There is a myth that we teach each other which says if we are doing the work then we are on a straight path that will lead us to our goal. It’s a myth that equates doing with success and is “one size fits all.” It doesn’t account for any lessons that need to be learned along the way, the fact that working doesn’t in any way guarantee success even if it’s spiritual work, or that there are any other factors involved other than the person doing the work. Yet we teach this to each other and then experience confusion when it is not the case. In stead of creating a map which we can use to navigate our path it blinds us to the varieties of experiences we may/will have while walking it.
One I see from time to time is the fear of becoming or what people refer to as “being small.” Whether it’s an artist that refuses to engage with marketing/avoids end-user who would actively engage in collecting or supporting the work/following up on opportunities or teachers who avoid creating a schedule or being regular in what or how they teach, or service providers who bury themselves in some out of they way place so they limit their visibility, these people work as much to keep themselves small as they do at their path. This is not the same as people in these fields who are working hard and striving to grow their business/offerings and are small in the moment. Each path has its own momentum, its own structure and our choices are only one part of the process. Spiritual timing in all that.
However there are people who have a fear of becoming. While they want the to be successful, to have the results of a bigger, more prominent, more fruitful practice or career, this is not something they can achieve or accept without the transformation it requires. To experience success one has to become a successful person and for those who do not identify in this way, to be confronted with the need to change a core facet of our identity is like facing a dragon. There are some people who choose not to do so. Which isn’t to say that the dragon goes way or can’t be seen. It can. Like an invisible person which still has mass, the person who fears becoming works around it leaving a dragon sized space in their path until eventually they’ve outlined all around it. Until they either choose to confront it or have so molded their path that it incorporates an invisible dragon as it’s center piece.
Fear is only that: fear. It warns us that change is upon us and is indiscriminate as to whether the change is for the better or the worse. It is up to us to determine which and act accordingly.