It Always Ends The Same…
There are those who choose not to venture back out into WTF. They make their destination a settlement. They get comfortable at the top of their mountain. Just getting to this peak was enough, and now they’re safe. They’re out of WTF.
They sit back, crack open a beer, and turn on Fast and Furious 7.
No more getting lost. No more having to figure out the unknown. No more fear of robbers taking their stuff.
And best of all, there’s no demo…
Oh shitballs…
What’s that?
The demon enters the house of the settler.
“What are you doing here?!” – shrieks the settler! “This isn’t the WTF zone! You’re supposed to be out there catching wandering travelers, not in here in my safe little settlement at the peak of the mountain!”
The demon lets out a menacing laugh. “You fool! Everywhere is the WTF zone. This is my land. ALL of it. Where you started, where you went, where you’re at now is all my land. There was never any escaping me. I always find those I hunt for – always.”
The fate of the comfortable settler is the same fate of the thrill-seeking adventurer or social butterfly. They (and you) always face the demon. It always catches you.
It’s all WTF. There is no “zone” of danger and “zone” of safety. There is no more assurance of certainty of what’s going to happen in a settlement vs a winding road or peak of a mountain. The demon finds you on the rocky bridges, swimming in the lakes, or in the comfort of your own home watching Fast and Furious 7. The demon catches some when they’re young and some when their old. The demon catches those who are just one step away from the peak and catches those who’ve never even stepped foot out of their comfortable settlement of origin.
Each traveler and non-traveler alike eventually faces the demon.
Some may even catch a glimpse on their journey of the demon and live to tell about it. Yet it’s only for a moment that they’re spared. The demon will find them again.
When one sees the demon, they start to ask themselves questions. One traveler who caught a glimpse of the demon but escaped its grasp, Brendon Burchard asked himself, “Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?”
All who face the demon ask their own version of these questions.
The demon comes closer…
If I always meet the demon no matter what, what’s the meaning of all of this?
The demon comes closer…
Was it about the strength I developed and possessions I accumulated? What does this matter if I’m now about to lose it all anyway?
The demon comes closer…
What good was it to settle here if I’m going to die here? Was there something else I wish I could have done or seen before now?
The demon comes closer…
Did I leave the stove on? Oh shit, that doesn’t matter now…
The demon comes closer…
Who did I become on my adventure? Am I proud of how I will be remembered? Will those who mourn my loss say, “They were great!” or “Yeah umm, I guess they we’re kind of sort of OK?”
The demon comes closer…
Was it about the impact I left on others that will live on even after I’m gone? Will my choices be an inspiration to those who remain? What am I leaving behind?
The demon comes closer…
Why did I make the choices I made? What was motivating me? What does this matter now?
The demon comes closer…
Do the people I care about know how much I appreciate them? Did I tell them they matter? Did I make peace, or is there still a grudge I hold that’s now too late to resolve?
The demon comes closer…
Can I fight this demon? Can I still escape it? Maybe if I…
The demon grips your neck…
This pain is too much! I want to die now! I’m ready, why isn’t it killing me yet? Please God, just make the pain stop…
The demon lifts you up, your body goes weak, and it stares into your eyes as it chokes the last bit of life out of you…
Yet even now you have a choice…
Do you see the choice?
Your body is too weak to even move.
Are you prepared for this choice?
It’s the choice all your acts of courage or cowardice prepared you for. All your leaps of faith or stumbles of trepidation moved you to one side of a spectrum or another.
Do you know where your power lies?
Did you make your choices willingly or have them “made for you” unwillingly?
Do you know how you wish to be?
Why did you leave ever any settlement? Why did you ever stay when you did?
Do you know what you’ll choose?
All the choices were shaping you.
All your intentions were coloring your actions.
All of them moving you, preparing you, to make your one final choice.
The final choice you have now.
The only choice that remains before the demon ends your life.
Do you look upon the demon with fear or love?
A Look Back At Your Adventure
Do you see the significance of your final choice?
Here’s a little exploration to consider.
Is fear good or bad?
It depends…
Does it keep you safe?
Potentially.
Does it endanger you?
Potentially.
Can it motivate you to greatness?
Potentially.
Can it paralyze you in mediocrity?
Potentially.
All potentials based on choices.
You learned in this book a way you can use fear to motivate you to greatness. This is a useful game to play.
Now there are those who say that if you’re totally present, living in the moment, and completely trusting, you won’t have fear. Fear they may say, is “bad.” “One must not choose from a place of fear.”
This is true from one perspective. By now, you should know that I also like to take a practical perspective as well.
What are the odds you’re never going to have fear and remain completely present at all times? Mediate on a mountain top long enough, and you might transcend your human conditioning. In the meantime, you probably have fear, so you might as well use it to serve you. It is there to keep you safe from death, after all.
Fear may be the very force that gets someone up off their ass and moving into greatness. Fear may be the very thing that keeps them on their ass in mediocrity. It’s their choice of how to direct the fear that makes the difference.
Fear keeps people alive so they can keep making choices, keep growing, keep doing great things. Fear of loss keeps the surgeon sharp so they don’t lose a patient to carelessness.
However, fear alone will not be enough to live greatly. Too much fear and one becomes paralyzed. One runs at every sound of the bushes shaking and wonders, “Is that the demon! OMG! I better go run and hide and stay in a nice cozy settlement! Maybe we better just drop a bunch of bombs in the woods to kill the demon in case it’s in there. I don’t even care if it was just a cute little baby bunny going to its little happy bunny family.”
Fear, like all emotions, can serve you or enslave you. The question is, who is deciding what to do with fear? Does fear alone have power to destroy you or the rest of the world, or does one choose to give fear power? If you make fear your enemy, it may consume and destroy you with the power you choose to give it.
What if you appreciate fear and make it your friend? If you truly love someone, would you let them go when it’s time to part ways without clinging to them?
Fear, while a potentially useful motivator and friend, isn’t enough. There must be balance with something that leads and guides fear so it doesn’t cause destruction.
What else is driving you?
What would get you to purposely venture into a land where a demon resides knowing it could spell death?
The first thing
is the awareness that you can never hide from the demon. So it’s pointless to try.
The second thing is, you guessed it, love.
Love for yourself. Love for others. Love for a cause greater than you. Love for excitement. Love for connection. Love for your future. Love for almost anything.
When you face a leap of faith, what happens inside of you?
Fear is telling you there’s a demon down there. Fear is saying, “Don’t jump! You may fall and the demon will get you!”
Yet, do you still jump? Is this an act of courage? What else besides fear is motivating you? If you have both fear of jumping and fear of not jumping, what is beyond the fear directing it?
What is an act of courage during a leap of faith if not an act of love?
What is an act of patience at base camp if not an act of love?
What is an act of perseverance after being robbed if not an act of love?
What is an act of willingness and trust if not an act of love?
All of these times that you act in spite of your fear, it’s love that’s moving you.
All of the times that you lead fear to motivate you to greatness instead of paralyze you, it was the love that had power over the fear. The love of your future self, love of others, love of your present-self, and ultimately perhaps the love of something beyond you.
So what happens when you face the demon and it grabs you?
Do you feel fear?
If so, why?
Your fear keeps you safe on the journey. It keeps you from meeting the demon needlessly.
But when the demon has you in its clutches, why would you still ever feel fear if your fate is now sealed? There’s no purpose in the fear protecting you from death when death is now inevitable. Fear in this moment doesn’t give you an opportunity to live another day or to make another choice.
Fear is utterly useless once you’re in the hands of the demon.
Yet it may still grip you if it’s become a habit and a way of life.
Do you have a choice in all your emotions, or do they just happen?
Are your emotions like habits that are reinforced by your behaviors?
If fear is what’s been driving you primarily – whether it’s a fear of discomfort that keeps you in a settlement, or fear of “missing out on fun” so you go on an adventure, or any other type of fear…
If you made fear your way of life…
If you made your choices more out of fear instead of out of love…
Will you be able to let that fear go when it no longer serves you?
What will you do with your fear when you face the demon of death?
The demon of death of your life? The demon of death of a relationship? The demon of death of a business? The demon of death of your finances? The demon of death of your dreams? The demon of death of your ego?
Any demon of death that shows up in your life that your fear tries to protect you from – what will you choose when the demon has you in its hands and you realize there’s no more escaping it?
Will you still choose fear when it no longer serves you?
Or… will you lovingly let your friend fear go when it no longer serves you?
Can you choose “not to choose” fear, or must you choose something else?
What do you choose instead?
Can you choose both fear and love?
Does it matter if you choose love?
Does it matter if you choose fear?
Is this death the end of all?
Or is this death just for a moment?
Are you in a house of mirrors?
Is what you see a reflection?
Does what you see change depending on your perspective?
Do you choose to look with love?
Does this change what you see?
A Return To The Lake Of Greatness
You look upon The Lake of Greatness and feel fear even though it’s all that can save you.
We fear our greatness for it seems overwhelming.
So overpowering that we feel it may consume us if we submerge ourselves in it.
If you remain in fear of greatness, you die… slowly.
If you’re willing to dive in in spite of the fear, you may live.
If you embrace the fear and take the plunge…
You may hold your breath and hold onto only the air in your lungs…
Holding your breath, like fear, can keep you alive.
Fear can be a friend.
But only for a moment.
Then you must let the fear go if you wish to live.
Then you must always come up and let the air in if you wish to live.
Then you may forever nourish yourself in the waters of Greatness.
Now – Here Is Where You Have A Choice
A great mind driven by fear may destroy the world.
A great mind driven by love may save the world.
Yet, “intelligent” decisions may be made by both minds.
Your great mind, if driven by fear, may destroy your world.
Your great mind, if driven by love, may save your world.
When do you love? When do you fear?
Do you love reality, but fear unknown possibilities?
Do you fear reality, and mentally escape to an imagined possibility you love?
The realist vs. the idealist – two games of the mind.
The realist in actuality doesn’t truly see “what is.” They only see what was.
As soon as the mind thinks about “what is,” the moment has already passed. The realist only sees how things were, and then expects them to be. Clinging to their love of the past, if even only clinging to what was just a moment ago.
The idealist, when stuck in their idealism, escapes the moment to live in fantasy. How things “should be” or “could be.” They prefer to retreat to their fantasy world where it’s comfortable to escape the uncomfortable “reality” they sense before them.
Some like to go back and forth between both these games.
Neither one is real.
What is real is now. This moment. The present.
“There is nothing except the eternal now.” – Alan Watts
If your mind is thinking about it, it’s not now, but what just was or never was.
If your mind is thinking about it, it’s not now, but what may be or may never be.
Those reliving their “glory years” are playing a game of the mind – for the only moment of glory is now.
Those who feel that they “missed their opportunity” are playing a game of the mind – for the opportunity always was and always ever will be here now. Perhaps the best opportunity is yet to come in a “new now.”
Those playing “it should be” are playing a game of the mind – for nothing should be except what is here now.
Those who feel it “should have been” are playing a game of the mind – for they’re missing their chance to pick “what can be” right in this moment, only to leave their future self repeating the same game of “should have been” in a never-ending mind game.
Now is the moment where “what is” and “what could be” merge. “What comes next” is based on your choice.
Reality and possibility “make love” through your choice in this moment to give birth to the next moment. Or should you choose, they may also “make fear” to give birth to the next moment as well.
What “next now” are you choosing?
Yes, this moment is but a moment, a piece. One drop in an ocean. Seemingly insignificantly different from the moments that immediately precede it and follow it.
And yet this moment is essential to the whole. One critical piece, like your brain or heart, to the whole body. Without this moment giving birth to the following moment through your choice, the whole thing dies.
This moment is the ultimate limiter of possibilities. Your mind can bombard you with thoughts and worries and “what ifs.” It can make you think that there are a million choices to make at once.
Yet this
moment frees you through its limitation. It removes all the stress and overwhelm, and shows you simply now have but just one choice to make.
While this moment is the ultimate limiter of possibilities, it is at the same time, the ultimate expander of possibilities. For all the possibilities exist in this moment for how you wish to be, do, and have.
How do you wish to experience this moment? You may see a picture one way in this moment, and you may see the same picture a completely different way in the next moment. You can play this game for eons of time, always seeing something different, and yet always looking at the same picture. Endless possibilities existing before you, and yet still limited to only what’s here now.
What if you stripped everything down to this moment? With no greater context than what shows up here now, what context would you create?
Here’s my choices…
Who? I
What? Am
When? Now
Where? Here
Why? To Love
How? Completely
"I am now here to love completely."
When you cut out all the fluff, the answers become clear.
Your mind cannot truly make sense out of the contradictions of life. You are always the same, yet you are always changing. Yet this moment shows you the truth behind this.
Your mind attempts to explain a limitless reality in limited terms. It attempts to explain through millions of words, pictures, and countless perspectives that which can be made so simple if you allow it to be.
Will you find the only place free of BS?
Do you choose now?
Will you be now?
Will you do now?
Will you have now?
I’ve said you must always make a choice. To choose "not to choose" is still a choice. Yet even still, this can be false from one perspective.
What if by "having to" make a choice, you are in a sense enslaved to choosing? Burdened by a need to constantly explore your options, weigh pros and cons, and make decisions that always entail getting it wrong from time to time?
But if there's only ever one option, you'll never be burdened with "having to" make another choice again. Wouldn't this limitation actually bring with it a freedom?
What if your great power lies not within your ability to choose, but in your ability to remove choice altogether and only have love?
Break Through Your BS_Uncover Your Brain's Blind Spots and Unleash Your Inner Greatness Page 25
