Everything that shows up in your life comes from a cause. A thought, a feeling, a habit, a decision. Something you did yesterday, last week, or a year ago.

Jacob and I went into this with our students in one of our live Activation Workshops. It's one of those ideas most people agree with straight away, and very few people actually live by.

Results don't arrive on time

Some things show up instantly. Most don't. The actions you take today can take a week, a month or a year before you see what they lead to.

That delay is what trips people up. Your actions compound. If they're good, that's great, because they keep building. If they're not, they keep building too.

And because the results come late, we often don't notice the negative ones soon enough. By the time something shows up, the cause is long gone from memory. So we're left asking, why is this happening? Where did this come from?

Start with radical honesty

Most people wake up some days feeling flat, a bit anxious or stressed, and have no idea why.

Jacob was talking to someone recently who kept waking up with low energy and couldn't work out the reason. When you looked at what he'd been doing in the lead-up, it made sense.

The answer is nearly always in the inputs. So be honest with yourself and look at them:

We pick up a lot from the people around us. Their moods, their beliefs, the way they see the world. The same goes for what we consume. It all adds up.

Honesty is what keeps you close to reality. While a cause stays unconscious, it runs your life in the background like a shadow. Once you see it, you can make a new decision about it.

Not your fault, still your responsibility

I want to be clear about one thing. Some things that happen to us are outside our control. Not everything you experience is something you caused.

Say you're riding a bike and someone pushes you off it. You could have a long spiritual conversation about why you attracted that. But sometimes it's simply an outside event, and it's not your fault.

It is, though, your responsibility from that moment on to nurse yourself back to health. That job doesn't belong to the person who pushed you.

The moment you're aware of something you're carrying, it becomes yours to deal with. How it happened, why me, why not someone else: that's the blame game, and it keeps you stuck.

There have been times in my life where I asked "why me" many, many times. Times, years ago, when I wanted to give up. I couldn't control the past. I couldn't control what had happened. The only thing I could control was what I did from that moment onwards.

You're not always in control of when things show up. You are always in control of the actions you take.

Plant a new seed

If you want a different result, you need a different cause. A new thought, a new belief, a new action, a new decision.

Think of it as a seed. It might be something you need to do more of. Someone you need to be around more. An environment you need to spend time in. One habit you start this week.

Then you look after it with your attention and with consistent action. Small actions, repeated, compound into big results.

The more you plant, the more you reap. You might not see it tomorrow or next week. Keep planting anyway, because it will come.

Plus or minus

Here's a question Jacob and I come back to. You can ask it in any moment of the day:

Is what I'm doing right now helping me tomorrow? Next week? Next year?

Is it raising my energy or draining it? Is it a plus or a minus?

You're creating your future in every moment, not only when you sit down to meditate or write your goals. Every action, every choice, every behaviour is a cause, and every cause leads to an effect.

It starts inside

We can't control everything that happens around us. We can control what happens inside us: how we see an event, what we make it mean, and how we respond to it.

Part of that is learning to calm yourself down. You have your own tools for that, your breath and your voice. Taking responsibility, being at cause, includes learning to settle yourself instead of waiting for something outside to change.

Try this this week

  1. Pick one area where you want a different result. Health, relationships, money or how you feel day to day.
  2. Write down what's been feeding it: what you've been eating, who you've been around, what you've been consuming, and what you've been avoiding.
  3. Choose one seed. One new action, small enough to do every day.
  4. A few times a day, ask yourself: is what I'm doing right now a plus or a minus?
  5. Give it time. Don't judge it on the first week.

What you feel today was planted a while ago. What you plant today is what you'll be living with a few months from now.

Luke Stringa is the CEO and co-founder of Quantum Key Institute. He and Jacob Stringa run live Activation Workshops each week for QKI students. Read more about Luke.