WHY IS THIS COURSE IN THIS ORDER
AND WHY SHOULD I LEARN IT?
"Why the heck should I learn all the basic core stuff? It is like slogging through stuff that has no impact. I want to get right to getting the results."
But, if you don't want the same old problems recurring in your life, then you've got to learn the basics as that is what cures the causes so that you no longer have to spend your life playing whac-a-mole with the symptoms (bad feelings, problems, etc.) that keep recurring, so that you have to spend time and energy quashing them!!!!! (You will learn later in the sequence how hugely more effective it is to cure the cause and not fool yourself by constantly "curing the symptoms"!)
To proceed, I recommend that you open a separate (new) window on the Internet, so you can look at The Base Course reading list and follow along on this piece as we proceed to explain why this course is in this order and why each part is necessary.
First of all, it is always appropriate to learn something from the ground up, so that a vital understanding at the base level is not missing. If there is an understanding missing in the chain of facts and reasoning, then one will have problems with being able to get the desired results - simply because something is missing that is necessary to produce the desired end results!
THE LIVING LIFE INTRO SECTION & THE GUARANTEED PATH
It is necessary for you to learn that life can be easy if you do certain things, as that lets you know that the "hard" effort put into this will result in a quantum increase in how easy life can be, without the recurring problems and constant internal negative/upsetting conversation. After the two following pieces, I show you the path that is guaranteed to make that happen so that you can be confident that there is a way and that you will get the result you want.
But right before that I ask you to "just scan" the piece that shows an attainable model for all of us. (You can come back later and read some of the pieces later, so put it on a sheet of paper in your notebook, entitled "to come back to".) Notice the key sentences that are not indented, for they identify the key elements in the person living life as it should be lived. And all life coaches identify as a major cause of progress to follow what a "model" of living (or achieving something) does, instead of spending all the time reinventing the wheel (which could probably turn out very wobbly, as we do not have enough time to do the right job from scratch!).
Although we'll hit the same basics of this key principle over and over, it pays to understand that you cannot possibly have a good life if you do not sufficiently close the gaps that are in the chain of thoughts and actions that are necessary to produce the results you want in life. Not closing the gap in one's thinking is what leads to fear and anxiety thriving in the land of the vague. Understanding "the gap principle" is essential to living a good life - and without understanding it the rest of your learning will not pay off nearly as much.
So, we stuck those last two pieces in right before laying out the guaranteed path, because without that understanding of what a model looks like and of a key principle that cannot be missing on the path, you are less likely to proceed along the path and not as likely to do it as fast.
THE QUICK PRIMER IN SUPER FACTORS IN LIFE
More than anything, the validity of one's beliefs about what works in life, determines the quality of one's life. If one learns what reality is (the reality of how things work in the world), then one can identify a belief as false if it does not agree with reality. Without learning about what reality is, one will tend to make up false beliefs and/or believe wrong beliefs that others suggest are true - and, believing false beliefs is what causes the suffering in one's life - suffering that is entirely unnecessary. It is amazing how stuck people get in childish beliefs and how they ruin people's lives!
Although we are early in this process of changing your whole life, we take you fairly deeply into what reality is and correspondingly how the mind and body work. So we ask that you read the whole reality series (listed in the sidebar of the What Is Reality piece), You simply have got to know this - it'll incredibly benefit how you approach and live life!!!
Next, I identify the one factor that affects how you experience life more than all the other factors put together. So, I thought it would be good for you to know that. And I though it might help you be clear on the necessity to concentrate alot of energy in making sure that your background conversation is no longer negative and self critical but is, instead, powerfully supportive and soothing. Yes, it takes some work, but it is the highest payoff of anything you can do. Your constant conversation in your head is the thing that you experience more than anything in your life - and it is time to no longer tolerate the negative, the fearful, the faulting, the unuseful, the harmful conversation that is so damaging to your life!
One of the key realities that affects your background conversation is the survival coping mechanism around "status" with others and with yourself related to life competency. [Be careful about following links while you are trying to read a piece for overall understanding. If you have a basic understanding of the term, in this case, you should continue reading and come back later if you wish to link to the piece.] We unthinkingly seek "status", and we create a "never enough" problem that must be understood, so that one can escape from the prison of fears one sets around one's self. (It is essential that one understand and eliminate unnecessary guilt, shame, self-defense, self punishing, senseless and useless anger, and fears that have no meaning in reality. We'll, of course, work on those specifically if you choose that path.)
Although there is more that will be done in these, that is sufficient to lay the basic groundwork to look at the reason for living and how to get what we want in life (and the necessity to decide what that is - as most people haven't done it right!). Next.
THE VALUE OF LIFE SECTION
One cannot produce the most value in life without learning the "production process" and skills that are necessary to do so. (Duh!) The Life Value Productivity piece explains that.
And if we are to progress to the point that we are being productive, we need to assure that we know how important it is to not let down in the process of improving life - we must maintain that momentum of improvement AND be aware of the ways we avoid doing what is necessary to get what we want (excuses, rationalizations, false fears, etc.).
To offset those things that might derail us, we must establish the true "why"s that drive us to devoting the energy to achieve a better life. Many of the "whys" are not established clearly enough to motivate us. Some of the whys are around getting rid of the fears that constantly plague us (and seeking the relief from them!). Some are around what we so very much passionately want in life, from peace of mind to true strength, and definitely true, enduring happiness (which we must first define!) The point is if they are not clear and are not kept "top of the mind", we will tend, again, to stop short of closing the gaps in doing what is necessary to live the greatest life!
To have the greatest life that we could want, we must make the One Decision That Determines All Of Life and then engage in "The Process" that is guaranteed to have us succeed.
And, of course, this is all just a "good idea" if we do not find the time to devote to making this happen, so we tell you what to do to secure that time. If you don't do this, you will stay living the same old day, in a sense, over and over and over - like in the movie Groundhog Day, where, until he attained the "learning" that was necessary to break out of it, he was trapped.
When one finally decides that "wisdom" is a super-goal to have in life, one will engage in The Wisdom Mindset, where one quickly proceeds along the road to learning more and more of what works in life overall, so that one can truly achieve a greater and greater level of living life, every inch along the road so preciously adding to life and happiness.
Having achieved the basic understandings above, we then go about the process of adding more and more good stuff to live by identifying the highest value activities in life and what is, in fact, more valuable (to all humans, not just you) and then proceeding to actually implement those so that we are starting to create that greater life we are aiming for. This part of the process is very, very rewarding and you'll want to be implementing those "as we go", doing them while we are reading the next sections.
LEARNING ALL THIS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY
Before proceeding on toward more implementation, we revisit, at a deeper level, how to learn more effectively, as it is our desire to have you get the most possible out of this process, in the fastest workable way possible.
HOW THE MACHINE OF LIFE WORKS - AND HOW TO WORK IT
In this section, we revisit the reality of how the machine works in order to make sure that you've done the reality series readings - and suggest that you review those pieces quickly to further master the understanding of them.
We add the vital piece for you to understand about "Being In The Zone" of functionality in life - and assuring you quickly correct yourself when you drift out of it, to not only avoid harm but to free up your energy for creating that greater life!
MASTERY - WHY BOTHER?
Although this may seem repetitive (as it is, in some parts), we are talking here about truly mastering life - for the first time. Few people realize that the true masters of life have become so because they have "put together" a set of beliefs and ways of living life that serve as a super-foundation for living a life that is unshakable by circumstances and incredibly powerful for living in true happiness. We dare not leave this foundation in the shaky condition that most people do, for we then will get the shaky or half-lived lives that those others live.
We visit the key "growing up" concept/viewpoint that determines how one will live life, buffeted by circumstances, people, fears or being truly in charge of one's life such that life actually works to its full potential. There is no legitimate compromise here - you MUST absolutely nail this one.
Although we've already set, earlier, some pieces of this, we next commence to nail down the importance of setting up a "structure" in life that will support you in living an easier and better life. So many people try to "gut it out" and push through life the hard way. But they fail to realize how necessary it is to recognize that we are, in a sense, limited human beings who need to set up "supplementary ways" of means to live a better life.
NOW, ONTO IMPLEMENTING THE BIG PIECES
This is where we begin the sections that go deeper and produce actual results (instead of just more understanding and commitment).
On the positive side, we nail down what actually produces happiness, so that it will be clear and you'll stop aiming for the mythical, wrong ways. Part of permitting higher happiness to occur is eliminating those things that make us unhappy - so we touch upon them, as a set up for later when we "finish them off" once and for all!
We have massive misunderstandings about punishment, blame, fault, criticism, and "being stupid". We must first demolish these to dust, for they are a huge cause and assurer of unhappiness and feeling bad more often in life than is advisable.
After discussing the negatives to eliminate, we then pick some positives to add in. These are things that will bolster ourselves up, increase our confidence, give us some more perspective on life plus things that we need to do to create positive practices that will enable us to feel good and to be strong.
THE COUP DE GRAS - WHAT MAKES US LIFE CHAMPIONS
Those people who live great lives do what all champions do, they get quick feedback and make frequent adjustments so that they can perform better. They solve problems quickly and well, so they do not have any big problems and have virtually no little ones to bug them - they are problem free. They do not do what many people who fail do - they do not put off solving them until "later" (which never seems to happen).
Once one learns to effectively solve problems, one is "home free", "completely free", about to fully live life.
So I recommend that you truly master these and use the techniques and ways of solving problems!!!!
PROBLEM: BAD BELIEFS AND MISUNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS
We have many residual (left over from childhood) bad beliefs, many acquired bad beliefs, and many "made up" and unthoughtout bad beliefs - and they cause us lots of "faux fears", unnecessary anxieties, loss of energy, loss of happiness, and loss of a great life.
First we have to discover the reality of what emotions are and get rid of the absurd things that people believe around them (I believed them, too!). Knowing how and why they are operating is tremendously freeing, as we are able to become the master of them and no longer the victim of them. We even learn to see that our "moods" do not mean anything (other than feeling bad!) and that we need not leave them in place to "solve themselves" - and how poorly the primitive brain does at solving them! As a result, we stop leaving it up to the primitive brain to solve problems and decide that it is we (aka our higher brains) who are to solve the problems ourselves.
It is in this area that we drill a bit deeper "overall" but also "drill very deeply" into some specifics, to get down to the core of a belief and determine what is valid and then replace the bad belief by installing the new one in each area, one by one - and that isn't at all hard if we first gained the understanding of why the new belief is valid, and why the old is not! We'll hit a few of them in this section, but we'll return relentlessly later to finish these all off - all of them, leaving no toxins behind! (Interestingly enough, just the fact that we have learned quickly, what reality is will cause a number of bad beliefs to crumble or weaken. Then, as we hit certain "core" beliefs that serve as pillars that support other beliefs, we'll find that the other beliefs fall into nothingness without that support. Essentially, if we knock out 5 core beliefs, we will also see 50+ other beliefs completely crumble.
THE ABOVE THEN MAKES BEHAVIOR CHANGE EASIER!
Without the false beliefs and motivating fears, many behaviors they caused will, quite naturally, disappear - or at least be weakened, before we finish them off. Here, to reinforce what you might have learned so far, we learn that we need not obey "impulses" or "stupid signals from an unthinking primitive brain".
We then install automatic replacement behaviors that are relatively effortless and without struggle. Of course, we do this one at a time, systematically.
Part of the process is expanding our quiver of arrows (tactics) for handling our emotions and impulses, so that we are quite skilled at "shooting the enemy targets" with precision and effectiveness.
This, also, is an area that we will revisit as we live our lives, as we'll see which behaviors and ways of operating no longer serve us rightly and replace them, quickly, just as any champion would do in life.
STRUCTURES FOR LIVING LIFE BETTER
As we master our beliefs and thus our fears and many of our problems, we can then supplement that with changing our behaviors, and finally, then, we set up other structures (besides habits and inner structures) that will serve us to better channel and live our lives. This would include, most of which we'll do later, mechanical systems, computer software, support groups, better friends and associates, and other things that will "build in" our continued life progress and success (and ongoing happiness)
Then we'll, as indicated in the Basic Course page close to the bottom, go to the next level of refining what we've done in the "Life 101" course, which should have already at that point transformed much of one's life into a better life. The next level, the 201 level in a sense, revisits at a higher level, life value productivity, installing great health and energy, completing and improving one's foundational life philosophy into being one of the wisest in the land, and maximizing happiness.
After completing the core of the 201 level, you will be sufficiently equipped to go explore and nail down some of the deeper pieces on the site and to read (in the way I suggest you limit yourself to employing) a number of the books and/or other resources. At this point, you'll be operating as a level II life champion, ready to play in any of the big leagues.
SO, NOW...
So, now, hopefully you see how the basic course, its components and its order tie together, such that you will actually do "the work" and actually read, study, and do what is recommended. I'll guarantee that those who do this will live a measurably better life and be fully ready to proceed further along the only path to the greatest life.
Bon Voyage!
