Angry? Frightened? Use that energy to change the world

A decade ago, I was lost in misery, three thousand miles from anything I called home, feeling beaten and broken, LITERALLY curled in a fetal position on the floor, crying my eyes out. I saw no way forward to my dreams. A family emergency had hit the “reset” button on my life, and I knew I didn’t have time or energy to start over from scratch. The map of reality that had guided me from childhood was shattered.

And in the depths of despair, I was hit with a truth I did NOT want to hear, not in any way shape or form. It was this:

That until I felt GRATITUDE for being in Atlanta, I would NOT be able to formulate a plan to get back to Los Angeles.

And as illogical as it sounds, when I created a Morning Ritual to flood myself with gratitude every morning, I began to see opportunities and possibilities. Once I was grateful that Jason was having a chance to get to know his cousins and grandfather, that Tananarive was having a wonderful academic experience teaching at Spelman and I had a chance to learn who I was by supporting her 100%…I relaxed a little and took a gig judging a short film contest at Spelman.

Doing that made me realize that WE could make a film as good as what I was seeing from the students. Which would be an excellent use of my time and energy in Atlanta. So we raised the money for DANGER WORD (www.dangerwordfilM(doT)coM) , made the movie. Riding that wave of energy we got back to L.A. only now we weren’t just writers, we were PRODUCERS, and people treated us enough differently that we started having meetings at a new level.

I had escaped suffering, embraced joy, and been of service (to my family) while taking an action in alignment with my goals and dreams, my “becoming.” Leading to greater confidence and clarity. And now…

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We have been offered funding for a short film based on one of our IP. And they want us to DIRECT and produce, not “just” write. Further, the offered deal includes steps to directing a feature version as well. While no details have been worked out, and a thousand things can go wrong…

This is gigantic. I can now see the finish line for all three of my major remaining goals in life.

1. Jason with a BA, happily employed, a black belt and tucked into a healthy, loving relationship.
2. Theatrical motion picture (distributed through a streaming service will be considered)
3. Best shape of my life when I go to Manila in ‘26.

Trust me: each of these goals integrates tightly with the other two, for a balance of belly brain, heart center, and head center with motivation INSTANTLY on tap due to that integration, from survival to spirit.

They can all be achieved within the Three Gates: I can reach them by being honest, kind, and effective.

And they are all steps along the “escape suffering (say…money), embrace joy (self expression, playing with family and friends) and be of service (increased authority which makes me a better, more plausible teacher).

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My best hope is to use the MAGIC formula here. And ask myself how we generated this “luck” in our lives.

Map or Mentor. Boy oh boy, are Tananarive and I ever treasuring our friends and mentors, listening to everything they say to increase our skills as well as increase our capacity to PROVE our quality: sales, awards, reviews, etc. But also constantly improving our networking and marketing.

Action. You might have noticed we do this EVERY DAMNED DAY. I’m taking another step along that path, switching from model to model because the human mind cannot fully grasp all of reality, but every ancient pattern has a thread of truth to it. Weave enough of them together, and you can begin to grasp the shape of things. Even if you can only see three steps ahead, take that first step and another appears.

GRATITUDE. Boy, howdy. Is there ever stress. But stress doesn’t hurt you. STRAIN hurts you, what happens when the stress surpasses your ability to safely and healthfully integrate its lessons and grow. And on an emotional level, the cure for stress, for fear and anxiety, is GRATITUDE.

I cannot see all the things that will jump up at me as I proceed, so I have to build a surplus of energy and faith and flexibility. Confidence that whatever happens, I can deal with it. Or as we say: “we ARE that bitch!”

So interesting how these things happen in clusters. But as I take this run, planning the short film, the feature, and what a follow-up might be, understanding that the path to ALL my career goals is right in front of me, and that navigating it successfully will be up to ME…I am asking myself different questions. And one of the largest is:

How can I be of greatest service to my tribe?

In other words, what can I do for YOU? The answer to this matters to me so deeply. Because I AM you. We’re both having a human experience. Yours has brought you a different set of pains and joys than has mine, but it’s the same road. There are sub-tribes I care about, defined by interests, ethnicity, occupation and relation. But just the fact that you are reading this makes you potentially a tribe member.

The MAGIC Formula is gonna get SERIOUSLY leaned on. I’ll combine it with other models, for instance Dov Simon’s 3-day film school. But certainly and definitely THINK AND GROW RICH, High Performance Habits, Musashi’s Principles, Dawn Callan’s principles, the Persuasion Pattern and more. I will build a hyper-dimensional mental construct, looking at the same process from multiple perspectives.

The MAGIC formula book is my clearest statement on these things, and looking at my life, I’m delighted to have created it. Its in first edition now, with a dynamic Google document I can update every time I get useful feedback, so that you can ALWAYS access the most recent version.

I set the price very low, but realized that I want Christmas to come early this year. I want this amazing process to be available to ANYONE who is sincere. So this is what I’m going to do:

I’m going to trust you.

If you have been a “white belt” student of the Formula, if you have done the “Five Minute Miracle” breathing FOR AT LEAST TWO WEEKS, but HONESTLY cannot afford to pay the price…I will give you one for free. I will do this for ONE person a day, but it is a sincere offer. I trust that those who can afford it will buy it, so that I don’t hurt my family by making this offer.

But my motivations are selfish, and clear: My overarching life goal is to assist ONE MILLION people to become awake, aware, adult human beings. I can do this with 1000 solid and committed students, each of whom embraces both MAGIC and some other model or mentor of their choosing, and actually integrates it into their lives so that their light shines in the world.

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One pattern that is applicable to current events has to be the path to being politically active while remaining on the Path. The current steps (I’m always refining) are:

1. Love yourself.
2. Love one other person
3. Understand history without guilt, blame or shame
4. Nurture your tribe, avoid trolls
5. Win or lose with integrity

You probably hear a hundred times a day from people who are stressed to the breaking point. They want one of two things:

1. Comfort and connection
2. Strategy

Be prepared for either. And the best way to do that is to solve the basic issue: “how can I escape suffering and embrace joy?” in your own life. Then you can simply share what worked for you. It may or may not help them, but if you are honest, AT LEAST THEY NOW KNOW IT IS POSSIBLE, and if they can reduce their stress enough to use their natural problem-solving ability, they can search to find mentors and maps that help them navigate their territory in their own way.

If they BREATHE for instance…?

So there it is. The very things I need to do to satisfy every goal I’ve ever had is to help YOU get YOUR goals. That’s precisely how I wanted life to be. The best and easiest way to succeed is to FIRST trigger your own survival drive, and then find ways to help other people escape suffering and embrace joy.

If this is you, I strongly suggest you get MAGIC. If you cannot afford it, just demonstrate that you are sincere by doing the breathing (60 seconds of deep, slow diaphragmatic breathing, on the hour, at least five times a day) for two weeks, let me know, and I’ll put you on the list. If you can afford it, please purchase so that I can afford to give away more copies.

It is such a marvelous thing to actually see a path to EVERYTHING I want in life: the movie, my son’s life opening to him, my ability to live with all the physical vibrance I am capable of…

And assisting one million human beings escape suffering, embrace joy, and be of service.

That would change the world, wouldn’t it?

That feels like such a valid and wonderful path. If you would like to help, I welcome you brother. I welcome you, sister. If our paths can twine for a while…it would warm my heart.

Whatever you choose, grace in your journey.

Namaste

Steve

www.realherosjourney.com

(p.s. — for those who are using MAGIC and can HONESTLY report back positive objective results, you might want to become an affiliate for it. First get the results, THEN talk to me. Sales is a sharing of enthusiasm. Do NOT think you can fake this. But if you are getting the results…you can help change the world.)