The Gift of Thought
When we talk about thought in leadership, we typically mean our intellect. Our ability to analyze, evaluate and think through complex issues. This capacity is a wonderful gift that helps us to apply knowledge, develop a skill and analyze issues.
When I refer to the gift of thought, I am referring to something different. I’m referring to the capacity we have to think. The formless energy that is the source of all thought and that we each use in different ways to create our world.
The ability to think, the one and universal energy from which all thinking arises, is at the heart of everything. It is through this capacity that we create our personal realities. It is through this capacity that we narrate our lives. And it is through this capacity that we make things good, bad, better or worse.
The computer I’m typing on is a thought in form. The cup that holds my coffee, a thought in form. All inventions are a representation of thought originating from the formless potential that we all possess.
Our personal thinking is also a manifestation of our capacity to think in form - individual thinking (that is the content of our thoughts) comes from this universal creative energy.
The miraculous truth to see here is that thoughts are the building blocks of our reality. It is through thought that we construct our personal worlds. That is why each of us live in a separate reality that is unique to us. It’s not that we have different perspectives on the one true reality. It’s that reality is constructed by us moment by moment, through thought.
“The mind works like a projector, not a camera.” ~ Michael Neill
Which begs the question, is there a reality before thought? The only thing that exists before thought is infinite potential, the energy of life, and the source of all things.
Does this mean that a chair does not exist without my personal thinking.
Well something may exist without your personal thinking, but it certainly is not the reality that you see. Not only is your reality based on the biological and anatomical structure through which you sense the world (that is seeing a chair as a solid thing that exists in full colour versus atoms with 99% empty space around them), but a chair as we know it, does not exist in our reality until we direct our attention towards it.
My personal reality of the chair can only exist through my capacity to think of the chair and be conscious of the chair. Without this, the chair may exist in some form, but not in my personal reality and certainly not in the way that I would normally see, sense and perceive the chair.
Physicist Donald Hoffman refers to this as our personal headset through which we perceive and construct our reality - an evolutionary adaptation that helped us survive. That is, our headset has evolved in a manner that helps us make sense of reality, not perceive reality as it actually is.
“Perception is not a window on objective reality. It is an interface that hides objective reality behind a veil of helpful icons.” Donald Hoffman
Now, why is this important in leadership.
The applications are endless, but I’d like to focus on 2 main areas. 1) how we lead teams and individuals and 2) how we handle obstacles and goals.
When it comes to leading teams and individuals it’s helpful to understand that we are each creating and responding to our realities moment to moment. Understanding that our reality is constructed, not perceived, helps us to understand why we often don’t see what others see. We think reality is somewhere out there that we’re all looking at, but it’s in here within each of us, constructed and shifting moment to moment. This is why we can be overcome by sadness one moment, and relatively fine the next.
When we see this, we have a lot more understanding for people’s reactions because we recognize that they are simply responding to the reality that they have innocently created and believed.
It allows us to have a lot more grace for others and ourselves, because we know we all get caught up in our thinking some of the time.
Secondly, when it comes to obstacles and goals, if we start to see that both are simply thought in form, created in our mind, we tend to hold them lightly, which in turn helps us navigate and enjoy them.
Let’s take goals. I’ve always marvelled at the fact that most biographies of uber successful people didn’t happen in a straight line. In every story, there’s a strong element of life unfolding for the person, as if life were living them.
The way we look at and plan for goals however, is as if we live in a linear and entirely logical world. A world where B plus C always equals D. And when inevitably, that’s not what unfolds, we blame ourselves for not being good enough, or alternatively blame life for not working in our favour.
But when we look at this same scenario from an inside out perspective, we start to realize that much of it is simply made up. What is actually happening is that we are doing what occurs to us to do, life happens and we respond. That’s pretty much it.
Goals are made of thought, nothing more, nothing less. Just thought.
Obstacles are also thought. Thoughts that we’ve believed as actual things keeping us from what we want. But there are no obstacles and there are no goals, simply thought being interpreted and held through time and space.
It’s an illusionary story that happens in our mind through consciousness that looks and feels real. And while the feeling is real, the story is not. The story is the illusion.
Can you see a goal as simply an image in your mind that you’re holding onto?
Can you see the obstacle, as an interpretation in the moment and also part of that same illusion?
Think of goals like the horizon you see when you look out over the ocean. The horizon appears solid and real—a line you could eventually reach if you just sailed far enough. But as you move toward it, the horizon moves too. No matter how far you travel, you never actually arrive at the horizon because it’s not a real, tangible place. It’s an illusion created by your perspective.
In the same way, goals are constructs of our thinking—mental horizons we project into the future. They can guide our direction, but they aren’t fixed destinations or sources of fulfillment. When we see that goals are part of the illusion of thought, we become free to enjoy the journey, knowing that our well-being isn’t waiting for us ‘out there’—it’s available here and now.
No achievement of ANY goal (even your wildest dreams!) will ever be the source of your experience.
When I’m working with someone that wants to be promoted, there’s often an underlying belief that when they achieve this next step, they will feel fulfilled, satisfied and validated. However, our experience doesn’t works this way, no “thing” outside of us, ever gives us what we’re looking for because that’s not how experience is constructed.
Our experience comes from the inside out and so fulfillment, satisfaction and validation exist now, right here!
A desire to feel a certain way or not feel a certain way, is never a good reason to pursue a goal.
You may achieve the goal, but it won’t give you what you’re looking for.
Most people treat goals like a ship chasing distant lighthouses, believing happiness and fulfillment are waiting at each new shore. But, you are the lighthouse—your well-being is always available from within. The destination matters as a point of direction, but it’s your inner light that determines how you navigate the waters, respond to storms, and ultimately experience the voyage. When your goals are guided by your own inner wisdom, rather than external pressures or expectations it doesn’t matter where you land or what you face along the way.
This doesn’t mean that it’s bliss and happiness the entire way, of course not. But when we’re not feeling great, we’ll know that it has nothing to do with the choppy waters we’re facing and everything to do with how we’re constructing our reality in the moment.
Understanding how our personal thoughts construct our experience moment to moment, how the gift of thought (formless energy) is our inner source of infinite creativity and genius and that so much of what we perceive as real and tangible is simply part of the illusion, helps us navigate this game we call leadership.