Why attend to our reservoirs?

​Dear Why Team member,
Welcome to another posting of insights I hope will serve you.
This week we ask:

Why attend to our reservoirs?

-

Audio:

-

-

​You’ve heard the saying, a baby’s mind is like a sponge, and that’s obvious as we are born without much knowledge, and we learn lots from the minute we take our first breath. All the new information is stored in different parts of our brain, which become the reservoirs we dip into when facing new experiences.

Why attend to our reservoirs?
Because we drink from them.

Whether we want to or not, in the heat of any given moment, we drink from that which is most readily available, our Individual Achievement Reservoirs. Depending on what has arisen in our environment, a calm disposition in one moment can suddenly become stormy and intense in the next moment.
Why?
Because we all function more on automatic pilot than we realize.

This week we continue our theme on identifying keys for unlocking more of our potential. While it’s reasonable to want a quick insight or idea to boost us up a rung or two on the ladder, some keys take longer to turn. Attending to the quality of that which we allow into our individual reservoirs, is an absolute must if we are to unlock more of our potential.

Our habits rule us more than we know but, knowing this provides a key to unlocking untapped potential. Rather than being ruled reactively by our less than optimal habits of behavior, we can become more proactively disciplined concerning what we pour into our reservoirs - pouring more of that which we want to arise when we face life’s inevitable challenges.

It has been said that adversity doesn’t make us; it reveals us. Yes, initially, but in time it can make us. Adversity can absolutely reveal our true colors to ourselves and to others. But in time, if we are willing to look at those colors, our adversities can go far to assist and develop us, to make us more than we could have been without them. Remember, our family member’s behavior shaped many of our immediate responses, and as we grow and develop, we smooth out our personality’s rough edges. If we are to further know ourselves in order to further grow ourselves, it helps to embrace adversity as a friend rather than as a foe. Adversity can reveal to us our greatest anxieties and thus reveal to us our greatest limits.

There is an old adage that first came to popularity in the early days of personal computers, an acronym: GIGO.
It stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out. Our experience of life is largely dependent upon the quality of that which we have put into our lives, into our hearts, and into our minds. We will automatically draw upon our own reservoirs in response to what life presents us - and the quality of our response depends upon the quality of our reservoirs.

Why not reconsider GIGO as Great In, Great Out?
What powerful programming are you consistently doing to get more-great, rather than garbage, into your life and out into the lives of others? Consider more than ever what all you are pouring into your reservoir; physical and mental care is paramount: improved breathing, sleeping, eating, and exercise. More reading and listening to that which is uplifting and empowering. Attending more to our individual achievement reservoirs (our IAR) is a powerful key for unlocking untold possibilities.

This week, consider noticing more than ever, the quality of all that you are putting into your reservoir. If anything less than optimal arises in the midst of adversity, allow it to be more instructive and less destructive. Consider seeing it more as feedback rather than failure - and an opportunity to recommit to a healthier reservoir for you and everyone you love and seek to serve.

Make it a great week!

Steve Luckenbach