Trendy and hip platitudes have a strong pull but they aren’t always accurate. People like talking about the universe supporting them. Does the universe have consciousness or free choice? It’s authentic confidence based on a reliable source that supports us, not the universe.
What in the world is the universe? The universe will not support you because the universe doesn’t have consciousness and doesn’t have free choice like you do.
I’ve come to realize over time that the pull to be a part of whatever is trendy, whatever is modern, whatever is the new idea is so strong, it’s far stronger than I used to realize. And it’s as if we want to join this new movement where we become part of the liberated ones who know better than the old outdated mind of the previous generation who just didn’t get it, as we like to say. And I’ve learned with time, after having been sucked into such types of thought patterns, that it’s only a matter of years where if we’re open, we suddenly realize that of course those who were older than us thought of these ideas and of course they already have the experience to know the flaws of these ideas, which is why they don’t subscribe to them.
There are lots of hip and trendy terminology, which is also very easy to get sucked into. The sort of platitudes. And anything that lacks substance ultimately catches up with us because it doesn’t have legs to stand on. And so I’ve become very weary of any trendy new idea that seems to be like this liberating idea which is just taking us into a whole new realm. And I look at that very carefully and for a long while before I subscribe to any such ideas or thought patterns.
And so there is this language that I’ve been hearing and reading a lot, which has to do with the universe. And many people use this terminology, and I’m just going to quote a few phrases that I’ve recently come across that uses terminology. Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. It sounds so wonderful and so powerful and it really is empowering because it’s encouraging us to make a decision, just make that decision and run with it and the universe will conspire to make it happen. Or, when you follow the path that is right for you, the universe will support you. Just follow that path and you will see that everything around you, the universe is suddenly going to be supporting that path. Or another saying, trust what and how you are and the universe will support you in amazing ways.
It all sounds so beautiful and I’m here to tell you that the universe will not support you. The universe cannot support you. And these are all platitudes. What in the world is the universe? No pun intended over there. What in the world is the universe? The universe will not support you because the universe doesn’t have consciousness and doesn’t have free choice like you do. Here is what does happen when we make a firm decision to go down a path with conviction, no longer questioning whether I should be on the path but running down that path. We exude in anything we do, we exude what we are feeling. And when we are feeling conviction, we exude that conviction to the people around us. And often others who are outside of us experience that energy, that feeling that we bring into what we do even more than we do. And that’s the power of someone making a decision or following a path. They have a confidence that comes from a conviction.
You see, when we’re in conflict and our confidence really isn’t about what we’re trying to do but it’s about maybe an agenda we have, then there’s a discrepancy that exists between our confidence and what we’re doing. And that comes across, we exude that. But when we exude true authentic connection to what we’re doing because we really believe in the thing that we are committed to and it shows in our commitment because we are unwavering and we are fully committed, then we exude a confidence. And that confidence that we bring to the table, not that the universe gives us, that we bring to the table, is actually what other people feel, what everything around us feels and everyone responds in kind.
You know, it’s similar to when there is an emergency and a crowd gathers because something, something just happened, someone, got hurt terribly. And 90 percent of the people that are looking, one guy gets up and he starts giving orders to everyone. You, go call 911. You grab, get a bandage, you this and that. And everyone starts listening because all it takes is a person with conviction. And people respond to that authentic alignment that we have between what we’re feeling, what we’re saying and what we’re doing.
This is the reason why when some people will reassure us about a doubt that we have, it will mean nothing to us. But other people will reassure us about a doubt that we have and it means everything to us. Because this person is not just reassuring us to make us feel better, this person is reassuring us because they believe there is nothing to worry about, they believe it’s going to work out, they believe we’re going to get through it, whatever it may be. When it comes from that type of a place, then it has that type of impact. When we make a decision that way, then things work out much better. That’s because of what we are bringing to the table.
That’s the reason why some convince us to do certain things and others don’t. That’s the reason why you will find that you’ll have a person who is very polished, who has prepared a presentation and knows how to articulate it and is humorous and has the entire perfection of an outstanding speaker. And you’ll see someone who is totally unpolished, doesn’t have a good vocabulary, is not very clear in expressing themselves but they speak from the heart, and that person can carry a crowd far more than the polished speaker.
Because it’s the energy, the conviction, the authenticity that we bring to what we do, that energy is what creates the support for what we’re doing.
Sometimes we believe something to be true but we’re not ready to fully stand behind it. That means we’re not fully aligned with it yet. Authenticity is knowing this to be true and saying, I will not let anything slow me down in my relationship with it. We become authentic to that thing completely. That is what makes our decisions so powerful.
There’s a saying ‑‑ there’s a teaching from the Talmud, b’derech she’adam rotzeh leilech, moleechen oso, in the way that man wants to go, God leads him. God says, Man, as in human being, you have free choice. I’m not going to control your life. You get to choose the path you want to take. You want to take the good path, I will support that; you want to take the negative path, I will support that, too. Because you have free choice and you determine how your life is going to be. So where does a person find the ability to have confidence? Well, I’m just going to say this in a minute or two. Healthy confidence is knowing that this is what God created me for. Confidence is knowing that this is what God wants from me. Confidence is knowing that God gave me this ability, this talent, this uniqueness because he wants me to do this. And when we step up with that confidence, it is not the universe that supports us, it is God that supports us. It is our conviction, our willingness to submit ourselves to the cause that makes us authentic to what God wants from us that we suddenly find the infinite power of God behind us instead of our own limited finite power.
And so we can go back to some of these sayings, quotes that people make and we can simply say, once you make a decision, the Almighty and Infinite God will conspire with you to make it happen. When you follow the path that God designed for you, then God will support you and you will discover an ability that is far greater than you within you.