Want More Power? Make More Distinctions Not More Meanings!

TB Wright

What is a distinction? Hot or cold. Up or down. Those are distinctions. They give us valuable information about the world around us. What is a meaning? It's good that it's hot. It's bad that it's cold. Those are meanings. They give us no information about the world around us. They only give us information about the world inside us. We make distinctions because they give us access to our power, through paying attention to the world around us. The value in making distinctions, versus meanings, is that the more we are aware of the world around us, the more effective our choices can be. In the above example, one effective choice would be to put on a warm coat, because you have made the distinction that it is in fact cold outside. In this case, you also took action regardless of how you feel about the cold.

There are many very powerful distinctions to be made, and the more we make them, the more we practice our own power to be with the world as it is¸ not as we either want it to be, or would like it to be. To the extent that we can be with what is¸ which is to see things as they are and that's it, is to the extent that for whatever power we access, we can then use that power in the most effective way possible. This would be to put on that warm coat and just handle our response to the weather, quite whether we like what it's doing outside or not. Because it's doing outside, what it's doing outside, regardless.

By way of another example, what if we realized that we didn't have enough money to meet our obligations? To observe that fact, would be to "be with" the world as it is. Okay, I don't have enough money right now. Right now, because any observation is always a snapshot of the world as it is, in that moment, which is not necessarily how the world is going to appear in the next moment. Remember the Universal Law Of Change? This Law that states that everything always changes, and that nothing, and no one, ever escapes this truth. If everything always changes, then observations can only be snapshots. And yes, some things may take a long time to change, but change they do. Everything does.

So we've taken that snapshot and it tells us that we don't have enough money. Okay, what does that mean? What that means is, that we don't have enough money in that moment. We could even not have enough money in the next moment, it doesn’t matter. For the time being, our observation of the world around us tells us that we don't have enough money right now when that snapshot was taken. Having money or not is not right, it's not wrong, it does not mean that we are bad, failures, or necessarily suffering, what it means is that in that moment, we do not have enough money.

Now comes the powerful part of distinction making. With every distinction we make, there are only two options. Only two! The first option is to do nothing, and let what is, just be. And people do that all the time. They don't have enough money, and instead of going to option two, instead, take option one, and just either let it be, or they go further than that and contribute to the continuation of the circumstance they are in by telling stories about, and having feelings of, poverty and lack. Because if anything continues on, it can only continue on with our help, especially when everything always changes! There's absolutely no way for things to stay the same without our participation in that game. And again, people do this all the time. That they carefully maintain their poverty is not bad, it is not good. What it is, is just what they do sometimes. Not all the time, but enough of the time to make the poverty mindset an object of attack for most self-help "teachers."

The second option. This would be to see what is, decide whether it's alright for what is to be that way for you, and then if it's not, to take action to remedy it. Those actions could be to generate a riches mindset, to go out and get a job, to start a business, or any and all means or methods that would in fact, change your money situation. And you will have great feedback for the effectiveness of your efforts the second you look into your checkbook. And it's not that some ventures won't take some time to pay off in monetary value, they often do. So give yourself whatever time you need to generate that cash before you start saying anything isn't working. The time it takes isn't what this is about, it's about what distinctions you make that serve you to be successful. When you look at those snapshots, just give yourself the leeway to have enough time for them to develop to your satisfaction. It took me many, many, years for that to happen. So the invitation is to give yourself whatever time you need. You are worth it.

One other valuable distinction to make is that meanings are things that we make up, while observations are things that we become aware of. The customary problem is that the meanings we usually make up either upset us, or appear as blocks to our fluidity in motion. Fluidity in motion is energy, and it takes energy to accomplish any goal in life, bar none. Therefore, the more fluidity we have, the more energy we have available for powering up our success. Hence, the incredible value of making distinctions!