Time Travel, The Path, and the Power of Process

The Path

In Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi short story, A Sound of Thunder[i], a man named Eckels goes back in time on a T-Rex hunting expedition.  His guide, Travis, tells Eckels to stay on the path the expedition party has laid down.  To step off the path and interfere in the slightest way with the environment could change the entire sixty-five million year trajectory of history.  Of course, Eckels steps off the path killing a butterfly.  Upon his return, the entire world is in ruins under the hand of a tyrant.  One person’s seemingly insignificant choice has changed the history of the world.

It’s Success, Not Succexy

Staying on our personal path matters.  It’s easy to look at something like a work of fiction on time travel and see that choices matter. It is more difficult to discern what may be more catastrophic or incredibly beneficial: the seemingly mundane or insignificant choices I make at every moment in life.  This idea is incredibly profound.  In my opinion, the difference between happiness and misery has everything to do with the little, seemingly insignificant choices we make daily.

We Are All Time Travelers

Today is the one dimension in which every one of us is equal.  We all have twenty-four hours today.  Except Einstein.  To him everything was relative.  But for the rest of us, we all have three hundred sixty-five days in a year.  Those who live their callings, live it every day through daily choices.  They realize, living one’s Greatness, one’s Dream, and one’s calling is the difference between seeing life as an event or a process.

Today is not an event.  Today is the result of the choices, practices, and disciplines made yesterday.  Tomorrow will be the result of those same choices, practices, and disciplines made today.  When we see moments in our lives as events, then an event can be inspiring or devastating, motivating or paralyzing.  But when we see moments in our lives as parts of a process, then each moment builds on every other moment, creating momentum and powerful results over time.

When crisis, struggle, or obstacles present themselves today, the one who sees today as an event will struggle to get through and make the most of the moment.  But the one who develops processes or protocols, like The Listen and Learn Technique, on a daily basis will walk steadily with character, integrity, and appropriate actions through adversity when it rears its head because he has been practicing and living character, integrity, and appropriate actions daily for a long time.

Those who look at today as an event believe successful people are just “lucky.”  People that are “lucky” do not have fewer struggles or obstacles in life.  In fact, the more successful they are, typically, the more struggles and obstacles they face.  The difference is that so-called “lucky” people are successful because they have a process and protocols in place.  They have been practicing desire, discipline, and determination daily.  They examine their mistakes or where they missed the mark and Course Correct, adjust, and move on.  They intentionally think positively and practice daily the same activities that develop integrity, character, and positive results despite the obstacles.  Their paths point toward their callings, and they stay on the path as best they can, leaning into their strengths and managing their weaknesses.

The power of process is most powerful in the small things.  Even the mundane activity that doesn’t seem to have any payoff, the extra five phone calls, the extra fifteen minutes a day studying, the extra ten minutes researching, the extra half mile on the morning run, after seven days has turned into thirty-five extra phone calls, an hour and forty-five minutes of extra studying, an hour and ten minutes of more research, an extra three and a half miles of running, which translates into an extra three hundred fifty calories burned.  In one year:

·      1,820 extra phone calls

·      Ninety-one extra hours studying

·      Thirty-six hours researching

·      One hundred eighty-two extra miles running

·      18,200 more calories burned

People intentionally living a calling realize that choosing a protocol of a little consistent extra activity compounds over time, creating huge dividends.  Those who lock their callings away see today as an event, a circle instead of a spiral.  They fail to see the power of today, partnering with time, and the power of staying on the path to Greatness in the seemingly small and mundane moments.

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[i] Bradbury, Ray.  A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories.  William Morrow Paperbacks, 2005. Print.

Chapter 12: C.A.R.: The Vehicle to Your Dream