A simple step

Do you ever get that sense that something is coming towards you, that the inevitable is around the next corner. Every part of your body is telling you that the time is right to move. Sometimes, you feel like you are going round in circles, sometimes you feel lost, your energy is depleted and your mind wanders.  It happens.  Then a moment of absolute clarity shows itself before you as though the blinds have been raised and light streams in the window.  And you change direction. Then, shortly afterwards you wonder why you waited so long. 

Throughout our lives we experience countless relationships with others, from our parents, siblings, children and families to those we work with, play sport with and meet as fleeting acquaintances. Every relationship we have has an influence on who we are as a person, from the briefest of encounters to the longest of partnerships. We experience feelings and emotions from all those we meet and engage with.  Relationships are a choice (such as the selection of a partner, lover and spouse), all begin either through a genetic  connection or from a chance encounter.  What draws us to one another? 

Many of the self development books that I have read, often remind me to look at things through a young child's eyes more often. To our young children everything is interesting - there don't appear to be any 'boring bits' at all, especially when it comes to food and eating. Life should be like that - no boring bits. Yes, occasionally we are doing things we do not relish doing, occasionally we are doing things for others, when we could be doing things for ourselves. It isn't often that I do anything that I really dislike doing, in fact sitting here now, I can't actually think of anything .. (other than maybe going to the dentist to have a filling...). Our lives are full of choices about what we do. For some people, others decide for them - for others they decide for themselves. In the end, does what we do matter provided we do it for ourselves or to benefit others? 

How do we make sure that when we want to be listened to, and heard, those people we are targeting with our messages are picking them up, and perhaps more importantly, either acting on them or remembering them? Influence over another person is something that everyone seeks to achieve. From a child seeking to persuade their parents to head to the biscuit tin, to politicians attempting to swing voters in their direction. Everybody does it. Our behaviour and actions are influenced by other people every day of our lives. Sometimes, we do not even know that we are being targeted or influenced. By and large we all 'hear' other people's views and opinions, and so, arguably are we all always heard? 

I was recently reading an article about life, Darwinism and that sort of thing, which touched on the scientific theories about life, the universe and everything. At the same time (not unusually for me) I have about 4 or 5 books on the go, one of which is a study on 'chaos', and another is about the meta-physical or spiritual aspects of our lives drawing on Jung's theories. There is so much written about who we are, what we are, where we came from and where we are going. All the religious texts in the world focus on similar questions to these. Whole professions exist to help us try to understand questions like the 'ultimate question' as Douglas Adams put it in his fantastic Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe, - 'what is the answer to life, the universe and everything?' In the end we start from nothing, and we go on to being a small pile of minerals which, whilst we are alive, is held together by a lot of water molecules. Another way to look at it is from