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One of my ‘favorite’ practices is this:
I find out that I misunderstood something. It cost me to miss something. It cost me to misunderstand. And it always does.
So instead of getting upset. Or angry. Or beat myself up. I do something constructive.
I expand my cone of vision.
And I ask the question: I wonder what else I misunderstand? I wonder what else I misread? Where else I am sure I understand and I don’t.
Or I make a mistake… Where else do I make a mistake like this? Or this same mistake…
Because how you do anything is how you do everything!
I sent out an email last night asking for people who haven’t raised their hand to work with me yet, to raise their hands if they are potentials to work with me.
Many of my current students raised their hand… WTF…
This coin has two sides that are worth examining:
Was it my English that didn’t communicate, or was it you who misunderstood what I wrote?
Both are a great opportunity to ask the question:
What else? Where else?
What else do I think is clear and isn’t?
What else do you think you understand and you didn’t?
This is a spiritual practice.
Asking these questions may remove some of the filters that you are unaware of, and show you glimpses of reality that you have been unaware of.
And more importantly, the questions may teach you to say:
It ain’t necessarily so…
Changing is only possible if you catch what you need to change
But you can’t catch what you can’t see. Or what you don’t want to see.
The question I asked in the email: Is happiness more important to you than feeling safe?
The correct question would be: Is happiness more important to you than being right? Is money more important to you than being right?
99% of humanity won’t understand the question. Because they ARE right… NOT!
You need to catch that you are not right… and asking these questions will gently show you where you are right about being right… while you are actually wrong.
And the cost is happiness, money, success… and health.
So start catching yourself.
Stupid as the stupid does… it is not a problem with capacity, it is a problem with not looking twice. Seriously…
PS:
A few days ago I shared that I am starting a side-business… A reader sent me an email saying: ‘Also I was genuinely sorry to hear you are packing up your business. You will be a big loss to people particularly like me who continue doing stupid things, and not changing anything in their lives‘
To illustrate that how you do anything is how you do everything, this same person uses the Water Energizer audio through a headset… Except she positions the headset over the empty part of the container, not over the water to be energized.
Same thing… not able to see clearly. Not understanding what is what.
If she asked the question: where else do I misunderstand things, she could now be on the lookout for the same kind of errors… and become better and better in life.
Connect the dots.
One hallmark of intelligence…
Just practicing this spiritual practice, diligently, can raise your IQ and life satisfaction to double, maybe even triple.
and just so you know: you have hardly any competition. I only have two clients who ever do that.
I would call this ‘pattern recognition’ and you could practice it under my personal guidance in the ‘Bring purpose to life’ challenge.
The place to practice…
