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Before I buy something, a new tool, a nonfiction book, I muscletest if I should buy it.
In essence I ask Source a yes/no question. Shall I buy it?
I get a no answer more often than a yes. And then I ask some clarifying questions, one of them is: is it too advanced for me? More often than not the answer is yes.
Unless I have mastered, literally mastered the basics in that specific topic or discipline, Source will recommend that I don’t buy that course, tool, or book.
On Sundays I have a 90 minute call with a friend of mine. We have been doing this for 13 years, never missing a Sunday.
He is retired, works as a warehouse cleaning person.
This past Sunday…
This past Sunday… he told me that he was going to buy a book on marketing. I know the author, I did his course, have his book teaches, and in spite of all my efforts I got maybe 1% out of that course, one thing and one thing only.
My friend has no foundation in marketing, in fact he has never done anything in marketing. He has no business buying that book… He needs a kindergarten level book.
A good kindergarten level course can launch a successful business for the participants.
Some 10-11 years ago I created such a course on building a mailing list. I sold hundreds of copies and the success rate was tremendous. But no one, not even one person went past module 6 in that 8-module course.
Why? Because the first six modules gave them all the foundation they needed to actually start making money, in perpetuity.
But it seems that I forgot what works… But now that I have realized it… again… I am back to helping people build a strong foundation… Even though I already live on the 100th floor myself.
It is very seductive to want to teach the newest and sexiest stuff… But unless the buyers, the students are up for it, it will be an utter failure.
This past Sunday I did deliver an entry level workshop… part of my new The Freedom Courses series. An entry level workshop I hadn’t really done in as many years: I geared my workshop to brand spanking new beginners in the art and science of the invisible.
The invisible… What T. Harv Eker calls the ‘Inner Game’. 1
The topics that I deem kindergarten level are listening, story, and your racket… these I delivered this past Sunday. This doesn’t include the whole level… there are more topics… identity, meaning, and possibility.
Before I did the listening segment I muscletested people’s listening effectiveness… And I did it again after. The result of that short segment was doubling, tripling, quadrupling the number for most… while some, people who fancy themselves advanced, didn’t. I bet their little voice said: ‘I already know that!‘ add the whiny complaining tone, or the proud declaration type voice…
It takes humility to see that you don’t know what you think you know. Unless you can teach it, you don’t know it… this is my principle… It effectively takes care of the pride that is false.
The number one reason people can’t learn, don’t learn, only try to learn is because of their ineffective listening.
It is only semi-conscious, but it has never been dealt with for most people.
The most frequent hinderers of hearing what they want to hear is the inner voice saying: I already know this (lack of humility). Or I should already know this (low self-esteem).
Only words can block words…
But most people, most of the time, have no awareness that there is talking going on in their heads.
So just distinguishing the words that block the teacher’s words, the words you paid to hear, increased how much participants heard…
Everything I said triggered the mind to say something about it, or something totally irrelevant.
The stuff you say: ‘it occurred to me’, or ‘what came up’… And then you listen to that, because you honor that instead of what you intended in the first place, to learn.
There was only one real spanking newbie to the invisible in the workshop. The rest have been building, as it turned out, on no foundation.
Did I ever teach them what I taught in this particular workshop, in the Freedom course? Hell yeah, several times.
But it didn’t become a foundation, it didn’t become the beginning of a network of beams and trellis to attach more advanced knowledge, something to build on.
I think I will have to run that first session over and over… and invite everyone who wants to produce a life that is worth living to do it, and if it is needed, do it again and again.
Mastering
In my humble opinion MASTERING the three distinctions in this first workshop can take you half of the way to your new life, to your new you.
But when I said ‘mastering’, I meant mastering.
Most people leave that workshop, when they do it the first time, somewhere between unconscious incompetence and conscious incompetence.
The goal is to gradually increase both the consciousness and the competence. Mastery is unconscious competence… meaning: you don’t have to think of it, you don’t have to remember. Mastery is like driving a car… you don’t have to think about where the gas pedal is…
If you would like to buy the recording of that session, albeit it is not as effective as being there live, it is better than nothing.
One of the INSANE things I did, while I myself was learning the foundation is this: I regularly, at least once a month, participated in a beginners workshop, for decades.
Today I am masterful in this inner game, the invisible domain… but in other areas I am not.
Today I am in different position. Instead of finding an entry level course, and do it over and over again, I hire mentoring.
I took a session on Facebook advertising. I was sure I got it. But when it came to actually doing it: I got clear: I am not even a beginner… I am nowhere.
So I am now pursuing mastery on the kindergarten level, for Facebook advertising.
I hate Facebook. So why Facebook? I don’t know. I paid a small fortune a company about a month ago to help me with it, and I guess I want to prove it to myself that I didn’t waste my money? Because I am not a quitter…
So I am going for mastery. It will keep my brain sharp (don’t forget that I am in the dementia potential age!) and feel good about myself… Hey, it’s worth money!
Dabbling isn’t attractive to me. Dabbling is being an amateur. I am a professional… in everything…
How about you?
Test out the Freedom Courses… one or all…- The Inner Game books, a whole series of books, have an average truth value of 7%.
