Be Your Own Source

 Just as a lamp needs electricity, humans need a source of energy. It is this need to find sources of energy that drives all of our activities. Mostly we end up just chasing opportunistically whatever seems to have the best potential. As a result we focus our attention haphazardly. This is what causes us to diffuse our power.

Our energy and enthusiasm levels depend on our biochemistry. Excitement is created by having adrenaline coursing through your veins. Your biochemistry can be affected by drugs or environment, but most persistently it is determined by your thoughts.

To apply this concept lets look at what the average person goes through in a day.

They’ll wake up in the dark through an alarm clock. This means that bio-chemically the body is still asleep. Naturally we are designed to wake up when sunlight excites the pituitary glands to release hormones. Our body’s bio-chemistry changes from the state of sleep to awake and alert.

 So since we wake up drowsy we drink coffee to kickstart our system. This causes a high and then a low. Draining energy long term to get energy short term.

Then we interact with those around us. We look at their mood, which determines how we act. Their mood is important to us because it determines the energy we draw from that person. Mostly we'll adapt our behavior to get try to change the mood of the other person - to get the energy we're seeking from them. Draining energy long term to get energy short term.

Then they go into a job that makes demands that may not fit into Who They Are. They do this because they believe they need it to survive. Money equals a form of energy, so they get energy, but at a high cost of their own energy.

The various conflicts and compromises of many people working together creates more energy drain. But people will gladly give up their energy in changing the way that they act; if they think it will gain them energy through praise, attention, recognition etc.

Then they go home and drain their energy worrying about Friends and Family. They'll sit in front of the TV waiting for it to stimulate them and so give them energy. Yet it is draining them of energy by distracting them from their own limitless reservoir.

But someone who is their own source doesn't have to spend out energy to get energy from other people. They don't have to get into acting out, showing off or whatever in order to feel good from other people. They focus on themselves... so the energy builds up in them. Because they have plugged the holes most people have, they have their own energy source whenever they need it.

If you are thinking dull thoughts, your body doesn’t believe that you need energy or alertness. So it won’t release the hormones and chemicals to make you feel alert and energetic.

If you look at young children they have boundless energy.

Why?

Because they allow themselves to get excited by their thoughts. They don’t check every thought to be sure it is practical or realistic. They don’t feel they have to have every single detail controlled and worked out. They just follow what excites them. So they have boundless energy and motivation.

Gossip, TV, Films, Music, taking risks, getting engrossed in tragic accidents and so on are all ways that we use the world to create excitement for ourselves. But every attempt to gain energy from outside of us, involves giving up energy to gain some.

In the long run we end up with no more energy than we started with. It’s all leaked away in the search for more. It becomes an addiction, rather like gambling. You win. Then you spend out more to win again and you hit a losing streak.

These sources of energy do not create anything or invest any of you in them. So rather than expanding and adding to life – you are merely maintaining what is. This relates to the idea of Residual Growth and Earned Growth that we spoke of in Chapter 8.

All of nature grows organically. Plants and trees grow through their own roots. Humans believe we have to contort ourselves to get everything we need.


People often don’t like to or find it difficult to think of themselves in these kinds of ways, so it may be easier to look at how businesses make the same mistake.

Every successful business has in common one thing. It does something, perhaps only one minor thing differently to everyone else.

What makes the difference between a Bill Gates, a Warren Buffet or an Anita Roddick from the millions of other wannabe Entrepreneur? The answer is in the wannabe. Each of these successful Entrepreneurs, like hundred of other multi-millionaires, started out with a passion. It was following their passion in their own unique way that made them successful.

Meanwhile all the wannabe’s are focusing their energies outside of them. Analyzing the tactics and strategies that made these millionaires. But the secret is not in specific strategies or techniques, these are the fruit of the tree… but they only work because the tree is set up to support these.

When Japan suddenly became an almost overnight economic success, many businesses went over to study what they were doing. Soon there were lots of books hitting the headlines with the technique that was the secret to Japan’s success. Hundreds of company’s started to change their ways to use these techniques. For some these worked out, but very few came anywhere near achieving the same success as the Japanese firms. This is because the techniques that Japanese companies were using were their natural responses to their particular situation given their historical and cultural background. They grew organically from the essence of the company, rather being fitted into a secret formula

Taking these ideas into U.S companies is like pulling apples from an apple tree and trying to fix them on a pear tree. The attitudes and beliefs of the people in the company, the company’s relationship with its workers and so on are different due to centuries of cultural evolution. So it is always going to be very difficult to transplant something from one organism to another. Whether that organism is a person, plant or company.

Everywhere you go you find these leaflets promising you $5,000 a week for 5 hours work. The market for business opportunities is huge. This is entirely because very few people are their own source. If a person is sourcing her ideas and excitement from herself she will be overflowing with potential sources of income.

None of it is about the money; it is about finding new ways of expressing themselves. Work becomes art. And along the way you find the perfect way to receive compensation for your artistry.

What happens is that when people get disconnected from their own source, they look externally for ideas, for money and energy. So they begin looking for the answer always outside of them. This diffuses the focus and potential power of your attention and consequently makes you too weak to create what you want.

Yet each individual however weak and powerless they may seem or behave has an infinite amount of power. If you doubt that you contain the power to create the circumstances you choose in your life - despite all the individuals in various circumstances throughout history who have managed to do so - consider this fact.

If all the energy coursing through every atom in your body right this minute were released, it would be sufficient to blow up the entire planet.

 What you choose to do with all that energy depends entirely on where you direct your attention. Whatever you focus on is brought to life.

What do you choose to bring to life?