A Few Things....

June 7 2019

From Richmond, England.

1. Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz (Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life). A friend recommended this. It’s a book that is hard to categorize. I am still digesting the ideas, and I wanted to share the big ones with you.

   Here’s how it starts: Problem solving is a bad way to live - better way is to create. Because once a problem is solved, the motivation is gone. But creating allows you to play an infinite game. You are always making, bringing to life.

   It then goes into what & how to create: The way anything is structured determines the behavior within that structure. There are fundamental structures in your life which determine the path of least resistance. The ways you will act. The structures that have the most influence on your life are composed of your desires, beliefs, assumptions, aspirations, and objective reality itself. So an important insight is that structure determines behavior…….

   One major skill of the creative process is forming structures that resolve in favor of the creation. These structures are the most useful because they support movement in the direction of your final result. Are you in a structure that resolves itself or one that oscillates ? Is there structural conflict in what you are doing ? To be creative is to change the structures that change behavior. If you try to change your behavior without first changing the underlying structure causing that behavior, you will not succeed. This is because structure determines behavior, not the other way around.

   One of the great secrets in the art of creating is mastering the force of structural tension. If you attempt to resolve the tension you have established prematurely, you weaken your ability to create the results you want. Those who do not understand discrepancy often feel discouraged when there is more discrepancy between what they want and what they have, and encouraged when there is less. But to the creator, all of the forces in play are useful. If there is more discrepancy, there is more force to work with. If there is less, there is more momentum as you move toward the final creation of the result.

   Create tension between the reality you want and where you are now. Then shrink time to heighten tension ! Plunge in and then move to the next step faster than you are ready.

   It goes on to discuss where people can get stuck: You must separate between what you want from what you think is possible. Those who learn to know reality, without holding on to the past, are in the best position to truly live their lives. This is not amnesia or forgetting the past, but remembering that the past is over. The past is not the present. Whether the past has been filled with loss and failure or filled with success and victory, the past is not the present. And the present is not the past

   In the creative orientation, you consciously choose results you want to see manifested. Through a direct choice, you focus and release energy and you then tend to gravitate toward those processes that will be most helpful to you.

   But you can undermine your power to choose your actions in each scenario:

   i. Choice by limitation – choosing only what seems possible or reasonable

   ii. Choice by indirectness – choosing the process instead of the result

   iii. Choice by default – the “choice” not to make a choice, so that whatever results happen seem to occur without choice – all that is left is reaction

   iv. Conditional choice – imposing preconditions on choices

   v. Choice by consensus – choosing by finding out what everyone else is willing to recommend and following the results of that poll

   When you choose, take two steps:

   i. First, conceive of the results you want, that is, have a clear vision of what you want to create

   ii. Second, formalize the choice by actually saying the words, “I choose to have…”

   A fundamental choice is a choice in which you commit yourself to a basic life orientation or a basic state of being. A fundamental choice is a foundation upon which primary and secondary choices rest – to act with “direction”.

   It ends with: Make the most out of every situation, go positive and go first, aim for win-win relationships with mutual trust and reciprocation

   I hope I did justice to the book.

2. Joe Rogan did a great podcast with one of my favorite people - Naval Ravikant. It’s one to listen to twice. Some of my favorite ideas:

   “When you combine things you’re not supposed to combine, people get interested”

   “Don’t read to finish books. Read to satisfy your intellectual curiosity”

   “I don’t care how rich you are. I don’t care whether you’re a top Wall Street banker, if somebody has to tell you when to be at work, what to wear and how to behave, you’re not a free person. You’re not actually rich.”

   “The way to retire is actually to find the thing that you know how to do better than anybody. And you know how to do it better than anybody because you love to do it. No one can compete with you if you love to do it. Be authentic and then figure out how to map that to what society actually wants, apply some leverage, put your name on it so you take the risks but you gain the rewards, have ownership and equity in what you do, and then just crank it out.”

   “Your real resume is just a cataloging of all your suffering”

3. A few things worth reading

   A. I really enjoyed Scott Galloway’s 1st book - “The Four”. He’s now written “The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love and Meaning”. In this Fast Company article, he makes the case for criticizing people less and complimenting them more, and explains why psychology research consistently shows that there is a correlation between gratitude and greater happiness.

   B. My philosophy for a happy life - TEDxMidAtlantic. I’ve thought about this video many times this week. It help push my reset button and I hope it will make you think about your life.

   C. One of the ideas I am interested in is “The Future of Work” and the ""The Future of Education”. Thoughtful article on The Big Think discussing that in the future we will acquire skills, not degrees and what that means. I think we are already here.

   D. We are all consumers of a massive amount of podcasts, the guys at Podcast Notes have helped me save a bunch of time by just summarizing the best ones, so I can decide which ones to listen to.

   Quote I am thinking about:

   Attract what you expect, reflect what you desire, become what you respect, mirror what you admire.

   -Unknown