Did you ever have the feeling that everyone can see what’s going on except you? Even if you stopped to ask them, would you listen?

I had invested six months in this project. It was almost done, but my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. My energies were flowing in a totally different direction. My creativity and inspiration pulled me somewhere new. The problem with this new direction was that I had no clear idea how I could earn an income from it. So I ignored my inclinations and pressed on to complete the project.

Three months later I still hadn’t made a dime. Why? There wasn’t anything wrong with the product. It had been well-received two years before, when I had originally conceived the idea. Now I had the time to pull it together into a polished product. How could it be so easy to sell in its unfinished form and impossible as a fully-formed product?

In retrospect it made perfect sense. Everything had changed. I had changed. I had a whole new vision for my life. I had set out to reinvent myself and the currents of life were moving me far beyond familiar landscapes. Old ways had to be left behind, which included those works that no longer reflected who I was becoming.

It seems the world knew. The product was good, but it had no heart. My heart was elsewhere. Perhaps this will explain why you see some people succeeding with what you believe to be an inferior product. Their product is an accurate reflection of who they are, so it’s real and substantial in that regard. Or they could simply be really good at marketing. Either way, it works for them and still reflects their mindset.

But my product had to fail. Yes, it had to fail because making money is not a driving force in my life. Yet, I had pushed to finish the project only to receive a monetary reward. I could convincingly argue its merit and value, believing without reservation that it would be helpful for the intended audience. But that mattered not at all.

There is a very simple, foundational law of life at work here. In essence, to receive one must give. If you are interested in receiving little, then little is all that is required of you. If you desire much, then much must be given.

I had asked for more from life. My finished product was no longer more, it was less, reflecting a past version of myself. So I removed it from my website and my computer. Then I went through my project folders and deleted all of those materials from the past that no longer fit this newer vision of myself.

All told, a few hundred hours of material was deleted, all good but no longer sufficient. Cleaning out and getting rid of things that no longer fit is a worthwhile exercise. This is true of things within our mind also. It’s especially liberating to let go of old ideas of self that no longer serve us.

New knowledge does not always build upon the past. Sometimes old methods and ideas will need to be left behind. Children become adults, though adults may remain as children if they choose. Wisdom is earned, not with decisions made about the world. It comes through choices made about Self.