I made the most money, wrote the best copy, created the best offers, had the most fun, and experienced the greatest growth when…
I was thinking about the mission.
I was thinking about the market.
I was thinking about the moment before me.
I made the least money, wrote the shittest copy, created lousy offers, suffered endlessly, and experienced the most stagnation when…
I was thinking about myself.
I was thinking about my problems.
I was thinking about what’s in it for me.
Maybe you relate? Maybe you don’t?
But more often than not:
To think about yourself is to suffer psychologically.
To think about yourself is to become anti-growth.
To think about yourself is to block your own blessings.
To think about yourself is to get in the way of life.
To think about yourself is to leak energy.
And this isn’t something you have to blindly take my word for.
It’s something you can realize by looking into your own experience.
So I encourage you to do that.
But in order to do so, I first have a question for you:
When you think about yourself, who are you thinking about?
Is it your body?
No.
You only really think about the body when you’re crossing a busy street or you’re hungry or physically exhausted or working out or needing to use the restroom or experiencing physical pain/discomfort or experiencing sexual desires. Rest of the time? You’re not really thinking about the body.
Is it your life?
No.
You only really think about your life when you’re at a funeral and pondering your own mortality or working a dead end job and hating life or when you’re doing annual reviews and reflecting on the year or when you’re sitting on a park bench midday and doing nothing or when you’re spilling blood and have to take inventory of the life you’ve been living up until now.
Rest of the time? You’re not really thinking about your life.
Is it your inner world?
No.
You only really think about your inner world when you’re noticing the quality of your thoughts or what you’re feeling or the sensations pulsating through you. Rest of the time? You’re not really thinking about the inner world.
So the question remains…
Who are you thinking about?
And the answer is simple.
You’re thinking about who you think you are.
In other words:
You’re thinking about your self-image.
What’s a self image, you ask?
A frozen image of yourself that is the byproduct of all the experiences you went through in life (with a heavy emphasis on earlier life experiences) and a reflection of how much (or how little) love you received.
To get a sense of your self image, simply think about yourself for a couple of minutes right now.
What kind of person do you think yourself to be? Not your ideal version. But the actual version you believe yourself to be (and often try to cover up with your ideal version.)
If you stay with this question, you’ll notice a rough image forming.
This will give you a small glimpse into your self image (I say small because the majority of your self image is unconscious and takes more work to bring into the light of awareness).
But regardless:
This image of yourself is who you’re constantly thinking about (it doesn’t really matter if it’s a good or bad image).
It’s your obsession and the backdrop for everything you do (or don’t do).
In other words:
If something is aligned with your self image, it usually makes you feel warm, comfortable, and cozy like your mothers womb and you find yourself wanting to engage in those actions.
If something is not aligned with your self image, it usually makes you feel cold, uncomfortable, and alone like the unknown and you find yourself avoiding those actions.
BIG problem with this?
All breakthroughs in life are predicated on breaking (through) the self image you hold of yourself.
(If you’re constantly avoiding things that don’t align with your self-image, then you’re standing in the way of your own growth and preventing the breaking through from actually happening.)
In other words:
If you want to go from growing up with little to no money to making millions of dollars a year, you have to literally break (through) the self image of being poor, broke, and lacking money.
On the other hand:
If you want to go from experiencing yourself as a person to waking up to the true nature of reality, you have to literally break (through) the self image of being your mom and dads child.
If you do, you create space for something new.
If you don’t, you continue to fill up the space in the same old way – giving rise to the same experience of life.
Issue is:
Most people (hopefully not you) only take actions that are in alignment with their self image and avoid taking actions that go against their self image so they remain more or less the same.
But that’s not the only problem.
Another problem is:
If you want to put a dent in the universe, then you can either think about yourself or you can think about your mission.
But you cannot think about both.
And that’s because:
Your mission by definition is something that is bigger than you. In order to realize it, you have to sacrifice your image of self at the altar of truth in each and every moment and live, work, breathe for the mission.
BUT: If you’re constantly thinking about yourself, then you’ll let how you feel and what you prefer get in the way of life and block what needs to be done in order to fulfill the mission.
You see this time and time again and it obviously doesn’t work.
So that is why:
You need to stop thinking about who you think you are.
It’s the fastest, easiest, most direct way to free yourself from what troubles most people: worries, fears, doubts. (All problems, frustrations, holdups belong to the self image. Not to you.)
But that’s not all.
The real benefit that arises when you stop thinking about yourself is you allow yourself to actually become yourself.
In other words:
When you stop thinking about who you think you are, you start embodying and being who you truly are. The thinking of who you think you are is what blocks who you really are.
So when you delete self-reflection, you allow what is underneath… the real, unconditioned you to come to the surface.
With that being said…
The takeaway of this email is simple:
Devote 1 less thought to yourself each and every day.
Instead of thinking about yourself, start thinking about your readers/clients/customers, start thinking about the life unfolding before you, start thinking about your mission, start thinking about God. And everything (including yourself) will work itself out.
I promise.
Your friend,
/tej
P.S. To get in your own way is to think about yourself. To get out of your own way is to stop thinking about yourself.