Self-Mastery Nº42
Hello friend,
Welcome to Self-Mastery — a place for exploring timeless ideas to become the architect of your mind, create yourself, and do less, better.
Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
— Franz Kafka
We often say that seeing is believing. The opposite is also true.
Belief helps us see more than what’s immediately in front. It helps us see and feel our future with all five senses.
To get what you want in life, you need to believe in it, wholeheartedly. For example, when I write, I must believe I am a good writer. A capable writer. With the power to stream my ideas into words and string chords through my sentences. I have to feel that. And I make sure I do.
I also have a dream car I hope to have in the future. And to believe it’s possible to have it, I imagine what it’s like to see it every morning. I imagine walking into the garage on a pacific, cool morning, opening its doors and sitting in the luxuriant driver’s seat. I hear the sound of the door closing. I feel the soft texture of the steering wheel. I feel my energy rise to the low, sonorous rumble of the engine.
I keep this goal in the back of my mind. I see the car on the street and tell myself “I’ll be in one of my own, soon.” And with that belief, I feel my energy—and life—moving closer towards achieving it.
By saying that “believing is seeing”, I don’t intend to disparage the notion that “seeing is believing”. After all, it is wise in most matters to insist on seeing before believing. If a person comes to you peddling a cream to cure your chronic pain or claims to know how to double your money in a week, I hope you will treat such claims with a large dose of scepticism and say “Show me the evidence” before you lay down your money or mortgage your home.
In the physical world, seeing comes prior to believing, but in the spiritual world, believing often precedes knowing, just as faith precedes the miracle. Believing can give us eyes to see and ears to hear, enabling us to understand and know.
Believing can lead to seeing no less than seeing leads to believing. If you truly believe you can be deserving of a promotion, you will earn one. If you truly believe you can be excellent at the work you do, you will become excellent. If you truly believe you can work well enough to have the figure you dream of, you will see it come true.
Self-mastery is about self-creation. In creating our own reality, the reality we want, we create a “Thought Form” and bring that Thought Form into manifestation by believing in the process and having faith in the process and in the infinite powers of our subconscious mind.
If we wish to manifest a need into our experiential reality, we must first “see it” in our mind, thus creating a “seed”. And then nurture that with a strong belief that we are growing—or will grow—and faith in that our subconscious mind will forge a mind that grows strong enough to manifest the ideas we have and fulfil particular needs, so we eventually believe by virtue of seeing what we wanted.
So, believing is truly seeing. Sow the seeds of your needs in the fertile ground of your subconscious mind. Believe and have absolute unconditional faith in the process of getting what you want. Nurture those seeds with the constant thought of what you need as if it is true. Beyond all doubt. Give the seed life by dwelling on the truth of it in your mind, knowing it is so, and soon enough you will see the fruits of your thoughts in your experiential reality; every time.
What’s on My Mind
Some words on writers by Morgan Housel:
Many of the good writers you enjoy probably aren’t much smarter than you. They’ve just forced themselves through the process of transferring vague feelings into words and the clarity that generates.
It’s true in the writing world. But the same tenets in that statement apply almost everywhere. We know it’s not good to judge yourself amongst others, or compare. But it’s what we do, naturally. We are always level with everyone else. They are not much smart than you. Or better looking. Or luckier. They have probably just forced themselves to work harder, think clearer, know themselves, more than you have. But we are all one and the same, and are capable of achieving just as much.
Explore
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.
— Marcus Aurelius
Article of the Week
We only have three aspects of our health that matter. Sleep, diet, and exercise. There are countless artificial and superficial solutions these days. But if we simply get on top of these three things, it has a positive effect on the rest of our life that makes every challenge easier to manage.
Interesting Thing of the Week
You may not know, but I’m a superfan for Formula One. I’m obsessed with the details. The cars. Strategy. The tech. Human performance. I also love driver stories. And this one nearly made me tear up.
Question of the Week
What didn’t go as well as hoped this week, and how could it have been better?
Thank you for being here.
Yours truly,
Jelani