There’s no such thing as me believing for you…
You do your own believing
[Regarding persuasion] There’s no such thing as me believing for you. You’ve got to do the believing. If you believe what I believe, then we share the belief, but you have got to agree to believe it–you do your own believing. If you agree to believe something, then you agree to believe it.
If I’ve “made” you believe, then that’s not really believing…I’ve made you perform, perhaps, with some chemicals, or strings tied around your arms, or whatever.
Often times, what a “persuader” does is initiates. A lot of people want to do all kind of things but don’t give themselves permission, so you pay someone to give you permission. What are exercise classes? You can’t do those exercises at home? What are college classes? You can’t go to the library? So a lot people are willing to pay other people to give them permission to do something they wanted to do, but they needed someone to initiate by giving them permission.
Doing Nothing
If you could personally recognize that “all that’s happening is I’m not getting what I want”, that could clarify everything for you. That’s all that’s going on. You’re not getting what you want, and you think that needs to be different.
You’re not getting what you want. Now, what do you want? Do you want to do something about that, perhaps? But nothing needs to be different for you to have the right to want it to be different. You notice if what is going on is what you want. If not, what do you want to do about that? Or even, merely, what do you want to do?
Sometimes, doing “something” about something is not doing anything about it, it is just being aware that you are doing what you want. For example, trusting yourself if you just don’t want to think about it right now. Some people believe they ought to do something about a situation, not realizing that to not think about it is doing something about it. Do you know how much trouble we can not get in, because we didn’t do something just for the sake of doing something?
When you don’t know what to do, to do nothing can sometimes be the best thing to do. It is a prejudiced idea that you are supposed to do something about a situation. You don’t have to. Go get a drink of water. Have lunch. Take a nap. Have sex. Do anything you want–and that may be the very thing to do. It is perfect for you to do–and NOT do–whatever you are doing.
We can not understand the hundred trillion things we are not doing in any moment, except to be aware that whatever I am doing is what I am doing instead of a hundred trillion other possibilities. And the perfect reason do anything is: it is what you are doing.