Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of people talk about “Mercury in retrograde.” Invariably, those who speak about it do so with fear and resistance.
“Don’t make any big business decisions, Mercury is in retrograde.”
“Don’t buy anything expensive, you may regret it, Mercury is in retrograde.”
“If you have communication problems with anyone, it’s understandable, Merc is in retro.
From observing HUMAN BEINGS, I notice there are people who are still professional when Mercury is in retrograde. Nothing changes for them. I also observe those who resist success, those who procrastinate, those who always have reasons to NOT get anything done, now have an even bigger reason to not do anything.
Let’s look at how a professional and a top-notch “do nothing” handles ole Merc when it’s in retrograde – which by the way, happens three or four times per year and eats up nearly 1/3 of the calendar year.
Pros: The professional athlete still suits up and plays, regardless of what Mercury is doing or not doing. He would NEVER look at the scoreboard or his performance and blame it on anything other than himself. The pro believes that HE influences his environment by how he thinks and acts. He understands that his beliefs, his mental movies are primary – not secondary, in creating his life.
Do Nothings: Those who procrastinate are always looking for reasons to rationalize NOT getting anything done. They’re looking for reasons to be passive. They’re looking for proof that when Mercury is in Retrograde – it’s bad, bad, bad. And, just as the Pro creates, so does the “do nothing.” It’s just that the “do nothing” creates nothing worthy of admiration.
The Pro goes out and plays to win – and does. The “do nothing” avoids doing in order to “not get hurt” – but doesn’t avoid hurting himself or wasting his life.
From a business standpoint, professional teams make trades and major decisions when Mercury is in retrograde as well as when it isn’t. Some decisions are right and some are wrong. Just like ANY other time of the year.
Imagine delaying all trade decisions because of a belief that it it’ll go bad if you do. And imagine if you have this belief about Mercury in Retrograde and you decide to go ahead anyway. Would the outcome tend to confirm your belief?
You better believe it.
Here’s a perfect example: Some years ago I met a man who wouldn’t even make a purchase when Mercury was in Retrograde. He desperately wanted to build a new website and start creating products to sell – but ole Merc was holding him back. I talked to him and told him I thought his belief was a self-fulfilling prophecy. So he decided to go ahead and prove me wrong.
The next day he told me how he tried to get everything going after we spoke, and it was as if Murphy’s Law were operating just for him. He went out to make a purchase in a major store, and he got double-billed. Then, the process of getting the error corrected took another 15 minutes. “It was a nightmare,” he said.
Yet, here’s the exciting news. This man was the ONLY person in the store who got double-billed when he purchased that day. He was the ONLY one who had to wait for 15 minutes to get it corrected. And hundreds of purchases were made that day.
I said, “If you interviewed all the people who bought today, and told them Mercury was in Retrograde, I’ll bet that almost all would say, ‘Huh?'”
“But for you,” I continued, “you believe Mercury determines what happens on days like this, you expected things to go wrong, and so they did.”
I know people who started businesses this summer, who started getting fit this summer, who started to heal broken relationships during our latest Mercury in retrograde extravaganza – which by the way, isn’t over yet.
These people all have two things in common:
1. They don’t believe that a planet determines their fate.
2. They believe in and practice T.O.M. – Theatre of the Mind – on a regular basis. And this practice has, as a fundamental premise, that your have a success as well as a failure mechanism inside your brain. And YOU decide which one you’re going to use.
The success mechanism is activated by thinking of goals as well as past memories of success. Then when you get out there and get things done, day in and day out, all year long, success becomes a habit.
The failure mechanism looks for excuses and reasons to not do something. It looks for rationalizations. And once found or experienced, instead of being in “flow” – you live with resistance.
Zero Resistance Living – what a concept. Sliding through life.
Planetary Resistance Living – what a dreadful idea.
Remember, you are the one who decides what you’ll focus on and what you focus on has an uncanny way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Why not have a self-fulfilling LIFE that’s filled with the achievement of an entire array of goals – all year long?
Theatre of the Mind will lead you there.
Best,
Matt Furey
