Full Contact play with your Anti-thesis
Get the habit of embracing an anti-thesis to your belief every now and then to deepen your learning on your topic, or that it's time to leave while “on top.”
Perhaps get together with dinner with some mastermind friends on a yearly basis and ask everyone to bring a thesis on the other side of the force. Ask them to listen to you while you’re arguing out loud why you are wrong to invest your time where you do, why your predictions are likely to fail. Get challenged in a caring way and invite the dance of tension around the work you create. Then Listen to your friends share their wisdom. Why do we embrace (IN THEORY) the anti-thesis like this? Because what you’re unaware of controls you. Every 20 years there is leaps beyond what anyone saw coming leaving people in the dust that thought the change here was impossible.
Arguing “against” our own beliefs is important. The learning FROM it is even more so.
Please do not confuse this with second-guessing yourself or not daring to leap because you’re afraid or have to re-run an anti-thesis. This is when you’re caught by something the opposite. When you “KNOW” for ”a fact” you’re so right.
it's also Very important to do this with people that know how to let go. You don’t want to over-invest time into this activity. You want to do this will person who can let go knowing the difference of challenge an idea with an encouraging mindset of learning, not with an exact science. The goal of this exercise is to become aware so we can move on and invest more effort into doing the work that makes a difference. Not dig down into the “what if” or details burying our time, stealing our focus from doing the work. Resistance hides in many forms. Knowing when to let go is a tricky task at times.
Doing this yourself is no near as powerful as doing it with someone who can help you leap higher, faster and land better. But beware. Most people will confuse their own unlived lives with your accomplishments. They will find faults instead of trying to be a helpful and giving both energy, flaws, and solutions. Some people will be scared of the prospect of you daring to leap where they didn’t and unconsciously hope you won’t succeed. Meaning well but not being able to see past their own illusions. Ensure you ask help from people who in one form or another have to reach their own definition of success. People who have a habit of defining their own destiny, accomplishing their own goal is way less threatened by you completing yours.
Every minute there is a chance to do something smart that no-one ever thinks of, that forces gather against resisting. If they didn’t everyone would be doing it. Yes – look under the bed if there are monsters there. Don’t fall into the habit of doing it often lest it steals precious time you could have invested in making a difference, but also don’t pretend there isn’t any monster there just because it wasn’t there when you looked ten years ago
What you are unaware of controls your options. Every time. Just because this has served you well once, or appear to serve you still does not have to mean it’s so. Companies today are not prosperous for as long as they were. According to studies, the number of years companies have been on the Forbes Fortune 500 list has rapidly declined the last decade.
Most of those that vanished were not eaten by their competitor or outrun by their competitor. They turned obsolete by something that wasn’t even on their map, couldn’t have been imagined by their radar. What you are unaware of controls your options. Reach out, become aware of the ever-present changes around you. Harness these changes, use the energy and tension for the best. Helping yourself and those around you see what is about to happen so you don’t have to jump ship, shift lane, rebuild or refocus at the same time as everyone else.
Examples I’ve been wrong is when I was a young 20 something and my friends started buying their flats. For Stockholm-prices I thought they’re insane and that will never last. That has cost me many years salaries. Not daring to start my own company for many years due to fear that has cost me even more in both money, freedom and personal growth. Not daring to invest in the internet infrastructure when I got my email address back 1996 – fighting a lot of my co-workers for the need for it professionally when most didn’t see it... Had I dared to put my cheek out more? A lot of things would have been different today. But I fear and “stay in line” feelings kept me in check.
I’m quite sure 20 years from now I’ll look back wondering over a few of my decisions as to why I didn’t understand I was living through my 10th gold-rush age. Why I didn’t see it happening. Why I didn’t invest in this or that. I’m not talking about monetary investment, I’m talking about emotional investment. About daring to leap, daring to give, daring to help something that might not work, something that might fail and help despite that. Help just in case it would make a difference for someone else. It's never too late to step up, take responsibility and make a difference. There is always new trains to catch. Likewise, there will never be a platform to secure it can’t tumble down hard. Become aware. Dare to embrace Full Contact play with your anti-thesis every now and then- so you’re not standing on something that might very well be an illusion.