The phases of creation help you see where you are in the creation process. What stops success most of all is giving up. It’s like trying to get a touchdown and not realizing you are on the two yard line. You may need just a bit more effort before you achieve your goal, but you give up too soon.
Walter Russell has inspired me to formulate phases of creation. The first phase is what I call the “initiation”. This is the phase when something is a novelty and you have a lot of enthusiasm about engaging in your undertaking. You may have decided to lose weight and sign up for an aerobics class; you’re all charged up in the beginning. The next phase is the stage of “obstacles”. This is certainly the most difficult phase. Here you begin to run into opposition to your initial good feelings about what you are doing. Most people give up during this phase. If you were trying to lose weight, this is the phase when you might start to go off your diet, or have trouble exercising because your muscles are painful or you are reluctant to continue in your aerobics class. The third phase is the “cruising” phase. This is critical because you need this phase to realize that your efforts are making some kind of identifiable progress.
In the weight reduction example, you would be losing weight and seeing that you can do it and can keep the pounds off. The cruising phase says what you are doing is in the right direction and sets a course for the fourth phase which is the “peak”. This is when you reach your objective. You have attained the weight loss you started out for. Walter Russell then describes several phases of decline. I don’t consider them as important, but basically they relate to either changing your objectives to better suit your needs or to begin a whole new set of goals.
You can see these phases of creation in many areas of life. For example, in the area of relationships, the initiation phase is what you generally call the “honeymoon” phase. Everything is romantic and wonderful, you see all the good in your prospective partner, and you think, “Where have you been all my life?” The second phase, however, comes up sooner or later, when you begin to find out all the dark sides of your mate. Here you begin to doubt that the relationship will work out. The cruising phase is when you begin to see the light in the relationship and usually sets in after you have overcome some major upsets with your partner and the relationship appears solid.
The peak is then when the commitment is formalized and you get married, for example. The phases of decline that follow would be steps towards divorce or moving on to other goals of the family.
Whatever you try to accomplish will likely run into some obstacles. The obstacles function to help you gain clarity about whether you really want to continue to aspire towards your goal. You need to have a great desire and an enjoyment of the creative process to be successful. Attaining the cruising phase means that you have figured what it takes to achieve your goal. You require continuing on in the cruising steadily to reach the peak. If more obstacles come up, then you need to achieve “cruise” control on them.
These phases are not always simply chronological. You could be cruising for a while and then have more obstacles. Obstacles are discouraging, but they keep you on your toes about how well you are doing. Regardless of what the obstacles are, they are telling you what it takes to have your Natural Success.