Anticipate Not ... Examples in everyday life

T

Truthseeker101

Jedi
FOTCM Member
Hello everyone! I wanted to share what I now think of as an "anticipate not" exercise that I have done for a number of years. I invite everyone to correct me in my thinking if need be and/or offer greater clarity. In practice, staying in the mode of "Anticipate Not" can feel like a razor's edge to be balancing on ... depending on the amount of trust one has in the process. So I wanted to share my experience as a light hearted everyday way that I practice. I would invite members to comment if they have "anticipate not" advice and would be thrilled to learn of other members experience with learning HOW to stay out of anticipation in their everyday lives.

I have lived in the LA area for the past 30 years and parking is often an issue. As a kid I heard Wayne Dyer talk about how common it was for people to be looking "to not find a parking place" with their expectations ... even though they would be driving through the lot looking for a spot. Years ago I had seen this in myself, so I started looking for parking spots differently. So now when I look for a space I make sure that I am not expecting (anticipating) a negative or a positive future parking outcome. I simply focus on the legwork of driving through the lot to see if a space is available. I try to keep my mind open, relatively blank and unthinking with a Happy go lucky attitude that believes in the general benevolence of the parking gods and the universe. I stay open to the possibilities of finding a spot or of the perfect spot opening up during the process. But I really don't do the thing where I am affirming/willing that a parking spot WILL PRESENT ITSELF since that would be anticipating ... as well as a version of I create my own reality. Sometimes I find a good spot and other times I don't, but generally speaking I find a spot remarkably quickly IF ... and this is a big IF ...IF I am able to stay in that place that is out of the anticipation zone. My wife says I have amazing parking Karma for what it is worth and gets REALLY EXCITED when I find a spot but I try to stay out of anticipation when looking ... lol. The fun part is when I "Wait and See" and find a really good spot. So much of the time when that happens, I immediately reflect back on how my mind has been operating during the search and I honestly find that I will have been completely NOT ANTICIPATING ONE WAY OR THE OTHER with a happy go lucky attitude.

If other members have their own examples, I wold love to hear them. I have more detailed examples of how I view the lack of anticipation in my life working positively if other members are interested. Cheers.
 
This is a fascinating concept. I have always gone along with the opposite of trying to imagine an outcome for myself which is the one I would most like. Perhaps I am going about it in the wrong way...perhaps I should just relax and let things take their own path and see what happens.

It is interesting for me to look back on my middle brother's attitude to life in general. He wanders through life in a happy go lucky manner and doesn't seem to have the worries and anxieties that affect the rest of us in the family. He is also the "luckiest" individual I have ever come across. He has won countless sums of money on lotteries etc - albeit small amounts. He has found countless items in his daily walks, wallets, watches, rings etc. When they have been returned to the owners he has often been given a nice reward. I have tried asking him to suggest some lottery numbers for me but that never seems to work. Perhaps it is his attitude that is the key and him passing information on to another simply does not work. I think this concept is worth a try. I wil let you know if it is successful. :-)
 
I find this fascinating too - because I have suspected this to be something we need to learn to do.

Personally I have found that the "anticipate not" mode works really well - especially in meditation. And now that I think about it a lot of other things in life as well - even with cooking or baking things seem to turn out really well when not anticipating the result.

I even try to do this when playing the lottery, to no effect though :lol:

A long time ago I learned that when things seem to be going really bad, they never turn out to be anywhere near as bad as I anticipated they were going to be. Just anticipating that was unnecessary stress that I created for myself - sometimes for days on end.

I'm going to try a day of anticipate not / wait and see and contemplate the results.
 
When I was little, my dad told me about this exact un-technique for finding a parking spot..like, "if you LOOK for a spot you won't find one so you have to just not care...and then one will turn up right in front of where you want to go! Or maybe it won't (except usually it will), but that's fine because you don't care....". We always used to joke about it but it stuck with me, so that's how I've always done things... Of course it's a lot harder to pull off when it's something more important than just finding a place to park... But the universe does like to surprise you...
 
brandon said:
When I was little, my dad told me about this exact un-technique for finding a parking spot..like, "if you LOOK for a spot you won't find one so you have to just not care...and then one will turn up right in front of where you want to go! Or maybe it won't (except usually it will), but that's fine because you don't care....". We always used to joke about it but it stuck with me, so that's how I've always done things... Of course it's a lot harder to pull off when it's something more important than just finding a place to park... But the universe does like to surprise you...
Click to expand...
I like the way your Dad said it! I agree and am glad your experience seems to also point to a slightly better outcome when not anticipating.:-)
 
Tuulikki said:
It is interesting for me to look back on my middle brother's attitude to life in general. He wanders through life in a happy go lucky manner and doesn't seem to have the worries and anxieties that affect the rest of us in the family. He is also the "luckiest" individual I have ever come across. He has won countless sums of money on lotteries etc - albeit small amounts. He has found countless items in his daily walks, wallets, watches, rings etc. When they have been returned to the owners he has often been given a nice reward. I have tried asking him to suggest some lottery numbers for me but that never seems to work. Perhaps it is his attitude that is the key
Click to expand...
This reminds me of the career paths of so many VERY SUCCESSFUL people. I'm not going to give examples but I find that some of the most successful people seem to have "fallen into" their careers and they talk about how "lucky" they were. I think their success is also a reflection of their lack of anticipation as well as working really hard. How many times have we heard ... "I didn't know if I would be broke in a few weeks or if I would be able to make my car payment."Then they just work really hard while staying in this attitude.

And it also reminds me of the classic conflict between an artist and his business manager. I am in the entertainment industry and some of the most creative people that I have known in my lifetime seem ABSOLUTELY unattached and non anticipatory. It drives their business managers crazy. He will tell them, if you do AB and C then you can have D and the whole time he is talking you can see that the creative one is so in the moment that he can barely think about D. He marches to his own non anticipatory drum beat.
 
When I started reading your thread, I was already thinking of finding parking spaces for the car in impossible places as an example of the "magic" of non-anticipation, when I read that this is precisely your case.

My family always says that I am very lucky to find parking very surprised, however sometimes the "right" thing for the universe is that I have to park quite far away.

And I accept it, because I had already accepted it before.

We need something, but how the situation develops is accepted with joy and detachment from the result.

In fact, it is already my way of "seeing" life and I always try to "surprise" myself when I "want" something, so as not to do it and change my thoughts.

I let life surprise me with its unexpected turns and many times what I need comes in the most unexpected way or..., I see that I really didn't need that.:-)
 
I have noticed, that when concentrating on some task, issue, all kind of needed purchase (serious one’s - like house/flat/car etc)...it always fails, blockages arise of any sort. Because you intervene in the Flow of things, divert or stop it. When you just set an aim, put a serious intent in it and kindly ask Divine Cosmic Mind and let it go (usually goes anticipation how, where to get finance, where/how will look like-all those little ‘bugs’ that keep you always ‘boiling’ in your head)- opportunities, even better than firstly expected, often spontaneously/as by magic start to emerge😉🙏
P.s no lottery win yet though😅
 
Depuis aussi loin que je me souvienne quand je conduisais, où que j'aille je disais : "Une peite place pour nous mon Dieu, s'il vous plaît " et à la stupéfaction de chacun, une place était tout près de l'endroit où je devais me rendre...
Cela énervait certains de mes passagers habitués à être conduits par moi et de ma petite prière...
J'ai toujours trouvé cela ecellent...

As far back as I can remember when I was driving, wherever I went I would say: "A little place for us God, please" and to everyone's amazement, a place was very close to where I had to go...
This annoyed some of my passengers who were used to being led by me and my little prayer...
I always found this excellent...
 
I have notice that whenever I have set goals or expectations on my life it has also created the opposite. This maybe why expectations are always met with failures where indifference to outcome has resulted in surprises. It seems the universe does not like to be told what to do!
 
I have tried the anticipate-it-not and anticipate-it exercises in my life and the most effective in my case is letting things be. There are some things I know that I am gifted with sheer luck like scratchers, raffle, giveaways, things like those. I have embraced and told myself that I am lucky because I am indeed. I am on a 6-win streak in scratchers now and will have it exchanged tomorrow. LOL

With anticipation, there is some kind of attachment in the outcome while the other one doesn't, probably why we get frustrated or sad. with the other, you just flow and surrender and the Universe will take care of you. 🌷
 
Truthseeker101 said:
Hello everyone! I wanted to share what I now think of as an "anticipate not" exercise that I have done for a number of years. I invite everyone to correct me in my thinking if need be and/or offer greater clarity. In practice, staying in the mode of "Anticipate Not" can feel like a razor's edge to be balancing on ... depending on the amount of trust one has in the process. So I wanted to share my experience as a light hearted everyday way that I practice. I would invite members to comment if they have "anticipate not" advice and would be thrilled to learn of other members experience with learning HOW to stay out of anticipation in their everyday lives.

I have lived in the LA area for the past 30 years and parking is often an issue. As a kid I heard Wayne Dyer talk about how common it was for people to be looking "to not find a parking place" with their expectations ... even though they would be driving through the lot looking for a spot. Years ago I had seen this in myself, so I started looking for parking spots differently. So now when I look for a space I make sure that I am not expecting (anticipating) a negative or a positive future parking outcome. I simply focus on the legwork of driving through the lot to see if a space is available. I try to keep my mind open, relatively blank and unthinking with a Happy go lucky attitude that believes in the general benevolence of the parking gods and the universe. I stay open to the possibilities of finding a spot or of the perfect spot opening up during the process. But I really don't do the thing where I am affirming/willing that a parking spot WILL PRESENT ITSELF since that would be anticipating ... as well as a version of I create my own reality. Sometimes I find a good spot and other times I don't, but generally speaking I find a spot remarkably quickly IF ... and this is a big IF ...IF I am able to stay in that place that is out of the anticipation zone. My wife says I have amazing parking Karma for what it is worth and gets REALLY EXCITED when I find a spot but I try to stay out of anticipation when looking ... lol. The fun part is when I "Wait and See" and find a really good spot. So much of the time when that happens, I immediately reflect back on how my mind has been operating during the search and I honestly find that I will have been completely NOT ANTICIPATING ONE WAY OR THE OTHER with a happy go lucky attitude.

If other members have their own examples, I wold love to hear them. I have more detailed examples of how I view the lack of anticipation in my life working positively if other members are interested. Cheers.
Click to expand...
I have the same reputation for "amazing parking Karma" as you do! When parking, it really doesn't matter to me if I park near or far since "near" = convenient, and "far" = more exercise, sunshine. Even on rainy days, my umbrella allows me to enjoy the same indifference. Since thinking/imagining comes easily to me, it's rare that I can't find some positive focus for any outcome. This allows me to be less fearful, thus less attached to some specific "good" outcome. Of course, I've had decades to discover that I can't reflexively assume I really know what's "good" for me, but that I can be sure the Divine Cosmic Mind knows, and will lead if I will listen and follow.
 
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