This is an anecdote about reverse engineering our thoughts to achieve the dreams we wish to achieve.
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There can be no growth, no innovative thoughts or creativity when we choose to have fixated thinking. For static thinking relies on our past disappointment or success to confirm our present and future outcomes.
Placing expectations on unknown territories would (more likely) than not, leave us disappointed.
I can remember the handful of times when I first started fishing, first, land base where the shoreline is heavily pressured (overfished).
This lowers my chances of tricking the fish to take my soft plastic. Many times I went out all bright eyed, eager to catch a fish and quickly my hopes and expectations got dashed.
This went on and on for (the prime) fishing seasons. I stopped fishing for a time, the disappointment ate at me and my confidence.
Instead of asking myself the fundamental question of: How was I going to do things differently the next time I went out? and reverse engineered my thoughts.
We cannot be creative and forward thinking if we allow ourselves to be consumed by failure and disappointments. This is all part of the journey.
How do we move forward and find our personal success?
We cannot expect what worked in the past, to work for us in the present or even the future. Allowing ourselves to engage in something new without an agenda (expectations) and allowing ourselves to move with the circumstances and adjust our course along the way is the way to figure out how to best operate our lives.
This is what fishing has ultimately taught me:
Fishing is like going into a battle, you need to slow down your own prejudice, assumptions and what you think (may) work and observe the environment. For it is in the minutia of details that will ultimately catch you that trophy fish or a fish at the least, or going home empty handed.
You cannot overthink the process and it requires fast (opportunistic) reaction because the battle is between you and the fish. And for the love of God, it too has all the will underwater to survive and live another day.
To be a great angler and catch that trophy fish, is to be able to read the environment of your competitor and know its behaviour. Just like life, one must be a good tactician.
For everything starts with a dream. But even dreams need strategy and the ability to recover from setbacks and understand it, and adjust accordingly.
A ruminating Heart 