Protect the Next Domino

To begin telling this story about protecting the next Domino, I want to begin with a story that dates back to my childhood something that was so vivid as I thought about this episode, it was the Red Rabbit and the tar baby. So there’s this fox, and he constructs a doll out of a lump of tar and dresses it with some clothes. And so when the rabbit comes along, he addresses the tar baby very politely but received no response. And the rabbit becomes offended, offended and incensed that because he he believes his star baby has a lack of manners. So reaches over and smacks the tar baby in the face. In doing so he becomes stuck. And the more that the rabbit punches and kicks the tar baby out of rage, the worse he gets.

Obviously, the fox who constructed it was outwitted by the rabbit but what is important is how many times in our lives have we slapped a situation have we stirred the pot of something not going in our way. And ultimately, we get totally in Gore’s and stuck in a situation. What I’m contending to you today is once you begin to see the motion, take its course, like a like a line of dominoes. What we must do is jump out in front of the falling Domino and protect the next Domino. And all these animal documentaries be at the Tigers via the bears. The mother bear comes out and protects its young and that’s the level of protection that we must do to stop the cascade of events sometimes Fun continuing to set in motion after this Brer Rabbit, hit the tar baby and got stuck.

It could have taken a different course, sometimes and all the cool shows we watch his kids, what was the first thing you were told to do? If you found yourself in quicksand, it was don’t fight. But guess what, guys, I’m not asking you to, to defy or deny the gravity of the moment. What what muscle I’m asking you to begin to train is that presence of mind to be aware that something has momentum, and we’re sliding right now the avalanche had started out as a snowball, but had gained that kind of momentum that we need to step out the way or else more dominoes are gonna fall. How many times have you heard the story of somebody who loses the job, loses the second house loses the second car, loses the first card, all these things cascade and to a certain level of momentum until they reach rock bottom, be in a foreclosure, be at the bankruptcy be at anything and then all of a sudden they bounce back?

What I’m contesting with you is that you don’t have to lose it all. You just have to protect the next Domino. And how do we protect the next Domino. We understand that in the heat of the moment, we are not thinking with the best of our capacity, we are not being guided by inspiration. In those moments, we are being pulled by momentum. And there’s something that happens there’s something that happens when you know that you’re right, or you’re justified is that you remain indignant. You expect everybody to see the perspective that they can’t see. So we have to pause we have to take ourselves out of traffic and protect the next domino because the next domino if we want it to begin to move in a positive area toward everything that we desire, we have to begin to shift the momentum.

And so by taking our negative attention out of the equation, we give it a chance to go neutral. And then going neutral, we observe the situation we observe ourself, we see ourselves fighting indignant against somebody because we know we’re right. But being right isn’t always enough for things to go in your favor. Being right is cool, but being happy is better. And so as we begin to reverse course, by protecting that next Domino, because that next domino deserves our best, and the one after another one after that. And when we give ourselves the chance to begin to reverse course, the story and direction for our life begins to orchestrate on our behalf. And the interesting thing is, we all have the ability to make that decision of which direction we want to go.

In that moment of clarity, we’re offered a choice of either champion for what’s right, are champion for what feels better, because I guarantee your perspective is valid, your opinion is justified. But holding fast to that opinion or perspective causes more dominoes to fall against the mission that we’ve set out to achieve. You can throw fuel on the flame, or you can starve it with the lack of your attention and allow yourself to gain momentum in the right direction. Ultimately, when we wake up in the morning, we have a mission. Throughout the day, everything that we do is related to ultimately bringing that mission into focus on a day to day basis, going in the opposite direction, chokes off those infinite, divine resources. From finding their way to us, we’re so busy fighting for wash, right?

That we miss out on what’s possible. What I’m asking for, isn’t common. Typically, when things go well, people feel good. And when things go bad people feel bad. And ultimately, you know what that is, to me, that is manic behavior. I’m asking you to think outside the box to feel outside the box to be a little bit more unconditional and how you feel, do things need to be looking right? For you to feel right. If you hold on to the faith, if you hold on to the vision of the mission, you can feel good and you can feel the satisfaction of feeling everything coming into place even before you begin to see the evidence of it taking place. So by protecting the next Domino, you’re holding on to the mission, you are allowing the orchestration to be building and converging on your behalf.

And that’s all that’s necessary to reverse course and move in the right direction. This isn’t common. I’m not saying it’s easy even this is something that I’m challenged with on a weekly daily, hourly basis. Where am I going to give my attention? I can fanned the flame I can fuel the flame or I can starve that kind of flame and protect the next domino because it’s what’s important not just for myself, but for my community because the level of energy that I give in senseless stupid ideas are people a conversation and arguments. I’m bringing that home and it spreads. And that’s not the life that anybody living with me or around me deserves. They deserve my best. So I challenged myself and I challenge you to be at your best. Go for protect that next Domino. Shoot for the wind.