mastery.fm – caffeine for the mind & spirit

See the Forest for the Trees

If, say, you are concentrating on an important problem, all of your thoughts and feelings will be engaged by that problem. You become the problem. By identifying with the problem, you gradually solidify its reality around you, cutting yourself off from other energy.

As you identify with the problem your feelings become clouded, and you will find that you cannot see the forest for the trees. New energy finds no opening to refresh you. The reality around you reflects only the countours of the problem in which you are immersed. The solution must come from what you believe, since that is the only reality you can perceive at that time. The same logic applies to your life. Each event ratifies your experience and that experience settles in your consciousness like a block of concrete, every bit as real.

The feelings you generate pull you into areas of the physcial plane that match those feelings and they will dictate what you will choose to do day-to-day.

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Forgiveness

Steve Pavlina:

One way to accept and respect what life is doing is to forgive its transgressions, just as you would hope that life forgives your own transgressions.

I have made plenty of nasty mistakes in life, including some really deplorable errors in judgment, and I appreciate that I wasn’t kicked off the planet. Somehow I’m still here… still breathing… still able to live life and express myself. I don’t take that for granted.

I like that life provides wiggle-room for making mistakes, including mistakes that may even cause consequences and problems for other people.

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Relationships & Truth Alignment

Steve Pavlina:

One reason that other people’s lack of truth alignment tugs at our attention is because it’s an invitation to get ourselves back into the flow of growth and change.

And:

Do your best to accept that they really are doing that, and then take the time to process and decide how you’re going to deal with them. How will their lack of truth alignment affect your relationship going forward? What meaning will you assign to their behaviors? How will you re-classify these people within your internal relationship matrix?

If you resolve your thoughts and feelings about such people to your own satisfaction, your mind can settle down, and you’ll no longer need to obsess about such people. This will free up more energy to pursue your own path of growth, which may involve facing your own difficult truths.

And:

If you currently have a crushing relationship with someone else’s lack of truth alignment, invite the truth to really sink in. Do your best to fully accept what you see. Then ask: Now that I see this and can no longer deny it, what am I going to do about it? Who do I want to be in this situation?

One way to frame this is to consider that reality is testing you. What must you do to pass the test?

You’ll remain stuck if you don’t pass the test in a way that satisfies you.

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Ask Your Feelings

Steve Pavlina:

Ask your feelings what they’re trying to communicate. The message isn’t just raw emotion. There’s a purposeful invitation behind those feelings. What truths are those feelings inviting you to discover?

I often like to journal about my feelings to ask them what their honest message is. This is a great way to become more truth aligned on the inside. Once I receive and acknowledge the message, the feelings almost always grow milder, or they stop being noticeable after a while.

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Treat the “Because”

Emmet Fox:

When you find yourself thinking that your prayer cannot be answered for any reason whatever—treat that reason. When something says to you that you cannot demonstrate “because”—treat the because.

When you think, I cannot demonstrate because I have not enough understanding—treat for understanding. When you think, I cannot treat because I have a headache—treat the headache. When you think, I cannot demonstrate because I am full of doubts—treat the doubts. When you think I cannot demonstrate because it is now too late—treat against the time illusion. When you think, I cannot demonstrate in this part of the country—treat against the space illusion. When you think, I cannot demonstrate this thing because of my age—treat your age belief. When you think, I cannot demonstrate because someone else will hinder me—treat the belief in a power other than God.

No matter what name the because may give itself, it is still your belief in limitation. Be loyal to God and know that He and He alone has all power.

Treat the because.

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The Holographic Reality

Donald Hoffman:

If spacetime is not fundamental, then our perception of visual space, and of objects in that space, is not a high-fidelity reconstruction of fundamental reality. What, then, is it? From the theory of evolution we can conclude that our sensory systems have been shaped by natural selection to inform us about the fitness contingencies relevant to us in our niche. We have assumed that this meant that our senses inform us of fitness-relevant aspects of fundamental reality. Apparently, they do not. They simply inform us about fitness, not fundamental reality.

In this case, the holographic principle points to a different conception of our perception of visual space. It is not a reconstruction of an objective, and fundamental, physical space. It is simply a communication channel for messages about fitness, and should be understood in terms of concepts that are standard for any communication channel, concepts such as data compression and error correction. If our visual space is simply the format of an error-correcting code for fitness, this would explain its holographic nature. Error correcting codes introduce redundancy to permit correction of errors. If I wish to send you a bit that is either 0 or 1, but there is a chance that noise might flip a 0 to a 1 or vice versa, then we might agree that I will send you that bit three times, rather than just once. This is a simple Hamming code. If you receive a 000 or a 111, you will interpret this, respectively, as 0 and 1. If you receive a 110 or 001, you will interpret this, respectively, as 1 and 0, correcting an error in transmission. In this case we use a redundant, three-dimensional format to convey a lower-dimensional signal. The holographic redundancy in our perception of visual space might be a clue that this space, likewise, is simply an error-correcting code—for fitness.

What about physical space? Research by Fernando Pastawski, Beni Yoshida, Daniel Harlow, John Preskill, and others indicates that spacetime itself is an error-correcting code—a holographic, quantum, secret-sharing code. Why this should be so is, for now, unclear, and tantalizing.

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Start Before the Fear Stops You

James Altucher, interviewing Jesse Itzler:

Start before fear stops you.

Before he was a rapper, Jesse cold called record labels saying he was Billy Joel’s agent. Then he waited for them to call back and hear him rapping on his answering machine.

It didn’t work.

He had other crazy ideas. He tried them all until one finally worked.

“I’m just not scared of being embarrassed. I don’t like it, but I’m not scared of it,” Jesse says, “Once you give yourself that gift, you’re liberated.”

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Appreciate the Setbacks

Oprah Winfrey:

One of my greatest lessons has been to fully understand that what looks like a dark patch in the quest for success is the universe pointing you in a new direction. Anything can be a miracle, a blessing, an opportunity if you choose to see it that way. Had I not been demoted from my six o’clock anchor post in Baltimore back in 1977, the talk show gig would never have happened when it did.

When you can see obstacles for what they are, you never lose faith in the path it takes to get you where you want to go. Because this I know for sure: Who you’re meant to be evolves from where you are right now. So learning to appreciate your lessons, mistakes, and setbacks as stepping-stones to the future is a clear sign you’re moving in the right direction.

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Keep Moving

Oprah Winfrey:

I know for sure that healing the wounds of the past is one of the biggest and most worthwhile challenges of life. It’s important to know when and how you were programmed, so you can change the program. And doing so is your responsibility, no one else’s. There is one irrefutable law of the universe: we are each responsible for our own life.

If you’re holding anyone else accountable for your happiness, you’re wasting your time. You must be fearless enough to give yourself the love you didn’t receive. Begin noticing how every day brings a new opportunity for your growth. How buried disagreements with your mother show up in arguments with your spouse. How unconscious feelings of unworthiness appear in everything you do (and don’t do). All these experiences are your life’s way of urging you to leave the past behind and make yourself whole. Pay attention. Every choice gives you a chance to pave your own road. Keep moving. Full speed ahead.

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The 3 Month Rule

Danny Miranda:

The person others see you as today is the person you worked to become in the past 3 months.

Hypothetical example: You do all the “right things” for 10 years straight. Workout, eat right, meditate, read, etc. Then, you decide… “You know what… I don’t need to do this anymore. I already did it for 10 years.” So you stop doing them.

What happens next?

In the first week… nothing changes. You’re still jacked. You’re still well-read. You still have a clear head.

But over the next month or two…

Your personality *does* change. People start thinking “What’s up with this guy?” The slightest comment starts to irritate you.

By the end of the 3 months, your gut is sticking out. Your muscles are still there but they don’t pop like they used to. You’re fed up with everyone around you.

That’s all it takes.

3 months.

So what does that mean for you?

It means the inverse of this hypothetical situation is true as well.

If you’re not where you want to be, you’re 3 months away from living the life of your dreams. You need to do the disciplines daily…

But if you do…

In 3 months, people will be shocked (in the best way). And more importantly? You’ll be proud when you look in the mirror. Get after it. 👊 👊 👊

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