Finding Your Afflatus

Finding Your Afflatus

Have you ever had one of those serendipitous moments where, while looking for one thing, you accidently stumble across something even more valuable? This happened to me one day while I was looking up a word in the dictionary. I’m not even sure what that original word was now. But the word I stumbled across by accident has stayed with me to this day. It is one of the most beautiful words I have ever come to know. That word is “afflatus.” Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (1996) defines afflatus as:

(1.)  inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within

(2.)  divine communication of knowledge (1)

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “so what’s the big deal about afflatus?” Let me ask you something. Why do you get out of bed every day? What motivates you to get up and go to work? Is it just so you can pay your bills; a means to an end? Is it peer pressure; worrying about what others will think of you if you fail to conform to societal norms? Maybe it’s out of sheer boredom; nothing else better to do? As Jim Rohn says, “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they may have planned for you? Not much.” (2) Do you even have a definite plan for your life?

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”

Nietzsche (3)

All of us are blessed from birth with an inner cache of dreams and aspirations. When we are young, we literally overflow with the abundance of these dreams. However, as we “mature”, quite often these dreams and aspirations get suppressed, squashed and placed on perpetual “hold” mode. Instead, as we lower our ambitions, we set more “reasonable” and “realistic” goals.

“Most people fail in life not because they aim too high & miss. Most people fail in life because they aim too low & hit. And, many don’t aim at all! Many just survive.”

Les Brown (4)

What is holding you back right now from living your dream life? Is it a fear of failure? Or, just maybe, is it really a fear of success? Marianne Williamson says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.” (5)

What if you knew that you could not fail? How would you plan your life differently? Would you finally be willing to take your life off of hold and follow your dreams? As I state in my book iContractor1…Constructing Your Perfect Life By Remodeling YOU From The Inside-Out, “Your dreams are your gifts from God. Following those dreams is your gift to God.” (6) Your dreams are not meant to be just for you. Your dreams are for the benefit of all of humanity. Marianne Williamson continues, all of us “were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” (7)

Which begs the question, have you found YOUR afflatus yet?!?

By Dr. Jon M. Ketcham

Author iContractor 1 & Dream re-Kindler to Earth-bound Travelers of Light

Copyright 2012

Bibliography

(1)  Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1996 edition, p. 34

(2)  The Treasury Of Quotes By Jim Rohn, Jim Rohn, p.83

(3)  Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl, p. 76

(4)  Live Full And Die Empty, Les Brown (DVD)

(5)  The Power Of Focus, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, p.159

(6)  iContractor1…Constructing Your Perfect Life By Remodeling YOU From The Inside-Out, Dr. Jon M. Ketcham

(7)  The Power Of Focus, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, p.159