*Childlikeness and Redefining Failure*



B:  Now, you will always learn, you will always change and transform, but
what you are at any given moment /is/ a perfect manifestation of the idea you
are being.  And when you live your life /now/, in a childlike fashion,
fascinated, curious and "enjoyful" of all the things that come into your
life -- because you know that the things that are in your life are there
for you, for your reasons, for you to learn from -- you will be enjoying
yourself so much that before you know it, all the things that you were
already waiting for will already be upon you.

Because, when you live in the moment, you do not create the experience of
the passage of time to as great a degree as you do when you are sitting
around waiting for things to happen.  And that is what will create the
acceleration that you desire. Do you follow me?

Q:  Yes.

B:  Do you believe that your life, as it is, is worth enjoying?

Q:  Absolutely.

B:  Oh, well, thank you very much!  Then, if you live in that childlike way
you will not notice the passage of time so much, because you will not be
creating as much time.  And because you will not be creating as much time,
you will become more time/less/, age/less/, you will not need to age.  The more
you enjoy, the less you age.  Do you follow me?

Q:  Yes.  Also, I know I have the ability to write and express myself
through language.

B:  Then you go right ahead.

Q:  And yet I find myself resisting using those powers to the fullest.

B:  Why?

Q:  (No answer)

B:  All right, let's use that imagination now, and let us explore what,
perhaps, might be the strongest habit within most of you.  Let us explore
it in the negative connotation for a moment: if you were to exercise that
power, what would you imagine would be the worst possible thing that could
happen?

Q:  That I would fail.

B:  Oh, what's that mean?  Fail... what does that mean?  Not live up to
your expectations?

Q:  Yes.

B:  So what?

Q:  (Pause)  I see what you're saying... that in failing there is learning
and there is growth.

B:  Absolutely.  That's why there is no failure.  Anything that occurs may
be against the grain of what you expect /should/ occur, but it is the
unexpected that allows you to discover what you need to discover, to
incorporate what you have discovered within you, so that you can actually
become more precisely the individual that will be able to do what you say
you desire to do.

Q:  Yes.

B:  It is from those experiences that you learn how to be the being you
desire to be.  They are a part of the path you are, not an interruption in
it.  Only your attitude that they have nothing at all to do with your life,
as you think it should be lived, is what creates you to not use those
circumstances in a positive way, but simply to wallow in them in a negative
way:  "Oh, I have failed."  (In a slow, sad voice) (Audience laughter)

Q: Right.

B:  Do you follow me?

Q:  Yes, I do.

B:  The idea is... "Well, /that/ went in an unexpected direction, what can I
learn from this?  Oh joy, Oh joy!"  ( much laughter)  As soon as you have
that attitude... as /soon/ as you have that attitude, nothing will seem like
a failure.  May I ask you a question?

Q:  Yes.

B:  Does a child know how to fail?

Q:  No.

B:  Again, the two times in your life when you are, quote/unquote,
/allowed/ by your society to act like a child is when you are very young and
when you are very old:  "Oh, that's all right, he can act like a child,
he's old, you know."  (Laughter)  But you see, if you are willing to act
like a child /now,/ with the same childlike curiosity, the same childlike
trust in that way, when you exercise that idea with your full adult
commandment, then you will not need to age in order for it to be all right
to act like a child.  Do you follow me?

Q:  Yes, I do.

B:  Have a /wonderful/ time.

Q: Thank you.