Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human Decisive Action?

So my question is: What tape program(or book), from LSC, or any other company for that matter, will tell me how to get off my ass and actually do something? Is decisive action what I need?

Now, I know that no tape program, or book, or seminar, etc. will achieve my aspirations for me, that I need to do this for myself. I do know this, and I know that I have the capacities and abilities to do it as well. So what I need is something to get me on track, and keep me there. How does one go about keeping oneself contantly, consistantly motivated?

Any help you guys/gals could give me, I would greatly appreciate. Cheers.

There are 500,000 ways to answer your question!

But let me try a way that has worked for me. I once experienced something very similar to what you are describing in relation to Taoist philosophy. I become something of a sage, but couldn't seem to do the ole Taoist Two-Step.

"Stop thinking and talking, and there is nothing you will not be able to know." --Zen Paradigm

Don't mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. It's not.

I suggest you either get into the habit of regular aerobic exercise or regular meditation. Both build discipline and other 'stick-to' characteristics. Do some research, pick the discipline that *suits you* the most. Do what you think you will adore. Then pick a concrete, set time, then commit to exercising or meditating at that time, every day of your life. Make the process fun. If you jog, listen to music; if you meditate, wear loose clothes, smile, chant, hum, aromatherapy. Finally, reward yourself with something you desire.

How about this. If you ever miss a session, force yourself to abstain from accessing this DB or internet or whatever. After you exercise, do the desired thing.

Anything beyond this advice is talk talk. Sure, paraliminals can help, but they can't do the work for you. Perhaps its best to use the old fashion will here.

When you get into the habit of regular exercise or meditation, it no longer becomes a stretch. You've essentially made it a habit. It's become a part of you. Just like taking your shoes off as you come in from the snow. You don't give it a second thought. You'd never think of not doing it. When you've reached this level, THEN go for something else.

Think of the juggling example. You've got to learn to juggle with one ball before you can go for two and so on.

You may want something to remind you of your committment--to keep this at the forefront of your consciousness. The Motivaider perhaps? No, that would just be another toy. Perhaps big signs? --strategically placed, to remind you of your promise to yourself.

It is possible to view yourself as merely a collection of habits. Each time you alter, add or subtract a habit, you throw off your equilibrium. When you first try to exercise, you experience much resistence, because your body wants to stay at the comfortable equilibrium. Eventually, though, equilibrium will come to encompass the new habit. The new habit becomes part of the comfort zone. Then it's time to stretch again.

This way will work. Think of high jumpers. They don't raise the bar 10 inches at a time, they go inch by inch, sometimes less. They adjust, they move up again.

As some dude once said, 'You make your habits, then your habits make you.' So make good habits!

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Originally posted by Brian649:
But let me try a way that has worked for me. I once experienced something very similar to what you are describing in relation to Taoist philosophy. I become something of a sage, but couldn't seem to do the ole Taoist Two-Step.

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So regular meditation and exercise "cured" you?

I have a few books on prostrastination that deal with my problem rather directly, and they present helpful methods of solving it, one step at a time, but I then seem to stop short when it comes to applying these techniques.

As for your view of habits, I see them more as a result of beliefs, the sort of things Tony Robbins discusses in Awaken the Giant Within. You can start a diet, but if you have the same mental rut you were in before, you are just going to gain all that weight back. Attacking the symptom, not the cause, has in my experience, not been that productive.

I'll post later once I can think through all your suggestions. Thanks a lot. Have a nice day.

Cured? Cured in the sense that I was cured of the chatter of my ego.

I have a few books on prostrastination that deal with my problem rather directly.

BURN THEM.

It's not the words we are talking about. For your particular situation, no amount of intellectual understanding will help.

As for your view of habits, I see them more as ...

There is one eternal truth, yes, but infinite ways of perceiving that truth. Like GOD, it doesn't matter how you conceptualize it, all that matters is the experience.

Does your perspective serve you to the greatest degree? If yes, then it is the right one for you.

Pragmatism in all things.

Attacking the symptom, not the cause, has in my experience, not been that productive.

The cause is too much thinking and talking. Both exercise and meditation reinforce a 'just do it' mentality and will aid you in 'sticking-to' whichever further habits you wish to acquire.

good luck

Fahrenheit 451 baby!

Their ideas are actually pretty decent though. Burning might be a tad extreme. I'll have to consider it further.

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So how does one stop intellectualizing? I've tried, and it is damn hard. My whole critical, analytical, intellectual nature ends up being rather counter-productive outside certain boundries and I do not know how to just "let go."

I ordered Qigong, and have been doing a bit of that, but I still can't just "let go." All I think about is if I am doing the right posture, or thinking about the right things, and if I think I am, then why doesn't it feel relaxing, why am I stressing out over relaxing?!?

As for exercise, I seem to have the habit of starting and stopping very often, most of the time I'm in stop mode though, so little gets done. I keep on telling myself I need to do some eye exercises so I can get rid of my glasses, lift my weights to get build, run(rebound, whatever) to get my stamina up and blood circulating better, Qigong(before Kudalini Yoga) to improve my health and mental well-being, Photoreading to get through all my books, various accelerative learning techniques to conquer my school work, actually get to my homework, start building up my credit rating to create my investing corporation, and the list just goes on... but nothing gets done to any great satisfaction. I've surrounded myself with things to do to improve my life to the point where now I don't seem to have room to breath, least feel bad about not doing anything constructive.

I'd like to believe that I am working through the confusion, and any minute now, it will all "gel" and it will all fit together and make sense.

I just don't grok.

Later, brother.

good question
First, you should ask yourself if that is what you want at this point in your life. At 17, it may be more advantageous to be a Tony Robbins than a Buddha. Most people wait till at least college and to as long as their mid-life crisis or retirement. Even in China, ritualistic Confucianism comes before spontaneous Taoism. I told a chinese student here I was studying tai chi. She laughed at me and said tai chi was for old people! fancy that!!

You could say that there are TWO main modes of being for the discrimating liver.

Super-Tony Robbins Consciousness or Sub-Buddha Consciousness
Force or Non-Action
Self-Mastery or Enlightenment
Reason or Intuition
West or East
Being or Doing
Imagine Tony Robbins meditating like the Buddha.
Imagine the Buddha static contracting 2000 pounds on the leg press like Tony.

One could debate whether or not they are mutually exclusive. But that's not important. Which one are you predominantly after?

Are you more of a beta-gamma man? or an alpha-theta man? This seemingly innocuous question is one of the most important questions you may ever ask yourself. It irked me for years. Both sides were constantly tugging at me, hissing in my ear, "cooooome baaaack... you'rrre onnne of ussssssss."

Here is a hunch I have...perhaps a long-shot:
it seems like may be using self-improvement as a form of distraction. That's interesting. Self-improvement is designed to put distraction second and action first. Can it be that reading and discussing self-improvement literature has taken the place of such a thing as television in your life? Do you view self-improvement as recreation? Perhaps it is currently serving the role of 'distraction' as television, partying, computer games, or current events does for others?

* You say you've tried "damn hard" to... Well, there's an old saying,

"Whatever you vividly imagine, sincerely believe, ardently desire, and enthusiastically act upon must, inevitably, come to pass."

Early in my adult life I was frustrated, because things were not coming together. When I success began its flow I realized that I had not vividly imagined enough, sincerely believed enough, ardently desired enough, or enthusiastically acted upon enough. I thought I had, but I hadn't. In those days I had no idea the level of commitment that was required. Not the foggiest. Now I do, and I dare say you don't. So, when you say you've done something hard enough, you simply haven't. You are fooling yourself like I fooled myself.

The good news is that step by step, layer by layer, you will figure it out. This Forum will help, books will help, tapes will help, seminars will help. They are pieces to get that ball rolling.

And, during this process you will figure out how to gain balance in your life. There are trade offs, too. In your teens and early twenties your focus may be studying. In your twenties your focus might be exploration and figuring out what you might want to do the rest of your life. In your thirties your focus might be to put all effort into your career. In your forties you might want true balance between your career and personal life. There are many choice points throughout life as you come to the balance you want.

If you want to party every night, that's fine, because that's a choice. But know what you might be giving up.

If you want to meditate 2 hours every day, that's fine, but know what you might be giving up.

If you want the perfect body and spend 2 hours in the gymn every day, that's fine, but know what you might be giving up.

Balance, choices, focus, purpose--it's your life. Whatever you choose, choose to find joy in every moment. Everything is so much easier with joy. Even when you are in a lousy place, find joy, and it will be much easier to move on.

Peace, love, and joy. There's nothing finer. Everything else becomes insignificant.

And that's it for my morning ramble...

* Decisive Action is a good choice as is the Get Around To It Paraliminal Tape.

I know a bit about NLP, sub-modalities and all that fun stuff from various sources, and I whole-heartedly agree with you. But for some reason I find it terribly difficult to "vividly imagine" good things happening to me, or bad things moving away. If I'm thinking I might not do so well at any perticular activity, my representation of that future failure(intellectually, I believe there are no failures, only learning experiences, but intuitively I can't seem to believe this) is stuck in my head, and the more I try to move this picture or feeling or whatever it is, away from me, my mind decides it wants to play with my head, and pops it back, like a bommerang. Or if it is a positive representation, and I try to reinforce this, bad things start happening, and I can not deal with them. Sorry, this is starting to sound like a therapy session.

As for believing, that is tough for me. I have trouble believing in myself, and in my ablities. Though I have done a lot in these past 17 years of life, it really does not feel like I have accomplished much. I see all the things that I could do, or be, and all that I am not, and lose faith in myself. I listen to the Belief paraliminal as I fall asleep each night, but I have not seen anything noticable as result.

And my wants, they always flip-flop, one thing one day, another the next. I'm always thinking at different levels, and my tracks only sometimes intersect. I over-think what I want, and decide on something that I feel I should work on, but then change my mind, thinking I desire something else. Some days I am really motivated and feel overwealmed with all the possiblities, the things I desire all coming true, and other days I feel like there is nothing to do. Either way, little gets done.

Doing, doing, doing... something I do little of. I rarely even get all my homework done each night, I usually have to rush in the mornings, or during class. Everything gets done, but with added aggrevation and tension, two things I could do without. Half of the day I think about all the things I could accomplish with the knowledge that is at my fingertips, the other half of the day I waste away, thinking about all time I've spent not chasing my dreams.

It's all very confusing. I hope that confusion means I'm on the brink of an epiphany. I could really use an epiphany right about now. I don't believe I've ever had one of those. I've had a few "ah ha" experiences, but those are few and far between. I can't wait till Genius Code comes out....

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. I hope my wallowing self-pity doesn't bore you. Realization is the first step towards a breakthrough... right?

It's nice to know someone cares.

Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life is a great start for loving yourself. This is a basic need for any success in life. You have to love yourself, just as you are, right now this very minute. I had to read that simple book 3 times b/f i slowed down enough to get-it. The only reason i did was b/c of this sentence: The hardest people for me to get my points across are those who intuitively understand everything i'm saying. They understand it at an intuitive level & don't do the actual steps.

It took me awhile to slow down & follow her method. Then, it took me a long time to get through the book b/c i vowed to not turn a page until i got-it. I had a total break through one day. It was just wonderful. When i first started saying: I love & approve of myself, i couldn't even say the entire sentence. I couldn't even say it out loud. Condensed: I can now say: I love & approve of myself, just as i am right this minute.

Tim, this one little step is the foundation of all the rest. I am POSITIVE i would have NEVER found LS if i had not started to feel better about myself. Gotta love & approve of Tim, as he is, right this minute.

Taming Your Inner Gremlin that Paul has in his bibliography is also a great self esteem book. Fun too.

Get to work on giving Tim a chance for success. Good Luck

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Originally posted by Tim_with_a_T:
[b]"Whatever you vividly imagine, sincerely believe, ardently desire, and enthusiastically act upon must, inevitably, come to pass."

I know a bit about NLP, sub-modalities and all that fun stuff from various sources, and I whole-heartedly agree with you. But for some reason I find it terribly difficult to "vividly imagine" good things happening to me, or bad things moving away. If I'm thinking I might not do so well at any perticular activity, my representation of that future failure(intellectually, I believe there are no failures, only learning experiences, but intuitively I can't seem to believe this) is stuck in my head, and the more I try to move this picture or feeling or whatever it is, away from me, my mind decides it wants to play with my head, and pops it back, like a bommerang. Or if it is a positive representation, and I try to reinforce this, bad things start happening, and I can not deal with them. Sorry, this is starting to sound like a therapy session.

As for believing, that is tough for me. I have trouble believing in myself, and in my ablities. Though I have done a lot in these past 17 years of life, it really does not feel like I have accomplished much. I see all the things that I could do, or be, and all that I am not, and lose faith in myself. I listen to the Belief paraliminal as I fall asleep each night, but I have not seen anything noticable as result.

And my wants, they always flip-flop, one thing one day, another the next. I'm always thinking at different levels, and my tracks only sometimes intersect. I over-think what I want, and decide on something that I feel I should work on, but then change my mind, thinking I desire something else. Some days I am really motivated and feel overwealmed with all the possiblities, the things I desire all coming true, and other days I feel like there is nothing to do. Either way, little gets done.

Doing, doing, doing... something I do little of. I rarely even get all my homework done each night, I usually have to rush in the mornings, or during class. Everything gets done, but with added aggrevation and tension, two things I could do without. Half of the day I think about all the things I could accomplish with the knowledge that is at my fingertips, the other half of the day I waste away, thinking about all time I've spent not chasing my dreams.

It's all very confusing. I hope that confusion means I'm on the brink of an epiphany. I could really use an epiphany right about now. I don't believe I've ever had one of those. I've had a few "ah ha" experiences, but those are few and far between. I can't wait till Genius Code comes out....

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. I hope my wallowing self-pity doesn't bore you. Realization is the first step towards a breakthrough... right?

It's nice to know someone cares. [/B]

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