Is Faith Practical?
“Breathing, according to me, corresponds to taking charge of one’s own life.”
-Luce Irigaray.
###
I was in a coaching situation once, talking to a team about a postponed growth opportunity. For MONTHS I’d suggested they get their hands on a specific book. It is available dead cheap, or free. As a book, an ebook or audio.
And…for months, they’d not obtained it, let alone read it. Looking at the MAGIC formula, what immediately came to mind is that they had no MAP of action. This zeroed out all of their efforts, and indeed they’d made barely anything on a time investment of YEARS.
One of them is pretty much stuck in their ways (which have been very successful at other things) and really cannot learn a new way of thinking. O.k.
#2 said they needed a very specific chunk of time (4–5 hours) to focus on nonfiction, and had trouble creating it. I asked if they were willing to change, and they said “no.”
#3 said they were willing to do the work, but I noticed that over four months, they hadn’t taken that critical first step. That meant that they didn’t believe it would increase pleasure and decrease pain. Pretty much “period.”
IF you believe an action will diminish pain and increase pleasure, you pretty much HAVE to take it. Not absolutely true, but a damned fine starting place that has NOTHING to do with culture — it is universal throughout the animal kingdom.
What was the problem? This is where MAGIC really shines. I simply jumped to another model: Think And Grow Rich.
Imagine you have no water coming out of your kitchen tap. You call a plumber. The first thing the plumber will do is check the tap. No water.
Then, they go out to the street and check the main line. Water pressure. OK…now go to the side of the house. Water? Yes?
Now go into the basement, and check the pipes. Water?
Keep incrementally checking until you find the obstruction. Great! Where the pipe curves up under the kitchen is the block. Turn off the water at the curb, open the pipe, clear the obstruction, and Bob’s your uncle.
TO THE DEGREE that a dynamic model of a process is accurate, this is all it takes, once you have the basic system set up.
In fact, this is the value of having small daily goals as well as long-term goals: you will miss a LOT of them at first, but if you have a way of examining the process one step at a time, you can “clear the obstruction” or “plug the pipe.”
##
So the second model I chose was Think and Grow Rich, with its 13 Steps to success. Arguably the single best study in producing wealth, however you define it in a quantifiable fashion.
The first step is DESIRE. Did #3 want to succeed? Yes, they were. They could answer congruently, with sufficient enthusiasm.
OK. Then did they have FAITH that they could do it?
And instantly, their body language, voice and posture changed. Became negative. Almost depressive. It was striking. NO. They had no faith. And if you start with the notion that anyone who can walk, talk, or read or write once had FAITH in themselves. They didn’t really question their ability to succeed. They tried and tried until it worked.
But somewhere along the way, so much PAIN got associated with the process that they stopped having faith in themselves. Stopped believing. They moved in a smaller world, and didn’t try the thing that would break them out. Why should they? It’s just more pain, right?
THIS, RIGHT HERE, was where the water stopped. No faith.
Now, until you fix this, until you DO believe, you cannot take the actions. If your self-concept is the limiting factor, you will actually ACTIVELY SABOTAGE your efforts, doing just enough to say “I was busy! I tried!” but not enough to change. Why? Because changing would SHATTER your self image, and your ego thinks your self-image is you.
FAITH IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR FEAR. Also depression, anger, and shame. And today on FIREDANCE we will talk TEN WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR FAITH.
TODAY on ZOOM, FRIDAY SEPT 6, 12 NOON PACIFIC at www.thefiredance.com
###
Steven Barnes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Firedance
Time: Fridays at noon Pacific
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82390513179?pwd=2KwPfNyolnupf45VPJC1lzQJLXujMS.1
Meeting ID: 823 9051 3179
Passcode: 597329
— -
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,82390513179#,,,,*597329# US (San Jose)
+16694449171,,82390513179#,,,,*597329# US
— -
Dial by your location
• +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
• +1 669 444 9171 US
• +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
• +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
• +1 719 359 4580 US
• +1 253 205 0468 US
• +1 360 209 5623 US
• +1 386 347 5053 US
• +1 507 473 4847 US
• +1 564 217 2000 US
• +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 689 278 1000 US
• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
• +1 305 224 1968 US
• +1 309 205 3325 US
• +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 823 9051 3179
Passcode: 597329
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kee4G22msH