I'm starting to learn a few things about determination. I didn't really get into that whole business with "The Secret" ten years ago, but I sort of heard people discussing it, and I surmised that its premise was you just needed to determine what it is that you want, and then laser focus in on getting it, and you will succeed. Back then, I rolled my eyes and said "uh-huh" a lot, but now, I'm starting to wonder if there isn't a little Jedi magic to the idea after all. But really it isn't magic at all. When you tell yourself you're "asking" for what it is that you really want, what you're really doing is changing the dynamics of your risk assessment, and eliminating choices that don't lead to your specific goal. Avoiding distractions along the way, it's a lot easier to get what it is that you truly want, and maybe that can seem like magic.
I took my mah jongg play to a new level today, and I won so many times I started to feel guilty about it. We were talking smack before we started, and I brought up the master's daughter, who has a flashy style about how she plays. She picks a hand that she likes, and she plays it, whether she has the tiles to match it or not, and it is surprising how often she wins doing it. So the mah jongg master dared me to play like that. She opened the book of hands, and gave me a category (like, "play a gate hand"), and I cannot resist a challenge. I usually agonize over choosing a hand, and I vacillate between two or three of them over the course of play. This time, I picked one, and stuck to it, and never second guessed myself. I won. So I had her choose another category, but it was a difficult one I'd never played before, and I missed a key detail. Tried again, and won. Two more times, was one tile away from winning when someone else mah jongged. One last time, and won again. I felt bulletproof. I realized it all came down to determination. I saw a clear goal, and I went for it. I didn't let anything change my mind.
By the end of the game today, I decided I need to find a way to apply today's lesson to real life. I don't mean like two weeks ago when I had a hankering to cook tri-tip, and I went to Publix to get this rarely available cut of meat, and there it was, as if I'd ordered it. I am not even sure I mean doing the Jedi thing like my man does, going where he wants by just acting like he belongs there. (Apparently there was a doorman in Vegas who was supposed to stop us from going up to meet our friends at The Palms? Nobody questioned us as we walked confidently to the elevators...) What I want to do is find away to use this for my major life goals. I need to ditch the noise and distractions, and laser focus on my biggest desires. Maybe I need someone to dare me first, to get my back up, so I have something to prove. Who wants to issue a challenge?
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