Space

This is exactly the same for me. Too many ideas and things I want to create, and not enough time or focus to execute them. What has worked for me is to simply sit down and ask myself what I enjoy doing most, and what will be the best use of my time. There's no way I could do everything I want to do. What i've also found useful is to focus on doing small projects or 'small bets' that may only require a few months of time, or less, and thus don't require you to grind it out in the hope of getting some success. But, these small bets are big enough and challenging enough that they're developing your skills and actually making a difference, rather than just some half-assed piece of work you do in a day. For me this has just been working on a big painting over the past few months. It hasn't taken up loads of time, but has been very challenging at times. How good the painting turned out is not that important. What is important is that I sat down and actually created something. So my answer to your question is to do neither, in a sense. Don't pick one thing and grind it out, at least until you have a much clearer idea of what it is you want to pursue. But also don't divide up your time for everything because the necessary focus and momentum required for making good art/music likely won't be there. Instead, as I said before, maybe try a mixture of these and do a bunch of different small projects which require time and effort and build your skills (they should be challenging), but aren't an all-out commitment. The aim is to just finish the project and learn something, rather than thinking about whether it's the right thing to be doing, whether you made the right decision etc. Anyway that's my take on it, hope this helps. Goodluck!

@Leo Gura Sounds like an awesome idea! I'm from the UK unfortunately, but if you ever came to London i'd definitely be interested in attending. Also happy to pay more than $20 for a ticket.

Thanks for sharing @Afonso ! I've been giving the technique a go, as well as @Azrael's 'Awakening Anchor #1'. What i'm finding very difficult, in both techniques, is the visualisation or creation of a past experience or memory. You say to 'think of something in your life that makes you uncomfortable'. Azrael says to 'visualize a moment in your life in which you experienced the current emotion very strongly'. Well, there have been many many times where i've experienced an emotion very strongly or felt incredibly uncomfortable, but I can't seem to 'recreate' any of them. I can remember the events or moments and where I was and what I was doing, but I can't bring up the emotions or feeling associated with them. I can't put myself back in my own shoes, so to speak.

@Anthony1000 Ignore the 10,000 rule. If you want to become truly world class then sure it applies. But for actualizing your life purpose it's not as important or necessary, in my opinion. You can create an amazing life in much less, but only if you focus on using what hours you have wisely and effectively. I wish I had known this a year or two ago. Deliberate learning and practise of skills is key. Read DW by CN on Leo's book list.

@Leo Gura Yes I think this would be a good idea. It would definitely encourage people to make their own judgements. Maybe we could have a trial period with these changes for a few weeks, or a month, and then make a final decision after that. Edit: After thinking about this a bit more here is what I think would be ideal: I don't pay much attention to the chimp titles so for me whether they are removed or not is not too much of an issue. What I would say is to just completely remove the reputation points and the number of posts under the user image. But keep the thumbs up under each comment. Being praised for writing a good comment is not such a bad thing I don't think.

@Max_V Great, thanks. So as I understand you're just putting a lot of focus into, or atleast starting with, really nailing down what you identify with, what you identify as 'me', and trying to get a very clear answer to that? And then inquiring into that.

@Max_V Seems like you've got a knack for self-inquiry. Got any advice for the rest of us? Whats you're general approach? Do you ask questions or spend more time in silence? I've been working on it much much longer than 2 months but haven't felt like i've made any big leaps or gotten remotely close to what you've described.

@-Rowan Read 'So Good They Can't Ignore You' by Cal Newport

@Petar Yes I have been experiencing something very similar. I haven't experienced any pain so maybe it's not as intense as what you've had, but there's definitely a strong pressure-like feeling. I also know what you mean when you say you feel more conscious. I haven't quite worked out what might be causing it, but I think, as you said, when I do very hard mindfulness labelling it becomes more noticeable. Recently i've been doing more Do Nothing and the pressure feeling hasn't been so prominent. Maybe I should be doing more hard mindfulness. I guess if it's really bad my advice would be to do some Do Nothing and maybe some grounding physical exercise to help move the energy around.

I could spend a long time replying to this comment, but I won't because you need to figure this stuff out for yourself. Keep self-inquiring, meditating and studying everything Leo teaches. It's good that you're questioning everything.

Be careful not to blindly believe what you've heard about what you are. As far as you're concerned right now everything you've been told could be bullshit. You must throw out all beliefs and ideas about what you think you are or might be, and just focus on what is true in your direct experience. Don't try to recognise that you are 'nothing' or that you don't exist. Who says that's true? Discover the Truth for yourself.

@Dino D Try paying more attention to what is actually true in direct experience. Notice that in direct experience any type of thought comes from no one and nothing and falls back into the same place. That is literally what is happening in your experience. You might say, yes some of my thoughts just appear by themselves, but others come from 'me', 'I' am definitely creating these thoughts at will! But notice that every single thought is the same in that they all appear completely spontaneously from nothing. Where is this I-thinker? What is this I-thinker? Is there really an 'I' that is the source of thinking? The same goes for speaking and moving the body.

@Colin Yea I enjoyed it too! I really like the more casual, informal style stuff, like the retreat vlogs Leo did a while ago.

Ahh I totally missed that. Thanks!

@ppfeiff Yea I've been using Outline every since Leo brought out his Commonplace Book video. It's been great so far I'd definitely recommend. I went along and bought the full version after using the trial. From seeing OneNote in Leo's video I'd say Outline is about 80% the same, functionality wise. However, there are a few differences which I've noticed after using it for a month or so: 1) Quite limited search function. Doesn't have the Find Tags function that OneNote has. 2) You can't use custom fonts. Not a massive deal obviously, you're just limited to 11 presets. 3) Doesn't have some of the more advanced tools that OneNote has like the drawing tool, voice recording etc, the ability to drag bullet points up and down the list as Leo shows in the video, or the linking to different pages function. Can't say I've needed to use these though. Aside from those points, I don't think there's much else. It saves everything into one file on your computer which is exactly what I wanted. Means you can backup everything onto an external hard drive super easily. Very clean, simple, easy to use interface. Let us know how it works for you.

Sounds like kundalini energy.

@Monkey-man Shaktipat initiation. Although it only works for a relatively small % of people.

Sounds very similar to the book I'm reading at the moment called 'Conversations With God' by Neale Walsch.

The 10,000-hour rule is not some magical number you need to hit before you're a Master. In fact, I'm pretty sure the 10,000-hour rule is complete rubbish. Why can't you achieve the same progress in 2000 hours? 500 hours? Very deep, focused work is all that is required. Becoming a Master is dependant on too many variables. Two completely different people could do 10,000 hours and be a million miles apart from one another in their ability and skill.

@iTommy I'd say you're getting too lost in concepts. Focus on what is actually occurring in your direct experience at this very moment. Keep grounding yourself in direct experience. What is true in your experience right now? There's lots of talk about 'nothingness', 'emptiness' and 'awareness' etc, but these are just concepts you've heard from Leo or read somewhere. You don't actually know what you are. Anything you've heard from someone else is not true. Nor do you really know what any of those concepts (emptiness, nothingness etc) actually point to. I'm not saying you don't understand them intellectually or conceptually, but for the purposes of self-inquiry they don't mean anything and you should discard them.

@Leo Gura Woo! Always look forward to these updates. Some of the books on the list have completely changed my life. It's such a great resource because there's so many books out there to choose from. It becomes a task in itself just trying to figure out which books to buy, so you've saved me a lot of time.

@mia_lea Pretty sure that most dogs can be trained to behave how you want them to, given enough time and training. There'll always be exceptions but it's likely that if you just keep training the dog properly then it'll start to change its behaviour. Make sure that you are training it properly though. Hire a dog trainer if necessary.

@Slade Just finished watching the movie and it was awesome!

@Hard_Agent Just keep practising!

Why is the retreat outside during the Winter?? Seems a bit odd. If there's no way around it, I guess my advice would be to try to use it to your advantage and be very mindful of/observe your aversion towards any physical discomfort. And you should probably wear some thermal clothing.