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Steve Pavlina has been talking about polarity for over a year now. I poo-poo’d the idea in favor of balance. I didn’t think that it was healthy to concentrate your energy in either direction.

Last week I was looking at the political landscape and trying to understand what was motivating the presidential candidates. I finally saw what Steve meant by being consciously focused on the direction of energy flow.

I realized that you can become extremely effective by consciously and consistently applying yourself in either direction. I also realized that indeed 99% of the population is not polarized. Only a tiny percent of the population is even paying attention or conscious. Of that percent, still fewer take the same side consistently and exclusively. As I looked around for more examples and a better understanding of polarity, here’s what I found.

Lions for Lambs

Spoiler Alert

There are 3 major characters in the movie Lions for Lambs: a college professor who was drafted into the Vietnam War, a journalist that’s been in the industry for 40 years, and a young, upwardly mobile senator.

The professor has dedicated his life to engaging young minds as a political science teacher. At one point in the movie he admitted that he started out wanting to get the accolades that come with getting papers published and presenting theories. After a while he realized that no one read his papers, and theories needed to be actionable. He decided that he needed to engage his students and press them to be active in the political process. He remained in academia because he thought he could serve more people by waking up the apathetic promising students and having them take action.

The senator started off as a breath of fresh air to the party (GOP), according to the journalist. However, he was always self motivated and held his gaze on the presidency. He called the journalist in to present a new plan for Afghanistan. The plan was really an attempt to divert public focus from the problems happening in Iraq, and to provide a quick win for the senator in particular. He had many high-minded reasons for the new strategy in Afghanistan, but he finally admitted what he really wanted was PR.

The journalist walked away knowing that she was a pawn. She stormed into her boss’ office and hurriedly blurted out all of her reservations. She even admitted to feeling icky about the whole plan, least of all her involvement and responsibility in promoting the war in Iraq. Her boss reminded her that she has a mother that requires 24-hour care. She responded by saying she still can’t publish the story from the senator. Her boss urged her to earnestly consider the consequences of her actions.

At the end of the movie, we see the report as given by the senator in a ticker on the television screen that the apathetic student is watching.

In the movie, the professor’s primary concern was service to his students - outflow polarization. The senator’s primary concern was eligibility for the presidency (inflow polarization). The journalist was aware of what was going on and had good intentions, but caved in the end. She may have been conscious, but she was not polarized (or maybe she was inflow polarized).

Inflow Polarized Example: The Salesman

When I was a consultant I worked on a project sold to a customer without regard to whether or not it was feasible. I worked on many of these projects, but what made this one rare was that I admired the guy who made the sale because of his clarity, precision, focus and consistency. Let’s call him Al.

Usually these sales are made by someone who truly does not understand the scope of the project or the machinations of the client, but Al was well-verse in both. He was sharp, smart, and quick. It wasn’t an oversight that made the project unfeasible. He sold it because it would significantly boost his career.

Typically salespeople sold and moved on, but the company was in the middle of a restructure and he had to stay and implement. Instead of folding and taking a backseat at that point, as some of the other salespeople did, Al pursued the project with tenacity. He didn’t skip a beat. He determined that it would be an even bigger boost to his career if he could implement the project. He was intent and clear on the outcome and was willing to say or do whatever was necessary to make the project successful. Sometimes it meant treating the team to dinner. Other times it meant mandating 12-hour days.

He showed that the project was progressing at a steady clip in the right direction and exited. To the project team, it came out of the blue. All the other salespeople were stuck in implementation of projects they sold, but this was steadily negotiating his rise up the corporate ladder. In fact, he made it look easy. He was well aware of his power and was not afraid to use it the subjugate, manipulate, or flatter someone. He may not have used the term polarity, but he was very clear that anything that he did would benefit him. If it benefited someone else, that was gravy. If he needed to help someone in order to advance, he would do so, but he did not go out of his way to help anyone.

Al was an extremely successful salesman and is probably CEO of a company today.

Inflow Polarized Example: The Spiritual Zealot

It’s easy to label whole professions as lightworker or darkworker professions, but what we must really examine is motive. There are many people in search of enlightenment who can be considered darkworkers by Steve’s definition.

Think of the person whose sole motivation in life is to be enlightened for its own sake. They will do anything to stay in an enlightened state including cutting themselves off from society. They love the spiritual high of melting into Spirit. Rather than deepen their spiritual understanding for the benefit of all, they pursue spiritual understanding so that they can have nirvana.

Similarly, if the spiritual zealot manages to improve the consciousness of mankind in the process of gaining enlightenment it’s a bonus. If they have to neglect their families and society to do so, they will do that as well.

The spiritual zealot will achieve enlightenment because of his persistence, but there may be a string of casualties in his wake.

Lightworker/Outflow Example: Google

From Google’s corporate site:

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

It’s more than a platitude. It’s reinforced by Google’s 10 things:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

Google went public with a stock price close to $100 per share and is now over $500 per share. When they went public the analysts were skeptical of the value assigned to the stock, and the followers were concerned about its integrity. Google has kept its focus on service to the user and expands by asking how many more they can serve and what will enhance their user’s life.

For another view of polarization you can check out Christine Kane’s article on creating and getting.

In Spirit,
Nneka

I recently stumbled upon Lyman’s hack of the 12 steps and it reminded me of my own encounter with a 12-Step Program.

Years ago, in an attempt to lose weight, I stepped through the doors of Overeaters Anonymous. I stopped cold with the first step:

We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

There it was staring me in the face - POWERLESS. Throughout my life, my theology was built on the notion that I created my life with my thoughts, an idea that is now popular thanks to the Secret.

Indeed, I was taught the antithesis of powerlessness. I was taught conscious creation. I wasn’t about to give up my power over food or admit that my life was unmanageble. To do so, in my mind, would have been to say that I didn’t create my life. Blasphemy!

I went to meetings, followed a food plan, and called my sponsor religiously for 3 months. While I lost weight, it didn’t stick.

My 12 step experience caused me to begin to question the belief that said that I created my life with my thoughts. While very empowering because it made me 100% responsible for my life, this belief by itself was unforgiving.

In the realm of conscious creation, there’s a backlash against ideas like surrender, powerlessness, and letting go. It’s almost as if, in our discovery that we can create our life with our thoughts, we got an excuse to ignore the greater Presence that underscores life. In other words, we have found a way to control our destinies. We cling to it and won’t leave an opening for the flow of life.

Conscious creation is not about control and ridgidity though. No siree, it is about being aware of what we are creating so that we don’t look around at our lives and think that something made it the way that it is. Conscious creation says that we can choose what we want our lives to look like.

At some point, we hit a barrier with the sole belief of conscious creation. We will need to start employing it with a few other beliefs that may seem contradictory to it, like powerlessness and surrender. We must surrender our intentions and affirmations, loosen our grips on exactly the way we want the world to look and allow Spirit to unfold and manifest in our lives.

We must cultivate the belief that Spirit/God/Consciousness exists, and is truly all good.

Yes, I went there - God, the other bad word. Not the man in the sky God, but the Energy that underlies all of life. God is the Presence, Power, and Substance in the Universe that is waiting to be directed and is directing all at once. When we believe that that Energy is all good, all light, we are not afraid to relinquish the reigns on our lives and allow that Good to come into manifestation through us.

You possess tremendous power. You can shape your life through the activity of your mind - your thoughts. As you continue to explore the belief of conscious creation, you will notice the effort that you must put forth to create your world. At this point, ask yourself what would life be like if I opened to the experience of God in my life?

It doesn’t mean giving up your ability to create your world. It means enhancing it.

In Spirit,
Nneka