I read this article in
The Maverick Spirit which is
written by Wayne Mansfield from Perth.
Wayne is a
real 'go-getter' and his seminar schedule is packed
tightly as he tours all the major Australian capital
cities. He has
put together an impressive list of free articles - go
and have a peek - you won't be
disappointed. Anyway, this is a powerful piece
of advice, and I've reproduced it here.
"One of the modern world's true men of wisdom is
Paul
Coelho. He brings to our challenging times a
calmness
that seems to be missing from many peoples writing. I
have just read an article he originally penned years
ago in Spanish that is often requested by the readers
of his books.
The message is particularly powerful for those of
us who are "in between" at the moment. The
future looks scary, the past so comforting and we are
mesmerised into inaction. Coelho's advice should
shake you out of your inaction. The article is
entitled "The Cycle of Happiness."
One always has to know when a
stage comes to an end.
If we insist on staying longer than the necessary
time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the
other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles,
shutting doors, ending chapters - whatever name we
give it, what matters is to leave in the past the
moments of life that have finished.
Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship
come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house?
Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship
ended all of a sudden?
You can spend a long time wondering why this has
happened. You can tell yourself you won't take
another step until you find out why certain things
that were so important and so solid in your life have
turned into dust, just like that.
But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for
everyone involved: your parents, your husband
or wife, your friends, your children, your sister,
everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new
leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad
seeing you at a standstill.
None of us can be in the present and the past at
the same time, not even when we try to understand
the things that happen to us. What has passed
will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late
adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancour towards
our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair
with someone who has gone away and has not the
least intention of coming back.
Things pass, and the best we can do is to let
them really go away. That is why it is so
important (however painful it may be!) to destroy
souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to
orphanages, sell or donate the books you don't want
to have at home. Everything in this visible world is a
manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going
on in our hearts - and getting rid of certain memories
also means making some room for other memories to
take their place.
Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from
them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards,
so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not
expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts
to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your
love to be understood. Stop turning on your
emotional television to watch the same program over
and over again, the one that shows how much you
suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning
you, nothing else.
Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting
love relationships that are broken off, work that is
promised but there is no starting date, decisions that
are always put off waiting for the "ideal
moment." Before a new chapter is begun, the old
one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has
passed will never come back. Remember that there
was a time when you could live without that thing or
that person - nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a
need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be
difficult, but it is very important.
Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity
or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits
your life. Shut the door, change the record,
clean the house, shake off the dust.
Stop being who you were, and change into who
you are.
Great advice wouldn't you agree?
