How to Avoid Fake Growth and a Life of Endless Seeking

Standing before you is a game filled with a complex network of mazes and ladders.

When you came into this world this game was already established.

All of the rules were set in place. A path was laid out before you, and as you grew, you slowly became indoctrinated into that world, into that game.

It was a game not designed by you, but you played it anyway. You played it because it was what everyone else did.

Then at some point along the way you started to realize that something was wrong, kind of like Neo in the Matrix, you sensed that something was seriously flawed with this game.

Not only did you not have much of a say in the way you were living, you also began to sense that you were seeking success that didn’t exist. It was an endless chase.

A carrot on a stick always one step ahead of you.

Always another job. Another house. Another promotion.

It eluded you. Endlessly.

Then you woke up

You started to realize that you didn’t have to live this way. And you began to test your assumptions about what was possible, and what wasn’t. You found that many of the rules in the game were breakable without any negative consequences. They weren’t rules at all really, more like agreements.

You noticed that when other people “leveled up” in the game not much of anything changed. They thought they were growing, but it was more like fake growth than anything. The things in their life were more like fake plastic trees than living things.

Every event completed to collect trophies, each won in an attempt to complete a master checklist in the game.

However… the checklist is never complete

When you’re playing someone else’s game, there is always a sense of incompletion. You can always do it better, faster. There is always a way for you to compare your success with the success of others.
It’s a slippery slope down that rabbit hole.

Here’s the deal… it’s easy for me to talk about creating a life on your own terms. It’s easy for a bunch of people to create a big song and dance about opt-ing out of a template, creating your own path, blah blah blah.

And the sad reality is a lot of people replace the game of conformity with a game of non-conformity. Nothing’s really changed, has it?
If you really want to create a life of freedom, there is no formula. Sorry.

The truth about systems

The truth about systems is that you were not born to follow one.
You can’t follow a system for not following systems. You feel me?
Anyone that tells you they’ve created a system for your happiness is probably full of it. It’s the honest truth.
However, I didn’t write this to just make you depressed. I can give you a small but potent bit of advice: surrender.
No, not surrender in a passive, fatalistic way. Surrender in a powerful, really submitting to your path way.

• What was it you were born to do?
• What do you feel excited about, in this moment?

Listen. Then surrender to that. Have the courage to see where it leads you.
Living on your own terms is hard. It’s a lot easier to have someone else tell you what to do. But you weren’t born to play someone else’s game, now were you?

(Photo credit: Stairway to the Sky via Shutterstock)

Article from  Stepcase Lifehack; Follow the following to see the source of the article

How to Avoid Fake Growth and a Life of Endless Seeking

'Drowned' Boy Reveals the Psychology of Miracles

Analysis by Benjamin Radford
Fri Aug 12, 2011 04:57 PM ET

Photo: Getty Images

A young boy's recovery from drowning earlier this week is being credited to a miracle.

Dale Ostrander, 12, was swimming in the ocean at Long Beach, WA., when he got sucked under by a rogue wave. He was there as part of a church group, who cried and prayed while searchers looked for the boy. About fifteen minutes later two rescuers found Ostrander, pulled him to safety, and performed CPR. he was then flown to an Oregon hospital, where he was put into an induced coma and recovered on Monday. Ostrander's friends and family are crediting prayer (with a little help from doctors, of course). His recovery has been widely dubbed a miracle.

Was it a miracle? How we interpret miracles depends on several factors, including our religious beliefs and our knowledge of medicine and statistics.

For many, unusual and positive events can seem miraculously rare, when in reality they are not. For example, many people consider surviving an airplane crash to be a miracle. In fact, statistics show that most people involved in airplane crashes and accidents survive without life-threatening injuries. Plane crashes are very rare, and incidents where everyone aboard is killed are incredibly rare. Since surviving a plane crash is far more common than being killed in a plane crash, it's wonderful for the survivors, but hardly unusual.

Other times what appears to be a miracle to a layperson or a victim's family is not considered a miracle by medical professionals, who may see similar cases on a routine basis. Doctors know that it's not unusual for drowning victims—especially ones who have been underwater for about 20 minutes or less, as Ostrander was—to survive and fully recover.
As ABCNews reported,

Dr. Benjamin Abella, director of clinical research in the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania said Ostrander's survival may be due to the fact that he was submerged in frigid water. "A number of studies have shown that hypothermia -- reduced body temperature -- is highly protective of the brain when it is starved for oxygen and blood flow," Abella told ABC News. "The water that bathed him was certainly quite cold, and it's likely that his core body temperature dropped during his cardiac arrest event." Abella said Ostrander's youth and overall health may have also helped his chances. "There have been a number of reported cases where people have been rescued from icy water and restored to health," he said. "These cases are not common, but they aren't as rare as one might think.

This is widely known in the medical community, and suggests that fatalistic predictions about Ostrander that appear in media accounts such as “they never expected him to live” (or in a contradictory prognosis, "expected him to be a vegetable”) were exaggerated.

There's also a psychological process called confirmation bias, in which people tend to seek out, focus on, and remember information that supports their ideas and beliefs while ignoring or downplaying information that contradicts or undermines their beliefs.

This helps explain why, for example, God was credited for saving Ostrander’s life through miraculous, divine intervention, but He was not blamed for the boy’s accident. Surely God could have simply prevented Ostrander from drowning in the first place, saving his friends and family untold grief and worry (not to mention medical bills). If you’re going to credit God for saving the boy's life, logically you should blame God for threatening the boy’s life. How do people reconcile this contradiction?

It goes back to the psychology of how the faithful, such as Ostrander’s parents, perceive God and divine actions. The idea of God trying to kill their child by drowning is hardly comforting, or something they would expect. But the idea of a benevolent God rescuing their son (especially after fervent prayers) is classic divine behavior and confirms their belief system, so that’s what they choose to focus on.

The facts are the same either way: a boy drowned and then recovered. Whether people choose to see a miracle in that is all a matter of psychology, statistics, and faith; we filter our perceptions, embracing a comforting interpretation of the events over a troubling one. Miracles are very much in the minds of those who see them.

Article from Discovery News


NEWS: Faith Healing on Trial: Miracle or Medicine?

Don’t Make This Mistake When Selling Art – Connecting with Collectors Series

by Maria Brophy

ONE MAJOR KEY TO CONNECTING WITH COLLECTORS: SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM!

Last month I almost lost sale on a large painting, and admittedly it was my fault.

But I learned a lesson and luckily, I was given a second chance.

Here’s what happened:

We thought we would try something new at Drew Brophy studios this holiday season to pump up sales and to create a personal connection to Drew’s collectors.  We held a studio “open house” the four Saturdays before Christmas.

It was a success; we had existing collectors show up and many new people who had never been in our studio before.  We sold over two dozen original paintings!

However, I almost lost the sale of the largest painting that month.

That’s because, in the hustle of being busy with many customers, I forgot one of the golden rules of selling art:

Make it easy for your customer to buy.  Solve their problems and you’ll make the sale.

One of Drew’s regular collectors, Tim, had showed up to open house and was interested in a very large painting called The Circle of Life.

His problem was this:  he needed to have it transported to his new home in Hawaii.
When he suggested that he look into shipping options himself, I agreed to let him do the work on solving that problem.  That was a mistake on my part.  It was my responsibility to take care of the shipping.  I shouldn’t have made the customer do the work on that.

A few days later he called and said that he couldn’t buy the painting after all; the shipping service that he was using for all of his other belongings wouldn’t insure the painting.

This is when I realized the error of my ways and said “let me see what I can find out about shipping and get back to you.”

I made a few calls to others who ship large items to Hawaii and got leads on different companies that insure artwork.  Then I called for price quotes and insurance information and chose the best option.

I called Tim and said “I found a good shipping price from a company that is willing to insure it.  How about this; we will build the crate for it, package and ship it and all you have to do is pay for it?”

There was a good chance that he had changed him mind on buying the painting.  But happily, he agreed to the shipping quote.  SOLD!  The Circle of Life is going to its new home Hawaii this month, and all is well.
The moral of the story is this:

Make it easy for your collectors to buy your art.  Solve their problems for them.  Ensure that their experience with you one of ease and joy.

PS:  There are many different aspects to connecting with your collectors.  I’ll be hosting a live call with expert Artist Coach Ariane Goodwin to discuss her own wonderful ideas on how to connect with collectors.


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