Creating "Luck"

Okay, so Steve Barnes here with our morning workshop. This is time that I spend every day waking myself up, reminding myself who I am. And this is very important if I'm under stress that the things I'm talking to you about are the things that I am reminding myself of that I'm going to need in order to perform in a given day. So I've mentioned that I'm right in the middle of a major project that has the potential to be life changing. And so I have to be the very best I can be. And that means not just producing good work, but being able to communicate with people effectively so that they know that I am on the track. That if you're doing something, you're probably going to get the reward from your interaction with another person. So you have to understand what they want and what they consider victory and what they need to move their lives forward. If you always focus on the fact that the other person is trying to move their life for it, then you will never try to influence them based on what you need. You influence them based upon what you can do for them. So being able to communicate and understand human psychology and so forth is just as important because that's marketing, sales, just as important as the ability to, to write. You know, in my instance, create product. The creative part of me is just engaged in creation of the thing. But there is that need to, if there's a need to get something from someone else, if you want to sell it, in other words, you have to keep the other person in mind. I said today that today's message was on being lucky. And to a degree, yeah, I mean, luck in many ways is what occurs when you are so well integrated and so in alignment with nature or your society, whatever, that your actions are naturally creating opportunities. And this is one of the things that I have noticed over since I returned from Manila especially that I was sufficiently integrated that as soon as I finished one project, something else popped up and I can predict it. You know, let me finish this at the very highest level and then something else will occur and it'll be something that I did not even anticipate. And that is exactly what happened. Precisely what happened. That's exactly where I am. So I'm in the zone right now of chop wood, carry water. I seem to be in alignment with what my social context needs, the business needs, so that the things that I do that express myself writing overlap with the things that society needs. Think about two different circles so that the one circle is what you want to do and the other circle Is what you can get rewarded for within your culture, that those circles overlap enough that I can pretty much be Steve, be myself, and get paid for it. It's not luck. It's the result of a lifetime of making tiny micro adjustments and never stopping that process. But it does lead to luck. So if you would like to experience luck in your life, and who wouldn't, Then understand that the magic formula. If you don't have a zero in any category, if you have at least a one in each category, you're on what I call a path, path of mastery. Especially if you have goals in all three major areas. You're starting to master your life, you're getting your hands on the controls. But if you need luck, if you were oppressed or abused, or you have an opportunity where you have to operate at an extraordinarily high level, I've got good news for you. Start addressing your magic formula at a higher level. Aim at getting a 4 or 5 in each arena as opposed to a 1 or 2. In other words, you're constantly M A G I C. You're constantly studying maps of accomplishment. You're constantly studying the people who started with your resources and ended up with more accomplishment than you dream of. And they're out there. You can find people who started with basically nothing, sleeping in their cars, and now worth millions of dollars. I know some of these people, and they are not the same as the people who complain that you have to have privilege in order to move forward. Privilege drops the curve on average, but it doesn't tell an individual what they can accomplish. So you have to be able to both advocate for social change, for instance, and understand that your ability as an individual to embrace joy and give service in life is not determined by where you were born. If you can hold both of those things in your mind at the same time, you're on the right path. Most people can hold either one or the other. They're non dualistic thinkers, and I've forgiven them. I mean, it's like, okay, I'm going to get attacked by both sides, and that's okay. Wisdom in a lot of ways is the capacity to continually look for those dualities and resolve them. Luck comes from your daily spontaneous actions being in alignment with what is necessary to fulfill the task. In the martial arts, it's the person who begins a punch or a kick before the opening is there because they recognize the way the gut person's body is turning. And through experience, they know that in one position they've blocked their critical targets. But in A slight rotation, an opening will happen. It has to be at a level of unconscious competence. It's far too complicated for the conscious mind, but you will start finding yourself naturally in alignment. I don't know if there's any way to stay there for your entire life. I doubt that there is, but I think everyone has experienced being kind of in the zone. So we're talking about, how do you get in the zone? So the zone will come when you're not thinking consciously about the basic elements of what it is that you're doing. You know, all that stuff is at the level of unconscious competence. And you're, like I said, studying the maps and the behaviors of people who have accomplished the things that you want to accomplish until you have extracted the critical paths, the maps and models that you will then follow. And then you do those things. And the A is actions, daily actions. You have to experiment. Don't be, don't guess. Don't pay attention to what people say. Watch what they do. Be a scientist. Extract from the things that people do the critical lessons of their actions, their emotions, and their strategies. And then experiment. You know, you test it. You do it for, you know, six weeks. Let's say six weeks is a good period of time to try something. And you pay very careful attention to the results and see, did this help? Did it not? Be a scientist, you know, just. Just be a scientist about something that is kind of illogical, which is the creation of additional luck, okay? And you're constantly looking because you're testing these things in all three basic arenas of your life. You're going to get some results, and those results will be superior to the results you get if you tested only in one area. In other words, what you're looking for is the principles that work in keeping your body healthy, in keeping your relationship healthy, and keeping your career healthy. What principles work in all three areas? If you can find those and then become world class in those, you'll start getting completely different results from people who are scattered or people who literally don't look at this stuff at all. Don't look at the game. Under the game, as you might say, you're looking for magic. I remember a year ago, maybe two years ago, saying, master, there's being an expert, there's being a newcomer, there's being an adept, a journeyman. There's being an expert, there's being a master. And then what's the level? Beyond mastery? And I thought, it's magic. So that's where the acronym comes from, is the idea of moving beyond mere mastery. I don't mean that literally, but it's just as it's fun to have ideas that inspire you or make you laugh. You know, it's like. It's kind of absurd, but it's also fantastic. So you constantly are refining your models, where it is that you're going, what you're doing constantly. You're constantly seeking to take action. And I mean massive action. If, if the other person in your office makes three sales calls a day and you want to outperform them, make 10 sales calls a day, make 15 sales calls a day, that you're doing whatever it is at the. You're taking those actions, those atomic actions, those molecular actions. You know, an atomic action is like write a sentence a day. A molecular action is right four under four short stories a month that you're looking at the smallest unit of the thing that is complete. Okay, One molecule of water is still water. So you're doing that and you're doing it enough that you are learning. The application of magic creates legacy. There's no question about that, that you are creating a path, you know, Imit initiat. You're creating a path for others to follow. I think that that is the idea that the meaning of life is to be joyful and of service. To be of service in that sense is to create legacy. So you're taking massive action, really clarifying your goals, massive action, really clarifying your maps or models, taking massive action every day. It's not a matter of avoiding a zero, it's a matter of getting up there, you know, around five and six. You're just doing it. You're just doing it. The third is gratitude. Flood yourself with positive emotions. You don't just say, I want to accomplish X, but I want to accomplish X and have fun in the process. That you are always looking for the way to have joy, being excellent, doing the thing that you need to do. And you've got all the reasons in the world to do it. It's connected with taking care of your family and fulfilling your dreams and uplifting the world, whatever it is that motivates you. But there is a real difference between people who act out of love and people act in reaction to fear. People act in reaction to fear. Cannot understand why successful people still work, you know, God, you're rich. Why are you still doing this? Because they, in their own lives would not be doing their job if they weren't being paid for it. So the people to study are the people who can do jobs. And if they won the Lottery next month would still be working at that job next year. Why? Because they get joy from it. The job is about joy, not pain. They're not running away from pain. They're moving towards joy. So you're looking for that in your life, right? That's what everybody really wants. So go back over. So clarifying your map or model, taking massive action, flooding yourself with positive emotions and just living for joy so that the people around you can see it, feel it, radiates from you, and you will get negative reactions from people who cannot do this. People who are moving away from fear will look at you and think you're a fraud. They cannot believe that you're actually that way because they haven't made the jump yet. What all you need to do to help them is to just keep it up, is to just continue to move towards joy because on some level, they know that this cannot be sustained indefinitely if it's a lie. I could not do what I do in my life, and I could not come to you every day if I were faking this, you know, why would I do it? How could I do it? I mean, for God's sake, really, I'm not that strong. If I was not taking energy from this, where's the energy coming from? So that sense of gratitude, really important. Crank it up, Crank it up. The I intention. Clarify your goal. Do you know exactly what you want to accomplish? And exactly, more important, why do you want to accomplish it? Why do you want to do the things you want to do? So by clarifying what you're trying to accomplish, and that means the thing, when do you want it done? How's it going to look? What can you photograph what the final moment of it is? Crossing that finish line, getting that check, standing at the altar, looking at the scale, whatever it is that represents a visual of the thing you're trying to accomplish will work for most people. Other people need a powerful kinesthetic, the feeling. Other people need the sound. But whatever it is that motivates you, be sure that you've got that about the thing you're trying to accomplish and that it's dead bang clear. You know exactly what it is. When you set a goal to tie your shoes, you know exactly what a tie a pair of shoes looks like. You got no doubts about it at all. It looks exactly this way. So. So it's easy for you to do the thing, take the intermediate steps that lead to a tied pair of shoes. The same thing needs to be true for me on this writing project, I've Got right now, I have to visualize. The way I'm visualizing it is I create a script that is going to work for a director, and I can see the start. I can see them starting production. And that's my script, or it's a script that I worked on. Intention. Clear, clear, clear. And then the last thing the C is congruence. Character courage. It's a little bit difficult, but I think maybe congruence is the best C because it's the thing you're doing and the goal you wish to accomplish. And the path that you have to walk as you move there has to feel as if it is in alignment with your soul, with your heart, with your spirit. This is who you are. Everything I do, from doing my family meetings with Tananari or my family meetings with Jason, or working out or writing or teaching anything else, these are things that are in alignment with my heart. There is nothing that I'm doing that's about pain. Now understand something. This, again, is not luck or privilege. This is a matter of having spent decades working on myself in this particular way. I did not have this when I was younger. I developed it over time. And the people who have known me for years knew that I always had the goal, but I didn't know how to get it. So I experimented lots of different things. And in some cases, there were things I shouldn't have experimented with, but it taught me things because I paid attention. And all I'm doing right now is, out of all the thousands of different things that I practice, I'm filtering them and giving you the things that I have actually incorporated into my life, the things that I actually teach my son and the things that I'm teaching you are as close to actual pieces of my heart as possible. Make sure that what you're doing, you gain greater confidence that this is who you are, that this is what you should be doing. Greater confidence. So, you know, clarify your map or model. Get it to, you know, make sure it's out of a zero. That's just to get in the game, but get it up to a 5. Take massive action in your life. The world's best performer in your arena gets it. Gets a nine. You be sure that you're at least a five. Okay. Gratitude. Fill yourself with gratitude and you win. Before you start, clarify your goals. Most important thing you can do is to know where you're going and be sure that what you're doing is in alignment with your spirit. Alignment with your heart, such that even if you lost, you still won. My writing career started the day I realized that I would rather fail at being a writer than succeed in anything else. That writing, in other words, was in alignment with my soul. That was what I wanted to spend my life doing. It took me years, decades to gain that clarity. Don't worry if you can't do it in a day or a week or a month. Get started. Get on the path. I'll see you tomorrow.