It’s an active practice with the opportunity for choice in each new moment or situation.

Buddhists don’t reach enlightenment in an instant or by magic fairy dust either.. They practice moment by moment, day by day, reflecting on who they’re being and choosing where they will come from. And they start out the same way as everyone else. My understanding is that most of them don’t completely reach enlightenment either (not like Buddha did; or Jesus who lived by the same concepts).

But they are committed to implementing the process in their daily lives.

Peoples fear of words like enlightenment (perhaps of too much work/responsibility) creates the escape route for them to not have to try or be responsible for their experience. (It definitely sounds like a lot of WORK to reach “enlightenment”!)

So I’ve just put the concept in simpler terms. Everyone can understand that coming from love brings out love (and the best) in other people, which you then get back from that person. People can actively engage in noticing where they’re coming from and practicing choosing to come from love instead of their fears. Which drastically alters not just others experience of them, but their own experience of other people. Imagine how much happier people would be if they practiced this all the time!?

Do you think that maybe if you welcomed failure then it might just happen more? Similar to apathy you would not care whether or not something works so you wouldn’t have any anxiety or frustration before or after. But what about manifesting intention? Doesn’t that contradict the notion of embracing failure? And can someone really be enthusiastic about failure? Sounds like an oxymoron.

My guess is what you mean is that if you accept failure as part of the journey to succeed, then you shouldn’t be so worried or get upset when it happens. Rather focus on what you learn from the failure to improve your next attempt, therefore you should be enthusiastic about improving your chances to succeed.

In the end, this is all easier said then done as it does take a lot of hard work to succeed as you said. I think Churchill’s quote can also be describe in one word “perseverance.” You can’t have success without perseverance. Unless of course your a one shot winner, heh.

Enjoyed the read, thanks.

I’m certainly not saying don’t plan for your future (I’d be out of a job . Say you intentionally take an hour to do ‘planning’, then in that moment that IS what’s happening, it’s what you’re doing. Whereas if you’re thinking about planning (say while you’re at work doing other work) then your focus is on what’s ‘not happening’ (because what’s actually happening is that you’re at work doing whatever task your doing).