If I asked you how many sides a square has you would tell me a square has four sides. If I asked you how many sides a triangle has you would tell me three. What if I asked you how many sides a ball has, what would be your answer? You most likely would come to the quick conclusion that a ball does not have any sides. Now if you were being rather clever you might say that a ball has two sides, an “inside” and an “outside”. All kidding aside we each know that a ball does not have any sides.

From where you sit as you read this I ask you to look around and take note of all the things that have sides, if you are sitting in a room then you most likely see a wall and you can observe that you are on one side of the wall and there is something on the other side of the wall. If you were able to float up beyond where you now sit, beyond the bounds of the earth and float into space your perspective would change and as you floated into space you would observe that this Earth on which we live is a ball and that it has no sides.

Dr. Wayne Dyer expressed the following idea:

“You can’t choose up sides on a round world”

I love this thought, he is making a clever observation to drive home a point. The point is that there is no reason to choose sides, there is no reason to create separation between us. It is when we choose sides that we often loose our perspective. One of the places we see people choose sides and loose perspective is politics. Most politicians belong to a political party and that party has a platform of beliefs. Many politicians choose sides to such a degree that they will do what their political party advocates even if it is not best for the citizens of their country and even if it goes against their personal beliefs.

Go to most any sporting event, be it basketball, football, soccer, baseball and in the locker room before the game you will find the team engaged in a prayer, having a conversation with God asking for a win. In essence the sporting team is asking God to pick a side. The paradox of course is that both competing teams are doing the same thing.

Wars are the result of people choosing sides and believing that their side is the right side. In wars each side will also invoke God to support their side and help them to win. Closer to home for many of us a couple will get divorced and we are often expected to choose sides.

For most of us we have been brought up in a culture of choosing sides and basing our decisions on which side of the fence we are on instead of basing our decision on what is the best decision to make that will serve us and others. When we choose sides our thought process often gets twisted within our ego mind. When we step back and see beyond the lines drawn in the sand we are able to make decisions from spirit and our thought process is driven by love rather than ego.

I do want to take a moment to be clear that I am not advocating that we eliminate competition. I support competition for it is competition which often drives innovation and which can add to the excitement of life. I am saying that whatever game we are playing in life is just a game and that while we should strive to always bring one hundred percent of our self to the game that we must learn to let go of the outcome and know that in reality there are no sides that we are all in the game together. When we play the game, weather it be a sport or the metaphorical games of life there is not an us and them, there is only us and therefore no matter whom wins, we all win.

How would your life change if you chose today not to choose sides? How would that impact your relationship with your significant other, your parents, your children? How would not choosing sides impact you at work? How would not choosing sides impact the way you interact with the world at large? How would not choosing sides impact your world view and how you impact this universe?

Remember the only “sides” that exist are the ones we create. In 1989 Ronald Regan said “Mr. Gorbacav tear down that wall” and the Berlin Wall subsequently was torn down. This action took much courage and the ability to let go of something which was firmly established and held on to with a death grip. This action had a profound impact on the world.

What walls can you tear down in your life?