After leaving graduate school I went into the investment business and have to admit that my performance in the first ten years was only so-so. Sure, my analytical skills were good, but I hadn’t yet developed the instincts to be ahead of the market psychology. I seemed to stagnate in all areas of life. Then, shortly before our children were born, everything started to turn around. Weird signals heralded this breakthrough. I joined the local YMCA and got my body back in shape. After the insistence of my dentist, I fixed my front teeth and got my smile back. People started commenting that I had lost weight even before it was visible on the scale. My professional career took off in line with these ostensibly random occurrences.
That’s the missing link of the spiritual quest, the understanding that we function just like an iceberg. We work on the conscious plane of awareness, but under the water—deep in our subconsciousness—is where the true action lies. The professional breakthrough I experienced was heralded by other positive developments in my fitness, parenthood and physique, but sometimes it’s exactly the opposite and the breakthrough happens exactly when it is darkest before the dawn. The problem with the subconscious is that it is, well, hidden from our conscious awareness. Yet, just like it takes a while to shift the direction of an oil tanker, keep going on the direction you have embarked on but allow the system some time to catch up. Change can be hard, but the universe falls in love with a stubborn heart.
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