"Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End"

When Greenday published their song "Closing Time" they probably weren't thinking about some jack-hole creating a new blog on some new platform where people get paid to vote for the things they enjoy reading. And yet they managed to perfectly encapsulate how the idea of foundations, as a lens to examine the nature of reality and how to manipulate it to get what you want, could be penned into this "digital grimoire" today. 

Because for me, that is what this blog is. My grimoire, my spellbook, my Necronomicon. If magic is anything, it is obscure knowledge that gets you whatever you want easily and with little effort. The Foundation Principle isn't spiritual mumbo jumbo, though. It's just an idea that is reliable at providing an effective lens to understand how to shape life's circumstances so that they align with your will. And as an idea, it is self-limiting. It is only as useful as what it explains. If you try to use it outside of what it covers...

Well in fantasy writing, when you misuse a spellbook, bad things happen. But those bad things are because ultimately the magic didn't work. The unexpected happened, and magic isn't about unexpected results. The same is also true with Foundation Principle. This article will simply describe the Foundation of Foundation Principle, so that you can understand its limits. Before you put these "spells" to use to transform your life for the better, you must first understand what they CAN'T do. 

Magic is powerful... But abuse or misuse of power is simply a misapplication. It is an error, a flaw, and it is not a flaw of the power itself. Because all flaws are simply limitations, and if Foundation Principle is anything it is an idea that describes the limits of utility of ideas in proportion to their usefulness.

What Is A Foundation?

The question is literal - what is the definition of foundation? Definitions are critical, and we will go over why in this blog, but the main reason is that definitions are in and of themselves foundations.

foun·da·tion /founˈdāSH(ə)n/   See definitions in: All Building Cosmetics noun noun: foundation; plural noun: foundations

1. 1.the lowest load-bearing part of a building, typically below ground level.   Similar: footing foot base substructure understructure underpinning bottom bedrock substratum          
   • a colored cream, powder, or liquid used as a base to even out facial skin tone before applying other cosmetics. "apply moisturizer a few minutes before using foundation"  
2. 2.an underlying basis or principle. "this idea is the foundation of all modern economics"           Similar: basis starting point base point of departure beginning premise fundamental point/principle principal constituent main ingredient principles fundamentals rudiments cornerstone core heart thrust essence kernel nub underpinning groundwork  
   • justification or reason. "distorted and misleading accusations with no foundation"     grounds defense     reason cause mitigating circumstances mitigation extenuation explanation occasion basis motive motivation excuse call pretext provocation
     
     
3. 3. the action of establishing an institution or organization on a permanent basis, especially with an endowment.   Similar: founding establishing setting up starting initiation institution forming creation launch flotation origination development inauguration constitution endowment   Opposite: dissolution liquidation  
   • an institution established with an endowment, for example a college or a body devoted to financing research or charity.   Similar: endowed institution institution charitable body funding agency source of funds  

Origin late Middle English: from Old French fondation, from Latin fundatio(n- ), from fundare ‘to lay a base for’ (see found2).   So

In looking at this, or any definition, it is clear that foundations are a place to begin. Whether you are building a house, a business, an idea, or any other type of system you can imagine, you have to start SOMEWHERE.   WHEREVER you begin, that is your foundation.   

And if you are reading this now, the truth is you have ALREADY laid down your foundation for your first breath. Heck, the second you shot out of your mom's crotch, your Foundation had already been established decades before you were already born.  

"He May Be Your Father, But I Was Always Your Daddy..."

I cry every time I think about that scene from Guardians of the Galaxy 2. How powerful is that idea, really. Just think about that for a second.  

That entire movie was about an abandoned child learning that he was not only a god...

But that his father was a miserable, selfish monster that murdered his mother so that he could be more easily brainwashed when a space pirate kills him. But the space pirate had a heart of gold, and instead raised him, gave him a different future than the one his father had planned for him. He wasn't Quill's father...

But Quill was certainly his boy.  

Quill's dad is a planet-god, but he was raised by alien space pirates who abducted him after his mom died. That's his foundation.   If you were born poor or rich, that is part of your foundation.   If you have a learning disability, or some physical one, that is a part of your foundation.   If you have always been healthy, and have never experienced an actual immediate threat to your survival, that is your foundation.   If you have been traumatized or abused or had your life threatened, that is your foundation.  

Whatever is true about your life before today, before this moment where you have started reading this sentence, that is your foundation. That is the concrete that has been poured upon which all of your ideas and feelings and perspective about reality is built on.

How much of it did you choose, and how much of your foundation is simply a result of what you had to work with?  

Is your Foundation broad or narrow?   Is your Foundation thick and strong, or thin and weak? If it is strong, what about the building that you have placed on it? Do you feel your life is to small for the foundation it has been built upon? Or is it too big? Does the life you have built for yourself fit securely on your foundation, or precariously?  

It doesn't matter.  

Because as the song says, the foundation you have today is your beginning...  

But every new beginning becomes from some other beginnings end...  

And if you are reading this right now, chances are, you are ready for a new beginning to your life...

Or at the very least, you are ready to make some renovations.   And the point is, that the foundation your life today is built on may be your father, but the life you want is your "daddy". It is the blessings and opportunities that are the reason you are alive today. They are the heart of gold in the pirate, they are the DNA of the cruel god you were born from and fortunately were never raised by, and they are the love of those whose memory remind you of who you want to be.  

Foundation Principle is just this...  

A way of looking at your reality in away that empowers you by revealing what is possible, instead of fixing your attention on what is not. And this is magical because when you are thinking about what you can do, you FEEL powerful and good. And imagine if in the face of adversity, you feel powerful and good?  

What would it do for your life if, when encountering difficulty, you smiled at the challenge and welcomed it?

What would it change about your life to have a way of letting go of your pain and replacing it with the power to help yourself and others?  

No matter how amazing your life today is, it can be better. And no matter how terrible your life is, it can be better.  

The TRICK is to identify the easiest way to make that happen. Which brings us to HOW Foundation Principle reveals these "pressure points" within our unique obstacles.  

Foundations Are Both A Source Of Strength And Weakness

The thing about foundations are that they are still built on something.

A mountain fortress is built on a mountain. Remove just a part of the mountain and the fortress falls.

Build that fortress underground, and you could collapse the ceiling on it, flood it, or even dig underneath it.

Put the fortress behind walls in an open field, and you can still dig under the walls, and underneath the fortress itself.

Try to build a floating fortress held in the air by jet engines and you can still destroy the engines to destroy the fortress.

Put it in space, and you simply have to destroy whatever seals are keeping that fortress separate from the vacuum it floats in.

The point being, no matter how strong a foundation is, a foundation IS a limitation. A foundation is what makes something strong in a specific way against specific obstacles. But that specificity requires a lack of adaptability. To begin somewhere, you can't begin somewhere else. And whatever you are strong in, will create a weakness in another area of your life.

Our limitations are a part of our foundation. They describe the edges that distinguish our lives from the lives of others. We may live in the same country, but we might live in different states. We might live in the same state, but we live in different cities. Or in the same city, but different neighborhoods. Or the same neighborhood, but in different buildings. Or the same building, but different apartments. Or the same apartment, but different rooms. Or even the same room, but we are simply treated differently by the same people.

Whatever is true, bad or good, creates a second, opposite truth. This polarity reveals the singular foundation of any circumstance upon which it's change is dependent.

And no matter how impossible it might be to effect a change, understanding how change MIGHT be possible is the first step into actually effecting and directing the change you want today.

That is what Foundation Principle is about. Getting to the nitty gritty pressure points upon which the changes that will best serve your interests. Identifying them in a way that makes transforming your reality fun and easy, and a matter of when, not if.