You have a reservation at Chez Catastrophe

You have a reservation tonight.

It’s at Chez Catastrophe.

Apparently, sometime between getting out of bed this morning and right now, you booked yourself a table.

You don’t remember making it?

hmmmm…that makes sense. You probably didn’t realize you were doing it because it didn’t sound like a typical reservation. It sounded more like:

What if this doesn’t change?

Reservation made.

You don’t knowingly call Chez Catastrophe and request their finest table for a lifetime of disappointment.

Every day, all day, you’re making reservations into your future from your orientation, right now.

Your business. Your body. Your relationships. Money. Your children. Aging. Whatever you’re thinking about.

Every subject you think about has a future reservation attached to it.

You’re not always making reservations at Chez Catastrophe. You make plenty you’d be delighted to have show up.

It’s the ones you don’t want that can be harder to recognize as reservations because they sound so ordinary. 

Business has been this way for two years.

My body always does this.

I know how this conversation is going to go.

It feels like you’re observing reality.

Meanwhile, you’re rehearsing.

Past experience often informs future expectations. It’s human. It’s reasonable. The past has evidence. It has receipts.

But what you want and what you expect aren’t always the same thing.

You can want your business to thrive while anticipating another disappointing month. You can want your body to feel fantastic while expecting decline. You can want something different in a relationship while already anticipating the same conversation.

Desire names the destination. Expectation makes the reservation.

Expectation is what you actually anticipate experiencing, and it’s one of the ways your orientation reveals itself.

Maybe your business hasn’t produced what you wanted for two years. That’s real, and two years of evidence can easily turn:

This is how it’s been.

into,

And therefore, this is how it will be.

You still want something different, but your expectations begin adjusting to the evidence. Without realizing it, you start preparing for more of what you’ve already had.

The fact has become a forecast.

Then your body confirms what you feared, a relationship follows the familiar pattern, or business gives you another disappointing month. 

See? I knew it.

More evidence for what you already expected makes it easier to anticipate more of the same, and that orientation becomes easier to pick up in your now.

And around you go…

Chez Catastrophe, apparently, has a very effective loyalty program.

But evidence of what has been isn’t a prophecy for what happens next.

You don’t have to pretend the evidence isn’t there. Your business may have had a difficult two years, your back may hurt today, or someone may have behaved exactly as you expected.

You can acknowledge what’s real without letting it decide what you create next.

What happened then and what’s happening now don’t automatically become the forecast.

Some of what you’re orienting from was something you chose for yourself. A goal you set. A decision you made, something you genuinely wanted.

Life has happened since then.

You’ve happened since then…

What you wanted then can still have been true. The question is whether it’s still what you want now.

And this is where now matters so much.

You’re not making tomorrow’s reservation yesterday.

You’re making it now.

And now.

And now.

One random thought doesn’t seal your fate, and neither does one change in orientation.

It’s what you rehearse that changes the trajectory.

An orientation you’ve practiced for a long time is easier to pick up. It’s familiar, and there may be plenty of evidence available to support it.

But familiarity isn’t destiny.

You can choose again in your now. And when you do, something changes before there are more sales or money, before your body feels different, before the relationship changes, before there’s any new evidence at all.

Changing your orientation isn’t only about getting a different future. It changes how you experience your now.

You don’t orient toward well-being solely because eventually your body might reflect it. You don’t orient toward possibility in business only because it might produce the sales or the money.

You orient to what you want because of how you choose to experience your life while it’s becoming…while you’re becoming.

Truth. Freedom. Joy.

They aren’t only criteria for some future destination. They’re part of how you want to travel.

So the question isn’t whether you’ve been thinking all the “right thoughts.” Look at the reservation.

Is this the future you actually mean to be preparing yourself to walk into?

If it is, beautiful. Keep rehearsing.

If somewhere along the way you discover you’ve booked yourself another table at Chez Catastrophe…

“Wait. I don’t even want to eat there…”

No need to shame yourself for making the reservation. Nor do you need to spend three weeks investigating the childhood origins of your unfortunate restaurant selection.

Cancel the damn reservation.

Make the one you want.

And remember…

The reservation is always being made now.