Planning, complacency and motivation

Earlier this week, a client reminded me of the importance and contradictions of planning and complacency.

Himself a brilliant story teller, he shared a story of two priests who took a vow to be itinerant monks for life. They promised to do good works and help the poor, disenfranchised and desolate wherever they went.

To avoid being bored or becoming complacent, the two monks would prepare ever year for a trip saying they would go at the end of the year.

Each year, when their detailed and minute planning was finished and the year came to an end, they would say to themselves that they would go next year and then spend all of that next year planning to go on a trip.

They repeated this process every year until they died, motivated yet neither resolved nor finished.

Pronounscape

On a blank piece of paper, as best as you can, draw yourself as a figure. On your drawing, mark or put an arrow:

Where do you feel when you hear your actual name?

Where do you feel when you hear your nickname?

Where do you feel when you hear your birth name?

Where do you feel when you hear You?

Where do you feel when you hear I?

Where do you feel when you hear Me?

Where do you feel when you hear Myself?

Feelings and things

Many historians are grounded in the belief that objects are not supposed to cause you to have feelings. When it comes to this stuff, though, each thing has its own little human story. How can you not feel a personal connection?

William Bird, author, Souvenir Nation (2013).

Keys to personal improvement and development

Break free from unconscious, habitual ways of reacting to life that were born thousands of years ago.

Embrace higher ways of being.

You will discover ways to see things as a celebration, by being gracious and doing things that fit your higher purpose.

Keys to personal improvement and development

As you learn how adapt to your capacities, you literally move into a new way of being.

You are a human being learning to benefit from your hour of focus.

Learn how to play with time in such a way as to develop a skill or move a project forward. Set backs can only propel you forward. The bruise will heal. Let go of the past and move on.

Learn to navigate the complexity of life with elegance and confidence.

Keys to personal improvement and development

Allow yourself to discover and to gain insight into your life at four levels of your human capacity:

Sensory-physical

Psychological-emotional

Mythical-symbolical

Unitive-spiritual

Keys to personal improvement and development

Letting go of old beliefs and patterns to make room for new beliefs and capacities — that will empower you to awaken and live your higher purpose.

What are the keys to empowering new beliefs about yourself?

The first key to activating your life’s purpose as a man is to hold new beliefs about yourself and your role in our human future.

Your life – living a great life – requires that you understand today’s challenges and opportunities.

To understand this for yourself, gather information yourself. It can serve as a guide on your path as a man.

Assess your motivations and values in life.

Are you a HERO?

You’re a HERO if you’re:

Hopeful
Efficacious
Resilient
Optimistic

Transformation and self-empowerment.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly is an adage about the transformation that you can achieve through your own power as a man.

What is the new story you are telling yourself?

Which are your life’s accomplishments, results, challenges faced and successes for which you are a proud man?