What is the strongest indicator of the quality of your life?

I measure 30 things about a person when they ask for their Starting Point Measurements.

They are all very relevant, but when it comes to the quality of your life, to your life satisfaction, your experience of your life... one could almost say, the level of your happiness depends on one thing.

The level of your happiness depends on one thing

The culture claims that to be happy, you have to have possession, you have to have success, you have to have comfort, safety, fulfillment, companionship, whatever, and, to some degree it may matter but not as much as the number, the measure, just one number told me why 99.99% of the people I have ever measured had a low life satisfaction, even though some had money, success, love even talent... seemingly everything you"d ever wanted.

There is a guy (Steve Siebold) whose entire business is to teach people how to have that number higher. He calls that phenomenon mental toughness.

The weird thing is: his TLB is high with 10. My TLB is 70...

I don"t know how to teach you to raise that number...

What is the meaning of TLB?

https://youtu.be/fc2zO0tJ50c

this little girl"s TLB, is 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwl0WksAiq8

this second little girl"s tlb is 1

What is the difference? the first girl, even though she perceives the seeming danger, stays put... the second runs away, returns, the fear is running her behavior. The beginnings of a future drama queen... I bet she fancies herself courageous...

To the degree that you can handle life, the ups and the downs, the unfulfilled expectations, the thwarted intentions, the "rejections", the restrictions, being told what to do,  the successes, the challenges, the hardships, the failures, the slights, the hurts, the pain, the obstacles, hunger, boredom, tediousness, worry, your own fear, your own bad habits... to the degree that you can handle it to the same degree you handle life.

The guy I am talking about teaches mental toughness... that is his expertise.

I don"t know how he teaches it, I just know the "slogans" he sends... I get them in my email. They are OK, but I don"t think they can ever change anything.

I train you through doing... facing what is not pleasant. But for you to be able to do it, you need to clean up your past. Your emotional short-circuits... misunderstandings, your drama-queen nature.

In my Playground program you have a year for you to learn to handle anything that life can throw at you.

You are starting at having no toughness. And your children will have even less. [note]You going to bat to "save" your child is a disfavor, a disservice to them. The mother who tries to protect the child from his father"s cruelty, the father who tries to protect the child from bullies, the parent who consoles the child, babies the child, who doesn"t let the child to toughen up is committing a selfish act that is against the child"s real interest... to be able to handle what life throws at him.
.
Instead you need to be like a coach: encourage them to rise above the abuse, the injustice, the misfortune... above all.
.
Of course, if you are a sissy yourself, you have no credibility with your child.
.
Also if you are intolerant with your child, you teach them that intolerance is a good thing... ugh.[/note]

The ability to allow what is, what we call reality to be... without the urge to fix it, change it, fight it, or lie about it.

TLB is a moment to moment ability.

Anything and everything you can"t deal with, can"t be with, cannot be neutral about is something that is, until you learn to deal with it, will be like the bad weather... that always rains on your parade.

Your parade is what you have planned your life to be. Smooth sailing into the sunset, full of love, comfort, riches, success, validation... whatnot... where people always keep their word to you, where you only learn about other people"s failures, but you don"t know how it feels. Where you win, and win and win, everything, all the time. People are there only to make you look good... in fact better than them.

So, you can see, that everything and everyone will always rain on your parade, because your unrealistic expectations are in the way.

Life is the way life is.

I have spoken about going, bodily, down the rapids... a river, a lot of water, noisily going down the mountain. That is life. It is not smooth sailing, it is full of rocks, and turns, and opportunities to let the water take you.

The water"s nature is to go around the rocks... but your nature is controlling... and what controlling does to you is resisting being taken wherever the water goes... resisting will as surely slam you into the rocks, as anything you can be sure of.

There is the fantasy: your parade... and then there is reality... the fast running rapid with the rocks.

As long as, and to the degree as you resist going with the flow, you get bloodied... and that is how life works in reality. Fantasy is nice... but don"t mistake it with reality, don"t even mistake it with what is possible... it is not.

• In reality people only care about themselves, and so do you.


• In reality people want to dominate... and so do you


• In reality people are forceful, violent, selfish, judgmental, cowardly, unjust, and so are you.


• They will want to win every argument. They will want to have you do their bidding, feel bad about yourself, and so do you.

Anything that you allow to be will allow you to be. Everything you resist persists.

In the rapid, if you can allow the water to take you, not like a victim, but as a graceful dancer who allows the music, their partner to lead, have enormous power with very little effort.

And resisting the water, resisting the speed, resisting the direction... by lying, by sideways moves, by avoiding domination, by trying to win... will surely slam you into boulders.

The most resistant soul correction is the Silent Partner. They have moves to avoid domination every moment of every day. They are the losers of Life... never in it.

Every Silent Partner I have ever attempted to teach, resisted it. They had talent that they never took to mastery. They argued, they resisted, they hated, they were stingy.

In my writeup I talk about a power they refuse to avail themselves to. The power of the soul... the triangle that can start moving when embraced with ego... The Silent Partner refuses to move.

I have been using my interactions with Silent Partner people to increase my own TLB, to make myself not resist them, not force them, allow them to be how they are, who they are, not having the opinion and attitude that what they do, who they are being is wrong. It"s OK if I don"t like it... that is being responsible for my opinion and attitude. Saying they are wrong is putting the onus, the responsibility for my happiness on them.

Allowing something that you see as wrong is the hardest thing a human is asked to do. I am right there with you. Unless you can own that YOU say that it"s wrong, and you saying doesn"t make IT wrong, you are stuck with it. Until you own what you can own... that you said that.

It is not a simple feat... it has stages, elements, parts, effects, ripples that unless you can allow them one by one, you will not succeed.

I am sitting here feeling grief, and it is like a huge boulder sitting on my chest. Obviously I am not allowing it, because it"s been sitting there for about an hour now... It is hard to breathe deeply, the boulder is heavy... feels like it will crush me if I don"t resist it.

All the voodoo meditators, new agers, massage therapists teach you about releasing the tension don"t apply here... you cannot breathe you out of resistance... you cannot do it through relaxing the muscles.

It has to be on the cognitive level, the seeing level.

So how could I see something other than what i see, that it"s wrong, it is sad, it shouldn"t be that all my efforts fail with these Silent Partner people?

Hm, just saying this made the boulder lighter... What did I say? I said what is actually happening in reality: I effort, and the efforts produce nothing... i.e. fail to produce. Good, it seems that looking at reality, what is actually happening, makes the boulder less heavy...

Let"s go a little bit deeper: all I have been doing, all my efforts thus far, failed to produce the result I intended.

I am like Sisyphus: I am doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result... hm. I am right in what I want... and the darn Silent Partner people are wrong, wrong, wrong... lol. I am smiling now... not laughing yet, but getting there.

They have the audacity to do what they want to do... and enjoy watching me sweat bullets... and they are winning. I wanted to win for them... ok, that is probably a lie... I wanted to win.

The boulder is now replaced with a very recognizable ego-pain in the chest bone... hah... so it has been, maybe, a battle of egos?

From the disappearance of any pain in my chest, I think I got it. It is not funny, but I can be with it... I can take ownership of my ego-behavior... forcing them so I can win.

Not pretty. Not what I"d really want... is it? A little more grief... now this is with myself. Droopy face... trying to get the soul"s sympathy... getting some nice-nice... as the two wolves embrace. Weeping a little.

Big sigh... blowing out the breath like a horse...

Is it gone? For now, for sure...

Can you do it? I have no idea!
Was this instructional? I have no idea!

We shall see... lol.

Let me measure my TLB after this "work" I did with myself. It is 75... I just earned 5 points... with a few minutes of expert work.

Ultimately this is the work I ask you to do in the Playground. Going to see what in reality you cannot be with, refuse to be with, refuse to not call wrong.

I designed the Playground to take you through situations that, like the rapid river, slam you into boulders. Upsets.

One of the most important tools is the 20-day learning challenge... it is part of the Playground.

If you are not participating in the challenge: you know you are not doing the work, so you can stop expecting ANY results in the Playground.

The other important tool is the Partner Calls... If you are not willing to see the movie of the incident, from the side, with every detail, until you see that in reality there is nothing wrong, if you don"t call a spade a spade, if you don"t see the forest for the trees, your behavior, your attitude, other people"s behavior, then you won"t get the results of the Playground.

The Playground is at least one year long. Because it takes a lot of looking before you can see... and see clearly, distinctly, accurately, and with courage.

I am re-writing the script of the "looking"... hoping that it will make you, that it will force you to see what you are lying about.

The Playground is now open for new participants

And I am ready to take on some new participants... So if you think you are willing to put your big toe into the water, you can.


Get your Starting Point MeasurementsThe Playground is broken up to six modules, so you don"t have to commit to the whole thing... neither the time, nor the money.

You do have access to the recordings of previous and ongoing Playgrounds.

You pay for the two live sessions, the personal feedback, the privilege to email me questions, the partner calls and the learning challenges you undertake.

And just like Chinese water torture, you"ll either allow the course to make a difference, or you won"t...

Chinese Water Torture?

People call it torture, because unless you allow it it feels like torture.

Is it the dripping water that is torture? No, it is your resistance to it.

If you can allow the dripping water, it cleanses you, it gives you a sense of time, it puts you in a meditative state: beautiful.

I have been using a sound device for health reasons. It is loud, and it works whether I use it day and night... but it works best if I use it around the clock.

Depending on my attitude, it is obnoxious, irritating, a pain... like Chinese torture... and it hurts in my belly and around my waist. I feel my resistance as I am trying on the attitude of resistance.

In the beginning I was contemplating using ear plugs so I can sleep. But little by little, I allowed the sound to just be... it had nothing to do with me.

Even today, when I need to connect deeply to Source because I am doing a Starting Point Measurements muscle testing, I need to consciously allow the sound so I can connect. If and when I resist anything, I cannot connect.

I am getting really good at not resisting.

I am sleeping better with it than without it... fall asleep faster... not resisting is a lot like resisting: when you resist something you have to suppress everything... when you let go, you let go of all resistance.

I am starting to see results everywhere. I have more fun, I have more joy, I am more able to keep my diet rules I made to keep myself well and in top form. I am walking more. There is an overall improvement in my life... the sound device has been training me.

Chinese water torture... that is my selling point... I wonder how many people groan when they hear that... lol.

Most of humanity is on level 1% with regards to their TLB. TLB measures to what degree you are able to be with what is, to what degree you deal with what life throws at you.

Chinese water torture breaks the people who cannot deal with adversity, pain, the ugly... it wouldn"t break me... like it wouldn"t break Wesley in the movie Princess Bride...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFo6iLDNzX0

Hey, unless your TLB goes higher, you"ll remain comfortable, and miserable. It"s OK with me. Is it OK with you?

In the Playground you can toughen up, so you can start living a life with more fun, more meaning, more results...


Get your Starting Point Measurements

What is the strongest indicator of the quality of your life?

I measure 30 things about a person when they ask for their Starting Point Measurements.

They are all very relevant, but when it comes to the quality of your life, to your life satisfaction, your experience of your life... one could almost say, the level of your happiness depends on one thing.

The level of your happiness depends on one thing

The culture claims that to be happy, you have to have possession, you have to have success, you have to have comfort, safety, fulfillment, companionship, whatever, and, to some degree it may matter but not as much as the number, the measure, just one number told me why 99.99% of the people I have ever measured had a low life satisfaction, even though some had money, success, love even talent... seemingly everything you"d ever wanted.

There is a guy (Steve Siebold) whose entire business is to teach people how to have that number higher. He calls that phenomenon mental toughness.

The weird thing is: his TLB is high with 10. My TLB is 70...

I don"t know how to teach you to raise that number...

What is the meaning of TLB?

https://youtu.be/fc2zO0tJ50c

this little girl"s TLB, is 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwl0WksAiq8

this second little girl"s tlb is 1

What is the difference? the first girl, even though she perceives the seeming danger, stays put... the second runs away, returns, the fear is running her behavior. The beginnings of a future drama queen... I bet she fancies herself courageous...

To the degree that you can handle life, the ups and the downs, the unfulfilled expectations, the thwarted intentions, the "rejections", the restrictions, being told what to do,  the successes, the challenges, the hardships, the failures, the slights, the hurts, the pain, the obstacles, hunger, boredom, tediousness, worry, your own fear, your own bad habits... to the degree that you can handle it to the same degree you handle life.

The guy I am talking about teaches mental toughness... that is his expertise.

I don"t know how he teaches it, I just know the "slogans" he sends... I get them in my email. They are OK, but I don"t think they can ever change anything.

I train you through doing... facing what is not pleasant. But for you to be able to do it, you need to clean up your past. Your emotional short-circuits... misunderstandings, your drama-queen nature.

In my Playground program you have a year for you to learn to handle anything that life can throw at you.

You are starting at having no toughness. And your children will have even less. [note]You going to bat to "save" your child is a disfavor, a disservice to them. The mother who tries to protect the child from his father"s cruelty, the father who tries to protect the child from bullies, the parent who consoles the child, babies the child, who doesn"t let the child to toughen up is committing a selfish act that is against the child"s real interest... to be able to handle what life throws at him.
.
Instead you need to be like a coach: encourage them to rise above the abuse, the injustice, the misfortune... above all.
.
Of course, if you are a sissy yourself, you have no credibility with your child.
.
Also if you are intolerant with your child, you teach them that intolerance is a good thing... ugh.[/note]

The ability to allow what is, what we call reality to be... without the urge to fix it, change it, fight it, or lie about it.

TLB is a moment to moment ability.

Anything and everything you can"t deal with, can"t be with, cannot be neutral about is something that is, until you learn to deal with it, will be like the bad weather... that always rains on your parade.

Your parade is what you have planned your life to be. Smooth sailing into the sunset, full of love, comfort, riches, success, validation... whatnot... where people always keep their word to you, where you only learn about other people"s failures, but you don"t know how it feels. Where you win, and win and win, everything, all the time. People are there only to make you look good... in fact better than them.

So, you can see, that everything and everyone will always rain on your parade, because your unrealistic expectations are in the way.

Life is the way life is.

I have spoken about going, bodily, down the rapids... a river, a lot of water, noisily going down the mountain. That is life. It is not smooth sailing, it is full of rocks, and turns, and opportunities to let the water take you.

The water"s nature is to go around the rocks... but your nature is controlling... and what controlling does to you is resisting being taken wherever the water goes... resisting will as surely slam you into the rocks, as anything you can be sure of.

There is the fantasy: your parade... and then there is reality... the fast running rapid with the rocks.

As long as, and to the degree as you resist going with the flow, you get bloodied... and that is how life works in reality. Fantasy is nice... but don"t mistake it with reality, don"t even mistake it with what is possible... it is not.

• In reality people only care about themselves, and so do you.


• In reality people want to dominate... and so do you


• In reality people are forceful, violent, selfish, judgmental, cowardly, unjust, and so are you.


• They will want to win every argument. They will want to have you do their bidding, feel bad about yourself, and so do you.

Anything that you allow to be will allow you to be. Everything you resist persists.

In the rapid, if you can allow the water to take you, not like a victim, but as a graceful dancer who allows the music, their partner to lead, have enormous power with very little effort.

And resisting the water, resisting the speed, resisting the direction... by lying, by sideways moves, by avoiding domination, by trying to win... will surely slam you into boulders.

The most resistant soul correction is the Silent Partner. They have moves to avoid domination every moment of every day. They are the losers of Life... never in it.

Every Silent Partner I have ever attempted to teach, resisted it. They had talent that they never took to mastery. They argued, they resisted, they hated, they were stingy.

In my writeup I talk about a power they refuse to avail themselves to. The power of the soul... the triangle that can start moving when embraced with ego... The Silent Partner refuses to move.

I have been using my interactions with Silent Partner people to increase my own TLB, to make myself not resist them, not force them, allow them to be how they are, who they are, not having the opinion and attitude that what they do, who they are being is wrong. It"s OK if I don"t like it... that is being responsible for my opinion and attitude. Saying they are wrong is putting the onus, the responsibility for my happiness on them.

Allowing something that you see as wrong is the hardest thing a human is asked to do. I am right there with you. Unless you can own that YOU say that it"s wrong, and you saying doesn"t make IT wrong, you are stuck with it. Until you own what you can own... that you said that.

It is not a simple feat... it has stages, elements, parts, effects, ripples that unless you can allow them one by one, you will not succeed.

I am sitting here feeling grief, and it is like a huge boulder sitting on my chest. Obviously I am not allowing it, because it"s been sitting there for about an hour now... It is hard to breathe deeply, the boulder is heavy... feels like it will crush me if I don"t resist it.

All the voodoo meditators, new agers, massage therapists teach you about releasing the tension don"t apply here... you cannot breathe you out of resistance... you cannot do it through relaxing the muscles.

It has to be on the cognitive level, the seeing level.

So how could I see something other than what i see, that it"s wrong, it is sad, it shouldn"t be that all my efforts fail with these Silent Partner people?

Hm, just saying this made the boulder lighter... What did I say? I said what is actually happening in reality: I effort, and the efforts produce nothing... i.e. fail to produce. Good, it seems that looking at reality, what is actually happening, makes the boulder less heavy...

Let"s go a little bit deeper: all I have been doing, all my efforts thus far, failed to produce the result I intended.

I am like Sisyphus: I am doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result... hm. I am right in what I want... and the darn Silent Partner people are wrong, wrong, wrong... lol. I am smiling now... not laughing yet, but getting there.

They have the audacity to do what they want to do... and enjoy watching me sweat bullets... and they are winning. I wanted to win for them... ok, that is probably a lie... I wanted to win.

The boulder is now replaced with a very recognizable ego-pain in the chest bone... hah... so it has been, maybe, a battle of egos?

From the disappearance of any pain in my chest, I think I got it. It is not funny, but I can be with it... I can take ownership of my ego-behavior... forcing them so I can win.

Not pretty. Not what I"d really want... is it? A little more grief... now this is with myself. Droopy face... trying to get the soul"s sympathy... getting some nice-nice... as the two wolves embrace. Weeping a little.

Big sigh... blowing out the breath like a horse...

Is it gone? For now, for sure...

Can you do it? I have no idea!
Was this instructional? I have no idea!

We shall see... lol.

Let me measure my TLB after this "work" I did with myself. It is 75... I just earned 5 points... with a few minutes of expert work.

Ultimately this is the work I ask you to do in the Playground. Going to see what in reality you cannot be with, refuse to be with, refuse to not call wrong.

I designed the Playground to take you through situations that, like the rapid river, slam you into boulders. Upsets.

One of the most important tools is the 20-day learning challenge... it is part of the Playground.

If you are not participating in the challenge: you know you are not doing the work, so you can stop expecting ANY results in the Playground.

The other important tool is the Partner Calls... If you are not willing to see the movie of the incident, from the side, with every detail, until you see that in reality there is nothing wrong, if you don"t call a spade a spade, if you don"t see the forest for the trees, your behavior, your attitude, other people"s behavior, then you won"t get the results of the Playground.

The Playground is at least one year long. Because it takes a lot of looking before you can see... and see clearly, distinctly, accurately, and with courage.

I am re-writing the script of the "looking"... hoping that it will make you, that it will force you to see what you are lying about.

The Playground is now open for new participants

And I am ready to take on some new participants... So if you think you are willing to put your big toe into the water, you can.


Get your Starting Point MeasurementsThe Playground is broken up to six modules, so you don"t have to commit to the whole thing... neither the time, nor the money.

You do have access to the recordings of previous and ongoing Playgrounds.

You pay for the two live sessions, the personal feedback, the privilege to email me questions, the partner calls and the learning challenges you undertake.

And just like Chinese water torture, you"ll either allow the course to make a difference, or you won"t...

Chinese Water Torture?

People call it torture, because unless you allow it it feels like torture.

Is it the dripping water that is torture? No, it is your resistance to it.

If you can allow the dripping water, it cleanses you, it gives you a sense of time, it puts you in a meditative state: beautiful.

I have been using a sound device for health reasons. It is loud, and it works whether I use it day and night... but it works best if I use it around the clock.

Depending on my attitude, it is obnoxious, irritating, a pain... like Chinese torture... and it hurts in my belly and around my waist. I feel my resistance as I am trying on the attitude of resistance.

In the beginning I was contemplating using ear plugs so I can sleep. But little by little, I allowed the sound to just be... it had nothing to do with me.

Even today, when I need to connect deeply to Source because I am doing a Starting Point Measurements muscle testing, I need to consciously allow the sound so I can connect. If and when I resist anything, I cannot connect.

I am getting really good at not resisting.

I am sleeping better with it than without it... fall asleep faster... not resisting is a lot like resisting: when you resist something you have to suppress everything... when you let go, you let go of all resistance.

I am starting to see results everywhere. I have more fun, I have more joy, I am more able to keep my diet rules I made to keep myself well and in top form. I am walking more. There is an overall improvement in my life... the sound device has been training me.

Chinese water torture... that is my selling point... I wonder how many people groan when they hear that... lol.

Most of humanity is on level 1% with regards to their TLB. TLB measures to what degree you are able to be with what is, to what degree you deal with what life throws at you.

Chinese water torture breaks the people who cannot deal with adversity, pain, the ugly... it wouldn"t break me... like it wouldn"t break Wesley in the movie Princess Bride...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFo6iLDNzX0

Hey, unless your TLB goes higher, you"ll remain comfortable, and miserable. It"s OK with me. Is it OK with you?

In the Playground you can toughen up, so you can start living a life with more fun, more meaning, more results...


Get your Starting Point Measurements

My process to get myself unstuck on a project to double my income...

I have been working on the project of doubling my income by adding a new revenue source.

This article is my private process. I wrote it to get myself over the hump. To clarify some things. To get unstuck.

So some places it"s sketchy... it is my process and it has fulfilled its purpose: I have gained the clarity from doing it that will help me to get to the next hump... because that is how life works.

If life is smooth sailing, then you are not growing. Then you are not challenging yourself. Then you are most likely going down on a greased chute.

OK... here is what I had to go through to get me unstuck. Most of you consider this too much work to get the whole project done... let alone work to be done to just get unstuck... this is why you never accomplish much.

Tai calls your approach the lottery approach, or the media bias approach. You feel that anything you can see in your mind"s eyes can be jumped to... and then when you try, you fall flat on your face.

You have a big big big issue... so it will be worth your time to read this article, even if some of it will go way over your head...
------------------------------------------
I haven"t done anything that actually increased of could increase my income. I am doing a lot of foundational work, hanging out really long in phase one of the project: formulation.

In another model for projects, the 7-phases, ((1. Listen / Express
2. Remember / Forget
3. Strengthen and Build Support / Fail (projects fail before they succeed)
4. Predict and Tune / Succeed
5. Enhance / Flood
6. Distinguish / Understand and Explain
7. Enroll / Lose)) I am past listen/express, past Remember/Forget, probably in the middle of Strengthen/Fail...

The challenge in this phase where I am at is failure. Unless I am willing to fail, I"ll be stuck in this stage.

Fear of failure can manifest in many different ways... one of them is procrastination, another of them is getting all confused... a defense mechanism. Here is how it is for me:

One of the things that seem to paralyze me is anything complex, that feels too big... more complex than writing an article.

It feels like an uncatchable ball.

One of my students is dealing with the same issue now, that after reading a ton about a German philosopher"s work, and even things the philosopher wrote... and being stumped at the time when he is supposed to write an assay about him for his school work.

So, as usual, as is my habit, I am going to turn this into an opportunity to both help him (maybe) and help me.

So as I was trying to get through the impenetrable forest of "what should I write about" and "what are the parts I should say" I caught myself of looking at "getting through" as an agenda.

The moment you have an agenda everything that is in front of you becomes a virtual obstacle, and isn"t being looked at.

So I told myself to calm down, getting through is not the goal. Getting through is easy.

I took some calming breaths, and said: ok... look at the trees.

Resistance galore... very interesting.

Let me rephrase that: what is it that you know? Make an inventory of what you know.

Big things, little things... inventory it.

• 
  

  1. I know that without integrity nothing works... including writing a book or creating a course.

  
  

The part of integrity that most people get tripped by is the part where unless the context is empowering, there is no integrity.

The context: getting through it is not empowering to me.

What is empowering is personal. Doing things in order to is not empowering to me.

What else is not empowering to me? Saying it"s important. or "I promised" or "someone needs it" or even "it"s my job"

Not empowering. Maybe neutral, but not empowering.

So what would be empowering to me?

I suddenly recall T. Harv Eker, as he says: I am a multi millionaire. But it"s not the millions that excite me, it is who I needed to become, so I can make those millions.

Now, that excites me too. Who I need to become to be able to create a course where I talk for an hour, no feedback, or where I write a book, no feedback.

It is a becoming issue. Becoming all I can become. I don"t know if it is going to be easy, or hard, or horrible even... I only know that becoming someone who can is inspiring to me. I am willing to do the work. I am scared and excited, and maybe a little resistant, but I am willing to do the work.

OK, so that is the context. I am empowered.

Empowered doesn"t mean any specific thing. It is not the magic bullet that makes everything easy, or fast, or help me get through what is tough. It is not about the getting through, or what it buys me.

Empowered is a moment to moment thing, that works in the moment of doing...

If you want empowerment to get through, you are back to the agenda... the horizontal plane.

Empowerment will help me be present to the work I am doing, maybe even enjoy the pain, enjoy the process. Feel the growth, feel the becoming.

Schwarzenegger said: the pain is better than sex. Yeah, that is an empowering context too. I like it.

The pain of becoming is better than sex. love it. This is it...

OK, integrity issue handled... What else do I know?

2. I turn to Rob Brezsny"s horoscope for inspiration.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Stage magicians may seem to make a wine glass hover in mid-air, or transform salt into diamonds, or make doves materialize and fly out of their hands. It"s all fake, of course -- tricks performed by skilled illusionists. But here"s a twist on the old story: I suspect that for a few weeks, you will have the power to generate effects that may, to the uninitiated, have a resemblance to magic tricks -- except that your magic will be real, not fake. And you will have worked very hard to accomplish what looks easy and natural. And the marvels you generate will, unlike the illusionists", be authentic and useful.

He says that I will make something difficult look easy. And that it will be useful.

I like that as a context, it is inspiring.

So what do I know that makes things look magical and easy?

That is easy. The "trick" is that everything has its roots in the invisible. But the invisible is... invisible. So most things that you have a difficulty achieving have roots in the invisible that unless the root changes, will not happen.

And when I say everything, I mean everything. big, small, enormous... important, unimportant... everything.

So my whole coaching method, my whole teaching method deals with the invisible.

But before YOU can make any changes in the invisible, you need to see what"s there.

And what"s there is, of course invisible, until in a conversation you and I dig it up.

I saw a video yesterday of a guy harvesting earth worms in his yard. He stuck a spade into the earth and started to gently wiggle it. Gently. And the worms started to come to the surface.

Yeah, this is the method to access the invisible.

Depending on your level of resistance, quite predictable from your soul correction, and other numbers in your Starting Point Measurement, this may take a lot of calls.

I am not very resistant by nature. And my TLB is high: I can take the pain of bad news with the best of them! Pain to me is like pain is for Schwarzenegger: a sign that I am growing.

A low TLB signals a world to me. It"s not ability, it"s willingness. How much you are willing to take on to have what you want.

We are all born with TLB 1... And society isn"t going to train you. Had you been born in Sparta... yeah. That society trained your TLB. Monks (not Hindu, mind you!) are trained to have high TLB... grit your teeth and do it, or go without, or take it...

Without you growing your TLB you will not grow... you cannot.

Every spiritual practice I teach you does two things: 1. it grows your TLB, 2. it brings your awareness to something you have no awareness of

Every spiritual practice has an unpleasant part. A part is... ugh... Not just once, but always.

My Reading Course, my Sleeping Course, my "Fall in love with yourself" workshop, my money workshop, even my articles have an "ugh" part, that unless you take in the "ugh", you won"t grow.

And, of course, it is one in a hundred students that will.

You have been trained by your parents, by your teachers, by your peers, to be a wimp. To value comfort more than anything.

In the book, Brave New World, people take Soma... And even John, the naturally born man, kills himself to avoid the discomfort of being.

Watch sheep... or cows... meek, easy to lead, that is you.

I have been observing. In my family my mother was TLB 1, my father TLB 30. My brothers are both TLB 1. I was the sandwich... middle child. I didn"t have anything coming to me other than beatings, or "don"t bother me".

I chose to become a high achiever, whether anyone noticed it or not. And they didn"t notice it. Which is good... You can make a child want to stop producing if you notice their accomplishments... because now they have to, need to, should do even better.

Wanting to, having to, needing to, and should rob you of the pleasure of the pain.

I bet no one noticed Schwarzenegger... because he never stopped.

I once had a boy friend, whose father was a famous philosopher, a Hegel expert. He had three sons. My boy friend was the oldest of the three.

The other day I looked up the family. The middle boy who got no attention became famous on his own right. I muscle tested, and his TLB is 8.

I have one student whose TLB is higher than 1. It"s 8. And he is growing like a weed. And if he can maintain it over the summer, there is no telling how high he can go. My other philosophy student friend is TLB 5.

Thinking is hard. Painful. If your job is to think, you used it to raise your TLB.

TLB is part of the invisible. Twitchy Little Bastard score... or your Toughness, mental and otherwise toughness score.

Your spiritual practices look innocent... because you are working on the invisible.

What is visible is growing out of the invisible.

And it looks magical. Easy and natural. I am smiling. It feels good to be able to cause that.

Bottom line: dealing with the fear of failure and turn it on its ear takes TLB. Low TLB? Fear will win out.

3. What else do I know?

• Inventory is very important.


• Knowing yourself is very important.


• Coming from your strengths, building on your strengths is mandatory


• You need to learn to spin many plates, reliably, or you won"t amount to much. Adding a new plate upsets your rhythm, and it will take some time to accommodate the new one without dropping plates. You are going from ess to a new ess... not easy, and won"t people will not do it.


• But unless you start eliminating the leaks, none of that will matter.

From this point on all I need to do is look at my recent articles.

I am still at the topic of shoring up your weaknesses, building skills or strengthening existing skills to the level where one can be really good at it.

I also know that if you want to be profitable in the endeavor/project you"ll do, you need to be the only one, and then monopolize... like Elon Musk said supposedly in his book, zero to one. I haven"t read the book, and probably won"t...

I am staying away from non-fiction for now.

So how do you become the "only choice"?

You use the edge method, or you use the trend stacking method.

I"ll am in love with the trend stacking method.

You find three or more trends, and combine them. Two? You won"t be good enough to be on top. You"ll still be "also ran".

• In my project I am choosing to combine
  1. being an influencer... and if I am already one, increase my circle of influence. My method will be serial publishing of books, mainly on Kindle.


• 2. trend I"ll exploit: online education


• 3. a list of trends I can exploit:

--sleep
--self-love
--
--

You can check if something is a trend with free online tools. I use http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/?keyword=fall+in+love+with+yourself&insights=1

You need to open a free account on seobook.com

PS: I have nothing to sell you, by the way. I mean I have some 100 items, courses, audios, coaching to sell... but I don"t know who you are. And I am not very willing to sell anything to someone who won"t use it, can"t use it.

Without integrity nothing works... and your integrity is pitifully low.

My upcoming workshop series: Fall in Love with yourself is all about raising your integrity...



It"s almost free. It"s a series... so the earlier you start the further you can go.

Increasing your integrity... it will take some toughness, no doubt about that. Like all my spiritual practices... The method I teach in this workshop is a spiritual practice.

What is a spiritual practice? It is a practice that alters the invisible... as long as you are doing it.

Here is a bonus: nothing is permanent. You drop a practice, you lose the results. This is why being able to spin several plates without dropping any is mandatory if you want lasting results.

I can spin 14 plates... and have been able to do it for about 40 years.

How many can you spin?