The Difference Between Thinking, Talking, and Doing
The Union Path Podcast
The Difference Between Thinking, Talking, and Doing
Transcript:
[0:00:20] John Coleman: When I think about manifestation, when I think about the journey that things take going from non being into being there seems to be a fairly clear process that tends to unfold. There seem to be very clear steps that ideas take before they become real. And I think it's useful when we make these kinds of observations, when we notice that things tend to work a certain way to spend time with these ideas, to really spend time pondering them, spend time trying them, seeking to verify if this is actually true, if this is how things actually work. Because the more we can identify and know how things seem to work the greater our confidence becomes. The less confusion we deal with, the less uncertainty we get stuck in. And this process, this process of manifestation, this process of things becoming real seems to follow the steps of idea, of knowing, of speaking, of doing, of being. I think if we look at the creative act, if we look at the creative process at least for me anyway it seems like all these steps are represented. This just seems to be how things work. That things start out with an initial idea. That that line a lot of us have heard in the beginning was the word. The word really does start things, really does kick this process off, really does begin this cycle anew. Because when we think about this idea, this word word what does this really mean to me anyway? This means a defined idea, a nugget of an idea, an idea that's separate from the overall stream of ideas. An idea that has a sense of individuality, has a sense of separateness that makes it stand out. And more than that, this idea of the word, the word has a particular definition, has a particular shape, it has a particular meaning.
[0:02:50] John Coleman: We think about language, we think about this is what words are. Words are encapsulations of ideas with their own specific definition and own specific meaning. And this process is a highly personal one. Even though there are norms of how things are defined and what they mean ultimately, especially with ideas, definitions and meanings become largely personal. Truth is largely personal because in order for something to be really true, really fully known it has to be experienced. And everyone's individual experience is unique. No people experience the same thing the exact same way. There's always variance individuality and experience is inescapable. Experience is always individual. And so if we think about this creative process, this manifesting of things, whether they be physical or conceptual it really does start with this original germ, this original seed. Sometimes it comes in as an inspiration. Sometimes it comes in as a bit of a vision of some sort of change. We'd like to see something different. We'd like to experience. When we have this inspiration, when we have this vision I think it's really important to remember that this is only part of the process.
[0:04:25] John Coleman: This is only part of the process of creation. In order for something to really become fully manifested, it has to move through different states. In this initial word, this initial inspiration, as valuable and important as it is, is simply the first step, the first state that all creation must run through. And so if we think of the state beyond this, beyond this vision, beyond this idea, the I think we get into the state of thinking, the state of pondering the state, of expanding the state, of taking this idea, bouncing other ideas off of it, merging it, combining it with other ideas, other concepts. It's kind of a molding and shaping process that we can compare and contrast with other ideas to understand this vision, understand this word even more clearly. There seems to be a bit of shaping that goes on during this process. There seems to be a revealing that happens in this process that we can really understand this basic germinal idea more through thinking about it. And the we move beyond this thinking into speaking. We convert this idea into a language, we talk to others about it, perhaps we talk to ourselves about it through some sort of journaling practice or what have you. But there seems to be something critical in this step too, of taking this germinal idea, running it through our thinking and then converting it to speaking. Then it seems to be the next step is to convert that speaking into doing, into action, into behavior, into things we do in our physical world, to move this process along. And then after a time of our doing, then the final step of this creation is being is when something is. Because when this step is achieved, obviously none of the other steps are required anymore. Once something is, it's no longer inspiration, it no longer really needs to be thought about. It no longer really needs to be spoken of.
[0:06:53] John Coleman: It no longer requires any sort of action or behavior. It just is. It's made that trek, it's made that journey from non being into being. And then it seems the process starts all over again. That that's life. Endless times running through this process of creation. And I think why this is really important to think about and really important to look at. At the very least, look at how this seems to be for us is that a lot of times we find that what we create, what we manifest, isn't necessarily what we actually want, isn't necessarily what we'd really like, isn't necessarily a fit with a life that we actually want to live with a person that we actually want to be. And in times like this, it gets really useful to look at the creative process itself and ask ourselves how is this really being run how is this really being run through us? What's driving this creative process? What is causing us to get stuck in this process and let these realizations lead to change in running this process a little bit more smoothly, a little bit more intentionally. Because there really is a difference between all of these things. And it's important for the creative process to run fully, that the creative process be allowed to run completely oftentimes it can be so easy to get in our own way, to trip over our own shoelaces because we ourselves are standing in the way of this process. We ourselves are blocking this process. We ourselves are resisting this process in some way for some reason.
[0:08:44] John Coleman: Or it could be that this process is running through our life largely unconscious. That we can't stop creation, we can't stop manifestation that's happening constantly all the time, whether we're aware of it or not. But we can become aware of what we can do to affect this process is to bring our own intention to it, especially if there's something specific that we want to create. It's important to understand how we ourselves are running and guiding this process, what energies we ourselves are acclimating with, what is driving and fueling this process of manifestation in our lives. But if we look at something we're trying to create, perhaps it's something we've been trying to create for a long time and we seem sort of stuck. This idea, this manifestation just seems to be separate from us. Never really seems to come, always seems to be out there, always seems to be something that will happen someday, somehow, but never really seems to. Well, if we are the creators of our own experience, why is this? Why are these things that we're trying to create not actually happening? Where in this creative process have things fallen down? Where in this creative process have things gotten stuck? Where in this creative process have things gone off on some sort of tangent? Have gone askew? And astray in it manifesting something different from what we actually want. I think it's interesting to take these times of frustration, take these times of things not really going how we want, these times of stagnation, these times of dissatisfaction to really look at this creative process and look at how it's actually working for us, how it's actually working through us.
[0:10:57] John Coleman: And especially if we find ourselves stuck, especially if we find ourselves stagnated, we're usually stuck at one step of this process. We're usually not letting the process continue because we've erected some sort of barrier. And usually the reason that we've erected some sort of barrier is fear. It's kind of a funny paradox of life that a lot of the things that we really want the most really scare us. We really find them frightening or even if they don't overtly scare us, there's some sort of fear often underneath there somewhere. Whether it's a fear that we really don't deserve what we actually want whether it's a fear that what we want isn't actually possible, whatever it is, if we're blocked in this creative process. It's been my experience anyway, that fear is usually in there somewhere and that in order to get through this creative process with intention, cleanly, purely, it requires confronting fear. It requires confronting our own fear. It requires confronting our own beliefs about what's possible. It requires confronting our own beliefs on what we deserve. Because in my opinion, it's one of my core beliefs that we're not meant to live life tortured by what we want. We're not meant to live life not being able to experience what we truly want to experience. We have these desires for a reason. That these desires, when they're deeply felt, when they really feel like they're a part of who and what we really are, is that part of ourselves calling us forward, calling us towards it. These desires are the more idealized versions of ourselves, beckoning us closer, encouraging us on, encouraging us to become greater, to become more, to become more of who we really are.
[0:13:17] John Coleman: When this creative process manifests things we don't really want, it's usually because there's some adulterant, there's some energy entering the process that's actually counter to where we're trying to go. That's actually the opposite of what we're trying to create. And that's precisely what fear is. Fear is the inverse of our true desires. Fear is the negating force to achieving and living and attaining what we actually want. Fear is the negative polarity of desire. That's not to say that fear is some sort of villain. That's not to say fear is some sort of enemy that we need to fight and vanquish and destroy in order to have what we truly want. Fear is useful. Fear is meant to be worked with because it's the fear that's bringing to light areas of ourselves that need some attention. It's the fear that can illuminate which parts of ourselves and in what areas need to grow, need attention, need healing. So as uncomfortable as fear can be, we really can develop a relationship with it to where it doesn't completely sabotage us, where it can actually be useful. It may never be the most comfortable thing in the world, but it can be helpful. And so if we look at this creative process, a lot of times where we get stuck is before the doing phase. We can all have dreams, we can all have desires.
[0:15:07] John Coleman: We can capture this vision, we can think about it and ponder it. We can talk about it sometimes endlessly with others. Then often that's where we get stuck. Because then we don't seem to actually do anything. We don't seem to actually take action towards achieving or attaining whatever this is that we want. Because as long as things just exist in our heads, as long as things are just ideas, as long as things are just talking, there's not really a lot of risk in that. That's not really, quote unquote real. And so if we're scared, if these ideas ultimately bring up some sort of fear in us. That's one of the ways we can mitigate and avoid whatever we're scared of. We can keep things in the potential realm. We can keep things in the theoretical realm because if we block them from becoming physical, if we block them from becoming real we'll never really have to face our fears. And because our desires are fed by every step of the creative process we get something out of every step. But for things that we really want, that we really want to see made manifest it's important to go through the creative process all the way. It's important to allow the creative process to play itself out fully because I think we all know there's a big difference between knowing something and doing something. There's a big difference between talking about something and actually being something.
[0:16:49] John Coleman: Especially a lot of us. Once we embark down this spiritual path we can get so busy in the accumulation of knowledge. We can spend so much time learning and never really translate that into doing. We see this reflected in the idea of faith without works is dead. What does this really mean? Well, this really means that we undercut the value of all of this spiritual information, spiritual wisdom, spiritual knowing. If we never actually act on it, if we never actually do it that confines all of this knowing and wisdom to the realm of thought. Things are never really made manifest. Things never really become real as we ourselves are sequestering them in our thinking or in our speaking. We're never taking that next step into doing which if we want to get to the step of actually being, this doing step cannot be skipped. This is part of the process. In order to go from non being to being, there has to be doing. We actually have to apply what we know. We actually have to do what we believe in. We have to put all of this knowledge and all of this wisdom, all of this belief, all of this faith into action.
[0:18:23] John Coleman: There's no way around it. But this action doesn't have to be a massive amount of effort. This action doesn't have to be really quote unquote hard work. A lot of times if we're really united with a vision, united with an idea a lot of this work will actually be pretty effortless. A lot of it will often seem to kind of happen on its own. So it's not about applying any kind of heroic striving. It's really more about allowing. It's really more about getting out of the way and letting this energy naturally transition into doing the way it wants to. These ideas, these visions, when they come to us, especially if they're really impactful, especially if there's a lot of energy around it, especially if we can feel the positive change embedded in them these ideas want to be expressed. They come to us for a reason. We resonate with them for a reason. We perceive this energy for a reason. Ideas want to be expressed in good ideas, even more so. But we have to be willing, we have to allow these ideas to translate into action. We have to let the energy of these ideas flow through us and be expressed in our behavior.
[0:19:49] John Coleman: And so if we're stuck, if there's something that we've been trying to create, trying to live, trying to achieve, try to be and it just always seems separate from us I think it's useful to ask ourselves, well how have these ideas been present in our action? What have we actually been doing about it? If we don't know what to do, if the way forward doesn't seem clear, it doesn't seem like there's something we can actually do, it's my belief, I've found that it's enough to simply be willing to do it's enough to simply remove that obstacle of unwillingness to do, unwillingness to move, unwillingness to try. Because just like the idea originally came in in its inspired form the right action will come in in its inspired form as well. We'll know it. It will have the same feeling, it'll have the same tenor. It'll have its own energy to it. In a lot of ways, our work is just being willing to go along with it, being willing to do, being willing to try. Finding ways to transcend our own fear finding ways to transcend our own negative beliefs about whatever this is, of finding that there's a real, fundamental difference between an idea, between thinking about that idea, between talking about that idea, between expressing that idea and being that idea. Every step of the creative process is just as important as every other step. And we come to life we all come to this life for the purpose of creation, for the purpose of serving creation, for the purpose of bringing in and manifesting. The more ideal, the more perfect, the more true. And when we have these desires within us that feel this way, that feel more ideal, that feel more true, that we feel or a more pure, idealized expression of who and what we really are, the it's our responsibility. It's our opportunity to allow this creative process to unfold, to see this manifested, to not only be the keepers and the knowers of the idea, but the experiencers of the experience. We not only get to think about it and talk about it, we actually get to live it.
[0:22:30] John Coleman: We actually get to be it. That's the whole point. And when we can allow ourselves to be one with these ideas, when we can allow ourselves to be one with the creative process, when we can allow ourselves to manifest the more ideal and the more we cooperate with all of creation, the more we cooperate with all of life, the more we're here doing what we're actually here to do. For a lot of us, learning to resist less and allow more really is the work. It really is the work often to learn how to do less, to be less in the way of our ideal, to be less, in the way of what we want, to be less, in the way of the expression of who and what we really are. And we know these expressions of who and what we really are through our desires, through these inspirations, through these visions. And it's this creative process that makes these things so. It's this creative process that makes everything so. And when we have the inspiration that we have different intentions for this creative process, we have different things we want to create, we have different things we want to be, we have different things we want to live. And we're the ones who get to engage in this creative process, we're the ones who are stewards of it, we are the creative force in our own life. And it's the energy of these desires, of these visions, of this inspiration that's the animating force. Because these ideas, these visions need both the need both the idea and the energy in order to create expression. And we're the ones who get to allow it, we're the ones who get to experience it, we're the ones who get to be the creators and the beneficiaries of what we create. And we can choose to create whatever we align with. And the more ideal what we align with, the more full, the more true to who and what we really are that we align with, the more of that energy will flow through us to its expression.
[0:25:08] John Coleman: That when we let fear block us, when we let fear talk us out of what we really want, when we let fear convince us away from who and what we really are, then we lose that energy. Then we have to resort to things like will. Then we have to run on the energy of fear, on the energy of avoidance which creates its own negative circumstances and outcomes. But we can prevent this negating power of fear by allowing ourselves to express our true selves, by allowing these visions, these ideas, these inspirations to flow through us as purely and cleanly and with as little resistance as possible. Because when we're not stuck in fear, we'll find our creative processes not stuck either. And we get to choose when we encounter fear, we get to choose how we confront it, we get to choose what we do with it. Same thing when we encounter these visions or inspirations, we choose what we do with them. And if these are things we really want, if these are things we truly deeply desire, then it's important for us to go with them. It's important for us to see them manifested, to see them made real because this is the more idealized version of ourselves that we're trying to be. And we get to choose. We get to choose how we do this. We get to choose whether or not we do this but if they're things that we truly want to be, if we truly want to bring these ideas and inspirations and visions into actual being it's important for us to actually do to actually express them. We can start from wherever we are. Even if these ideas are some grand vision for some completely different future we can start from where we are. We can capture whatever piece of it is accessible right now and start doing that.
[0:27:22] John Coleman: We don't have to wait. We don't have to someday our desires we can find a way to start living them right now on whatever scale we can. We can really connect with a feeling of what that idealized thing or idealized life or idealized day really feels like. We can start living that today, right now, in whatever capacity is available to us. We can find all the ways we can feel the way we want to feel now under our present circumstances might mean we have to do different things. It might just mean we have to shift our perspective a bit. It might mean we need more faith. We need to believe that the deep heartfelt ideas and visions for ourselves are not only possible but are happening, are becoming are becoming more and more real. The more we connect with them, the more we express them and we can do that now. We can do that from wherever we are. We can start today. We can start in this moment to bring in more being of our own ideal. We can let go of our fear. We can want what we really want. We can be who we want to be.
[0:28:52] John Coleman: We can do what we want to do. We can follow the lead that our desires are encouraging us to. We can go with the we could submit to them. We can drop our arguing and resisting against them and just try, just go allow ourselves to move with them and see where that takes us. Really seize these feelings, feel it as deeply as we can on the inside and allow that to manifest through our expression. Follow this feeling, follow inspired action that comes to us that feels like this and keep going. Allow our desires, allow the idealized vision of ourselves to carry us, to motivate us to animate us and allow inspired action to arise as it will and keep going, keep moving towards keep leaning towards keep assuming our idealized life and not assume it because we're trying to change who we really are. Assume it because we understand this is who we really are. Understand that a big part of our work is dropping illusions, dropping the untrue discontinue, being a person who we really aren't, express the truth of who and what we really are by connecting with that on as deep a level as we possibly can and letting that through to our expression, connecting with that energy and following it. And we'll continue to do this our entire lives. Life is the constant presentation and satisfaction of desire. It repeats over and over and over again. We get a hunger for something, we get satisfied. We get another hunger for something. We eventually get satisfied on that too.
[0:31:11] John Coleman: Whether that satisfaction comes from the complete fulfillment whatever that hunger was or this satisfaction comes from deciding we didn't actually really want that so much in the first place. But whatever it is life is a constant series of appetites being satisfied. And we do ourselves a lot of favors by going along with it, by not resisting. This is how life works. If we find ourselves chasing desires that really aren't us or really aren't that helpful or don't really feel that good well, that's useful information. But it doesn't stop the fact that more desires are coming. Desire isn't the enemy. When we feel quarrels with desire it usually has more to do with the types of desires we're aligning with or the types of energies we're aligning with. And if we look within, we know. We know what kind of energies we're aligning with. We know how things actually feel and we also know the more idealized version of how we feel. We know progress when we see it. We know truth when we see it. We know growth when we see it. And all we have to do is go along.
[0:32:30] John Coleman: All we have to do is be willing to grow. All we have to do is to allow growth to find this more ideal expressing itself through us. And there's always more. There's always a more ideal to whatever level of ideal we've already attained. That's the beauty of it. This is infinity. It moves on forever and we get to move and we get to grow and we get to expand right along with it. And that's the beauty of life. That's the beauty of creation. It's always growing and expanding it's always growing and expanding to a more idealized version of itself and we find union with life by cooperating, by we ourselves moving to a more idealized version of ourselves that we ourselves living a more idealized version of our life by we ourselves being a more idealized being and this never ends. This is a beautiful golden upward spiral that we always have the pleasure to be able to climb. That's what we're here to do. That's why we're here. That's what we're here to express is the more ideal and we can seize this in any moment. We can utilize the creative process that's unfolding in our life right now to seek and feel after the more ideal to connect with the more ideal to express the more ideal and to see the more ideal made manifest in our life.
[0:34:18] John Coleman: This is our journey to perfection. This is our journey in our union with spirit because we find our way to fullness we find our way to truth through the more ideal and we can always choose the more ideal from wherever we are in whatever we do.