With this article I lean really far out, but these thoughts have been circling in my head for a long time. Again and again right before the New Year the same situation occurs. The coming year will be planned out, decisions made and lessons learned from our mistakes. Resolutions determine our thinking. Decisions shape our lives. For several years now we've been trying to live our lives so that resolutions are no longer necessary. We try to live life's moments as best we can and to make decisions that actually correspond to our inner dreams and needs. Of course, this endeavor meets daily with challenges and resistance, and questions arise. You'll find one of these questions in the following text.
I often wonder how we as people make the decisions we do?
The really important decisions in life are usually those that are made without consciously doing so. Such decisions are made in every minute of life ... Should I eat or not, should I go to sleep or continue to work, should I now do this or that? Probably most of you will agree with me that you do not think every minute about every decision, but that you mainly just follow your intuition and do things or not do them intuitively or as you need to. The more a person is intuitively aware of herself, the more enriching seem to me the results of those decisions. I think most will agree with me that there are no positive or negative decisions but simply crossroads that one has to cross. At this point, two worlds collide together... the world that listens to or feels something that is not obvious, and the pragmatic world that is so modern in our society today. The business world follows certain rules of marketing, rules of business, things you get taught. In relationships we use socially accepted standards that we mostly got instilled with during our childhood and which are believed to guarantee us a happy life.
I believe these are now two different ways you can go. I definitely belong to the first type, who makes decisions intuitively, even if they often are not logically comprehensible.
One may understand it or not ... but the dance school is a good example of how this approach can also lead to the desired results.
The dance school was established without any business background. It is and became what it is mainly by feeling. The decision to complete medical school or to start a business was not made by logical arguments.
People often ask me who our marketing consultant is, or who runs the business. They are very surprised to hear that the dance school just happened. I don't mean that we didn't do anything and the school just appeared suddenly out of nothing. It also doesn't mean that it was always pleasant or easy, but we followed a path that we felt.
I can still remember the night before we decided to build the dance school. I was so nervous, and I thought I was so stupid. According to pure logic I wouldn't have decided to go with the school, but I felt so strongly the need to do so – as if it were my / our destiny. This may sound strange, but it was indeed so.
It seems to me everything follows a goal ... but it's usually not a goal that one knows in advance ...
Our decisions concerning the dance school are often at odds with prevailing opinions. Phrases like "That is not going to work like you think it will!" we heard often. And that's exactly why I am also grateful to be so lucky to be able to act out our out-of- the box thinking!
There are many examples of this phenomenon. The most recent and most present (in 2011) is Steve Jobs and his lifework. The speech he gave in 2005 at Stanford University's graduation ceremony gets to me every time under the skin.
In contrast to that in my view are the logical choices you take, once you've consciously made the decision. They are usually those decisions that in retrospect are still often questioned. We may not admit it, but one wonders what would have happened if we had made a different decision. This shows, I think, that conscious decisions are usually based on a logical basis.
For many people, I have a feeling that often these kinds of decisions are made which then have to be "followed through." Please do not get me wrong, neither the one nor the other way do I think is better or correct. They are simply two different approaches.
How far logic and feelings are involved in one's own decisions is daily one decision more. ;-) It's lucky if logic and feeling come together at the same time.
At this point I would like to thank my husband, who has given me courage every day to listen to my own feelings, and who has helped me to critically question beliefs like "We have to!" "One doesn't do that!" or "One has to do that!" ;-)
We wish you and us in the coming year the courage to listen to our inner self and to our feelings, and to be able to enjoy even more fulfilling moments.
In this sense ... Do not dream your life, live your dream!
Happy 2012 ... with best wishes for health, love and success ...
