12.31.07
Posted in Book Reviews at 7:32 pm by BartonG
I admit it. I love the spy fantasy, and have watched a lot of James Bond. Let me tell you right now, however, your fantasy ideas about the of life a super-secret espionage man are just that - fantasies. Espionage is a serious business. It’s lonely, dangerous, and psychologically taxing. Dark, gritty, and jaded, spy work isn’t “fun”.
This book is the real deal. From my experience and the people I know in, or who have been involved in, the intelligence community, this book is far more illustrative than any movie or Tom Clancy novel. On the other hand, don’t expect that you’ll find 100% truth here either. If you are familiar with the clandestine world, even casually, you’ll notice how the author’s voices are very similar to those within the IC (Intelligence Community). They are a bit verbose and subtly conceal information. It’s not altogether transparent what the truth is. Unless you have some sense of spy intuition, you won’t catch the hints they artfully weave. They’ll leave out information and details that you wouldn’t know are important unless you knew the whole story. Don’t fret, though, the book is plenty meaty to satisfy us outsiders.
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12.27.07
Posted in Book Reviews at 8:28 pm by BartonG
Let me just spit it out - I was disappointed in this book. It’s not that it’s a bad book - it’s a fine book. It has a modest 260 pages and an updated preface, which adds a nice touch. It just didn’t satisfy me in the way I’d hope it would. On the back of the cover, it touts “In this timeless and deeply learned classic, poet and translator Robert Bly offers nothing less than a new vision of what it is to be a man.” That, however, is a lie. For a new vision of men, try David Deida’s works instead.
Fundamentally, Bly is trying to take on the problems hurting men via myth. He touches on distant fathers no longer spending time with their sons, the lack of initiation rites* that were once prevalent to introduce boys into manhood, the loss of ownership of our own wildness and sexuality, and the void of instruction and masculine essence that we used to glean from older males. He even speaks against the ills that feminism brought.
Clearly, there are a lot of confused, weak, and over-compensating macho guys. Myth and story have the information we need, according to Bly, if we can decipher the truth encoded within them. We’ve lost our ability to think mythologically - hence the heavy analysis and interpretation of every detail that you will find the book.
The book does offers a plethora of stories, both from the author’s life and from mythology across the world. The story from which the book gains its title is one of the 236 Grimm’s Brothers tales. The fairy tale of Iron John, recorded in 1820 but perhaps thousands of years old, was chosen because of its focus on the dangers and triumphs of masculinity. Bly recites the story slowly - after each paragraph of Iron John there are dozen of pages of interpretation and musing. He dives into countless other myths and how they relate or highlight ideas about men.
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12.24.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:30 am by BartonG
Merry Christmas!
I’m in beautiful and warm San Diego right now, preparing to go down to Mexico. Life is sooooo good. I’ve grown up with Utah’s snowy winter mornings, so 70 degrees is … wonderfully odd. Even stranger, when I’m on the road I ponder about my blog a lot. I suppose paradise can’t keep you from your path and purpose.
Anyway, let’s dive right in.
To me, my blog serves three distinct, important purposes.
First, it serves as an outlet of creative expression and personal progression. To me, writing has grand theraputic value and helps you progress as a person.
Second, my blog is poweful way to give of myself to the world. Sure, I love to teach, serve, and listen one on one and I’ll never stop doing that. However, the internet makes it easy for me to share knowledge and hope with an almost infinite scaleability.
Third, my blog assists me in my goals for finacial freedom. I hope to earn some money by writing, teaching and entertaining.
Mentally riffing off purpose number two, I realized that I have an obligation to share my unique gifts, whatever they are. Following that line, I would like to share the things which I have that appear to be the most uncommon. I could write about a mulitplicity of popular topics, but I’d be another single raindrop on the consuming ocean of the web.
(I recently read “Contrarian Living“, an article by Tom L. at www.lifegoalaction.com. This was a jumping off point to what I’m writing about here. )
I read so precious little unique and fresh blog writing, and I’m working hard to fix that on my end. I sort through dozens of articles a day mentally saying, “I’ve read that, that’s a rehash, somebody else said it better, that’s trite, that’s bland, nothing new here… “. I want to be original and fresh and meaningful, not just part of the never-ending crowd. I want to stand out as an author and a blogger.
I understand the difficulty inherent in this approach. Not all that is unique is good. To be different for just the sake of it doesn’t help. Milk and tomatoes is a failure of culinary exploration from the common ground of milk and cookies.
In developing rarer content, I have to be careful that it means something useful.
One additional consequence of this attitude is that there will much useful material that will go unpublished and undeveloped. But isn’t that what a decision is? When you decide to do something, you simulationously choose not do all the other available options. Decisions are knives, and every time you use them you cut from the immense block of the infinitely possible, and take a chunk.
In a way, I feel like this added clarity to my path and purpose will be of great long term benefit. However, I think I’d benefit a lot from just writing whatever comes to mind. As a young writer I feel like I’m still developing my voice and need to be constantly producing words - but consistenly creating unique ideas and content week after week is a stout task.
When I write in the generally oversaturated self-development genre, I’m going to do my best to make it new, cogent, practical and uncommon. Forgive me if I don’t live up to my ideals.
- B
P.S. Again, Merry Christmas!
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12.21.07
Posted in Musings at 1:45 am by BartonG
We’ve all probably heard of “how to be an early riser” or the popular idea that we should all wake up early, exercise and get going before dawn. I’m not knocking this – I know from personal experience that it certainly helps you be more successful. I’d like to take some time to explore the other side of the coin for a moment.
Instead of getting up early to achieve more, you can stay up late to the same things. Some of the great things about the early morning working hours apply to the late night ones as well. There are little or no distractions at midnight. Nobody is calling your cell or popping into your office. There is a lot of alone time for you to harness … if you can.
The proper night owl doesn’t let his late night activities get in the way of getting up at his usual time either. Just like getting up earlier doesn’t mean that you sacrifice the evening, don’t kill your morning in sake of the night!
Nature
Some people say they’re naturally early birds. Good for them. All of my early riserness comes from straightforward willpower, so I naturally hate those people who tell me, “Oh, my body has always just got up at six o’clock. There’s nothing I can do about it.”
I’m naturally a night owl. I like the night, the star-scapes, the calm dark serenity. There’s just something about it that I love. Maybe it was the brief emo-goth phase I never got to live during junior high that makes me like it so much. I’ll never know. I just like to stay up late.
Success at Night
As you may notice from many of the timestamps on my posts, many of them are written well after dark. I work hard during the day, but not typically for my entrepreneurial goals.
Today for instance, I worked 9 hours doing construction on paint booths. Not only is the work fairly physically taxing, I got injured today falling off a ladder and have a lime sized lump on my shin. I could be snoozing, but I’m blogging. I like to get home from work or school and spend time with my wife while she’s conscious. I’m not going to cut back on my awesome relationship with my wife to get ahead financially, or in any other area either. I just find the time when she’s asleep.
The thing to make sure being either an early bird or a night owl is to make it work for you. If cutting out some sleep makes you draggy and sloppy, go to bed and see if you can cut some daytime inefficiencies. Some people’s bodies are suited for it, some aren’t. Give them both a full effort and don’t shortchange yourself, but don’t deny the reality of biology.
Pointers For success: Nutrition
For me, my brain is the thing that would breakdown first late at night. I’d be staring at my computer screen, thinkingly slowly, “What … should … I … right… no… ‘write’… I messed up… heh … oh yeah…. what should I write tonight …” If your going to be burning the midnight oil, whether it be to finish a term project or just write the novel you’ve always wanted to, my number one tip is to eat right.
The last thing I have to stress is that you shouldn’t need artificial stimulants to stay up or get up. Solid nutrition for every meal will help abate this, but never give in to the coffee/energy drink trap. It’s like fools gold. You’ll spike up in energy then crash, needing another one. They are addictive and destructive. Leave them behind as the opiates of the morning masses.
Pointers For success: Timing Sleep Cycles
One of the problems of staying up late sometimes isn’t the concentration at night – it’s the retribution of the morning punishing you with un-heavenly grogginess. I avoid this by making sure I wake up right at the end of a 90 minute sleep cycle. Example: If I make it to bed at 2:00 AM, instead of waking up at 8:30, the latest time I can get up and still make it to work on time, I wake up at 8:00. I go through 4 complete 90 minutes cycles and am ready to go. If I wake up in the middle of one, I always feel tired and robbed of energy – a sleepiness it’s tough to shake.
Also, if you can grab micro naps during the day. Some days I’d much rather bring a lunch from home and munch on it throughout the day (usually a piece of fruit or two, a healthy sandwich, yogurt and nuts) and then use lunchtime to take a brief siesta. Besides, you can easily overeat going out to a restaurant and get slowed down. These mini sleeps make it easier to push on into the twilight. Again, some people just don’t nap well, so do what’s best for your body.
Pointer for success: Exercise
While you know it’s important for the early morning risers, you may not know it’s equally important for the night owls. Good overall health helps you focus, and exercise is a big part of that. Being fit is a necessity if you want to be able to focus your mind like a laser, no matter the time. If you can’t do it in the morning, go ahead and do it in the evening. Just don’t take one of those relaxing, drowsy hot showers directly afterwards, you’ll probably get prematurely tired.
Pointer for success: Avoid Distractions
Now that you’ve got some alone time, don’t spoil your effectiveness by opening up six tabs and surfing the net. Get right to you’re task. In fact, it’s a great idea to plan what your going to do before you embark at night. Without a game plan, you’ll waste a lot of time trying to discover what you should be doing. It’s easy to get sucked away into a mind numbing cable show or youtube movies. I also feel the need to point out that if you have a pornography addiction, you need to get help with that, fast.
In summary, don’t turn on the TV, don’t turn on the Internet unless you must. Get straight to work using your pre-made plan.
Pointer for success: Plan to your strengths, accepting your weaknesses
Some people can do creative work when their slightly tired late at night and others can’t. If you know you lose 30% of your focus past midnight, plan on that. Schedule more ‘mindless’ tasks later on when your brain power is likely to diminish. Also plan on re-reading your work in the morning. Sometimes you won’t be able to see grammar errors like their vs there if you’re brain isn’t firing on all cylinders.
Enjoy the music of the night
There is a different feeling to the night. I find that some of my best ideas for my fiction writing come from the dark pensive stillness. My creative juices get stimulated in a different way than they do in the daytime. My perception changes dramatically. Almost everybody’s asleep. The world is lonely, tranquil, poetic. If you’ve never done midnight meditation, you’re missing out on a neat thing. ( The first time you do it, you should do a eyes open standing meditation, as you may fall asleep.)
If you feel like you can join the ranks of the night owl, power to you!
Here’s to the neglected little night owl!
-B
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12.17.07
Posted in Personal, Social at 3:26 am by BartonG
A friend of mine, John, works for a company that manages digital disaster recovery. John is part of the sales team and gives a sales training on Fridays. This weekend he asked me to come along and give my two cents.
I promptly accepted. I didn’t really know what John wanted me to focus on until a few days before the meeting, but I feel that almost all public speaking is great self-development. When John revealed my full topic it got my attention. “Why is gaming girls important and how does it applies to sales?”.
I chose a different title, but I tried to stay true to what he wanted. I had 30 minutes to teach 16 guys about their connection to the feminine, a daunting task for me because when I do teach about it, I normally address the subject over the span of weeks, or at least hours, but not minutes.
I set out to prepare the best I could. If I were to speak for hours, I wouldn’t need much prep time, but if I’m to give a focused 30 minutes presentation, I feel that two weeks wouldn’t be enough. It’s tough to jam every last ounce of meaning into a speech. In a long period of time you can make sure to convey all the angles, but in 30 minutes you can barely scratch the surface unless you craft your speech.
After some consideration, I conceded that I didn’t have the time to laboriously construct something anyway, and relaxed. It wasn’t as if I’d be giving the commencement talk at Yale. Still, I love to teach and present, so I didn’t slack off either.
When the time came, I put down my notes and spoke from the heart. I thought things went well, and afterwards John told me that it was the best training they had, which was a nice thing to say. Who knows? I enjoyed the opportunity and felt good about the whole thing.
If you’re curious, below I’ve put down a combination of some of the notes I used to prepare my presentation and some of what I said at the meeting. Although there is some material missing, I still think you can glean much good from it. If you attended the training and have some questions, by all means ask!
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12.10.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:37 pm by BartonG
Recently, I was reading an article on ZenHabits about paying it forward. I was wondering how I could offer something other than my words to improve the lives of others, especially those in the blogosphere who’ve given a lot of themselves. Then it occurred to me. I have over forty coupon invitations for ING Direct bank.
(If you don’t know what ING Direct is and why it’s great, you can read about it here, or just check out their website here. Basically they are an online bank that offers very completive interest rates on their savings account, due to their low overhead as an online bank. Their accounts have no fees, are FDIC insured, etc.)
The coupon is this: if I send you an invitation coupon and you open an account of $250 or more they deposit a free $25 into your account. Everything is private and secure.
If you want one, just fill out the comment form with your real e-mail (which does not get shown to others) and leave a comment saying that you want to the 25 bucks. I’ll email you the invitations in the order I receive the requests - first come, first serve.
- B
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Posted in Musings at 2:58 pm by BartonG
For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’
- John Greenleaf Whittier
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
- W. M. Lewis
To me, one of the most dreaded words in the English language is should. There are things that just don’t get done, regardless of their importance. You know them as the things you should do. They range from big to small. You should wash the dishes, should finish your college degree, you should be a better person, you should go to the gym. These are all good things. The big question is, why aren’t we getting them done, and more importantly how do we get them done?
(Note: I’m not holding any punches today. For those who read last weeks “The Two Types of Perfection“, this post is like the yang to it’s yin.)
Why things don’t get done.
It’s your fault.
As obvious as this sounds, things do not done because you don’t do them. You might be familiar with this weird psychological game where you place blame on kids, work, and even the thing to be done, like it is their fault you didn’t get we wanted done. The culprit of non-doneness is really you. I don’t want to hear the myriad of excuses. Are you in control of your life, or is your life in control of you?
Today is the day to put on your big boy pants and take responsibility for your life.
Resources vs. Resourcefulness
One thing that stood out to me from Tony Robbins TED talk is when he talked about the defining factor of failure. Many people when asked about why they failed to achieve mention resources, time, money, bad managment, etc. Their claim may be accurate. They may not have the cash, the education, the help. However, Tony rebukes them with, “The defining factor is never resources, it’s resourcefulness.” The resourceful find a way to make it work out. You just might need to think of more ways to do it.
I hope that in reading my words you not only gain a few resources to achieve, but infuse yourself with the emotion that allows you to tap into your resourcefulness. You will become unstoppable as you tap into that inner energy.
Why “Shoulds ” Exist
There are only two reason that “shoulds” exist. Either you are not doing the things you feel to be the most important or you do not understand how to evaluate things’ importance.
You see, some priorities beat out other less important activities. When my family needs me to take them to the hospital important things like eating and sleeping get pushed down on the “to do” list. When you have filled your day with all of the most important things to do, you can wish you had time to do something, but you don’t say, “I should have done X…” because you did your best, right? You did that which was most important.
Forgive yourself if you forget useful actions and items. Doing your best right now, (which is the only moment that exists) is all you have to do. Thinking otherwise is a pipe-dream.
Having Less Shoulds
The corollary to the two reasons that shoulds exist is that there are only two ways to decrease your number of shoulds. You can either achieve more or liberate yourself from the feeling of should. Both approaches are valid. If you feel that you should spend more time with your family, be resourceful and find a way to do so, sacrificing less important things when necessary. Feeling that you should always have the newest and best computing equipment could be solved by freeing yourself of your ego, letting go of the need to feel self-important or hip. Try a combination of both.
The Grand Key of Getting Things Done
The ultimate key in getting things done is to make and keep commitments. That’s it. Be a man or woman of your word. When you know what is important for you to do, commit to do it, then follow through on your promise. Give your word as often as you have important things to accomplish.
If you can’t keep promises you make to yourself, you’re in bad shape. There’s no sense in avoiding that. However, there is no need to postpone things still getting done. If you can’t crack the whip on yourself, give it to someone who can. You can work on yourself as you go along.
The Mastermind
When passing the whip to someone else, you should evaluate how much whipping you need. If you’re floundering in life, don’t be egotistical - consider professional help. If you just need a nudge, friends can help you make and keep commitments. When you need feel good about your life, but want to take things to the next level, consider joining or forming a mastermind group. Typically they are more formal and professional than friends, and won’t be as lax in accepting mediocrity from you.
Regardless of who you obtain help from, make sure you share your goals and values. Not only will this help you strengthen your character, it will allow them to watch out for you better. If you get caught up in a whirlwind of emotion or persuasion they can step in and remind you to get back on course.
Just say no
On your quest, nuisances, “opportunities” and distractions will arise. Count on that. It is inevitable that things will come up that seem urgent or important. This is where knowing what truly is important to you is essential. When you don’t already have a a core set of values and desires, you having to evaluate all the pro’s and con’s of every option as it comes to you or risk making bad decisions ( Think of The Paradox of Choice). As Steve Pavlina puts it, “Values are priorities that tell you how to spend your time, right here, right now.”
Be prepared, however, because people have become experts at demanding your time. You need in turn need to become an expert at saying no. This will help you by leaps and bounds to achieve what you want.
If you think that saying no to people hurts their feelings, consider a common scenario. Someone asks for your time. You know that it’s not important to you, but don’t say no to them. Instead, they take time to describe what they want, wasting your time. You give a soft commitment that you know you will not keep, in hopes of just getting rid of them. You feel that if you said no, you’d have to explain why you were busy and why your activities are more important. Basically, you’ve wasted their time and yours, lied, and weakened your personal power. Not saying no is a disservice to you both.
To avoid this, make firm decisions at the time you receive a request for your time whether you will do it or not. Don’t waste more time by telling them you’ll get back to them. If you already know what the answer is, give it immediately.
If you agree, follow through on your word. If not, don’t give hazy commitments, or mislead people. Say no. Furthermore, when you say no, you aren’t required to explain yourself, so don’t. Feeling the need to justify your actions is really just a way of seeking approval for your actions. As an adult, the person you have to consult to see if somethings okay to do, is you. They don’t have to be okay with it - they’re not your mommy and they certainly aren’t in charge of your complex life.
The more simple and polite your “no thank you, I’d rather not” is, the better. When someone says no to you, do you respect that or do you try to manipulate them by picking apart their reasons anyway? If you respect others, demand the same respect for yourself. If someone asks why you can’t, don’t sugar coat it. Tell them the truth: you don’t want to. Be okay with not wanting to.
The Should of Procrastination (I’ll fill in more later)
One tip on overcoming procrastination. Make and keep commitments with specific steps of action and time-frames.
Mediocre: Can you finish that project?
Better: Will you finish the project by Friday?
Best: Will you finish the project by Friday by spending one hour on it every morning?
Do it NOW
When you discover something that is very important, follow the Nike motto. “Just do it.” Don’t get cerebral here, just do it, and do it now. My father used to tell me, “Anything worth doing is worth doing RIGHT NOW.” I know you may not know all the details. It doesn’t matter, start by jumping in somewhere you do and create momentum. It’s easier to keep going than to start going.
The power of totally Alone
If you just can’t seem to deflect all the little time wasters, remove everything from yourself except that which must be done. Turn off the cell phone. Go to a hotel. Become a monk. Whatever you need to do, just create the space for you and the task. Nothing else. If you could have achieved the item with your cellphone on, you probably would have. If you don’t turn it off, you’re not really committed to getting this item done. Be strong.
Burn your to do list
Oh how I hate the to do list. It just reminds me of all the things I should do, but doesn’t really help me get them done. If you need help organizing your goals, what you need isn’t a to do list. You need a plan.
The best alternative I know of is to write down the six most important things you need to do today. Just six and only the six most important. Now order them in terms of importance. Start at the first one and work on it non-stop until it’s completion. Then go to number two. Do not get distracted, nor skip around. Originally, this idea was given to the president of Bethlehem Steel by Ivy Lee. It’s a great story and can be read here.
Trust yourself.
You may not want to burn your ever growing list of things you should do for fear that you’ll forget otherwise. The good news is that your memory is better than you think. The problem is that you’re always second guessing it, not letting it do it’s job. Asking people to remind you later is giving permission for you’re brain to take a nap. Giving weak commitments makes weak a memory impression. When you firmly commit, it’s “go time” for your integrity. Firm is the key word. Don’t be casual. Expect your memory to remind you. When you have definite expectations you’ll find that you perform (and remember) better than you thought.
Summary
You deserve the best out of life. It’s time to commit to action instead of telling yourself that you should have happiness, wealth, or a better body. Don’t should all over yourself. Give your word often and keep it. Leave your computer right now and start.
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12.06.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:50 pm by BartonG
I’ve been trying for a while now to define my blog’s look and functionality. I’ve changed the wordpress theme to one I like considerably more, as well as added some behind the scenes plugins. Notably, I installed the Revver video plugin to show off my new video.
I made this video last Saturday with Adam. He did all the editing, and I just showed up with the swords. In the vid I show a technique I learned from Haitu Sensei a few weeks ago. I’ve never really made films, so this one’s my guinea pig (I plan to eventually make a bunch of videos).
Enjoy.
- B
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Posted in Uncategorized at 11:45 am by BartonG
“Individuals surveyed showed significantly higher levels of motivation, self-esteem and confidence… a more proactive attitude. [The Landmark Forum] produced radical and sustained change in the way individuals relate to their own development.”
- The Talent Foundation (UK)
My friend John just went to a training and development seminar put on by Landmark. We both heard about from a friend, and initially I was a bit wary, as I recently had an associate try to recruit me into ACN, a network-marketing craploaf. Reason and truth won out, and John made some time and went to it.
Basically, Landmark is a self improvement and motivational seminar. After John’s positive experience, I took some time to interview him about his experience. “It was a reality check,” he said. ” I really liked it.”
Nuts and Bolts
The Landmark Education seminar is called the “Forum”, partially indicative of their style meetings. Instead of just lecturing for hours on end, the head guy (”the Forum Leader”, who is much like a life coach) interacts with the group often. Sure, there is lecturing, but there is a lot of conversation and exercises. There is a large focus on getting participants to develop skills.
There are 3 full days of training, 9 AM - 10 PM on Fri, Sat, Sun. There are, of course, lunch breaks, potty breaks, etc. Then there is one more follow-up session on the following Tuesday night. General tuition is listed as $485, although John thought he paid less. I checked on their website and their rates change from region to region, probably depending on local costs. Anyway, it’s a pretty fair price for such a long event.
Content
While the general outline of the teaching is set (read here) , the Forum tailors itself to your needs. Originally, John had hoped to gain some business and personal savvy, but during exercises kept bringing up relationships and dating. “I didn’t go there to talk about dating, love, and relationships … but that’s what I got.” It was a big sticking point that he didn’t realize that he even had (blind spot). You see, John is already good with women, but he was shown things he didn’t know about himself. He talked about the Johari window, shown below.
Previously unknown to himself, John told me how he finally saw his inauthenticity towards women. He was trying to be himself and act in such a way that would attract women, which it would. But his efforts always seemed convoluted, especially when he’d get a girl that inwardly disliked him.
It’s an odd sense of manipulation, acting like oneself versus actually being oneself. John is a naturally attractive and compelling guy, so his efforts to get others to be attracted to him were fighting him. He also found out that he wasn’t opening up a space in his life for love and healthy relationships. He found that he needed to actively create the space for these possibilities to occur. “I’m now open to being hurt and judged, something I hadn’t been before,” he said.
His new thoughts on dating was one of many things he took away from the seminar. (Look at the link above to browse the whole syllabus - its long) Particularly enlightening was an examination of his rackets, or his gripes and complaints about life. He mentioned one of his rackets about me, saying, “I just wanted to apologize. You were always trying to get me to read some book, try some new exercise, or go do whatever you were into at the time … what I now realize is that you were just trying to include and enroll me in your life and I was rejecting it.”
From the Landmark perspective, focusing on why things are the way they are isn’t going to get you anywhere. Focusing on the why won’t alter your situation, but action will. You should be action oriented and create opportunities. You have to create things for them to happen, you have to pull down your barriers and create a space in your life for their possibility.
Changing, however is a tricky thing. From the syllubus,
Change is essentially a comparison to something that previously existed. By its very nature, change is past-based. Essentially, change yields more, better, or different from what came before. Transformation, on the other hand, is an act of bringing forth or inventing. It is something created, and is inherently expansive and infinite.
John described it in a more blunt way,
There’s something wrong with how we change. You want to change something so you do the same thing more, better and different; but it’s still the same thing your already doing. Like a piece of crap, no matter how many ways you bake, boil, broil, spice, or slice it - if you use crap you’re going to eat a craploaf.
Change is just altering within a sphere of possibility, so you need to transform and go to a whole new realm of possibilities. I like that. John also mentioned,
Wanting to have change isn’t enough, you must create. Wanting just isn’t enough. I can go out on my balcony and shout to the universe what my desires are at the top of my lungs … then I will be shocked to hear the universe’s cold, vast indifference. The universe doesn’t care. In fact, life is meaningless and empty. Nothing has meaning in and of itself. You have to create meaning. Empty is good a thing. It allows you to create a space for possibilities.
I guess the existentialist dilemma isn’t so darn bleak.
Summary
John told me that while the Landmark Forum was fully worth the time and money, that it’s not some life-changing spiritual experience. He was pumped up about it, but didn’t claim that is was the best or greatest thing ever. “It’s a reality check. If you have a couple hundred bucks lying around, you should go do it.” Landmark isn’t some scam; it’s solid life training.
I also want to give another fragment to your picture of who John is, as you’ve heard some negative. John is a good man. His honest treatment of his faults is testament to that. He’s a good friend (despite him temporarily thinking otherwise), and has treated me like a brother. I admire that he’d voluntarily go and make himself a better man, because in many respects he could just do the same things he’s already doing and have a “successful” life.
He and I bond well because were both serious about progression. We’re into the pursuit.
And we’re in it for life.
- B
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12.05.07
Posted in Musings at 12:04 am by BartonG
Ambition is necessary fire for human achievement. Nothing pleases me more than to strive, stretch and finally achieve. However, many of us over do it. You know - the rat race, the 4.0 GPA, the never ending treadmill of depressing exhaustion. What’s the deal with being a hard-working perfectionist and being constantly let down? And with so many people working so hard with so much advanced technology, why aren’t I being fulfilled!? How come things can’t be perfect? Seriously!
While meditating on an interesting article from the Yangtown blog, I realized that many issues come from an unhealthy relationship or misunderstanding of perfection. Basically, there are two types of perfection.
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