“If the process of life can create and take care of the entire universe, is it really reasonable for us to assume that nothing good will happen unless we force it to?” – Michael Singer
In high school, I brought the full force of my “manifestation” powers to bear on a single goal:
Playing basketball for Team Ontario.
(a team that boasted a future NBA player and a crop of overseas pros)
I spent hours visualizing myself dominating the tryouts, hearing my name called, putting on the jersey, and stepping onto the floor at the National Championships.
I trained so hard I nearly tore a calf muscle from overuse, and when tryouts rolled around, I played like a man possessed.
I’d done everything I could — there was nothing more I could give.
I knew I deserved a spot on that team.
And when the coach of our division told me I was about to make the final roster, I exhaled in relief:
Manifestation, complete.
Only, it wasn’t:
On the final day of tryouts, the head coach dropped out and a new coach took his place.
This new coach didn’t know who I was, had never seen me play, and brought his own players from his own city with him…
…Players who bumped me off of the main roster into an alternate position.
I couldn’t believe it:
I’d spent an entire year “manifesting” my face off, working yesterday’s formula to the bone:
Clarity x Desire x Action = Result
I was perfectly clear about what I wanted, and I wanted it so badly I nearly broke my body from all the action I took.
So where was my result?!
Later that night, I sat on the side of my bed and wept.
I’d been disappointed before, but this time was different — it was too unfair, too political, too cruel.
“So much for The Secret,” I thought, “this manifesting stuff is for suckers.”
I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I went to the one place I could feel at peace:
The gym.
When I walked through the door, an older local player was training at the other end of the court.
He had just arrived home after a year of playing professionally in Italy — and, funny enough, had also been cut from Team Ontario when he was younger.
We hit it off, and the rest is history:
I paid him to train me for the summer, made a gigantic leap in my game, and developed the core philosophy that went on to become Elite Guard Training:
A multi-million dollar business that transformed my life and set me on the wild and crazy path to where we are today.
If I’d made Team Ontario, I would never have trained with him that summer…
…And if I hadn’t, who knows if Elite Guard Training (or, this inner development work we’re doing now) would even exist?
Looking back now, getting cut from Team Ontario was a pivotal event in my life.
And what felt horribly wrong in the moment was only a small part of a much, much larger right, in the end.
Which brings us to the final piece of our “manifestation” formula:
(hat tip to Jonas for calling this one ahead of time…)
Clarity x Desire x Action x Surrender = Result.
This is how all great things are created:
Not by bending reality to your vision, but by collaborating on your vision with reality.
It’s yin and yang, power and relaxation, force and flow.
Action and surrender.
The surfer doesn’t steer the ocean, he rides it:
He knows the ocean is far more powerful than he is — and by surrendering to the ocean, he taps into that power.
In the same way…
Our true creative power is unlocked by surrendering to a power far greater than we are, and allowing our vision to evolve into something far greater than we’d ever imagined.
– T
P.S. There’s a lot more to say on this topic (as you can probably tell)…
…But I’m going to save it for that bonus module in our upcoming Self Design course I mentioned yesterday.
More details soon 🙂
