Quantum Leaps Consulting

There are seven levels of awareness.  These categories are areas in your life that if shaped correctly, will directly result in an improved quality of life.  We will describe each level and how it relates to your ability to reach your goals.  They are: Animal, Mass, Aspiration, Individual, Discipline, Experience and Mastery.  Let’s take them one at a time.

The Animal level of awareness centers on your fight or flight response.  This is an instinct that is in response to external stimulus.  There is not a whole lot of thinking involved here, or none at all actually.  You are relying on your physical senses.  You are reacting rather than responding.  You may do it in a more elegant way than an animal, but you experience the same basic animal reaction to things.  If your natural reaction to any sort of resistance is to cower and quickly relieve the tension by compromising your ideas, this will have a prolonged effect on your well being.

Let’s take a scenario of turning your annual salary into your monthly salary.  You think:  “Wow, that would be fantastic!  What a great idea.”  So the first thing you do is you go to your spouse and explain your idea.  Your spouse likes it and you feel relieved.  You weren’t too sure about this new idea that you had been toying with so you feel as though you’ve dodged a bullet by getting an initial positive reaction.  “That’s great, my spouse supports me.”  Well, then as you are telling your wonderful new idea to a friend, you notice a skeptical look come over his or her face, which becomes more cynical as you continue.  Your enthusiasm in now beginning to wane and by the time you are done talking, you are starting to doubt yourself.  The anticipated first words of their response come in the form of a sarcastically delivered: “Good luck with that.”  Now you are thinking:  “Well yeah, it was probably a silly idea anyway.”  And so you back off and you lock that dream away and go back to doing the same old thing.  What you have just experienced is a flight response to criticism.  The first sign of difficulty and you fled.

But if you believe in your ability and you believe in the possibilities of life, there is no reason why you cannot achieve this goal.  Your reaction was an automatic interpretation that happened instantaneously, without you having to think about it.  If you had your ideas and beliefs rooted strongly, and you were instinctively willing to defend your ideas, your reaction would have been to fight.  I don’t mean you would have taken a swing at your friend for daring to disagree with you, I mean you would have fought for your idea by sticking to it and putting it into action.  There are certainly instances where your flight instinct will be right, but by realizing the possibilities for you in this life, you will not so quickly discount things that although they may be difficult to achieve, are in fact entirely achievable and definitely worth pursuing.

The second level of awareness is called Mass.  This means not really thinking and just blindly following the crowd.  You are born into this world as a unique individual, but raised into conformity.  The moment you become aware of the value of your uniqueness, is the moment you can bring value and great things into this world.  We have touched on this notion previously, but it certainly bears repeating.  If you let others decide your future, you will likely only realize an average future.  The people that are willing to let their unique ideas flourish in this society are the people that lead the most fulfilling lives.  Do not be so quick to let what is the most popular idea and the most agreed upon solution be your guide.

Mark Twain poignantly scribed in a notebook that, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”  Or in this unsent letter to a friend, “When you set aside mere names and come down to realities, you find that we are ruled by a king just as other absolute monarchies are.  His name is the majority.  He is mighty in bulk and strength…he rules by the right of possessing less money and less brains and more ignorance than the other competitor for the throne, the minority.  Ours is an absolute monarchy.”  Mark Twain, the brilliant writer and consummate thinker, had a way of colorfully illustrating a point, which could not be more evident in the context of the majority as we relate it to the mass level of awareness.

Aspiration is the third level of awareness.  We are speaking of the desire to be, to do and to have more—but never do!  Desire without action.  In this category we find forever dreamers.  They dream and yet their dreams are never internalized to the point where they translate them into action.  Remember when you were in school and rather than paying attention to your teacher’s lesson on the branches of government, you were staring out at the nearby football field and dreaming of playing in front of thousands of screaming fans someday?  Suddenly, your teacher snapped you back into reality:  “Stop daydreaming and pay attention!”  While I can appreciate the frustration of your teacher in trying to educate you while you were off in another place, there is nothing wrong with having dreams.

Daydreaming, however, automatically seems to suggest that there is no reality attached to your thoughts.  Well, for most people that certainly holds true.  How do you turn your passion into prosperity?  Action!  You must get the wheels in motion and realize that without action, you have no positive results.  Make no mistake, you will get results without action.  Just not the results you had intended or that you desire.  There are positive results and there are negative results, but they are results just the same.  It starts with a thought, but action is the key ingredient that turns your vision into tangible positive results and a life of fulfillment.

The next level of awareness is Individual, where you start to express your uniqueness.  There is only one of you with your specific potential. Your potential is unlimited, but is also specific to you.  Someone else has a differing unlimited potential specific to them.  Realizing this fact is where the breakout starts to form.  Remember the conscious mind and the subconscious mind?  Well, this is where you begin to use your conscious mind, your thinking mind.  Here is where you begin to question the present.  “Is this all there is?”  This is where you start wondering what you want in your life.  “Wouldn’t it be great if…?”  Right now your life may be on automatic pilot.  You may be just going through the motions.  The same routine, day in and day out.  And you begin thinking:  “Is this how it should be?”  Well the moment you realize that you are unique, that your unique thoughts and contributions are essential to this world, is the moment that you can begin to achieve great things.

Discipline is the fifth level of awareness.  In this case, we are not talking about a form of conditioning or punishment.  We are concentrating on the ability to focus on your goal despite distractions and competing influences.  You must use your will to keep out the distractions.  And when someone or something knocks you down, get right back up.  Keep moving forward.  Keep growing.  Follow through.  I don’t know to whom this quote can be first attributed, but remember, “God’s delays are not God’s denials.”  You must be focused and disciplined in your approach, but do not give up because the road is not always smooth and easy to navigate.  You are going to encounter some rough terrain once in awhile, expect it, but your ability to show discipline in the face of inconvenient and difficult circumstances will set you apart.  You always have room to analyze your situation as you go along, and interpret your results, but staying disciplined will enable you to gain momentum and avoid being thrown off course, or coming to a screeching halt.

The sixth level of awareness is the all-important Experience.  There is a substantial difference between learning and experience, studying and doing, and preparing and executing.  To learn something is often to be based in theory, while to gain experience is to have acquired real world applications.  Let’s say I was to tell you that it gets hot in the summer in Phoenix, Arizona.  You could appreciate this fact and be able to understand that the temperatures in that area exceed those in other areas.  Okay.  Fine. Now compare that to having actually gone to Phoenix in August when the temperature was 117 degrees.  When you come out of your air conditioned hotel room in the morning, you are hit with a blast of air that makes you squint and makes you stop in your tracks.  When you get to your car, the door handle is so hot it literally burns your hand.  Your flight home is delayed because it’s so hot that all of the planes are grounded.  So, when you call your spouse to explain that you will be home late because it’s hot in Phoenix, which party do you think has a more in depth understanding of the temperature in Phoenix?  That’s experience.

When it comes to life, there is no substitute for experience.  Getting involved, taking action and taking part in this world is an exciting, valuable and fantastic journey.  You can be book-smart and there is nothing wrong with extensive study, but you have to get out there and experience life.  You can do all the preparation in the world, but as important as preparation is, you have to make things happen. Experience is a tremendous way to improve your overall awareness.  As you experience things, you will see new opportunities that had been previously hidden.  Learning to apply experience will set you apart and take you further in your quest for a life of fulfillment.

The last level of awareness is called Mastery.  This is the point at which you truly begin to respond.  You are no longer controlled by habit.  You have mastered your paradigms.  You use your intellectual faculties to control your thoughts, and thereby your actions, and ultimately your results.  This is what you are striving for.  Mastery of your mind is the way in which you will be able to reach the pinnacle of life.  When you finally are able to overcome your fears, you will quickly begin to see signs of progress toward your goals.  Your subconscious mind will not be filled with doubt, but with optimism and possibility.

Becoming rich is often singularly and synonymously perceived as attaining monetary wealth. This is an incredibly misguided and incomplete way of thinking. Riches means becoming rich in all aspects of your life: socially, intellectually, physically, spiritually, and yes, financially too. You cannot consider yourself truly rich until you fulfill each of the five aspects of your life. Adding to the number of zeros on your salary will be meaningless if you neglect or damage the other important areas of your life.

Everyone has bills to pay. It would be foolish to disregard any realities associated with money, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your bottom line and to seek a measure of material wealth. This does not make you a bad person. The danger is when you become so obsessed with material things that you steam roll over every other aspect of your life. Having a balanced life that includes a combination of wealth, in all other areas, will give you a level of satisfaction and fulfillment for which money alone can never substitute.

Money, taken by itself, will only serve to amplify your personality as it currently exists. If you are a good person, then adding more money to the equation will make you capable of doing that much more good. If, on the other hand, you have sinister or unseemly motives, this will unfortunately only increase your ability to inflict more harm to yourself or possibly others. If you have not addressed any underlying issues in your life, then having more money will only compound the problem. You have to focus on the heart of what is causing your discontentment or unhappiness, in totality, and not just concentrate on the money. Having more money won’t make any internal issues miraculously disappear. You must work to improve all areas of your life.

Spirituality is often regarded as synonymous with finding your purpose in life, but does not require that you exclusively focus on a purpose from a spiritual perspective. At the same time, it does not mean that you necessarily want to ignore it altogether either. However, finding your purpose is fundamental for achieving true riches. Everyone is unique, and, when it comes to spiritual beliefs, this is especially true. I am not here to endorse any one particular way of satisfying the spiritual nature of human beings, but when you are finding your purpose in life, remaining true to your spiritual beliefs is essential if you are to lead the most fulfilling life.
Speaking of purpose, incorporating the social aspect of it must also be taken into consideration. All of the aspects work together in helping you discover your true calling. You want to be sure that your social requirements are being met. You are the driving force behind what you get out of life, but don’t discard friends and family to help round out your experience and help you to enjoy the lighter side of life. Having a rich social life is an important part of a rich life .

You also want to make sure that you are nourishing your mind along the way. As all progress originates in the mind, it’s absolutely essential that you feed your mind. We all have room to grow, and, if you become too complacent, no matter how successful you have become, you are in danger of falling backward. The intellectual aspect of your wealth, a wealth of knowledge, is extremely important.
Your health is the final piece of the fulfillment puzzle. You want to work hard and be focused on what you are doing, but maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help keep you going. When you feel as though you don’t have the time to exercise, and you are stressed to the limit, even though you least feel like exercising, this is the time when you need it most. Make sure you make time to exercise. Eating healthy foods will provide the nourishment to help keep you going and stave off sickness and prevent chronic ailments. You have to take care of yourself.

Again, there is nothing wrong with wanting to have money. Achieving financial independence is a worthy goal, but in order to have a complete and fulfilling life, you want to make sure that you give due consideration to each of the five aspects and to how they relate to each other. Becoming rich in one’s life means much more than just having more money.

The most debilitating mindset a person can have is blindly and uncritically accepting conventional wisdom. And while there are certainly concepts and widely accepted viewpoints that are based in fact and are worthy of your consideration, you must do your own research and make informed decisions based on your own points of reference. Unfortunately, many people let others determine their path rather than take the time to lay out their own.

Realize that societal norms can train and push you into a preset mold that might not be best suited for you. You are a unique peg, and if you are trying to fit yourself into a predetermined, yet mismatched opening, you are limiting your own potential.
If you want to go your own way, you might have to just create your own space. In the process, though, society will pick up on what you are doing and start giving you unsolicited feedback. This is when you need to stay true to yourself and not just automatically accept the conventional wisdom. What might seem like the easy road at first due to societal norms might in fact be a major mistake if the end result is that you are incredibly unhappy and feel as if you are not tapping into your unlimited potential. It is just a matter of finding your passion and channeling your efforts toward your specific goals. As you pave your own path in life, consider the following suggestions.

•    Think Like a Child

Children have a natural curiosity. In fact, one of the most endearing traits of children is their innocence and purity. When a kid walks into a room, everything is new and filled with endless possibility. “What’s this? What’s that? How come?” Their viewpoint can be a valuable lesson.
As a child develops and moves on into adulthood, they are trained what to ask, what not to ask, what is socially acceptable, and what is not. This can have unintended consequences, because it can be enormously impairing for you if your subconscious mind prevents you from breaking out as you grow older. And while there are understandable reasons why some subjects might be off limits, and there is a certain level of decorum that should exist, the point is that from a very early age you are taught to keep your expectations in check, based on what is socially acceptable.
If you let this carry over into too many areas of your life and you fail to seek the answers that are important to you, it is possible that you will find yourself swept into the mainstream current that will limit your ability to make great things happen and challenge yourself, and society, to improve. Therefore, let the childlike curiosity within yourself emerge and explore the world and yourself from a new perspective.

•    Be Aware of Your Influences

The majority of people’s thinking is influenced by outside impulses. Radio, TV, newspapers, the Internet, politicians, friends, family, and colleagues inundate you with opinions and images on any manner of things regardless of having any knowledge about the subject or not. This can be dangerous and detrimental to your well-being and happiness, because your thinking is mostly made up of projections, pictures you have seen, or ideas you have read or heard from somewhere else.
The fact is that 95 percent of the pictures you see in your mind today are the very same images you had yesterday. It has been said that two percent of the population of the world actually thinks, three percent thinks they think, and 95 percent would rather die than think. Therefore, you need to think, and think critically, to move forward and accomplish great things in life.
Always remember that you can offer the world a specific and unique perspective, but you must be willing to go out on a limb. If you let your others in your life tell you, or convince you, to do or not to do something without investigating the matter thoroughly, you will be doing yourself and the world a disservice. The world needs your unique perspective. In fact, society depends on unique perspectives for innovation and growth.
To value someone else’s opinion is understandable and expected. However, you must be careful to realize the difference between incorporating other people’s opinions into the mix and just blindly adopting them as your own without proper vetting and consideration. Likewise, don’t fall into the trap of seeking and relying too much on the advice of like-minded people, which serves only to reinforce your preconceived notions. This does not do you any good, as you need perspective. These people are often no more knowledgeable than you are, and you need to expose yourself to a wide variety of information and seek out more experienced and expert advice.

•    Do Your Research

Sometimes the resistance you might experience from others is because you are forcing them to take a good, hard look at their own situation and circumstances. The idea of facing one’s own fears can lead to a subconscious effort to sabotage another’s desires. There might be legitimate concern for your well-being if you try to break out of the norm, but you also have to weigh the possibility that people are afraid of what it might mean for them if you succeed. That is why you need to always do your own research.
Your friends and family might have valid concerns, so you don’t want to go through life blind to the advice of those you hold dear, but you must recognize the difference between valid issues and those people who are having difficulty facing their own self-doubt. Sometimes it might be especially hard to root for someone if you are not happy in your own life, but if you are the one being skeptical, you have to ask yourself the question: “Am I really finding fault with what this person is trying to accomplish or am I just having a difficult time facing my own unhappiness?”

•    Choose Your Thoughts

The thoughts you choose – whether happy or sad, positive or negative – will eventually determine your results. All pain, pleasure, abundance, or limitations are either originated in your conscious mind or accepted uncritically from an outside source. Your thoughts express themselves through your feelings, your feelings decide your actions, and your actions determine your results; therefore, you must consider that your past or present results are not a result of your potential, which is infinite, but a result of your past or present thinking. To change your results, change your thinking.
If you want something and you feel it is in the best interest of you and your family, do not let others tell you that you cannot do something. Even though you might be tempted to take the path of least resistance and you might be facing difficult circumstances, if you believe in yourself and your dream, you can succeed. There will be risk involved for sure, and the path to a fulfilling life will not be easy, but you have the capability to realize your dreams.

Create the Life of Your Dreams

Remember that you have the ability to achieve great things. Do not let conventional wisdom be a deterrent if you have found your passion and believe that what you are doing will lead to a more fulfilling life. You have to be prepared to change your mindset and take action. When you do, your dreams will become reality.
Use your mind, use your creativity, revert back to your childhood curiosity, and realize that you can achieve great things and go where you want to go in life. Dream big, make your own informed decisions, take the necessary steps toward your goals, and beware of conventional wisdom.

JPA

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