Week 7 – Random Thoughts on Love and Success

November 14, 2014 by masterkey4MaryLou 10 Comments

Borrowing my title from Thomas Sowell, one of my favorite authors, I’ve been pondering the first two of Mandino’s scrolls and how they intersect, especially in the last sentence of Scroll 2 — ” I will greet this day with love, and I will succeed.” First confession:  when I saw the first line of Scroll 2, I really once again considered just dropping this whole course. My subby has been keeping me “safe” from “love” for so many years that I was totally unprepared to confront the subject here in this “business improvement” arena.

Actually the first time I considered “disappearing” was when the instruction came to publish blogs so everyone who knows me could follow my progress…but then, I never use any social media to keep in touch with people (mainly because I’ve never taken time to learn how, and also I’m a pretty private person), so my subby has been keeping me safe by causing some kind of challenge with every new learning experience. (Remember my first blog had no entry??)  But through the last  few weeks, I have gradually taught good ole subby that it’s not so dangerous out there to venture into the unknown — MKMMA teammates have been so encouraging and helpful, and have shared so many of their own struggles that I don’t feel so embarrassed about my own shortcomings (too much EGO perhaps??) So I am learning how to invite my email readers to my blog site, and then seeing what happens.

Back to random thoughts — a very insightful mentor many years ago challenged me with the idea that failure really isn’t the opposite of success. Every successful person has overcome countless failures, just as a child learning to walk falls many times, but no one sees him as a failure! The real opposite of success is settling or giving up — perhaps allowing that subby to convince one to stay comfortable and safe. Could that be what has happened to so many of our teammates whose blog addresses have disappeared?

As Mandino says, failure is simply man’s inability to reach his goals in life. Perhaps that could be expanded to say, man’s decision to stop working on reaching his goals, or, as in my case, never having a clear positive goal envisioned to work toward. One of the biggest benefits of this course so far, for me, has been to finally clarify my Definite Main Purpose – envisioning “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (DMP), which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) As the Master Keys describes in 5:14-16, There is a fine estate awaiting a claimant…You are the heir!…To claim this estate,  three processes are necessary: You must earnestly desire it. You must assert your claim. You must take possession. Then, you must use it!  5:25: This means you must give before you can receive.

I think that’s probably enough food for thought on success — so now on to “Love.”  Mandino proclaims at the end of Scroll 2 that “…all hate is let from my veins for I have not time to hate, only time to love.” It seems like somewhere in my studies in psychology and counseling that love and hate are two sides of the same coin, emotions that keep one tied to the object of the emotion, and sometimes interchangeable from moment to moment? In my own life, I can honestly say that I have not felt the emotion of hate, at least as I understand it, for a very long time.

As I mentioned earlier, my faithful subby has kept a tight rein on most emotions, so for me, the opposite of love is simply indifference, kind of like the advice in the 7-Day Mental Diet, page 16 – “I do not accept it.”  I enjoy my life and most all people, I like to help and encourage people, I am generally upbeat and happy around people, but to “love” is, at the moment, not a place I’m ready to encourage my subby to let me go.  But then, being in this seminar may be why God sent me here?  For now, I am a willing observer…