Wednesday, October 28, 2009

What Did He Mean?


A teacher of mine passed this along to me a few years ago:


"Through the process of elimination, we create a process of illumination."


What do you think?

What does this mean to you?

How can this help you through your personal challenges?

I look forward to hearing your interpretation.


23 comments:

Better Man said...

This one is very thought provoking. I take it as if you are facing a personal challenges and you are lost, the best way to find the solution to your problem is to work out what maybe the answer is (this can be done by research or talking to others, and then writing down on piece of paper a what solution that may work) to your problem and then keep go through to find the answer. This a great post. Keep them coming

Innocent Owner Of Mad Cats said...

By creating a bunch of solutions for one problem, you may come up with a solution for another.

Thats the first thing that popped into my head

plainolebob said...

Dayne, this is exactly the premise that, Thomas Edison, built his company on, 2 thousand tries, 2 thousand mis ques, and voila, an answer.
You light up our world coach.
BIG BIG HUGS

Sarah said...

thinking through the mental obsticles that are blocking me from achieving what i wanted, working and eliminating them one by one, and get to the finishing line.

Alice in Wonderland said...

If you think about something for long enough, and eliminate the improbable, whatever is left, however the improbable, must be the truth!
A bit of Sherlock Holmes thinking here! LOL!!!

Phil-theincredibleshrinkingman said...

Edison talking about the light bulb;

"I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."

Just like life nothing is really a failure, it's just a way of finding out how not to do something

dragoo said...

My deep response: would this be meaningless if it didn't rhyme?

plainolebob said...

Coach Dayne,
Tomorrow is "Hot Dawg" Fiday, please stop by, someone has you picked out.

Dr. Patrice Smith said...

Eliminating clutter; put aside time for relaxation and meditation. It's important to do routine maintenance on the mind. It's like a computer - it can become overloaded and infected if we do not clean it up of things that can be harmful, like threats, etc. It is also important to empty the recycle bin - sort the good from the bad. When this is done, it allows a much clearer insight into things and a much clearer and cleaner mind overall :)

PS: I Like the face-life

Ug said...

The more things we try, the closer we are to seeing ourselves.

Dayne Gingrich said...

This one opened my eyes big-time.

The strange thing for me... I can't have one without the other.

I can't have illumination until I eliminate, but I can't eliminate until I have illumination.

Huh?? What did I just say?

Unknown said...

In "Coach your mind" on this point even Neurologists have failed. Putting aside wordly things - how one can get illumination from inner body - for this I may be asked at my ID Kirpalsingh.singh4@gmail.com

spldbch said...

By eliminating what IS NOT it becomes clear what IS.

It reminds me of a multiple choice test. Sometimes you get a question you don't know the answer to. How do you go about selecting a response? You start by eliminating the options that are definitely wrong. If you're lucky you're able to eliminate enough wrong answers that all you have left is the right one. If not, at least you've increased your odds of guessing correctly.

spldbch said...

Wow, I just read everyone else's responses and realized how very concrete mine is!!!! Oh well:-)

Dayne Gingrich said...

I really like yours too!

The multiple choice example was very creative... quite illuminating, actually!

Midnight Whisperer said...

Occams Razor - "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem." Otherwise known as "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity."

Eliminate to Illuminate... I like it ; )

lifechick said...

To me, this speaks to not being afraid to try a variety of things on the path to finding what works for you.

Erica Cano said...

I agree most with what you said. You cannot have one without the other.

Sometimes you must find out what you don't like to know what you do like in terms of picking a major for example. Sometimes you must guess the wrong answer in order to seek out further knowledge on a subject. Sometimes you must say no to a great temptation in order to gain what you want in the long run. Strike down what seems good for the moment in order to pursue something great down the road.

I feel like this is saying don't settle for less than your best. Eliminate what you can be complacent with, go after something that makes you genuinely happy. The more wrong turns you take- the more you experience you gain and the more you know. Life is a pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge is knowing what works best, but it's also knowing what works worst. This is saying don't be afraid of failure- a consistent idea that pops up in all your posts I've noticed.

But while you have this process of elimination, you must also follow your heart. You must not always rely on the fact that if you're wrong about something, it'll just be a learning curve. Sometimes you have to step up to the plate and analyze a situation before you can take action. Wise men think before they act.

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

Sometimes in illuminating an answer, we find more answers.. We find answers to the questions maybe we didn't even know we had. But the one thing on the path to "illumination" as you've put it, is that you cannot succeed without having a question, having a desire and taking action on your dreams. Go for it!

Missy said...

This actually hits me pretty well right now. I have been working on eliminating things from my life that cause negativity, ill thoughts and all around evil.

I was part of a public message board for the better part of 3 years. There was so much negativity, judgment and pettiness that I was often dragged down with it. Things occurred that made me second guess my faith, beliefs and actions more then it should have. About a month ago, I cut ties to that message board because I realized that I was taking too much of it into my "real life." I was letting it eat away at my thoughts and my heart.

But without that experience and realizing that I needed to eliminate it, I would not have grown. I would not have grown in my faith. I would not have grown closer to God. I would not have grown as a person.

So I think that while we do have to eliminate those things in order to illuminate God's love and forgiveness, we cannot eliminate them if we have not experienced them.

Dayne Gingrich said...

Midnight, Lifechick, Erica, and Missy:

Very well said. You all have valid points... all of which I'll definitely think about (and probably WRITE about in the future- ha).

Midnight- leave it to you to impress me w/ the way your mind works. I need to hire you to give me writing lessons!

Lifechick- "not being afraid" is sooo invaluable in our life pursuits, isn't it? Everything we do will revolve around that thought.

Erica- As always, you go deeper and pick up on many great examples. As lifechick mentioned, afraid of failure IS, and always will be, a major part of what I write about... probably because it affected my growing up in such dramatic fashion. Great job breaking this post down... can't wait to see you again- ICHAT??

Missy- "So I think that while we do have to eliminate those things in order to illuminate God's love and forgiveness, we cannot eliminate them if we have not experienced them."

Very well said. That's what I meant when I said in an earlier comment that I couldn't have one w/out the other. Also, it's very easy to get sucked-in to all that negativity, isn't it? Gr8 job cutting ties.

THANK YOU ALL FOR TAKING THE TIME TO TELL ME WHATCHA THINK!!!

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Missy said...

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