Why Knowing Yourself Is The Foundation Of Personal Growth

Originally posted 2011-05-20 13:15:08.

Why Knowing Yourself Is The Foundation Of Personal Growth

Know thyself… said the Greeks, and I can’t agree more.

Unless you are clear about where you are, what are your limitations, what are your inner pulls (conation), your results in life will be puny, in every area of life.

Know Thyself If men would search diligently their own minds, and examine minutely their thoughts and actions, they would be more cautious in censuring the conduct of others, as they would find in themselves abundantly sufficient cause for reproof. “It is a good horse that never stumbles;” and lie is a good man indeed who cannot reproach himself with numerous slips and errors.” “Every bean has its black,” and every man his follies and vices.

The adage also teaches us to set a proper value upon ourselves, and to be careful not to do anything that may degrade us. It is not known to whom we are indebted for this golden rule; we only learn that it is of very long standing, and was held in such high estimation by the ancients, that it was placed over the doors of their temples, and it was also supposed by them, that ” E coelo descen- dit,” it came down from heaven. ” ‘Man know thyself!’ tins precept from on high Came down, imagined by the Deity; Oh! be the words indelibly imprest On the live tablet of each human breast.

But how do you Know Yourself? Know yourself as others know yourself? Know about yourself? Know what psychologist made up as a category for yourself? Do the test that was devised for testing privates sent to fight in the VietNam war?

People want to know themselves to make it easier to win… to make it easier to beat bad habits. To justify why they are the way they are.

My experience (as a coach, 30 years and thousands of people), has been that you do best when you know your machine. Your machine has a bent… an inclination, and if you know it you can be successful… with any machine.

Some 30 years ago I had a car I didn’t have to lock, because only I could drive it. It would stall for everyone else. I drove it another 100 thousand miles. I got it after the previous owner gave up on it. It had 160 thousand miles on it.

The knowledge: know yourself, here, with that car, applied to the car and myself, together. The car was seriously flawed… but no one could have guessed from the outside, when I drove it.

I have dyslexia, serious, but I read one or two books every week. I also write for a living.

I had two major episodes of brain damage: you wouldn’t know it. I know how to drive my machine.

My soul correction is arrogance and condescension. It’s taken me longer to drive my life with these horrible afflictions, but knowing it made it possible.

When you know all the quirks of your machine, when you know what is your unscratchable itch, when you know what the machine will do unless you compensate for it, you can take your machine anywhere, any heights, any distance, any achievement.

As you work to grow in different areas in you life, it is important to really know yourself. The concept of not knowing yourself may sound preposterous to some people, but hear me out. Because we live such hectic lives, it is important to take time to become reacquainted with ourselves. It is very easy to get so focused on living life that we lose ourselves in the hustle and the bustle. With every phase in life, we change and evolve, and if all goes as planned, we should not be the same person we were five years ago. This is not to say that everything about us has to change, but it is perfectly natural and healthy to mature and grow in different areas.

Knowing yourself can help you improve your work ethic because you can really understand your limitations and know when you are pushing yourself too hard. If you are a self starter like me, you would probably work for 24 hours a day if you could. In fact, you’ve probably had to make yourself step away from your work one more than one occasion. While this self starting attitude is a good thing, it can also be a problem. If you aren’t careful, your desire for success can drive others away from you and actually ruin relationships. You may be thinking, “I thought we were supposed to be able to accomplish everything.” That is true, but sometimes you can bite of much more than you can chew, and running yourself into the ground to accomplish goals in not healthy. The beauty of accomplishing goals and achieving personal growth is discovering the balance of work and play.

While it is important to know your limits, knowing yourself helps you to know what you can’t accomplish as well as what you can accomplish. Many times, people don’t push themselves to accomplish real goals simply because thy think don’t think they’ll be successful. Once you really know yourself, you will know what you can accomplish. However, if you never try, you’ll never know how much you can truly accomplish.

When you know yourself, it is easier to keep yourself motivated. It you met someone for the first time, and they asked you to encourage them without giving you any details about their life, you would have a hard time encouraging them. By being aware of the types of things that keep you motivated, you will be less likely to reach that rock bottom point where you feel like your world is crumbling around you. It is best to constantly encourage and motivate yourself as your grow and mature.

How do you react to disappointment? What do you do when you’re sad? How often do you need to take time to truly relax? In order to maintain balance in your life, you have to constantly ask yourself these types of questions. Not only do you need to know yourself in order to have a strong foundation for personal growth, but you also have to be willing to motivate yourself when things are less than ideal.

How To Play An Active Part In Your life, your fortune

Originally posted 2011-05-11 13:15:05.

How To Play An Active Part In Your life, your fortune

In a Landmark Education Course I took back in 1987, I learned that it is possible to live life from a new context: “Life is a conversation”

It is quite simple if you can wrap your mind around it, incredibly difficult if you are attached to the way you see the world. Continue reading “How To Play An Active Part In Your life, your fortune”

Affirmations to Keep You on Track in Life

Originally posted 2011-05-07 23:30:04.

If you know me, you know that the misery I experienced in my life for 50 years drove me to many modalities of relief, including affirmations.

Affirmations don’t work for me. Never did and never will.

Why? Because affirmations are spoken from the mind: and the mind says so many things, a nice word here and there won’t make a difference. Just watch how much difference and how long a pat on the back does to you: not much, correct?

Life started to change when I learned different ways of speaking. I learned that there is descriptive language, and that includes the affirmations: the ordinary way of speaking of most people.

Then there are the active ways of speaking:

requests, promises, and declarations. This way of speaking does not come from the mind: it comes from your higher way of being: your vertical plane, your vertical self.

This kind of speaking creates a context that is inescapable.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that people won’t use request or promise sounding sentences, that come from the mind, a casual tool of babbling. They may even seem to declare something, but the power is missing.

I measure the power of your word in the Starting Point Measurements

The power of MY word is 70%… But even with that much power you need to know that what you say matters. If the mind says: ‘you are lying’, then it doesn’t matter how much power your word has… does it?

Any speaking that comes from the mind is mere chatter, and any speaking that comes from the Self is a command.

So then why do negative statements seem to have disastrous consequences: what the statement says seems to come true? Because those statements, when spoken in the absence of a commitment, the absence of a higher context, are the true description of where the speaker’s world is heading.

I often say: this won’t work… this is going to fail… but my actions are not consistent with those ‘affirmations’, they are consistent with making it work.

Your most important job, if you want your word to have power, is to learn to connect to your higher self (not god! not Jesus! but your own higher self), and speak from there.

Until then you are just littering the world with your affirmations.

‘What changes your focus: changes your faith. What changes your faith changes your outcome.’ ~ Jesse Duplantis

Let me start by saying that everything you say is some kind of affirmation – either positive or negative. When you complain to your friends, ‘nothing ever goes right for me,’ you are affirming to the world and the universe that nothing should go right in your life.

It’s true, you know. You are where you are today because of your beliefs, attitudes and words.

What you say today becomes your reality tomorrow. What you believe about yourself and your situation creates and maintains your world.

You may not like where you are right now. You may not think you deserve all the hassles, stress and problems. And you are right. But you are the only one who can change your life with affirmations.

It was a revelation to me that my lack of money, bad attitude and poor relationships were my own fault! It was life-changing to learn that I could change my circumstances by changing my words.

Over the years, I have learned to say certain things – affirmations – to cancel negatives and attract positive results. Here are six affirmations that changed my life.

1. ‘I will not be defeated and I will not quit.’ It is so easy to throw up your hands and say, ‘I tried.’ But ‘try’ is never enough. To win in any situation, you have to be prepared to stay with it until you do win! It’s a philosophy that applies to everything. Michael Jordan is perhaps the greatest basketball player ever. But he freely admits that he has lost more than 300 games and missed over 9,000 shots. But he never quit. Whatever you want, whatever you need to accomplish, don’t let your circumstances win. Don’t quit.

2. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Yes, it’s a Bible verse. But I use it all the time – when I’m tired and just want to give up (see #1!), when I’m faced with a problem that I don’t know how to solve, when I need physical strength to just get through the day. Sometimes I partner it with ‘I rest in God’s energy,’ drawing strength and resolve from the Eternal source of all energy and ability.

3. ‘I have the mind of Christ.’ The power here taps into Divine wisdom to solve seemingly unsolvable problems. God has answers to every situation. Affirming that connects your spirit with His wisdom. Patience allows Spirit to work on your behalf to bring the answers or change the circumstances to bring the solution you seek.

4. ‘I am rooted and grounded in Love.’

This one is particularly effective when I’m NOT feeling very loving. When someone interrupts ‘my’ routine, wants something from me that I don’t really want to do, or when I’m feeling selfish, I remind myself of my higher calling. I am rooted and grounded in love. I can set aside my wants and focus on the other person. God will take care of me. Use that as an affirmation, coupled with appropriate action to line yourself up for greater blessing.

5. ‘There is nothing lost in God’s world.’ Use this one where you are looking for lost keys, glasses or any misplaced item. It may take some time, but if you will let this work, a thought will pop into your mind to look… somewhere. And you will usually find exactly what you are looking for.
6. ‘God loves me and has a good plan for my life.’ Use this all the time, but especially when circumstances seem aligned against you. This affirmation helps to line up your thinking with the divine plan of blessing and abundance. It helps defeat stress by acknowledging the power of Divine assistance and direction.

Remember, you must stay consistent with your affirmations.

Think of your words like a bucket of paint.

If you are filling the bucket with negative (black) words, complaints and mumblings throughout your day, how much white (positive) words will you have to speak to get the color you want?

Don’t just think of affirmations as things you speak sometimes. Watch your everyday words to make sure you are speaking what you want. God explained it this way: call those things that be not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). By following His method of creation, you can re-create your own world with your words.

Words have power. They have the power to change your mindset. By changing your mind – your beliefs – you change your attitude. That leads to a change in your actions. Use the ‘A-team’ – Affirmation, Attitude and Action – to change your life.

Obviously this wasn’t my article… it was quoted by some god-fearing person. You need to find what YOU have faith in… if you don’t have faith in Christ or whatever….

Good, Better, Best Vibration: everything vibrates

Originally posted 2011-01-26 15:31:02.

Good, Better, Best Vibration: everything vibrates
Good, Better, Best Vibration: everything vibrates, including conspiracy theories, even if they are true

My notes on vibration:

I found this article on the internet on vibration, and thought if fitted into my blog, so I am reprinting with full reference to the author. Continue reading “Good, Better, Best Vibration: everything vibrates”

What is the difference between a human and a human being?

What is the difference between a human and a human being?

My work is to take humans from the Valley Of The Shadow Of Death to the Promised Land… to Human Beingness. This post might be an important milepost in that.

I read an article in the Howard Business Review that points out a worldview that is at the root of you staying a potential, you staying an effect, in every area of your life.

Although the article is a business article, business is a great analogy to life. Another great analogy is travel.

Travel is a much easier, much more accessible activity, so I will use it, while, if you want to read the original business article, I am enclosing it.
Continue reading “What is the difference between a human and a human being?”

What prevents you from getting ahead in life?

What prevents you from getting ahead in life?

giraffe-in-treeThis series of articles are exploring the hidden aspects of what holds you back from growing, from moving, from raising your vibration, from transformation, from living a life consistent with your abilities

When we look at your life, we see that there is a gap between what you are capable of, and what you are accomplishing. Especially in the areas of quality of life, accomplishment, and self-expression. Continue reading “What prevents you from getting ahead in life?”

Any jump is jump from the skillet to the fire

Any jump is jump from the skillet to the fire

You can’t JUMP to the truth… in fact, any jump is jump from the skillet to the fire

I like to use the 67 steps in my own process to slowly turning to the truth, and in teaching and coaching. That program seems to JUMP to SOME truth. But it is wise enough to not declare that small and relative truth, THE Truth.

This is in contrast with everybody else. Continue reading “Any jump is jump from the skillet to the fire”

What you are most proud of about yourself is…

What you are most proud of about yourself is…
What you are most proud of about yourself is what holds you back in life

This article was written OMG 10 years ago? We haven’t again addressed these life-suckers… Since we are working on anchor-to-doom and the actions necessary to live a life not determined by the doom… we probably will need to talk about these minor anchors… the topic of this article. These keep us stuck, suck our aliveness, curtail our successes, and make us inauthentic and pretending. So they are important.

We’ll use transformation to get unstuck: transformation is caused by making the invisible visible... Continue reading “What you are most proud of about yourself is…”

The most accurate measure of both unhappiness and disease

The most accurate measure of both unhappiness and disease

When we work on distinguishing reality from the voices you add, we actually work on one of the most important aspects of life: your emotions.

The quality of your life, how you feel about yourself, about your life, about the people in your life is all emotions.

You, mistakenly think, that your emotions are an accurate expression, an accurate measure of what they seem to be around, but they aren’t.

The Starting Point Measurements has one measure that directly asks the questions: 26. To what degree you honor your emotions as reality? %

The higher that number is the more wretched you are inside… Continue reading “The most accurate measure of both unhappiness and disease”

The dominant forceful way you are killing life.

The dominant forceful way you are killing life.

If you pay attention: you won’t want to read this post. You won’t want to know what keeps your vibration low. You are scanning the internet, the horizon, the people around you for feedback: that you are already all you can be.

This ‘not wanting to‘ is essentially what I am talking about in this article, this insistence, this forcefulness.

I wrote this article in 2016. Humanity has gotten worse sence. More forceful…

I don’t want to… I don’t like it… arrgh, nooo!

Continue reading “The dominant forceful way you are killing life.”