The Beautiful Happy Nature Of Me, You And The World
How to end up with the rest of the sheep
Greater effort doesn’t mean faster (or better) results.
Higher-order refinement aka mastery, in any field, has more to do with what you don’t do than what you do.
Take martial arts for example. At the highest, most esoteric levels, ability comes through stripping away all effort, thereby allowing a soft, gentle…yes…childlike…approach.
In those rarefied skill levels, a perfectly placed step, outstretched hand or flexed knee are more devastating than a full-out punch or kick.
Such devastation isn’t possible unless you are trained not to resist the natural order of things. That training never involves hard work. It always involves play.
Devastating ability is not a product of what the budoka is doing, it is a product of what she is not doing (thinking, trying to make something happen, resisting, anticipating). For in the absence of all that doing she is present to higher-order intelligence, that which has already decided the battle and orchestrates events, including her moves, toward that end.
The same is the case with all things. Life is recursive. Meaning: in every instance, large or small, you will find the same life lessons repeated over and over.
You don’t need a 15th degree black belt to develop then apply this mastery in your life. What you do need is a willingness to go against the grain of “common” wisdom.
You can lead a sheep to wisdom, but you can’t make it think
You’ve likely heard all this before. In the same way you have heard how to get fit, succeed in life, break a habit or form a new one.
We all have knowledge.
But a lot of us are still overweight, still struggling to find success (however you define that), chewing our nails, addicted to masturbation or porn or both, or wanting to go to bed every night before 11 p.m. but still ending up awake at 1 a.m.
Knowledge is useless unless it is applied in a framework capable of producing mastery. Being caught up in the way everyone else is doing it rarely leads to mastery or success. Instead, you end up with the rest of the sheep.
This guy got it. And this guy, in the realm of finding a job.
Both followed their inspiration, not what everyone else was doing. Both got extraordinary results.
Both stories tell of events no one could orchestrate – seemingly random (it’s not random) single events, dovetailing with others leading to the outcome both desired.
You’re no different. What you want is already yours. What’s holding back the having of it?
Perhaps it’s the stories you’re telling yourself – more in your actions than in your words – which perpetuate the same results everyone else is getting.
Follow your internal guidance and the world becomes your oyster.
But first, you gotta figure out how to hear. Hint: It starts with play.
Hard work is common but unnecessary
We’ve been told to work hard. But the very successful don’t become successful through hard work. Even though they too fall into this mythical power of “working hard.”
Work-hard believers point to people like Michael Jordan, Ray Kroc, Thomas Edison and the like, as people who worked hard to get their rewards.
But all of these people, including other very successful people aren’t working very hard. What they are doing is doing the thing that lights their fire.
That’s what keeps a person willing to work all day and night. They aren’t doing that because they want the end goal. They are focused in the now, engaged in a seeming unlimited source of energy born of the connection with their passion and their focus.
In that, they find the delicious experience of flow.
Combat soldiers in the heat of battle get the same experience. They are so focused in the now, their reflexes, attention and abilities are heightened. And they can continue that way for long periods.
This connection is nothing more than the feeling one gets when the human being and its “larger self” are in direct communication. Whether you’re shooting hoops, planning and executing on a business strategy, exploring the limits of electricity, or trying to stay alive when others are trying to kill you, the connection and the indicator of that connection are the same: an intoxicating feeling of aliveness.
But you don’t have to go to Fallujah, create a massive company, or invent a new technology to have this experience. This experience is available to all. And no matter what happens when one’s alive, everyone gets it after death.
But you don’t have to wait to die to have it either.
The great thing is, tapping into it now, while you’re still alive, creates a life experience unparalleled by anything else.
And it’s guaranteed that if you can relax into it, and soothe your indoctrination that hard work is the key to success, you get all you want.
Hard work: unnecessary.
Work hard. Get paid. Get what you want.
That’s the hard way.
Here’s an easier one: know what you want. Focus on being happy while tuning into your intuition. Your life will take on a leisurely, joyful and ease-filled quality.
And in that state of grace, what you want comes not only easier, and more quickly, but also with greater satisfaction and delight.
All That Is is on your side. It wants you to have all you want. You don’t have to work to get it. And you definitely don’t have to work hard.
This. Every day.
Make a habit of feeling good. It’s a sure path to seemingly miraculous happiness levels. Only it’s not miraculous.
It’s life.
We are all meant to be happy.
Happy includes prosperity and freedom, including financial freedom and time freedom. Everything you might include as necessary to happiness you can have.
You don’t have to deprive yourself of things to be happy. Unless you want that. Then you can have it.
You’re meant live a continual state of happiness. If you’re not doing that, you’re doing life wrong…but no way is wrong, because every way ends in happy. It’s just that with the way the majority of people are doing life, ongoing happiness comes after death.
But you don’t have to die to be ongoingly happy.
It’s funny how we sometimes say “If I have that guy or girl I’m looking for as a partner I’ll be happy.” Or “He makes me happy.”
Relationships don’t make a person happy.
Having that perfect partner in your life doesn’t make you happy. That relationship, no matter how wonderful, comes with button pushing, unmet expectations, and more opportunities for growth. Can you be happy in a relationship? Yes. But not because of the relationship. You’re happy because you’re happy.
Happy doesn’t come from having that new job, or that car or house you want, or that money you’re wanting or whatever either.
When you satisfy a want, you feel the satisfaction, sure. But notice: over time, that satisfaction fades as new desires dominate your interest. Satisfaction and happiness are not necessarily the same. Satisfaction feels good.
Relationships are like satisfied desires. They are meant to be fulfilled, which brings a state of satisfaction.
But happiness is borne of in-the-moment-awareness of your recognition, your acknowledgment, that your life is a delightful journey, orchestrated by you in every moment. When you get to that recognition, life becomes what it is meant to be: a continuous string of joyful experiences.
When that becomes your life experience, something else happens too: more of your desires get satisfied. And often, with little effort.
It takes a while to get there, not because it’s hard – it’s actually easy.
It takes a while to get there because you have to gradually slow the influence of your old way of living: thinking that life is hard, that you must work hard, that relationships are hard, that “you don’t always get what you want”, that men are all X and women are all Y.
Once you do get there though….oh my.
So the trip is worth it.
Five steps to starting the trip:
- Appreciate, appreciate, appreciate – write down how much you appreciate. Try expressing appreciation for things you take for granted, such as the device you’re reading this on, the shoes on your feet, soap, toothpaste.
- Pay attention to what you’re feeling. They clue you in on what you’re thinking. Develop a habit of checking in with yourself throughout the day. We can help you develop habits. We’re really good at it.
- Stop listening to the news. Very little – actually almost nothing – in the news pertains to you
- Get out more. Take more walks. While you’re out there, practice step one above and notice things in the world you take for granted.
- Take time at the end of the day to acknowledge all the good that happened today, including your success in doing these five steps.
Before you know it, you’ll find yourself well on the way towards unshakeable happiness and freedom. We guarantee it.
You are meant to live a happy life. If you’re not, why aren’t you?