The culturescape is so strong, so self-reinforcing that it convinces us that life must unfold in a particular way. This is fine if you’d like to live a regular, safe life. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem happens when “safety” gives rise to boredom and eventually stagnation.
Yet humanity has widely decided that religion should be absolutist: In short, pick one and stick to it for the rest of your life. And worse – pass it on to your children through early indoctrination, so they feel they have to stick to one true path for the rest of their lives. Then repeat for generations. Choose a religion if it gives you meaning and satisfaction, but know that you don’t have to accept all aspects of your religion to fit in.
Replacing fear with courage is one of the key components of being unfuckwithable.
The biggest of these Brules is the idea that you need to map out your life to move you toward some ridiculous idea called a career. As a result, when most people think about setting goals and their visions for the future, their dominant model focuses on career and money.
Instead of seeing the goal, think about it using a technique called lofty questions by author Christie Marie Sheldon. Here you phrase the vision that you want for yourself as a question in the present tense. For example: Why am I so easily able to visit incredible countries? Why am I so good at making, keeping, and multiplying money? Why am I so successful in love? Why am I at my ideal weight? For many people, the phrases are easier to do than the visualization.
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, which was Steve Jobs’s favorite book. 9.
Your soul isn’t here to achieve. Your soul is here to grow. Most people get this wrong. They become seduced by success and broken by failure. They add great meaning to what is essentially meaningless. The true reality is that success and failure are illusions. The only thing that matters is how fast you’re evolving. Your journey is about removing all the barriers that hold you back from self-actualization.
My friend Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, famously said: If you can’t win, change the rules. If you can’t change the rules, ignore them.
Now, here is the big secret: The bigger your vision is, the easier it gets. When you live this way, you may find that the vision is not coming from you. Instead, the Universe is choosing to go through you to realize what the world needs.
Lack of vision for your life will have you taking unintentional actions that don’t align with what you want.
Law 1: Transcend the culturescape. Extraordinary minds are good at seeing the culturescape and are able to selectively choose the rules and conditions to follow versus those to question or ignore. Therefore, they tend to take the path less traveled and innovate on the idea of what it means to truly live.
Law 2: Question the Brules. Extraordinary minds question the Brules when they feel those Brules are out of alignment with their dreams and desires. They recognize that much of the way the world works is due to people blindly following Brules that have long passed their expiration date.
Where did I come up with this particular world view?
Even in tough times, you can look back and see how far you’ve come, how much you’ve learned, and the support you’ve received along the way. Paying attention to the “reverse gap” is a perfect exercise in gratitude and is far more likely to give you a boost of happiness than striving for happiness in the future.
Much of growing wiser and moving toward the extraordinary is really about becoming aware of the models of reality that you carry with you without realizing it.
When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of distress and anxiety; If I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without any pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret in this for anyone who can grasp it.
Keep the big goals – just don’t tie your happiness to your goals. Be happy now.
When you’re bending reality, your vision is continuously pulling you forward – but it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like a game, a game you love to play. But at the same time, your happiness does not seem to be tied to that future vision. You’re feeling elated and happy right now, in this moment. You’re happy as you pursue your vision, not only when you attain it. You’re thus grounded in the present.
You can’t control someone else’s behavior toward you, but you can control your own reaction and how your meaning-making machine construes that behavior.
In most cases, anyone can imitate your business. But nobody can imitate your business if it’s built based on your story. When your values infuse your business, you’ve given special life to your creation.