--- title: "Umbrella Theory" description: "A short parable for anyone hoping for something they haven't started preparing for." author: "Rahim Rasul" type: "Podcast episode" series: "Halftime Talks" episode: 32 published: "2014-09-10" duration: "13 min" theme: "Goals and process" tags: "expectation, preparation, faith, dreams" audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT032_UmbrellaTheory.mp3?dest-id=175061" url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/umbrella-theory/" site: "I Love Process" --- # Umbrella Theory _A short parable for anyone hoping for something they haven't started preparing for._ **The question:** What is your umbrella? Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT032_UmbrellaTheory.mp3?dest-id=175061 ## Before you listen This comes from a journal entry years ago, where I examined a folk story about a farming town in the middle of a drought. It looks at the forces that shape a positive mental attitude, and asks us to move our hopes into faith, and then into anticipation and expectation. The town pools what little money it has left to bring in a shaman who can make rain. Everyone cheers that they are ready, and he tells them they are not. Only one person came prepared: a little boy in the front row, holding up his umbrella. Our own dreams work the same way. If you plan a long stay in another country, you learn the language. If you want to be respected as an author, you write far more than ever gets published. Listen for the line I draw between hope, faith and expectation, and why expecting something means preparing for it now, instead of waiting to pass through every phase before you claim it. ## From the talk > There's dreams that you have that you must prepare for. > > I'm not asking for anything else in the world to change. I'm asking your expectation to change. > > Take your umbrella out now, be the person that is a match. ## Sit with this - Are you preparing for that dream? - What are you willing to become? - How many of you know somebody even if not yourself, who's devoted a lot of time to working on their backup plan? ## Transcript So today's episode, what we're going to be talking about is anticipation, expectation, all rolled into the auspices of this idea of umbrella theory. What is umbrella theory, you're gonna have to put your seatbelt on strap in because that's what this episode is about. So to begin with the idea of umbrella theory, it takes us back to a time before the Industrial Revolution when the cheap form of autonomy in his country was agrarian base where people have Barb's they had to attend to, and livestock and all these other different things that were the primary source of our economy. And his town. This town was in the Midwest and it was going through the worst drought that any of them had ever seen. So without water, there is no farm there is no harvest, there is no economy there is no livelihood. So the elders of the community got together, the townspeople got together and they said we need to do something right now in order for this drought in so they, they put their minds together and they they collectively remember hearing a story of, of Vagrant, kind of shaman who could perform a certain ritual and it would bring the clouds together, and force rain upon Earth. So they collected what little funds that they had left, sought out. This vagrant shaman, and the Shaman was carrying to the town in a cubby and horse carriage right. So the shaman gets out of the carriage and climbs onto the stage only to see all the townspeople assembled doozy gastic. Each of them had smiles on their face, they were ready for this rain. So as the shaman took the stage and looked across the audience, he was a little befuddled. He was a little dejected. Some something had caught his eye. But before he let those emotions really carry itself through. He asked the crowd a question. Are you guys ready for rain? Are you guys ready for rain? In instantly without a hesitation? The whole crowd cheered in thunderous applause. Yes, yes, we're ready for rain, we're ready for rain. So to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him. across that first pass, he looked again to the crowd and dry, dropped his head into his chest and sunk it there and shook his head left to right. And he lifted his head up and he looked at the crowd and said, You guys are not ready for re. So what can I do? To give you rain if you yourself are not ready for it. He said there's only one person in this audience that is prepared for the rain, who has done what it takes to prepare for rain. And he pointed down to a little boy standing in the front row right between both of his mother and father. And he says Son, I need you on stage and the son looked the kid looked up to his parents left and right and a little bit Feitosa gathered his belongings and climbed on board to the stage. He said this child right here is the only person who not only has a dream for Ray, but is also prepared for son Will you please raise up what you brought today? And the kid raises up his umbrella. The whole audience looks at each other in dismay. Like what does an umbrella have to do with anything that we need done today? And so the shaman looked back to the crowd. He said how? With my power, and you've invited me pay me with your hard earned money and you've, you've wanted this desire this dream for rain, and I can bring it. But you didn't even bring your umbrellas umbrella theory? What is your umbrella? Because I'm sure each and every one of you have a dream? And are you preparing for that dream. Now what this child possessed was not only not only a dream, not only a desire, but he had to move beyond hope that the shaman could do it, he had to move beyond faith that the shaman could do it. When he left the house that day, this child in his innocence fully expected and anticipated the results of stepping into a new space, which offered array. So what did he do? He took his umbrella, what is your umbrella? What is your umbrella, there's dreams that you have that you must prepare for. If you're going to go to another country for an extended period of time, you might have to learn a language. If there are professional goals of management, and directing people and leading people, you must understand the dynamics of individuals and people. And it's not going to be this iterative process where Oh, I'm at this stage, and this is what people expect from me, this isn't school anymore, this is real life, that iterative process is gone. And what you must do is you must, you must tune you must tune into your desired destination. Nobody is going to end anything to you. But if you cannot, within yourself prepare, and begin to expect the outcomes that you dream for, then do what King God or what can that higher power that you look upon who you pray upon, do if you don't even expect it? Right. And you have other areas of your life where you're expecting less than favorable results. How many of you know somebody even if not yourself, who's devoted a lot of time to working on their backup plan. That will be like one of the greatest coaches ever to coach or whatever, again, devote a majority of the time to the bench, understanding that the bench is necessary. But your starters your primary plan, your primary dream, that thing that you say that you wake up, day, in, day out dedicated toward may fail. You might as well tattoo that on your brain and on top of your skull because what you're doing is you're putting out an essence of energy saying that I don't expect it to work. That same energy, you can recommit rededicate, and harness that into your desire, your effort, your anticipation. What I'm saying isn't really complex. What is your umbrella within this umbrella theory? What I'm talking about is moving beyond hope. Hope is cool. Hope is novel hope feels better than a lot of disbelief and a lot of other negative emotions. Faith is cool, faith is a little bit better at home that is knowing without needing to see evidence right. And expecting is preparing yourself because you dissipate what you desire to begin to unfold. So in anticipation in that preparation, in that expectation, which is the most powerful of all right, right next to knowing and expectation is synonymous right. So in the sphere of expectation, what are you doing different? What are you preparing for? What are you willing to become? Because the desire and actualization are two different things. You have to move into that sphere of energy. You have to relate with it you have to see it you have to see what would I have to learn become a In No, so that the transition into the space is a smooth transition. The last thing in the world you want is to move into a new space and be unprepared for the demands and rigor that is implicit within that space. That's why you have some people they get placed in and say, Hey, I'm happy to be here, I'm happy to be here didn't get ran out of town. So what you must do, and we see it in sports, we see it in the NFL, we see all these highly accomplished people who are highly accomplished for a previous stage in their life, yet unprepared for the next stage of their life. That's why they say it's a transition period. But within this in this transition period, and in this preparation, there are skills that are required, there is a state of mind that is required, that is a state of beingness require that if you can begin to tune yourself into the desired destination now, and not think about, I have to go through all these little phases before I can actually claim it, claim it now. Take your umbrella out now, be the person that is a match. Sometimes you hear people say you have to dress for success. I agree. If you're looking for success, you have to become the essence of your dream in order to even begin to take yourself seriously. And I'm not asking for anything else in the world to change. I'm asking your expectation to change. I'm saying if you're saying you want to be x, y and z, then you have to exude X, Y, and Z. If you want to be respected as a journalist and an author that means not only do you have to read but you have to write you're going to end up writing a lot more this unpublished than that is initially published. So you have to fall in love what you say you want to be before what you say you want to be can even begin to show itself to you. What is your umbrella? What is your umbrella? And are you carrying it today? Are you carrying it in your head over your head either way, anywhere around you any kind of prepositional phrase that you want to use? What is your umbrella?