Two of Swords
The skill of navigating two conflicting ideas
Have you heard the phrase "an unstoppable force against an immovable obstacle" before? The Unstoppable Force Contradiction is the term given to this paradox. It simply poses the question to which there is no known answer: What happens if an item that cannot be stopped collides with an object that cannot be moved? They don't shatter since they're both believed to be indestructible. The solution to this puzzle may never be discovered, but the Two of Swords is a compelling illustration of an immovable object.
What happens when your heart and head conflict?
Your heart says you are unstoppable with amazing gifts to bring to the world. This is your emotional self speaking it’s truth.
Your head says you are inexperienced and are wasting your time. While the inexperience may be fact, the waste of time part is an opinion created by the mind.
So how do you reconcile these two opposing forces? Which holds the greater power, your head or your heart?
Heres the deal…
🧠 Your head is designed to gather information, facts, not interpret them. Your head says “no experience”. This is a fact. You can get experience with practice and persistence.
🩷 Your heart knows you. Your heart (your intuition, your gut feeling) is designed to lead you down your true path based on the facts at hand. You feel driven to follow this path despite the stories your head makes up.
Stop making decisions with your head!
Your mind can create a gazillion stories around the facts, twisting and turning them to fit whatever narrative has been conditioned in your life. Your mind can go down rabbit holes trying to justify anything. A fact might be “you have no experience as a writer”, and the conditioned narrative is that “you need a secure job to earn a living”, therefore you can’t possibly earn a living as a writer, get a real job.
Your heart will lead you to live authentically. Faced with the fact “you have no experience”, if your calling is to write to help or inform people, your heart will lead you to your true path. You will be open to finding ways to gain experience. You will be open to finding ways to secure an income while you build your writing experience.
But what if…
What if your head says “you should be a writer” (because that’s the latest trend, because your grandfather was a writer, because words are valuable and you can change the world with them), but in your heart writing doesn’t excite you or motivate you and it feels like a chore?
Stop making decisions with your head!
Same thing! Get out of your head and into your heart! Follow what does motivate and excite you, even if it means leaving the family legacy behind. Even if it means not following the trends and doing your own thing.
Your mind is important for gathering facts, but it’s your body (your heart, gut, all the feels) that are there to interpret and apply these facts.
What are the two incompatible ideas you are holding on to? Can you differentiate between what is in your head (facts) and what is in your heart (feelings) to better navigate the conflict?
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