Mind the Beginner

There’s a buzz in the lifestyle design sector the last few days. Clay Collins is about to re-open Project Mojave to the public. For a modest fee you can take part and learn how to build a “freedom business” in 3.8 months.

But what is it exactly. What I can tell you is that the project is a collection of people who have combined their skills in teaching people how they can set up an Internet business with the goal of making an income that’s automated leaving you with enough time on your hands (because you no longer have to work) to do what you really want to do. You’ll be freed from the bonds of the 9 to 5 till 65.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, yes it’s a sales talk of course it sounds great. But does it really work?

No! it’s not a magic program that will get you up to speed and guarantee you your freedom business. For Clay it’s a business and as any business it earns him money. 200 people, times $99 a month or something like that equals buckets full of money, split in several pieces to pay all the other stakeholders and it’s still a lot of money every month.

But you know what? That’s perfectly alright, it’s a get rich scheme for Clay but at the same time its a wealth of knowledge brought together in one place. All the knowledge is out there on the Internet but most people can’t find it. At Project Mojave it’s all there in easy bite sized bits and easy to follow tutorials. Setting up a business really isn’t that difficult, save for one single thing everybody seems to keep forgetting:

It’s damn hard work! Hundreds of hours you need to spend staring at numbers until you find a niche, hundreds of hours working on an information product. So in the end it’s not a get rich quick scheme. It takes many many hours of dedicated work. On both sides… You get a lot back for your $99 a month, knowledge painstakingly gathered and tested over and over to give you the best possible chance to make it through and be successful. All it takes is a lot of perspiration, some inspiration and a modest monthly fee.

You’ll be in there with people like Jonathan Mead, Johnny B Truant, Laura Roeder and Carl R Nelson, all discussing their take on things and helping you get through the program through discussions on a lively forum.

If you’re up to it and believe this is the path for you, click the banner below and take part on the project, I promise you that if you do the work you’ll make it through. Just don’t underestimate it…  Good luck!

I’ve quoted this one before but it’s actually a huge reason for me to have this blog:

• To learn: read
• To know: write
• To master: teach

There is only so much you can do for yourself by reading self-help books, blogs on personal development and other sources. Most people who realize this quickly become bloggers themselves in order to put to writing what they have learned. Over time -months or years- these people become experts of sorts in their fields. They know what they write and they practice what they preach.

Take Jonathan Mead over at Illuminated Mind for instance . I don’t believe could have quit his regular job and gain his freedom if he didn’t blog about it. The same goes for Darren Rowse aka Problogger. Although there was little on blogging in the early days when he started (so he couldn’t read much) he quickly took to writing about it and thus really getting in to the know of blogging.

And now there is me. I’m a zen enthusiast but it’s hard to grasp what zen is about. By writing about it and time and time again trying to put to words what it means I’ve gotten a far better idea on what zen actually is. Hopefully the same goes for you. Through reading you get to learn things that others write about and thus know.

It’s personal development on a new level. Helping others by writing about your experiences will steer them in directions they didn’t know existed. Although truly conveying and experience is impossible you can get people to look in a certain direction.

Not only does personal development this way help you develop yourself but in doing so you help others who are willing to read what you’ve put to words. You get feedback through comments (your readers start writing/knowing) and you all gain new insights. A repeating cycle where eventually you -the writer- gains so much knowledge that you start to teach others. You mastered what you learned.

Again, Jonathan and Darren are perfect examples. They set out to achieve something and now that they are there they want to help others get there too. Darren teaches bloggers how to build a better blog and Jonathan teaches you how to reclaim your dreams and cut the cubicle umbilical cord.

Two prime examples of writers who know so much they now teach to master their field. The very tip of the personal development pyramid.

So it’s up to you now…. do you want to learn? Keep reading. Do you want to know? Start writing. Do you want to master? Read a lot, write about your passions and teach whatever it is you want to master.

It’s a long way up, but from everything I’ve read, it’s awesome up there! It’s the ultimate in personal development.

Yesterday a tweet came along in my screen I really would like to share with you:

Amazing how often when we think we’re learning, we’re really not. We’re just seeking evidence to reinforce our current beliefs – Jonathan Mead

I would like to follow this quote with another one that I’ve taken from someone I believe is one of the most honest men on the planet.

I never leaned anything that I already “knew” – Peter Ralston

Peter Ralston is a martial arts teacher and in 1978, he became the first non-Asian to win a world martial arts tournament held in the Republic of China. The reason I tell you this is exactly the same reason he took part in this tournament. People didn’t believe what he was saying so he needed to prove his point. Would you take notice to what this guy was telling you if he was just a passer by on the street?

What are Jonathan and Peter talking about here. 

A huge problem that we all suffer from. We’re stuck in our ways. Not only in the form of micro habits but also in how we feel things, react, talk and think. We percieve everything in the world through a filter that we have created ourselves, a filter that by it’s very nature hides the truth from us. 

We might think we understand something but what is there to understand about moving your body. You can’t learn a martial art by reading about it. You need to go past the filter or in other words:

The power of transforming the body lies in the experience of the body, not in our thoughts, opinions and beliefs. If we make a distinction between those two activities, we can progress towards mastery in any endeavor – Peter Ralston

What’s more, we need someone with authority to tell us we are wrong or we won’t believe it. But even in this there is a filter, who has authority in our filter? The only way to get rid of that filter is to really experience what is going on. I’ll give you an example, one that’s perfect to illustrate Peter’s teaching style:

If you have some martial arts experience you’ll probably “know” that the centre of gravity on the human body is somewhere below the navel. You can take this for the truth or you can experience it. So what Peter did was take a strong stick and together with several students he balanced on of the students on the stick in all three axis. They concluded that indeed the centre of gravity in this student was in the lower abdomen, just below the navel.

Although science has provided us with a lot of “truths”, religion has done the same and so have popular media. They all help build our filter, a filter by which we tend to see everything as wrong or right without taking the time to experience it and form our own opinnion. Those with authority (in our oppinion) lead and we follow blindly.

All to often we just want to reinforce what we already “know”. But that’s not learning now is it.