Spiritual Dogged Persistence “No Matter What”

This past week I watched two individuals completely devoted to making money “no matter what.” First I met with an acquaintance, Julie, who shared with me her marketing plan and funnel that she has actively worked since the beginning of the year. She spoke of people as “potential sales” and profit margins and monetized everything within our conversation. Her filter through which she saw the world was one of making money. Her schedule, commitments, conversations, and way she walked in the world reeked of exchange. She presented herself as a saleswoman, had the vocabulary of a saleswoman, and did the behaviors of a saleswoman.

Within hours of meeting with Julie a friend and I attended a timeshare presentation for a new building in town. We were assigned a young presenter named Brandon who welcomed us, offered us food, and then informed us that in order for him to make his money he had to keep us in the room for 90 minutes after we finished our breakfast. The moment our eggs vanished and plates were picked up, Brandon took out his Smartphone and started a timer sent for 90 minutes.

As my friend and I now have PhDs in timeshare presentations, we completed with no questions, in record time — 20 minutes. But, Brandon had to keep us at the table for 90 minutes or he wouldn’t receive his commissioned pay. He did everything short of locking us in the room for those 90 minutes. I was not allowed to use the restroom or the clock stopped. So, we saw photos of his girlfriend, learned how he made his way across the country. Heard about his burgeoning acting career, all the while waiting for the clock to run out.

When our 90 minutes were up, my friend and I both said, “he would stop at nothing to make his stipend.”

This got me thinking about something that Marianne Williamson once said. She said we will have peace when we are as focused and committed to it as a soldier committed to war while sitting in a fox hole. In other words, these two examples I witnessed this weekend were going to doggedly stick-with-it until a sale was secured. They had become the people who would, at all costs, make a sale.

These examples got me to contemplating what it would look like if I was as committed to my spiritual practice, behavior and site as these individuals were to their sales. I have challenged myself to see the Presence of God everywhere especially where I have been seeing “other.” This practice requires, for me, immense doggedness, persistence, and a willingness to stick with it “no matter what.”

Isn’t life fun? There is always something new bubbling to the surface calling us forward.

Blessings,