"The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe."
- Albert Einstein, quoted in The Law of Divine Compensation, page 1
"The greatest gift we give ourselves is often our willingness to change our minds. As you become who you are meant to be, what you are meant to do will fall like a path of rose petals before you."- The Law of Divine Compensation, pages 4 and 125
Hardly is Williamson the first writer to suggest that our every thought creates our experiences.
One intriguing difference is that she chose to publish during a time of “agreed” widespread economic hardship (2012). Her assertion is not to deny our monetary problems. Rather, we’re encouraged to transcend them.
Indeed, how we think releases infinite possibilities that couldn’t have occurred had we believed in their improbability. As a consequence, enlightenment is not a process we work toward; it’s a choice available to us in any instant.
"You can’t turn off the light, but you can put your hands in front of your eyes and then complain that the room is dark."- The Law of Divine Compensation, page 18
“I am a complete failure. I’m too old to get another job; they’re only hiring younger people. The economy won’t be picking up for years. All the jobs are taken. The system is rigged. I was screwed by so-and-so. I’ll never get these bills paid. I’ll probably lose my house. I give up. It’s no use. It’s too late. I blew it.”
How often do our (lamenting) thoughts deflect – not attract – miracles in a similar fashion?
What if we instead activated the Law of Divine Compensation through a shift in thinking? It states, the universe is programmed to improve all things. To do so, we need to give up our past stories, though.
A helpful exercise can be to jot down the names of everyone with whom you’ve worked. Remember that every relationship is an assignment, in which people are drawn together because they represent a maximal and mutual opportunity for growth. Whether you liked one another or not is irrelevant. What’s pertinent is that you now integrate any lessons you failed to learn previously, so you no longer need to repeat them.
"The world can give you a job, and a job can be taken away. But a true calling puts you in a career zone that cannot be taken away."- The Law of Divine Compensation, page 120
What a great reframe! A job is an exchange of energy in which you do a material task for money. A calling is what you’d do whether you were paid or not. Your calling emerges from your deepest core. Think Steve Jobs.
Admittedly, not everyone has the talent of a computer genius, but each of us has a call to greatness. Does this mean you never have to “look for a job” as the world defines it? Of course you do! But with this new knowledge, your process could go more like this:
The book uses the example of Dan as someone who did exactly this. With the recession hitting hard, he wasn’t teaching enough students to make a living as a piano instructor. A job opened up in an educational institution near his home that fit his qualifications. His chances were good. But then he “made up” it would be too full of political drama based on street scuttlebutt. Once he noticed his self-sabotaging tendencies, he decided instead that the universe was presenting him a golden opportunity, even if it didn’t look like what he expected.
Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer. Six of her ten published books have been New York Times Best Sellers. Four of these have been #1 New York Times Best Sellers. A Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. A paragraph from that book, beginning “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” – often misattributed to Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural address – is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.
