What if you have something blocking you from growing? The Seven Boulders principle

BoulderSome ten years ago I learned a valuable way of looking at making life meaningful, or living a meaningful life. The teacher suggested that we pick a horizon, a direction, and then look what’s blocking the way of getting there.

Since then I saw that even seeing the horizon is blocked… Blocked by seven boulders, lined up one behind the other, blocking your view, blocking your movement.

So, in my coaching practice, when I ask people to set a direction, and they can’t see any, I am inclined to suggest that they choose the direction: living a meaningful live, or a fulfilled life… without specifying what it is.

Knowledge, Strategy, Execution, is that enough for success?

michael-jordan-mental-representationI lead a workshop on Sunday. I had knowledge, I had strategy. I executed it. It was sloppy. What was missing?

I didn’t know. But “god” works in mysterious ways, the book I am reading has an answer that shows me what has been missing for me on Sunday and all my life.

The book, Peak, the new science of expertise, calls it Mental Representation.

Mental Representation is being able to see the finished product in your mind’s eye, and also see the process getting there, so you can anticipate missteps, and can correct, given that you

The capacity of seeing patterns…the threshold capacity

alberteinstein118979I am reading a book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. I am reading it because I want to be able to teach my students better, so they can leave behind the level of ordinary school learning, the pedestrian learning that always produces pedestrian result.

Amateurish performance, amateurish life. ((Your level of fulfillment is exponentially correlated to the amount of effort you invested. Easy: no fulfillment. Hard, lots of effort, hardship: lots of fulfillment.))

Can you tell what size is your cone of vision? Look to what degree your live is fragmented…

pie7areas-splitYour vibration, your creativity, your truth value all depends on your cone of vision… But until you see that you have a narrow cone of vision, that you look at things with narrow cone of vision, or a narrow filter, you won’t want to make it wider.

Wide cone of vision means inclusive… narrow cone of vision is exclusive… exclusive of areas that you KNOW don’t matter, don’t belong, or you don’t like them. Exclusive because you KNOW the answer…

The most exciting insights first show up in the corner of your eyes… Which means they are literally outside of your cone of vision.

One way I see this is how attac

If you want the good life, you’ll need to “do” life differently

red-rock-coulee-c2a9-2012-christopher-martin-2406If you want the good life, you’ll need to learn some stuff, and unlearn some stuff… but most importantly you’ll have to learn how to and how not to… Remember the how? How you do anything is how you do everything… it is the approach, the attitude, the beingness.

There are a great many ways you can remain unaccomplished, and left behind in life.

Almost as many ways as many people. This is the Anna Karenina Principle.

As with everything, the strait and narrow work

Making choices: are you a rank amateur?

Risk-Management-2This may be the most important article you read this year, this decade… because this article may inspire you to become a professional at living, instead of remaining a rank amateur… aka bumbling idiot.

Risk Management

You have two options. You need to choose. You need to choose the option that has the lower cost to your reproductive success if it turns out to be wrong.

Now, I suspect, that almost none of us think about cost in terms of reproductive success, but according to evolutionary psychology, you are a mere vehicle to your genes, your genes are only inte

It’s hard to be silently brilliant. Lots of thoughts occur when you open your mouth.

eb3bf6d2bcf2ecaf1ee944306d115dd2Some days I have nothing to say. It doesn’t feel like there is anything to say that needs to be said.

Some people never have anything to say and they talk all the time. Others think that they have to first formulate it in their heads to say it, and it never comes together.

Professional thinkers, writers know that “it is hard to be silently brilliant. Lots of thoughts occur wen you open your mouth.”

Thinking is a lot like digging for gold. Someone or something has to hold the dirt, or you can’t get beneath it.

For something worth thinking, something worth saying

Why is awareness the predictor of future success, why not skills or knowledge?

shearling-coat-2The first few steps in the 67 steps are long, rich, convoluted audios. Why? Because no matter how long the audio, you’ll only get one little thing, if that, because the cone of vision of your awareness is as wide as a pencil.

Did I notice, did I take in all he spoke about my first time around doing the 67 steps? No. I didn’t.

It is like traveling in a car. If you look out the window, you miss the conversation in the car. If you take part in the conversation in the car, you miss the whole trip. If you read, if you are hungry…

The goal is to expand the cone of awareness s

What is the bane of your existence? What kills your life? Your joy, your fulfillment, the love in your heart?

life-is-either-a-daring-adventure-or-nothing-5Everyday arrogance.

What is everyday arrogance? It is simple, and so everywhere, all the time, that it is invisible.

You see something. You hear something. And you know what it means.

That meaning that you know, and you know that you know it is everyday arrogance.

The fact that you know what is your job, how people are, what was the question, where you need to look, what is missing: without looking, is everyday arrogance. Already knowing…

Jumping to conclusions…

Growth is like a spiral… only when you have made a full circle… that you see it

taking-a-showerThe 67 steps spiral… second take… I am at step two… and can see the territory I have covered.

There are a few incredibly useful distinctions in the 67 step program.

Of course, if you listen to the audios through the filter: true/false, right/wrong, agree/don’t agree, you’ll miss them all.

And it’s a pity.

How do I listen? I have said it before: I listen in theta mode… i.e. as if I were taking a shower. I get wet.

I don’t pick and choose which water droplet is right or wrong, true or false, and I don’t evaluate everyth