I CAN HAVE IT ALL
WANNA BET?

Rough, but the idea is very clear, methinks.

Being a victim of dopamine makes you into a dope.

                                                               The BuddhaKahuna
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ENTHUSIASM OF "IT ALL"

A child enthusiastic with every new idea, feeling pride when he comes up with more ideas than the others, wanting to do them all, starting lots of stuff, wanting to get lots of credit and recognition from others... leaving lots of messes (the proverbial "rusting cars all over the yard"). 

An adult who is still in the child persona does likewise.  Presented with a cornucopia of idea or food or whatever is exciting, he gobbles it all down, without restraint...

He takes on too much... and then he tries to make up for it by working all the time, which is never enough - it is a poor strategy, and a naive one. 

He/she shoves in everything he/she can...and out of the other side much of what is important is shoved out.  A love relationship, family, taking care of oneself physically and especially emotionally (less "visible") - all are shoved aside in the enthusiasm and attempt to "have it all"!


LACK OF PERSPECTIVE, OPERATING "BACKWARDS"

The child, and perhaps the adult, will suffer later from a failure to put life in perspective.... He/she is "operating backwards"... instead of deciding what is most important and choosing, he just tries to do it all - faster and faster, if only I can type faster, write faster, write better, be more ______, etc. and etc. and etc... (He tries to be more "efficient" and ends up being less "effective".  He makes the easier, smaller decisions - but at the cost of the bigger decisions not being made.)

A child (and an adult acting in the child persona) is delighted by shiny objects, randomly going about life attracted to each interesting thing.  He is stuck in the shiny object  syndrome... (See also Distractions And "A.D.D." - Eating Up Most Lives.)


WHAT YOU CAN HAVE, GUARANTEED

But the reality is that you can have all of what is the most valuable, but not everything of value.

"But I do value this thing here, so I'll do it."  That is a failure to discriminate.  If you put something "of value" into your schedule, but it displaces something of more value, it is a bad choice.

If you follow The Only Path To The Greatest Life, I guarantee that you will have such a strong "build" that you will be able to get the great value out of life that you want.  This path does not have any wishful thinking in it!  It is realistic and workable and it leads to life success!


REFUSING TO PAY THE PRICE TO BUY SOMETHING GREATER

There is always a price, a cost, for "buying" (getting) anything of value. 

This is the realistic world where the effective person learns about "tradeoffs" and how to make them effectively - and that there is always a tradeoff in everything.  [He/she learns, as well, the value of the pieces of life, so he always bargains and comes out ahead, buying the right things rather than anything that is sold to (or demanded of) him/her.  

The person does not succeed who wants to have it all tries to hold onto everything in his hands and tries to add more even when his hands are full, thinking that is possible.

When he tries to do his version of "tweaking" things a little, trying to keep almost all of "it all", he does not succeed. 

Only reasonable, larger tradeoffs will lead to success. 

He must give up perfection (and the theoretical approval related to it) and the idealistic view and get down to the real world and decide what is worth trading - and what will get the biggest bang for the buck/time.  He must choose to make bold moves, perhaps right at the edge of his comfort zone or in the tolerable part of the discomfort zone. 

It is true that it is fun and feel-good chemical rewards splash in with these ideas and the fantasy of what they'll bring.  We have a dopamine rush (always comes in aniticipation of rewards, not thinking deep enough to see if there will be no reward or less reward or it will push aside this or that...)  We are so thrilled (naturally) with the dopamine rushes that we fail to consider whether they come at too great a price.  

And it is great fun to conjure up things in the "metaphysical" (in the mind) world, but one must leave that world and actually encounter the realism and effort required in the real world. 

There is always a cost.  There is always a tradeoff.  And we can make big value choices to live much greater lives instead of holding onto the old, moldy life.

(You might want to follow the journey of Daniel, the overachiever-approval seeker, to see what happens that doesn't work and to see what will work in Note What Actually Happens - And Then Adjust Your Strategy To That Reality! )  


PUTS LOT IN NOW, FIGURE IT ALL OUT LATER...

It is great fun to put lots of stuff into the bowl of life, but...

Stephen Covey writes of this and says the solution is to insert the "big rocks" first (the most important things) and to not let the sand particles, little rocks, medium size rocks displace the big rocks.  To be successful in "life", a person has to know (and decide and commit) what the biggest rocks are.

The biggest rock in value (but not in time taken) is how you feel about yourself, life, and the world - and the activities you need to do to make sure this works...

It is about "building" a life that delivers the most value over and over for the long term.

The child (or child-adult) says "I must be happy or at least I will soon be as I'm doing all these interesting things (running around and ending up as if a lemming)...and I'm told it is good to always do interesting things...etc.  He believe the myths in our culture and does not sufficiently ground himself in what actually works.

The person who thinks he can "have it all", willy nilly and naively, must, instead, stop and get rid of all of the distractions and actions that have little value and use his patience to concentrate on doing "the build" that is necessary to develop the "life capability" necessary to have a truly great life! 

Yes, you can have all that is the most important, but you can't have it all, as that would be impossible and a foolish, childish goal. 




The "I can have it all" person typically might know all about importance vs. urgency and be able to talk intelligently about it, but he lacks the wisdom to actually implement it in life.
Importance Versus Urgency - One Concept...Huge Difference In Life Success! 

The person may not be in touch with the reality of human limits: I Am A Human Pipeline - I Shall Live Based On That, Not On Irreality.

See a little story about violating the above reality in Daniel, the overachiever-approval-seeker, in Note What Actually Happens....


Learning

Read the cited articles of course, then...

Covey Resources - Use the videos and suggested readings!


When we don't really connect to reality and the necessary process to get things done, when we are operating in vagueness about cause and effect, we are operating in a magical fantasyland. It's a bit like this:

And Then A Miracle Happens...Wanna Bet?