This is about deciding to do you. Deciding, and then doing the work.
Part 1 – What would 20% more mean to you?
Part 2 – Slow down to create more.
Part 3 – Now is the time to lead.
Part 4 - Reevaluate and succeed
Part 5 - Open up to creativity
Let’s say you have identified your project. For example, I met someone recently for the first time. His project, in his words, is this. “I should be happier in my career and life than I am.” That is both big and broad. It's the thing he needs to tackle head-on.

Point #1 – Deciding

You identify something external you want to change, create, or eliminate. You are now intensely focused. You had better be, if you truly want what you say you want. You have known about this thing way before now. You had seen it coming, thought about it, let it sneak up on you over the years. But you were too busy. Your old internal programming has been running the show. You hadn’t decided to figure out how to do anything differently.

Point #2– Peace

You are intrigued by the idea of living in absolute internal peace. You don’t 100% get that one. Sounds nice, but how do you do it? Of course you want it. Who wouldn’t?

Point #3 - Inside/ Outside

There are now two big driving goals. As well there should be. Using my iceberg metaphor, one is likely on the upper part, above the surface of life. The second, living in true peace and clarity, can only be created from beneath the surface.

Point #4 – Internal first

Achievement of both of these internal and external objectives must happen in tandem. However, the one that needs to lead is the internal.

Point #5 – Conditional living

“If I can get my external lined up, my internal will be happy and fulfilled”. That cannot work, and it never will for any extended period. You can be sometimes happy because you can manage those external circumstances part of the time. The other part of the time you will be worried, sad, mad, hurt, etc. That is what most people do because they don’t know any better. They settle for partial success because as far as they know that is all there is.

Point #6 – Unconditional living

You find your peace and happiness inside. You get to a place where it doesn’t much matter what is going on outside. Really hear this. You will always create way more, bigger, better, faster externally without the internal noise. From that place of internal peace and clarity, you can have and do just about anything.

Point #7 - Acceptance

The key, the only way to full and continuous internal peace and joy, is in learning not to judge. That is acceptance. You don’t have to like a thing. You don’t have to avoid it, nor should you. You just don’t need the internal judgment. You don’t need to bring the trash inside. You don’t need to harm yourself and work against everything you want. What has happened on the outside has already happened. You cannot control that. But you can learn a dramatically better way to be with it. The inside is your territory.

Point #8 - Outside projects

A project could be more wealth, a new job, a new house, a better relationship, more time, or anything you want to create. Your priorities and projects change as you move along. Some may be ongoing, more or less. Others, you are able to deal with, close out, and then off to the next.

Point #9 – Inside work

This is ongoing. It involves a new way of thinking. It is quite literally unlearning and relearning. Learning to walk through life very differently. This is worth the price of admission. The outside creation becomes easy.

Point #10 – Week in, week out

It is time to put your Self first. If you are going to try to do this on your own, you first have to figure out what to do. Then, you must do the work. Do you want to crawl along or move at a nice clip? Will you decide to grab on to this and run with it? Among other things, you will have to figure out how to support yourself. How to increase your knowledge as you move through the process. You will want to be doing the right things, in the right ways.

Point #11 – Dropping old stories

A huge part of moving forward is simply dropping the old. I am talking about both categories - those connected with your external projects, and the ones embedded in your internal way of being. The tendency is to spin in those old stories. I make no judgments about that, nor should you. These are simply your powerful habits. You will likely be well-served to eradicate them. Your brain is practiced into a pattern of over-analyzing, over-thinking, and replaying. You think through the facts, what the other person must be thinking, what you should do, etc. Over and over you spin. You hang on to old stories about who you are. You say, I am unorganized, I am not good at X, whatever. It is critically important that you start to catch yourself. That you simply drop it. It’s not that different from breaking any other habit.

Point #12 – Out of the head and into the heart

A real skill. All of that mental spinning is at the head level. I think, I see – those are head level words. I feel, I sense – those are heart level words. The answers are in the heart. If you can slow down and quiet your mind. You can get rid of the noise, or much of it, by learning acceptance. Then, from that place of internal peace, possibility, and expansion, the external answers show up.

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