You see my father didn't believe in the Law of Attraction. He believed that the people who succeeded in life definitely had to have the drive to succeed, but he also believed that success had a lot to do with who you know, God's will and sometimes just plain dumb luck. He didn't believe in the energy based concept of the Law of Attraction, the part where your belief and thoughts can directly affect the outcome of any situation. He didn't get the part about vibrational alignment or that the universe was totally neutral in who it responded to or what it brought them - that it simply matched like-energy to like-energy.
I was really close to my dad and we are very similar in personalities. There's a very good chance I might have followed in his slightly cynical footsteps if it were not for these two pieces of advice that he himself gave me:
1. Read everything and anything you can ever get your hands on and;
2. There is no such thing as a stupid question
My father was not an angry or bitter man by any means. He considered himself and was considered by others to simply be an extremely practical one.
So when it came to the advice about reading he explained it to me in this way. "At least half of the people that you are talking to have no idea what they are talking about." In other words, "Take nothing you hear from another as fact. Read anything and everything you can about the subject and then draw your own conclusions." One of the things my father couldn't stand was when someone would simply repeat something they heard from someone else without having any idea how much of it was based on fact. He told me this even applied to him as well. He would say "I know I am your father, but I do not have all the answers. Go out and find your own answers and discover what you believe to be true."
It's not so hard to see what a major impact this has on my spiritual development. Here was this man who I looked up to more than anyone in my life telling me not to even take his word on anything as fact. He was teaching me that just because someone says that "this is the way it is and always has been" does not make it so.
It is also now a lesson I teach my own son. Do not take even "my" word as fact. Go out and read, play and experiment with ideas, then draw your own conclusions.
The second piece of advice "There is no such thing as a stupid question" probably had an even greater impact on me than the reading one because my father explained it to me this way.
"The stupid person is the one who didn't ask the question and walks out of the room still not knowing the answer."
Granted when I was younger this was definitely the harder one to put into practice. Being naturally on the shy side I hated drawing attention to myself or having others looking at me like I was an idiot. But thanks to Dad's advice and the mental picture he drew for me it was more important for me to not be "the stupid person walking out of the room still not knowing the answer."
Nowadays I think nothing of interrupting someone for clarification on what they are talking about when I don't understand and I will tell you why.
I truly cannot tell you how many times I have been the one to ask the "stupid" question and found out how many others in the room also didn't know the answer but were too afraid to ask. How many times they would come up to me and said "I am so glad you asked that, because I didn't have a clue either."
Secondly, sometimes when someone goes into further detail you will get a better sense of the subject and find that maybe you disagree. Maybe it doesn’t' sit right for you. So instead of leaving the room just taking what they said as gospel, you now have more information to make a better informed decision.
And if by any chance you are worried about the persons reaction when asking the question…don't.
I have found that 99% of the people you will ask for clarification on something will have no problem going into further details on the subject, especially if it is something they feel passionate about. Most people love to talk about what they love.
If you do get the oddball who looks at you stunned and says "You mean to tell me you really don't know the answer to that?" blow it off with a "No sorry. I've been too involved studying nuclear fission to keep up on the latest football scores (or whatever the subject happens to be about)."
So as you move along in your own spiritual development you may be wise to take my fathers advice.
Read any and every thing you can get your hands on and remember there is no such thing as a stupid question.
You'll be surprised at what you learn.
Happy Creating!
P.S. In case any of you were wondering how my weekend in Atlantic City went, I wanted to let you know it was awesome! When all was said and done I only came home winning $200 but what fun it was to earn! I had a full out batlle with a poker machine down there. I was on it for over 5 hours! It would have gone on longer but I had a buffet with my name on it. Oh, I just love that place!
Till Tomorrow!
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