Why are all the measures in the Starting Point Measurements important?
Why would, for example, someone with more words have an advantage over someone who has fewer words?
I am going to explain it here… But judging from my core group’s response, I am warning you, it will sound Greek to you. Unless, of course, if you are Greek… lol.
Incomprehensible.
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I am sitting here this morning, playing Freecell.
Every game this morning is such that it takes no effort, no talent, no guidance.
WTF? What is the message here? If Freecell is my guidance system, and I have to extend no effort, what does that mean about me?
I am playing and I am thinking, probing, pondering.
Is it a reflection of my life? My life right now? That I am shying away from doing courageous things? Hm, that feels bad enough, so I must be on the right track! Bummer. I muscle test, and the answer is YES. Hm.
…Tree Of Knowledge, Mind, Brain, Thinking About, Thinking… Do You Know The Difference?You are wired to want to know
You are wired to avoid uncertainty, wired to want to know how it all works so you can be safe. Understandable. Makes sense… you must use the MIND to accomplish that: feel safe, believe you are safe, dream of safety, crave safety, shrink, become nearly nonexistent.
Safety is a myth. Life is not safe. Safety is not attainable.
I think it was Hippocrates who said: ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’
He didn’t know that what we call food in the 21st Century isn’t. That there are more chemicals in what we call food than in actual medicine.
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I haven’t had many people say that I confuse them, probably because to say that is confrontational, and only about 4% of you is confrontational. Not that you don’t think that, but it takes courage and individuality to utter those words, and you don’t have it in you.
What would it take to say those words, without animosity, without anger, without pointing fingers? If you could solve that conundrum for yourself, life would be a lot better, wouldn’t it?
Until the age of about 40, my biggest issue was what to do with my anger. I made up a story, based on accidental coincidences, that my anger kills… and that I am a murderer. Obviously, with that cornerstone of a belief, it was impossible for me to express my anger in a socially acceptable way, so I suppressed, and then I exploded, and I repeated that pattern for 40 years, to my detriment.
I had ulcers, nervous breakdowns, depression, insomnia… not pleasant.
So, for me to learn to be confrontational, confronted and response, confronted and be well, calm and collected, was a huge shift in my being, in the right direction.
Anyway, here is a talk transcribed from Osho, that I think you’ll enjoy.
Baby, my whole work is to confuse you!
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Alienation… not feeling yourself… rigidity
One of my students sent me her collage.
A collage is an artwork where the hidden surfaces. We think one things but what is the truth, what is underneath it come out in a well-done collage.
We all feel disconnected, isolated, not quite belonging, lacking intimacy, and we think that it is from circumstances, like COVID or the other person, or maybe even you.
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You are always, every moment, are on the verge of limbo or in limbo… so learning how to reinvent yourself to move out of limbo is a good skill to learn
But change, I teach, is not good. It is mostly fixing, and every change carries in itself the seed level of what you didn’t want, what you wanted to change.
So now what? Another way to have something more, better, or different is through reinventing yourself, reinventing your business, your job, your life… But can you do it? How do you do it?
On a ‘What’s the truth about you’ workshop, a participant introduced to me an expression that you’ll find very expressive: stuck in limbo. Limbo, from the dictionary, means: a region of the afterlife on the border of hell, neglect, oblivion, on hold… The waiting state most people are in… they are waiting for something better. Or sometimes waiting for the other shoe to drop. Either way you look at it: limbo is not a good place.
Most everyone is familiar with the feeling. You have yourself… set. You have your business… set. Your job… your life… all set, and all limited in one way or another.
So what is the limiting factor? Economy? Your education? Your skill level?
The only thing that is in common in all four, the common denominator is YOU. Who you are, your attitude…
Your attitude to yourself, to your life, to your job, to your business.
When I ask you who you are, what you’ll say will not be accurate, or will not be complete.
Are you lying? Maybe… But more likely you don’t know.
The reason they have tests to categorize you, or measure certain aspects of you, because, for the most part, you have no idea who you are, what you will do, what you are capable of.
If you ask a person how smart they think they are, research finds that the higher the overall intelligence of the person, the dumber they feel.
And the dumber they are… you can guess the rest of the sentence.
Everyone is stuck in some limbo, and they cannot see their way out.
Limbo is a certain level of achievement, a certain level of relating, a certain circle of opportunity.
And looking at it, from the outside, without knowing what is on the inside, is dumbfounding.
You expect smart people to experience less limitations, less barriers, less limbo… but they don’t. So what is going on?
Why do people have no confidence outside of the area where they have already established? Beyond doing the things they have already proven that they can do?
Can they see that they can do more stuff?
No… they can’t. They can paint a picture of themselves having, enjoying the benefits of the new doing, but the doingness part, doing what it takes: they have an issue imagining.
There is an invisible barrier, but it is as good as solid brick…
And that barrier sometimes stays solid, even after a person gets new skills, gets new capacities…
I remember an instance that stands out in my history.
It happened 40 years ago. I worked as a structural
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In the 67 steps there is a method to make decisions using a calculator.
Nine out of ten students skip it, the one that does it does it shabbily. Students won’t do it or won’t do it right even after I send them back to do it.
Why? Because the method uses questions that you don’t want to ask. Why? Because they upset the apple cart.
I read a book, years ago, by a therapist, for people who can’t make a decision to leave or to leave… The one question that no one asked before was: when it was the best: was it really good?
I was in a relationship when I first read that book, so I asked the question and looked. And then looked at every relationship I had ever had. I found that even when it was the best, it wasn’t really good… for me. As hard as it was to accept that, I decided that I am not going to live on crumbs any more… I am happiest alone, married to my life-purpose… I left and I have been a lot happier ever since.
A new question is a change in perspective…
We are all entrepreneurs, potentially.
The principle is: an entrepreneur is someone who remakes the world in the image of themselves.
There are a few problems we’ll have with this principle:
The main problem is that we have no idea who we are, how we are, what we really like, what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses.
We keep ourselves so busy with irrelevant stuff, that we never have a chance to see how we are when things are relevant.
Back in 1988, I started a magazine. I was one person. Sold ads, designed the ads, wrote the articles, distributed the magazines to stores that gave them away for free.
I made enough money the first month to live on, and did that for quite a few months… but…
Be Better at Life by Thinking of Yourself Less
The power of self-transcendence. In a paradoxical twist, research suggests that the less we think about ourselves, the better we become. Self-transcendence not only allows us to overcome our greatest fears and break through our limits, but it also improves our performance in less heroic, everyday activities.
The measure inside the Starting Point Measurements, the measure that asks to what percent you think of yourself is confusing to most people.
They think that the higher the number is the more selfish they are. Selfish… bad.
They think that they selfishly think of themselves instead of others.
But… here there is a big but, that you won’t like. Why? Because it is counter-cultural. Culture says that you should think about others. You should live for others. You should sacrifice yourself for others… Doesn’t it say that?
But if you think of others: your number will still be high…
