Jason's Adult Life Starts Tomorrow!
I will probably set myself a five-day-a-week writing schedule (5 pages rough/script per day). That will produce about 1250 pages a year. Split between two projects that's 625 pages a year. So two books and a few scripts and short stories? That's about right.
In an emergency, I can work on Saturdays. If I do, I'd like to confine that to production of rough.. Five pages a day output requires about fifty pages a day input, plus a movie. That's very doable as well. The rest will be meditation, general research, and raising my energy as high as I can without burning out.
I don't know what projects will come in what order. What I DO know is that the M.A.G.I.C. formula, properly applied, is the closest thing to a luck generator I've ever seen in my life. They get you in the game. When you have a Model, take Action, fill your life with Gratitude, have a clear Intention in all three arenas, and have Confidence that you can and should take these actions, that they will bring more pleasure than pain…all you have to do is make sure you never have a "zero" in any of those categories and you WILL make progress.
That's why I gave it to Jason, and why I decided that his first custom project was going to be "M.A.G.I.C. 4 Teens", a lecture on the principles, and how he has applied them in his life to go "from ADHD to A's."
That's the first lecture. But there are two more: Tananarive's perspective on the decade of work, and then mine. A total of over three hours of amazing content, plus transcripts. You can get it tomorrow!
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One thing I suggest is that students use MORE than the M.A.G.I.C. formula. Why? Because I don't know you well enough to PERSONALIZE a program. I have to make broad strokes to serve everyone. The MAGIC principles seem to work for anyone, in any circumstance. As said…they get you into the real game. But how do you EXCEL? What if you have to excel to survive or further your dreams, and you don't even know what's coming next?
Well, this is where I suggest you model someone who has accomplished YOUR goals, starting from where you started. Their belief systems, mental syntax, and use of physiology will be unique to the individual and to the specific challenge. And you might find that they love Think And Grow Rich, or NLP, or Tony Robbins, or Musashi, or whatever. And in this case, simply add their pattern. The MAGIC formula is your safety net, providing all your basics. And adding a more specific model simply gives you more than one perspective. IMO you will NEVER find a valid success pattern that denies the power of modeling, action, positive emotions, clear intentions, and belief in self. So whatever ELSE they say just turbo-charges you.
In the Q&A session with Tananarive we discuss some of the models and perspectives we used with Jason. One I love, and have given him is from Brendon Burchard, the "High Performance Six." Brilliant stuff, and I used it during the writer's room experience. I had real nervousness about the whole thing, so I went back to the MAGIC formula.
Remember Antonio Bandera's MASK OF ZORRO? At one point, he trained on a complex geometric form, the "Spanish Circle" that teaches distance and angles. It ALSO has another function: focusing on geometry takes your mind off the fact that you are training to survive someone trying to stab you with a long knife. Gives the forebrain something to focus on. Terrified? Just put more time into practice on the circle. Use that anxiety to power your practice, and you start raising your chance of survival.
Same with these models. You don't ELIMINATE fear, you USE the fear to drive practice and preparation. Fear, used properly, is your best friend.
Man oh man, do I wish I'd known this in my 20's. I'd simply have imagined my worst bully standing in front of me, and beat the heavy bag for about 15 minutes, until I hit "second wind". That would have transformed EVERYTHING. That single change. Damn. There really are secrets, and if no one tells you you can spend a lifetime struggling. Success is NOT "trying hard" although effort is necessary. It is trying SMART and HONESTLY over time, given all you have in terms of body, emotions, and mind. Do that, take daily action, notice your results, compare to the path you have defined, and adjust. Continue until you reach your goal. This principle just WORKS, and works especially well if you believe the Dalai Lama that "the meaning of life is to be joyful and of service."
That means that if you can see your goals in a context of serving humanity, and ALSO having fun every day, with long and short-term goals aligned, all you have to do is have a good day TODAY and you are instantly a success! And success breeds success. You don't wake up after five years and realize you've wasted time…all you have to do is look at your calendar and see the numbers you gave yourself for every day's actions. As long as you have no "zeroes" you are in perfect shape. "Perfection" is a verb, not an adjective. "Mastery" is the same.
All that stands between you and such a life is emotions. Usually some variety of fear. Or a confusion of values.
Jason had begun to believe that he "could not." Now he believes he CAN but still needs to learn "how" and the only REAL way to know how to do something…is to do it. So he's a "bench model" that hasn't been out on the track. We have to help him engage with his dreams while still supplying him a safety net. If HE wants to perform, and he believes he CAN and SHOULD, then all he has to do is identify what stands in his way, and either acquire those capacities, or gather a tribe of people who balance him out ("Mastermind") so that, together, they can accomplish their dreams:
And what is his dream? The same thing encoded into all animals: to be adult members of their species. And what is an adult: someone who takes responsibility for their actions, emotions, and survival. Only an adult can raise a child, and since I KNOW his little hormone machine is ramping up, all he has to do is see the real rewards he wants in life are on the other side of that responsibility, and he'll move heaven and Earth to be that thing.
That's what we did: total support, total love, total belief that he can stand on his own and create the life of his dream, the finances of his dreams, the body of his dreams, the love and family of his dreams. It is my job to show him how and why and be ready to catch him when he falls until he doesn't need me any more. He's so close.
But the rest of it is not theory. Now is the time for practice. And creating his own product was, frankly, a very carefully chosen first step in that. He not only had to learn and practice general success principles, but SPECIFICALLY learn sales and marketing, the key to making money. If he understands this he will be able to sell any product he wants, and can afford to choose products and services that are in alignment with his values, a customer profile that matches his tribe, and spend his life making money doing something he'd do for free: being joyful and of service.
Whew. Years and years of work, and the beta edition of the next step in this entire process drops tomorrow. See you then!
Namaste
Steve
