Module 7 – Discomfort Is The Price Of Growth
Discomfort Is The Price Of Growth
Discomfort is the currency to your dreams.
To accomplish your dreams, live into your future, and Elevate Your Alpha, you need to grow. And to grow you need to get uncomfortable and get comfortable with being uncomfortable; to work at changing from your current thinking and believing to your desired thinking and believing. One of my teachers sometimes calls this the “river of misery.” It’s miserable and hard, but it doesn’t last forever. I assure you that you can do hard things.
When we have a goal in mind, such as ending all buffering and living as an Alpha, the first thing we have to do is commit to that goal. And when we commit no matter what, we’re willing to take whatever actions are necessary and feel whatever feelings are necessary. With this commitment comes the need for courage. Often people glamorize courage, insisting it is noble and feels great. This isn’t true. Courage feels terrible. It’s uncomfortable because it is action through the emotion of fear. But if a goal is worth accomplishing, if a goal stretches us and expands our potential and meet ourselves at the margins of our experience, then we will feel uncomfortable as we work toward it. So when we look at it this way, discomfort is actually a sign that we are on the right track. It’s a sign that we are growing and expanding, becoming the next best version of ourselves.
Once we display courage, we can develop skills that increase our capability. And when we become capable, we become confident in our new skills. The takeaway for you is this: expect that courage will feel terrible, but this uncomfortable experience does not mean something is wrong. You are, in fact, heading toward your goal.
ASK YOURSELF:
If you know that discomfort is a necessary part of getting to your goal, are you willing to feel it?
How do you think your experience would be different if you viewed discomfort as a sign that you were on the right track?
What would it be like if you saw discomfort as a green light instead of a red or yellow light?
What emotions have you typically wanted to avoid that you would now be willing to feel to get to your goal?
REVIEW
In Module 1, you learned about buffering, the brain, and the motivational triad for how the Beta Condition (the primal brain) responds to the World to keep your body alive.
In Module 2, you learned about desire and why you have a desire to buffer.
In Module 3, you learned how to make decisions ahead of time and created plans for taking control of your buffering.
In Module 4, you learned what emotions are and how to allow and process emotions, as well and how to unlearn self-created overdesire.
In Module 5, you learned about the power of beliefs, where beliefs comes from (the past), how to believe new things, and how to believe into your future.
In Module 6, you learned about The Universal Truth For How Life Works and The Model Of Alignment. You learned that circumstances are always neutral until you have a thought about them, that your thoughts create your feelings, and your feelings drive your actions, which create your results.
What else have you learned?
Where do you still have work to do?
ASK YOURSELF:
How has the Model helped you so far?
What do think of the concept that you can put whatever you want in the R line?
What other goals or dreams would you like to put in your R line?
CREATE A PLAN FOR DESIRED OUTCOME
We’ve looked at the idea of obstacles on a couple of occasions. You’ve taken those obstacles and turned them into plans with actionable steps.
Which strategies have you fully embraced? Where else would you benefit from focusing your attention? What new obstacles need to be planned for? Are any of the strategy steps not on your calendar or in your plans?
BRAIN RESISTANCE
Our brain’s job is to be efficient by using as little energy as possible. It also wants to keep us safe. Both of these directly conflict with our goal of believing something new. It’s completely normal and natural for our brain to resist new patterns of thinking. We should expect that our brains will offer us a million reasons why we shouldn’t do something. We have to practice new thoughts so we can establish new neural pathways and our brains can become efficient at thinking our new thoughts. When we experience resistance, we should view this as a sign that we are likely on the right track and our brain is just trying to do its job.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE/RIVER OF MISERY
When there is discord because you have two conflicting thoughts in your mind, this is where most people give up on new thoughts. This is normal and our brain will always defer to old thoughts. New ones must be practiced purposefully.
LADDERING THOUGHTS
Sometimes when we try to believe a new thought, it’s too far away from our current thought to feel believable. This is often why affirmations don’t work and where laddering can be helpful. Laddering is a way for you to baby step into a new belief. You start where you are and then reach for a thought that feels believable and slightly better than the one you are currently thinking. Then, once you have practiced that thought, you reach for the next better and believable thought. You keep doing this until you reach the thought you want.
Imagine your current, undesired thought on the bottom rung of a ladder. Then imagine the thought you want to believe but don’t as sitting on the top rung of the ladder. I want you to find your way up the ladder one believable thought at a time.
Consider using modifiers like these:
“I notice I keep thinking the thought that… and that’s OK.”
“I’m becoming a person who…”
“It’s possible that…”
“I’m open to the idea that…”
“I could be wrong about…”
“I will someday…”
Look for ways to neutralize the current belief (i.e., “I hate my behavior” could be “I have behavior (I take actions.”)
Put the new thought as reminder in your phone, on post-it notes around the house or office, write it on the bathroom mirror, or create a new thought using your screensaver.
THE ELEVATED ALPHA SOCIETY SPARTAN ACADEMY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COGNITIVE MASTERY
Remember the Motivational Triad from Module 1?
The Motivation Triad of the brain is to seek emotional pleasure, avoid emotional pain, and become as efficient at doing this as possible.
In the 21st Century, this function no longer serves you as an individual or humanity as whole. Our brain is trying to keep us alive so passionately that we just abdicate our power of conscious intention over to it and say, “Do your job!” Unfortunately, the brain is working on outdated hardware! The Motivational Triad is a foundation on which the Beta Condition (the software) is developed.
The Motivational Triad we aim to develop as hardware in our brain as Alpha’s is the following:
Seek Well-Being and Avoid False Pleasure (Buffering) – as opposed to SEEKING PLEASURE
Move into Discomfort As The Price of Growth – as opposed to AVOIDING PAIN
Utilize conscious effort when re-coding the brain – as opposed to BECOMING EFFICIENT
From this hardware, we can program the software from our Alpha State in an intentional and deliberate way. The software is a collection of belief systems that become all the results we have in our life (See The Universal Truth and The Model Of Alignment in Module 6).
Taking this Momentous Leap is the future of the human species.
OPTIONS FOR CONTINUED SELF MASTERY:
The Elevated Alpha Society Spartan Academy For The Development Of Cognitive Mastery
One-on-One Coaching
Another specialized home-study course (Indomitable Self-Confidence or How To Live Your Purpose and Create Massive Wealth Doing It)
WORKSHEETS
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