If you consider the title of this post it could strike you as outrageous, impossible or merely ridiculous. In fact it is the simple truth. Your present perceptions are the product of your history, beliefs, language, culture, emotions, all of which come from the past. Whatever you are seeing or perceiving is inescapably shaped and sculpted by your past experience. Literally, you only see the past.
When you look at a ‘cup’ you don’t see what is actually there in the present. You see it in terms of your idea of what a cup is for, what a cup is shaped like, how heavy cups are, what size, how it should feel, and so on. Your mind instantly creates a perception of this cup…and it is 100% based on past concepts, notions and experiences with cups. If you didn’t have these filters, you wouldn’t know what it is. You can identify ‘cup’ only because you learned about cups in the past.
You ‘see’ an object and label it a ‘cup’ because ‘cup’ is in your past. You weren’t born with the concept of ‘cup.’ The same is true for everything you perceive in your world: yourself, others, the past, the present and images of the future. Without a good deal of ‘un-learning’ you see only the past. Think about it.
There is a story about a man from England who traveled to India to speak with the sage Ramana Maharshi. The sage asked him, “Why have you come here?” and the man replied “I am here because i want to find out who I really am?” Maharshi then asked the man “WHO is this “I?”
The man was speechless. Then the sage smiled and said, “If you want to know who you really are, go back the way you came,” The man was stunned because he thought the sage was just telling him to go back to England.
The real meaning of “Go back the way you came,” is to retrace your steps through life and discard everything that is not who you really are….that you currently believe is ‘you.’
You are not your limiting beliefs. You are not your stories. You are not your education. You are not your bank account. You are not your job. You are not your name. You are not your thoughts. You are not your fears. You are not the chatter in your mind. You are not your past. You are not your achievements or failures. You are not your toys. You are not who you think you are. You are not what others think you are.
That is a very fair question! Here are some of the answers. Of course, your answer is the right one.
Life is Short. You want things, imagine things…a future you want for yourself. And the days keep clicking by and you don’t feel any closer to getting what you want. You wonder, “Will I ever get there? Is it really possible for me? Can I do it?” The clock keeps ticking. When will you make the change you’ve been considering? Time is an important reason for you to invest in yourself and come to The Unstoppable Workshop.
Perhaps You’ve Been Sitting on the Fence. You think, “I’m not ready yet. i don’t have enough motivation. I’m not sure it will work.” And that is understandable…we all have thoughts like these. The fact is, you will never be ‘ready!’ You will never really ‘feel like it’…until you take the leap of faith and commit yourself to pursue your dream. In the workshop you’ll discover that ‘being ready’ is never the issue! The issue is: do you trust yourself enough to lake the leap and learn to fly on the way down! After the workshop….you will!
Voices in Your Head Say “No.” We all have an Inner Critic that is ever-ready to pounce on our mistakes and tell us negative things. “You must be kidding yourself! It’s never going to work! Who do you think you are?” Sound familiar? In the workshop you will learn how to deal with you Inner Critic and how to unleash your potential…in spite of the thoughts that pop up to stop you.
FEAR. There’s that word! You have a feeling in your gut and it’s not a nice one. Fear is what stops people from achieving their dreams. We all have fears…but not everyone has the mindset, the awareness and the skills to send fear packing. In our workshop, you will learn how to deal with fear whenever it shows up to stop you. You will be Unstoppable.
What You Should Know. We claim that the only thing that ever stopped anyone is their self-limiting beliefs. Thoughts and ideas that you gave your agreement to long ago…even as a 5-year-old…and haven’t re-examined since. In The Unstoppable Workshop you will look at your beliefs from a new perspective…learn to doubt them utterly…and move forward to pursue your dreams…Unstoppably. From a new awareness. you will get a new perspective and see new choices that you didn’t see before. Literally, you will free yourself from all the limitations that have stopped you…until now.
The Real Question to Consider Now. Would you invest a small amount of money to free yourself from what stops you? We’ve spent 2 years investing in the R&D to make The Unstoppable Workshop an extraordinary experience that will liberate you and allow you to go for your dreams. Our PIlot Edition in Taipei was a big hit…and we are planning another one soon. And the price is only US$395 (NT$11,850.) for 2 days of fun, unlearning, music, food and friendship. You can register here now: https://unstoppable.zone/events/list/featured/
Two Ways of Looking at The Unstoppable Workshop. For some people, it’s a way of going directly towards the life they’ve imagined. For others, it’s a crystal-clear pathway to avoid ending up at the No Way Café. Which ever way appeals to you, you will get what you need at The Unstoppable Workshop. We guarantee it.
We look forward to welcoming you to The Unstoppable Workshop. We promise that in your life, there will be “the time before The Unstoppable Workshop…and the liberation that followed. See you there soon!
Probably the single most damaging self-limiting belief is the idea that a person could be inadequate, unworthy, incomplete…or ‘not enough.’
This thought-virus pervades our planet, largely as a result of the many trillions of dollars spent on mass-media advertising to convince people that “If you would just buy our product…then…and only then…you will be OK, acceptable, worthy, a better mother, a good person, more beautiful,” and so on. All the adverts are saying is “you are not enough as you are and you will only be ‘enough’ when you find your missing piece. And we have it here in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors.”
Like all self-limiting beliefs, the “I am not enough” meme is a lie. And the very idea that a person could, at some fundamental level be ‘not enough,’ apart from being ludicrous, has done enormous damage to the lives of billions of people. Because, to live inside the lie of ‘not enough’ is to suffer and to fall short of personal joy and fulfillment. And then you die, with regrets, assuming that the lie was true.
So, in this post, I want to distinguish “I am enough” as an antidote to the toxic “unworthiness meme” that has been proliferating in The Matrix, in hopes that in some way, this may help people to recover their sense of ‘enough-ness’ and realize they are in fact Unstoppable.
Some people when hearing about “I am enough” for the first time, have this reaction:
“If I buy into this, it means there will no longer be any motivation to go after my goals or pursued my dreams. I will just sit on my ass thinking ‘I am enough’ and feel I don’t need to do anything at all. To hell with that.”
This idea, that we need to have a sense of incompleteness or unworthiness in order to be motivated is a bit strange, if you think about it. Translated, it says, “The only way to motivate people is to first make them feel ‘less-than’ or ‘not good enough’ and then persuade them that ‘someday’…when they have done A, B, C….then they will be good enough.” Quite a lot like the message of all that mass-media advertising, is it not?
The “someday I’ll be OK” notion implies that, on the way to ‘success’ you are doomed to living each day from a sense of inadequacy, not really good enough, flawed and incomplete, and, that such a state of unworthiness is going to be motivating over the long term! Ludicrous!
So now let me explain what “I am enough” really means:
“I am enough” is a stand for personal wholeness that is an intrinsic and integral part of every human being, from birth. It can never be increased nor can it be diminished. It says: ‘I am worthy, because I am here, and nothing can threaten my worth, ever. My worth is never ‘up for grabs.’
“I am enough” is a very powerful message to the subconscious mind, declaring, “I am good, I am worthy, I deserve, I can have a good life, I am accepted, always and in All Ways.” Since the mind always does what it thinks you want it to do, it’s safe to assume that a mind programmed with “I am enough” as a core assumption is going to produce a life of joy and fulfillment.
(Unlike a life lived from “I’m not enough, I’m flawed, incomplete and inadequate across the board,” which is going to be a life of sadness, shame, and self-fulfilling failures.)
“I am enough” is broad and pervasive in its positive implications:
I am strong enough
I am smart enough
I am beautiful enough
I am powerful enough
I am resilient enough
I am happy enough
I am talented enough
I am good enough
I am capable enough
I am worthy enough
“I am enough,” implies that, in every way that matters, I am irrevocably adequate, whole, complete and essentially wonderful…simply because I am a miracle of the Universe. Did you know that the odds against anyone existing at all are 1 in 400 trillion?
When I live from the understanding and the knowing that “I am enough” I can choose to pursue anything that lights me up, inspires me, fulfills me or contributes to the world. In other words, I can pursue my dreams from a position of worthiness… instead of a position of fear and self-loathing due to my alleged inadequacy. Every day, in every way, I AM ENOUGH.
People who realize they are enough have different self-talk from those who believe they are inadequate and this self-talk reinforces their ‘enough-ness’ in a positive loop:
I am enough…so I deserve love
I am enough…so I love myself as I am right now…no waiting
I am enough…so I have something to offer the world
I am enough…so my mistakes are just bumps in the road, not ‘evidence” of inadequacy
I am enough…so I’m a great person
I am enough…so I have the courage to pursue my dreams
I am enough…so I know I cannot ‘fail’
Renowned therapist Marisa Peer, a huge proponent of the transformative power of ‘I am enough,’ reminds us that:
“Every word you say or think is a blueprint for your reality.
“We make our thoughts and then our thoughts make us.”
The Core Issue. Working with people from all walks of life, rich and poor, Marisa noticed that the core issue for every one of her clients was that they believed “I am not enough…there is something wrong with me.”
As such they had pursued every manner of dysfunctional life strategy ‘in order to’…be enough…someday. And she found that in every case, when her clients really ‘got it’ that they were already ‘enough’ their lives transformed rapidly and effortlessly; the suffering was over. In my terms, they awakened to the fact of their Unstoppability…and were no longer stopped.
“I am enough” stops the suffering. The worst thing about a belief in being ‘not enough’ is that is a form of deep suffering and pain. Imagine being in a trance of believing you are less-than, inadequate, unworthy and unlovable…all the while comparing yourself to others you believe are worthy ‘because they made it to the top’ or performed in remarkable ways that you have not. The Big Lie of “not enough” is incredibly painful and undermines your possibilities…it does NOT empower or motivate you in any way.
“I am enough,” is immediate and always true. It is not linked to any standard of achievement. It is not a reward you aspire to. It is already yours, because you were born. It is a gift. Will you accept this gift?
One more wonderful quote from Marisa Peer, a champion of the #IAMENOUGH movement:
“You can choose what you say to yourself. But you don’t get to choose what happens when you self-criticize and put yourself down. Where the head goes, the body follows and you are inviting a weakened immune system, depression, anxiety and endless stress.”
In other words, when you put yourself down with your self-talk, you are shooting yourself in the foot and making yourself Stoppable.
invite you to put up Post-It notes all around you with the words “I am enough” on them. Each time you see the words “I am enough” just go ahead and accept it as a fact. When your Inner Critic puts you down, just reply with “Thanks but I am enough and I am unstoppable.” Find out what happens.
Make no mistake:you are already Unstoppable and you are already Enough. The Unstoppable Workshop™ is simply a portal for those who may not have fully realized it…yet.
“The Box” from The Unstoppable Workshop. Created by Innogreat.
We begin the Unstoppable Workshop™ with an experience called “In and Out of the Box” created by Jimbo Clark of Innogreat.
The exercise is a fantastic metaphor for the mind, and it can be unpacked and built upon in seemingly endless ways, to help participants raise their self-awareness and break free of their limits.
And during the exercise, we learn that everyone’s box is different and so their experiences will also be different. We each have our own unique “Model of the World” and so, we soon discover, with 25 participants…there are in fact 25 different workshops going on at the same time. On this planet there are 7 billion boxes and therefore 7 billion unique ways of being a ‘self’ and knowing the world.
Of course, Anais Nin famously said long ago:
“We don’t see the world as it is. We see it as we are.”
But there are several things about the box, and how it operates, that are the same for everyone: the box is a robot and the robot is a hypnotist.
The Robot. Once we have a well-formed ‘box’ — a collection of beliefs, concepts, ideas, preferences and limitations—we are then subject to the robotic, automatic responses that it dictates, outside of conscious awareness. It becomes like a Virtual Reality headset that shows us a world that isn’t there and demands that we automatically respond to those things the same way, every time.
One of the functions of the Robot is to generate thought-streams in our minds: the voices of our beliefs speaking to us incessantly, demanding our attention. Of course, these thoughts are not real…they are just ‘thoughts.’ And, those thoughts have consequences: they hypnotize us into robotically accepting the ideas they contain and acting as if they were in fact ‘real.’ We are limited in our responses and as such, literally ‘in a box.’
The Hypnotist. Any hypnotist will tell you that it is never a problem to get someone into a trance. As Milton Erickson, father of modern hypnotherapy said, “The real challenge is getting people out of the trance they come in with.” The robot, like a hypnotist uses language, in the form of thoughts to ‘narrow and focus our attention’ and that induces a trance state. Once in the trance, we tend to accept the hypnotist’s suggestions as ‘real’ and act as if they are real. Anyone who has seen a stage hypnosis show will tell you that people under trance are quite happy to believe they are chickens and move and cluck just like chickens.
In the same way, the “Robot Hypnotist” of the box, hypnotizes the owner of the box into believing the world they see through the lens of the box is in fact ‘the real world’ and ensures that their behavior and choices are aligned with the world they see. Under the hypnotic influence of the box we attend to a narrow range of possibilities and apply a narrow range of ‘autopilot’ responses as we stumble through life like a drunk in a dark room who can’t see the furniture. And when he stubs his toe on an unseen obstacle he will curse and lament that:
“This should not be! This is wrong! It’s so unfair!” Clearly this is a life of suffering, is it not? And, ironically, he may step carefully around obstacles that are not even there…in order to ‘be safe.’
Under hypnosis, a hypnotist can persuade the subconscious mind of a subject to discard old limiting ideas and accept new, more empowering ones. This helps people to lose weight, stop smoking, take on a healthier self-image, let go of past trauma, and so on. And the primary tool of the hypnotist is simply language…consisting of words that take the form of thoughts, which the subject either accepts or rejects. And, some new empowering thoughts can ‘wear off’ if the subject isn’t really predisposed to change at a deep level. It can take multiple hypnotic sessions to achieve the desired result. And sometimes no matter how many sessions the subject still doesn’t change.
When this happens, it is almost always because, at some level, the person believes that ‘the problem’ is actually serving them in some way…and so they cling to it…robotically. At the simplest level this is like saying, “I need this problem to be safe and to survive in the world.” According to therapist Marisa Peer, “the mind will always do what it thinks you want it to do.” So if you have developed a ‘problem’ and believe at a deep level that this ‘problem’ serves you…it is unlikely to change….even if changing is actually in your best interests.
This is ‘the box’ at full tilt and it is the reason we created the Unstoppable Workshop™ to address deeply held self-limiting beliefs. Our intention is that by increasing participants’ awareness of the ‘box’ and its hypnotic powers, they will naturally begin to question and doubt the world of limiting ideas their robot presents them…and in their own time, in their own way, let go of the old programming in favor of a friendlier more compassionate way of being in the world.
Most people will never completely escape the limits of their box and we accept that. In fact, some of the limitations the box provides can be very useful, such as “Don’t eat the yellow snow!” And, we trust that this metaphorical way of understanding human conditioning (the conditioned human) offers a humorous, gentle and profound pathway to accessing greater personal freedom, responsibility and self-compassion that is so missing in our world.
“As we like to say, “Some people have boxes…and some boxes have people.”
If you would like to have some fun while gaining a deeper understanding of your Mind-Made reality, raise your self-awareness, reduce your suffering, and move beyond your comfort zone, we’d like to invite you to give yourself the gift of participating in The Unstoppable Workshop™ It has been created to support you in getting the life you want, while there is still time to do so.
The Unstoppable Workshop™ is 2 days of fun, sharing, learning and transformation. It’s like a safe cocoon in which you can reconsider your world view and choose new ways of being that reflect who you really are. Then, you can emerge with new wings, to enjoy a new life, free of limiting beliefs. We use a lot of experiential activities, games and humor to make it an entertaining cocoon…and one that will compassionately stretch your mind into a new shape.
“What if the change you’re avoiding is the one that will set you free?”
You will be born into a pre-existing human culture that will condition you to accept the customs, language, mindsets and beliefs of that culture, from their past. You won’t have a choice about this; you will suck it all up like a dry sponge in your eagerness to ‘fit in’ and be accepted by the tribe.
Probably the single most damaging self-limiting belief is the idea that a person could be inadequate, unworthy, incomplete…or ‘not enough.’