The Four States of Mind: Which One Are You In?
Today, we are going to discuss some powerful ideas that are going to radically transform the way you show up in the world, the way you work and the way you attain with ease your wildest dreams. Let me give a quick breakdown of what's going to happen next. What we're going to be covering in the next few posts is how to access the ultimate states of human existence. What are those subtle states of being, of life that the world's most extraordinary people exist in. What are the nuances to keep in mind and how do you bring these nuances into your life. We are going to look at two pillars. And these two pillars, when you bring them in your life, they make a massive difference.
The first pillar is happiness in the now. The second pillar is a vision for the future. Once you're able to access these states how do you stay unshakeable in this state, so that criticism, judgement do not sway you, negative bumps as you drive through life don't veer you off course. This feeling is called being UNFUCKWITHABLE and you will learn the exact way to get there.
We will then go on to how to make your mind resistant to inevitable failure, so failure doesn't knock you over and when you gain this ability, you also gain the ability to set really big bold goals. Once you have these goals the next ingredient that comes into play is intuition. Often with big goals we don't necessarily know how to get there unless we can tap into our intuition. Once we learn intuition we'll then go into the art of bending reality. Just how much of the world can you shift with your mind to move you effortlessly towards your goal. Today we are going to talk about the ultimate state of human existence.
THE FOUR STATES OF MIND
" The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both." James A. Michener
In our lives, we can access specific states of existence where work and play become one. And when you understand that there isn't a distinction, when you can bridge these aspects of your life, something magical happens. Life seems to unfold for you with a certain grace and ease where it almost seems as if the universe has your back and magic is moving you forward. Now, to get to this state, you must understand that in life you must have a vision for the future. But you must also have happiness in the now. In other words, you must be happy with what you're doing now irregardless of your vision. This is called the paradox of intention. In the book Quantum Success by Sandra Anne Taylor, she defines the paradox of intention this way "You must have goals. But your happiness cannot be tied to these goals. You must be happy before you attain them."
This is a really crucial point. A lot of us tie our happiness to our goals. We go for the if - then version of happiness. I will be happy if I get that. But as soon as you get to that place, what often happens is, you never truly feel satisfied. There's always something more and something more and something more. The trick you see is to untangle happiness from your goals, to have goals but to be not attached to your goals and to be happy in the now. When you understand that there're two different aspects to existence vision for the future and happiness in the now, you start to understand that you can simultaneously exist in one of four states.
Take a look at the graph above. Now, as you can see you can be the type of person who has neither vision or happiness. Both are failing you. This is a dangerous state to be in, because if you are in this state you don't have a clear vision of how you want to come out of this state and you stay stuck in misery. Often this is when you sink into a depression. Now, at a certain point what happens is that you start developing a vision, you start caring about how your future is going to unfold. You start deciding you want to do well at your job or build your own business. This is the state that most busy career people live in. But there's a flaw here. They have a vision for their future but they are lacking happiness in the now. This is the state of stress and anxiety and overwhelm. It can wear you out. It can break you down. It can destroy your health and it slows down your movement towards your goals. You do not want to be at this state.
Now, there are some people who are in the opposite end. They do not have a vision for the future, they exist in a state of happiness and bliss. This is what is called the current reality trap. IT is a trap because, honestly, you can get to happiness and bliss by smoking a joint. It is an illusion. It doesn't mean that you're spiritual or you've figured it all out. Simply existing in happiness and bliss but not having that vision for your future is actually a trap because your soul is here to grow. Your soul is here to contribute and if you don't have a vision for how you want to grow and how you want to leave a mark in the world, you are failing your own soul.
So, what then is the state you want to move to, it is the state call bending reality because that's what happens when you get to that state. You have bold visions for the future. You have powerful happiness in the now. And the Universe seems to align around you and move you effortlessly towards your craziest dreams. Now, you can get there and there is a way to get there.
BENDING REALITY
Bending Reality is a mental state of mind in which you are pulled forward by big goals, yet happy where you are now. It creates a feeling of growth and a feeling of being lucky because it often appears as if magic is in your life and the Universe has your back. Now, what's really interesting, is that if you look at some of the most remarkable people alive today, they are doing their best when they are in this state.
So, how do you bring these pillars into your life?
BLISSIPLINE
So, when it comes to happiness in the now you want to practice the art of Blissipline = the discipline of bliss. Blissipline simply means that your greatest discipline in life is to ensure that you are in perpetual states of bliss. There're many different levels of bliss. Happiness, being worry free, having hope for the future, living in awe. And there are unique practices to get you there: gratitude, forgiveness, journaling, meditation, being in the company of friends and people who love you. You will learn how to refine your daily habits so that you practice blissipline and are in these elevated states of being on a regular basis.
The second pillar is the vision for the future. What you're going to learn through these series of blog post is how to tap deep into your soul and figure out what is that vision that your soul has for you. To do this, you've got to understand the difference between end goals and means goals. You are then going to learn special types of unique goal attributes to insert into your goal list from something called self fuelled goals to bold ambitious goals. And you're going to learn how to make failure irrelevant. When you combine both of these pillars you move to these magical states that the world's most powerful people exist in, from Branson to Rockerfeller to Oprah to Arianna Huffington.
EXERCISE FOR TODAY
On your journal draw this diagram, try to reflect where you are on the graph of "the 4 states of mind" try to replicate this in your journal. mark the different states, and put a little circle or dot in where you think you are. You may not be all the way at peak vision. You may not even know what peak vision means. You will learn this as we go deeper into this in the coming blog posts.
There is actually a scientific concept called positive intelligence that measures where you are in terms of happiness. Positive intelligence looks at your ratio of positive thoughts to overall thoughts. So, if you're having 20% negative thoughts in a day then your happiness level will pretty much be at the 80% line. If you are going through a depression your happiness level may be at 1% to 5% line. Only 5% of your day might you actually feel a positive state.
But here's the crazy thing as you'll soon learn. Science is now showing that one of the number one determinants of high performance at work is the happiness level. So, everything we are talking about here is now being studied and validated by science. I want you to figure out where you are on the vision line and where you are on the happiness line. Make a dot, and as we go deeper into these concepts in the following blog posts you're going to come back to this particular chart that you've drawn in your journal and you're going to plot every week how your vision is increasing and how your happiness is increasing.
KEY IDEAS
The Ultimate State of Human Existence consists of :
1) Happiness in the now
2) Vision for the future
The Four States of Mind
1) The Negative Spiral
2) Stress and Anxiety
3) The Current Reality Trap
4) Bending Reality
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