Be Smart: Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
To recap: four months ago I injured my hip doing isometric lifts. I twisted that right leg a little out of lin, and thought it would "work itself out" as things usually do. Instead, it got twisted further and further, until I wasn't walking right, and therefore increasing the damage.
I began to increase yoga, and the pain diminished. Then, as always, I tried to figure out which poses were most important, and tried to see if I could do just those.
To clarify: I KNEW that if I did full Ashtanga or Bikram sequences, that hip would start healing. But kept trying to cheat. And…it didn't work. Inevitably, the pain would return.
Now, I'll be honest: I DON'T KNOW exactly why. There is some combination of poses, the ORDER in which they are done, the mental focuses during the poses and more. All athletic activity is the storage and release of elastic energy in the body. Do it correctly, and the energy sort of flows from one pose or motion to another, constantly conserved and invested in the next move. Imagine water swishing through a series of gates and tunnels, at varying pressures and speeds and directions.
The GENIUS yoga teachers who created these movement series knew how to program these things. I THOUGHT I did. After all, I've "done" yoga most of my life, right? Read countless books, right? Have studied to be an instructor, and have actually taught, right?
And yet…when I did it the way Bikram or Krishnamacharya programmed, it worked. When I try to change that…it doesn't.
Such an important lesson. This is SYNTAX, one of the three things necessary to model success: 1) Belief systems, 2) mental syntax, 3) use of physiology.
Ah. I was changing TWO things. Syntax (the order in which things are done) and "use of physiology" (which poses am I employing?)
For all my study, even with a lifetime of practice, I'M JUST NOT SMART ENOUGH.
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When I look at all three aspects of my life, there are patterns employed to optimize results. All of them were either created by masters, or synthesized by yours truly by observing masters, experimenting with myself, then experimenting on students. The MAGIC formula is an example of this. But there are others. None of them contradict the others, but each is a slightly different slice of the pie:
The Hero's Journey
The Chakras
"High Performance Habits"
Musashi's principles
"Daily Seven" (Rachel Rodgers)
The Three Gates
The Meaning Of Life
There are probably fifty others of varying emphasis and effectiveness, and I float between them, because no menu is actually the meal.
Using meals as a metaphor, I imagine a student chef learns a recipe EXACTLY, until they can get the right results 10 times out of 10. THEN they begin to experiment. If their changes in process or ingredients works, they file that away, or evolve their recipe book. If it fails, they go back to the original pattern.
Steve Muhammad's brown belts all looked alike. But the BLACK belts all looked different. Get it? They learned it HIS way, and then tried it THEIRS. If it worked, they kept the change. Things evolve. But if it failed? They went back to basics.
How about writing? We encourage people to write basic stories using the Hero's Journey. Or, to analyze their stories looking at how they reflect or express the HJ's ten steps. As stories must reflect reality in some way sufficient for the human mind to identify the aspects, and the HJ also relates to human existence, it is a map one can apply to ANY story, directly, indirectly, or abstractly. Its always there, even by deliberate omission (there are stories where the character NEVER accepts the challenge, and that is the point!)
If you start here, and "nail" this, you can move on to other more sophisticated patterns, or even writing by instinct. If it works, great. If not, back to basics.
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So here, at the beginning of a new year, I have an amazing challenge and opportunity:
In all major aspects of my life, I believe, for the first time in my life, that I see exactly how to win. There are still questions about whether that perception is accurate, whether I have the tools, and whether I can apply those tools over time, dealing with my emotions and observing the results to constantly adjust.
What I need to do is go back to basics. MAGIC can be evaluated quite rapidly through Via Negativa--looking at the opposite.
In general, do people reach their goals more reliably WITHOUT guidance or advice from those who have already accomplished it? In my opinion and observation: no. They flounder, trying to re-invent the wheel.
In general, do people reach their goals more reliably if they DON'T take action? Hell no. This is one of the seriously important steps: TAKE MASSIVE ACTION. Keep courting your wife after marriage. Read and write every damned day. Attend 4-5 classes a week.
In general, to people live happier lives if they are negative? If they don't control their emotions? Don't feel gratitude? Fear and pain are great SHORT term motivations, but suck as LONG term motivations.
In general, does having a goal, a clear intention, seem to out-perform wandering from enthusiasm to enthusiasm, or running from one pain after another? Of all success principles, "goal setting" is probably the most tested, and everyone uses it a thousand times a day, but for some odd reason they are afraid to study and implement it directly.
In general, is it better to do things in alignment with your character, your core being? What happens to people who betray this to make money or get laid or loved? Geeze, its awful. Just…awful. I can think of few more destructive things people do. You end up spending money to help you forget how you earned it. And "art" is specifically "self expression channeled through craft" (IMO). If you START by looking at the market rather than asking what YOU really want to write, you might make money…but some of the saddest people I know walked that road.
You might think a different way, of course. But my observation of people who escape suffering, embrace joy, and succeed sufficiently to help others suggests that these five things are as close to critical as I'm capable of coming.
But…I remember that I could be wrong. So the FIREDANCE system insists that you find ANOTHER model as well, something more specific to your intent, and create a "grid" or a "cube" with two or three different ways of looking at things.
If you think a different way, and believe your results are stellar, for goodness sakes share them. If you've done more, starting with less, I am damned likely to empty my cup and say: "Teach me, Sifu!"
Because that's who I am.
Who are YOU?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Steve
