Upsets: Where do they come from?
I read this the other day and wanted to make it available to those who linger here. Laurence Platt is the author of it and it is to be found at ‘Conversations For Transformation: Essays By Laurence Platt Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard, And More’ (see blog roll).
In a transformed life, there are no solutions - only questions. Yet one of the solutions I am most often asked for is the solution to being upset.
You are sailing along, happily, in your transformed yacht on a transformed ocean under a cloudless, blue, transformed sky with nothing but transformed intentions, when suddenly … Wham! … there it is: the disruption and the dislocation of an upset making it’s unwanted, ugly presence known suddenly, surprisingly, unexpectedly, automatically, and rudely against your will.
While I do not have a solution for that, it is useful to consider this:
Behind every upset is a commitment.
Literally, if you are not already committed to something, you can not be upset. Or - to put it another way - you are not upset unless it is against a background of commitment.
No, I do not mean that you are committed to being upset. What I mean is that if you look, you will see that without a commitment to something great being thwarted, upsets would not show up like upsets.
I am suggesting that you question everything that is going on with you when you are upset to reveal and get back in touch with what you are really committed to. Not only will that give you your vision and power back, but it will also create a new opening for action to get you back on track.
Werner Erhard distinguishes an upset is comprised of:
* a thwarted intention;
* an unfulfilled expectation;
* an undelivered communication.
You do not have to do anything, nor do you have to be any particular way to be OK. You are already OK. If you look at an upset in the light of that you are already OK, you will be able to tell the truth about the upset, and you will be able to distinguish the three items that comprise it.
If you take the appropriate actions to complete those items, you will get your life back. You will be enabled to move on into the breakthrough that awaits.
