Get your notebooks out ladies and gents, this one’s important.  (And by important I mean imperative to everything happy and fulfilling and victorious in your world.)

Willingness is the mother of all keys to a spiritually-fueled life.

Yes siree, Robert. Sans willingness, the subsequent four keys could and would not be possible.  In fact, they wouldn’t even exist because they couldn’t be experienced. (Note to your Self:  if you’re reading this, you’re willing.)

Put simply, willingness is choosing. It is a prereq to all spiritual paths, a springboard to adventure, and a gateway to freedom. It is the law. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Hold up… what about the whole “Love is what makes the world go round” spiel?  Shouldn’t that be first?

Bait taken.  Here’s why it’s not:

Could you love fully and completely, or at all for that matter, without an open heart?  (That’s a rhetorical question.)

It is only when you are willing that you truly love. Show me an unwilling lover and I’ll show you a talented Kardashian. Willingness comes first, always and forever. The same goes for gratitude, change, acceptance, stillness, and taking action.

To be grateful, you must be willing to appreciate.
To experience a new life story, you must be willing to let go of the old one.
To accept others, you must be open to non-judgment.
To be still, you must be willing to enter the silence.
To take action, you must be willing to show up.
To (your preferred ideal), you must be willing to (fill in the blank.)

Attempt any of these without willingness and you’ll never leave the driveway. N-E-V-E-R.  Get it?  Got it?  Good.

Now, before I define willingness, let’s talk about its source. Where does willingness begin? (A man in the crowd raises one hand with the other pointing down towards his head.)

Precisely!

Willingness starts with you. Just look at its root: will. Or the first five letters… will I? Your free will is the catalyst. Through our choices we have front-row seats to a field of possibility.

The K.LITE Dictionary reads:

Willingness – the state of being open to moving forward; adherence to flow; readiness; resistance remedy, serendipity spark, the Open Door policy.

The Open Door policy?  Say what!?!?

Si, abre la puerta. If there’s one thing to be taken from this post, make it this mantra:

I AM the Open Door.

(That’s a referral to you, not me.  Well, all of us actually.  First person works best.)

Write it big and loud and colorful. Put stars around it. Highlight it. Underline it once, twice, three times. Make it your screensaver, iPhone wallpaper, car bumper sticker, your next tattoo. Tweet it, snap it, pin it, bop it, whatever the kids do.

“I AM the open door” is willingness as a means to fruition – that for doors to open, we must first open ourselves. By doing so, what you need to start your car will be shown to you.

Opportunities arise (that job shows up.)
Synchronicities multiply (a new class or idea pops up in more than one place.)
Books fall off shelves (or in my case, I find them in the abyss of the woods where no book could ever possibly be.)
Conduits stand next to you in the grocery line ( … one thing leads to another.)
Magical 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th options appear.

But you must be willing to be yourself and be it fully. You must be willing to explore alternate paths. You must be willing to be vulnerable (like this road story.) You must be willing to receive the guidance the You-Niverse (your intuition, what have you) is delivering. You must be willing, you must be willing, you must be willing.

Does this mean we have to say YES to everything new and different?

Absolutely not. What good is willingness if it goes against the code of who you are?  It does mean, however, recognizing our need to continually grow by shedding old habits, accepting new truths, occasionally stepping out of the box and/or pushing the envelope.  For this, a leap will be required.  Know what I’m sayin?’

In The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra writes, “When we realize that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in the universe.”

I liken this to willingness.

When we’re unwaveringly willing to both give and receive willingness to the utmost degree, our Heart’s Desires (our Inside) merge with those of the Youniverse, awakening a force so alive and so magnetic that the “how” shows up and alignment is all that can and will endure.

Greek playwright Aeschylus mirrors this by saying, “When one is willing and eager, the gods join in.” Hear, hear!  (Feel free, however, to swap “gods” for your own personal precept – Love, Light, God, Divinity, Moana, Jesus, Magic, Norman at the deli, that tree in your frontyard, who or whatever revs you up.)

By allowing fresh light to stream in, we wield our willpower. Through the humility to begin and the courage to evolve, there is no person or thing that is not the Open Door.

On the bright side (if you need one)…

Willingness is the ultimate answer to life’s roadblocks – spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional. Willingness has the superpower of turning the impossible in to the possible, confusion in to clarity, and walls in to ways. It makes an outstanding companion, and an even better doorstop. And sometimes, it’s just a simple thought away.

So, how strong will you allow your willingness to be?  Where will you allow it to expand today, tomorrow, this week? Can you open up just a teeny tidbit more?

Play with the key.  Love the key.  Live the key.  Be the key.

Its potential is up to you.

Willingly,
light

* Tune in next week for the How To’s of Willingness. These will be fun.

((Photo by Philipp Berndt on Unsplash))