“I encourage everybody to open their ears and their eyes and especially their minds, wide.”—Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz won the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA for his portrayal of King Schultz, a dentist turned bounty hunter in Django Unchained.
During pre-production, however, he was bucked off a horse and sent to the hospital with a dislocated pelvis.
Some people might have thrown in the towel. But not Waltz who claimed total responsibility.
“I hadn’t ridden a horse for 40 years. It’s a skill like playing an instrument. You have to do it every day,” he said
And that’s the perfect description of how we ACIM students “change our minds and therefore change our world.”
Here’s my daily practice:
Instead of focusing on “what I see,” I focus on “what I want.” Over and over and over again. Yes, I get bucked off the horse. Yes, I hit the ground of apparent problems, dislocate the pelvis of limitations. But I just keep climbing back into that saddle and focusing on what I want to be true.
Left to its own devices, the human mind is quick to jump to conclusions, leap towards fear and cower in the face of possibilities. That’s why I’ve made “training my mind” priority numero uno. On a daily basis, I instruct it to look for beauty. Encourage it to seek out the bigger picture, to focus on the love and the seemingly impossible.
Yes, it’s an incorrigible slacker. Keeps returning to familiar old ruts. Keeps listening to the spin doctor that looks at the world as a potentially scary place. Insists on focusing on the “information” from my five senses, from the news media, from the default setting that says, “Be careful. Worry. Don’t even think about learning to trust.”
So I just keep getting back up in the saddle, directing my mind to focus on what I know to be Truth.
People often ask me, “How is that even possible?” when the “what you see” looms so large in your mind.
And all I can say is it’s the same as the answer to the old joke, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”
Practice, practice, practice.
Or, if you’re Quentin Tarantino, the director of Django Unchained, you take your character off the horse that caused the accident in the first place.
When the Oscar-winning director went to visit Waltz in the hospital, found out he couldn’t ride a horse for three months, he wisely said, “You know if you don’t talk much about it, I might get some interesting ideas.”
And that’s exactly what he did. Waltz’s character spends most of the movie riding around in a horse-drawn buggy with a giant tooth swinging from its hinges.
So, quit talking about the “world as it seems,” get back up in that horse-drawn carriage and use your imagination to take you all the way to a happier, more beautiful reality.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
31 Responses
Beautiful! Thank you! 🙏🤗
It is my pleasure. I believe in “teaching” what I want to know.
Perfect timing for this lesson Pam! Love you…
I love you, too!
awesome talk i use the hooponopono whenever my imagination thinks up a negative situation in my mind to calm my mind down. thank you for the pep talk.
Gosh–isn’t that why we’re all here? Giving each other pep talks and, as Ram Dass says, walking each other home.
That’s a really lovely idea – that we’re walking each other home. Beautiful. ☺️⭐️
I love it, too!
Pam! Loved this post and needed this today. However… I have a question… where do you draw the line with telling the Universe exactly what you want? What do you do when the door slams in your face repeatedly? At what point do you say “I know I keep focusing on X but the door never opens or keeps slamming shut, so perhaps I’m not supposed to do / have / be that?”
How do you make the distinction between drawing things / people / experiences to you with focus and intention vs. something showing up from the Universe as a sign being sent to you? Is it a sign or did I just draw it to me with focused intent?
Thank you for these always brilliant and thoughtful posts! ❤️
For me, my focused intent is on peace, joy, expansion–not so much specific things. I’ve discovered the Universe has a much bigger “catalog” than my tiny brain.
You mean, it’s as if, in a restaurant, you order “pasta” and let the Cook decide if he will serve you lasagna bolognese, spahetti carbonara or penne arrabiata ? Very different tastes, but still pasta…
Genial, sencillo pero genial gracias
De Nada!!
This is exactly the message I needed today. The answer to the question I asked earlier today.
Thank you!
I love how that happens!
Thank you, Pam. I really needed this today.
Yeeehaaaaah! I’m gonna get me back up on that horse every time I fall off and train myself to stay on!! Yes! And even if I “dislocate my pelvis of limitations” and am in terrible pain, I will get back up on that horse and I won’t give up until I get the hang of this new way of riding through my life 😁 Amen and Thankyou Pam 🙏💖
Riding through life–great image! Thanks, my friend!
Explained with great clarity! You know I save your posts so I can go back and read them over and over until my brain finally understands that it may as well relent and let go of the old thinking. 🙂 Thank you so much for this. I read it this morning but have a houseful of company so had to come back and read it again. 🙂 Such a shame. 😉 I like the idea of letting the Universe pick better ways to let me feel that joy I want in my life. It’s taken some very interesting turns in the last 2 days. But first I had to let go of controlling how it happened. I’ll keep you posted.
Please do! And thanks for liking my posts enough to re-read them!!
I do re-read most of them. And my daughter hammers me with them. 🙂 It’s’ Pam said this and Pam said that. Now she’s working on people at work. She loves your work as much as I do.
Dear Pam
Thank you for wonderful way you explain the universe!!! My favorite take away is gratitude !!!! I say thank you for all things good, not so good and sometimes downright grappy !!!
When I do that like you have said they turn around being good😊 I so look forward to your new book 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
When we begin thanking everything, we begin to realize there’s nothing serious ever going on.
Thanks Pam,
I really Love the way you roll.
Rock on,
Mike Stilinovich
Rock on I will! Thanks!
Audacious, bodacious. Djangacious
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Ajijicacious–miss you guys!
One of my mottos: change your mind, change your life.
Thank you for your spiritual encouragement Pam. The words you share make me want to create an even more beautiful day 💖
Definitely one of your best posts ever, at least in my world! I have printed it out to read often.
Another wonderful post. Exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you!