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You can live your life through quotes: No matter who you are… this is true for you.
The first quote is from Landmark Education:
‘It is not the past, not even the present that gives you your mood. It is the future you live into’
So let’s begin the article guided by quotes.
‘The story of our lives consists of setting and pulling up anchors. For both the time will come.‘ ~ Dr Peter Popper, psychologist
In my experience we humans are reluctant to do either: setting or pulling up anchors.
Tai Lopez says that
‘a mistake is an experiment gone too long‘.
At the beginning of an experiment we drop anchors… If not then it is not an experiment. Dropping anchors takes some commitment. Commitment comes from within. When an experiment comes from without it is not a commitment, and it will fizzle out.
Do you need to pick up an anchor from the normal to do an experiment?
No, an experiment can be done inside (nested) what is already going on.
However the experiment turns out, one can decide to lift the anchor and drop it on the continuation of the result, aka change.
In my work I am experiencing human reluctance. Often people are reluctant to leave misery.
Here is the quote: the antidote:
‘The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.‘
~ Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) mythologist, author of ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’
The devil known is better than the devil or even angel that you don’t.
This idea is worth pondering about. Given that we don’t know can be vast… our imagination cannot help here. Only self-trust can.
Self-trust, meaning: I trust myself to go through hardship and stay alive.
Interestingly there is no way you can go from bad to good.
The hope of my students is that I can take them to the Promised Land, to a life they love and live it powerfully, without them having to wade through abject misery, loss, or hardship.
If you look at the hero’s journey, a model that all good lives follow, the hero has to pick up anchor, wade through bad stuff, before he can land on the good stuff.
‘If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.‘
~ Dolly Parton entertainer
It is true in micro and in macro. As above so it below.
Here are a few examples:
The principle in a quote that applies:
‘Most of my major disappointments have turned out to be blessings in disguise.
So whenever anything bad does happen to me, I kind of sit back and feel — well, if I gave this enough time, it’ll turn out that this was good, so I shouldn’t worry about it too much.‘ ~ William Gaines (1922-1992) publisher, ‘Mad’ magazine
1. I learned from Source that I’ll die through my stomach. So I shifted my attention to my stomach that was giving grief… heartburn and pain. Even headache.
I started on a regimen of natural antibiotic.
For a day or two the pain and the heartburn ceased, but after that they came back with a vengeance.
The bad was really bad for a few days.
Now the bad moments are really just moments… and I am in Promised Land territory with my stomach…
2. My readership numbers seem to be dropping. Even died in the wool fans don’t read my emails, don’t read my articles, don’t buy my stuff.
Yesterday I finally saw what it is that I do that may have caused it… People want entertainment more than teaching and I have been doing heavy-duty teaching lately.
Seeing that, I am pulling up the anchor…
I am going through hell. Feeling absolutely inadequate to the job. Diminished. I trust myself with whatever is coming… that I can handle it.
I haven’t got anywhere near the Promised Land yet…
An example from a student. Actually I have a few examples. The trouble is that they don’t know, they are not aware, they cannot see the big picture. So they need me to keep them not let it all fall, and sink into depression and hopelessness
When you can put the hero’s journey as a context of your journey… lifting anchor, misery, trials feel different.
The problem of humans is their minds.
The mind cannot be in the present moment.
- It knows about the past, and it likes to hang out there, and reminisce, or wallow.
- It considers the future as the predictable repetition of the past… either the same way or the opposite way. Nothing new is considered, nothing new can be imagined…
So deciding to go on a hero’s journey cannot be decided with the mind. The mind won’t agree. If needed, the mind will conjure up images of you being dead, tortured, starved to death, humiliated, shamed.
If you look in your mind to decide what to do, which most people do, but 23 and 32 do almost exclusively, you’ll never change your course, however disastrous it is now.
Was this article entertaining? Informational? or did I still write a teaching article?
So you be the judge.
What was this article about?
The quote that I managed to return to:
‘Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.‘
~ Howard Thurman (1900-1981) clergyman, educator & activist
It was about me contemplating, musing, pondering this whole idea of anchors we lift, anchors we drop.
Why was it a good idea to ponder?
It lifted my mood ever so slightly that I am now not hopeless… I simply have a job, a job to change my writing style so it is more attractive to people.
And maybe fix my email software, that more people get my emails? Possibly.
Where did this idea to ponder come from?
It came from the book ‘The Book of Inner Paths’, the book I endeavor to turn into a tool for personal transformation instead of a book to read or even study.
Because the book was written in Hungarian I have a lot of work to do to make it palatable, and clear for English speaking students.
I may even have to hire people to do some of the work.
If you are willing to assist: I would really welcome that. You could choose a part of the text and correct it using the audiobook… The audiobook is the result of a professional translation… not perfect, in places using wrong words… but still good enough for our purposes.
If you decide to help: pick a part you want to work on, and let me know. It would be a horrible waste to have more than one person work on the same chapter or the same part.
And if you decide to donate money for the cause, you can. I made a buy-button just for you.
You can, inside the shopping cart, get the audiobook and the rough translation for a buck.
And if you donate, once the exercise-book is ready, you get a free copy.
Donate or just get the book‘I am willing to put myself through anything —
temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level. I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers — an often painful process.‘ ~ Diana Nyad long-distance swimmer
Well, My pain was mostly emotional. I went from not feeling anything, not allowing any emotion (true autistic characteristics, I think) to slowly and painstakingly allowing bad emotions. The more bad emotions I allowed myself to feel the more good emotions followed.
