Your Inner World is Very Different. Part 4 in the Personal Power series

Be Logical
Our society teaches that it's right to be logical and, when dealing with the outside world, being logical is indeed very valuable. There's always at least one opposite, and logic deals very well with the opposite. You can change your life by investigating the possibilities and choosing the one that makes the most sense.

But logic doesn't cope particularly well with what is not understood. If you do not understood it, you may think it's illogical, although it may still be rational. To be rational is, very loosely, to acknowledge and explore reality - what is so - even when it may not seem logical.

It's rational to acknowledge that you don't understand when you don't understand. But self sabotage may rear its ugly head. Then your desire to be right can persuade you to concoct some unconvincing story so you can pretend your original position is right. Or to ignore it and feign that it doesn't exist.

The Inner World
Your inner world is rather different, it's the world of intuition, of authentic knowing, of personal power. Many of life's most valuable statements are intuitive. As soon as you hear them, you know they are true even before you even understand how or why. That instant agreement comes from deep inside you.

When you deal with the inner world, logic can't get you all the way. If you don't fully understand something, then logic may have a problem. The world is just the way it is, the secret of success is to accept rather than deny reality.

What's Your Truth?
Sometimes you'll hear something, your heart dances and it tells you, yes, that's right, right on! Even when you don't understand what's been said, you just know it's true. This is your truth which will change your life, even though it may not seem logical, and you don't fully understand it.

Your immediate inner agreement means it's true for you even though you don't yet get it. This is your intuition telling you to give it as much time and energy to understand as it needs. Then it will increase your personal power.

But there's a problem. Everybody has unsubstantiated beliefs which they haven't yet carefully investigated. It takes time to think things through, so it's easier just to accept someone else's word for it. But the secret of success is to see there's no personal power in a belief, because you haven't given it any energy.

Personal power comes from the energy you have invested by carefully weighing up the alternatives, then coming to a tentative conclusion given the evidence you have so far.

Your Tentative Conclusion
Newton's laws of motion are accurate when dealing with regular speeds, yet are superceded at the speed of light where Einstein's theories reign. They aren't wrong, they just aren't right in all circumstances. They're a good example of being both right and wrong, rather than either right or wrong.

Here you can see that opposites - right or wrong - don't apply, even though that may be the logical conclusion. It takes effort, but comprehending the other side in a discussion will increase your personal power. It all depends on context.

Everything has multiple sides, so your conclusion is tentative, because even when you're right, like Newton, you may be missing some of the picture. Actually, since your perspective is always limited, how can you ever know the entire and complete context from all angles before reaching a conclusion?

Do Opposites apply?
Reality is just the way it is. When you authentically know this you know you can be both this and that - rather than either this, or that. You see that opposites don't necessarily apply, even though that may be the logical conclusion. Indeed, another secret of success is to realize how often you are both this as well as that!

This is the world of the two-handed economist, who says on one hand it's this and on the other hand it may be that. Resist the enormous temptation to chop off one of his hands to get him to choose an opinion! Why do you insist you need a definitive answer? The future is not certain, so what makes living in the question such a problem?

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Food for Thought
"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1841-1935, Supreme court Justice, Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School