Make a Dent in the Universe

This post is part of a series based on the book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Crown Business 2010).


"To do great work, you need to feel that you're make a difference. That you're putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you're part of something important." (p.31)


People can think what they want to think, but I find it increasingly more perturbing that they would use the mass media to criticize things they obviously don’t understand, in an obvious unconscious way. Take optimism for example. It's been taking a beating lately. Optimists, such as those practicing the principles of New Thought, have been taken to task for being merciless boobs, and for wanton consumerism. Misunderstandings of optimism and positive thinking  are not just coming up in our conversations around the water cooler. They are coming out in best selling books that a perhaps gullible, cynical, and spiritually starving public is educating themselves on. We have to challenge it in a compassionate, loving way. We have to stand firm in what we know to be true.


What I’m suggesting is that we may need to consciously and deliberately use the media as well, to publish and disseminate messages of truth. Like my friend Brent Hunter (@brentnhunter) who uses Twitter to send out positive, uplifting messages to his following of 95,000 people. He sends an affirmative message every hour of the day. That's a lotta good vibes impacting the quantum field. Joe Wolfe, another friend of mine sends uplifting, inspirational books to prisoners. So far this year, he's responded to 300 requests. 

What are you doing? It is easy to criticize, especially from afar. It is easy to point out errors. It’s easy to get good at fault-finding. Some may claim they are just “being honest.” Honest about what? The tyranny of their wet blanket worldview? Ignorance of the possibility of good things happening? How about their own fear of failure? How about unconscious habit? That is a most  "unintelligent use of intelligence" as Ernest Holmes, one of my favorite philosophers, often said.

We can challenge limited ideas as they come up. If we can do this, we have taken the second step to making a difference. What is the first step? The first step is to get centered, prayed-up, aligned with Source, or however you want to call it. My tradition of Mental Science calls it Spritual Mind Treatment, a form of affirmative prayer. We all want to make a difference. And it is in the affirmative prayer that we begin to make a difference. As St. Francis of Assissi is often quoted to have said, “Pray without ceasing, and if necessary use words.”

Spiritual mind treatment isn’t well-wishing on a person or situation. We are not hoping it will make a difference. I am not criticizing the sincerity of any petition for good or improvement in the world. What I am stating that when I do a treatment, I am doing so as a conscious and deliberate act which renders specific and deliberate results. I do not believe in a Supreme Being which acts more favorably for one than for another. I do not ask for anything in a prayer. I accept something. And that is what makes a dent in the  universe...no it rearranges the universe, in my experience. Instead of hoping something will happen, we are endeavoring to know that it has happened or is happening. This is what makes positive mental practice make such a difference in our lives. And for those of us who take the time to study such teaching will know that that those who criticize it, do not know what they criticize.

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, give to life from that place of authentic giving.  And that is what we teach at The Peace Center. That is a precious gift to the world and we all have something to give that will make a difference. So I urge you to find it. Take the time, pray the prayers and find what is yours to offer and offer it. The world becomes a better place when you do.