Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A very painful fact OF LIFE triggered today’s article. The fact that
…information doesn’t translate to KNOWLEDGE, information doesn’t cause any improvement in your life, in your results.
And thinking about anything, fretting, worrying, strategizing, conspiring neither.
But what does?
This is what today’s article is about… The what does…
So I had a 2-hour call with a client yesterday. She has been the most ‘diligent’ client I have ever had. Diligent in a way that doesn’t work. Can’t work.
So what did she do for 18 months that I call ‘diligent’ in quotation marks?
Well, she signed up to everything I have offered. She came to all the live classes. Watched all the videos.
And she bought all or most of the energies I offer. Energized her water. Wrote pages long reports on her process. Many.
The result she achieved has been movement downward, backward, towards unhappiness, discontent, and self-hate. Oh, and illness.
But why? But how?
I have called the cause of this phenomenon several different names for the past 30 years.
The facts
A thing, an idea, a thought doesn’t have legs. And anything that doesn’t have legs cannot move. Cannot move you, cannot move life.
Only actions do.
In this work we put the emphasis on mindset. And surprisingly mindset isn’t moved by mind-activity: it cannot. Only actions move mindset.
Mindset is physical. It needs a lever, like any other physical thing.
So only when a new mindset is demonstrated in action, many actions, consistently, is when mindset can be created, or changed.
I have no idea why anyone would think that repeating a mantra, or a new attitude’s words would cause any change without actually acting it out in reality. I find it maddeningly delusional… and until yesterday I didn’t realize that that is the common thinking of people: they think that thinking changes reality.
Mind activity, thinking does not cause any change, it just doesn’t. Only actions do. Actual physical actions.
So if you have been thinking about things, maybe even imagined some actions, like they say in Psycho Cybernetics, but didn’t do any or much actions, you are at the same place as the unfortunate client above. You haven’t moved, or maybe you have moved backwards, downwards, towards hell.
Marketing teachers call it consumption… unless you are a marketer, this makes no sense to you… I bet.
Another way I expressed it is this: there is no bridge between the theory, the idea, the possibility, the dream, and its implementation and realization.
Realization means: bringing an idea into reality. Bringing information into skill, into working knowledge, potential to ability.
And talking about what’s missing as a bridge makes people see that something is missing… Unfortunately no one has taught you, as far as I know, to build a bridge.
The best bridge is a project or a series of ‘nested’ projects… all leading to the ultimate outcome… (The ‘to what end?’)
A project that needs, that uses that new information, that new mindset, that new self-image.
But saying that, I am realizing that you are also not clear what a project is.
And that is maybe even a bigger mischief than not knowing that only actions move the world, including move your mindset.
I listened to a marketer’s presentation yesterday on a business strategy. I paid 50 bucks for the audio, and to me it has potentially a chance to double, maybe even triple my income. Because I have a project that needs that information.
I noticed when it came to the questions and answers part of the presentation. People who already had a business or a project saw instantly how the new strategy was usable. They also saw that it is a lot of work to implement. People who didn’t have a business, didn’t see the value, because they had no project to implement the new strategy.
Maybe they will, in a year or two, when they will have a project. Same information, different level of value.
So maybe that is the definition of a bridge:
Unless you have some project to use to implement the information in, you don’t have a bridge.
Or if you don’t have a project to implement the information then create one… and pursue it. Because, as you’ll see it, project have two phases: the dreaming up phase, and the doing phase.
But what is a project?
Most people don’t have a project.
When I attempted to help people find their strengths with the skill finder method of the What Color Is Your Parachute, I found something totally puzzling.
The skill finder method works through analysis of seven projects the person had accomplished successfully. Accomplished AND enjoyed doing it.
When I did my analysis, I had so many projects, I could have kept myself busy for a year recounting them. The clients, friends I have worked with had maybe one, maybe two. But no one had more than two.
I think that living through projects is the successful person’s secret weapon.
So again, let’s ask: what is a project?
Mr. Google to the rescue: A project is a set of tasks that must be completed in order to arrive at a particular outcome. Depending on the size and scope of the project, these tasks may be simple or elaborate, but all projects can be broken down into outcomes and what needs to be done to achieve them.
What are 5 characteristics of a project?
1. Specific. The project must be specific. …
2. Measurable. A clearly defined project must be measurable in terms of its benefits and achievements. It must have a visible component that anyone with eyes, ears, noses can experience. It cannot be in the invisible, or only inside. One of the difficulties is setting a measurable component… you’ll see.
3. Achievable. A project is only meaningful if it is achievable. …
4. Relevant. The project needs to bring relevant benefits to the entity concerned. It needs to lead to a bigger life, a bigger future. A hobby isn’t really project.
5. Time bound. It needs to have a deadline.
OK, let’s summarize: a project has specific, measurable results with a deadline. A project needs to be achievable and relevant to someone, for their future.
And now you see why people don’t have projects. Every single one of those five elements you deplore…
Specific? No… let’s make it vague so I can’t fail.
Measurable? let’s make in vague… again.
Achievable? Pie in the sky is much easier to explain why I didn’t do anything for it. Pie in the sky, like I want to be happy… or I want to be rich… See it? Got it? Not specific, not measurable, likely not achievable.
Relevancy is very emotional. When I look at my own projects, the ones I failed by quitting them were all non-relevant to me. My relationship to the result was: I can take it or leave it. So my recommendation is: don’t start a project where you can take it or leave it…
Unless you can say: there is no way in hell I will live without that! your project is not very relevant to you, and it will not have a lot of energy.
I think that my work, my kind of work is most useful when we talk about this, the relevancy. Because the same project can be very relevant or not very relevant, and the difference between the two states is words.
Humans live THROUGH words… so yeah, words.
And of course having a deadline shows up as an imposition, a have-to… and sucks the joy out of people whose original incident resulted in the ‘avoid’ type of racket.
avoid being wrong,
avoid looking bad,
and definitely avoid losing,
avoid domination,
justify and explain.
People who value liberty more than freedom.
Liberty and freedom are used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same. Liberty is having wiggle room, wide open space, no restrictions imposed. Like a puddle, or the delta of a big river. No boundaries.
Freedom, on the other hand, is constraint. Recognizing your limitations, whatever they are, and make the best of what you have with what you have.
People who love liberty are the non-achievers.
The are the ones who don’t have projects because projects would cramp their style. Because they are limiting them in their liberty.
These are the eight billion…
But, of course, the eight billion is not a monolitical ‘block’… in has a spread… and some of those eight billion, like Warren Buffet, can be rich, like Steve Jobs could love their job, like Elon Musk be innovative…
Not all is lost.
What the people on the happier end of the eight billion share is project.
So we’ll work on projects for the next maybe long time, so you can become one of those happier people.
We’ll start with a 5-day challenge. It will come with lots of training, and personal attention. We have a private forum to get support, so it is worth a lot of money for someone who has the ambition to become one of the happier eight billion.
I have set up the signup button.
I have set up the website. So if you already know you want it, you can sign up today. I plan to start the challenge this coming Monday, and the challenge will go from Monday through Friday.
Every day you’ll get video training, around 10-15 minutes long, and will need to DO something and preferably report back to me.
The hardest part of a project is setting it up so you can win, and so your whole life can become better when you are done with it.
Some people (the ones who really understand that doing a project alone is almost a certain way to run out of steam, and drop it) will opt to get ongoing support, other people will just want the week… Either is fine with me.
You don’t have to be already a client to participate.
Sign up to the Bring purpose to life challenge
