Journaling Through Leo's Life Purpose Course

[Phocus]

I bought Leo's Ultimate Life Purpose course a few months ago.  I made it through the first few videos but I wasn't fully ready to commit to it so I put it off.  In the past... 2 weeks I had the right series of events occur that really drove me to massively contemplate setting a radically new direction in my life:

• Read a book that stressed the importance of setting measurable goals and taking immediate action
• Leo's video on the importance of being a Strategic Mother Fucker
• A failed job interview, which trigger a bunch of deep thinking about why..
• A LONG conversation with an older (65) coworker about life, anything and everything

Finally, after all of this, I realized that if I am going to be committing myself to this new (unknown) direction, I should invest some energy in making sure that I am going the right way.  Thus, it is now time to complete the course.

In the interest of preserving the integrity of the course, I won't be posting my notes or other course related material, but mostly about my inner monologue related to it and my reaction to different concepts.

[Phocus]

Leo has had a very interesting journey.  His innate drive for a strategic sense of purpose is very interesting, no doubt either a result of some early childhood events or genetics.

A bit of an incongruence that I noticed though, is that Leo was originally inspired by a consultant who worked 1/3 of the year and then was free to do as he pleased the other 2/3rds.  He greatly valued the freedom that this type of work-concept could produce.  It seems as though Actualized.org is the opposite of that though, as it now continuously requires HIS personal attention.  There is no one else that he can delegate this work to and if he stops working, his business stops.

A theme that I have heard repeated by a number of content producers that I really respect is that they have all studied the lives of great men and women throughout history.  Julius Caesar, Ghandi, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Plato, Mother Teresa, the list goes on... we all recognize the names but do you truly know their stories?  Their Struggle?  Their sacrifice? Their wisdom?  My current task list is fairly long but this will definitely be added to it.

[nbolt]

2 minutes ago, Phocus said:

A bit of an incongruence that I noticed though, is that Leo was originally inspired by a consultant who worked 1/3 of the year and then was free to do as he pleased the other 2/3rds.  He greatly valued the freedom that this type of work-concept could produce.  It seems as though Actualized.org is the opposite of that though, as it now continuously requires HIS personal attention.  There is no one else that he can delegate this work to and if he stops working, his business stops.

This comment.. seems kind of strange to me. The point is that his work with actualized.org IS the freedom he was looking for. He's doing exactly what he wants to be doing in life, instead of working for other people on other things he doesn't care about. What were you expecting, him to become a couch potato after he made his first million?

[Phocus]

As mentioned in another thread, It seems as though the obvious answer to the question of life purpose is to pursue raising the level of consciousness and awareness of the masses.  I don't know if this is a trap, as by all of our participation in this community we are already demonstrating some level of passion for personal development/enlightenment, but for now I won't dismiss this and will continue to evaluate/reevaluate it as I go through this course.

I love the heroes journey.  Again, a topic I am familiar with but I don't have the depth of knowledge in this area that I feel like something of this topic's importance is warranted.  I love the reframe that Leo offers related to "threshold guardians".  In my own words, their purpose is not to stop you from conquering them and claiming the prize they guard, their purpose is to only allow the "worthy" access to their prizes.  It also highlights the change in meaning that these prizes undergo when they represent your blood, sweat and tears; not just a shiny trinket you bought or were given.

Through my introspection, as I've considered a variety of the different "world changing life purposes", I have also uncovered one of my first major "inner demons": I am afraid of not being traditionally successful (aka, being wealthy, having a hot spouse, various other things associated with status).  This was somewhat of a sleeper for me as it doesn't present itself in me the same way that it does for most people.  I don't care about my clothing, my car, or a number of other superficial things.  But I do care about some stuff, and the idea of committing my life to something that doesn't produce a 7 figure salary is somewhat frightening.  My lower self thinks "if I'm going to be investing that level of effort and energy into anything, then there needs to be a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light needs to come with a lot of zeros after it".

Leo asks "Are you proud of the work you do?  Are you proud of the way you live your life?"  The first one is easy, I am proud of what I do.  The second one though, has much deeper implications... The answer to that question, is more related to why I am taking this on in the first place.

[Phocus]

24 minutes ago, Neill Bolton said:

This comment.. seems kind of strange to me. The point is that his work with actualized.org IS the freedom he was looking for. He's doing exactly what he wants to be doing in life, instead of working for other people on other things he doesn't care about. What were you expecting, him to become a couch potato after he made his first million?

Leo has mentioned several times on the forums, and at least twice that I've seen in videos, that the greatest barrier to his own personal development and self actualization is Actualized.org.  It does allow him to generate income while pursuing his passion, but it comes with obligations.

[nbolt]

17 minutes ago, Phocus said:

Leo has mentioned several times on the forums, and at least twice that I've seen in videos, that the greatest barrier to his own personal development and self actualization is Actualized.org.  It does allow him to generate income while pursuing his passion, but it comes with obligations.

That doesn't mean this is not what he wants to be doing right now. Life is a journey and there are only 24 hours in the day, we can't do anything and everything at once. There will definitely come a time where his activity with actualized.org dies down and he moves onto the next stage of his life. He already has plenty of money, if he wanted to move onto other things this very moment, he's perfectly capable of doing so, but he still has work to do here.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Neill Bolton

[Phocus]

2 minutes ago, Neill Bolton said:

That in no way means this is not what he wants to be doing right now. Life is a journey and there are only 24 hours in the day, we can't do anything and everything at once. There will definitely come a time where his activity with actualized.org dies down and he moves onto the next stage of his life.

Agreed, he is a smart man and if it truly opposed his long term goals then he would no longer be doing it.  At some point in the future his relationship with Actualized.org will change to support the new goals he has most likely.

That being said, at the time of writing this, and when I listened to that portion of the course, that paradox (or whatever you want to call it) exists.

I am not trying to imply that Leo is somehow not practicing what he preaches.  As he has discussed and we can all clearly see, he truly is one of the few who does.  Just making an observation.  I could have worded that original post better to convey that message more clearly.

[nbolt]

7 minutes ago, Phocus said:

that paradox

the paradoxes of life...  

[Phocus]

It's been a while since I really read this 7 year old report of myself, but it is still spot on.  I can also see the greater implications of these particular strengths.  Very interesting.

pdf.pdf

[Phocus]

I struggled a bit with my egoic need for financial status but I think the most recent set of videos have helped me to correct that perspective.  As Leo said, not only is following your life purpose the best way to change the world, it's also the best way to make piles of money so... there really is no other option.  Submit to the process.  Create your art and give your gift to the world.

I LOVE the story about Joseph Campbell's journey to mastery and the discovery of the heroes journey.  Not only that, but the unavoidable trap that he... avoided.  Such a brilliant man.  I can say, with a 100% degree of certainty, that I would not have been able to do what he did.  It's really amazing and inspiring.  It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Today, I noticed that my day job feels much less like a chore.  Even that career, which was initially chosen by chance, is now imbued with purpose.  It is supporting me while I pursue this journey.  It makes me appreciate the comfortable life that I am able to afford while I pursue this endeavor.  I know that I'll need to scale back the quality of life that I am accustomed to though or it will take much longer to transition into doing work that supports my life purpose.  You can't change the world working part time.

[Phocus]

It's funny, because I have read most of the books referenced thus far in the course but without the strategy that Leo employs, they all just end up as "neat little facts" that I learn about life.  None of them turn into the powerful, life-changing revelations that they are meant to be until you understand that context with which to apply them.  Most people I talk to in personal-development know about the 10,000 hour rule but... I couldn't apply it to the work I do currently so it gets tossed away a factoid I can recite.  Truly embrace the radical nature of something as simple as that.  That one small fact hold the key to unlimited greatness, ESPECIALLY if your chosen path is not music, artwork or sports.  For a long time I have advised people "It doesn't matter what you pick, you can make a LOT of money doing anything, as long as you do it well enough.  The hardest part is just picking one thing." but I didn't follow my own advice.

The synergy between the life purpose course and the free videos is also quite remarkable.  Now, I can see how these deep insights can help supercharge my mission, which is really what they are for.  Up until I started this, it was just cool factoids that I enjoyed learning about because I am a self-help junkie and recognizing the truth of those principals makes you feel good.  Now they are powerful tools.  Truly amazing gifts that Leo is handing out for free.

When I consider spending $100 on a nice night out, I don't really think twice.  Go have a nice dinner, a few drinks, who knows what else.  But... spend $100 on books?  "Man, that's a lot of books.  Maybe I should only get a couple right now."  Old me, you've got to go.  Oh yeah, I guess I need to actually read them, huh?

Edit: I actually only had about $50 worth of books I was considering buying but after that I am going to make a point to checkout with no less than $100.

[Phocus]

It's been a few days but, wow, I've had some POWERFUL and life-changing experiences.  My perspective on the world has begun to completely transform.  I'm going to have to re-read/listen to a variety of personal development content because I just see things so differently now.  I am only through about 2/3rds of the "core concepts" but I believe I have already found my "bliss".  It came to me spontaneously one night while lying in bed reflecting on a very unsatisfying and, somewhat unpleasant, conversation with my girlfriend.  I was talking to her about some of thoughts related to enlightenment and described this conflict I was having between my "inner demons" which were pushing me to pursue that which would manifest material wealth instead of pursuing enlightenment.  Throughout our "conversation" she just sat and stared at me blankly, offering nothing.  I had solicited for feedback from her a few times but it was all very cold and forced.  This bothered me.  A lot.  As I was lying in bed I was reflecting on a variety of things related to this experience and why this bothered me so much. But, it just sort of hit me "it bothers me because deep conversations are my thing.  Oh, deep conversations are my thing!"  The language used to describe this isn't very powerful but it was a moving experience.

Deep conversations are something that many people enjoy but I have always sought out friends and strangers alike to better understand what their life-experience is like.  A genuine curiosity.  Throughout this process I have raised my awareness and become conscious of this.  Other people have also recognized this in me as well.  I still want to keep my mind open to other possibilities but if nothing else, this has been a great experience for how I could find other purposes should this one not pan out to be as practically applicable.

The conversation around enlightenment was triggered by Leo's most recent video about enlightenment and had an enormous impact on me.  I was already suppressing the belief that I should be pursuing enlightenment and he pretty much said "you're a fucking idiot if you're not pursuing enlightenment".  For a while I was conflicted about how that would fit in with my life purpose but, I realized "Enlightenment wouldn't get in the way of my passion, it would supercharge it".  The depth of compassion and rapport that I would be able to develop in conjunction with my natural analytical abilities, ect..

How I've Consumed the Course's Material

The method that I have developed has been very effective in saturating my mind with these concepts and I think it has facilitated this transformation.  The videos for this course are not downloadable or accessible offline in any way and initially I thought that was kind of annoying but I recognized that this is actually a hidden gift.  Here is what I do:

• First time through, I watch the video seated at my desk, free of distractions.  I take notes via a digital notepad and review the notes at the end of the video.  I have only skipped notes on a few of the videos as they covered concepts presented in books that I had already read and was very familiar with.
• Throughout my day I will re-listen to the videos that were particularly interesting/valuable while doing other activities (driving, doing chores around the house, ect..) to make sure that I fully understand the concepts presented.
• I also have friend at work and my girlfriend who are interested in some of these concepts so, where possible, I teach them about the ideas presented and their application.  This way, I have to understand the concepts completely and fully so that I can explain them and answer questions about them.

As Leo has mentioned in some of his earlier videos, you need to work the course harder than it is working you.  Your results will be proportional to the amount of energy you invest in the program.  If you actually want to change your life, it is going to take a lot of work.  That's why nobody does it!

[Phocus]

Haha...