Be, Do, Get: Getting Your Life to Flow

And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile, with a beautiful wife, and a beautiful house, and you may ask yourself, “How did I get here?”.

-The Talking Heads

We tend to live by this rule: Get, Do, Be. First we decide what we want to get. Then we figure out what to do to get it. Then after the doing and getting we should end up in some state of being. The state of being is truly our goal, such as happy, peaceful, or connected. Our big mistake is not realizing this, thinking the getting is our goal. The difficulty is that what state arises out of our getting and doing is rather unpredictable: if we Get, Do, Be, what we get may not be in alignment with who we are. It is hard to buy a present for someone you've never met. And this time, the recipient may be yourself.

If, on the other hand, you start from a place of being, then you have a better chance that where you end up is in alignment with your deepest sense of being. Let the doing arise out of the being, and then let the getting unfold from the doing, then whatever you get will be aligned with your need for a state of being. When you are moving⎯doing⎯opportunities open up along your path for getting. And here, getting is better called receiving. Because it is on your path that you created from the place of being, when you Be, Do, Get, what you get will be perfectly what you need, in alignment with your deepest desires.

So here is a prescription for aligning your life: start from a state of being (this is the hardest part, because you must let go of anything you hope to get). Make sure that this is not a state of doing, like “walking in the woods”: there, peacefulness may be the state of being. Then begin to envision a doing arising out of this state of being. You must then choose from all the possible things you can do. Choose the one that makes your heart the warmest. Then once you are doing, let the getting unfold. What you receive will be equal to, and in alignment with, the energy you pour into it from your state of being. See it all lining up: the Being, the Doing, the Receiving. See yourself as the headwaters for your life. Let your life pour down the mountain out of the joy in your being. This is flow.