I started to read the book by Edward Deci, “Why we do what we do. Understanding self-motivation”.
This is the first book, that I know, that defines self the way, or similarly the way I do…
To become a person, to have autonomy, self-determination, self-expression, integrity, self-motivation, the most important job is to find the self, by distinguishing what is the driver of all your actions, whether it is inner or outer.
And if it is inner… is it the self, or is it the “not-self”?
Greed, narcissism, hate… area inner motivators, but they are all the not-self. So are all the “negative” emotions, like frustration, haste, the desir
I almost snubbed this link a reader sent me… She is quite talkative, so I thought it was b.s… but integrity didn’t allow me to skip it.
And I watched it, and wept, and laughed, and felt that those of you who read my articles, and especially those of you who have been working with me one-on-one, in my Reclaim program, should recognize at least three parts where he said it better than I ever could…
So here is your challenge: Watch the video. It is arguably one of the best commencement addresses… and because it has elements of attitude and beingness that actually work…
OK, here is the youtube video… don’t just watch it. Find the parts with the teaching… It will make a difference for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI
The way to comment is to say the distinction/principle he mentions.
If you catch all three, I have a big gift for you. If you catch one… I still have a gift for you.
As I have mentioned, I have signed up to an expensive course that teaches a marketing method to pick the right people that are a good match for what I am attempting to do: take a group of people to the level of human being, the next evolutionary level for the species.
Signing up opened a can of worms.
Several daily emails, and a slew of offers, all beyond my need, all beyond my budget.
Today, a week into this campaign, the fifteenth video, the offer is 20 thousand dollars… and I am ready to throw in the towel.
It is like being in a restaurant,
…asking for a bowl of soup… That is what I wanted, that is what I can afford.
During the summer of 1966 I ran into a girl I knew from elementary school. Turns out she applied and was accepted to the same school I was going to start in that September.
We were having a chat. I remember thinking to myself: Compared to her I know everything… why am I going to school?
We both graduated. I am sure she still thinks she knows everything. My experience is that I know less and less as time goes by.
Whether you can identify with my 19 year old person, or my 69 year old person, and to what degree will be important, so jot it down.
To my surprise, people have no idea that their worth a damn factor has been neglected since they were little babies.
They get “encouragement” to not know that there is such a thing… and then they grow up to be seriously not worth a damn, and they suffer.
How does it work?
If you are consistently praised for being a good girl, a pretty girl, a smart girl… you’ll think that that is what there is to it. That is your ticket to the good life, to paradise.
I have a student whose company moves earth. That is their business. Parking lots, roads, leveling the ground.
Unless you have a clear picture, a clear and accurate mental representation of what a job entails, you can’t bid successfully on it: you may lose your shirt if your mental representation was off. ((The doctor’s mental representation of the state of my injured ear was neither clear nor accurate, and therefore his suggestions to me were way off the mark. This was the topic of my article yesterday…))
The most popular image I have on Instagram says: Arrogance is weakness disguised as strength.
Now, why this is worth writing about?
Because it is the tip of the iceberg of something really important.
We have spoken about the selfish gene. For the gene you are a survival vehicle only. And a person, who is not related to you, is competition, rival… and in your gene’s way to make more copies of itself.
I know this is unfamiliar territory, but please bear with me, because where it is taking us is worth going to… so patience… you don