Personal Mastery
“It's almost like a never-ending rat race or they're on a hamster wheel of unfulfillment because they thought that once they got to a certain place, they'd be okay, but they're not.”
“Most entrepreneurs and business owners or senior execs, they are trying to catch the rabbit of fulfillment by running on the track of achievements and the two are rigged so that you can never catch the rabbit of fulfillment on the track of achievements”
“Feel great now, not feel great when I basically have something in the outer world that sets up my permission to feel great now, which is essentially what they're doing. It’s about the inner world, the outer world follows inner world, not the other way around.”
I basically take you through a transformation which leads to the discovery of the difference between a life chasing success and a life chasing fulfillment, which are two very different things. Most people get to the top of Success Mountain and they want to jump off because what they thought would be there waiting for them in terms of happiness et cetera, isn't because they're too busy being stressed out trying to get somewhere that if they stopped and smelled the roses, they'd realize they're probably already at.
It's almost like a never-ending rat race, or they're on a hamster wheel of unfulfillment because they thought that once they got to a certain place, they'd be okay. But they're not. They get there and then it's like, "Oh, hang on. I just need to get to the next place. My next million. My next Mercedes. My next quarterly report. My next promotion." Whatever it may be. They're constantly chasing the more. It's never ending. They don't know how to get off the hamster wheel. That's really a typical symptom where they're never really feeling as if they've arrived.
Somebody who's a senior executive entrepreneur, high level senior VP who is really burnt out, stressed out, borderline depressed, staring at the ceiling three o'clock in the morning, can't shut their mind off on vacation, emotionally unavailable to their partner because they're too exhausted. They can't shut their mind off. They're forever under pressure. There's always something to do. They don't realize that when they die, their inbox will not be emptied.
Sometimes the initial justification can be down to, “Well, it’s just the way I am that I just have to do this. I’m a driven sort of person. Look at the others, they’re not as successful. ”, "Well, this is just what's required. It's the price of success."
But there is only a certain amount of time. I mean most people that are on this path, they never start out saying, "Well listen, I'm going to spend the next 10, 15 years ruining my relationship, ruining my health, separating me from my kids so that one day I can arrive where I've earned enough money, hopefully, to be able to afford my divorce, hire a personal trainer to get my health back, and buy my kids loads of stuff so they love me again." Nobody says that. That's the life that most people are living, unfortunately, at that level.
It's the fact that they're treating the symptoms not the cause. They try mediation, they try stress relief and breathing techniques and going to yoga and all of that stuff. While they can always help, it's only like a painkiller that's numbing the pain, it's not treating the symptom. Your classic big pharma model. One has to come to the awareness, and it's a process of understanding, that if you get a greyhound that runs on the track, it can never catch the rabbit by design because the game is set up so that it can't catch the rabbit. No matter how fast the greyhound runs, no matter what personal trainer it has, what diet is has, what kennel it sleeps in, it'll never catch the rabbit.
But, with most entrepreneurs and business owners or senior execs, they are trying to catch the rabbit of fulfillment by running on the track of achievement. The two are rigged so that you can never catch the rabbit of fulfillment on the track of achievement. It just doesn't work. It's not because you're not good enough, it's not because you're not talented enough. The game is rigged so you can't do it.
The first thing is to understand that the methodology that most people use, which is chasing more, getting to the next level, "Only if I get this amount, then I'll be happy." All of that is never going to work. They're playing a game of 'feel great when.' When I make the million. When I get the woman/man of my dreams. When I get all of my staff to agree with me. Whatever it may be. The first thing one has to realize is that the only way you'll ever win that game is by playing 'feel great now.'
Not feel great when I basically have something in the outer world that sets up for me permission to feel great now, which is essentially what they're doing.
It is much more of a focus on the journey than the destination.
The thing is the inner world. The outer world follows inner world, not the other way around. If you're stressed in the outer world, check your inner world.
“What's the last phrase that you would want to come out of your mouth if you'd have lived the life you want to live. And the answer to that would be: "Wow. Now that was a life worth living."”