Boiling down:
The beginning and the end-all of an enthralling expedition: www.
It’s an exasperating feeling to dissect the anatomy of a journey or waging war, by first having an effective cost-benefit ratio to efficiently breakdown objectives of the war and arriving at a conclusive end of knowing, if it was a battle worth taking on, or a sinking ship worth anchoring loose.
But upon hitting the dart on the tree, instead of the dartboard, I began skewing my laser vision and slowly inching towards the bull's eye. I learnt the power of questioning everything.
But I also learnt the priority list of my self-quizzing in this piece of introspective business I had taken up. I dialed down to 3 questions, blinkering away like a horse that poorly crosses the road yet swerves in the lane, I had to find a way to get my horsing mind onto the fast lane, to zip through with absolute cutthroat abilities focused on pacing through life.
The 3 questions are: www.
w1 - Why
w2 - What
w3 - Where
All in all, these 3 expansive questions help me bring the point of convergence in actualizing any vision I may have.
Why?
Before taking up a project, asking the question WHY, without which you may be precariously raging towards failure at the very beginning.
A strong WHY? brings stronger human will and vigor.
For e.g., in the Scriptures when Moses was called and commissioned by the Father to let the Israelites go free from the torturous slavery of Egypt, the WHY had to be crystal clear, lest he lead a flint-minded people geared up with a weaker will than his on a road to sure disaster.
Moses had to be so convinced when he went to Pharaoh, that he had the agenda drilled in his mind, and the will of Hashem took precedence over all human wills, no matter how powerful it may have been.
Exodus 7:26 JPS Tanakh 1985
"HASHEM said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says HASHEM: Let My people go that they may worship Me."
Moses was the mouthpiece to Hashem, who point-blank asked Pharoah, the apex ruler of the world empire of the time, to let his people go!
WHY?
That they may serve Me.
That’s a pretty strong rationale for the declaration of war that was being waged by the Israelite representative on behalf of God’s chosen people who were rigorously enslaved and virtually powerless against the ruling body of the day - Egypt.
But, when the Owner and Creator of all known creation, asks you to do something, you do it, without question.
“So that they serve me”, Pretty strong answer to the WHY, don’t you think?
Ironically, the answer to this WHY pins down the question of any mortal-ruling giant.
What?
I have a special term for this. I call it INCENTIVIZE.
My dog wouldn’t do any fetching if I did not offer him the bait of a treat to get him to comply. As humans, we are innately the same.
We all need to be constantly motivated in order for us to do something. The outcome most times isn’t enough.
For instance: If you have a messy room, the incentive of having a clean room AFTER you clean it up is NOT enough. Even though you benefit from the organized and decluttered room.
However, you’d be on your toes and up if someone offered you $20 to get the task done.
That, my friends, is the power punch of INCENTIVIZATION.
To break this down even further, ask yourself this question: WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?!
Deuteronomy 6:22-23 JPS Tanakh 1985
"Hashem wrought before our eyes marvelous and destructive signs and portents in Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household; and us He freed from there, that He might take us and give us the land that He had promised on oath to our fathers."
So, case in point, the Father brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. Yet it doesn’t stop there.
He brought them OUT only to bring them IN.
The incentive quotient lies in the Israelites getting possession of the Promised Land - ISRAEL.
Technically, leaving the tyrannical slavery of Egypt behind and getting to walk as freemen should’ve been enough. But it isn’t. Hence, there’s an added incentive to lay hold of a land of their own and that seems to have done the job.
King David, when he was a young lad, displayed the need for incentivization when he went out to the battlefield and was faced with the blasphemous barks of Goliath.
1 Samuel 17:26-27 JPS Tanakh 1985
"David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes the disgrace from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine that he dares defy the ranks of the living God?” The troops told him in the same words what would be done for the man who killed him."
Before taking on the battle and slaying the head of Goliath with his own sword after effectively slingshotting him, King David posed the question as to what would get him going all the more.
He wanted to know WHAT WAS IN IT FOR HIM?
Was the battle even worth taking on?
Is there a reward to be gained to risk your life?
How could he benefit from the victory?
Nonetheless, the reason of the defiant shouts of Goliath against His God HASHEM was more than enough for King David as He loved the Father, and he didn’t really need any incentive to fight the enemies of the Father.
No one told you to do a thankless, lawless run around the mountain with an anguishing eyebrow up. Rather we have a very strong REASON & REWARD to show up and skirt the peripherals of success like a pro.
Read the Blessings and Curses list in Deuteronomy 28 and feel motivated to keep the Torah of HASHEM. If not the manifold blessings to be experienced, the curses will get the fire under you hotter!
Where?
Direction, Direction, Direction.
Seek Torah-based direction and you'll never be lost, because numerous things in the charter would be undoubtedly off-limits.
Moses saw the burning bush and undoubtedly worshiped the ultimate invisible God, the rest are running around random lawless bushels that aren’t even burning.
Don’t be one with the rest, all of whom would be spinning around with whirly-eyed confusion in their idolatry, driven over by every wind of confusion.
But you my friend, would be guided by the Best of the Best - The Most High Creator of all Creation.
I'm horrible at directions on the road, but on the stronger side in my navigation in pursuit of my voyages through spiritual waters, I wish to be propelled by the Father Most High, as I've recognized in my carnal self, I'm just an anchor and life is but a blipping dream.
We have a condescending view of our attempts at greatness. Most of us are going nowhere fast but going somewhere. "SOMEWHERE" shape-shifts as the prism of time goes by into a frantic and desperate "ANYWHERE", which inevitably, perforce, transcends into a silencing and deathly NOWHERE.
In the process of time, as our eyesight begins to fade, we disenchanting-ly awaken to the dusk instead of the dawn. It's a pressing requisite that we ought to fathom the alarming need for VISION.
The word WHERE explicates the profound and not-so mystical vantage point. Everything else is extraneous to a mind who truly loves to travel in the bubbling complexion of growth.
What's our exemplar for the question: Where?
It is the exemplary promised land that the Israelites set out to possess through the trudging wilderness at Hashem's command.
In analogical terms, if I were to dissect and anatomically decipher my "WHERE's", by laws of being specific to laser beam my focal horizons, I'd perhaps set aside 4 specific WHERE's to periscopically focus my upward staircase to Scriptural and Spiritual growth.
Where is this going?
It's going to an awe-snapping moment at hacking circumstances, waving against my seashore at nerve racking rather high-tiding phases of my life.
Where do I want to take this?
For me to unapologetically and unabashedly pivot my way into my most advantageous stance with a mindset I’ve uniquely coined:
Poised-Power.
Where does the Creator intend for me to go?
Undoubtedly the promised land, with manifold lessons learnt in my spiritual hike through life.
Through my precocious habit of envisioning an array of outcomes, events and stages of possibilities, I shall draw out a mental whiteboard analogy to you.
Look at LIFE as a cab-ride.
Imagine the driver to hate your guts so bad that he compulsively wishes to get the better of your lack of directional abilities, leading you to the nearest dumping yard.
But you, my friend, need to outlaw the man, pick his deepest thoughts by your convictions and scriptural soundness, hot-wiring him to drop you off to the nearest port for your exhilarating voyage.
From here, it's a battle of wills.
If your will prevails over his, you'll be on the next ship on a scenic spiritual voyage through life, provided you make the best Torah-based decisions, which coincidentally yet paradoxically inadvertently would lead you to paradise.
But if his will prevails, you'd definitely be running amok the garbage bin, directionless, soulless and eventually lifeless.
This sinister cab driver is the world and its uncanny ways leading to death. But you, the human-visionary, multifocal man, are responsible for actualizing the homecoming victory, a seat on the ARK TO LIFE.
Your mind is the horse, and you are the rider, don't let the horse take you for a ride, the flaming sword of your mind shall never stop stalling at the most diversified path to destruction.
The horse is a genius. He has his blinkers on. He is not going to sway. He banks on you getting lost in the glitz and glams of vanity to overtake you and run you over and throw you into bed with a broken back.
But a strong sense of direction actualizes all well-meaning visions, ordained and approved by the Most High in His will.
Life without Direction is a ship without a propeller.
A nose without nostrils.
A Game without a scoreboard.
Never stop dreaming.
Never blot out the very necessary WHERE out of the www.
And that is it.
Your very own adaptable blueprint to breeze through the uncertain waters of life with finesse.
And remember to always construct a class act.