PRocess

Talent gets wasted because human beings get distracted. Wasted talent is the reason most people “live lives of quiet desperation.” I don’t want to live the wrong life and then die filled with regret, and neither do you. What will you do to avoid that fate?

I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I will dedicate my life to the development of courage, authenticity, accountability, discipline, community, sacrifice, faith, and flow because I want to find out who I can become and what I can accomplish.

• Courage - Align your decisions and actions with hope and wonder so you never surrender your quest to the temptations of status, comfort, or meaningless pleasures.

• Authenticity - Align your decisions and actions with your unique set of gifts and skills so you can contribute something meaningful to your community.

• Accountability - Hold yourself to a high standard because how you do anything is how you do everything, and once you start cutting corners, when will you stop?

• Discipline - Remember what you really want, then prioritize your decisions and actions accordingly. 

• Community - The ability to act as the embodiment of a loved one’s conscience because you believe in their talent and you are eager to see who they can become and what they can accomplish.

• Sacrifice - The ability to let go of something meaningful so you can reach for what is most meaningful.

• Faith - the ability to take courageous and authentic action in the face of fear and self-doubt because the Quest to Unleash Human Potential is your priority. The ability to take a “leap of faith” despite the presence of failure, rejection, and embarrassment as potential outcomes.

• Flow - Form a distraction free connection with your conscience because your conscience is the voice that calls you to be your most courageous, most authentic, most excellent self, and calls you out when you fall short. Flow is the optimal state of human consciousness that allows for your best performance.

You can recognize the Flow state by the strange passage of time. Time either seems to slow down and allow you to make decisions and take action faster than everyone around you, or the sensation of time passing becomes warped. You look at the clock to realize that an hour has passed during what felt like only a few minutes. Flow is accompanied by a sense of tranquility. When your decisions and actions flow directly from your conscience, you become the embodiment of your most courageous, most authentic, and most excellent self. 

“Follow Your Bliss.”

Joseph Campbell inspired generations with this phrase. Once he realized how people misinterpreted the meaning, he later clarified by saying “Follow your blisters.”

“Follow your bliss” does not mean “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you will die.”  “Follow your bliss" means “follow your conscience.” Your conscience is the voice that calls on you to be your most courageous, most authentic, most excellent self, and calls you out when you fall short. When your decisions and actions flow from your conscience, with zero latency in the system, you enter the Flow state. Flow feels ecstatic. That is the “bliss” Campbell urged us to follow.

"Follow your blisters" means “Follow your conscience, no matter the cost,” and there will be a cost. Following the voice that guides you on your path to embody your capacity for courage, authenticity, excellence will cost you status and acceptance, comfort and safety, and meaningless pleasures. Some might be horrified by the idea that they could voluntarily sacrifice status, comfort, or pleasure, until they realize that those are the very distractions that cause one’s talent to go to waste.

The enemy of Flow is distraction, and distraction comes in multiple forms: ego, fear, and id. Ego is the voice that tempts you to sacrifice everything for status and acceptance. Fear is the voice that tempts you to sacrifice everything for comfort and safety. Id is the voice that tempts you to sacrifice everything for pleasure.

Human life is entirely about sacrifice, because a human lifetime is finite. Every second of your life carries an opportunity cost. Whatever you spend your time doing, you are forsaking all other possibilities. If you are following your conscience, you are forsaking distractions. If you are pursuing distractions, you are forsaking your conscience.

Be the Hero of Your Own Journey

The Hero’s Journey is an archetypal story of an ordinary protagonist who has become distracted because their life has become monotonous. They are forced to find focus when they are presented with a problem that must be solved. The immediacy of the problem does not leave room for distraction, and the complexity of the problem does not allow for complacency. The protagonist must grow into the hero who can solve the problem by focusing on skill development and high standards. A hero is someone who solves a meaningful problem by taking the leaps of faith that are necessary to develop their character, unleash their potential, and master their craft.

This is a cyclical process. Once the adventure is complete, a new, more complex problem will need solving, and a new journey will begin for our hero. The cycle repeats throughout the hero’s life and throughout the generations. The hero’s spirit outlives their body because their example inspires the decisions and actions of the generations who follow.

I will take the leaps of faith that will be necessary to develop my character, unleash my potential, and master my craft. I will follow my conscience, no matter the cost. I will protect my soul with my life because the death of a soul is the birth of either a victim or a villain, and I refuse to live that way. I will maintain my focus on the Quest to Unleash Human Potential by remembering that I don’t want to live the wrong life and then die filled with regret.

Memento Mori

This is the most uncomfortable part of the process. It is also the most necessary. “Memento mori” is a Latin phrase that means “Remember that you must die.” You don’t ignore death because you fear it. You fear death because you ignore it.

“Remember that you must die” because that knowledge is the only thing that can keep you focused in a world filled with distraction. If you get distracted and stay distracted, your life will pass you by and your talent will go to waste, so don’t get distracted. Memento mori. That is the only thing that can save you from yourself; from your ego, your fear, and your quest for meaningless pleasures.

Here’s the thing - this can be an intense process that many people will find overwhelming. That is the reason we need community. Your community is the group of people who treat you like your potential matters by acting as an external embodiment of your conscience. Their support restores your courage during the times when you feel overwhelmed by fear, confusion, and self-doubt

This is an invitation. Enrollment in this community is voluntary. If you want to embrace the Quest to Unleash Human Potential and you want to escape the epidemic of distraction, and despair, then you’re in the right place.