On my call with Paulo, my podcast partner for my Sunday call, I shared that I’d spent four hours in bed the night before. Sleepless. But in the end I did my breathing I learned some 40 years ago, and I fell promptly asleep.

As I was sharing I saw that it is obviously a racket I have, being an insomniac. All designed to gather sympathy… ugh. So I shared that insight too.

This was on Monday. It’s Wednesday now, and I fell asleep both nights in between within minutes of turning the light off. I just did my breathing exercise and that is that.

I didn’t beat myself up. Didn’t ‘shame’ myself, I didn’t brag about it. Instead I saw it, deeply, and acknowledged that I had power against insomnia that I wasn’t using. And that it was probably a racket.

And with that I turned back the power.

I call that public authenticity.

Now let’s contrast it with the things some of my students do, habitually.
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There is a misunderstanding of how things work that clips a lot of people’s wings.

It comes from the ‘goalsetting culture’ that has proven itself a misery-maker. Being motivated with what you want…

You commit to a result.

But results are outside of your power. They will either happen if you do the right steps or they won’t.

Life is a lot more complicated than boiling water. You can promise that water will boil if you manage to give it enough heat that it reaches its boiling point. But if your promises are in that sphere of predictable, then you are not going to amount to much: you probably live a life of quiet desperation.

Anything you pursue is running from you.

The reason that of all the people on Earth the people of the United States are the most wretched is because of their pursuit of happiness.
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The most common human experience is powerlessness… Powerless in the face of outside and inside forces…

Humans are a weird animal. They consider themselves smart… but smart people don’t act like victims. They are proud of their big brains… but don’t use it.

The dividing line between being a lower species and a higher species is the ability to take responsibility for one’s actions, for one’s life.

But responsibility is an inner dialog…using that big brain to actually get some clarity about what that lower species self is doing, has done, is planning, so one can take over and drive that life of yours.
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