Abandon The Circle You're Standing In

Hello It’s a nice Sunday night and

I was reading this passage of my favorite philosopher, which is Ralph Waldo Emerson, uh, transcendentalist or transcendentalism. And there’s this one passage that I’d like to just read and make a comment on. So here we go. People… This is in his essay, “Circles,” which is one of my favorites in his first essay series.

“People wish to be settled. Only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. Life is a series of surprises. We do not guess today the mood, the pleasure, the power of tomorrow, when we are building up our being of lower states, of acts of routine and sense, we can tell somewhat.

But the masterpiece of God, the total growths and universal movements of the soul, He hideth. They are incalculable. I can know that truth is divine and helpful, But how it shall help me, I can have no guess. For so it be is the soul, for so to be is the sole inlet of so to know.

The new position of the advancing man has all the powers of the old. It has them all anew. it carries in its bosom all the energies of the past, yet is itself an exhalation of the morning. I cast away in this new moment all my once hoarded knowledge as vacant and vain.

Now, for the first time, seem I to know anything rightly. The simplest words, we do not know what they mean, except when we love and aspire.

The difference between talents and character is adroitness to keep the old and trodden round, and power and courage to make a new road to new and better goals.

Character makes an overpowering present, a cheerful, determined hour, which fortifies all the company By making them see that much is possible and excellent that was not thought of. Character dulls the impression of particular events.

When we see the conqueror, we do not think much of any one battle or success. We see that we had exaggerated the difficulty. It was easy to him. The great man is not convulsive or tormentable. Events pass over him without much impression.

People say sometimes, “See what I have overcome. See how cheerful I am. See how completely I have triumphed over these black events.” not if they still remind me of the black event. True conquest is the causing the calamity to fade and disappear as an early cloud of insignificant result in a history so large and advancing.

The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our own propriety, To lose our sempiternal memory, to do something without knowing how or why. In short, to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

The way of life is wonderful. It is by abandonment

It’s such a wonderful passage, right?

The trodden round, the settled, the comfortable, the ones who do not abandon, they’re the procrastinators. They’re the ones who do not act. They’re the ones who dwell on that which overwhelms them They’re the ones who remain in overwhelm. But the conqueror, or in our time, the CEO, the adventurer, the builder, the creator, these are the ones who do not speak of the overwhelm because they’ve already moved past it

to truly overcome is to traverse the next ring, the next round, the next level, the next adventure, not to forget, but to abandon the past one, to abandon the anxieties or the behaviors

Of the past

What’s the word?

hurdles effectively, right?

The good life is character. It is the courage to make, to build, to engage in, to traverse a new road to new and better goals to reinitiate the circle Right? The context of my company, of iAlign, and I believe the foundation of humanity and how you engage that next circle in the, the most optimal, even though we hate the word optimal now, the most optimal way.

I’ll define optimal. It just means that which gives you the highest probability of achieving a life that fulfills you. Doesn’t mean money. Fulfillment, pride, satisfaction. the optimal way to re-engage the next circle is to identify the direction that is in greatest alignment with your values, that is clarity, and the most specific, tangible steps or actions that you can take in order to initiate that circle as fast as possible.

And in doing so, we get to what I talk about a lot, which are learning curves. Every circle has learning curves. The more efficiently you move through them, the more efficiently you engage new circles, the more efficiently you abandon the past ones, the anxieties of the past ones, the hurdles of the past circles, of the past lives that you have lived

The faster, and I hate the word faster in this context ’cause I’m not saying the faster you become better, right?

but if we instead look at it, at achievement from an opposite frame, instead of how fast do we become successful, we say by efficiently moving through these circles and engaging the next ones and abandoning the previous ones,

The faster we leave behind the circles we no longer want to live in. So in that context, we’re not saying optimize your life necessarily. We’re saying leave behind that which is no longer in alignment. Abandon that which is no longer in alignment. Abandon that which is aligned right now but will not be in the future.

That is how growth occurs. Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful night. Peace.