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In this article I am going to illustrate a method of turning your life around, going from mundane, boring, safe, and probably unhappy, to a life that excites you, a life of adventure, and joy.
The example is real: I went through this just about an hour ago… so it is real and it’s fresh. Here you go:
I have been waking up every morning disappointed that I woke up. And I had the
‘I only woke up in the morning because I didn’t die the night before’
This morning I sat on the edge of my bed, looking at this mood, curiously. The ‘I’ that was watching, was sympathetic and compassionate to the miserable ‘I’ that was sitting on the edge of the bed.
‘But it makes no difference,’ the miserable ‘I’ said. ‘People are set in their ways, the dark side wins by numbers, and no matter what I do, it makes no difference… not really!‘ it continued its whinging.
‘OK, time to break out the big gun‘ the observer ‘I’ said then, and then we both looked.
So what game would be worth playing, that would transform this morning scenario into eager ‘I can’t wait to start my day‘ scenario?
We didn’t have to wait long for the game to emerge. No thinking, no forcing, it just popped out: ‘How about the game of being a winner?‘
It’s a perfect game because it doesn’t have one big result and when you have to invent another one to win again. What makes a winner is winning, just like what makes a leader is leading… it is not possible to fake. You either win or you don’t. We will consider winning at this game if the results in real life match the criteria as winning.
Winning in business, winning in relationships, winning in health… perfect game. It will give us an opportunity to celebrate every win, big or small, and in order to celebrate, we’ll have to notice it all. We won’t be stingy like we have been: winning won’t be our natural state, winning will be our milestone. It will never be taken for granted.
With Landmark Education’s wording, we would say it this way: ‘The possibility I am inventing for myself and for my life, is the possibility of being a winner.‘ We like that. Because it includes both the experience and the facts… the facts of actually winning.
So how do you win? Winning requires rules. Of what is considered winning.
In golf you win if your ball goes into the little hole in the ground.
So, in my life, the rules will be: I will set my sight at something. If I accomplish it, it’s winning. if I fail to accomplish it, then it’s not winning.
I will pick my games carefully but yet boldly. The word “accomplish” indicates that the game must be not easy to win, and that I will need to apply myself, grow, learn, get clever, take risks… I like it.
I just had an insight: every time I can say to myself ‘I am proud of myself!‘ is a win.
Example: If you can replace one cup of coffee with a glass of water, because you’ve been wishing to do that… you can be proud of yourself.
Remember that babies take their first steps and everybody is proud of them? You won’t fly before you learn to crawl, walk, walk fast, run, run fast… This is still like a 40-story building: one step, one floor at a time.
Each stage the wins are harder to get, but each stage you’ll be ready.
So, today, November 25, 2013 I declare a new era for myself: the era of winning at the games I set for myself.
It is not an affirmation. It is a declaration. If you look, it has set what winning means. It has set up a game, and the action: win the games you set.
Affirmation believes that you can be a winner without winning… And therefore it makes you a liar.
Affirmations make you a windbag. Declarations force you to make what you said true. With your actions, with your attitude, with all you’ve got.
I already have a few games in mind… I can’t wait to begin.
The capacities this method requires are advanced capacities. Integrity, responsibility, being with, allowing, foresight, permission, seeing the big picture, directing your attention, etc.
If you have ever wanted to know how to turn on the capacities for yourself: here it is. The method.
Make a declaration and bring integrity to it. Start doing, start being what you declared. It will turn on the capacities that are needed.
Winning often means quitting what is unproductive, or not worth your time and life. If you want to continue what you have been doing, continue being who you have been being, approval seeking, love seeking, or cowardly, this is not for you.
This week is the perfect time to look at your life. Why? Because you have the opportunity to look at your life. You have the perfect time to look if ‘is this all there is?’ and choose to live an invented life, where this is not all there is, where you say what is all… and then you go for it.
I have the tools. If you are ready (if you are scared, then you are ready!) then I want to work with you.
Ultimately this is what the Saturday class intends to do.
This Saturday at 11 am my time. That is Eastern Standard Time. 4 pm in the British Isles. 5 pm in most of Europe, 8 am in California.
Schedule three hours. You’ll need to have the gotowebinar app, whether you are on a computer, or a mobile phone… or anything in between.
You won’t need a camera. Make sure you have a working microphone. You’ll also need some paper to take notes on. And water to hydrate.
Backdrop… what is keeping you hostage?
