If you haven’t discovered it already, you need to check out Humans of New York.
The site came about when its creator, Brandon Stanton, decided to go around the city photographing the interesting people that he came across. Each face, each photo, tells its own story and shows the beauty and complexity that we as human beings possess. Scrolling through the page always leaves me in awe and wonder, with a true appreciation for people as a whole.
Brandon, over time, has also come across some of his favorite personal stories that a sentence or two just doesn’t sum up, and has created a “Stories” section on the site for just that purpose. They are inspiring, intellectual, and sometimes just plain funny.
One particular story that struck me was titled “The Dating Coach“. This story highlighted a man named John Keegan, who the New York Times had written about previously, calling their article “The Ladies Man“.
What struck me about this story was not that this man was described as charming or good with women. What struck me about this story was what Brandon discovered as he followed John around all day, watching how he operated.
The presence of such a fearless individual made me uncomfortably conscious of my own hesitations. But at the same time, it made those hesitations seem more surmountable than ever before. Seeing John plow through one intimidating social situation after another, these encounters suddenly did not seem so intimidating. If a girl was cold, or mean, John just bounced off her. Who cares? How could John feel rejected when he wasn’t looking for anything? He didn’t want a date. He just wanted to talk. Often a date came from these conversations, but it was never the aim of the conversation. When I first began taking street portraits, I was really affected by rejection. If I really wanted a portrait, and the person told me “No,” it could throw off my whole day. But I have over 2000 portraits now. No matter how awesome the portrait, it’s not going to significantly impact my body of work. So when I approach someone now, I’m not overly concerned with the result. I’m no longer outcome dependant. I really don’t care all that much if a person says “No.” And now, ironically, they almost always say “yes.”
Brilliant, isn’t it? This reminds me of the same ideas that are bouncing around in my own head lately, following my new-found interest in Quantum Physics. You can create your own fate. To me, John’s and Brandon’s stories are proof of just that.
Brandon said it: he’s no longer “outcome dependent”, and therefore gets more “yeses” than “nos”. I don’t believe this is a coincidence, and I bet you that John probably doesn’t either.
Brandon overcame this outcome dependency through experience. Repeated successes helped him to feel more confident in his subject’s answers- not simply because he didn’t need their “yes” as much as he used to, but because he literally felt, on the inside, that he was going to get a “yes” before even asking.
There’s a reason why they call it the Power of Positive Thinking!
We can go through repeated positive experience the way Brandon did, but we also don’t have to waste the time and energy to get the same result. That, my friends, is what they call Quantum Physics.
Meditation, positive affirmations, prayer, and simple positive energy or positive thinking are all effective ways for you to make use of this concept in your own life.
In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said:
Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
And I’ll tell you what, I think it’s reasonable to believe that Jesus was discussing this very same idea.
This positive energy, this “faith”, is also what I believe Buddha liked to call Enlightenment. A state of constant Enlightenment is what he, and his followers, have always sought to achieve. Pretty tricky when we as human beings are wired to survive. And what I mean by that is, our brains look for danger first. Since we are cognitive beings, we not only apply this to our physical safety and well-being, but our mental safety and well-being as well. This means we focus on the negative and seek to neutralize it before we are ever able to relax and think of the positive. Remember how you were told as a kid that it takes ten positive comments to make up for a single negative comment? That’s why. And we’re stuck that way… unless we consciously make an effort to change that!
Now, my purpose here isn’t to be preachy about God, new age-y, or even advocate agnosticism, although you could all personally take any of these as your own interpretations to what I’m saying. What I’m saying is applicable for any person, in any walk of life, with any set of beliefs. My purpose is to open your eyes to the fate that you are creating for yourself. Because you ARE. And it’s not as good as it COULD BE!
A favorite recent quote I came across was in the documentary I just did a post about, by Dr. Joe Dispenza on this topic. He says:
So if we’re consciously designing our destiny, and if we’re consciously from a spiritual standpoint throwing in with the idea that our thoughts can affect our reality or affect our life — because reality equals life — then I have this little pact that I have when I create my day. I say, ‘I’m taking this time to create my day and I’m infecting the quantum field. Now if (it) is in fact the observer’s watching me the whole time that I’m doing this and there is a spiritual aspect to myself, then show me a sign today that you paid attention to any one of these things that I created, and bring them in a way that I won’t expect, so I’m as surprised at my ability to be able to experience these things. And make it so that I have no doubt that it’s come from you.
Since coming across these ideas, I have put into practice exactly what I’ve discussed today, and I can tell you from the very few experiences I’ve had, it most definitely works. Without any doubts in my mind. I urge you to look into these concepts in your own life and start changing your outcomes today!
This Above All... 