life. It's how we respond to what happens to us that really counts.

As a matter of fact, if you are like me, the more I use my intellect alone to solve personal problems it seems the more personal problems I get. For example, early in life as a result of my engineering background and problem solving ability, I concluded that I should easily be able to find a mate and life's partner. I thought if she was attractive, articulate and intelligent then we would make a good couple. Sound a bit chauvinistic, don't I? Boy, was I wrong!

It took me 3 divorces to figure out that there is much more to finding a mate than their looks, conversation and intelligence. I found out that I should be aware of their home life, interaction with their parents, past history, emotional stability and many other things. I also needed to be aware of how we connected and interacted together on a personal basis. However, I only saw my potential mates as I wanted to see them and not for whom they really were.

In seeing them that way, my mind created a person that never really existed. This wasn't their problem; it was mine. I gave them attributes they never really had and assumed their life’s goals were the same as mine. However, I did determine an interconnection between our intellect and awareness.

Wikipedia states that Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns. Had I been more aware and in the moment, I would have paid more attention to those areas where I sensed incompatibilities in my relationships. Understand that I am not blaming anyone. I am just stating I should have examined my feelings more closely at those times. However, since I had always created my relationships in the same manner, it wasn’t until I hit rock bottom that I was ready to try something new.

As a result I spent a number of years using my intellect to learn about personal and interpersonal relationships and the secrets to their success. After applying these principles I was finally able to sustain a good relationship for more than a few years.  My point is that without this proper combination of intellect and awareness, I would’ve been doomed to failure.

Now relationships aren't the only areas of life where we continually butt our heads against the wall. Other areas may include health, finances, purpose for living, etc. and we will discuss these in future posts. Until then here's hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose. Thank you and God bless!

Be Aware of Your Instincts

In my last post I continued the discussion on our intellectual nature, which I call “The Battleground”. I stated that it is central to how we live out our life in this physical world. What I mean is that we too often unquestionably rely upon the direction it provides us and it’s this unquestioning aspect of our three-part nature that I will discuss here.

We must understand that our intellectual nature in and of itself is error-prone. How many of us have made and followed through on a decision that was based solely on our intellect and contrary to what our instinct told us? And later we regretted that decision shaking our heads and saying, "I should have listened". How many of us know really smart individuals who continually mess up their lives by making dumb decisions? You know there really is a difference between book sense and common sense, don’t you? We just have to know when to apply which.

Our intellect is a valuable tool in specific areas such as: schoolwork or applying specialized knowledge to solve problems. But when it comes to solving life's problems the intellect by itself isn’t enough to get the job done. We need to team it with other aspects of our nature. Allow me to provide an example.

I owned a successful Information Technology company that was recognized by Inc. Magazine and included in their Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held corporations in America. However one year I was having a really tough time and it was touch and go as to whether I could even stay in business. Luckily, we received a subcontract from a major corporation that would provide us enough revenues to pay our expenses but make very little if any profit.

In finalizing the paperwork for this subcontract a question was asked  "Who would pay the payroll and overhead expenses for individuals hired to accomplish the work?" Since I always figured that amount in my bid price I, like I had always done in the past, initially responded that my company would cover these costs. However, something inside me (an instinct) urged me to respond that I expected the prime contractor to cover that cost. So, I followed my gut and changed the answer from my company to theirs. To my surprise the contracting officer accepted this response My profit increased from something negligible to a very substantial amount. This gave me enough working capital to comfortably plan for the following year.

My point is that we should not be so set in our ways that we don't take a few moments to examine why we do what we do if we're not happy when we get where we go. In this case I teamed my intellectual nature with what I call awareness.

I will discuss the subject of awareness in my next post. Until then, here's hoping you live today and every day passionately and with purpose! Thank you and God bless. 

Failure Isn't Always Fatal

In my last post I began putting the pedal to the metal by accelerating my providing of information on how to experience life successfully here and now. I selected the intellect to begin with because it is the most volatile of our 3 natures. I call it "The Battleground", since it's where the fierce fight for control of how we live out our life in the physical world takes place.

I stated that in order for us to live prosperously and peacefully there must be interaction between our spiritual and intellectual natures. This interaction is not religious in nature, but more about balance and growth. We have to recognize that our spiritual nature, like our intellectual one, is immaterial in that it can't be seen or felt.

Our spiritual nature allows us to communicate with the spiritual world, which consists of entities that can help or hinder us in our efforts to live the life we desire. Yes, there are spiritual entities out there that try to influence our core beliefs and attempt to rule us completely. However as a result of free will, which is an integral part of our intellect, we can pick and choose which spiritual entities get to play in our game.

I like to describe our spiritual nature as an internal GPS that provides us with directions towards our goals and ultimate life's purpose. After the destination is input, our GPS obtains advice from different spirits along the way to guide us there safely. Because our goals and destinations usually take years to complete it's important that we keep our spiritual nature strong and properly nourished. And using our intellect to provide the necessary food for successful growth in the spiritual realm does this. We can't expect our GPS to mature and function properly if we keep feeding it the same food we fed it as a child.

For instance, if we find that we are continually failing in one or more aspects of our life (relationships, finances, health, business, etc.) then we might want to take a look at how we keep arriving there. Could it be that unfriendly spirits, influencing us to create negative core beliefs, are impeding us? If so, don’t despair. These spirits will occupy a weakened GPS and lead us to destinations of their choice until we tell them to leave. The beauty of life is that “failure isn't always fatal” and because of free will we can turn our lives around at any instant. However, this won't happen until we become sick and tired of being sick and tired of our continued failures.

We can replace these unfriendly spirits with friendly ones that help us to create positive core beliefs. We can positively use our past failures as teaching points to help others to avoid what we've experienced. You see every dark cloud does have a silver lining. Allow me to close by paraphrasing the poem "Invictus", "It matters not how straight the gate or charged with punishment the scroll, we are the masters of our fate. We are the captains of our souls".

I will continue this subject in my next post. Until then, here's hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose. Thank you and God bless!