Ever hear the phrase “Careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”?
Well, this particular mentor gave me ample opportunities to test that theory to the max, in ways both good and bad.
This series of lessons really pertains to the power of the mind; the subconscious, to be exact.
Your subconscious mind is an unthinking beast
It simply takes what you tell it and then trains all its considerable resources on finding that thing – making it come true in your life.
The problem is, it does not use context in order to bring you your wishes. It can’t.
It doesn’t understand a desire’s place in the greater scheme of your life.
It doesn’t comprehend negatives.
It has nothing to do with comprehending “intent.”
Your subconscious mind thinks only in subjects, topics, and goals
It doesn’t know why you want a goal or how it fits in to what you’re trying to achieve.
Think of a dog when you point to something. The dog can’t understand that you’re “pointing” at anything. It just sees your finger going up. So that’s where it trains its focus. At your finger.
That mindless simplicity is the realm of your subconscious
It, by itself, cannot think – only act on base data that you feed it.
I focused so heavily on the subconscious mind for a reason. It was to show you how well mine delivered to me all that I asked it to during my time with this particular partner.
It brought me great fun and huge disappointments
I went through a phase where I was excitedly turning over every stone in my search for profitability. I had ideas galore and wanted to enact all of them in some grand symphony of achievement. (Hell, I still think that way but with temperance.)
Life delivered me a partner who saw things just as I did. And this man had even more energy, more excitement, and more ideas than I did. He was also better established as a businessman and I wanted to learn from him so we paired up. Then we unleashed ourselves on an unsuspecting public.
We became great friends. We did a lot of good for a lot of people. And we drew many other innovative types to us:
- We met with civic leaders and business owners left and right
- We went to seminars
- We went to chamber meetings
- We went to angel investors meetings
- We met with inventors
- We researched topics online and at colleges
- We consulted with various experts for all manner of reasons
- We drew diagrams
- We mind-mapped plans of attack
- We designed business plans
- We conferred with government agencies
And we also spent a lot of money for little to no return. Spent a lot of time and energy on projects that had no hope of succeeding. Spent hours meeting with others who did not take us seriously.
And I ended up doing more than my fair share of research and logistics in order to design and arrange these beautiful messes into some sort of cohesive, functional operations.
In the end, I was left burnt out, broke, and feeling more than a little foolish in the eyes of my peers.
This partnership taught me temperance, self-preservation, and reason
I said yes to too much. I did more than I should have thinking I’d be paid back in desired results or cash. I thought I should work harder in certain areas in order to prove myself worthy.
I dug a hole and climbed in but I also got exposed to many types of business situations that I’d never have witnessed first hand had I not been so blindly enthusiastic.
And there really was a bunch of fun mixed in. So here’s what I took away from that partnership:
- Provide unquestionable quality in all that you do to the point of being willing to fight about it
- Be efficient and effective and know the difference in order to keep costs down
- FOCUS!!!
- Keep your idea creation under control
- Keep active projects to a minimum
- Don’t confuse busyness with achievement
- Control your excitement – keep your plans to yourself until they’ve been achieved
- Learn all there is to learn about a topic until you feel confident enough to undertake the task
- Don’t be a martyr – get fairly compensated for all that you do
- Stay abreast of your industry’s innovations and upgrades
- Be an affiliate for anything you endorse – get paid for your recommendations
- Delegate tasks fairly
- Don’t be a hypocrite
- Take time to do the non-work things – enjoy life
Like I said, I had a blast with this guy and I truly learned an incredible amount of wisdom and knowledge in a widespread area of topics. But I had to know when to say when.
I also learned to know my mind better and to scrutinize my underlying needs and desires more closely than ever before.
That’s really the big take away here:
Why do you think you need what you think you need?
Are you truly asking the right questions or seeking the right resources for what it is that you need to achieve?
Even your mind is not what you think it to be, so be careful in how you speak to it.
Trippy, huh?
Where’s your head at as you pursue your dreams and goals? Find out. Research yourself. Get an idea of what you’re thinking and why.
The photographer of this post’s featured photo: Fancycrave
