mastery.fm – Page 10 – caffeine for the mind & spirit

The No List

So I started a list. Instances of saying no.

When I say no (e.g., conference talk invites, “pick my brain” invitations, jury solicitations), I immediately add my regret to the No List. I nurture this growing list of no-things, adding category data like dates events would have happened, themes, and date turned down.

Suddenly, I’m making list of cities not seen, airplanes not embarked, and time saved, rather than time taken away. Several months later, I have a made a substantial something. It’s how I’ve marked time.

There are many instances where deadlines are crucial, where getting things done needs to get done. Sometimes saying yes is just the thing that must happen. But just as importantly, most times it is not.

Stop reading a book halfway through, keep a list of your turn-downs, and celebrate the fringe benefits of no.

I’ll be right there with you.

Shawn Blanc:

When we say no, it doesn’t have to be because we are too busy. It can also be because we are intentional and purposeful about what we do with our time and energy.

David Allen:

You can do anything, but not everything.

Infinite Creative Play of Exploration

Tim Verhoeven:

We create all the time. Knowing and unknowingly. The conscious act of creating can help to bring you closer to the nature of creation itself. It all starts with a vague vision that ultimately crystallizes into existence with the guide of an unwavering focus and faith. Faith in yourself to bring forth whatever you envisioned in the first place, and all along that path you can face many dragons. Self-doubt and distractions as we collectively navigate a reality where we give our power away so easily. Everything is asking for attention.

We try to fit in, seek acknowledgment and to please. We give our power to other people, politicians, media, entertainment, influencers, COVID and so forth. All but distractions along a path.

The human spirit is the upward moving spiral force that has driven our evolution forward. The drive to create, shape and explore ever expanding experiences is the same force found in nature that makes this all possible. To align yourself with curiosity, infinite creative play of exploration and participation in to the joy of life is what brings fire to the soul. You and I are reflections of the one creative spirit that generates and is all realities. Out of infinite love for the unfinished masterpiece we are called to be co-creators into the experience of life.

We are Infinite consciousness manifested in a myriad of forms exploring itself and returning to itself. A divine cosmic dance of infinite beauty that radiates its light to all corners of existence and aren’t we all chasing that light. Looking everywhere. All but within.

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The Whole Universe Inside You

From a Redditor’s mushroom trip:

When you travel far, you reach distant lands, like in the past on 2g dose I experienced my consciousness flying over the forest near my home. When you travel very far you reach other planets, stars and distant galaxies, which I have experienced previously on a 3g dose. This time my consciousness had left my body and it was beyond all the galaxies and everything. There was nothing but just my consciousness. I was observing my own consciousness. My consciousness was greater than the whole universe. I observed that the whole universe was just a tiny fraction of my consciousness. I observed my consciousness had no limits. My consciousness was vast, deep and it had several dimensions which I cannot describe. I observed that my consciousness is the ultimate beauty. I realised my consciousness is sacred. I realised there is no universe but just my consciousness. My consciousness has no beginning, no end and no limits. My consciousness is the god and the creator of this universe.

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Hit the Accelerator on Clarity Gains

Steve Pavlina:

It’s fair to say – and to accept – that there is no clarity to be found outside of experience. Experience is the mother of clarity. And this points us in an actionable direction. If we wish to gain clarity, we must get busy gaining experience. And we’ll generally achieve the greatest gains by courting fresh, new experiences as opposed to repeating previous ones. Thus, if you want to hit the accelerator in terms of clarity gains, make a habit of embracing new and different experiences. Go where you’ve never been. Do what you’ve never done. Try what you’ve never tried. This will have the triple benefit of upgrading your mental models of reality (truth), refining your palette of desires (love), and boosting your ability to blaze a trail to your desires (power).

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A State of Balance

Vadim Zeland, Reality Transurfing:

Stress if a consequence of importance. Stress can be instantaneously relieved by reducing importance. It is futile and harmful to create ongoing importance. You will never succeed in changing a situation for the better and acting effectively if you are carrying the heavy load of importance. When you are severely stressed it is enough to wake up, open your eyes and become conscious of the fact that a pendulum has hooked into your importance. It is easy enough to see what the importance relates to in each specific instance. Remind yourself: by reducing importance you free yourself of the pendulum and can act effectively. You have to be aware of the fact that attributing something inflated meaning will always work against you.

To change any difficult situation it is enough to remember about importance and consciously reduce any excessive meaning you have connected with it. The only challenge is to remember in time. When you are stressed your awareness is sleeping and so you will forget that something called Transurfing ever existed. To eliminate stress from your life you have to wake up and reduce importance.

If you have made a habit of paying attention to your inner voice, it will not be at all difficult to remember about importance at the necessary moment. Every time you experience a feeling of unease ask yourself why. Where has meaning been inflated? However ‘important’ the specific circumstances are to you, consciously let go of your attachment to their importance. Only after the purification of intention can you act effectively.

To become immune to stress you have to replace the old habit of stressing out over any small thing with the new habit of maintaining a relaxed state. Being in a relaxed state does not mean being listless or apathetic. It is a state of harmonious interaction with the outside world: balance. Balance presupposes the absence of internal and outer importance: I am neither good nor bad and the world is neither bad not good; I am not pathetic and insignificant and the world is not pathetic and insignificant either.

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Feel Yourself in It

Mitch Horowitz:

Humanity, he taught, does not respond to circumstances — rather, it creates them and reacts after the fact without knowing the true origin of events.

Neville’s method is simplicity itself. It can be reduced to a three-step formula:

Form an absolutely clear sense of what you want — be starkly honest with yourself about an accomplishment, possession, or relationship that you desire with all your heart and intellect. “Feeling is the secret,” Neville wrote.

Enter into a state of restful physical immobility, such as what you experience just before drifting off to sleep at night (this is sometimes called the hypnagogic state) — and you are free to do this step at that time. When the mind and body are blissfully relaxed, your intellect is unusually supple and suggestible.

From this state of physical stillness, picture a short, emotionally satisfying scene that implies the fulfillment of your desire, such as someone shaking your hand in congratulations, or feeling the weight and density of an award in your hands or a wedding ring on your finger. Do not witness the scene as if you’re passively watching it on a movie screen, but feel yourself in it. Run this scene through your mind for as long as it remains vivid and satisfying. You can allow yourself to fall asleep after after doing this.

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An Infinitude of Outcomes

Mitch Horowitz:

Linearity is a useful and necessary device for five-sensory beings to get through life, but it doesn’t stand up objectively. Linearity is a device, a subjective interpretation of what’s really going on. It’s not reflected in Einstein’s theory of relativity, which posits that time slows down when it begins to approach the speed of light. Nor is it reflected in quantum mechanics, where particles appear in an infinitude of places and do not obey any orderly modality. Linearity is not replicating itself when a measurement taken of a particle serves to localize the appearance or existence of the object.

If we pursue this line of thought further — and this is where the many-worlds theory comes into play — the very decision to take a measurement (or not to take a measurement) not only localizes a particle but creates a past, present, and future for that particle. The decision of an observer to take a measurement creates a multidimensional reality for the particle.

So whatever that particle is doing, the very fact that a sentient observer has chosen to take a measurement at that time, place, moment, and juncture creates a whole past, present, future — an entire infinitude of outcomes. A divergent set of outcomes would exist if that measurement were never taken. A divergent set of outcomes would also exist if that measurement were taken one second later, or five minutes later, or tomorrow. And what is tomorrow? When particles exist in superposition until somebody takes a measurement, there is no such thing as tomorrow, other than subjectively.

And what are our five senses but a technology by which we measure things? What are our five senses but a biological technology, not necessarily different in intake from a camera, photometer, digital recorder, or microscope? So it’s possible that within reality — within this extra-linear, super-positioned infinitude of possibilities in which we are taking measurements — we experience things based upon our perspective.

Neville Goddard’s instinct was correct in this sense. He taught that you can take a measurement by employing the visualizing forces of your own imagination. You’re taking a measurement within the infinitude of possible outcomes. The measurement localizes or actualizes the thing itself. Hence his formula: an assumption, if persisted in, hardens into fact. But the assumption must be persuasive; it must be convincing. That’s why the emotions and feeling states must come into play. And Neville observed that the hypnagogic state — a state of drowsy relaxation — helps facilitate that process.

You can use several different techniques in connection with Neville’s ideas, and, as he did, I challenge you to try them and see what happens. You’re entitled to results.

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A Difference in Priorities

Tim Ferriss:

So, what makes the difference? What separates the New Rich (NR), characterized by options, from the Deferrers (D), those who save it all for the end only to find that life has passed them by?

It begins at the beginning. The New Rich can be separated from the crowd based on their goals, which reflect very distinct priorities and life philosophies.

Note how subtle differences in wording completely change the necessary actions for fulfilling what at a glance appear to be similar goals. These are not limited to business owners. Even the first, as I will show later, applies to employees.

D: To work for yourself.

NR: To have others work for you.

D: To work when you want to.

NR: To prevent work for work’s sake, and to do the minimum necessary for maximum effect (“minimum effective load”).

D: To retire early or young.

NR: To distribute recovery periods and adventures (mini-retirements) throughout life on a regular basis and recognize that inactivity is not the goal. Doing that which excites you is.

D: To buy all the things you want to have.

NR: To do all the things you want to do, and be all the things you want to be. If this includes some tools and gadgets, so be it, but they are either means to an end or bonuses, not the focus.

D: To be the boss instead of the employee; to be in charge.

NR: To be neither the boss nor the employee, but the owner. To own the trains and have someone else ensure they run on time.

D: To make a ton of money.

NR: To make a ton of money with specific reasons and defined dreams to chase, timelines and steps included. What are you working for?

D: To have more.

NR: To have more quality and less clutter. To have huge financial reserves but recognize that most material wants are justifications for spending time on the things that don’t really matter, including buying things and preparing to buy things. You spent two weeks negotiating your new Infiniti with the dealership and got $10,000 off? That’s great. Does your life have a purpose? Are you contributing anything useful to this world, or just shuffling papers, banging on a keyboard, and coming home to a drunken existence on the weekends?

D: To reach the big pay-off, whether IPO, acquisition, retirement, or other pot of gold.

NR: To think big but ensure payday comes every day: cash flow first, big payday second.

D: To have freedom from doing that which you dislike.

NR: To have freedom from doing that which you dislike, but also the freedom and resolve to pursue your dreams without reverting to work for work’s sake (W4W). After years of repetitive work, you will often need to dig hard to find your passions, redefine your dreams, and revive hobbies that you let atrophy to near extinction. The goal is not to simply eliminate the bad, which does nothing more than leave you with a vacuum, but to pursue and experience the best in the world.

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Start Progressing Again

Steve Pavlina:

How many years of our lives could we lose to stagnation if we’re not careful? How many years have you been stuck in a misaligned job or relationship? It’s hard not to think about what more could have been created with those years.

A key aspect of self-development is awareness. You learn to look at many parts of your life to seek out areas of stagnation, bring them into the light, and work on them till you get unstuck and start progressing again.

Imagine what a little more awareness and a little more courage can do for you in terms of preventing stagnation. This could potentially save you from decades of being stuck in a misaligned situation.

Self-development can also help with defining your purpose, so you don’t stagnate due to a sense of meaninglessness. You can develop yourself into a person with a rich and meaningful life instead.

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Feed Your Desires

Steve Pavlina:

The idea of feeding your power to your desires is incredibly simple. All you need to do is decide what you want and then focus your thoughts, feelings, and actions on those desires. Identify your desires and then run straight at them. Be totally shameless about it. Intellectually this is not a difficult concept to understand, is it?

And:

Suppose your true desire is to be surrounded by friends and family that uplift, encourage, and support you. You want to be around like-minded people who are smart, fun, and happy. You want to hang out with people who empower you.

But instead using your power to create that, you feed it into your existing disempowering relationships. You obsess over what others think about you, people who really don’t encourage you to be your best self anyway. You worry about what your Mom thinks about you. By clinging to disempowering relationships of any kind, including blood relationships, you block yourself from receiving what you truly desire. Seriously… who the hell cares what your Mom thinks anyway? Let her live her own life. You go live yours.

Alternatively, you may feed your power into relationships with your TV or your computer instead of real face-to-face connections with human beings.

Again, the pattern is giving your power away to something you don’t even want as opposed to channeling all of your power into what you desire. When you feed your desires, you simultaneously starve your non-desires. If your Mom keeps sending you critical emails that bring you down, simply flag her email address as a spammer and be done with her. Then go out and recruit fresh social connections with people who are willing to support and encourage you along the paths you wish to explore. Be loyal to those who are supportive of your desires, not to those who do the opposite.

And:

Improving all your broken, disempowering relationships is not a prerequisite for attracting an amazing social life. Your social skills don’t need to be upgraded either. You can simply let go of the dysfunctional relationships and immediately begin feeding your power to create the social life you desire. Nothing else needs to happen first.

I repeat: Nothing else needs to happen first!

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