Every Sunday, my primary “work” is to figure out the most important thing to accomplish in the next seven days. Last week:
WHAT: The most important thing I had to accomplish last week was a fabulous 20th anniversary celebration with Tananarive.
WHY: Because I adore her, and thank God every day that this fabulous, beautiful, brilliant, exceptional woman chose ME as her life partner. And I never, ever want to take her or my life for granted, or let time pass without celebration.
HOW: An Air B’nB beach house in Malibu while Jason was off for a week of camp.
Get that? Clear goal, clear reasons so passionate I vibrate when I think about it, and only then figuring the “how.” Now…this week.
WHAT: Launch the “Your First 100k” course I’ve been working on for the last three years. Rewrite the “Danakil” story for the blockchain “Celarius” project.
WHY: To provide a clearer road-map to my friends and students of how to take their passion to help people and turn it into the ability to support their own families and fulfill their dreams. To finish a terrific shared-universe story
HOW: By consulting with my tech guy Michael to be sure all the pieces of the marketing funnel are in place, all the contracts handled, the sales pages designed and executed, all the pieces of the course ready for download. By editing five-ten pages of story a day.
WHAT then WHY then HOW. Clear?
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Once upon a time, I was a kid from a financially challenged, broken home, filled with fear about a world I had been told would destroy me if I was weak…or if I was too strong. No role models, no one who believed in my dreams, and a mother who loved me but was destroying herself with stress and fear and toil. But…she gave me a fantastic gift: the notion that our minds control our destiny.
And even if she was so rigid and wounded that she wasn’t able to take this notion to its logical conclusion SHE INFECTED ME WITH THE MEME. And I spent my entire young life studying, searching, training…trying to find mentors, gurus, therapists, coaches, ANYONE who could help me achieve the things I needed to avoid catastrophe. And…although Mom was limited by the rigidity of her traditional belief systems, I started seeing that all of these people, all these religions, all these philosophies were saying the same things in different ways, and slowly began to put it together.
Gaining success as a writer by writing every day.
Gaining success as a martial artist by training every day.
Building a beautiful family by being there as a husband and father every day.
I made mistakes. Failed many times. And deeply regret some of the choices I made along the way. But…kept learning. And growing. Until one day I looked up, and realized that I’d literally achieved every goal I’d ever had as a kid.
Time for new goals.
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The most evolved “Master” of any discipline I’ve had a chance to sit down and speak with one human being to another is probably Danny Inosanto, arguably the world’s greatest expert on Filipino and Indonesian martial arts, a walking encyclopedia, warrior, and gentleman. At 82 years old he still teaches and trains every day, traveling the world every weekend to share his knowledge.
He is complex, not “complicated”. In many ways a simple man of true genius, who teaches the history of his people as much as sharing their martial wisdom, which is phenomenal, music and mathematics on the kinesthetic level. And all that makes him what he is is a clear goal:
WHAT: to be the best he can be. To learn and grow and go as far as he can in his lifetime.
WHY: Because the weak deserve a chance to be strong. Because bullies bleed too. To fulfill a sacred promise to the great teacher of his life, Bruce Lee.
HOW: To train and teach every day.
That’s it. A clear “What”. An empowering “Why.” and the “How” is simply doing it daily.
As the lady said, parenthood isn’t hard. Its just daily. The same with ANYTHING else you want to master.
Know what your lifetime intentions are. What your yearly outcomes need to be to reach them, and have a raft of kickass reasons to GO FOR IT. What you have to accomplish this month to stay on track. What you need to do THIS WEEK to continue to refine your life physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually.
Know those things…and then know the minimum you have to do TODAY to make it happen.
Then…raise your energy by engaging with your body physically while visualizing your outcomes, chanting your gratitudes, and clarifying the ONE THING you MUST do today to take another step.
That’s all it is, people. Mastery is a verb, not a noun. A vector, not a position. It is being on the road, and learning and giving a little more every day. Every. Damned. Day.
And, of course, celebrating your victories so that the little kid inside you, the sprite that generates all the energy and creativity, knows it is all worth while.
Do that, and the rest of life takes care of itself. One day you’ll look up and have been married to your soulmate for two decades, have published three million words, and hold three black belts…
Or whatever the equivalent of those things is for YOU. Or let’s put it more simply:
You’ll be happy to have been here on this planet, taking this journey. One step at a time.
Namaste
Steve
Steven Barnes 