Years ago I bought a couple of water bottles for our camper van: one for the driver side door and one for the passenger side. Driving is thirsty work.
As well as them being BPA-free, there was one major stipulation me & Mrs Croft agreed on – you had to be able to get a drink out of them one-handed. Can’t be trying to unscrew a lid or something, while driving.
🙈😱💥
Anyway, I found what looked to be the almost perfect solution. They were dirt cheap and I bought them locally, in a camping shop. They had a little button that you pressed, that makes the lid flip up. You can see it in the photo. POP! it goes.
I say “almost” perfect, because there was just one problem with them: it was too easy for the button to get pressed unintentionally and flip the lid open. So it limited their usage a bit – you couldn’t put them in a bag or anything, if you wanted to go for a wander away from the van, otherwise you’d run the risk of being greeted by a pool of water in the bottom, rather than a drink.
But even something as simple as getting them from the house to the van was a bit fraught – I always seem to be juggling about 20 things, when I’m re-stocking the van. I’d have things stuffed under my arms, in my hands, trying to unlock doors and POP! goes the button and water starts sloshing everywhere.
Being accepting of reality however, I learned to live with this. Adjusted my behaviour. Always transported them from A to B separately. Never used them for any other purpose than living-in-van-door. I asked one job of them and they did it well.
For years.
That was my bottle-reality-experience. It went totally unquestioned.
Until the other day, when I noticed what I’m sure you’ve already noticed for yourself, cos you’re more observant than me.
It’s got a lock, hasn’t it?
😳😲🤯
Look again at the little button. It slides upwards and that locks it. You can’t POP! it open when it’s slid into the “up” position, as it is in this image.
I think I must have done it by accident, because upon arriving home I just sat there in the van on the drive, looking at it, with a stupid expression on my face.
“Huh. Who knew?”
(Everybody else who bought this bottle, Giles, they all knew 🤦🏻♂️)
Suddenly my bottle-reality-experience changed completely. And my subsequent behaviours changed.
Now I can just chuck the bottles around with wild abandon. I can put them in a backpack if I want to go for a wander. I can hydrate in places other than directly next to the van door. Life with the bottles suddenly got much bigger, with more possibility.
And this happened without any effort, or willpower.
A little misunderstanding about how-things-work fell away, and I now inhabit a new reality; one more closely aligned with the natural order of things.
I held an invisible (to me!) false belief, it got brought out into the open and life got better.
It’s brilliant.
It's not just water bottles
Now, consider this.
Every bit of struggle in your life comes from an invisible (to you!) false belief, that’s keeping you from your own brilliance.
You don’t need to “learn to accept” things how they are; you don’t need to forcibly try and adjust your behaviour; you don’t need to live in a limited version of your life.
You just need someone to help you bring some of those invisible, false beliefs out into the open, and—without effort, or willpower—life will get much bigger, with more possibility.
That’s just how it works.
As I discovered, with a simple water bottle.
🤷🏻♂️
Giles
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Giles P Croft