Genetics is hardware. Epigenetics is software. Loosely speaking.
Capacities, in the DNA, can be expressed, switched on or switched off.
When you change, you do more than just surface changes: in effect you change how the DNA, capacities, etc. get switched on or switched off… you are creating epigenetic changes. And not just physical, the aspect “science” is talking about, but the whole person. Not just fat/skinny health conscious, life-unconscious aspect… but really the whole intelligent person who you are or… ahem… not.
The first phase of growth is to plug the leaks of energy, life force, glycogen, time, working memory… eliminate the mistakes, sloppiness, etc.
I am currently working on changing my sleep schedule, to get up around five… So that I can get more done before I have to talk to anyone, or have anyone around with strong emotions, hijacking my attention.
It’s been really difficult, and I will, most likely, have to suffer through days when I am tired, before I can be well and flow with the new schedule.
The reason for this change is a change in what is needed from me… it’s a circumstance.
If I look carefully, almost every big learning, every breakthrough came as a result of some change in circumstances that “forced” me to change my habits, change what I do.
The number one thing about change is discomfort. Maybe even pain. There is no way around it.
Most people come to me saying: they want to raise their vibration… If they knew life, even just a little bit, they would know that what they are asking for is help in changing…
But 99 out of a 100 people come to me with a TLB score of 1.
TLB measures your pain threshold. Your discomfort threshold. Your willingness to be out of your depth. To be uncomfortable and stay in the game.
And then, true to form, you don’t change. You quit. Some before they begin. Some a week, a month into it. But by the three months mark, only one out of 100 remains still in the game. ((
Some don’t change by moving sideways… they seemingly stay in the game, but they move sideways where they don’t change. This article won’t apply to the sideways movers: they have no gains, nothing to consolidate.))
One of the things that make it impossible for you to change is your unrealistic timeframe.
In your imagination, in the mind, change is instant. You can jump from being a pauper to driving a rolls Royce… just imagine that. You can jump from being fat to being skinny. You can jump from being an undisciplined insomniac to someone who has a life that includes beautiful sleep and beautiful days.
But reality and imagination don’t work the same way.
I discovered for myself something that later on I re-learned in the 67 steps: you need to consolidate your gains.
Consolidate means: lock them in.
- 1. make (something) physically stronger or more solid. When we talk about habits, or learning, what you consolidate, what you make physically stronger is the neurons that fire together… the “chunk”.
- 2. combine (a number of things) into a single more effective or coherent whole. One could also say: integrate it into your life. Make it one of the plates you can spin, that will not make other plates fall, instead the other plates help it say up and spin…
There are many ways to look at integration… but as long as the new thing, the new habit, new knowledge isn’t integrated, you can wave it good bye… because it won’t stay. it can’t.
And there are many people who never get to have anything to integrate: they never invest enough energy, time, to create chunks of new knowledge, a group of neurons that can fire together, automatically.
Tai calls consolidating a phase in a type of growth, a type of change: ratcheting.
A ratcheting tool ((
ratchet: a device consisting of a bar or wheel with a set of angled teeth in which a pawl, cog, or tooth engages, allowing motion in one direction only.)) has a function of consolidating: it locks the tool from allowing a backwards slide.
And it takes time. 67 days? I don’t have a definitive answer to that question, but it may be the magic number.
My Playground course is designed for a year long course to allow time to consolidate the approximately 20 new distinctions, new brain cell groups to perform the desired actions a joyful, productive life demands, automatically.
Each new project, each new change begins with phase 1: stop the bleeding.
In your imagination you can go 
from bleeding your life force to a hero in one big jump.
You can go from sickly to healthy in a week…
But reality and imagination don’t mesh.
Phase 1 is stopping the leak. You may have many ways you leak time, energy, Life Force, money… and you need to pay attention to all of the ways, because you cannot go to phase 2, unless all the leaks are plugged in.
This is new knowledge for most of you, you have never really even considered changing this way.
You have never even looked at your leaks…
Some people can double, triple, the quality of their lives, their money, their health, their relationships by just plugging in the leaks.
But taking responsibility for your leaks takes taking on discomfort, pain…
Going from TLB 1 to TLB 2 can make a huge difference. It’s as rare as anything in this comfort loving phase of humanity.
I have people who invest in the type of coaching where we spend an hour or more a week talking, I work for quite some time with them before they are willing to plug in the leaks. And one of them to give up, a big leak, is the fantasy that just because they are talking to me, they will be at their goals in a few months.
No one wants to look at their leaks. It is the biggest part of the change, and just admitting them is painful. So you lie. or explain. or talk around them.
If you don’t do phase one completely, your life is not going anywhere. This is not a threat: this is a prediction. The most likely way things will go.
Whenever you endeavor something, you should always look at the most likely outcome, the worst outcome, and the best outcome.
And consider that the most likely is what will happen.
The most likely outcome is that you’ll continue doing what you have always done.
Past performance is quite a reliable predictor of future performance… But your wishful thinking blocks it from your view.
When I look at my life, the most likely path has always been that I settle into an ess, evolutionary stable strategy at a low level of results, at a low level of achievement, at a low level of income, and get comfortable.
Another thing is predictable: I have to pray for circumstances to force me to go to the next level.
It is not the glorious picture I have of myself, but it is how it has been.
The new circumstance I need will require of me to do things that are out of character for me, that may be painful, that I don’t know how to do. And, of course, I will hate it. But I will do it… unless the pressure disappears (the circumstance). Because, it seems, without an outside pressure I am not likely to go to the next level.
In my case, the new circumstance demands of me to double my discretionary income, what remains after I pay all I must. Ugh, that hurts.
I am not even sure I can do it, although I probably can. But I’ve never tried.
And I have to do it without dropping any of the productive activities I now do.
Taking on new activities will only produce a growth if I can create a system so I won’t forget doing all the things I have been doing, so I can maintain ess.
Starting something new, but springing new leaks is not a way to grow, but that is what my students are doing. As soon as they start something new, they drop something “old”… like their diet, their sleep schedule, their cell hydration, or doing the work in the course they are in.
In the beginning this is double amount of work… At present I am working 12-14 hours a week, 7 days a week. I have taken on a big change! But you will need to be prepared to need time and energy to get the ball rolling… so you will have something to consolidate.
Eventually, I’ll reach a level of comfort where I can lock the new gains in.
How long will this take? Muscle test says that I can start consolidating in about 67 days.
I have learned that if you know how long it will take, you are willing to summon courage, willing to summon energy… After 67 days I can settle into a new ess… and continue my new comfortable life on that level…
And look for a new circumstance down the line to force me to grow another notch… at some point in the future.
This is not what you had in mind, is it?
But this is how life works. Not the way you fantasize about life, the way “they” teach you to think about life.
Life works the way it works.
Feverish activity is followed by consolidation… and then again the same cycle.
Part 2: what are your leaks? What is the first phase of your growth plan?
When you look at yourself, you have no idea why you aren’t able to grow, or whatever you do see is only a partial picture.
Your Starting Point Measurements show it clearly…
Get your Starting Point MeasurementsThe 67 steps is 67 videos. They are not something to learn. It is most useful how I’ve used it, as a diagnostic tool. Diagnosing your leaks.
The 67 steps program’s truth value is 7%… now high… but it takes you to places, vantage points, from where you can see how you leak energy, time, money, glycogen, ((we don’t know what fuels will-power, or thinking. I am adopting Tai’s habit of calling it glycogen… a substance deposited in bodily tissues as a store of carbohydrates. It is a polysaccharide that forms glucose on hydrolysis. Muscle test it is not that… so just consider it “code”. But it is certain that whatever it is, it is in short supply, used up by the end of the day, used up foolishly on penny-wise/dollar foolish decisions, and used not for big things that enrich your life.)) love, your working memory slots, etc. If you use it that way, you can hone in on a leak here and a leak there, and start plugging them in in earnest. Permanently.
Plugging a leak is a habit-change itself, and first it needs to be understood thoroughly, the why, the how, the trigger, the process. Unless you give it enough time, it will come back in a haste.
Until it is consolidated, it needs you to keep the new habit in your working memory… but you only have four slots in your working memory… so as long as you keep habits in working memory, you have nothing to learn with.
The new habit needs to become a “chunk” in your permanent memory, long term memory, so it frees up the working memory slot you so desperately need for learning, understanding, to enjoy life.
If you do it your way, you won’t plug in any leaks. And your history is an indication that you will do this plugging the leaks exactly the way you do everything else: with the hope that it stays that way without you giving it the time, the attention, the learning it requires.
Some of the leaks are wrong thinking, by the way. Wrong time frame, wrong system, wrong match, many things you have never even thought of.
We can safely assume that you now know less than 7% of the principles Tai talks about in his 67 steps. And if you are like most people, you’ll hear only 3-10% of what he says, and 97% of what you already know and is either irrelevant or plain wrong.
This is true for Tai too. He has read all those books, he has talked to, has listened to all those smart people. In his Starting Point Measurements, measured just now, 10% of what he reads/hears gets through to him… He is getting better.
He heard 10% of what they said and filled in the rest with what he already knew.
This is one of the reason I don’t want you to learn from Tail. I want you to learn from me, but dig deep in your life and in your attitudes to find the leaks.
If you need me to do it for you, it will take longer, and it will be very expensive. Too expensive.
Why expensive? Because speaking, for me, leaks the energy I need to do MY job, penetrating the invisible deeper and deeper.
Believe it or not, it is a very energy-requiring activity. So I take on only very few talking clients, and only clients where I get, where I can get as much back as I put into it. At least after a few months…
Everyone is an energy suck in the beginning.
My new planned ess, 67 days down the line, will need me to talk publicly a lot more. It will need me to create courses where I get no energy back from participants… so it’s an energy suck.
So I will be able to give even less time to client sessions.
A lot less. I don’t want to wear myself thin… and do none of my life’s work… what? for money? Not in a million years!
Read the original article: Growth is an epigenetic shift… The first phase is plugging the leaks