Yuck! into Yay! - Steven Pressfield's "War of Art"

Plinky prompt:

What's the most important thing you've learned recently?

Whether you're in school or not, you're learning new things all the time. Share something new that's entered your brain.

My Answer -->

First: When there is a difference between (1) your highest desires, and (2) the consequences of your daily actions, then you have some daily work to do to bring those two into congruence. You will get the full benefit of this hard daily work only TEN years after you start (Yuck!). But you will probably still be alive FIFTEEN years from now, and, if you are willing to do the daily hard work, those years are going to be outrageously rewarding (Yay!). (Will the daily work consist of just moving your daily actions more towards your highest desires? Maybe. Or maybe you need the whole world's help to inform you about what would be a *better* highest desire. And those ten years of daily hard work will include the very hardest work for a human: thinking realistically about who you really are.) Second:

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As you work on things that can take you towards your highest desires, you will feel resistance. This resistance is a clever thing - it harnesses the obstacles and distractions in your environment, and it fills your mind with anxieties to make you fall back into familiar habits of comfort and coping, even though those old habits cannot be sustained without you ultimately harming yourself. This resistance can be personified as The Resistance, your personal enemy to growth, and you have to be willing to bring everything you got to fight against The Resistance, everyday. This idea about The Resistance is from Steven Pressfield's book "The War of Art". Coincidentally, I wrote a short essay about the surprising effect this book had on me: http://manuelmoeg.blogspot.com/2009/05/war-of-art-steven-pressfield.html

Be or Do or Have, and Congruence

Because the issue is that if what I am doing is not consistent with what I have stated that I want to Be or Do or Have, then I have a little problem. Where this is going to lead me is to a more thoughtful place, with more intention, and really thinking about my internal mental sphere of direct influence.

Paying the price for your desired goals

If you want something, you have to pay the price. Your objective evidence of paying the price shows how much you really want something. (Not really...) You can work on your ability to have your desire for a goal, and your objective evidence of "paying the price", be congruent. Less congruent now, more congruent later, with time and effort. This goes in line with the concept of some "hardwired" things in the mind, taking 10 years to change. I am on a 10 year project to have my objective evidence of "paying the price" be congruent with my stated desire for different goals, outcomes, values, etc.