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Challenge

I was thinking about my life the other day, which I often do. I realized that I don't have any challenges in my life, compared to a lot of other people. By that I mean, my life is going along smoothly and the things I want pretty much come to me. I thought: "that's a good thing, not to have to work so hard for what I want."

But then another thought popped into my head: "Yeah but your life is boring. You don't have any challenges, that feeling of intense satisfaction you get when you need to give your all to overcome a huge obstacle. There isn't anything better than that." I started to think about overcoming obstacles and the satisfaction associated with it. Then I realized that intrinsic to any challenge is resistance to the goal. An obstacle is necessary in order to have a challenge. If you weren't resisting what you wanted, it wouldn't feel like an obstacle, and there would be no challenge! I started to think about that great feeling you get when you overcome the obstacle and demonstrate success. That feeling is just the lowering of the resistance you put up in the first place! I then realized, again, that you are your own worst enemy, and your best friend. I realized for the umpty-umph time that I create everything in my life.

Here's an example: Say you wanted to start a new business. You have never been self-employed before, so it seems daunting at first. There are two ways you can approach it: you can envision your new enterprise as something that will require a tremendous amount of work, or something that will naturally fly right.

If you approach the venture with the attitude of hard work, youre already throwing vibrational obstacles in your path. The more you work on your business with this attitude, the harder it gets. Now you are facing challenges every day, probably experiencing anxiety, worry, and some upset along the way. But you persevere and eventually get it done. Now you are happy.

Or, you could approach the new business with a detailed vision, a vision in which you are expending very little effort and the resources you need come to you easily. The more you work on your business with this attitude, the more the universe matches you up with the people, money, and things which you need in order to be successful. The powerful universal property of 'like attracts like' immediately goes to work for you. But now, there is much less worry, anxiety, and upset. Things just fall into place for you with relative ease.

In both cases, a business was created. But in the first case, there were a large number of obstacles to overcome. You gutted it out, successfully overcame all of the challenges. Now, you talk to your buddies and they all say "great work! You really stepped up and battled hard. Now, you can enjoy your reward." In the second case there were almost no challenges. Obstacles, yes, but these didn't appear to you as something to worry about. You felt good almost all the time, and when you are done, you feel even better.

Delusional? You cant expect a new business startup to run like clockwork right off the bat. Really? Well, thats just a belief, and a very powerful vibrational orientation that will create difficulties. The problems and their degree are established by how you approach your new venture. Im not saying there will be no obstacles to overcome. Im saying that those obstacles can be regarded as enormous challenges, or merely opportunities to express your creative business self. In this culture, fighting and struggling are considered 'character builders,' whereas smooth sailing is regarded as wimpy. "What's the good of a smooth ride?" society says. "You can't learn anything from that." Such an orientation is guaranteed to cause problems.

Which scenario would you rather experience? Which business do you think will be easier to run, and be ultimately more successful?

If you are like me, I'll take the second experience. I'll leave the worrying, the anxieties and the upset to the other guys. If you are a 'overcome challenges' kind of person, the law of 'like attracts like' will bring you more of the same, so you will likely experience more difficulty operating your business.

Lets analyze what happened.

The second guy didn't have a lot of resistance to his goal. He did his homework and got together a really good business plan, one he was really excited and confident about. The he just went about executing that plan without a lot of anxiety. Mostly he just had fun along the way. The first guy also had a great business plan, but he worried that maybe the economy would go into a recession. He wondered whether he would be able to get good employees. He had doubts about his own ability to get it done. But he went ahead into action anyway, figuring he would 'accept the challenge.' And that's exactly the experience he got! The second guy had his energies almost completely aligned to his goal before he started. The first guy went into action before he had felt comfortable about his new goal.

All challenge is self-imposed. Challenges come about from not completely aligning your energy to what you want before you start.

Of course, this example would be a little different if the goal were strictly a physical activity. Say you were a rock climber and you decided to go free-climbing that 500 foot mesa. Now you definitely are going to experience a little anxiety!

But the principle is the same.

If you approach your task with the idea that it will be almost impossible and that you might get killed, you will probably have a series of near-death experiences on the way up. But if you are really clear on your vision of the climb, you will probably take extra practice, working on your holds and your technique. You won't attempt the climb until you feel excited about it. The better you feel about the climb, the easier it will be, again by the property of 'like attracts like.' You will naturally gravitate to those areas where the holds are optimum, where the rock is solid, and where there are a minimum of difficult passages. If you are anxious about the climb, you will be attracted to those areas where the holds are more difficult, or the rock is looser.

The first guy gets off the mesa and practically collapses. The second guy gets off the rock and is still excited. He is really tired, had some difficulties, but feels exhilarated at his experience.

The first guy goes to his buddies and starts bragging to them all what a monster he is. He tells them about the time he almost fell off, and all the rest. They look at him in awe. The second guy goes to his friends and he tells them how much fun he had. He tells them about his anxious moments, but he describes how good the rock is, how the climb can be successfully negotiated. He shows them the route he took.

The first guy's buddies are scared shitless to attempt the climb. They look at him like a minor deity. The second guy's buddies are excited to try it for themselves. The energy of the group is really high, and they decide to climb it together with the second guy leading the way.

The first guy overcame big-time challenges. The second guy did as well, but his climb was marked by an excitement that comes from a lack of resistance to the goal.

Challenge is mostly self-imposed, regardless of the activity. Anything that can be accomplished with resistance, can be done easier with a lack of resistance. And with a lot more fun as well!

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