A chink in one’s armour is traditionally considered a weakness or threat..
Whereas a chink in the wall of a building is defined as:
“A narrow opening; typically one that admits light.”
In the context of our success – whether in business or in life – it can be helpful to consider chinks in both contexts.
And to see how helpful they can be.
In the Western world, there’s a prevailing paradigm which suggests it’s wise and admirable to work on ‘fixing’ our weaknesses.
So we can “become better, stronger, more invincible, agile, leaner, achieve more, succeed and grow faster, etc.“
But, although this may appeal to our logic and reason, this inevitably leads us to focusing in the wrong direction.
And to not experiencing the results we may be aspiring to.
The reason being that a focus on how to fix our perceived problems sets us up to think towards a solution from the problem.
And such thinking can only delay or prevent the attainment of our desired outcomes.
The truth is if we didn’t become so preoccupied with what we needed to fix or to do to achieve our goals…
We’d achieve them a whole lot faster and with much greater ease and certainty.
Because we’d then discover that the only thing we ever really need to change is our lens of perception.
One such lens being to enable us to perceive our biggest or most persistent challenges in a completely different light.
To see them not only as assets – which they invariably turn out to be if we’re willing to look upon them differently – but also as invitations and opportunities.
Invitations and opportunities for us to wake up.
To realise we always experience more of what we are giving our attention to.
Whether it’s our problems and challenges and what needs fixed or our desired outcomes and goals.
To wake up to realise we unfailingly experience more of what we shine light on with our awareness and attention.
Hence Albert’s wise words above which truthfully I personally didn’t understand for years.
But if we continue to focus our awareness on where we are now and on what we perceive to be problems, weaknesses or obstacles such as a lack of sales or income or needing to lose weight etc. and how to fix our challenge, this is inevitably what we’ll continue to perpetuate our experience of!
i.e. More problems needing to be fixed, more lack of sales, ore needing to sort X,Y,Z.
On the other hand, if we open our heart and minds to the vision of the future we wish to experience and to a vision implying we’ve already solved whatever problems we perceive are in the way, we’d find ourselves thinking and acting differently..
And we’d find ourselves experiencing more of what’s desired!
The obstacles we perceived to be in our path are attended to, overcome or drop away as a byproduct of the shift in our consciousness.
Our thinking and behaviour completely changes.
The result of shifting from being mind-led to heart-led.
The immutable universal and scientific but little accepted truth is that circumstances only ever remain in our experience through our continued awareness of them.
So problems and challenges we face remain for as long as we keep giving them our attention and awareness.
Whether this is problems with sales, money, people, etc.
The ego refutes this as it doesn’t appeal to reason however the key is to learn how to habitually shift our awareness and heart from the problem to the solution… which is of course contrary to what we’re taught.
Which is not an intellectual endeavour, it’s an emotional one.
The point is that when we give our heart to the realisation of our goals without needing a permission slip from our ego or the outside world for doing so, we get to experience our heart’s desires with far greater speed, ease and certainty.
The challenge is this requires trust and surrender.
To go beyond the limitations and beliefs of the mind.
And for this we need to learn how to let go of our ego’s need for control.
The paradox being that control is the one thing we never have anyway.
Even when we believe we do!
The message here is that we always experience more of what we bring our emotionalised attention to. Whether this is our weaknesses and our fears or our boldest vision for what we’d love, we get what more of where we shine the torch of our awareness.
Our ability to steer our awareness however depends on whether we’re willing to allow our heart to lead our mind instead of our mind leading our heart.
Those who follow their hearts – consciously or unconsciously – are not only the ones who attain their hearts desires; they’re the ones who most enjoy the journey too.