How Does A Great Insight Come From a Macaw, A Pug, Walter Russell and a TV Dog Whisperer?

You have probably already noticed that often the most profound insights come from a series of almost unrelated events.   And that often these events can happen even within a day?

This week was a fairly “normal” week.  Yet the events of:

– Discussion about the works of Walter Russell

– The lack of progress on a long term building progress

– The birth of a client’s lovely baby girl

– Having finished moving about a thousand of my books after finishing sorting after the Cyclone hit which ‘forced’ me to re-organize them

– Cesar the dog training guy talking about excitement in dogs

–  And the brief comment amount about my decades old Baroque Music CD on Facebook that their pet Pug and Macaw loved the music.

I have read that creativity can have (at least) two sources – compiled or original.  Compiled means you take a little piece of that and add it to this and then some of that – and the mixture produces a brand “new” item.  Original implies something new that was not synthesized or compiled.

The synthesized insight this week is that it is not our “work” that exhausts us sometimes – but our “state” when we are doing that “work”.  (An exception might be really physical work – but I believe that even that is reduced by a tolerance effect – but that is another discussion.)

Huh?  Well perhaps an example.  One of my clients was going through a serious growth phase, and when questioned about how they were going, the answer “We are struggling.  We are worn out.”

Their “work” is creative.  It has deadlines, but is the kind of activity that my clients enjoy – usually.   Importantly – the ‘state’ is obvious.  What are you doing – I asked.  The answer again “We are struggling.”

My response – “Well stop it.  Stop struggling.  Struggling is hard work.  It is exhausting.  And it does not help you get your work done.”    Nope  – didn’t get it.

So – imagine you are in a lake.  In this lake your ‘job’ is simply to count backwards by three from 400 – which is about as mentally tough as most office jobs get.  Now – if you let your body turn vertical – you will begin to ‘struggle’ to do that AND get your work done.   You can thrash and splash and get panicked and stressed about going under.  It will be exhausting – and your work will suffer.

Or – you can choose to float on your back.  And you can choose to do it “WITH EASE”.  And you will not be nearly so ‘exhausted’.

In a nutshell – struggling more does not get more ‘work’ done.   It may in fact completely destroy your ability to get things done well.

When your dog is jumping around because you picked up his walking  lead – it is not because they are “happy”, it is because your dog is “excited”.    It is different.

When you are struggling with your work or life – the struggling is internal.  You are choosing to do it.  In the same way that you can train your dog to be calm [and not destroy the house] before a walk – we can train ourselves to not enter the state of struggle – but instead choose a different state.

First step is to recognize that struggle is something we do.  Awareness.  Then notice struggle does not actually help us much – apart from sympathy or misery sharing with other losers.  “Wow – you struggled all day – you poor thing – diddums – me too – lets get drunk and talk about how tough it is and relieve the pressure.”

So what does “struggling” at your work give you?  A great excuse to not do your share of the housework [so tired!], or to not exercise [so worn out from sitting down all day struggling], or to use coping tools [TV, drugs, sex, sugary food]?

So once we are aware of this ‘struggle’ waste – choose to replace it with something that gives us more.

Maybe you, like me, enjoy the idea of doing it ‘With Ease” or “EASILY”.  You get all your stuff done [easily], not exhausted, spare time, see more opportunity, attract other people who do it [easily], more fun.  More goal achievement, higher self esteem, more wealth health and happiness?

Or are you addicted to the state of  “struggle”?  Are your ‘rewards’ for your struggle just too good to give up?

Well to finish – think of the Spice Girls [I think] song – “Tell me what you want, what you really, really want!”   And then compare what you get from being exhausted/frustrated/victimized by struggling.  Then choose.  And if you fall back in to the web of struggle – stop, float, and choose again!

Have a great weekend [easily]

James Hooper

Ps Walter Russell was a genius from last century who reminds me constantly that what we see is not real, and that separation is a illusion.  We are all connected.

Pps New born babies have not yet learned how to “struggle”

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