Branching Out

The plant in my office and I go way back. I purchased her in 2001 from the clearance rack at Target to brighten my office. She was just this scrawny little thing that stood about 3 inches high in a small pot. Unlike my houseplants I’ve never named her (nor do I really know she’s female but I’ll just go on assumption), which now I realize is sad. Although she remains nameless, she has probably quadrupled in size over the years, as I have kept her fed, watered and in a nice pot.

Recently, I walked into work, sat my purse down beside her and wondered what kind of steroids was she on. (She didn’t say.) I noticed that six different branches/stalks of this plant have grown at least 6-7 inches over the past few weeks. And the funny part was that upon closer inspection, I noticed that there aren’t any new leaves right now…just new branches.

Much like my plant friend, I have also grown more branches and deeper roots over the past few months. One major piece of information that appeared was how desperately I was working to keep myself apart from who and what I came here to be. Sure, I could see what I wanted and where I wanted to be, yet I just felt too scared and paralyzed to change. Here I was with all of this knowledge and all these tools to create deep and lasting changes at the subconscious level. Yet, I was stuck.

And I think it’s a place that we all find ourselves from time to time. It’s the land of paralysis that I’ve dubbed 3W…wanting, waiting and watching. We often know what it is that we want. And once we identify it, we sometimes want it to the point of desperation. Much like the child who stands in the middle of the toy aisle screaming, “but Mommy I really WANT it…NOW!”

Wanting this with all our might, we start waiting. Waiting for someone to swoop in and deliver. We just sit there. Want and wait. And wait. And want. And wait. And wait some more. Where is it, we wonder? Then we get really annoyed when we see someone else with that which we so desperately want. Why can she have it, and I can’t? What’s wrong with me? It’s just not fair! I want it more than she does, and she has it!

So here I was, an adult woman, acting like a kid screaming in the toy aisle. Waiting for someone to come in and deliver that which I wanted so desperately in my life. (In my case, financial freedom.) I just wanted someone to come and fix my financial situation. Tell me what to do. NOW! But no one did. Oh, I even hired someone to fill that role, but then I got pouty when she wasn’t fixing my situation fast enough. So I put that on hold, and there I was again. Back to square one, but this time with a bigger mess and a bigger request.

In the land of 3W what we often so fail to see is that there is a way out. There’s a nice little road marked CA2.Choice. Attitude. Consistent Action.

You see, I had identified what I wanted. Over and over again. But the key was that in my mind I had constructed really one, maybe two ways, for that want to be delivered. Rather, in making the choice to be financially free, I open myself up to the infinite possibilities of how that might happen. In choosing to be financially free and rallying my attitude in that direction, I am now moving toward it. I am aligning myself with the possibilities instead of merely just wanting, waiting and watching. I am quieting that little kid in the toy aisle. And I am propelling myself toward taking consistent action. And this I believe, is the most important piece of all.

When I was first introduced to the Law of Attraction, I thought it was the best thing I’d seen since the Sears Wish Book Catalog that used to show up at my house every October. I was completely enthralled by the notion that by my thoughts, I could influence what appeared in my life. It was empowering (and still is), yet it also gave me a somewhat false sense of optimism that I could just somehow sit back and want, wait and watch. Now, years later, I see that without aligning my choice with my attitude and taking consistent action, I was getting nowhere.

Much like I always wanted Santa Claus to bring me that Dallas Cowboy football outfit (not the cheerleader one…the football one…which is a whole other blog), I wanted the universe to just plop down my financial freedom, perfect body, perfect partner, and the list goes on, without me lifting a finger. Sure, sometimes that happens and miracles do occur. Absolutely.

Yet, there’s also another law of the universe that we spiritual beings often fail to remember. Newton’s First Law of Motion: “A body continues to maintain its state of rest or of uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.”

So, I believe it’s up to us to tune in and listen to those gentle nudges from the universe to make the first move. Then we can move toward that which we want…sometimes very quickly and sometimes methodically. Yet, those whispers are often overpowered by the shouting of all the many parts of our egos wanting what we want right now. It’s up to us to act in alignment and allow ourselves to be nudged and moved toward that which we choose.

As I sit here in the sunlight of this beautiful fall day, I realize we are all like this plant. We all want to branch out and experience growth, whether it’s finally allowing ourselves to live in the body of our dreams, take that vacation, allow a beautiful relationship to unfold, or finally push ourselves out of the comfort zones of our current jobs to seek new opportunities.

So often we hear that little voice ask us, “Well why can’t you just be happy with what you have? Who are you to deserve to have (fill in the blank)?” But just as my plant didn’t ask me whether its branches had permission to grow, why do we need anyone’s permission to grow? You see, it’s what we came here to do. We didn’t come here to be 3-inch plants that sit quietly in our small little pots wanting, waiting and watching other plants grow around us. Just as it is the natural evolution of my plant to stretch out her branches, grow new leaves and bask in the sun, so too, is it ours.

Grow, baby, grow.