When I talk to people about doing the Future Authoring program, they often put it off.
And it's not surprising, because it's hard.
And, and be- But it's more than that, they think:
1) "Well, I don't know how to write",
2) "I'm gonna do a bad job",
3) "I don't really like assignments",
4) "I'm going to have to do it perfectly",
5) "I need to wait till I have enough time".
And like, one of those is enough to stop you cold, and all five of them - you're just done.
And so I tell people: "Do it haphazardly.
A tiny bit at a time, and badly".
Because you can do that!
I tell my students, when they're doing their thesis, master's thesis,
"write a really bad first draft".
And then we have a little conversation about that, because they don't think I mean that.
Because it sounds like... a cliche, in some sense.
It's not a cliche. It's not a cliche at all, it means...
You're a terrible writer. But if someone put a gun to your head, and said:
"You have to have your 100 page thesis done by next Monday,
or I'll shoot you - but I don't care, how terrible it is",
you would sit down and write it.
And the thing is, then you have it, right? Then you have something!
And then you can fix it, you can iterate and fix it.
That bad first draft - that's the most valuable thing,
and so, that's what you need, you need a bad first draft of yourself.
And there's- there's an idea, that Jung developed, about the trickster and the jester,
the comedian, right? That the trickster is the precursor to the Savior.
That's one of the things I learned from Jung, it was just...
It's so unlikely! You never think that, it's so amazing, that that might be the case, but...
[stutter]
The satirical, and the ironic, and the troublemaker, and the comedian, the fool,
the Fool is the precursor to the Savior.
Why? Because you're a fool, when you start something new.
And so if you're not willing to be a fool, then you'll never start anything new,
and if you never start anything new, that you won't develop!
And so, the willingness to be a fool is the precursor to transformation!
And that's the same as humility. And so, if you're gonna write your destiny,
You can do a bad first job! You're gonna get smarter, as you move forward.
That's the thing, is that... so something beckons to you. That's what happens here.
Maybe the star, that Geppetto wished on, was the wrong damn star.
But at least it was a star, right? At least it was in the sky!
At least it moved him forward!
And so, you say in your life... Well something grips you, and fills you with interest.
And you think "Well, should I do that?" And the answer is:
"If not that, then something!"
"What if it's a mistake?" - It's a mistake, rest assured!
What do you know? You're gonna stumble around, right?
And what's gonna happen, is this:
You're gonna move, you're gonna not stay in stasis.
You're not gonna wander around in circles, and I see people like that.
They said "Well, I never knew what to do, and now I'm 40".
It's like, that's not so good. That's not so good!
And you might say, well...
And there is a literature too, that suggests, that people are a lot more...
...unhappy, when they look back in their lives, about the things they didn't do,
than they are about the mistakes they made, while they were doing things.
And so, that's really worth thinking about too, because there's "redemptive mistakes"!
And a redemptive mistake would be a mistake that you make, when you go out and try to do something, you know?
You actually- you think: "Okay, I'm gonna try to do this!"
And you're not good at it, you make a bunch of mistakes.
It's like, what's the consequence? If you pay attention it's: you're not quite so stupid anymore.
That's the thing, is - you've been informed, by your... by the results of your errors.
And so what happens, is... you follow the beacon, you follow the light.
And you're blind, so you don't know where the light is!
It's dimly apprehended only, and you're afraid to follow it.
But you decide to take some stumbling steps towards it.
And as you take stumbling steps towards it, you become illuminated, and enlightened, and informed,
because of the nature of your experience! Because you're pushing yourself beyond where you are,
and you're going into the country, that you have not yet been in!
And you learn something!
And so, what happens then, is the star moves!
You move 10 feet towards it, you think "No, that's not right.
I didn't get it right. It isn't there, it's actually there."
And so, then you you see it somewhere else, and you shift yourself slightly.
And you move forward, and that's what happens, is that...
You continue as you change. The thing that guides you forward, moves.
Right? It's like God, in the desert in Egypt. The pillar of light that you're following, it's moving.
It's not a permanent thing! You move towards it, it moves away.
It guides you forward!
And so you say: "Well, is what I'm aiming at, paradise itself?"
And the answer to that is: "No, because what do you know?
You couldn't see paradise, if it was right in front of you!"
But you might get a glimmer of it!
And so you move towards it, and you grow.
And then, he next time you open your eyes, you see a little bit more clearly.
And that's what happens, is that [it] just happens over and over,
right? it keeps moving!
And so you move like this.
But the thing that's so cool, is that
"all those zigs and zags", you say, and each of those zags and zigs is a catastrophe,
"I hit a wall, my God! And then I had to die a little bit, and I barely got back up!"
It's a Phoenix transformation at each... at each turn!
And it's painful! But the thing is, is that even though
you've... you've traveled 20 miles, let's say, on that road,
and you've only moved 3 miles forward - you've moved 3 miles forward!
Instead of falling backwards, because that's the thing too:
is that if you stand still, you fall backwards.
You cannot stand still. Because the world moves away from you, if you stand still.
And there's no stasis, there's only backwards.
And so, if you're not moving [stutter] forwards, then you're moving backwards.
And that's more...
more of the underlying truth, of the Matthieu principle.
"To those who have everything, more will be given.
From those who have nothing, everything will be taken."
It's a warning: Do not stay in one place!
Well, as you aig and zag, maybe then... maybe the cataclysm of each transformation starts to lessen.
There's not so much of you, that has to die with every mistake.
And maybe you end up oriented, at least, reasonably properly.
And if you were sensible, that would have been your trip,
but it wasn't, right? It's that,
and perhaps it's a lot worse than that, perhaps there's no shortage of backtracking.
But it doesn't matter, because as you stumble forward,
you- you illuminate and inform yourself.
And perhaps, that's partly because the world is made of information!
And if you encounter it, and tangle with it,
then it informs you, and then you become informed,
and then you're "in formation", and then you're ready.