Willingness
Dear friends,
There is a personal quality that is not examined often enough, in my opinion. I hope to take a tiny step in correcting what is perhaps an oversight.
Willingness is the ability to say “yes” to whatever presents itself. Our often overwhelming tendency is to say “yes” only to the things we naturally like. Viewing what comes to us as an opportunity to learn is often a much better approach to take. I believe this is somewhat clear in spiritual realms, but I’d like to look at a different application of that principle today.
I have been very blessed in my life having had experiences in many, many areas. I have worked hard to develop a quality that has served me in everything I have done. I am by no means perfect at it, but hard work for decades sometimes results in at least modest progress. :)
That quality is the ability to generally resist the urge to live in my likes and dislikes. That is, to do what is needed—and, more importantly, to develop the desire to do what is needed—rather than embracing the things I like and mentally rejecting or resisting the things I don’t like.
For example, suppose you are running a business (a bookstore, for example?). Something comes across your desk that you really ought to deal with. But it’s not your taste and is in fact something you would prefer not be there at all. So you put it in the far corner of your desk for another time, perhaps with the faint hope it will just go away. Several things have just happened.
First, it may very well be that it ought to be done now. Doing it later often takes more time or money—or both—than it would have taken to do it at the time. Second, you know you ought to do it now, so you have a slight feeling of guilt or failure that you try (unsuccessfully) to bury. Third, it stays on your mental to-do list even though it could have been done and removed.
An item or two like that is one thing, but this response to things we do not like happens over and over, and soon there are dozens and dozens of put-off items, all clamoring for attention and all smirking at you because they know you have been neglectful.
I have done business counseling for people for many years. I have thus had people come to me asking about starting a business. But shortly into the discussion they say something that, to my ears at least, sounds like, “I really want to start this business, but I do not like paper, and I prefer not to use electricity, and I don’t want to work on days that start with the letter 'T.’" I usually suggest they go to the movies rather than starting a business!
This is true of life as well. We tend to live in our preferences. We say we want a happy and successful relationship, life, business, or career, but we don’t like to… fill in the blank.
Forcing ourselves gets old pretty quick. My belief is that—while discipline is often needed—clear sight trumps discipline. If we can really see the benefit of embracing what comes and the benefit of doing it now, the resistance greatly lessens. No one voluntarily harms himself, so clearly seeing the harm that resisting things results in, both practically and emotionally, makes it very unattractive and thus undesirable.
May we hold the attitude that everything that comes to us is a blessing, even if the value of it cannot be seen. We never know how things will ultimately turn out, or what awaits us around the unseen corner. Let us live life with our nose pressed up against the glass, in anticipation of whatever may come.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the Gang at East West