“I’ll believe it when I see it”

I generally hold an attitude of healthy scepticism.  As such, I’ve said those words quite often.

But how useful are they, really? Does the phrase serve me?

I don’t know how you feel about the Law of Attraction, but I think Wayne Dyer really hit the mark when he turned that idea on its head with this one:

"You’ll see it when you believe it"

This is about more than just the power of positive thinking and self-belief. We all interpret new evidence in ways that confirm our pre-existing beliefs, and this can be crafted into a virtuous cycle: Our vision and beliefs can be positively reinforced by what we see around us, while what we perceive to be occurring in our lives can support and reinforce that vision in a positive way.  

The upshot is that once you get clear about your goals and intentions, they’re much more likely to be realised. But it starts with belief.

Self-limiting beliefs will be some of the strongest forces in your universe, but positive belief and visualisation is just as powerful a counter-force.

The first car I owned as a teenager taught me this lesson. This isn’t a Tai Lopez-style gloat about a garage full of exotic cars (I wish).

No, this story is about a poo-brown second-hand 1972 Toyota Corona.

The internal passenger door handle on this car was really stiff, and it took quite a bit of effort to open compared to normal door handles. Whenever I had a new passenger in the car, the exchange at the end of the journey would go something like this:

1. The passenger would try the door handle and say “I can’t open this door.”
2. I would say “Yes you can, you just have to pull on the handle quite hard.”
3. The passenger would then try the door handle more firmly, and the door would open for them.
   

Think about the flow of events there. At first, my passengers couldn’t get the door open. Then I told them they could get the door open, and then they actually could get the door open.

See what's going on here? The only thing that changed in my unfortunate passengers, between when they couldn’t and when they could, was them forming the belief that they could. They didn’t suddenly get stronger, and the door handle didn’t suddenly get easier. All that changed was their belief in the outcome. That’s all it takes.

You’ll see it when you believe it.

An old Indian parable for us today:

When we enter this world, we all enter as babies with our fists clenched, kicking and screaming and crying. When we leave, we all leave at peace, with our hands open. There’s a reason why this is: We all carry into this world a special and unique gift -- a gift you clench in your fists as a baby.

Your job, the point of your life, is to discover what that gift is and then give of that gift. When you are done giving of that gift, then it will be your time and you will pass at peace.

How To Harness Your Body’s Natural Energy systems to Reach Your Goals

The cells in our muscles tap into three different exercise energy pathways, each tuned for efficiency over three different time frames: (1) instant-on; (2) short-term; and (3) long-term.

We can tap into a similar sequence of energy systems in the real world.

Let’s start with a quick high school biology refresher, and take a closer look the three phases of energy production going on in our cells:

Instant-On Energy

The first energy system is the anaerobic a-lactic system, also called the phosphagen or creatine phosphate system.  This system initially kicks in when a lot of energy is needed in a very short amount of time. It doesn’t involve oxygen, but converts the creatine phosphate in your muscles into energy.

Our muscles don’t store a lot of phosphate, so the fuel for this system is exhausted after only about ten seconds.

Short-Term Energy

The second energy pathway is the anaerobic lactic system, otherwise known as glycolysis. This system converts carbohydrate from the muscles into energy, and can deliver power for about two minutes. The anaerobic lactic system bridges the time period between when muscles first begin working, and when the body can begin to deliver oxygen to the muscles via the aerobic system.

Long-Term Energy

The final energy system is the aerobic system, which depends on a continuous supply of oxygen to convert blood glucose, glycogen and fat into energy. Remember your high school biology class? This is mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cells.

This energy system can go all day, and is what powers most of our day-to-day bodily processes.

The Big Picture

So that’s what your body is doing at a microscopic level in your cells, in order to move you. But what happens at a macro level to move you?

This is where we find the beautiful parallel.

Just as in our cells, there are three distinct energy systems at the macro level which operate over different time frames in succession. These are (1) motivation; (2) discipline; and (3) habit.

Let's look at each one.

Motivation

This energy system is what initially stirs within us, calling us to move from where we are currently, to where we want to be. Motivation is the drive that directs our gaze to the mountain on the horizon, and moves us to head towards it.

But like the phosphagen in our muscle cells, motivation is in short supply. It provides a great initial burst of energy to overcome momentum and set us in motion. But unless a different energetic pathway is recruited to keep the ball rolling, motivation will soon fade away. A longer-term energy source is needed, to take over before we stall.

Discipline

Grit, determination, perseverance. Discipline takes over once the terrain starts to get difficult, and the initial jet fuel of motivation has been burned up. Discipline is really important, and can be developed. But like motivation, we only have a limited supply of discipline. Motivation and discipline can be enough to get us to the base of the mountain, but to get to the top requires the third and most important energy system: habit.

Habit

Routine and habit might not sound like winning strategies, but this slow-burning spiritual fuel can last forever.

While motivation pushes us into motion, and discipline gets us to the base of the mountain, getting to the top requires taking your eyes off the summit and looking down at your feet. One foot after the other is the only way to get to the top, and habit is the system that works best here.

Putting It All Together

Like the ‘coupled reactions’ that occur at the microscopic level in our muscle cells, we can use each of these macro phases in turn to carry our momentum all the way to the top.

Here are the steps:

Our initial motivation feels like explosive jet fuel, pushing us off the mark. But what you might not realise is that jet fuel is basically kerosene. That’s right, kerosene – which is actually a lot more like the boring, slow-burning fuel that is habit.

It’s all about how you use what you’ve got.

If one goes climbing in the Alps, one is probably led to do so in the first instance by the beauty of the mountains. When one starts to climb, however, one finds it is a matter of working one’s way along patiently, step by step, progressing with great care and caution....  It is the same with Zen. We take it up in search of the meaning of life, or in hope of solving the problem of our existence, but once we actually start, we find we have to look down at our feet, and we are faced with practice followed by more practice, training followed by more training. It must be done patiently and seriously.

Katsuki Sekida, "Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy"