Peter Aursnes' Transition Blog

I sat reading paragraphs here and there in my book Unlock Your Future – The key to a fulfilling life this morning and suddenly my eyes landed on this sentence: You must me able to concentrate your efforts on the task at hand in order to reach your ultimate goal. Page 84, third paragraph. It struck me as lightening. What is this all about? Well, our six intellectual faculties: one of them specifically: The Will. The will to succeed. The will to keep you going even when times are hard. When you feel like going uphill all the time.

We so often ask the question if we are able. Am I able? Of course you’re able. We’re all able. The thing is not all of us, far from all of us are willing. We’re lazy, or laid back perhaps, we’re scared. Which all means we’re not wiling to do what it takes.

We can all reach our goals, however aspiring they are. The reason why so few go after them is that we’re not willing to sacrifice anything of what we have now to reach our goal. Short-sighted yes, but truth. We are so hung up in instant gratification that we are unable to move toward a higher goal. We’re afraid of letting go of what we have that we never start pursuing it. We don’t have the will.

So think about it: You must be able to concentrate your efforts on the task at hand (your goal) in order to reach your ultimate goal.

How about you? How willing are you?

If you want to read the rest of the paragraph, or the book, just look to the right on this page and click the order button and the book is in a mailbox very close to where you live in a few days.

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So many religions claim they’re the right one, the only right one. I suppose this is because they’re playing some sort of fear factory to keep the flock gathered and not having anyone leaving for the other side of the fence. Well, some people are very relaxed about their religion, and others as well, kind of respecting the differences. I have mine you have yours; but still silently thinking I am right and you are wrong.

I am by birth a Christian, I am European so also by definition I am a Christian. Well others are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, to name but a few of the biggies. Some don’t have any apart from perhaps an old tree or the medicine man, God forbid.

So having been raised in a Christian society, not so much a Christian upbringing as such by my family. But this little post will be from a Christian perspective because to the extent I know anything about it, this is where I have some knowledge.

What I reflect over every now and then is why God will send a good guy to Hell only because she does not belong to Christianity. So Heaven is full of good Christians, while Hell is full of bad Christians and whatever from any other religion. It is not fair. And I find it hard to believe.

So I think the first marketing guru was not an Ogilvy or something like that; it was God. I think God thought that: If I’m going to attract as many as possible to me, I have to be smarter than smart and use various forms of communication, channels, messages, media, symbols. What’s my marketing mix? So various religions were created to cater for most needs, and in some remote areas there was no religion as we know it at all, perhaps an old tree, an anthill or a funny looking big stone that people could go to when in need. Smart.

So from this perspective if Heaven and Hell exists other than on this earth, some people like e.g. Gandhi will be promoted from down under (no offense Australians) to up above. (With all due respect I take it that most people would vote for Gandhi as a good guy). And no religion is any better than others or more right than others.

We’re down to demographics, well known to marketers even today. What is suitable for whom?

So at the end of the day it’s all about whether you’re a good guy or a bad guy; and that’s fair.

PS. I believe there is a God, or I call it God, as a power greater than myself, but that this power is a higher me. Co-creation.

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What did they do in the desert, “rambling” around for all these years? Good question. Not that I think anyone felt the trip was for pleasure, rather, as always it was for a meaning. Funny that, there are no coincidences. Just look at nature, it is all planned and systematic. As I wrote in the post Exodus some time back, they needed to clear their minds. They were slaves destined to become leaders in their own land. That requires a shift. That takes time. Not necessarily 40 years, but it takes time.

So it is with us as well. So often we carry on the slave mentality instead of giving time to let go and move on. We have a hard time to forgive: divorces, pink slips, family affairs, unfair treatment by the authorities, lack of care at hospitals, gossip by people we thought were friends, and so we can go on making the list infinite.

So often we go on hating or bearing grudge against someone or someone’s wrongdoing or something we think is unfair. But we have to let go, we have to let go of that feeling. If not it’s detrimental. Think you carry a back pack that you fill up with all sorts of experiences and feelings. You just keep filling it up. Either it will be too heavy to carry at a point or it will be too voluminous and at one time burst all together.

So we have to let go, to unload some some of our baggage.

Oftentimes the exercise for unloading baggage is called forgiving. Other times it can be some time of solitude just to think matters over, empty your mind in a way, thinking is it worth it to carry on with this grudging or hating? There is only one paying the prize: You.

As with the Israelis in the desert, if they’d gone direct from Egypt to the promised land they would never have made it. They were slaves. They had to unload the slave mentality, they had to forgive the Pharaohs for bad treatment over the years.

So with us, we have to unload the grudge, the hate or whatever is plaguing us. It is the key to personal growth, moving on a fulfilling life.
If you want to learn more about transitions you can click on the hyperlink or read a couple of books. Transitions by William Bridges or my own Unlock Your Future.

The sons of Jacob settled in the eastern part of the Nile delta, also known from the Bible as Goshen. They were among numerous nomads arriving there to settle because of famine. Because of the Nile this was very fertile land. However, a new Pharaoh came to power that did not know Joseph. This Pharaoh was concerned about the growth of the Israelis and (long story short) decided to make them slaves.

Moses having been raised in abundance and friendly with his hebrew cousins wanted to make the slaves free to form their own nation. By the Lord’s orders he tried to free them from the Pharaoh, which on his part declined and declined and declined. The lord sent the nine plagues over Egypt and finally the tenth also known as pass over, the origin to our Easter. Then the Pharaoh rose up at night, called for Moses and asked them to leave Egypt.
It took Moses three days to lead all the Israelis with all their belongings out of Egypt.

Then they wandered around e desert for 40 years. I have oftentimes thought about this and asked why it took them 40 years to reach their promised land. Three days to get out of Egypt, but from there on 40 years. What took them so long? Probably the wisdom of the Lord. It took three days to get the Israelis of of Egypt, it took 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelis. They were slaves, and as slaves they behaved, because their thinking were the slaves’ thinking. And thinking like a slave their feelings were the the slaves’ as well. These people were destined for their new land, their own nation. There were other peoples to fight on the way. If they behaved as slaves they would be doomed and never reach their land.

So they were kept in the the desert for forty years to prepare for what was to come. They got the the amendments, they learned how to build the temple and how to equip it. This was a real limbo. When Moses stayed away for too long they got frustrated and built their gold calf which they danced around. They felt lack of leadership. This lead to a major set back.

I don’t know if they would have made it faster to the new land if they had not bee guided by the lord, but they would not have been as prepared as they eventually were.

What can we learn from this? We’re having a hard time letting go. We should to a much greater extent embrace transitions. That will bring us forward. We should learn that when things are uncertain, we feel frustrated, we scared, the ground rocks; then we’re growing and we’re on our way to something new. To a new start. Usually in these kind of situations we back up. Back into the known, yes back to the comfort zone if you like. We go through transitions all the time, big and small. Enter into them. We are taught to gather knowledge, information. We’re not taught to let go. We’re taught to learn, not to unlearn. Life would be better and we would move more confidently forward and with less luggage if we learned to let go. Just bring what is necessary for your future. Unlearn something old, learn something new and you are equipped for your new future. That’s what happened in the desert.

Relevant today? Definitely. Just look around you. In our private lives, in our job lives.

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One night a man dreamt that he was walking the beach alongside the Lord. In the sky he could see glimpses of his life in revue. For every glimpse he noticed two pairs of footprints in the sand. One was his own, the other the Lord’s.

When the last glimpse of his life passed he looked back at the footprints in the sand. Then he noticed that a lot of times along his walk of life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed this had happened during the most testing and sad periods of his life.

This observation upset him so much that he asked the Lord: “Lord, you said if I follow you, you would walk by my side all along. But looking back I have noticed that during the times I was tried the hardest, there was only one set of footprints. I just cannot understand why you let me down when needed you the most?”

The Lord answered: “My dear child, I love you and would never leave you. The times when you were tried and experienced hardship – when you only noticed one set of footprints – were the times I carried you.”

How often don’t we play the blame game, thinking it’s not my fault, it’s someone else’s. Think twice, and remember; it’s always in me. Always.

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This man has been out of work for quite a while. No formal education but learning the trade through experience. He was sort of a nuisance during training. Never keeping quiet. We had our fights.

Then it all made a turn for the better. Perhaps he got tired of coming to the daily training, perhaps he got fed up with me as the coach. But, one day he came and told me he had got himself an apprenticeship. Really great. Finally, after years without a job.

After that something remarkable happened. He went through a complete makeover. He straighten up. Got self confidence. New attitude. He was so pleased with getting up in the morning and having a job to go to. He visited us every week to give us a mandatory report (could just have mailed it). He became a huge inspiration for the others. Then he got a job offer with the company where he had his apprenticeship. Then he got an other job offer, and the same day still another company called to invite him for a job interview. He came by our office with a 360 degree smile on his face.

From years of unemployment he was all by a sudden in a situation where he could choose. He could reject offers instead of being the one being rejected. This means: Salary instead of social security benefits. Doing things in stead of turning every cent. Social acceptance again.

When you are really grown up it is not easy to enter into an apprenticeship. You’re supposed to have a job. However, he did it, and it paid off. Every now and then it pays to let go of your pride and act. Again, he did it, and this humbleness rewarded him a job. It’s possible, and every now and then it is necessary.

Thinking of it, how many times have your pride created an obstacle for you in your development? To grow you have to let go.

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To be or not to be. That’s a choice between two decisions. We often tend to think that decisions imply some sort of action. That’s not necessarily the case. You decide to get out of bed in the morning, but you also decide to stay in bed if you don’t get out of bed. You might say you don’t have the energy to get out of bed, but you still have the energy to decide you don’t have the energy to get out of bed.

So to perform some sort of action implies a decision, but to perform some sort of inaction also implies a decision. We usually think doing nothing is a consequence of an inability to make decisions, but it is not. We may be more or less capable of making good and sound decisions, but we’re making decisions all the time whether we like it or not. The absence of a decision is a decision. You decide to be indecisive. It always comes first.

At times we don’t want to involve ourselves; we don’t have any opinion about a matter or situation and as such we avoid making any decisions that may arise from the situation. So we don’t make a decision. So what we do is to decide not to make a decision. Simply.

A lot of us have a reluctance to make decisions, but in a way that is a decision as well; to postpone the decision I mean.

Some are slow in decision making, some are quick. I think the latter is the better, especially since I belong there.

I won’t elaborate more on this (Hurray!). But it’s something like this “poem”:
Whether the weather be good, or whether the weather be bad, we weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.

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