The one major life mistake that blocks you from your potential

Your Path in Life is made of Steps

Everyone’s in pursuit of accomplishment.
But many get lost for years without making any progress.

Here’s the conundrum:

It’s easy to forge your own path in the modern age
You have access to so many possibilities
Incredible potential lies around every corner

At the same time…

It’s difficult to forge your own path in the modern age
You’re pulled from your path by infinite distractions
You get overwhelmed by too many options available at every second

If you want to get beyond the noise:
You have to get CLEAR

You have to listen to your inner voice
And move forward
Without knowing exactly what’s going to happen

This is a manifesto about taking a step forward.
A real physical step in the real tangible world.
It’s too easy to get lost in thoughts and plans…
An action-oriented bias is what shapes the course of your life.

The only way to move forward is by taking a step

Subconscious Secret Service

On some level, you probably know what you need to do.
You don’t know where the journey will take you – but you know the next step you need to take.
Your unconscious mind knows…

Think of the subconscious like a secret service agency.
You are the agent.
You don’t get all the mission information at the beginning.
You just get an outline, a statement, an objective, or the next step.
As you move forward with the mission, the agency (your unconscious mind) feeds you the next bit of information. The next objective becomes clear as you make progress.

You have to trust your unconscious to reveal the next steps as you go.
(You can replace ‘unconscious mind’ with – ‘the universe’, or ‘feedback from the real world’, or whatever you wish – the point is that your conscious mind has limited scope and your most elaborate and well-designed can’t anticipate that far ahead)

You can’t demand that your whole life is laid out in front of you with a step-by-step map of exactly what’s going to happen.
That demand will have the opposite effect…
It will restrict you
Bind you up
Prevent you from moving forward.

Our subconscious tells us secrets as we go

Your Life is unchartered – You make the map

You don’t have a map for your life.
And any maps others left behind are incomplete:
The map is not the territory.

You are the explorer in your own life.
You can only make the map by discovering what’s out there in the real world.
Taking a step into that unknown world of the future is where you find adventure in life.
The map is made in retrospect – after the exploring is done.

We look for a map to have certainty – but it’s like we are going to this hill with a map of the world – it’s useless

An Action-Oriented Bias makes the map

To make an accurate map, you have to focus on real action in the real world.
A theoretical ‘plan’ in your head is not going to illuminate anything – because it doesn’t explore the territory.
You explore the territory by taking the next step.
You have to be brave enough to take that step not knowing exactly where it’s going to lead.

But too often we concern ourselves with empty questions and anxieties…
“Ok, but what’s the 33rd step I need to take after that?”

By trying to clear all the haze from our path, we end up lost in a haze.
We end up going nowhere.

We get overwhelmed by trying to think too far ahead

Without Action you live a Virtual Life

If you’re stuck maybe it’s this one-two punch combo that keeps clocking you: You’re avoiding the next step, because…

It ‘feels’ hard or uncomfortable
(We have a natural inclination to avoid things we perceive as difficult)
You don’t know what comes after it
(We have an anxiety about uncertainty and the unknown)

So you try to plan every step, to avoid taking a step.
This is the fake work.
It’s taking action that’s insignificant to your mission.
It’s endlessly planning, researching, analysing, instead of doing the thing that is hard or uncomfortable.
It’s living a virtual life by refusing to step into the arena and get wounded and fail and keep fighting.

Ask yourself the question, you’ll probably know the answer –
Are you taking real action in the real world that’s moving you forward?
Or are you just fantasising about it?

You’ve got one life.
It’s not a video game.
Its not a dress rehearsal.

So don’t live a virtual life. Do real things.
Live a real life, a full life, a life that you love.

Do the real work
It’s what your potential is made of
It’s where satisfaction lies

This guy didn’t get here by sorcery – he took some steps forward

This is part 1 of the 5-part Anti-Productivity Manifesto.
How to let go of your invisible procrastination compulsion and create real momentum in your life.
Read part 2 here…
Self-Actualisation

VIRTUAL REALITY