From and To
There is a dance between from and to. They are a natural pair. In Newfoundland they ask ‘where we are from and where we are to’.
‘From’ is tagged to the past.
‘To’ is a destination, the place or state that marks the end of our going. ‘To’ is tagged to the future.
It can be fun and helpful to use this pair when setting goals. Speak out loud the from I want to get away from and the’ to’ I want as my result.
Just say it out loud.
From idea to action. Use of that form is definite. And it can feel abrupt. When we feel that, we might subliminally resist a bit. In this form there is not much wiggle room to getting to the destination. Do it. Do it now! Get there.
We don’t have much room to ponder how or how fast or any variables for that matter. A bit heartless and definitely demanding. Try substituting ‘into’ for ‘to’. How does that feel?
From idea into action. Ah, that suggests that we can gentle into it. The idea of running a marathon is lovely but don’t then immediately start running. That will hurt you big time. Also, we tend to have our own pace, a rhythm that suits us that we can embrace and enjoy the journey while getting ‘to’. The concept of ‘into’ is transformational, evolution, steady change. From seed into the bloom of a flower
When we design our ‘from – into’ pairs, it is better, stronger to get the from to be very specific. That ought to be pretty easy since we are in the ‘from’ state to start with. Look around, feel how things are, the things you want to move away ‘from’. For the ‘into’, again, feel the destination. From watching into playing, or watching into scoring a goal, which one has the feeling you seek? Use that and all varieties of that
I can get into a mood or enter into training or into the stream of freeway traffic. Use ‘into’ as the segue to the destination state as we would use the on ramp to the highway. Gentle and purposeful and effective. For example, design how I am going to handle myself in a meeting. Admit my true ‘from’ state. Design my emotionally supported ‘to’ state and enter ‘into’ the on ramp to get there.
Notice the feelings in this.
Joseph Seiler