Why Using the Opportunity Principle

The Opportunity Principle is a fundamental principle of the Inside-Out Paradigm. According to the Inside-Out Paradigm:

1. Everything is the reflection of our inner mental processes, of our cognitive functions, and of our inner workings (The Reflection Principle[1])
2. Everything and everyone we perceive or become aware of is ourselves pushed out on the outside. In other words, we are simply and always perceiving, observing, becoming aware of ourselves, an active version of ourselves, or an active state of ourselves (The Mirror Principle[2])
3. We are either projecting[3] or extending, it’s always about us and only about us (The Projection Principle and the Extension Principle)
4. Everything about life, everything in our life, everyone, every interaction always follows the Reflection Principle, the Mirror Principle, and the Projection or the Extension Principle

Everything, including every interaction with everyone follows the above four principles because the meaning of everything is for us to experience and to learn, so we can then model and evolve. As a result, everything in life is always for the interest of experiencing, learning, modeling, and evolving. This means everything that takes place, including every interaction we have, is in everyone’s best interest (The Best Interest Principle). This includes those times when this may seem to not be the case

To review: Everything reflects our inner life, mirrors our internal state, indicates whether we are projecting or extending, is always for everyone’s best interest, is information to us (The Information Principle), is part of our learning process (The Learning Principle), is part of our process of experiencing (The Experiencing Process), is part of our evolution process (The Evolution Principle), and is always an opportunity for us (The Opportunity Principle).

As such, the Opportunity Principle is the only meaning for everything and the one meaning of all things. In other words, everything is an opportunity. Everything is information for us. Everything is part of our learning process and is part of our process of experiencing and of evolving. This also means that whatever other meaning we give to anything or to any interaction with anyone is simply part of the meaning that we ourselves come up with (subjective meaning), but none of these meanings have anything to do with what is really happening. We can also assign meaning to things that take place in our life or to interactions that we have with others, and these meanings may be shared by others who share our values, or our belief system (cultural meaning); or, these meanings may also be shared by almost everyone in society (societal or collective meaning). However, none of these meanings really have anything to do with what is really going on, and therefore they mean nothing beyond the fact that they are just meanings. This is because there is only one meaning to everything. This one meaning principle is due to the fact that meaning is a function of purpose, and there is only one purpose to everything, and that one purpose to everything follows the Best Interest Principle. And since everything is for everyone’s best interest, everything is then an opportunity for us to:

1. Notice our best interest
2. Become aware of our best interest
3. Make use of our best interest and build upon it for our continuous development

But what is our best interest? Our best interest is that which permits us to experience, learn, and evolve. It is that which enables us to fulfill our shared purpose of modeling, and our unique and specific purpose of participating in the process of evolution. Having said that, it may not be a surprise that most of us tend to have different ideas of what is for our best interest. This is so, even when we realize that what we thought was going to be for our best interest ended up not being so, and what we thought would be the “worst thing” for us ended up being the “best thing” that ever took place. Yet, this realization seems to only come later.  In the moment, we are bound to the meanings that we have created about the circumstance. In other words, we are not learning from our experiences, we are taking them for granted, and as a result, we are failing to consciously learn, consciously grow, and consciously evolve. This then means we are failing to model consciously, and therefore we are failing to consciously participate in the process of evolution.

If everything is for our own best interest, why is it that what we think is for our best interest may differ from what is really for our best interest? Here are some of the mechanisms to explain this discrepancy:

1. We operate from an ordinary or normal blueprint
2. We operate from an outside-in paradigm
3. We run our life based on perception and appearances, instead of based on knowledge, and we barely know the difference between knowledge and perception
4. We are programmed to measure success based on where we went to school; how many degrees we have; our titles; how much money we have; the type of cars we drive; the type of house we live in; and the types of friends we have. We then permit this construct to replace our best interest. What we fail to understand is that we can have all the above without the false and limiting belief that this is what it means to be successful. We can have all the above without being attached to them. And we can have all the above, knowing that our best interest goes beyond them[4]

The way out of operating from an ordinary blueprint, or from an outside-in paradigm, or from a paradigm that is based on perception, is for us to start making use of the Opportunity Principle.  And this is the way of using the Opportunity Principle.

[1] Fahkry, Tony. “Why Life Is a Mirror Reflecting Your Inner World.” Medium, Mission.org, 10 June 2020, https://medium.com/the-mission/why-life-is-a-mirror-reflecting-your-inner-world-a7ad344be6c0.

[2] Steenbarger, Brett. “The Mirror Principle: Shaping Your Experience, Shaping Your Self.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 30 June 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettsteenbarger/2015/06/30/the-mirror-principle-shaping-your-experience-shaping-your-self/?sh=713bc91f3ec0.

[3] Buckner, Randy L., and Daniel C. Carroll. “Self-projection and the brain.” Trends in cognitive sciences 11.2 (2007): 49-57.

[4] Qayoom, Shabnam, and Akbar Husain. “Happiness and well-being.” Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing 7.4 (2016): 461.