Applying Theory To Everyday Life: A Musician's Perspective

[Liam Johnson]

@Zane Thank you! It's come as a result of trying to be creative with what I have, and it would be incredibly satisfying to try something like that on the street. Glad to see you're a supporter of fellow performers! It sounds like you have a special connection with your creative muse, which is great news. It's evident that you've found your passion in life. Coincidentally, my housemate also has similar dreams for himself along the lines of creative writing but he lacks the self-confidence and the belief that he can achieve it. I try to encourage him as best as I can when he talks about what he wants for his future. Maybe he could use some of your inspiration :-)

Also I LOVE improv comedy!

[Zane]

1 hour ago, Liam Johnson said:

@Zane Thank you! It's come as a result of trying to be creative with what I have, and it would be incredibly satisfying to try something like that on the street. Glad to see you're a supporter of fellow performers! It sounds like you have a special connection with your creative muse, which is great news. It's evident that you've found your passion in life. Coincidentally, my housemate also has similar dreams for himself along the lines of creative writing but he lacks the self-confidence and the belief that he can achieve it. I try to encourage him as best as I can when he talks about what he wants for his future. Maybe he could use some of your inspiration :-)

Also I LOVE improv comedy!

Thanks Liam!!!!!!! We should keep in touch and get to know each other better because i love talking to fellow creatives. I would also love to motivate your housemate. What i've learned and what i'm applying is the ZFG (Zero F@cks Given) Principle which means to act on your creative instincts and tell the inner critic "SHUT THE F@CK UP AND GET OFF MY BACK!!!!" I've been focusing on just writing and enjoying it and reciting poetry and getting into the flow of it and even if i stumble, I find another poem. I've been acting with a "nothing to lose" and "fuck it" mindset where you motivate yourself to do it or you'll regret it. I also tend to debate myself internally and can be resistant but I'm working on being defiant to resistance. I have a rebellious spirit regarding creativity. For example, i go to comedy shows and actively congratulate the comedians and one of the comedians involved me in their act and i also got a reputation as "our favorite audience member" at my favorite theaters. I'm learning how to balance a devil may care attitude with passion, chutzpah, charisma and not caring. But anyways, i would love to mentor you and join you on your self-actualization journey. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Zane

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 37 | How To Learn

Theory: Your ability to learn is influenced by your amount of faith/love in the subject and your persistence to repeat it.

Applying it: When you repeat something with the intention to learn it, make sure that you do it with plenty of faith/love to get the best results.

 

So I've just finished chapter 4 of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This was all about 'auto-suggestion,' which, in short, is the agency through which your conscious mind communicates with your subconscious mind. It happens all the time and can either be a constructive force or a destructive force. This will become relevant later.

As part of my career aspirations, I want to be able to offer teaching services for musicians to not only show them how to play the guitar but also how to develop the right attitudes to become successful. And what better way to provide my services than to teach someone how to learn effectively.

I started to contemplate the process of learning things last night when suddenly the realization hit me in the form of this quote from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill:

Quote

Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts upon ONLY thoughts which have been well-mixed with emotion or feeling.

1

Immediately, 10 years worth of learning how to play guitar came flooding back to me. I realised why my learning ability has become so developed over the years. I had been unconsciously following this secret formula to learning my craft. I'll explain it the best I can.

 

What IS learning?

Fundamentally, learning is the process of delivering information to your subconscious mind. In other words, it's the attempt to take a new skill or teaching and make it an automated, unconscious process.

When I first started playing the guitar, it took lots of focus to perform the most basic chords. I had to make a conscious effort to move my fingers to make the right chord shapes. It was very mentally taxing. But with lots of patience and persistence, those chords gradually became easier to perform. Fast-forward to the present day and I can now replicate those same chords in a split second without needing to make a conscious effort. It has become an automated process.

The most obvious reason why I learned these chords is because I repeated them. A lot!

But there was a more subtle and powerful force at work during the times that I sat learning these chords. It was the force that kept me from quitting early. Of course, it was faith. I always had faith that I could accomplish what I set out to achieve. Because of that faith, the option of quitting never even occurred to me.

It turns out that this faith had a wonderful impact on my learning. As I developed more faith in my abilities as the years went on, I was able to learn at a faster rate than everyone around me. I was able to learn the most difficult guitar pieces such as No Boundaries by Michael Angelo Batio (see the pick of the day) before I had turned 16.

This is where the quote becomes relevant. My emotion was faith. And without that faith, my subconscious mind would not be able to recognise or act upon my desires to improve. It wouldn't matter how many times I repeated things to myself. Without that faith, I would NEVER have been able to transfer my skills and teachings to my subconscious mind. Therefore, I would never have been able to truly learn them.

Quote

Faith is the strongest, and most productive of the emotions

Also, as I got older and my faith was not as necessary, I started to replace the emotion with love. When this happens, you take on the learning process as a joy rather than a chore. This love triggers the power of auto-suggestion just as faith does. You learn just as effectively.

 

To learn anything effectively requires two things from you: your persistence to repeat the skill/teaching for long periods of time, and faith in yourself to accomplish your desires. Without either one of these components, the formula doesn't work.

 

Pick of the day: No Boundaries - Michael Angelo Batio (it's loud!)

[Liam Johnson]

@Zane That's a wonderful principle! It stops you from doing your art to please other people and forces you to do your art simply out of love. I adopt a similar attitude that says "if I like it, other people will too." I'd be interested in keeping in touch and following your journey too!

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 38 | Visualisation

Theory: By having a constant visualisation of the person you want to become throughout your day, you can start to connect with it and create new thinking patterns that align with that vision.

Applying it: Whenever you come across a problem or a challenge, ask yourself "what would my future self do?"

 

Anybody who has made it to this forum will no doubt have come across visualisation. There's no reason to talk about the many benefits that it brings because everyone should recognise them. What I'm interested in is making the connection between your present self and your future self.

First of all, you must have a vision for how you want your future to turn out. For each person, the details might be different but the general assumption is that we all want to reach this place where we are living in accordance with our highest values. We want to reach our deathbed feeling fulfilled at our journey through life. Once you sit down and do a visualisation exercise, you can begin to paint a mental picture of what this will look like.

Doing proper visualisations like this is something that I'm working towards as part of my daily routine. However, I discovered a neat little trick that links in with these visualisation exercises. Something that can be applied to any problem or situation in your everyday life. Furthermore, it keeps you focused on your visualisation of your future self.

The trick is to look at your circumstance and ask yourself "what would my future self do in this situation?"

Now I appreciate that this is not a new concept for some people. I've been told about it a year or so ago. But now that I have a clear image of my future self, I have only just begun to appreciate the potential in this technique. And as this is my journal, I have to speak about these "a-ha!" moments because they are really fun!

This moment came around when I was overly thinking about a friend I used to have. We've not spoken face-to-face in over half a year and previous attempts to meet up have flopped. Honestly, this got to me. I kept thinking about him with thoughts such as "how can he just let me down like that? Why does he not keep his agreements?"

I noticed every single one of these thoughts and tried to counter them the best I could. I revised some of my commitments which included to stop blaming and criticising others and love them unconditionally. Sure it did some good but there was still a bit of anger there that wouldn't go away. Then the "a-ha!" moment hit me when I asked "what would HE do?" He being the future version of myself in my visualisations.

As soon as I popped the question, a calming voice rose within me and said "he wouldn't be bothered by it. He would be doing so many important activities and have more important people in his life that he would never feel the need to get angry over it. He would even consider severing ties with this friend."

The voice appeared to me in such a way that the connection between my current self and my future self was genuine. It was him saying it. And through the way he delivered the words, he was coming from a place of sincere honesty and love. This removed my anger indefinitely allowing for my commitments to rise above the hate.

What this experience taught me is that commitments on their own aren't going to be enough to talk my ego down. In order to eliminate my ego fully, I have to focus on my visualisations and consult my future self constantly. 

I've grown enough awareness to recognise the bad habits that I'm capable of. By consulting my future self to help me deal with them all, I can create a pathway that takes me one step closer to embodying it.

(Shit, I just had another epiphany upon typing those words! This process is the legitimate way to embody your Higher Self.)

It's so funny how I can go off into a daze with writing/speaking and then suddenly realise the significance of what I just said. Now I understand how vital this technique is going to be if I have any hopes of embodying my future self. It's not a matter of waiting for the future self to arrive. It's a matter of inviting him into your mind NOW!

 

Pick of the day: Pendulum Music - Steve Reich

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 39 | Complex Scenarios

Theory: If someone expresses their worries to you, it will not benefit them if you list all the reasons why they shouldn't worry. If you really want to help them, the approach you should take is way deeper than this.

Applying it: Use two versions of The Model to simulate an interaction between two people. The first one should be your reaction to them stating their worries. The second one should be their reaction to your response.

 

During my applied self-actualization work today, I became fascinated by this concept. When someone tells you their worries and you try to cheer them up by listing the ways they can outgrow their worries, it almost never works. Sooner or later, they become worried again over the same things.

So in my ever playfulness to learn about this, I decided to write up a back-to-back Model for the scenario. One Model for myself and another Model for the other person. To recap, the Model looks like this:

Circumstances:

Thoughts:

Feelings:

Actions:

Results:

 

Through this method, I was able to locate the problem. The problem occurs as soon as I have the thoughts "They shouldn't be worrying" and "I want to bring an end to their worrying."

As soon as I have these thoughts, I take it upon myself to sort their worries out for them. This obviously doesn't work. Furthermore, by saying that the person shouldn't be worrying, I'm making a criticism. And criticisms, just like worries, are what Gay Hendricks describes as "Upper Limit behaviours." These are a list of behaviours that prevent a person from living in their Zone of Genius.

So by having the thought "They shouldn't be worrying," I am preventing myself from living in my Zone of Genius.

Not only that, when I did another model using the circumstance "a person tells you the reasons why you shouldn't worry," the following thoughts proved to me that it doesn't solve the worrying problem.

Obviously, I have no idea what thoughts go on in other people's mind. So I answered the second model as though someone was giving me a list of reasons to stop worrying. My thoughts were "Yeah but you don't understand" and "You're not in my position." These thoughts create feelings of isolation and hopelessness without solving the worry problem.

I hope that makes sense! In short, when you take it upon yourself to try and sort out another person's worries, you limit yourself to failure no matter how good you feel giving them advice.

So the question is: what do we do instead?

On the one hand, I could just let the person worry needlessly and get on with my own life. But that option doesn't sit well with me. Especially as someone who wants to perhaps offer my services as a coach (among other things), I wanted to find a way to get around this dilemma. Also, I needed to change my original thought of "They shouldn't be worrying" into something that will help me live in my Zone of Genius.

To replace this thought, I tried using thoughts such as "That's an Upper Limit behaviour" and "I wonder which of the Four Hidden Barriers is causing them to worry." To people who haven't read The Big Leap, these thoughts won't make much sense to you. But you can appreciate that these thoughts, which are significant to me, are planted to create feelings of wonder and curiosity about the other person. Rather than criticising the other person's behaviours, I'm developing an interest in what is going on inside their head that is causing them to worry.

Once I did two models again with the new thoughts, I realised that it could have the potential to influence the other person to raise their awareness of their own psychology. By asking them questions like "how are you holding yourself back from letting go of your worries?," I encourage them to think deeper about their worries and examine what their thought processes are. This would be a more likely way to solve the worry problems as they can simply disappear with the right amount of awareness about them.

I should mention that this is the first day that I've considered this angle. I've not had the chance to try it out on anyone yet so I can't be sure of its effectiveness. However, what I can be sure of is that this method of thinking and responding will better align myself with my Zone of Genius and it can potentially raise the other person's awareness and get rid of their worry problems.

It is a much better method to use rather than spitting facts about why the other person doesn't need to worry.

 

Pick of the day: Rollerblade bottle tune guy - Michel Lauzière

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 40 | Reflection

This last week alone has felt so incredibly thorough. I can't believe that the deadline was only on Tuesday: it feels like a month ago!

I remember going to bed last night feeling so fulfilled with how much effort I put into it that I just laughed myself to sleep. These days, I tend to laugh a lot when overwhelming, beautiful realisations happen. It's not funny by anyone's standards but it just feels so good that I can't help myself!

That's not to say that the last few days have been without their bad moments. Sure there were times when I felt angry, upset, frustrated, etc. But I no longer worry too much about these emotions. My purpose in life has been defined: I want to master my emotions, my psychology and my life. This has become my focus for every minute that passes by and when moments of clarity and understanding occur, DAMN that feels good!

My determination to master myself has grown stronger and stronger each day. My ego is weakening gradually as it no longer tries to talk me out of doing the things I know I should be doing. Oh it's still there, but it's weaker now than ever before. Progress is being made.

I have engrained several habits into my being now including meditation, gym/swimming, applied self-actualisation, shopping for healthy foods, journaling, reading and, most recently, visualization. Although there may have been times when I couldn't complete an activity now and again, there was no moment in which I told myself "I don't want to do this anymore." Quitting these habits is not an option anymore now that I can see the benefits that they possess.

My university work got handed in like a boss! I finished my movie assignments 4 days before the deadline and handed in the final written diary on the deadline. My performance exam with the trio is this Tuesday so there might be something worthwhile journaling about there.

I just want to talk about my fitness routine for a moment. In the past, I used to go 3 days a week for 90mins. It worked to some degree as I gained a lot of muscle when I first started at 16. Although my commitment to those 3 days was pretty loose, which caused me to take entire months off because of "lack of free time."

After hearing Leo stating that 30mins a day will work wonders, I decided to give this ago back in October. I went every single day for around 30mins, culminating in a full-body workout every 5 days, and only took time during the holidays and the occasional inconvenient days. I never wanted to become big and muscly like the hardcore gym enthusiasts because that would actually pose a threat to my physical ability to play guitar. All I wanted was to have decent muscles, generally high fitness levels throughout the rest of the day, and perhaps a 6-pack body.

After a few months of solid dedication, my body looks fitter now than it ever did in the past. This has somewhat to do with my decision to avoid unhealthy foods as well. But looking at how my body looks today, I feel incredibly proud of myself to have made the progress I have made. My body and my vision for my body are starting to emerge: I feel fit and nimble throughout the rest of the day, my muscles are pretty decent and that 6-pack is starting to become chiselled.

"Wanting that kind of body is a shallow, materialistic desire that won't bring you fulfilment," I hear you cry! Let me just clarify that I don't prioritise this goal above my other goals. In fact, I believe it falls neatly under the category of wanting to master one's self. I've had this goal since I was 16 and only now I have discovered the right technique to acquire it. In the future, I'll be looking at that body in the mirror with admiration as it reminds me that I can achieve any goal that I set myself.

These last few days, I have really been feeling that statement. I CAN achieve any goal I set myself. No matter what. Last night, when I was doing some self-talk about my visualization, I had a moment of "Hang on, when did I start believing in myself so deeply?" It was a wonderful moment to realise that I was coming up with these grand desires for my life without feeling the need to criticise them and think "That's aiming a bit too high."

I feel like a freight train taking up speed. There isn't a force on this earth that can stop me from reaching my desires. I have become one determined motherfucker!

 

Pick of the day: Freight Train - Nitro

(I'm so sorry, it had to be done!)

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 41 | Taking Full Responsibility

Theory: If you want to be a leader in life, you must take responsibility for everything that happens within it. Never play the victim.

Applying it: Whenever someone or something does an 'injustice' to you, don't start blaming and criticising the situation. Instead, accept the consequences and take the blame for it.

 

This theory was reminded to me during my reading of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I've heard about "emotional childhood" and "emotional adulthood" before which says the same thing. We have to take responsibility for how we think and feel about any situation in life if we want to create positive changes.

So last night, I spoke with one of my old friends. He's the same guy who I mentioned a few days ago: the one who keeps breaking his agreements to meet up and hang out. In our conversation, I decided to show my curiosity for his behaviours by asking him about them. He deflected the questions pretty quickly, insisting that he really would like to see me. So we arranged to meet up one more time and, of course, it was a no-show.

He hasn't messaged me since we arranged to meet up, even though he has appeared on Facebook a few times already. But fortunately, I'm not like most of my friends in that I'll turn it into some big drama. I won't make it mean that he really doesn't want to see me and that I'm a social failure. That sounds so laughable now! It's scary to think that those might have been my thought patterns last year.

All I know is that I have to take full responsibility for the circumstance. Rather than portraying myself as a victim, I portray myself as the culprit. It was by my doing that we arranged to meet up. I take the fall myself.

With this mindset, I can program my mind to work on a solution. Namely, my decision is that I don't want to meet up with him again because my time would be better invested in something else. I need to make the time to live in my Zone of Genius, and by arranging to meet up with my friend who decides not to turn up, I limit the amount of time that I can spend in my Zone of Genius.

Although the situation may have caused me some anger last night, my ability to recognise his Upper Limit behaviour allows for me to sympathise with him. Even if he can't see it for himself, I can see how he is creating an integrity breach for himself by not keeping his agreements. This behaviour will inevitably cause him some negative feelings in the future.

Because I can see his Upper Limit behaviours, I can fully forgive him. Genuinely. And, believe me, it's taken a good deal of practice to reach this point. When someone does you 'wrong,' it can be very easy to get sucked into a whirlwind of anger and frustration with such thoughts like "how dare he break his agreement to meet up with me?" With this deeper understanding, I can feel bad for the guy without a trace of hatred. Even more so when he appears to be oblivious to it himself.

Also, by taking full responsibility of the situation for myself, I feel no urge to prove to him how it is HIS fault. Sure he has a habit of breaking agreements but that doesn't excuse the fact that I allowed the situation to happen. Furthermore, I created the situation. Collaboratively, maybe, but indefinitely.

While I may not be able to help him overcome his Upper Limit Problem, I have to remain true to myself and do the activities that align with my life purpose. I have to do self-actualization work, meditation, music work, house work, visualisation time... Anything that I know will get me where I want to be.

To cap this entry off, I just want to mention that in my visualisations, my friend didn't appear in any of them. In trying to connect with my future self, I realised that this self was living his life without even thinking about my friend. Perhaps, even, forgetting him. And most intriguingly, these visualisations came long before yesterday. It seems right for me that I don't have this guy in my life. It's a shame that he is a nice guy but if that's what my future holds, I embrace it with open arms.

Without taking full responsibility of my actions, I might have told this story differently by saying how I was the victim and my friend was the culprit. But instead, I willingly accept my mistakes. It was, indeed, my fault that this happened. And it will be my decision to end the friendship on peaceful terms, rather than hateful ones.

 

Pick of the day: Carrot clarinet | Linsey Pollak | TEDxSydney

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 42 | Life Is Easy

Theory: We are the ones that make our own lives difficult. We can choose to live a simpler, easier life if we want to.

Applying it: Try to make your life as easy as possible by avoiding unnecessary activities and doing the things you want to do most.

 

Last night, I binge-watched a few TED talks after posting about the carrot clarinet yesterday (I think that's so cool!). Upon watching a few, I found myself deeply moved by a talk by Jon Jandai entitled "Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard?" He demonstrates how his simple life is incredibly easy compared to the standard Western life that we generally live. I'd never heard of him before but I can tell through his calming tone of voice and personality that he genuinely loves life.

Something resonated with me after watching this talk. Maybe it's because my childhood years weren't too long ago (I'm 20), but I was able to relate to how easy life was. I could remember my childhood being particularly easy and playful. I was one of the smarter kids in primary school and I loved to play around. This was long before I learned how to play guitar.

Of course, one very good reason why I had a very easy childhood is that my parents raised me well. They encouraged my learning, taught me many invaluable lessons and, consciously or not, taught me delayed gratification. Stress was an emotion that I never had to experience as a child.

But the main reason why life was easy as a child was because of my mindset. My outlook on life.

Sure, I hadn't been introduced to 'real-life' things like earning money, cleaning the house, cooking for the family, and so on. However, I remember giving these things a go and having fun during the process. My gran used to let me deliver the local newspaper to everyone's house nearby. It used to be so fun to just run around and engage with all the people who lived nearby in an indirect way. For my efforts, I received my payment: 50p. Maybe even £1 or 2 if I was lucky.

Try and get a kid nowadays to do the same job for that price. It probably wouldn't happen. But that tiny little paycheck meant a lot to me. I could buy a bar of Dairy Milk from the shop to reward myself for the day's work. Or I could just put the money in my piggy bank and save it up.

But the deeper reason why that tiny little job filled me with satisfaction is because of my mindset at the time. I believed that I could be of good service to my gran and the people on the street. Without me delivering the papers, nobody would be able to read up on the latest events in the village. I was effectively bringing this information directly to people's doors and having fun doing it. I didn't need any training or experience to do my job, nor did I actually need the paycheck at the end. The whole process just felt like a fun little challenge for me.

That mindset made it such an easy job! But in this society, we are constantly being told to work harder, earn more money, get a house, get a wife, have kids, do this, do that... We are more bombarded now with information and advice than we ever have been before, thanks to the internet. And of course, some of this information is extremely beneficial. But there is a danger of information overload.

There's also this assumption that if we want to succeed at something, we need as much information about that thing as possible. I'm incredibly guilty of this! I promised not to read my books too quickly but my excitement got the better of me. I wanted to know the information as soon as possible. But by constantly pursuing knowledge and information, I forgot about what makes my life so easy. I had abandoned that happy-go-lucky attitude that I once had as a kid. My mindset became "life is difficult, so I need to arm myself with as much knowledge as possible to master it."

What this TED talk reminded me is that LIFE IS EASY! If I really wanted to, I could learn how to build my own house using my own resources. However, the most immediate thing in my life that reminds me it's easy is playing guitar. I've reached the point where guitar playing is incredibly easy. So easy that I would happily be able to play continuous music from morning til night. When I start making money through my guitar playing, it will become easy to make money. How so? Because that will be my mindset. If I focus on how easy it will be to earn money through guitar playing, I will make it happen through the Law of Attraction.

The truth is all in the mindset. If you believe life is difficult, you will live your life making subconscious choices that make your life more difficult. If you believe life is easy, you live your life making subconscious choices that make your life easier.

You can still aim high! You can still pursue that £1 million or that dream spouse if you want to. But if you can pursue it with the mindset "Life is easy. This is easy," it will come so much more smoothly to you and you will never have to stress about it again.

So make sure you know for sure that life is easy. There must be no doubts in your mind that try to convince you otherwise. Life is easy. Fin.

 

Pick of the day: Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard? | Jon Jandai | TEDxDoiSuthep

Edited January 23, 2017 by Liam Johnson

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 43 | Criticism

Theory: Performing your art is the most difficult when you face critics. Your inner game must be strong enough to block out the criticism from your mind and focus on what you do best.

Applying it: Use visualization to imagine yourself performing effortlessly without fear of criticism. Also, practice as much as you can to become as comfortable as you can with the music.

 

I had my performance exam today with the folk trio. Exams are very interesting. The whole situation of performing to a bunch of lecturers who critique every note you play can evoke some nervousness, to say the least! All in all, the performance went well and all of us were satisfied with the final performance.

In terms of myself, I was surprisingly anxious during the exam. A little bit of anxiety during a performance is actually a good thing for musicians. It stops you from becoming careless and keeps you focussed. Sometimes, however, the anxiety can become a bit too much.

Whilst my levels of anxiety weren't abnormally high, they were high enough to paralyze me slightly. Some of the more intricate passages of the music felt more difficult to play with the levels of anxiety in my body. Even though those passages have caused no issues in rehearsals leading up to the exam, they suddenly leaped out as a problem.

Whilst my performance was largely absent of mistakes, the critic inside of me always points out the moments where I could have played the music better. And in an exam, I believe that these things will be picked up on by the examiner. But by constantly adopting this mindset, I end up becoming distracted from my performance and inadvertently end up making more slip-ups.

My anxiety levels have nothing to do with the fact that it is an examination. They have everything to do with my thoughts about the examination. There's a part of me that feels under pressure to NOT make any mistakes in an exam situation. And guess what happens when I focus on that? I make mistakes. Not only that, I beat myself up about it afterwards.

I obviously have some work to do to strengthen my inner game when it comes to performance exams. More specifically, I have to strengthen my inner game when it comes to performing in the face of brutal criticism. There's a part of me that believes that examinations on performance are wrong. There should be no need for others to be highly critical about an art form. However, the truth is that if I want to become a successful musician in the future, I must prepare myself to face that kind of criticism in the future because it will happen.

Fortunately, I feel like I know what I must do. The first thing is that I must practice my pieces until they become very comfortable. Easier said than done but the more comfortable I am with a piece of music, the more effortless it will be to perform under pressure.

The second thing I must do is visualize myself performing in these situations of high pressure. I did this with my world music performance last year. In fact, my visualization was so accurate that I felt no anxiety whatsoever during the actual exam. In the same way I must get comfortable with the music, I must get comfortable with the situation in which I perform that music. And the best way to do this on a daily basis is through visualization.

This is a very specific challenge that only really applies to musicians, dancers, actors, public speakers, or other stage performers. However, there are many situations in life that put us under pressure to 'perform.' This includes job interviews, sex, sport, meditation, and all sorts of activities that require our best efforts to reach the best possible outcomes.

In each of these activities, we put ourselves in a vulnerable position that welcomes criticism. Even something like meditation does this through self-criticism. If you criticize yourself harshly because you were unable to remain focused, that will have a negative impact on your mental well-being. You have to improve your inner game so that this criticism can be dodged like water off a duck's back.

It seems like the best way to do this is through practice and visualization. For example, I can confidently play the most basic guitar chords to anyone without fear of being criticized for them. This is because I have practiced them for over 10 years now and I know that I am good at playing them. If someone does criticize the way I play those chords, it seems laughable to me. I will hardly get offended at it.

You need to practice enough until you get the mindset that "I am good at this." Better still, "I have mastered this." When you reach this point, criticism will bounce off you without affecting your self-esteem. You could say that visualization is just a form of practice that focuses on strengthening your inner game. This is especially necessary for things like job interviews where you only have one shot at it. By practicing your job interview skills through visualization, you become more confident and comfortable in the real-life situation.

So that is what I need to do. I have a big recital to perform in May which is going to count a lot towards my final grade at the end of university. This is the work I need to do in order to reach that recital with the strongest mindset possible.

 

Pick of the day: Evelyn Glennie | Playing Around The Office | Part 4 – Tam Tam

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 44 | Remaining Present

Theory: By focussing on the present moment as often as possible, your existence becomes increasingly more fulfilling.

Applying it: Forget about the past, worry less about the future, and try to understand and focus on what you have now.

 

A few days ago, my flatmate and I engaged in some deep conversations about the topics I love to explore. This was the first time I ever told him about my passion for self-actualization. It was a wonderful change in mood to our usual interactions which generally involve him going to extraordinary lengths to describe some story that happened to him in the past.

Sadly, this new dynamic didn't last long. He continues to tell his stories and I continue to listen to them. The trouble is that I'm not interested in his stories. I don't care about what funny thing happened to him on a night out, nor do I care about his interactions with his family members.

What do care about is HIM. I want to get to know him more deeply as a human being. In other words, I don't care about his past or his future. I care about who he is in the present moment.

From the number of stories that he tells me, what I gather is that he doesn't grasp the significance of the present moment. This is evident when I remain silent for a while. Often, I feel no need to say something because I'm just appreciating the present moment as it is. But if I stay silent for long enough, he always ends up filling it with something. And often, he fills it with uninteresting stories about his past.

First things first, I'm not accusing the guy of being boring. He can be such a laugh around the house and he is kindhearted in nature. And there are times when we have some genuinely interesting discussions. For example, I enjoy talking about his future because it shows me what he currently wants out of his life. It just seems a shame that all of our interactions can't be like that.

While I can work on this myself, I just wanted to use my flatmate as an example of what life would be like by constantly identifying with the past. With the understanding that I have developed so far, I know that the past is nothing but an illusion. It's a story in our mind. Furthermore, I can see how identifying myself with my past can lead to all sorts of problems in the future.

All of my energy and focus needs to be going towards the present moment. I feel like the past is something that I can forget about. Something I can shed away like dead skin. The past doesn't serve for anything because the present moment is all that we ever have of life. There's no point complaining that I'm not a child anymore because that would lead to self-torture. Instead, I must embrace my 20-year-old body and honour it.

By adopting this attitude of focussing solely on the present moment, time slows down indefinitely. I've talked about this in previous entries. From my current perspective, I feel like I have lived 2 or 3 days worth in a single day. That morning gym session at 9am seems almost like an eternity ago. This is all because of my shift of mindset regarding time.

The truth is that time is just a human invention. It's a scientific tool to measure the rate at which things happen. It doesn't exists as a thing in this universe. It's just another illusion. By embodying that illusion, we get to control how much time we have in our lives from an internal perspective.

Maybe we all do this unconsciously. If you're one of those people that believe in the phrase "time flies," guess what? Your time is gonna fly! Whereas, time can flow smoothly and steadily if you adopt the mindset: "I'm here now, in the present moment. The present moment is all I've got. The past and the future is just a story in my mind anyway. It doesn't matter how much 'time' I have. What matters is that I focus my energy on embracing the present moment alone."

This impacted me so much with my guitar practice and playing. Whenever I'm performing a piece of music, my entire life story is swept out of my mind. All that matters is that I focus on the music happening in the present moment. I can be practising for what feels like 2 or 3 hours, only to discover that my watch has added about 30 minutes. These moments are brilliant because it feels like you've somehow gained time even though, scientifically, it would be impossible to do so.

Lesson learned. The present moment is the mother of all happiness. The best part is trying to understand the present moment. There are so many mysteries about it, yet it continues to exist and so many people don't question it. I, for one, need to question it more and more. It's way more interesting than anything I've learned about music.

 

Pick of the day: Tribes - Preston Reed

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 45 | Call to the Zone of Genius

Theory: If you choose to ignore your calling in life to live in your Zone of Genius, you will never be able to experience true fulfilment in life.

Applying it: Connect with your deepest passions in life to understand your calling. Once you are certain of your calling, don't choose the comfortable route. Pursue it with everything you've got. No excuses.

 

In the last hour or so, I have just reconnected with my calling in life. It was one that I knew I had all along: I want to CREATE new music. I realised just how passionate I was about the creative process that goes with music. I love creating new compositions and playing them.

This reassessment came about when I had a meeting with a few friends. A few months ago, I arranged them together to make a band for a gig that I was offered to play. However, the focus of this band is to eventually perform music on cruise ships. This will largely consist of playing covers of well-known pop songs that are all well within our talents.

But this is my problem. I want to CREATE music, not replicate. On the shallow appearance of the job title, it seems like a very comfortable job. Room and board would be paid, food and drink would be free, I would be able to play easy-going music with my friends and I would get to travel all over the world. Looking at it from a deeper perspective, though, I believe that this job would be a massive waste of my creative potential.

To a lot of people, it would seem mad to turn down such an opportunity, especially given my goals for the future. I want to be able to perform original music that my creative muses present to me. That is my ultimate duty in this life. But many people have been quick to point out to me that this is too unrealistic. "You can't get a job performing original music these days," they say. "People only hire cover bands nowadays. Nobody cares for original music these days."

Finally, I have woken up and realised what these statements are. They are EXCUSES. Furthermore, they are the same excuses that my musician friends come up with. As long as a person believes in these excuses, that gives them a reason to not pursue that which they desire. It gives them a reason to settle for second best. That gives them a reason to strive for a comfortable cruise ship job that has many material benefits.

Today, I decide to strive for better. Today is the day that I make an even bigger commitment to live in my Zone of Genius and not settle for anything shy of that. Creating music is what my life is about. Not replicating it. The creative Muse inside me is so vibrant and magical that I simply cannot ignore its musical creations.

This is not to fulfil my ego. My ego would be happy for me to take that cruise ship job because it requires little effort. In fact, thousands of musicians would be more than capable of getting that job and I would include myself as one of them. But the music that flows into my mind from my creative Muse is UNIQUE. Nobody in this world has the exact same communication as I do with my creative muse. When it creates a musical idea, it appears to me alone. Therefore, it is my humble duty to take those ideas and make them happen in reality. It is my duty to share them with the rest of the world. No other job will satisfy.

I have yet to explain my situation with the band. If I can encourage them to get on board and become music creators too, then I feel like it will do them a justice. I know them well enough to recognise their greatest assets. The drummer is exceptional, winning the recital prize last year for his performance. The bassist is an expert at managing people and time to get the job done. And the keyboardist plays and sings really well, and he has a brilliant personality. All of these talents could come together to create something extraordinary.

That can only happen, though, if we all have faith. If any/all of the members decide to cling to their excuses of "there's no business for original music nowadays," then the whole idea will not work. If that's the case, I must make the decision to leave them behind and pursue my goals alone. They can choose whichever path they want. But now that I have recognised how passionate I am as a music creator, I know that all of my efforts must go into honouring my Call to the Zone of Genius.

I did not devote 10 years of my life to become a cruise ship performer. I spent those 10 years improving my technique, learning about music theory, and understanding the art of music performance because my ultimate desire was to become a master musician. Do I think the music I create is any good? No, I think "Fuck it. I am deeply passionate about music. The entire realm of music fascinates me and I want to study it and love it more and more."

There will be many people who will try to dissuade me from living in my Zone of Genius. My band, for one, will definitely try to talk me down once I explain to them my intentions. Not because they don't want me to achieve my goals. But because they don't believe that it is possible. They will try to convince me that I will be wasting my time by throwing their limiting beliefs at me. And for a time, I believed those limiting beliefs. But no more.

I know my calling in life. I know that I will be truly fulfilled when I start living that lifestyle. And there is no person on this earth that can take away my deep passions for creating music. I will not compromise my dreams and aspirations for anyone. I will become a master musician or die trying.

 

Pick of the day: A Little Prayer - Fred Frith & Evelyn Glennie

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 46 | Resisting the Present Moment

Theory: The only reason why you experience negative emotion is because of the added component of resistance. There is no positive or negative emotion. There is only emotion.

Applying it: When you notice yourself feeling negative, recognise that you are resisting an emotion inside of you. Simply let go of that resistance and embrace the present moment for what it is. Then, you will feel unburdened by negativity.

 

It must have been the last night or so that I received this insight. Conceptually, I could believe that there was no such thing as positive or negative emotion. However, there were certain emotions within me that I considered as 'bad' emotions. Things like boredom, anger, anxiety, emptiness, and depression were all emotions that I wanted to avoid feeling.

I could see the flaw in this way of thinking. If I wanted to truly master my emotions, I must be receptive to ALL emotions. Furthermore, there is no such thing as 'good' or 'bad' emotions. These are just inventions of the mind to label certain feelings. I recognised that I have this bias to feel some emotions more than others. I wanted to feel joyful, happy and peaceful all of the time without ever feeling depressed, frustrated, or hollow.

That's when the insight hit me. It was not so much the fact that some emotions were 'bad.' Rather, it was my resistance to those emotions that felt bad.

I'll use an example that I've seen described by others. If you examine the emotion of Anxiety/Fear, you will discover that this emotion has the exact same physiological characteristics as Excitement. These include accelerated heart rate, heightened alertness, and a strong dose of adrenaline. However, it is widely assumed that Anxiety/Fear is a negative emotion whilst Excitement is a positive one.

In the case of Anxiety/Fear, if you resist feeling that emotion, the resistance creates a negative energy around the emotion. This often intensifies to the point where some people may even faint or become ill. Whereas, if you let go of the resistance and you allow yourself to remain present with the emotion, you drop the need to condemn that emotion as being a 'bad' emotion. You just acknowledge what that emotion feels like and by doing so with an open mind, you can completely remove the venomous sting that is often associated with Anxiety/Fear.

When a person segregates emotions into good and bad, they simultaneously create resistance to bad emotions and create an addicting desire to feel the good emotions. This explains so much about why people behave the way they do. Rather than feeling the necessary fear you need to have in order to chase your dream career, marriage or lifestyle, people choose instead to chase the excitement of partying, watching movies, smoking, drinking, and all manner of activities that are popular in Western culture.

The moment I sat down to write this entry, I was feeling very negative. So negative that I didn't feel like I could write anything down without complaining about my feelings. Thankfully, I reminded myself of the insight that resistance is the cause of my suffering. I should have seen it coming, to be honest. The War of Art dedicates an entire third of its text to describing the ways in which Resistance causes us to fail. It really is that important.

Once I remembered the insight, there was an extra boost of resistance when it came to applying the insight. My ego was telling me "No, I want to drown in my own misery. I can't always strive for better." It is scary to think that these thoughts are a possibility that anyone could believe in. But maintaining my persistence, I dropped all of my resistance and experienced my emotion for what it truly was.

By doing this, my negative perception of the emotion dissolved into a neutral one. The emotion, without appearing either good or bad, appeared in its truest form. The most interesting part was how quickly it disappeared after this revelation. This emotion, which I was resisting, appeared and disappeared in a fleeting moment, without me ever being able to find a label for it. I cannot find a word to describe the emotion I was feeling. The only thing that I can be sure of is that I can now feel relief and peaceful about the present moment. There was nothing worth resisting in the first place.

Maybe, then, I have been identifying with my emotions incorrectly. Back when I was trying to overcome my anxiety problems 2 years ago, it was useful for me to label my emotions so that I could become conscious of them. Now that I have grown up a little more, perhaps it is time to reevaluate this tactic. Because emotions are clearly not simple enough to describe using one word like "fear" and "anger."

My understanding, for now, is that there are two components that cause "negative emotion." The first component is the neutral emotion which, in its purest form, is independent of both good and bad. The second component is my perspective of that emotion. This is the lens through which the emotion appears good or bad and, therefore, this is the component of the Ego. it is the voice that says "Emotion A is more desirable than Emotion B, so let's chase after that!"

By clinging to this second component, resistance is created. I resist seeing the emotion in its true form. If I remove this component, what am I left with?

Emotion.

In the same way, by removing the word "negative" from "negative emotion," you are left with "emotion."

The words "positive" and "negative" are words that our Ego attaches to Emotion to create this segregation between desirable emotions and undesirable emotions. If we truly want to eliminate the component of the Ego, we must let go of this segregation. That means when we feel the deepest joys on Earth, we must not treat them any differently than our lowest levels of depression.

So to wrap it up, "negative emotion" doesn't exist. Emotions exist as neutral beings free of labels and morality. Our Ego's perspective of the emotion is the source of resistance and, therefore, is the source of suffering.

When you catch yourself feeling negative, become aware of the resistance to experience the emotion in its neutral form. Once you become aware of it, the negative feelings dissolve and the emotion appears as it is supposed to appear. You retain peace and tranquillity without succumbing to despair.

 

Pick of the day: Guitar Boogie & Stevie's Blues - Tommy Emmanuel

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 47 | Identification with Form

Theory: Whenever you identify a body, object, thought, emotion or sense as "mine," you strengthen your Ego. To eliminate this, become aware of the illusion of "I" or "my" and observe these beings for what they truly are.

Applying it: Notice all the instances in which you refer to something as "mine." Question your reasoning for each incidence until you finally appreciate the fact that there is no "I."

 

Following on from yesterday, my perspective of existence is beginning to change. I realised that my identification was with my body, thoughts, feelings and so on. Now, I am going through a process of unwiring these beliefs and looking for the truth.

Even as I type these words, the truth is still ringing out to me that there IS no such thing as "I." Although, in conversation, there is a tendency to use such words as "I" and "my" in order to communicate clearly through language. But now, these words are starting to lose their identity to me. I no longer feel the need to look at the word "I" and think "That's me. That's part of my identity."

It feels incredibly strange to be able to use these words through text and feel no necessity to identify with them. Even when my parents called me by the name "Liam," there was a detachment there that I had never felt before. It feels very unusual to be both questioning my identity and to have other people use words that they believe identifies with you.

I made this realisation a few years ago. My interests were to eliminate the ego and, sure enough, I came across the truth about identity. Namely, there was no such thing as "Liam" in this world. The word "Liam" was just a label that was thrown at me after birth. People could refer to me by any other names (like wanker!) but those labels would not have any control over my life.

However, I was a younger lad back then. I failed to appreciate the staggering depth of that insight. Now, though, I can understand this truth on a deeper level. It is not the labels that control my life. It is my identification with those labels that control my life. They control it by planting the seed of misery and suffering which will later bloom in my life if I don't take action against it.

One of the most profound meditation experiences happened to me during last summer. During a state of deep concentration, I started questioning whether my body or surroundings existed or not. The justifications that arose went along the lines of "well, of course, they exist because I can see, hear and feel them." But upon recognition of my excuses, I started to question the validity of these things. That's when I felt an emotion rise within me which I can only hope to describe with words. It was a state of godly terror crossed with a humbling sense of awe.

Even that amazing experience didn't last. Within a few days, I felt myself return back to normal. Maybe on some days, I completely forgot about it. It may have been the case that I decided to run away from that impossible truth and try and forget it happened. It really was terrifying because it threatened everything that I had ever believed in.

As the months went on, I started to understand the ego more and more. The time would come when I would have to return to that truth and come to terms with it. I sincerely hope that this is the start of that process. Now that I can see how the ego is using identification with entities to create suffering in my life, I can better grasp the truth that this body, this house, these words, this entire existence, is not "mine."

Furthermore, by constantly identifying with both the internal and external universes, a sense of lack is created. This lack would make me desire more money, more musical instruments, more knowledge, more peace of mind, more this and more that. My reasoning for wanting these things would be because I would feel "incomplete" without these things in my life. Yet, when you remove your personal identification from these things, you realise that none of these things have the ability to provide you with completeness, integrity or fulfilment.

I've been able to sustain this truth for a good portion of the day. When the Ego's neurotic attempts to persuade me to indulge in something external like eating chocolate, my focus on this truth saved me from giving in. I've felt completely at peace all day without succumbing to the Ego's mindgames. I must continue to remind myself not to identify with anything that I see, hear, or feel in either the internal or external universe.

 

Pick of the day: Studio n.4 - Pino Forastiere

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 48 | No Excuses

Theory: The ego will often come up with excuses and justifications to prevent you from taking action. You should aim to work against all of these excuses if you want to create the results you desire.

Applying it: When you notice excuses and justifications to stop taking action, become aware of the long-term effects that will follow if you choose to accept them. In a word, failure.

 

I have made many excuses in my life for not taking action. So many that I can't even begin to list them out. But what I have learned is that, ultimately, failure is the result of excuses. Success is the result of persistence to work against those excuses. Here are some examples that I have come across in my own life.

Recently, I returned to my parents house to make the most of my last week of 'freedom' before my final semester at university begins. As soon as I arrived, the heater broke. We have no hot water, no central heating, and no shower services. When the idea of playing guitar entered my head, an excuse popped into my head: "I can't feel my fingers so I won't be able to play very well."

Rather than falling for the excuse, I reminded myself that if I want to be a professional guitar player, I need to be prepared against all the odds. There have been gigs in my past that have required me to play in the coldest climates possible in the UK. The coldest gig I ever played was during an Earth Hour celebration where I performed outdoors at night time. There was NO feeling in my fingertips.

But I had to deal with it myself. And there will be many other incidences in the future where I will have to toughen up and continue no matter what. In recognition of this, I discarded the excuse of it being too cold and I continued to play guitar. After an hour's worth of playing in the cold, my fingers warmed up to the point that my palms began to sweat.

This experience was invaluable because it provided me with knowledge about how to combat the cold. If there are any cold gigs in the future, I know that I need to set aside an hour or two to warm up my fingers before I perform.

Another example of an excuse I caught myself making was "I can't meditate right now." This excuse comes at times when I'm engaging with other people, with another activity, and other times when my mind was preoccupied with other things. My rigid thinking pattern was that in order to meditate, I have to schedule the time on my calendar, sit cross-legged on my bed, and do nothing.

Then I questioned this excuse: "Why can't I just meditate right now?"

The loosest definition for meditation is 'to pay attention to one's mind.' Or even plainer: 'to raise awareness.' There was no reason why I could not do these things whilst doing something else at the same time. If I am talking with someone, I can become aware of the thought processes in my head which, in turn, trigger my responses. If I am playing guitar, there's no reason I can't use that activity to raise awareness of my thoughts and other parts of my body.

Once I discarded this excuse, that meant that I could use any opportunity to raise my awareness. Rather than relying on my circumstances in order to start meditating, I freed myself to meditate on my own accord without needing my circumstances to be ideal.

The main thing to remember is that excuses cause failure. In every walk of life, the ego will create excuses to protect itself. Especially on this self-actualization journey which involves the unwiring of the ego, there will be many incidences in which my ego will try to throw me off-course because it recognises its own extinction on this journey.

One must keep focused on his goals and also on the present moment. If you feel no urge to pursue your goals in the present moment, maybe you are creating excuses for yourself. Become aware of those excuses and understand the inevitable failure they will give you in the long term. Only then can you hope to accomplish your goals and live the life of your dreams.

 

Pick of the day: Because It's There - Michael Hedges

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 49 | Deep Peace

Theory: When you receive the insight that you are whole and complete as you are, you lose the neurosis to search for external factors that build your self-worth.

Applying it: Spend many hours raising your awareness and questioning your existence every day until the insight arises from within.

 

This entry is being written directly after a deeply fulfilling meditation session. I feel incredibly calm and peaceful after contemplating this insight for a few days now. It's such a deep insight that I struggle to find a way to describe it meaningfully.

Throughout most of my self-actualization journey, I have been pursuing ways to 'improve myself.' This would include improving my diet, my fitness, my daily routines, my musicianship, my meditation strategies, my relationships, my confidence, and many other things.

But the insight I have received goes completely against this notion. It states that I don't need to take any action whatsoever in order to feel whole and complete. There is nothing you can do to "improve yourself" because the present moment is exactly as it is supposed to be, and you are exactly as you are supposed to be.

I've heard of this paradox before. On one hand, you are encouraged to make changes in your life by eating healthily, exercising well, earning money, maintaining healthy relationships, mastering emotions, and so on. On the other hand, you are encouraged to embrace the present moment wholeheartedly without needing any kind of change. Now that I have experienced this paradox directly, I can appreciate it more deeply.

There are many other insights that fuel this bigger insight. There is the realization that suffering is caused by the identification of the Ego with thoughts, sights, sounds, feelings, emotions, and with its own Ego. By dropping identification with everything in existence, the resistance to the present moment is removed. It can be perceived in its true form.

There is also the realization that the Ego creates a sense of lack. By identifying with all forms as being "mine" and that "I" am the one perceiving these things, a separation is created between the Ego and the Self. An incompleteness is created. You roam around seeking knowledge, sex, material possessions, happiness, and so on in order to fulfill this self-image you have of yourself. Namely, your Ego.

Upon reading previous entries in this journal, the words appear to be fresh and new without any need for identification of myself with them. Some of the concepts described in this journal no longer ring as being true anymore.

In this present moment, there is no need to worry, criticize, blame or resist. I am content to sit here, become more aware of my breathing and heartbeat, and just experience the joy of being alive right now. There is no NEED to play music, watch TV, read books, check Facebook, or do any other activity in order to feel at one with existence. I am at peace already.

And as I watch this life go by along with the lives of my parents, friends, pets, and strangers, I hope to maintain this level of awareness and remember that it is not MY life. There is no "I" to take ownership of it. Because even the voice in my head that says "This is my life" is a thought that bears no relation to the ultimate truth.

 

Pick of the day: Freedom of Speech - Liquid Tension Experiment

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 50 | Reflection

It has reached the point where I am having to look at my journal entries to remind myself what I have been up to!

All I can care about now is the present moment. I don't pass any consideration what happened a week ago, a day ago, or even a few hours ago. My perspective of life has dramatically changed since I started this journal 50 days ago. These last 50 days have felt like an eternity in the best way possible. Time just seems to be flowing at the moment.

My understanding of the present moment and the True Self is growing. That much is evident when I allow myself to meditate recently. Today's meditation session was no exception. My vision of the living room (where I meditated) became psychedelic. It shined with new colors that I couldn't find a word to describe. As I spoke myself into a deep trance, I lost my identity from my own voice. My bodily sensations opened up as if a divine spirit filled my body.

Throughout that whole experience, my calm and peacefulness persisted. Nothing freaked me out this time. It may have been the experience I ran away from last summer when I first realized that sights, sounds, and sensations are illusory. My ego back then tried to protect me from opening up to the truth. But alas, everything feels deeply comfortable now.

There is still work to be done. I need to contemplate the whole concept of death until it no longer provides me with fear. At times, I can remain focused enough to understand that the body, the language, and the thoughts are not part of my identification. But for most of the day, I continue to identify with them. My work will consist of prolonging my concentration throughout most of the day until I reach the point where I have completely severed my identification with existence.

On the more personal aspect of my life, my purpose is still coming together. My biggest aspiration is to be able to connect with my creative muse so deeply that I can produce some groundbreaking discoveries with music. I love the creative process behind music and I want my life to be filled with this creative process. It is my desire to take these musical compositions and perform them around the world. Traveling is one thing, but to travel with the intent of sharing my music is a duty that I want to carry out.

The compositions that "I" create are, of course, the works of the creative muse, not my identity. This desire is far deeper than just wanting to be this professional musician who has all the money, all the skills, and all of the materialistic bonuses that any Ego would strive for. It is more like a quest or a mission. I must surrender myself completely to the creative Muse that fuels me and do the necessary work that needs to be done in its name. I have no choice in the matter. I don't know why my creative Muse sings its musical ideas to me. All I know is that I must serve it.

I am still hammering through Think and Grow Rich and re-reading the other books I have at the moment. The hope is that I can use the tools presented in these books to remain focused on this career path and ultimately reach the place that I desire to be in. Not only do I want to be performing music all over the world, I want to be in a position where I can offer my wisdom to people who need it. People in the position that I was in during the start of my self-actualization journey. I want to help people reach their full potential as a human being by first living it for myself, and then sharing important insights to others.

If I were to die during my sleep tonight, I would be happy with the progress I have made. My growth has been extraordinary to the point that I can no longer recognize my past self. When people tell me stories about myself from last year, it feels like they are describing a totally different person.

However, the previous statement is not intended to put my present self on any kind of pedestal against the person I was. There is still a lot more work to be done. I feel like a beginner at self-actualization, rather than an expert. The trajectory of my life has yet to be discovered.

But as of right now, I am no longer suffering from worry, criticism, anger, or fear on a daily basis. That was me 2 years ago. Now, I feel hopeful, faithful, and contempt with life. The prospects of living an extraordinary life are higher now than they ever have been in my whole life. And they could still be so much higher.

I've grown such a deep love for life over the last few days. May it continue to grow stronger.

 

Pick of the day: Danny Boy - The King's Singers

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 51 | Mind Over Matter

Theory: If you can visualize yourself doing something, you can achieve it if you have faith in your abilities!

Applying it: Focus solely on your visualizations. Concentrate on your inner universe, not your outer universe.

 

This is one of those realizations that seems obvious when you recognize it. You can achieve anything you want to achieve if you focus on your inner universe of imagination, thoughts, emotions, and everything regarding your creative Muse. You don't need to rely on the outer universe of sight, sound, and sensation in order to accomplish your goals.

For many people today, this insight doesn't ring as being true to them. They create excuses about lack of money, lack of education, lack of concentration, lack of limbs, lack of time... Lack of pretty much everything. These excuses feel so justified to them that they will ignore or ridicule this insight because it doesn't gel well with their web of beliefs.

I was one of these people. To some extent, I still am. The voice inside my head presents all sorts of excuses about how "impossible" it is to live the life I've always wanted. But after a quick blast on the guitar a few minutes ago, I was reminded of this insight on a practical level.

In my earlier entry entitled "Entry 37: How To Learn," I talked about the learning process as "delivering information to your subconscious mind." This occurs under two conditions: deliberate practice, and faith. The insight that I received today was regarding the 'deliberate practice' aspect.

 

To clarify what the insight is: The truest way to learn a skill, principle, or teaching, is to imagine yourself having already mastered it during practice.

In other words: Focus on imagination, not sight, sound, or sensation.

 

When I started my guitar practice, my focus was completely on what my fingers were doing. Although that sounds like the logical thing to be doing for a guitarist, it actually felt uncomfortable to play the music, which will be my pick of the day. By solely paying attention to where my fingers were going, I prevented the music from flowing through me. It was like I was forcing the music out with a crowbar.

So I took a moment to close my eyes and focus inward, rather than outward. This is where the magic happened. As I played the music with my eyes closed, suddenly it started to flow. By not looking at my guitar, hearing the notes, or feeling my fingers, I was able to tap into my imagination and experience my desires for the music.

This worked like a visualization exercise. I imagined the music in its most raw and pure form. I focused on the perfection of the music without dwelling on what my other senses were doing. I was still aware of my sights (or lack of), sounds and sensations but my focus was completely on my imagination. The more vivid I could make the imagination, the smoother the transmutation occurred from idea to reality.

To an outsider, it would seem like an impossible task to perform a difficult guitar piece without looking at what your fingers are doing. I was there, once. But now that I have some understanding of the process of learning, I know where to focus my efforts. All efforts must go towards visualization, not towards the physical world.

This insight also explains why I have been finding other things difficult in my life. I have spent months trying to develop my technique in order to master some of the most difficult guitar pieces to no avail. Why is that? Because I have a weak visualization of myself performing that technique effortlessly. If my visualization were strong enough, I would have learned it by now.

Of course, I have only talked about the musical side of this insight. But in retrospect, the art of mastering music is an accurate reflection of the art of mastering life. This same insight, which came to me in a musical concept, can be applied to anything that I want to develop mastery over. Everything, from my academic grades to my relationship status, is a reflection on how vivid my positive visualizations are.

The most important lesson that I have gained from this is that I must not focus solely on the physical world to accomplish my goals. I must concentrate on my inner game. I must develop positive visualizations and make them as strong as possible if I want something to change in the physical world.

 

Pick of the day: Chet Stuff - Doyle Dykes

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 52 | Think and Grow Rich

Phwoar! What a book.

Of all the books on Leo's book list, this is the one that I had heard about the most. With a title like that, the mission statement of the book is obvious: to educate the reader about the principles of success. And with 25 years of research being the basis for this book, there's no denying that Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is incredibly thorough.

It is so thorough that it actually felt difficult to digest all of the information on the first read. I will no doubt be returning to this book time and time again throughout the majority of my life.

The action steps are also detailed, well-justified, and plentiful. When I tried to carry out the first set of action steps in Chapter 2, I felt a gap in my knowledge when it told me to "create a definite plan for carrying out your desire." It was evident that in order to even make a start on these action steps, I must first read the book in its entirety and digest all of its information.

It perhaps wasn't the easier reads I've come across due to some of the choices in language and due to the fact that this book was written around 80 years ago. However, the wisdom that went into writing this book is absolute.

I feel a sense of triumph for having made it to the end. I can't even remember how many days I've been reading it! But after that inspiring read, the time has come to put these teachings into action. And believe me, this book doesn't leave you thinking "well, what should I do now?"

The action steps provided are not one-time. They are there to create a continuous habit of searching for success. Although I haven't started yet because I've only just finished reading the book, I can recognize the power behind these action steps.

The author provides assurance that you can create anything you want in life with an abundance of anecdotes. Some of which are taken from the lives of Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie.

Hill's mission with this book was to make the reader realize that the power to live a rich life lies within your inner game. Mission successful!

 

I have no idea what the next book on my list is going to be. Personally, I want to sit longer with Think and Grow Rich, The Big Leap, and The War Of Art. It takes time to properly assimilate the principles and teachings explained in these books, let alone applying them.

 

Pick of the day: Siúil a Rún (Walk my Love) - Celtic Woman

[Liam Johnson]

Entry 53 | Illness and Negative Emotion

Theory: Just as illnesses remind you to pay attention to your body, negative emotion occurs to remind you to pay attention to your mind.

Applying it: When you sense negative emotion, embrace it and heed its warning.

 

Just to put it out there, I'm not ill!

There are some minor 'illnesses' that people get which can serve as a wake-up call regarding the body. When I say 'illnesses,' I mean typical health problems that can come and go. As an example, adult acne is there to remind me to clean up my diet, which I have been doing. Also, obesity occurs because of a person's lack of daily exercise.

There's nothing inherently bad about these things. With the right perspective, you should be able to pay attention to these changes in the body and make the connection that you need to honour it better. In a lot of cases, these 'illnesses' serve as a reflection of your inner game.

Negative emotions work in the same way. If you feel the presence of depression, frustration, boredom, or anxiety throughout your day, that is your mind's way of saying "pay attention to me!" in the same way that the body creates health problems.

I've talked about negative emotion before as being non-existent. The 'negative' aspect is, in fact, your resistance to paying attention to the emotion, which is neutral. If you let go of the resistance, you can experience the emotion as it is meant to appear. And when that happens, you wonder why you have been resisting it for so long.

In some cases, the emotion comes and goes in a fleeting moment. In most cases, however, the emotion will trigger a thought or insight of great importance to your growth. For that reason, it is imperative that you embrace the emotions.

The best way to do this is to stop what you are doing, close your eyes if necessary, and simply experience the emotion in its neutral state. Don't try to hurry it away or get rid of it: that constitutes resistance. Just let it take over your mind by giving it your full attention.

Usually, you only have to sit with that emotion for about 5 minutes before it begins to change. Although, it can take much longer. If it disappears into nothingness, don't feel let down that you haven't experienced an insight. Emotions are unpredictable. Some will just enter and leave your perception without any reason. If that happens, appreciate the beauty of the moment and move on with your day. You should no longer feel negative.

If you are lucky enough to receive a thought impulse or an insight after sitting with the emotion, good for you! This will give you an opportunity to make positive changes in your life that align with your highest values. 

For example, I was feeling pretty negative the entire afternoon. I was developing my website and doing some online work that had to be done. While all of these things were important for accomplishing my goals, there was a negative energy possessing me. I couldn't name the emotion, but there was a lot of resistance there.

In response to this, I put my laptop to one side and sat on my bed. My focus was purely on the emotion. After only 5 minutes, a thought impulse entered my head: "What are you doing? Professional musicians don't spend this long in the day working on their website. Practice your guitar pieces!"

The insight made so much sense to me. Website building is not an activity of my Zone of Genius. Music-making is! I picked up the guitar and practiced for a total of 3 hours. That's 3 hours of heavy-duty practice without procrastination. But every second of it was a joy.

What started out as a negative emotion became rocket fuel for my actions. Rather than denying or suppressing the emotion, I let go of resistance and welcomed it into my awareness. As a result, I realigned with my Zone of Genius. Surely that's a much more desirable outcome than today's cultured way of dealing with emotions: by pretending that everything is fine and suffering in silence?

If it's not too quick to assume, this may be the key to unlocking emotional mastery.

 

Pick of the day: May You Never - John Martyn