"Do not waste time bothering
whether you "love" your neighbor;
act as if you did.
As soon as we do this
we find one of the great secrets.
When you are behaving
as if you loved someone
you will presently come to love him."
-- C. S. Lewis
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It's interesting how this quote correlates with so many things I've posted on the subject of enthusiasm. Particularly on Frank Bettger's famous lesson that he learned from his failure as a baseball player. He was fired because he lacked energy and enthusiasm, so when he went to another team, he vowed to be the most energetic and enthusiastic player that ever played the game. It changed his life. By acting as if he was full of energy and full of enthusiasm, he became those things in reality. Later, he coined the phrase, "to become enthusiastic, act enthusiastically."
It's quite wonderful to see that same idea being applied to love, and we can extend that idea to anything that we think we should do that we don't feel like doing, or following our heart instead of our childhood and/or peer training. We simply decide to pretend that we are what we want to be or to become, and in the process, our life is changed in such a way as to become that.
We don't need all the answers. What we need is a recognized desire and then a decision, and then to simply act as if we are already or that it is already until we figure it out. Then maybe after we figure something out, we see a new squirrel and we're chasing that one.
It is he or she that waits for a sign or thinks they need to wait to know for sure that never gets going I think. The most powerful force in the world beyond desire is a decision. We can do pretty much anything that we can imagine if we desire enough to want to make a decision. And, of course, a decision begs action.
Act As If You ________ And It Will Come To Pass.
Spread Some Joy Today--by acting as if you had so much joy that you needed a wheelbarrow to move it around. Now go spread it to everyone you meet today.
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