Will Boot Camp: CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER
2
The Road to Transcendence
Definition of transcend:
a: to rise above or go beyond
the limits of.
b: to triumph over the negative
or restrictive aspects of: OVERCOME.
To triumph; to rise above—that
is what to transcend means, to rise above all adversity and obstacles that we
encounter, to triumph where others have been vanquished. It means to abandon
the ordinary and become extraordinary and to become a beacon that
stands out and serves as a guiding post to help others find their direction.
Right now these words might
sound far and distant, almost faint, if not unintelligible and comical, that is
because they are concepts that we inadvertently or consciously have avoided, by
not committing to situations that required us to get out of our comfort zones.
But judging from the fact that you picked up this book, you still have that
desire to TRIUMPH, to RISE ABOVE to TRANSCEND. It is one step towards a change
the will take you in a new direction, which you WILL NOT regeret.
Realizing our shortcomings is the
first step to improvement; initiative to effect a change in our lives, is the
decisive step to change; of course some things do not happen overnight, but the
decision to change our lives DOES; the rest, thereon, is a process that depends
only on your disposition and constancy to complete it.
You will go through the different
phases of the program, each one necessary to maturate and enhance that resolution, which will begin to
crack that cocoon you have been living in and break free of the walls that
enclosed you in such detrimental state of existence.
Your WILL, at this moment,
might seem feeble; just like the strength of a recruit is undeveloped or
underdeveloped when he arrive to basic training, but which is potentiated as he
gradually makes his way
through, until he successfully completes the course and becomes fit for battle; just the
very same way, your WILLPOWER will be much more
defined once you successfully and properly complete our exercises, your goals
will be more clearly established and your perspective about life will be
substantially different.
Have you ever risen
above?
It doesn’t matter how mundane or inane your life might have been in
the past, but we all have achieved something or excelled at something, which
maybe you or others might’ve not have value much, but that it was something you
or someone else felt good about; something you did that made you the center of
attention. WE all have had our moments of glory; we just didn’t make it last
long enough to become a habit.
We
all have applied ourselves at one point or another, all of us had our reasons;
some of us because we wanted to impress; some because we wanted to gain
something and others out sheer pride.
We
all move out of a certain motivation, things that catapult us to act where
normally would not; these are our motivations to act.
Exercise 2
Come up with 7 occasions where
you have RISEN ABOVE, where you
experienced TRIUMPH; where you went beyond your self-induced maggot status; when actually you MADE a true effort.
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Do you think this makes you a
winner? Yes____ No____
You see, you were not always a loser or an underachiever,
you just unwittingly chose to accept the idea that you were one.
Write what inspired you the most to rise above in
those situations you’ve just mentioned. What drove you to pull through?
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SELF DEPRECATION, DO NOT PRACTICE
“Don’t let anyone to
persuade you by word or deed to do or say whatever is not best for you.”
—Pythagoras
The undeniable truth is that
life is a fierce competition and that nothing will come to you just by sitting
down to wait for that to happen. We live in a world that’s a den of lions and
sharks; whoever has the sharpest teeth and wider mouth gets the biggest chunk, and to compete
for that chunk the only thing you have to do is sharpen the teeth you’ve
already got and open wide that big mouth of yours; you don’t need special
skills; a twelve-year education degree, nor do you need to be a sack of
knowledge to be SUCCESSFUL —and I am not denigrating the importance of
education, skills and knowledge, not at all! Education gives you an edge over
those that don’t have it, so do skills and knowledge, but WILL is imperative: a
must—it gives birth to all the other qualities needed to succeed, without WILL
nothing can be done, one thing that can move a man to act and simulate WILL is
fear to punishment, and no one is going to punish you for not succeeding.
We
have heard how people criticize other people for wasting their talents,
squandering their fortunes; how they, even humorously, they spit their venomous
and malicious comments about people the know, who could have been more and
never got to be it. That’s absolutely understandable, people like that need to
see people that are feeling down in order to feel superior, but when all that
deprecation comes from yourself—that’s insane!
Self-deprecation is not
something that you should take lightly nor entertain; at best it is humorous to other people, but it erodes your confidence inch by inch, and
prepares your mind to accept what the idea suggests.
It becomes a habit and serves as reinforcement for underlying negative thoughts
that affect your behavior and your perception of the world. It is
understandable that others might fire at you, but you, firing at yourself? —how
senseless is that?
The more you repeat that idea,
the more your mind is going to veer you off towards that behavior. Remember, your mind accepts what you feed to it; you feed it constructive ideas; it will accept
those ideas, giving origin to belief, and it will act according to the essence of those ideas;
you feed it destructive ideas; it will take
them as its programming, and it will walk towards that path.
YOU ARE A WINNER! YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL!... YOU BECAME SUCCESSFUL THE
MOMENT YOU PICKED UP THIS BOOK AND YOU WANT TO BECOME MORE SUCCESSFUL.
DISCIPLINARY 3
If
you answered NO, to
the question above, here is a reminder for you:
21!
I ALWAYS
speak in MY FAVOR X21
I am a
WINNER X21
YOU ARE NEVER, EVER, EVER…to admit
defeat or speak against
yourself! That’s an order!
IS THAT UNDERSTOOD? _______________ (
say it LOUD)
Every human being that is
alive, and that has ever lived, is a WINNER, our first accomplishment is
winning a battle against over 300 million of our own kind, and believe me, THAT
IN ITS ESSENCE is a miracle.
Every day you stay alive, you win; every time you learn, you win; every
time you lose, you WIN, because you gain experience and learn how not to do it.
Life
is a win-win kind of situation; defeat is just defeat when you don’t learn
anything from it and you choose to accept it as such.
The Prussian army was one of
the finest armies the world has ever seen, yet it was defeated by the amateur
army of Napoleon in 1806 at the battle of Jena, but they learned from their
mistakes and put together a new training to ensure that what led to its defeat
did not happen again; armed with a strategy and charged again, to later taste the sweet nectar of victory.
Learn from your losses, from
the things that did not turn out the way you expected, and use them to gain insight
from the experience lived—why look at them in a negative light? What good does
that do?. Once you do that, there is very little that can constitute an
obstacle to you. That is all that lies
between defeat and victory, resilience, new strategy and charge anew--it adds
up to persistence.
You are an army—an army of one,
but nonetheless an army, armies lose a battle and retreat, but to to regroup and come up with a
better strategy to launch a better offensive, charged with resoluteness; that
is how world powers have come about; that is how great men have come to being,
because they are relentless in the pursuit of their objectives; they are not
placated by fear, passions, feelings or adversity—they are intently focused on
their goals. And that is what you will learn; you will to become your own hero,
you will lean to be what YOU WANT to be—YOU will become your source of
inspiration. You sought for happiness everywhere and you did not find it; you
went places seeking wealth and you did not find it; wanted liberation from your
torments and you didn’t find it. But here is a little story for you.
The
Same Answer
A man on his way somewhere stopped at a village to
rest a little bit, and to get some water from the village’s fountain. He ties
his horse and goes to the fountain where there is a tiny old man sitting by.
The passerby takes his canteen and submerges it in
the water to fill it, and he looks at the old man and asks:
—Hey!
Do you live here? To which the old man
nods to.
— And
how are the people in this village?
The
old man says,
—How
are the people in your village?
—Oh! They were terrible, very difficult people to
deal with. I will never go back there again!
The
old man then said to the stranger,
—The
same you will find here, said the old man.
—Really? I will never stay here then. I’d rather go
somewhere else. Thank you!
He
took his canteen fastened it to his horse, got on it and left.
Minutes later another traveler stops at the
fountain to get some water for himself and his horse?
He looks at the old man and nods, the old man nods
back, then the visitor approached the old man and asks:
—Hey!
Do you live here? The old man nods yes.
—And how are people in this village?,
asked, the old man sitting by the fountain.
—How are they where you come from?
Well, they were wonderful people, very
friendly. It hurt me much to have had to leave.
The old man then says,
—The same kind of people you will find her.
The traveler’s eyes lit up with excitement and said,
—Well then I will stay here a few days
and maybe I’ll find work and stay here.
He thanked the old man and left.
A person that was watching both scenes
comes to the old man and asks:
—Why do you do that?
—What? The old man said
—How could you’ve given the same
answer to two questions about two opposite situations?
Then, the old man replied,
—The people of the village were never
the problem, it was what each had in his heart that made that difference.
You could go anywhere to find
happiness but you won’t find it if you carry all you sorrows everywhere you go.
You can go anywhere to find wealth, but you won’t find it…if you carry all your
poor attitudes anywhere you go. You can go anywhere to find freedom, but you
won’t find it...if you wear your chains everywhere you go, because all these
things are ATTITUDE-DEPENDENT, and it is the liberation of those attitudes
that will open the doors for you to find what you are looking for.
Happiness begins from accepting
it from within, and the acceptance of it is what makes us fit to be happy. But
that acceptance has to come from a TRUE and HONEST acceptance of our selves;
with ALL OUR MISTAKES, because it is for that love we have for the self that we
begin to walk in the path of happiness, because we want the self to FEEL GOOD.
Wealth and opulence have to be
accepted first, for if you do not do that, you will give just it up just as
fast as you got it. You have to accept the fact that you were born to partake
of these riches; you have to accept that you are just beginning to claim what
you are ENTITLED to. Accept that you are not rich by chance, but by birth
right, because every human being that has walked this earth has been born with
that right.
Freedom, begin to claim it!
Health? Begin to claim it! Wisdom? Love? Peace? CLAIM THEM ALL! Accept them! —
Easy to say, huh?—ACCEPT CHANGE! STOP QUESTIONING that which is intended to do
you WELL, because that questioning is just your DESTRUCTIVE SELF denying you
that right, HOLDING YOU BACK—are you going to let it get its way?—NO! You
accepted it partially when you took this book, now DIVE IN FULLY! And we will
make sure YOUR MIND accepts ALL of these. We will work together to make that
happen.
“You are a child, of the Universe, no less than the
trees and the stars; you have a right to be here…”
—Desiderata, Max Ehrmann
SPEAK IN YOUR FAVOR
To begin to accept what you are
entitled to, you HAVE TO begin to develop a habit of speaking in you favor; you
HAVE TO begin to speak highly of yourself, not just merely making vacuous
comments about yourself that no one gives a thought about; I am talking about
comments that let people know about how serious you are.
Avoid sounding pompous, because
instead they are going to thing that they lost you and begin to feel sorry for
you. Make comments about yourself that are constructive and that show intent to
accomplish, be or do what you are saying. People don’t like arrogance, and even
an honest comment backed by truth can sound arrogant if not spoken in the right
way. Make sure you tune your comments so that they sit well with your audience,
where you words sound commensurate and as a step above of what THEY perceive
your status is, but be honest, do not hide your improvements just because you
are afraid of how others might perceive you.
If you are seeking to get rid
of a bad habit, just say to them that you have realized how destructive your
habit is and that you have come to your senses; speak of how you didn’t know
you had this STRONG WILLPOWER and that today you realize, that you have this
WILLINGNESS to take better care of yourself.
If you issue is money, always
refer to your WILL TO GROW in that direction; don’t you ever refer to yourself
as broke, impecunious, poor, indigent, penurious, necessitous, needy, etc.
Instead tell people that you deserve better; don’t tell them you are rich,
because obviously (in this case) you are not, and they are going to think you
are nuts; in better terms, you can say that you HAVE THE POTENTIAL to be rich;
that you caused brought upon yourself the present economic state in which you
are presently living, but that that realization has driven you to act upon it
and change it to your regain what you have always being missing.
Speaking in your favor will
create that a habit that will reinforce and boost your self-esteem, and create
a mental attitude that is oriented towards that which you desire to achieve.
So whenever your words are
proffered to your detriment, please remember that speaking in YOUR FAVOR
produces much better results and within a short span, enhances your
self-confidence.
GRATITUDE
When you ACCEPT something that has
been given to you, you begin to feel a certain feeling that feels like you want
to do something that makes the person that just gave you something feel the
same way you are feeling: that’s GRATITUDE.
And your gratitude will begin by
feeling that gratitude towards someone that has given you the patience to stand
it all; someone that has always been with you in your bad moments and the good
ones as well; someone so special, that if it wasn’t for that person, you’d be finito: He/she is your strength, the one
that is the center of your hopes and wishes—feels good to have someone like
that, doesn’t it? A TRUE FRIEND: YOU!
No other person on this planet has
been better to you than yourself. Sometime we neglect our “SELVES” and we hurt
our selves, and though our selves are not grateful about this, our SELVES never
leave us alone, and yet we can have some peace.
Feel gratitude towards your “self”,
because there is no one in the world that would tolerate all the crap that you
have put your self through and still be with you—you think it has been easy to
stand YOU all those years? —just ask your SELF!
Feel the gratitude of having given
YOUR SELF a NEW OPPORTUNITY to square up with yourself, for having granted the
SELF with these moments of thoughtfulness in search of understanding to make it
better for it.
Do you realize how much YOURSELF is
loving you right know—feel it! Isn’t it lovely! Embark on the quest of the
SELF, and discover which of the TWO SELVES you want to feed and make strong.
THE TWO SELVES
Story:
The Two Wolves
Once, an old Cherokee man was
trying to teach his grandson a lesson for the future. He said:
—Son, life is a constant battle between two
wolves. A black one, that feeds on hatred, envy, anger, worries, and sadness;
and that the other, a white one that feeds on peace, love, understanding,
happiness, and hope.
Then the grandson asks the old man,
—Grandpa, and which one wins the war?
To what the grandfather says,
—Whichever you feed the most?
You have two wolves living inside you,
and there is a constant battle between the two; the one you feed the most, will
win the battle. That is why from here on, you will dedicate your efforts to
feeding the one that feeds on love, peace, happiness, so that this wolf
overpowers the wolf that feeds on negative feelings and it is no longer raging
inside you.
You have two selves in you: One that
tells you, “No, don’t trouble yourself doing that, this is easier.” “Why,
bother trying again?, it will be the same result.” “Nobody is going to listen
to that idea; people are selfish.” This is the self you have to eliminate.
The other weaker self, says to you: “You can be happy,” “You can do it!”
“Try it again, you will succeed” “Get out your seat and take charge!” But the rage of the “bad self” drowns the cries of the
“GOOD SELF” and it does’t let you hear it, and that bad self dominates your
actions because it feeds its rage to you thoughts. But that was until now,
because from here on you WILL silence that self; you will starve it, until it
is no more.
You will train and succeed at
dominating those negative feelings and infusing your mind with positive
thoughts and emotions that will resurface that shining spirit that you were
born with.
I won’t lie to you and tell you it
will be easy, at times you will want to quit, that is why we recommend you to
have someone, other than yourself you make sure you perform your exercises
SATISFACTORILY, but nonetheless you will find the fruits of your efforts inspiring—have you ever been so broke that you haven’t got
a penny and the world looks gloomy, but then
comes a break, and money comes to you, and all
of a sudden the world looks much brighter and more cheerful? And this is not
only with money, but with problems in general—that is how you will feel when
you begin to see the change in spirits, your world will brighten up,
then; you will transcend.
Transcendence is a process that is achieved by accommodating
your thoughts to work in harmony with your goals and your desires so that you
can produce a change in your life, which can make your life much more
satisfying. But to attain this level, one must learn to devise what is required
to attain the desired goal`, doing so entails planning and a WILL to do it, we
will help you with both.
Just like the military does not teach
a soldier to fight a war, but it trains them with techniques and tools that they will need to
fight in a war when the time comes; the same way, we will teach you so that
when the time comes you can make your plans and fight effectively with the
tools we have given you and adjust your strategy according to your individual
goals using the tactics provided.
You have to be honest, here; we can’t
be ungrateful and go out throughout life thinking life is a punisher and that we are its punching bags; a sadist that is out for
us to have fun at the expense of our
suffering—it isn’t so—Life is a blessing. It is understandable that you
hold those views; self-inflicted suffering does that to people; it turns them
bitter and they begin to blame external circumstances but that was the way you
USED TO view life--not anymore. Life is a blessing, a cornucopia where
abundance is waiting for those that are willing to go the distance to get it;
for had it been right near us, our appreciation of it would have been very
little.
If we go out throughout life focusing
on the negative aspects of it, of the things we
have gone through; we can become bitter and begin to fall into the abyss of
self-pity. If we focus on the situations that didn’t
end up the way we wanted, then we would become cynical and frustrated, not because we were unlucky
and unhappy, but rather because we decide to create that perception of
it by focusing on the negative only.
Winning is a perspective, you go to a
casino and you lose money, did you lose? NO! You, did not. You gained
experience, and one that could result a lot cheaper at the amount you just
lost, because if you don’t learn from THE LESSON, then you will end up losing a
lot more. WHAT’S THE PRICE OF EXPERIENCE?
You had a discussion with someone and
you were arguing about a topic; you made a bet, no money or money doesn’t matter,
you were defending a point, the other person was defending his, you guys
decided to research the topic, and it ends up being that you were INCORRECT,
did you lose? You might have lost the opportunity to exalt yourself over your
opponent, but you WON MORE than he did.
You learned something new; he did not, THAT’S THE PRICE OF EXPERIENCE!
Do you take an orange and peel it to
throw away the meat and keep the peel? They both are usable, but we keep the
meat because it gives us more benefits. Experience, when it comes to results of
our actions,
is the meat of life; it is what makes our lives a
lot easier and less susceptible to relapse in the same mistakes. Happiness is
the joy of tasting the flavor of that meat, which gives us that sense of
satisfaction of having tasted such a treat.
We cannot afford to entertain the
thought of conceiving such detrimental of our lived experiences; such a cynical
outlook would rob anyone of hope in a better tomorrow. We get up every day
because we unconsciously know that there is more goodness in the world than there is evil. We don’t expect to get shot at every corner, or be run over
at every street crossing; but many, unconsciously, develop tragic and
pessimistic, thinking that life is a treacherous vixen that lures us into its
arms to tear us to pieces. LIFE IS GOOD! …Be grateful!
Every day we live, every finger we have, every word we
hear and say; everything we see and feel, every thought we get to
retain…EVERYTHING WE KNOW, is a good reason to give THANKS…don’t wait till
November.
EXERCISE 3
In the lines below, please write 7
things you are grateful for. Before you write them go to your Wise Man’s Spot
and think about them. Remember, when we say THINK, we mean to feel, see and
hear what is in your mind, if you can’t do that you are not really thinking.
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EXTRA
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When in doubt and feeling low come to this page and convince
yourself that you have a lot to fight for!
EXPEL AND EXCEL
There are many walls; mine fields;
enemy outposts that we have to go through before reaching the enemy’s garrison
and taking over the post. You are not expected to perform at a Navy Seal level
of efficiency, METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING, but you sure as hell are expected to
give what a Nave Seal trainee gives: YOUR BEST, and even if you think you can’t YOU WILL.
The reason why we expect your best is
because by pushing YOUR best out of you, and getting you used to doing so; YOU
WILL eventually bring the best of what your best is AT THIS MOMENT, until your
best is at its finest and it becomes a true best. But, as a neophyte, we don’t
expect excellence from you, but we surely expect DEDICATION.
We ask for dedication as a solid base
because we want to avoid laziness and complacency, just because you “did good.”
Doing good does not mean that you made a habit out od excellence, it just mean
that your actions for that specific task were satisfactory and nothing more. We
don’t care about you “doing good,” we
care about you DOING BETTER; if we do that and settle for your “good
performance” you will feel complacent and will slack off…that’s a NO GO FOR US!
…A NO GO FOR YOU, TOO!
Expect to be pushed, and you can be
sure as hell that we expect you to push yourself as well. Remember that your objective here
is to change your life; to develop the NECESSARY WILLPOWER so that you can
apply the knowledge you have gathered from those wonderful books you have read
to your life.
DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR OBJECTIVE.
There will be moments when it would appeal much more to sit down and not to do
anything and just relax; that is when you DETECT AND INTERSECT an enemy. When
you discover these weaknesses, THAT is when you have to DOUBLE UP on your
viciousness by doing EXACTLY that which your body tell you not to do.
You will be lured by the enemy within
yourself; an army of terrible feelings and desires that will be much easier to
surrender to than to fight against, that is why it is very important to leave
the enemy naked and exposed, to make it more obvious and vulnerable to attack.
Surrendering to procrastination and
lassitude might feel comfortable and all, but do you realize how much you are
giving up for doing so? If you do, I am sure that every time you feel you are
laxing or procrastinating, you would feel DREAD, because it is a sign you are
slipping back into that OLD SELF of yours, so FIGHT HARD AGAINST IT!
Once you pick up the habit of acting on
your tasks and challenges at hand right there and then, assiduously, you won’t
see a problem anymore, but just something you have to get out of the way. Begin
with small things, like doing the dishes, keeping your house neat, doing your
bed; then move on to more complex situations, like looking for opportunities
and ideas in things that you see; thinking about business models; tackling
fears, such as fear of speaking in public, etc.
Your goal is to OVERCOME those attitudes
that tend to hold you back.
Know Thyself
Learn to Want it
Wanting
and WANTING
There is no human being on this planet that wants achieve something and
hasn’t; if they have not, it is because they didn’t really WANT it.
The way we employ our language has
inherited us certain disadvantages by subtracting meaning from certain concepts
expressed by certain words.
We have learned to use certain words
loosely, like LOVE, HATE…and WANT. These words convey very powerful concepts,
yet we use then in such a vague manner, that “love” means no more than to like
something, just a little more than usual; “hate” is equals to dislike, just a
little more than usual. “Want” is just something you would like to have.
We have debased the value of those
words. To WANT something when it comes to success, it means TO CRAVE it; there
is NOTHING ELSE you’d rather have; it is either that or that, that is what to
WANT something is like.
For the purpose of this training, we
will refer to something we REALLY, REALLY want as WANT, which will apply to our
GOALS, to the things that are missing
from our lives and which we would WANT to bring in.
WHAT DO
YOU WANT?
People want money, fame, recognition, sex,
love, health, happiness, peace of mind, power, freedom, etc…what is it that you
want?
Money?
Money is a
typical concern that many equate to success, though this is not generally true,
for someone who does not have it, its acquisition would certainly become a type
of success.
If money
is your goal, what are you doing or what will you do to get it? Are you saving
every penny you get to invest it? Do you stop to pick up a penny when you find
one on the floor? Do you spend time thinking about ideas to create a business
model or product that you can commercialize? Do you rather work to get some
more money for your idea than go out to have fun? Are you doing all you can to
get your first million?
These are
traits of people who have achieved wealth, maybe you are a money waster, a
fortune squanderer; maybe you have spent more money in your life that some
millionaires have; maybe you are one of those that get $2000 and go barrow
another $2000 to buy a TV; better yet, may be you get a million and you go to a
casino or buy luxury cars—that is not what millionaires do! They invest their
money, they grow their money, just like when you buy an tomatoes and get a few
seeds to grow, from which you get more tomatoes which eventually give you more
seeds.
Future
millionaires don’t use their money to buy things to keep, they buy things to
sell; they look around seeking opportunity to invest, to create something new
or improve something that already exist—they take risks, not stupid risks,
but calculated ones, that sometimes produce and sometimes don’t—but they don’t
give up in the face of adverse results.
Here is an
idea of what the attitude of those who WANT to be successful at any enterprise.
Everyone
that has wanted or wants to be a millionaire, simply IS a millionaire, just
like everyone that WANTS to breathe seeks the air, one who wants to be a
millionaire makes it his business to achieve his goal by doing whatever it
takes to achieve it.
For some
this has been tougher than for others, but nevertheless they have ALL attained
their goal, even those whose success depended on other people as well as on
them, because they knew when to be submissive and when to be aggressive; they
knew how to use people to achieve means.
This
concept does not only apply to money, it applies to relationships, to personal
development, to EVERYTHING. Who has not had a girlfriend or a sentimental
attachment to a girl for which we didn’t do the impossible in order to see her?
What lazy child didn’t do his chores in a flash of a second, that seemed
humanly impossible, just to earn his permission to go play baseball with his
friends at the park? There was a drive
there that, even though it was automatic and unconscious, is the same drive
that drives a person that wants to be a millionaire to seek ways to make his
millions. We all had that natural drive, but we sunk it to the bottom and
drowned it in a ocean of easy choices, self-indulgence, complacency and
over-all emotional and presumed physical comfort. We learned to accept the
casual and weak meaning of what WANTING means, and it adapted the casual
definition of an every-day occurrence.
SOCRATES
AND HIS PUPIL
There once was an eager student who
wanted to gain wisdom and insight. He went to the wisest man in town to seek
his counsel. Being a man of few words, Socrates chose not to speak, but to
illustrate. He took the young man to the beach and, with all of his clothes
still on, walked straight out into the water. The pupil gingerly followed and
walked into the sea, joining Socrates where the water was just below their
chins. Without saying a word, Socrates reached out and put his hands on the
young man’s shoulders. Looking deep into his student’s eyes, Socrates pushed
the student’s head under the water with all his might. A struggle ensued, and
just before life was taken away, Socrates released his captive. The boy raced
to the surface and, gasping for air and choking from the salt water, looked
around for Socrates, ‘Why did you try to kill me?’ The wise man calmly retorted
with a question of his own: ‘Boy, when you were underneath the water, not sure
if you would live to see another day, what did you want more than anything in
the world?’ The student took a few moments to reflect, then said, ‘I wanted to
breathe.’ Socrates looked at the boy comfortingly and said, ‘Ah! When you want
wisdom and insight as badly as you wanted to breathe, it is then that you shall
have it.’”
Anybody that has failed did so because
he wanted something; anybody that has
succeeded did so because he WANTED
something, there lies the difference.
So, in order to differentiate when we
WANT something from when we would like something, we will make a convenient
lexical adjustment. Since “want” to
you is already so natural—and to the rest of the world, we are going to
substitute it with WANT WITH… CAPITAL LETTERS.
Whenever you refer to something you SERIOUSLY WANT, just
say “I WANT to lose weight WITH CAPITAL LETTERS.” If you’d like to create your
own way of establishing the difference, by all means do so.
How to get someone to WANT something they want?
To get someone to develop the fervent desire for
something they want, a person must be made conscious about why he thinks he HAS
to have it. The person has to be convinced of the need; he has to tell people
what he WANTS, tell them why he wants it, how he will achieve it, what he is
DOING to achieve it; he has to hear himself say it. The person has to visualize
himself what it feels like to have that thing he WANTS. He has to know that
other people would want that, too, but that he, unlike others, is DOING
something to get it.
VISUALIZE IT, LISTEN TO YOUR WORDS AS YOU SAY IT, FEEL
THE EMOTION OF ACCHIEVING IT…REPEAT IT, REPEAT IT, REPEAT IT!
The love for
certain things you enjoy doing, shows up as excellence when they are put to the test.
If you tell this TRUTH to yourself,
enough times, while feeling that emotion and visualizing what you are saying.
It is very important that you say it to people, every time you get a chance,
because by doing so, you will feel more committed to your cause in order not to
feel embarrassed by the statements you have made to them. But the fact that you
don’t have the mean to achieve it doesn’t really matter—you will find them. You
will see how your actions will all align towards that purpose, without you
realizing how, when or why.
You are
a boat in an ocean, your WILL is your sail and your dreams are your winds. If
you sails are good and the winds are strong, the boat cross the ocean and
arrive to the intended destination—build strong sails in order to catch strong
winds.
end of chapter 2
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