5 Steps to Decisive Action

Manifesting is not about simply imagining something into existence. An idea is but a thought and is nothing without commensurate and determined action, habit and Purpose. Epictetus said that “if your choices are beautiful, so too will you be.” But how might we better and best discern, decide and devote ... on our own beautiful choices of action?

Rehumanizing how people serve, study, work and play together, I am an Educator, Speaker, Coach, Author and Creator helping Educators, Entrepreneurs and Emerging Leaders lead for a better world with Character, Purpose and Unity. Ultimately, my work is grounded in the notion of Character Leadership. I suggest those beautiful choices of action are found in the practice of same.

5 Steps to Consider

Below, are five steps suggested by Shoghi Effendi as a means of finding a solution through the use of prayer and meditation.

If a problem is technically defined as the difference between where we are and where we want to be (a gap, if you will), then manifesting is about discerningly and decidedly DOING something about it.

Personally, I love these following 5 steps, and am getting back to using them. My own sense and practice of Faith does not see a man nor woman nor any gender in the sky, but an unknowable Force if you will. So... yesterday, I returned to these steps.... "consulting" accordingly. I invite you to consider these words of Shoghi Effendi :

• 1st Step: Pray and meditate about it. Use the prayers of the Manifestations as they have the greatest power. Then remain in the silence of contemplation for a few minutes.
• 2nd Step: Arrive at a decision and hold this. This decision is usually born during the contemplation. It may seem almost impossible of accomplishment but if it seems to be as answer to a prayer or a way of solving the problem, then immediately take the next step.
• 3rd Step: Have Determination to carry the decision through. Many fail here. The decision, budding into Determination, is blighted and instead becomes a wish or a vague longing. When Determination is born, immediately take the next step.

• 4th Step: Have Faith and Confidence that the power will flow through you, the right way will appear, the door will open, the right thought, the right message, the right principle, or the right book will be given to you. Have Confidence and the right thing will come to your need. Then, as you rise from prayer, take at once the 5th step.

• 5th Step: Act as though it had all been answered. Then act with tireless, ceaseless energy. And as you act, you, yourself, will become a magnet, which will attract more power to your being, until you become an unobstructed channel for the Divine power to flow through you.

Yesterday indeed, I spent time in such prayer and meditation. And I immediately completed 60 minutes of intense workout with a new cool playlist. Indeed, I "saw" in my prayer and meditation... a realized "answer" and Vision. I imagined the sculpture within the stone ... as Michelangelo might have put it. And, I began a new level of sculpting of that Understanding of said "answer".

Epictetus also said...

• "Then what makes a beautiful human being? Isn’t it the presence of human excellence? Young friend, if you wish to be beautiful, then work diligently at human Excellence. And what is that? Observe those whom you praise without prejudice. The just or the unjust? The just. The even-tempered or the undisciplined? The even-tempered. The self-controlled or the uncontrolled? The self-controlled. In making yourself that kind of person, you will become beautiful --- but to the extent you ignore these qualities, you’ll be ugly, even if you use every trick in the book to appear beautiful.”

LP Jacks said...

Character Matters

I humbly believe and contend that both Epictetus and LP Jacks are speaking to the Beauty of Character. And Character is built by what we do, when we "do the work". Manifesting is about "doing the work" and letting the outcomes define us.

Today, I have 90 minutes of physical workout for Health... yes 90 minutes a day, now. But my physical Health is about manifesting and supporting my own best sense of Faith, Service and Love... believing deeply in the nobly wild Life, advancing the work and Service I most adore, and Loving those I deeply and fiercely Love. Certainly, I have my imperfections. We all do. But they are our "work in progress" and Excellence is a journey, not a destination. Excellence is not about perfect as a noun, but as a verb.

Commit to Action

Recently, I stated that ...

• The focus of my Life is Humans Together Strong at home, school, work, business, play and community. That means the people I deeply Love matter and will always know it. That means that I believe in the incredible capacity of the human spirit. I believe that Humanity is our highest standard, and inhumanity is our lowest. That means that I choose to use my Character, Abilities, Skills and Knowledge to help forge a better future and world. That means that I choose to live the 7 L's in action and practice. That means that at home, school, work, business, play and community ... I choose to live and serve nobly.

And I made my own Audacious Promise...

• I Promise to be that 100 kilo, lean, strong and healthy Stoic Baha'i ... doing the work and Service that fiercely calls to my Soul ... and being the Boy inside the Man who fiercely Honors and Loves those who matter most to me.

My Focus and Promise were discerned and decided, and now are devoted. All in. My intentions are now Commitment. And, I am perfecting. That said, making an Audacious Promise means keeping it. I shall endeavour and commit thusly.

Forward and onward. It requires "the work" and it ain't no secret. Marcus Aurelius said “Indifference to external events. And a Commitment to Justice in your own acts. Which means: thought and action resulting in the common good. What you were born to do.” Bahá’u’lláh said, "Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created." For me, both speak to our own personal higher calling, whatever that might be.. For me, it speaks to going inward to live outward. For me, it speaks to a kind of inspired manifesting that is born of Nobility and doing the work.

There are beautiful choices for us all, in all arenas of human endeavour... at home, school, work, business, play and community. A better future and world... needs those choices. How might you discern, decide, devote and determine to make your own beautiful choices? I humbly suggest the 5 Steps above might help.

Peace, Justice and Unity...

Barry Lewis Green, aka The Unity Guy with Epic Engage

• Rehumanizing how people serve, study, work and play together. I am an Educator, Speaker, Coach, Author and Creator helping Educators, Entrepreneurs and Emerging Leaders lead for a better world with Character, Purpose and Unity. That is my work for a deeper, cooler Leadership. In so doing, I bring my work as Master Facilitator with the Virtues Project? ... my experience as a Certified Facilitator with Personality Dimension? ... and my Service as a Facilitator with the Ruhi Institute and as Practitioner of the work of What Color is Your Parachute? since 1982.

I invite you to check out Character and The Epic Engage and TUGtv Forward...