Joseph Maynor

Good job. You seem to be a hard worker like me when it comes to personal development.

I started watching Leo in 2014. Really from that point to now I've been working heavily on my Personal Development Work. Early 2017 was when things really started shifting for me with Enlightenment Work. I could say 2017 and 2018 have been my two biggest years in terms of development and results. 2017 was more about Enlightenment Work, but not exclusively. 2018 was more about bringing it all together for me. It's interesting to see those trends over the last 2 years. Right now I'm working on career change primarily. As a subtext to that I'm really interested in the topic of "making change" right now -- so, it's issues related to change that fascinate me in Personal Development right now, such as "How do I change my life?" What I've found is there is a strategy to do this. You can actually set yourself up to be a change agent.

Everything has a time and a place in Personal Development Work. Affirmations are good for when you know what you want and the Mind needs some re-programming.

The everything is predetermined belief is like the no free will belief — it’s the Mind acting outside of its own pay-grade. It’s the Mind getting in the way of things instead of helping things. I think it’s useful when you study Enlightenment Work to flirt with the no free will side of the Paradox of Free will and No Free Will. But at the end of the day, there’s an ‘and’ in that paradox. There’s free will and no free will, and you gotta work both ends of that paradox. Clinging to one side or the other of that paradox causes problems. Think about this — do you think you’re gonna be good at changing your life if you believe you have no free will? Do you think you’re gonna change your life if you believe everything is predestined or predetermined? F*ck no you're not! This stuff is not rocket science, but you do need to see through things and not get trapped by theory basically. If we’re sitting around dilly-dallying with the theory not taking any action because we have these beliefs in predestination and no free will — that’s not what Personal Development Work is about anymore! That’s more like religion, taking comfort in belief — it’s gone outside the realm of Personal Development Work.

There is a Paradox of Theory and No Theory and you gotta work both ends of this paradox. You wanna maximize the pros and minimize the cons of theory. Theory can be a nuisance or even a trap when it’s dragged around like a baby blanket. But at the same time, theory can be the starting point in your next stage of growth or the birth of projects that you envision doing. Almost every project begins as theory. So, we don’t wanna be against theory. But it is true that theory has a tendency to trap people — very similar to a child clinging to a baby blanket. But see, theory practiced in a linear way has a tendency to stunt people. So, it’s not either/ or it’s both, and you have to find the right balance in the moment using the paradox of theory and no theory as a tool, and knowing that you gotta work both sides of this paradox.

I tend to be a worrier too, or at least I used to be. One of the things that I’ve done is when I start a part of my day, I’ll make post-it notes of the tasks I wanna get done. That allows me to keep the big-picture in mind when I’m working so I don’t get distracted by worrying or ruminating. So step one would be clarifying what you want to get done and the stages of it. What I’ve found is usually when I start worrying or ruminating, it’s because I’m sort of “at sea” regarding what it is that I should be working on in the moment, which is a gap that the Mind can use to worry and ruminate. So what I’m trying to say here is you can tee your Mind up for less worrying by keeping it occupied on your post-it notes, your tasks. In a way, you have to have time to worry and ruminate, if that makes sense. You can take that time away by using the Mind to work on your projects.

A leader walks their plans. They do what they say they will do.

Which one of those would you pay to be able to do let alone turn into a career where you get paid for it?

First of all, have a resume that looks great notwithstanding what's in it. I can get jobs easy, the problem is I don't want a regular job. I need to create my own job. But my resume is amazing. I spent like 2 months working on my resume getting every stylistic point and formatting issue right. I also have my photo on my resume which is cool, although a lot of places probably wouldn't like that. Your resume has to look amazing from a beauty standpoint, let alone what's in it. But yeah, the first step towards getting a job is getting the best resume you can draft together. As a writer, my resume is a work of art, and I made it a work of art on purpose. You want a resume that looks so good that they want to call you in for an interview based on just the way your resume looks, notwithstanding what's in it. I've reviewed resumes before for hiring, and lemme tell you, most resumes I've seen look janky as f*ck. So, that's where I really saw that I could separate myself from the rest of the herd by having a resume that just stands out over all the rest based on appearance alone. A great looking resume is like making a great first impression. Even if what's in the resume has some gaps or whatnot, just having a resume that is a work of beauty is enough to make a great first impression. I actually applied a couple of tips from Leo's video on resumes when I was working on my resume:

You’re getting the “you might be crazy thought” I see. I had that too relatively recently when I was doing a bunch of work that I wasn’t passionate about. I was diagnosing myself preliminarily with all kinds of sh*t. And then I realized, “no, actually I just don’t like what I’m doing, I don’t like what I’m working on.”

Enlightenment is only one major part of Personal Development Work and not the only part. Taken the wrong way, Enlightenment can actually be a block to your Personal Development Work when you start believing that you have no control. It’s not Enlightenment or Personal Development — It’s Enlightenment and Personal Development.

Leo did a good video on this subject.

What the hell is Spiritualism? Just kidding. I know what you mean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism

He seems to have gone from a Psychology Professor to a Personal Development Content Provider. I admire the career change.

Most people go through a Spiritual Ego phase of Enlightenment when they are young on the Path. Of course these people don’t realize they’re in a Spiritual Ego phase of the Path.

There’s also a difference between theory and planning. An architect’s detailed plans are nothing like some abstract metaphysical musings. Thinking of planning as a theoretical activity is no good for the practice of careful planning.

Just like you can hide out in a forest in life, you can hide out in theory in life too.

A more interesting question is, What does Ken Wilber think about your ideas?

Totally, I get it. Enlightenment Work has a lot to it. You wouldn't expect someone to be able to give you the principles of Physics in the palm of your hand. Somehow we expect Enlightenment truths to be given in the palm of our hand. The assumption is that Enlightenment is simple. It's a paradox, on the one hand Enlightenment is simple but on the other hand it's complex as well, and you gotta work a both ends of that paradox.

I already know everything, so I don’t need to watch any videos. Just kidding! I’ve watched all of Leo’s videos.

I bolded some words.

You gotta find your passion first, and then you select work that harmonizes with your passion. You can actually gauge your passion throughout the day. Most of us are not really taught to do this, but you can do it as part of your mindfulness. You could keep a passion journal where you monitor and record your passion throughout the day. That would be an interesting exercise. Maybe I should do that as well.