Saturday, November 22, 2014
Monday, July 30, 2012
One Thousand Marbles
A man was contemplating his mortality as
all of us seem to do the older we get. As he approached his 55th
birthday he started doing some of his own reality math. The average person
lives to be 75 so he realized if he was so blessed, then he had only 20 more
years to live. He did some calculations and came to the realization that in 75
years, there are something like 3,900 weekends in life. He couldn’t imagine how many of those he had
already squandered, time wasted. He also realized that at 55, if he did indeed
live to be 75; that meant he had about 1,000 weekends left. He went out and
bought himself 1,000 marbles to represent his time to live. He put them all in
one glass bottle and labelled it, “time
left to live.”
See the rest of this blog post, and many more in Scott's New E-Book
Monday, July 16, 2012
It’s all Under Lock and Key – or is it?
Here is the folktale from the middle ages that still rings true today. A citizen in a very poor kingdom was caught stealing and reported to one of the local barons. He was immediately arrested, then beaten, then hauled down to the dungeon deep in the bowels of the castle. He was taken down dark stairs, down, down, down, getting darker and darker, colder and colder as they descended. He was led by a huge and ferocious-looking jailer. This jailer carried a few huge keys, strapped to his waist – these keys were at least a foot long. The locks they went into; must be formidable indeed. Finally at great depths and darkness, the door of the cell was opened. The citizen was flung into the dark depths behind the cell door, and the door slammed shut. And there he was.
He lay there in the dark for almost ten years. Every day
that jailer would come – you could hear those giant keys clanging from far
away. The big cell door would open slowly, creaking and grinding – and a loaf
of bread and a pitcher of water were thrust inside the cell – then the cell
door would slowly grind shut again.
See the rest of this blog post, and many more in Scott's New E-Book
Monday, July 2, 2012
One Character Trait that Cannot be Faked
Everyone at the University knew this professor – staff and
students alike. She was well-respected. That was one thing everyone could agree
on about her. But as a professor she was becoming increasingly controversial,
this year in particular. The popularity of her course and her teaching methods
had led to increasing interest among the students. The professor didn’t really
care about that. She preferred the smaller classes actually. But her lecture
style was different and unique.
As well as she knew her material – and she owned it, that’s
for sure – but she knew people even better. She didn’t so much lecture “on” the
material as she did “to” the students. But this became more difficult as her
class size grew and grew. This year there were 400 students enrolled. I was one
of her TA’s (Teaching Assistants). As she strolled into the lecture hall and to
the podium the first day – you could tell before she said a word, that this was
someone you would be paying attention to. As she grabbed the microphone at the podium,
the crowd of 400 students became silent. She made it clear right from the
beginning that those students taking the class for an easy “A” might as well
drop out now. There was no such thing in her class she said. She made it clear
the material presented in this course amounts to her life’s work; and if a
student is not going to respect that and take it seriously, then she’d prefer
they do not attend her class or take her course.
But she was most diplomatic in her tone as well.
See the rest of this blog post, and many more in Scott's New E-Book
Monday, June 18, 2012
The Fear Consciousness
One of the first things you come across when you go
seeking spiritual development or self-awareness is about the consciousness of fear. Religious texts,
new age wisdom writers, philosophers of the past and present all talk about the
fear-consciousness. The basic premise is that where fear-consciousness resides,
love cannot – or is at least diminished – Where fear-consciousness is present,
faith is not. And I see this all the time in my day-to-day Coaching practice.
What I witness is that the reason people are not reaching their life goals – is
NOT because they don’t have the right recipe, information, or instruction. They
are failing to accomplish and accomplishing
failure because they live within the prison walls of fear-consciousness and
they just don’t see it. Now, you may think, “but Scott, I’m not afraid of
anything per se, I’m just really stressed and have a lot on my plate right now.”
Well, that my friend “is” the fear-consciousness: Stress,
anxiety, nerves, depression, angst, doubt, indecision, even apathy – these are
all merely the different clothes worn by fear-consciousness. None of these
states of mind exist, if fear-consciousness is not present and operating beneath
the surface. Real freedom is freedom from fear-consciousness. Real freedom has
nothing to do with living without responsibility: Real freedom is an ability to live without psychic fear. OR, to
look at it from its own source, as stated in my book “Your Truth is Calling – Connecting the Dots to Self-Awareness” –
“is not dread of thirst when your well is full, a thirst that can never be
satisfied?”
At this point fear leads to procrastination and it obliterates your youthful eagerness. Fear puts its foot over the neck of your sense of self-control – leading you to act out of emotional impulse, which often becomes a habit. And in all of this fear once again strengthens itself. Becoming impulsive causes you to lose your connection to the unique charms of your own personality, and you know this is true, you’ve just never considered impulsive behavior that way before. Once you become impulsive you add unpredictable emotionality to your thoughts and therefore your ability to concentrate becomes suspect – often resulting in your best efforts being less than your best without you even knowing it. And yet again, in all of this, fear strengthens itself.
From here, fear crushes your efforts of persistence and it empties the power of your own will and will-power, beyond mere appearances to the contrary. It reduces to shambles your own ambitions. It even influences your memory to also focus on past events that produce fear, tension and anxiety. And once again in all of this, fear strengthens itself.
At this point, fear just takes over, from a state of mind to a state of being. It becomes your default operating system, with power either subtle and unrecognizable or so easily recognizably powerful where you can say, “yep, that’s me.” Now, fear invites failure in all manners and means, from considering failure and worrying about failure and just an overall preoccupation with the possibility of failure - which of course weakens the vision for accomplishment.
Worse, fear crushes love – not the emotion of love – but what is meant in scripture and philosophy about “spiritual love” – which is the operating default position when fear-consciousness is not present. The worse part of fear crushing love is that it crushes self-love first and foremost. . And from here it is free to commit assault and battery and vicious bullying on all the left-over finer emotions of the heart and soul.
Fear invites disaster like its throwing a party for it. You know it’s true. \
And in the end, clothed in stress, nerves, anxiety, doubt, indecision, tension and general angst (or whatever other labels you want to call it) – fear has physical consequences as well - sleeplessness, fatigue, misery. It leads to a void of all purposes beyond mere personal responsibilities of getting by. And what purpose or goal there used to be, with the consciousness of fear in place, that purpose now becomes an obsession. Purpose is based in strength and belief – obsession is based in fear and control. And within all of this, once again, fear strengthens itself.
And when you think about it, this all has a tremendous irony – and an almost Shakespearian tragedy built into it. We live in a world of indescribable over-abundance, ultra-convenience, and ultra-comforts. These are all the things our ancestors worked to provide us: Their lives much more difficult than our own. The debris of psychic fear should have been cleared away in this life of ease and convenience. Our modern world should be a place where fear-consciousness withers and dies. And yet it thrives. What a paradox of modern life.
Nothing can stand in the way of you having all you want in this modern era – nothing except the fear-consciousness.
And yet for most of you, what is fear-consciousness? It just starts out as a simple state of mind – and then it becomes its own monster. Fear-consciousness, no matter what words you use to describe it to yourself (worry, stress, anxiety, doubt, etc) is a state of mind that you yourself create. It is a state of mind that you yourself feed and reinforce, until it swallows the potential of who you ‘could be’ – and lost in all of that – is who you allow yourself to become. And again, fear strengthens itself. Fear – fear-consciousness – a creation of your own mind – a creation of modern times – and more is the pity in that – for all of us!
Even the bible instructs to “rejoice in your troubles.” It doesn’t say, fear them, worry over
them, stress over them. It says – “rejoice over them.” Why? Why would any sane
person rejoice over his troubles? Because that is what builds strength – That is
what builds character. Worry and stressing over your “well” whether full or
empty, weakens you; weakens your resolve. That
is what the fear-consciousness does – it strengthens itself as it weakens you. And
I deal with it, day after day after day – in clients who just don’t get it. This is the reason they don’t get what they
want in life. It’s not the other ten thousand reasons and excuses they come up
with. So let me explain it to you all here below. And I think what I am
about to share is vital stuff. You should pass it along to anyone you know who
struggles with anything – big or small. It all starts (and ends) here.
Call it stress, worry or anxiety, or by any other name –
this is the fear-consciousness in action. Fear paralyses your rationality; and
by doing so it attacks, insults and reduces your imagination. Fear mortally
wounds your sense of self-reliance and within
all of this, fear strengthens itself. As it becomes stronger fear
undermines your enthusiasm, steals your initiative, causes you to waffle over
your true purpose or over your confidence in decision-making – and once again
in doing so – fear strengthens itself.
At this point fear leads to procrastination and it obliterates your youthful eagerness. Fear puts its foot over the neck of your sense of self-control – leading you to act out of emotional impulse, which often becomes a habit. And in all of this fear once again strengthens itself. Becoming impulsive causes you to lose your connection to the unique charms of your own personality, and you know this is true, you’ve just never considered impulsive behavior that way before. Once you become impulsive you add unpredictable emotionality to your thoughts and therefore your ability to concentrate becomes suspect – often resulting in your best efforts being less than your best without you even knowing it. And yet again, in all of this, fear strengthens itself.
From here, fear crushes your efforts of persistence and it empties the power of your own will and will-power, beyond mere appearances to the contrary. It reduces to shambles your own ambitions. It even influences your memory to also focus on past events that produce fear, tension and anxiety. And once again in all of this, fear strengthens itself.
At this point, fear just takes over, from a state of mind to a state of being. It becomes your default operating system, with power either subtle and unrecognizable or so easily recognizably powerful where you can say, “yep, that’s me.” Now, fear invites failure in all manners and means, from considering failure and worrying about failure and just an overall preoccupation with the possibility of failure - which of course weakens the vision for accomplishment.
Worse, fear crushes love – not the emotion of love – but what is meant in scripture and philosophy about “spiritual love” – which is the operating default position when fear-consciousness is not present. The worse part of fear crushing love is that it crushes self-love first and foremost. . And from here it is free to commit assault and battery and vicious bullying on all the left-over finer emotions of the heart and soul.
Fear invites disaster like its throwing a party for it. You know it’s true. \
And in the end, clothed in stress, nerves, anxiety, doubt, indecision, tension and general angst (or whatever other labels you want to call it) – fear has physical consequences as well - sleeplessness, fatigue, misery. It leads to a void of all purposes beyond mere personal responsibilities of getting by. And what purpose or goal there used to be, with the consciousness of fear in place, that purpose now becomes an obsession. Purpose is based in strength and belief – obsession is based in fear and control. And within all of this, once again, fear strengthens itself.
And when you think about it, this all has a tremendous irony – and an almost Shakespearian tragedy built into it. We live in a world of indescribable over-abundance, ultra-convenience, and ultra-comforts. These are all the things our ancestors worked to provide us: Their lives much more difficult than our own. The debris of psychic fear should have been cleared away in this life of ease and convenience. Our modern world should be a place where fear-consciousness withers and dies. And yet it thrives. What a paradox of modern life.
Nothing can stand in the way of you having all you want in this modern era – nothing except the fear-consciousness.
And yet for most of you, what is fear-consciousness? It just starts out as a simple state of mind – and then it becomes its own monster. Fear-consciousness, no matter what words you use to describe it to yourself (worry, stress, anxiety, doubt, etc) is a state of mind that you yourself create. It is a state of mind that you yourself feed and reinforce, until it swallows the potential of who you ‘could be’ – and lost in all of that – is who you allow yourself to become. And again, fear strengthens itself. Fear – fear-consciousness – a creation of your own mind – a creation of modern times – and more is the pity in that – for all of us!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Declarations and Proclamations-Beware Your Own Self-Talk
There is an expression in awareness training that says “The Universe responds in the affirmative.”
This is an important and valuable insight but because of the word “universe”
many people do not fully grasp the meaning of the expression. And it’s too bad,
because this expression is one of the keys to understanding both - your way in –
and your way out -of any issues you may have in life. This expression is really
talking about consciousness and the
power of the mind to direct your reality. It really is powerful stuff. What the
expression means is that what you dictate
to your own consciousness in your thinking and self-talk will manifest into the
reality and circumstances you will experience. This is the law of attraction in
action. But people still do not understand fully what this means and why it’s
important. Let me explain it to you. You
create your own circumstances in life. This also means you create your own
reality including the issues you struggle with. And most people do not see that the way they think and talk to themselves
can actually reinforce and cement their own unwanted issues.
See the rest of this blog post, and many more in Scott's New E-Book
Monday, May 21, 2012
Calm-Assertive Energy or Chicken Little
Last blog we used the analogy of traffic signs in your
head as a means to use rationality to combat emotional thinking. Often time if
you “think” about it, “emotional thinking”
is usually a contradiction in terms. Real thinking takes place in the mental
realm, whereas the emotional realm is the realm of feeling. Your problems tend
to manifest when you start thinking your
feelings or feeling your thoughts
and cannot separate the two. People with eating/food/body image issues live in
this mirage every day. But a clear mind
doesn’t think with the heart and feel with the brain. A clear mind thinks
with the brain, feels with the heart, but also is “connected” to both in a way
where these are not “distinct” realms, so much as these are just different
rooms in a house of consciousness – each room part of the greater home. But
never once in that home, is the bathroom or kitchen, rooms of utility, ever
confused with the deck, or rec-room, or living room – the rooms of “relaxation
and pleasure.”
See the rest of this blog post, and many more in Scott's New E-Book
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