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Dear Friends,
Before I came to understand
that there is a divine flow in life—a flow that is continually guiding us
toward our highest good—I had the same reaction to almost everything that
occurred in my life that wasn’t obviously beneficial. My immediate reaction was
almost always, “Oh no! This is bad. What am I going to do?”
Notice two things about that
reaction: First, I assumed that whatever was occurring couldn’t possibly be to
my benefit. And second, I believed there was something I needed to do about
it—some action I immediately needed to take to remedy the situation.
When I began to learn more
about the divine flow, however, I discovered that a so-called “bad” situation
is often just a “bend in the stream”—a bend that might lead you in an unwanted
direction for a while, but will later prove to be the best way for you to reach
your chosen destination. If you interfere with that flow—if you try to take
control of the situation too hastily, and try to force things to go the way you
think they should go—you might undermine the miracle that was in the making.
The following story is a good
example of a time when I consciously decided to accept an undesirable situation
and “row with the flow” . . . and it paid off beautifully:
I had recently been
transferred into a new group at the advertising agency where I had spent many
years writing television commercials for clients such as American Airlines,
Long John Silver’s, and JCPenney. My new assignment was to create commercials
for another one of our clients—Subaru automobiles.
I enjoyed everything about my
new assignment, except for one thing: my interactions with the creative
director of the Subaru group were always strained. I began to get the feeling
that upper management had placed me in the Subaru group against this creative
director’s wishes.
One day, the creative
director came into my office and told me he didn’t want me to write television
commercials for Subaru anymore. Instead, he wanted me to develop newspaper ads.
Newspaper ads? Sure, there can still be a lot of creativity in doing print
work. And I was good at it. In fact, my entire career began 25 years earlier
writing newspaper ads for Neiman-Marcus. But in the advertising world, all the
prestige and glamour is in television—not newspaper! Going back to that kind of
work felt like a huge demotion.
Naturally, my first thoughts
were, “Oh no! This is bad. What am I going to do?” And you know what? There was something I could do. I was highly
respected by the president of our agency, and I firmly believed if I complained
to him about my “demotion,” he would either restore me to my position as a
television writer or put me to work creating TV spots for one of our other
clients.
But I didn’t do that. At that
point in my life I had been practicing the principles for living life in the
divine flow for quite some time, and I had learned how to respond instead of
react. So, even though this circumstance didn’t line up with what I thought was
best for me, I hesitated before taking action. I got quiet, went within, and
asked myself this one simple question: “What is my next right step—my divinely guided step?”
Based on my inner guidance, I
sensed that—in this particular instance—the best action I could take was to
take no action at all . . . at least, for the time being. For now, I would just
wait patiently and see how things played out. Well, the blessings began to
bloom almost immediately.
In no time at all I
rediscovered how satisfying it can be to create print ads. I impressed myself
with the number of clever headlines I could come up with for any given subject
about Subarus. Plus, I enjoyed the immediacy of it all. Within days of having a
great idea and selling it to the client, my ad would appear in print.
Conversely, to conceive, sell, and produce a television commercial could take
weeks or even months.
I also quickly realized that
the creative director of the Subaru group wanted nothing to do with the
newspaper portion of the business. I was now essentially my own boss, and I
rarely had to interact with the creative director anymore, which was something we both liked.
And then the biggest benefit
appeared. Our agency had lost some significant business over the years, and
there had already been two rounds of layoffs. A third layoff was announced, and
upper management looked closely at each department to see who was expendable.
Guess what? When they examined the Subaru group, they determined we didn’t need
all the television writers we had, and several were laid off. But my portion of
the business was earning the agency a good income, and they weren’t about to
sacrifice that . . . or me.
So, was my “demotion” a bad
thing? Of course not! It was because of my new position that I was able to stay
with the agency for another year or so, doing work that was creatively, as well
as financially, rewarding. What appeared to be an intolerable situation at
first, turned out to be just a bend in the stream.
Now, does this example mean
that every single unwanted circumstance that occurs in your life is just part
of the flow—a simple bend in the stream? No. Many undesirable events that occur
in your life are not part of the divine flow at all. They are, instead, the
unfortunate consequence of freewill choices you and/or others have made that
are unguided or misguided—the kind of choices that are not in alignment with
the guidance of The Divine. Fortunately, it’s not important to know whether an
unwanted situation you are experiencing is part of the divine flow or not. Why?
Because the flow will continue to guide you to your highest good from wherever you are in life . . . no matter
how or why you arrived at that point.
That means the best way to
respond to any undesirable situation—no matter what brought it about—is always
the same: Instead of hastily judging the situation as “bad” and then rashly
acting on that judgment, simply reaffirm the following: “This can be a stepping
stone to my highest good.” That little bit of positivity is all it takes for
your mind to be more open and receptive to divine guidance . . . so you can
more easily discern what part, if any, you are being divinely directed to play
in the unfolding of that good.
Steven
© 2014 by Steven Lane Taylor
www.rowrowrow.com
Steven Lane Taylor, LLC
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