Actualized Knowledge: The “ing” of inging
Have you ever come across someone that had everything going for them?
You know, someone who has everything it takes:
All the natural talents, skills and abilities to make a super success of life? They’re capable of running circles around 99% of everyone else?
And YET…
…Yet something is missing because their results are flat?
You know the type of person I’m describing, do you not? Maybe it leaves you scratching your head because you can’t figure out what’s stopping them (they’re probably puzzled too, for that matter), right?
They should be sitting on top of the world, but they never seem to get it together. Ever.
What do you think stops them from accessing their power?
Is it their ambition lacking? I don’t believe that’s the issue… do you? Because I bet they are full of ambition (in fact, it might be keeping them stuck because the bigger the ambition we have without fulfillment leads to frustration, anger, and procrastination).
After all, what does ambition mean? It’s when you have an eager yearning for something more than you have in your current experience, isn’t it?
See if you can tell me one person you know who that doesn’t describe.
I don’t know one person who doesn’t want more than what they have right now (they might not admit it to you or even themselves, but we all want more).
Why is it that less than 2% of the American population has a six-figure income? How come?
Have you ever bought a millionaire lunch so you could pick her brain? If not, you should. I did that before I had my big breakthrough and I can tell you it changed me in profound ways.
Not because he let me in on some big secret that the world conspired to keep from me. Nope.
In fact, exactly the opposite.
See, if you hang out and talk to enough successful people you’ll discover the difference between breakthrough power and those who just can’t seem to get their shit together is surprisingly tiny.
I’m sure you’ve heard a version of this cliché, _successful people do what the failures won’t, _right? It’s not that winners necessarily LIKE to do those things either but “somehow” they can discipline themselves to do it anyway.
So is discipline the answer?
Getting warmer – maybe even hot – altho still not quite all the way there. Maybe if we talk about the opposite it’ll bring things home for you.
What’s the opposite of discipline? Here’s my list of antonyms:
- Fear
- Indifference, and
- Inactivity
They’re all momentum killers (and offshoots of the same exact thing). Blocks to gathering gravity which destroys dreams (or keeps a dream from ever hatching). When you experience any of them, anything you attempt is thwarted at every turn because it’s half-hearted.
Not only that, talent can’t make up for fear, indifference, or inactivity.
Neither will anything else because without consistent action you won’t see results… and, especially if what you’re attempting to achieve is something you’ve successfully done before.
Common sense right?
If you don’t take action – even with all those things in your favor – you ain’t got nuttin. Oops! I let the cat is out of the bag, didn’t I?
Did you catch it? You did? Knew you would 😉
Yes, the missing ingredient is initiative. Not initiative that runs hot and cold, tho. Because super intense bursts of initiative often compounds problems because it breeds self sabotage (and it’s not long before old habitual and unconscious patterns of procrastination take over again).
It takes consistent action. Consistent initiative.
“Oh, Look A Kitty!”
(and other bright shiny
object distractions)
Many talk a big game. Some even believe it themselves. They want to take the world on. And some do it right away. Others —unfortunately, the majority— have many of (if not all) the raw ingredients necessary to set the world on fire, but the only thing that gets burnt is them.
And what happens if they make a big push but don’t get the results they hoped? Reality hits. “Hey this ain’t gonna be as easy as I thought it was going to be.” So they give up after trying for a week or two…
…Then the next quick fix comes along that promises an easy button hack. Because, after all, it is a relief to feel hope over defeat, yes? Is it any wonder we are magnetized to the next bright shiny object?
This is where good old-fashioned grit comes in. To summon the guts to say:
“Shoot that didn’t work. There’s got to be another way. No way will I let that stop me from reaching my dreams.”
You choose success, know it comes at a price, and are willing to pay it. You take full responsibility for your results (yes, the unwanted outcomes too).
Even though it may be uncomfortable to do some of the things necessary to make it through your learning curve on the road to living your vision, you take the initiative and do it anyway. You do the things you fear and eventually master them instead of them controlling you.
Every day… week in and week out… we take action and refine, improve, and tweak our approaches based on results until we get to that bigger compelling future.
Keep going until.
Until the new habit of consistent initiative is firmly rooted. Until we make mastery over the new reality our new normal.
(And when that vision is realized, we grow even bigger. Focus our pack on an even bigger, more powerful future. Constant and never-ending expansion is the natural order of the Universe.)
Normally, all my reading centers around sales, business, spirituality, marketing, copywriting, and personal-development subjects. Practical, non-fiction ‘mind-feed’ type stuff that helps me become more accomplished. You follow?
Which is why it’s really odd that I decided to buy a novel by Richard Armstrong called “God Doesn’t Shoot Craps” because I’m not a gambler and didn’t read much read fiction.
Yet, I bought it anyway because I listened to that little voice inside me that urged me to do it (and I’ve learned the hard way to never ignore my gut). So, I justified it as a good weekend diversion, and dug in.
Boy, am I glad I did because not only did it suck me in (I found myself half-way through it in a few hours), but it really got me thinking deeply on profound subjects. When I got to page 158, I read a few paragraphs that struck a cord so deep with me that I retyped it and kept it in my office for years.
It fits perfectly here. Check it out:
“We live in a society nowadays where very little emphasis is placed on the concept of mastery. People want to get rich quick. Lose weight fast. Learn how to play golf overnight. And there is never any shortage of books, systems, programs, formulas, and self-help courses designed to help you do just that.
“But it can’t be done. The road to mastery, mastery of anything from playing chess to flying an airplane, is a long and arduous one. It is a road with many hills and valleys. Many twists and turns. Perhaps most frustrating of all, it is a road with many plateaus – long stretches of featureless terrain where it seems like you’re going nowhere fast.
“The road to mastery is littered with many people who have simply given up because the journey was too long, too difficult, too unrewarding. But the master stays on that road. Not because he is focused on getting to his destination, but because he finds satisfaction and fulfillment in the road itself. He likes the hills and the valleys. He enjoys the hard work that is sometimes required of him, and he learns from the many disappointments he suffers along the way. Most of all, he likes those long, empty stretches when he doesn’t seem to be making any progress. Why? Because they are peaceful.
“The master understands that he may never become the best chess player in the world or the best golfer in the world. And it bothers him not in the least. Because the joy of mastery is not in the attainment of your goal, but in the pursuit of it…”
Do you see the power that type of come-from gives you?
When you decide to embrace the “ing” (as in do-ing), you start forward momentum from wherever you’re stuck.
It changes your relationship with “failure” because you can only fail if you stop the tick-tack pursuit of your mission. It gives you the confidence to discover (or create) the path.
Initiating means not waiting for permission. It means you don’t need excuses because you’re tuned into your power. It means it’s no longer a question of “if” you can realize that bigger future because you ARE the second you decide to live from your vision.
Hey, take this little initiative power quiz:
Who will gather more gravity and get what they want faster: Someone who works 60-70 hours a week for a couple weeks… or someone who puts a solid 2 hours a day of solid focus time, consistently every day until they get where they’re going?
Smart money says the sharp person with disciplined initiative will achieve excellence in whatever they do.
The person who slams out the 60 hours immediately while still working full time tends to burn out fast (plus, it’s a clear sign their come-from is one of desperation because that mindset indicates the need to find a magic pill to instantly fix things).
You’ve got to remember the biggest obstacle to success is your unconscious habitual belief patterns. That’s why, in the beginning it’ll probably feel rather odd (and definitely different) because living this way is a brand new experience. It takes getting use to.
Any time you replace an unconscious habit with a conscious one, at first it can drain your energy because you’ve haven’t focused your attention so sharply, in this unknown area ever before.
It does get easier and easier.
However, until you consciously gather enough gravity to overcome the inertia of unconsciousness pulling you back towards the familiar, it takes consistent effort for a period of time long enough for your new intention to take root.
You gotta prime your pump before it’ll flow whenever you need it to. And, it’s the priming that takes the most time and energy and it’s also when your greatest progress is made.
It’s also a fragile danger zone.
That’s because you don’t see anything flowing for our efforts until the pump is primed, it’s also the hardest. Those old circumstance-focused pumps are already primed and spewing like a MoFo! And if fear takes root, and you loose sight of your vision, the current situation will capture your focus again.
Why?
Because whatever is the now reality you are living in this moment always has the strongest gravity field. That’s how it manifests in your experience. It’s the reason why it is (i.e., your present reality).
Which is why you deserve this fair warning: If you’re one of those people who has to have results before you think you can start priming the pump… if you need the materialization to believe it’s working…
…you’ll most assuredly quit long before you can reap any rewards from all your hard priming work.
Priming takes consistency.
Stop your inging for too long and you throw away all the effort you’ve put in and find yourself starting gathering gravity process all over again, from scratch, at ground zero. Plus, it’s also a signal to your old unconscious habits to grow stronger. It’ll use your current lack of results as “evidence” you’re not making enough progress, fast enough.
Besides, over 90% of the breakthrough happens mentally. Before there’s even trace-evidence of it you can see in the physical world.
True dat.