New Year’s Revolutions

January 7, 2001

Samuel: Hello, dears.

Hello, Samuel.

S: How are you?

Good.

S: How do you know? Really. That’s a question. How do you know? How are you? You say good. How do you know?

Because I’m so happy.

Yes, my heart feels it.

S: That’s a good one. Really. That is a good one, because your heart . . .

My heart feels it. There’s almost like a physical sensation to it.

S: Is it possible to feel good even though, maybe, you’re not well? Things aren’t going your way. Life is changing all around you. You can still be happy in the midst of the unknown? Things can be good in life even though you don’t have control over them?

And, of course the key is what Steve and Kay said. Things are good because they’re happy, and that happiness is not reliant on this working out and that happening, and “when this goes on then I’ll be happy.” But do you know that probably every one of you can relate to a time in your life in which you were convinced that your happiness depended upon things working out your way.

And that most people, right now, at this time in their life are beginning to start that process of making all sorts of personal revolutions.

Resolutions.

S: No, revolutions. What’s a revolution?

Change.

S: All right, one thing is it’s turning around and around and around. And I would say that, in a whole lot of lives, there is both that endless spinning and that purposeful looking the other way, turning around to see the other side or to totally change. That’s an expression that represents total change as well, isn’t it?

But revolution is also having to do with a revolt, a rebellion. It represents a change, very often of government, and perhaps an easy way to think of it would be a change in rulership.

And this is a time of the year in which many individuals are looking at a change in the rulership in their own lives. Whereas they perhaps had been ruled by . . . oh, what would be a good thing? What others care about? They’re going to think about what they care about. Perhaps they’ve only been looking at what they care about, and now they’re beginning to open up, to expand, to care about what others care about as well.

Perhaps what has been ruling their life has been money issues, sexual issues, relationship issues. Perhaps it has been things going on at work, things going on with the dog. And they’re looking for a change in the rulership.

What has been ruling your life? Because you will not make the changes that will lead you to the happiness until you are so miserable with the way things are that you are willing to revolt. That’s a very sad statement.

But realizing that that is the case can help you understand why so many of those personal, at-the-beginning-of-a-new-year, revolutions do not so often come to a positive change. Why they instead tend to simply build up the pile of “well, that did not work,” because it’s not based on what will make you happy. It’s based on why you’re not enough.

I want to talk this night somewhat about making change—so if somebody will hand me one dollar, I will give you change, right?—because in your life, if you are unable to make the changes that you need, if you are unable to move through the changes that come your way with not only flexibility, adaptability, but also grace, you’re going to be very unhappy.

In this coming year, the way that you feel about yourself—How are things going? Good. I’m good—is going to be related to making positive change in your life toward accomplishing what you are desiring to bring into your life and into the world.

Now, that was a big threat there. Did you get it? I said in this coming year your response to change is going to have much weight in how you feel your life is going. So let’s talk a bit about that, all right?

Most individuals are led by fear and not love. Now that’s a rather rotten statement, don’t you think? But that bluntly, that bottom line, most of humanity is led by their fear and not by love—remembering that the opposite of love is fear. So one of my desires this night is to talk a bit about that fear. I did some brushing up against it at a recent event, and it struck enough chord that I think it’s worth spending a bit of time on it tonight.

I want you to think, for a moment, about what life would be like if what you were doing was living love. I want you to imagine what life would be like if you were led by love. Tell me the sorts of things that would be so in this world.

With love, you have a great deal of trust if what is to be is needing you to be perfect.

S: It’s possible that there would be more trust not only in others, and those relationships, but also in yourself.

And the events that occur, you trust that they are for the best.

S: You trust that you have a connection with a greater picture, and that what’s going on has a purpose, that it will be for the best. Good.

The end of world hunger and disease.

S: If you are led by love, then you’re going to see a lot of radical changes in the distribution of goods in this world, because you will have less of a heart, a tolerance, for suffering, for hunger, for destruction. Aye.

People would be following careers that they could have […] talents, and be more comfortable with that.

S: More people would be willing to do those things that brought them a mindset that allowed for a greater function of love.

My every day would be as wonderful as it was today, because I choose from the moment I awake to feel positive about it and to live with love in my heart. And not only that. Anything that we feel and anything that we do is rather contagious, so whatever I’m feeling affects the next person, and the next.

S: The choices that you make, which, by the way, affect others, will be love-oriented, making things better.

When you’re living from a point of love, every contact with another human comes from a connection, a sense that there’s something that you share. Instead of looking at dissimilarity or distance or separation.

S: The natural response would be to seek what is the same in others rather than to push because of what is different. Sure. One more then. Paula.

We would all experience abundance.

S: And you would in most every area of your life—and the only reason I do not say every area is because you get nervous when I get that specific, so I won’t. I’ll say in most every area of your life you will experience abundance, because you are functioning in a like-is-attracted-to-like, magnetic frequency in this world. And what that says ultimately is that you are acting in the flow of love, and the flow of love returns back to you. That abundance is a symptom of love.

Does that abundance mean, for instance, an abundance of money?

No.

S: Not necessarily, but it’s not ruling it out either. Does it mean an abundance of laughter? Not necessarily, but it’s not ruling it out either. It is a recognition that you are in the flow of the attractive power of the Universe, and you are drawing to you that which fulfills the promise of love in you.

These are good things. These are the sorts of things that most intelligent people would never say, “I don’t want that.” You’d be hard pressed to find those who would say to you, “Well, I don’t choose to do things that are going to make me happy. I don’t want to help mankind. I don’t care to do the work that I enjoy.”

And yet, without even going into most people in the world, I will go so far as to say most of the people in this room are not doing it, are not living love. And although there might be times, moments perhaps, in which the fulfillment of the potential “I want to live love” is expressed, the reality of it is, even you don’t.

Why? Because where there is not love, there is fear. So it is because fear rules you. That simple. Because fear rules you. And more specifically: within your lives, at this time in your existence, I will go so far as to even name that fear. One note—name that fear? You fear failure. And because you fear failure, you don’t try to succeed.

You fear failure, but you disguise that in holy terms, and you say instead, I fear making waves. I fear not being accepted by others. I fear being unable to take care of myself. I fear . . . what are the sorts of things that fear of failure is disguised as in this world?

Not having enough.

S: I fear not having enough to take care of myself, and the things that I desire to do.

Fear of loss.

S: I fear not having, loss, abandonment, betrayal.

Fear of success.

S: An excellent one right there, because particularly in a room full of individuals such as yourselves who are successful in this world, the very thought: “Fear of success? Of course I do not have a fear of success!” And although we could quibble a bit about the definitions of success to make it so that you could justify your excuse, you seem to fear success, because what you’re really fearing is failure. I just won’t try.

Now, that one tends to be two-fold. With the fear of success it might be that you do not try, because you’re afraid you’re going to fail. And therefore, you’re always seeking success, but you’re afraid to reach for it because you might fail in the reaching. And another reason for that one can be that you fear success because you fear the responsibility that would come with it.

That particular version of fear shows you the two functioning principles in your world—that of attraction and that of repulsion. How so, attraction? Just discussed this. This is just a review back thirty seconds or so. How attraction? How repulsion?

You draw to you where you’re at and what you’re sending forth.

S: Indeed, you draw to you where you’re at and what you’re sending forth. But remember what I just said about seeing fear of success in two ways. One of those ways is you’re afraid you’re going to fail. Therefore you will not try too hard. The other reason is because you’re afraid of the responsibility of succeeding.

Which one of those two would be attraction and which repulsion?

Attraction would be responsibility.

S: Fearing that reaching toward it will bring to you those things that you’re afraid of.

And what then is the repulsion? Fear of failure. That you may as well never fully try, because you’re not good enough, not capable enough, not smart enough, not rich enough, not. . . .

And in your life, that’s the principle. The primary principle of attraction and repulsion, of not being worthy to have, of fear of what you’ll get if you have it, or what you’ll be if you have it, stands in your road labeled fear for everything that you do. You fear change.

If what you fear is failure, that means it’s going to act itself out by your fearing change. Do you see that? It’s going to act itself out, because any change means you’re going to have to make a decision. What should I do here? What if I fail? What if this happens? What if I’m not enough?

Every change that comes into your life presents, for the being who functions in love, an opportunity. To the person who functions in fear, it presents not an opportunity, but a place of resistance.

If you don’t know what you want, I guarantee you will be successful in not getting it. Your fear will keep you from knowing what you want. If you don’t know what you want, you will always have an excuse for not seeking. If you don’t know what you want and therefore you are not seeking and you’re not really going anywhere, then you’re going to be safe, because you don’t need to worry about making choices, you don’t need worry about stepping out, you don’t need to worry about learning something new, you don’t need to worry about ever failing.

I said to you recently that over the next couple of months you were going to be facing your fears. And I want you to take just a moment and look at your last few weeks. Can you see how you have been looking some of your fears in the face? Maybe as you look through the hodgepodge of your last few days and few weeks, you might not see a pattern that you can say, “Oh, sure, that’s fear,” but what you might can do is look at your reactions. And if they were not love, you can count that they were fear. So what is it that brought it up?

Now I’m going to go one step even more basic to it: one of those things that is a bottom line—not the only bottom line, but a bottom line—to your functioning successfully in this world. I want you to remember that what you are here to do is live love. You come here already programmed—not a good word—equipped with the desire to love. You need it. You seek to give it. And the more you open yourself up to your spiritual nature, the more natural that love does flow.

One of the symptoms of living love, as we discussed at the very beginning, is that you are happy. One of the symptoms of not living love is that you are functioning in fear, indecision, frustration, inability. Your self-image believes more that you cannot than that you can.

One of the things you can do to exercise love in your life is to do something that makes you happy. Why? Why is it that exercising love in your life . . . what does your being happy have to do with exercising love in your life?

Giving to yourself.

S: True.

It changes your energy when you’re doing something that makes you happy or enjoy . . . you’re changing your energy into being more in a positive framework so that functioning in love is an easier thing to do.

S: All right. That also is true.

Fear keeps you very preoccupied with yourself.

S: Excellent.

And happiness lets you get outside of yourself.

S: That’s right. Right on it. But when I have the opportunity to speak with many of you individually, one of the things that you say inevitably, across the board, is that you don’t know what makes you happy. Or if you know what you think makes you happy, you don’t have the time to do it.

In your world, your life can be thought of as a circle, all right? And into that circle you put all of the things you do that take up your time. The aspects of yourself are pieces of this circle, and how much of that circle does each one of those aspects use.

So you find that you’ve got five percent time relaxing, and thirty percent of your time with your family, and as you continue looking and dividing up, you’re going to get a view of how you see love. You’re going to have an awareness of how much fear you have in your life, and you’re going to see, right in front of you, what needs to change.

Let me be a bit more clear about that as an assignment. All right? You look at your life as if it is—and I know that there is a word for what I’m saying here.

Pie chart.

S: That’s the one. Yes. But does not that sound a bit like you’re baking or something? Aye.

Recipe for happiness.

Baking a life.

S: Baking a life. I like that.

You have those things that you do to spend your time, and one way that you might figure out what this is, in case you’re not certain what it is that involves your time, is to begin taking notes for a week about those things that you’re doing. Some of you are led around by your calendar book. Aye. And you might can just look back through your calendar book and be able to use it to let you know, out of a twenty-four day, over this much time here, is what I have spent doing these aspects of myself. That alone can shake you up, can’t it?

One of the things that many of you are going to find is that you have a lot more free time than you think. And you do amazing things to waste it. And have really good excuses for doing it. Well, I’ve got to just settle down and watch this television show because it helps me relax. Right.

Just as a free nickel over here, I promise you—and I don’t do that often—certainly if you would simply plan it—plan it—but absolutely if you’d just cut it out altogether, your television viewing, you would find yourself considerably more relaxed, because the energy that it expended when you are sitting in front of that mechanical device, that electronic energy sucker, affects your physical being. It affects your mental being. It affects the way that you look at the world you live in.

To cut it out altogether is a bit too radical for some of you, because you’ve been weaned on it, and the child in you demands it, but just for the sake of giving it a try to see what happens, try just planning it rather than cutting it out altogether.

And I have found when I have given this assignment before, that you figure out ways to weasel around it. Let me be more clear about what planning it means. If every day at four o’clock you watch this program, record it and watch it at six o’clock instead. I’m asking you not to center your life on it, but to take it at your convenience. For you to control your use of it. Give it a try. Now that’s just the free nickel stuff.

Back at that pie chart, you are likely to find that your life is filled with stuff you do not feel you have control over. And everything that you have going on in your life which you feel you do not have control of, every one of those things that you feel that you’re at the mercy of—and then fill in the blank—the fates, the rules, the boss, write across that section, I live in fear here. I fear abandonment and therefore do not take charge of my happiness. I am not living love here—in every one of those areas that you feel you are not in control of what’s going on, go ahead, just write across it, “I live in fear here. I’m not in control of my happiness. I’m not living love here.” Because that’s what you’re doing.

Samuel! I don’t know what fear of abandonment has to do with it, though. We’re talking about where I work. What does that have to do with fear of abandonment?

Fear of abandonment is one of the biggest reasons. It’s a security issue, it’s one of the biggest reasons that you fear not . . . anything. It’s one of the largest reasons that holds you back from everything. Fear of abandonment. How so? Somebody? How so? Why is that not living love? Why is that the bottom line that I’m giving you for fear?

If we’re feeling insecure about ourselves, and it is a fear of not being enough, not being . . .

S: Fear of abandonment. Why abandonment?

Here I am in a situation, and if I do something different, then things will change, and as things change, I may lose the things that I’ve come to enjoy in my current situation. And as things change also, other people in that situation may become disenchanted with me and abandon me.

S: Bingo security issue. Because if I do not follow the rule, I could be rejected. I could be left in the woods to die.

That’s exactly what I was going to say. I have a theory that fear of abandonment is programmed into us, because we’re basically pack animals, and if we’re abandoned, we’re kicked out of the cave to die.

S: And you’ve said an interesting thing there, that we’re basically pack animals. And that is true in mass consciousness. That is true in mass consciousness. Have you not made a step beyond that?

Just go ahead. Write it across. “I don’t live love here. I am ruled by the pack.”

Stuart.

This is probably another way of saying what’s already been said, but fear of abandonment could be looked at as fear of separation.

S: Absolutely. Yes. Just fill it in that way.

As you look at your life and you see those arenas that say, I do not live love here, you might find that most of the areas in your life are ruled by fear and not by love. It is a human tendency that those things you enjoy, you continue doing as much as you can. More often than not, you enjoy them because you are good at them.

Generally speaking, in the lives of most humans, those things that you are good at tend to be things that you are innately talented at, as if it’s a gift. It’s not hard for you; therefore you enjoy it. There may be something that Sallie has a very, very hard time doing that Gwendolyn does not have a hard time with at all. Gwendolyn enjoys it more than Sallie does.

It is a higher function to learn to enjoy that which requires you to work at it. More often than not, it’s a choice you make, actually. So going back to that pie chart, you can look at your life and see those things that you enjoy, that you’re happy with. You can fairly well count on it that those are going to be those areas of your life in which you are living love and in which you do not experience fear.

How much of your life, what is the percentage of your time in which you are doing those things? The spiritual master is able to look at all of the areas in life and recognize that “I choose love here. This is not an easy area of life, but I choose love here, I choose happiness here.” But for most individuals that’s not how it works. They have eighty percent in fear—maybe ninety, could be more—and if they are fortunate and very aware and functioning at higher frequencies, there may be twenty percent of their life that’s happy. A very typical thing to do at that point is to redefine happiness so that they can feel like they are experiencing some of it. It is, isn’t it?

And yet the nature of your being is love. The frequency through which the spirit you are works in this world is love. The most natural, easiest there is for you to do is to love. You must be trained otherwise by fear. And it is those aspects of your life that function with love that you have happiness. The most natural product of your life is love. And it is the love that makes you happy.

Now, Samuel, I have a lot of joy cutting and pasting. How is that an act of love.

You’re feeding yourself.

S: You’re giving yourself creativity, food. Sure.

You’re creating something for others to enjoy.

S: Possibly. Depends on what’s being done in the cutting and pasting, but sure. An act of creativity is an act of seeking beauty, in one form or another. It requires an act of love to bring it about. Love for oneself. Love for one’s environment. Sure.

Giving yourself time to quiet the mind.

S: Hopefully. And again that’s giving to oneself. In your life you change because you are in so much pain; anything else is what you seek. Or, you change because you have found so much fulfillment that you want more.

In your life you are guided by fear or love, and in the function of your life, you spend your time amplifying those fears or amplifying the love. In everything that you do, with every breath you take, you can ask yourself, am I working in fear or am I working in love here? And where you are working in fear you are destined for failure. And where you are working in love, you can only succeed. Only. Because you are doing that which puts you in the flow of the energetic function of this world.

But Samuel, I’m doing what I enjoy a lot, and I do not find that I am particularly successful at it. How much of what you are doing is involved in fear? Because there you are. The bottom line in our world: make a revolution. Turn it around before it’s too late.

This is the time of year in which—to give you the word that you were looking for to begin with—most individuals create resolutions, and they create resolutions based on “I am not enough, I am a failure in this area. I’m going to make this change in order not to fail. There is this thing I do not like about me, and therefore I am going to resolve to change it.” It’s destined to fail, because it is seeking a means of better learning the fear than amplifying the love.

You want to make changes in your life that are going to succeed, then choose to act on those things that are going to make you happy, to live out your joy, to function in love. To look at those areas of your life which, after you’ve checked through your pie chart, is just about three minutes of every day that’s good; live those three minutes then. Seek ways to get that activity into your life. Don’t emphasize, don’t give your heart—maybe you’ve got to give your hands and your mind for a while—but don’t give your heart to those things that amplify fear in your life. Choose the power of love, because by doing that, you begin instituting that magnetic draw, and that is the only thing that is going to allow you to go from three minutes of something that makes you happy to five minutes of it, to ten minutes, to half an hour of it.

The only way you’re going to make positive change in your life, which is—my bottom line—the only way you’re going to make positive change in the world is not by focusing on what does not work and therefore changing it. It’s only going to happen when you focus on what does work, what brings you joy, what brings you love, what gives you the opportunity to love, and letting that multiply.

What you give your attention to gets stronger. If you spend all of your time fixing what’s broken, you’re only going to make the broken stronger. Instead, strengthen what works. And what does work in your life? Well, look at what makes you happy—what is it in your life that makes you happy—because those are the moments that you’re functioning in love, and those are the moments you’re getting stronger.

Frank.

I was going to say it’s real interesting, as you’ve been saying that, I remember that now and then I’ll read some business treatises. And generally with a business, often with business, is they say to make a business successful that isn’t doing real well, you don’t go in and look at areas where you can spend less money, you look for areas where you’re making money and how you can do better, which is exactly what you’re saying. And, I mean, it works.

S: To […] what works, don’t focus on what does not.

As above, so below. As in the material world, so in our lives. That’s interesting.

S: In this world, at this time, it is your strength that is needed. In this world, at this time, it is your love that will change things. In this world, at this time, you can make a difference. Not by fighting the great war, cursing the darkness, arming yourself to be able to vanquish the foe. You will change your life and you will change this world because you are adept at love.

And I would like to spend time this year on these nights talking about becoming adept at love, because love is by far more than simply trading spit or other bodily fluids. Because love is a force of power, the force that changes the world by changing you. It is the force that expands, that opens, that includes, that draws to. It takes you away from the ego-centered need to do it alone, from the fear-based inability to work with others. To bring in yourself and this world into the sacred potential it is designed for—one with one with one.

Stop letting fear rule you. Stop living a life that’s false. You are a being of love. That’s the only real thing there is.

Happy trails. Glochanumora.