Post #29. Embrace Your Heroic Nature

If we truly want to craft a remarkable life, the first step is believing that it’s actually possible.

If we don’t believe change is possible, how will we ever be able to change?

If we don’t believe growth is possible, how will we ever be able to grow?

If we don’t believe that we can improve, how will we ever be able to improve?

So, for any result we wish to experience in life, this rule applies:

AWARENESS —> CHOICES —> RESULTS.

Further explanation: 
* Awareness = Our Current Level of Understanding. How we think about things. The things we hold to be true.
* Choices = The daily actions we take in our minds & bodies.
* Results = What we can see coming forth. The fruit that awareness + choice has yielded.

When your awareness of what’s possible is elevated & more aligned with truth, your choices will be elevated. And as your choices becomes more aware, good results can’t help but follow.

IT ALL STARTS WITH AWARENESS
So today my mission is to convey to you & raise your awareness on your true capacity as a human being, so you can elevate your game and operate with more freedom in your mind & life.

I could just write all the tactics, behaviours & choices that you could make, but that would not be aligned with the nature of change.

Changing behaviour without changing awareness is sort of like trying to fix the leaves of a tree instead of making sure the roots are ok…. The roots are always your current state of awareness… one more aligned with truth & nature…

I will start with the roots & do this in a proper way, that encourages a genuine form of growth. When your mind is changed, everything is changed…

THE STARTING POINT 
To even come to the point that we care about this thing called “awareness” and raising it… we have to understand what the lack of awareness of our true nature is causing in our life…

Here are some of the consequences: 
1. We don’t dare to set big goals. We play small with our potential, simply because we’re not aware of it.

2. We give up when we meet setbacks because we think it shows how “incapable we are”.

3. We stagnate. Because we avoid challenges for the very reason that we don’t  want to experience setbacks & be defined as “failures”.

When we really understand how this is showing up in our lives, how it’s limiting us & preventing our growth… when we gain awareness about this, is when we are ready to actually make the choice to work on our state of awareness.

WHAT DO I REALLY? WANT? 
A great way to see how our awareness is limiting us is to ask ourselves some powerful questions:

* What would I do if it was impossible to fail?
* What qualities would I like to embody?
* What dream do I feel most drawn to?
* What does a remarkable life look life to me?
* What would I like to learn if I could learn anything super easy?

Really take time to dig in to these questions. And when you’ve found the answers, and put them to paper. Ask yourself this powerful question:

—> Why am I not being & doing these things that I really want? What’s stopping me?

This is where your limiting beliefs & your current level of awareness will show up with a billion excuses:

* I’ve tried several times and failed… It’s impossible…
* My DNA doesn’t allow me to be, do, have this…
* I’m not smart, talented, happy, disciplined, good, rich, interesting, skilled – enough…
* I’m too hurt from childhood trauma… 
* It’s impossible… 

The thing is, when you make an effort in raising your awareness of what’s really possible… you’ll become truly free…

Free to grow…

Free to follow your dreams…

Free to be the person, do the things and go to the places that you really want…

When you recognise your true power and live it out, everything changes…

We can do this in different ways.

MY EXPERIENCE
I lived my entire youth thinking I was cognitively weak… Perhaps I was… Perhaps I still am… I don’t really care anymore…

But  sure used to care… I felt extremely inadequate most of the time but still wanted attention. Could’t get it academically so I had to try other ways:
* Be the funny guy
* Be the cool guy
* Be the tough guy

But this often happened at the cost of others, and my dignity…

This negative self image took me down a path of self-destructive habits which created a big whole in my life. I tried to fill this numbness with more stimulation, stuff & status… But it was all empty… My self-control, self-trust & self-image reached rock bottom… Shame crept in more and more & poisoned my soul… I found it next to impossible to have eye contact with people I looked up to & being honest was out of the question.
I felt unlovable, helpless, hopeless…

But when I was 16, something happened… By the grace of God, the Universe, Fate… i stumbled over an old book in our garage… It was called “The Art Of Being Happy” and was written 1912… When I look back today, I can see how this book was the starting point of my journey to raised awareness & gaining back a sense of control in my life.

So, now I’ll get into the part where I share the different ways of raising this awareness… this understanding of what we are truly capable of. Here are the strategies:

1. KNOW YOUR HEROES

“What one man can do, another man can do.”
– Robert A. Glover

“Just as much as we see in others we have in ourselves.”
-William Hazlitt

“I’ve argued this with a lot of people in my life. When people say God blessed me with a beautiful jump shot, it really pisses me off. I tell those people, ‘Don’t undermine the work I’ve put in every day.’ Not some days. Every day. Ask anyone who has been on a team with me; ‘Who shoots the most?’ Go back to Seattle and Milwaukee, and ask them. The answer is me.” – Ray Allen, (from the book “Peak”, written by K. Anders Ericsson

“We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” – Carol Dweck

Learn from the people who are have done “impossible” things.

Learn from Nick Vujicic…

Learn from Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King.

Learn from whoever you truly see as a hero…

And know that you also have the human power of choice, of not giving in for the easy path, of finding joy in every moment…

These people show us what is truly possible…

A great way to get to “know your heroes” is to read the autobiographies they have written, the interviews they’ve recorded & the words they’ve spoken. Also if you have the opportunity to meet someone who’s doing what you would like to be doing, this is by far the best way… They will tell you, you can to… If you love it enough… & re-committ daily… And overcome every obstacle that may be in the way…

They will teach you a truer picture of what we are truly capable of, and what it takes… to be great…

Do you believe these people are any different from you? More gifted? Better DNA?
Then, go on to the next strategy to understand these questions on a deeper level.  

2. STUDY HUMAN POTENTIAL 

NEUROPLASTICITY
“Your brain – every brain – is a work in progress. It is ‘plastic’ from the day we’re born to the day we die. It continuously revises and remodels, improving or slowly declining, as a function of how we use it.”
– Dr. Michael Merzenich

“After 22 years and 83.000 scans, the single most important lesson my colleges and I have learned, is that you can literally change peoples brains. And when you do, you change their life… You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better. And we can prove it.” – Daniel Amen MD.

NEUROGENESIS
“The first indications of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian brain were presented four decades ago, but it is only during the last years that it has been firmly established that new neurons are generated continuously from stem cells in certain regions of the adult brain in all studied mammals, including man.”– Tomas Hökfelt, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, April 3, 2003

MINDSET
“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
– Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success

When you begin to study the neuroscience of peak performance & human potential, you become truly free. The research is generally pointing towards the fat that we are more in control of our mental, physical & spiritual faculties than we ever though.

We are not only what happens to us, but what we choose to become, physically, mentally & spiritually.

But part from our amazing potential for improvement, we also have a scary tendency for stagnation, through our “lower nature”, the part of the brain we call “the limbic system”.

The goal of this part of the brain is to protect us from harm… Great… But not when the perceived potential harm is larger than the real “harm”.

3. STUDY THE WISDOM TRADITIONS

When you fill your mind with wisdom… And the wisdom is aligned with science… And the science is aligned with your experience… Deep convictions starts to take form… And this is where true power & confidence is to be found.

These wisdom traditions convey ideas about love, friendship, success, joy & all that is worthy in a life. These wisdom traditions are like a treasure, food for the soul. Fill your mind with them and see what happens…

These are some examples of wisdom I found liberating & empowering: 

“We all carry the seeds of greatness within us.”
– Epictetus (Stoic Philosophy)

“A man who controls his spirits is better than he who takes a city.”
– Proverbs 16:32 (Christianity & Judaism)

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
– Buddha (Buddhism) 

“As he thinks in his heart, so he will become.”
– Proverb 23:7 (Christianity & Judaism)

“Be the change yo wish to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi (Universalist)

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”
– Matthew 7:12 (Christianity)

“Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” 
-Swami Sivananda (Hinduism)

“The greatest jihad is to battle your own soul, to fight the evil within yourself.”
– Rasulullah Saw (Islam) 

4. GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

“Fear is nothing but bravery training.”
– Robin Sharma

When we have raised our awareness to higher levels, a natural consequence is that we will make some bowler decisions, in terms of our daily actions & attitudes.

Now when you’ve understood more of what you’re made of, it’s time to take massive action, learn massively from mistakes and set audacious goals.

Prove to yourself that you can…

Prove to yourself that you can become a better person…

You’ve got this!

MAKING IT HARD, NOT TO BELIEVE
When we get to know our heroes and let their actions reflect a more powerful view of human nature… 

When we study the neuroscience of human development… 

When we learn the wisdom of the ages & derive lessons from different religions…

When we’ve tried the ideas ourselves and seen results…

Then… it will be hard not to believe in the extraordinary capacity for human beings to take charge of their thinking, decisions & results.

***

Questions? Wonderings? Please let me know!

What’s stopping you from going after a remarkable life?

How can you work more on elevating your awareness?

With love,

Daniel