Anticipation

Attention is like a bow. Intention is the arrow, and anticipation is the skill of targeting. Your problems now were also desires. They now seem to be problems because you have a habit that produces errors in anticipation. We can engage the anticipation activity consciously, deliberately, and improve our relationship to it.

You anticipate better by being mindful of the whole process. The process is awareness, identification, anticipation, action. Anticipation starts with awareness. You have to be willing to accept exactly what your awareness presents to you now. The second step is identification. The key realization is that everything that can happen will happen because of what is possible now. Even if you didn’t want to take the skill any further, you could get very good at identification and watch processes unfold into outcomes in every part of life. But most people are unable to leave everything they encounter alone. This is where the actual state of anticipation kicks in. To create an outcome we cannot target anything as it is now.

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” Norman Cousins (American Essayist and Editor. 1912-1990)

“As Daddy said, life is 95 percent anticipation.” Gloria Swanson