I want to share something with you that is close to me.
Some time ago I went through some pretty big changes in my life and decided to start my own company, Genius Institute. Although I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, I really had no clue. I wanted to change the world and my company was going to be the vessel that I use to do so.
Since making that decision I’ve come up against all sorts of challenges. As I’m sure you understand when you make a grand declaration like that you attract grand head-slaps from the universe to make sure that you’re headstrong enough to handle it.
That’s really tough to endure and in all honesty, I think it’s been blind determination and in some part ignorance that kept me moving through the challenges that I was being handed. Creating drastic change in your life can take some adjusting and it certainly comes with growing pains. These pains are difficult but necessary.
Along with different people who helped me get through these challenges, one that stands out as an incredible help has been the ocean. This has been something that has always helped me in life. As I go through all sorts of frustrations and sh*tty experiences that really test my patience and determination, there has always been my personal remedy – the ocean.
Whenever I had moments where I felt the challenge and difficulty were getting too much to handle, I would take myself to the ocean. Preferably right out to the edge of land. At first, I thought I was doing it to help me calm down and relax, but the more I went out there, the more I came to realise why I did.
It helped me gain immediate perspective on everything. When you place yourself in an environment where it’s almost impossible to have tunnel vision, things begin to seem not so bad. Then this other thing occurs. You experience the natural and immense power of the ocean. Here waves of energy that have been travelling for kilometres, building up tonnes of energy, crash against the land that has spent millions of years building itself up. Magic happens at the border of support and challenge (yes that is applied to our lives too), and it can be directly witnessed at the border of land (support) and sea (challenge).
While taking all of this in, your body begins to adjust the speed of your breath and your heart rate. There’s a direct correlation between the rate of crashing waves and the rate of your breathing when you’re calm and balanced. Then another amazing thing takes place. You begin to compare yourself to the ocean. We are just a tiny drop in the literal ocean and yet our problems can seem as big as all of the planet itself.
Now, consider this. The ocean knows exactly what to do. Each and every day it gathers all this energy and nurtures life, it provides a home to the most diverse culture of beings (sea life) around the world, it controls the temperature of the planet and it gives us water (through the rain) to survive. No one is controlling that. No single person or group of people are controlling that. No computer, internet, smartphone or app. So imagine what would happen if we trusted nature with our problems. What would happen if we just let go of trying to control the outcome and trust that the problem will reveal its own solution naturally?
We’ve all had those times where we’ve resigned ourselves to letting nature or fate take its path because everything we’ve tried up until that point hasn’t worked. Chances are things would work out ok. What would happen if we resigned ourselves to nature prior to the problem arising? Would the problem actually occur at all? Well, the ocean has helped me do that over the years and it continues to do an amazing job of helping me let go and trust the process of nature.
I know it’s easy to sit here and read me saying “just let go”. It’s not easy to do initially so I suggest trying it with one small problem in your life and see what happens. What do you stand to lose if you let go of trying to control the outcome?