By Seamus Anthony

It has only been recently, mostly I think, as a result of becoming a father, and realising what a massive responsibility this is, that I have truly come to understand and appreciate the concept of “legacy”. Before that I was so intently pre-occupied with the wonder of my own (or other people’s) navels that I barely gave it a thought.

I would never have admitted it, but, mostly, all I cared about was finding ways to “feel good”, be it through romantic relationships, interesting work, stage performance, alcohol, meditation, adventure, sex or what-have-you. All very well, but somewhat lacking in big picture consciousness: the fact that we are here in this Life to help and look after each other, the Earth and those who will come after us, not just to mindlessly seek pleasure.

Perhaps this is just a more grown-up way of seeking pleasure: discovering a need to feel good through living an upstanding life, but truly, I think it is deep need that must be met. I cannot be happy unless I am living as the best person I can be (and always improving what that means) and I cannot succeed as a father, partner, friend, relative and member of society unless I am happy. The Dalia Lama says (I think it was him) the purpose of Life is to be happy. And he’s right – imagine if we were all happy!

A happy person does not become a despot, an abuser, a war-monger or a thief. On a smaller but more common scale, a truly happy person does not have dominant habits of criticizing others or indulging in behaviours that cause harm.

A happy person is not afraid of death, but looks it square in the eyes and says “Come what may; I am at peace with the Universe and myself, and I know I am walking a righteous path”.

Personal evolution seems to move slowly sometimes and even as my daughter came into this world, it still took time to come to this more conscious point. It’s not like your child just pops out and suddenly you go “Whoa – that’s it: I have completely changed as a person as of this moment”.

Well, maybe that happens for others, but it wasn’t that way with me. It really took one and a half years (of generally pretty loving and responsible parenting, I would like to give myself) to really start to ‘get’ the nature of the beast; to start to even get an inkling of why so many other dads seem so serious. Why they wouldn’t come out to party with me. Why they put up with their mundane-but-respectable jobs that they were obviously bored with.

I still don’t 100% agree that it’s the best thing for our children to be so damn serious and caged-in all the time (too fear-based), but I do now understand why they choose to be this way: legacy. They are extremely serious about leaving a legacy of having done the right thing by their children, and this is their way of doing so, and kudos to them.

Like A Dad in the Headlights

Once I came to appreciate the concept of legacy, I was instantly smitten with the darkest self-loathing and anxiety I have ever experienced. After years of pretty much embodying the first card in the Tarot deck – the light-hearted fool – suddenly, I discovered that (gasp!) I cared.

Suddenly everything mattered a lot more than it ever used to – especially everything I personally did and said.

A good thing right?

Well, yes…

But nevertheless, this scared the crap out of me and I promptly shut down.

Not that most people could tell from the outside. After all, I had too much to do: a toddler to rear, bacon to bring home and passions still demanding to be expressed – but inside – I was a deer in the headlights.

Habits Are Hard To Break – Until You Break ‘Em (then they’re easier)

So my first reaction: I decided to change some of my self-indulgent habits – and then promptly re-discovered that habits are, in fact, extremely hard to break – until you break them, that is. Then they’re pretty much broken.

You can break your bad habits. I’ve done it (smoking). People do it all the time. But that doesn’t make it easy.

Here’s a trick that worked for me with smoking  – you have to associate more pain with the bad habit than pleasure. If you can genuinely do that, then it “just” takes applied strength and patience with yourself. Easier said than done, I admit, and yet to be proven in other areas of my life.

Many times I have woken up with a hangover or otherwise fallen short of my own new-found high-standards and proceeded to beat myself up mercilessly about it for days (and maybe that helped) but now I am kinder on myself. I guess I can afford to be as I look back over the past year or two and see a real positive progression. I’m no angel, but I am a hell of lot happier with myself than I used to be and getting better all the time.

Yep, I am coming out the other side. And in contrast to my initial catatonic state, I often feel positively loose and limber with the belief that whoever we have been in the past, we can choose who we are going to be today and in the future.

I used to be a fun, but self-centred kid; now I am a fun, but family-centred man, corny as that may sound.

Anyway, all of the above is pretty much a spontaneous ramble. I didn’t sit down to write an article but rather to write a list of what I would like my legacy to be, so here goes:

I would like people to remember me – actually no – stop. Let’s rephrase that.

I would like people to know me now and remember me after I am gone as:

A man who puts others and his responsibilities first.

A man who is always looking for ways to help others and to make powerful contributions to the positive evolution of Life on Earth.

A man who forgives others.

A man who tries to be the best man he can be, and who tries to better what this means every day, but who can forgive himself, ask for and accept forgiveness when he lets others down.

A man who refrains from unhelpful criticism and instead uses his words to encourage and build others up.

A man who believes that anything is possible – and who actively goes and proves it.

A man who is in awe of the Great Mystery of Life and who does not take life for granted.

A man who has found God and, in doing so, inner peace.

A man who chooses to be happy and feels free to do what makes him happy so long as it does not cause him to harm others or neglect his responsibilities.

A man who believes that there are two paths to choose from, the Path of Love or the Path of Despair, and who chooses the Path of Love. A man who may sometimes lose his way or stumble, but who always gets up, returns to and continues down this path, towards the Light.

A man who knows that whoever we have been in the past, we can choose who are today and who we will be tomorrow.

A man who laughs every day.

A man who is truly grateful and gives thanks everyday for his abundant blessings – whatever guise they come in.

A man who has conquered fear and left it powerless to hold him down.

Pretty epic huh? And in truth, if I dropped dead tomorrow, I wouldn’t expect anybody to be spouting this stuff at my funeral, I’d rather they just said I was a good bloke and got on with the party. Regardless, when I stop to really think about it, that’s where my values lie.

I can’t claim to be the walking embodiment of everything in that list from moment to moment, but I give it a go, and every day I get better and better.

The last one about conquering fear really is the clincher – many of us are so in the grip of the negative, fear-based spin pummelled at us every day by the media (who have a lot to answer for) that truly, the best thing you can do for the world is to skip the infernal, incessant news updates and go create something beautiful, something that helps people feel better.

Screw the Path of Despair – choose the Path of Love and enjoy this wonderful life.

Recently an “Internet Acquaintance” of mine, Shann Vander Leek sent me her book, Life On Your Terms, and as I knew very little about her or her book, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that I really enjoyed it.

Actually, I didn’t just “really enjoy it” …

I flippin’ loved it!

Here’s the email I sent to Shann before I had even finished reading it:

Hi Shann,

I am dipping in and out of your book and each time it’s like an inspiration espresso!

Accordingly, the following is pretty turbo-charged but I assure you, written by one stone-cold sober musician.

Reading this book, both your words and your interviewees, I have made quantum leaps – especially in the areas of legacy, clarity and courage – and (very rare) was on the verge of tears just a moment ago due to several impactful moments in a short space of time as I flipped randomly through knockout chapter after knockout chapter, too buzzed to read for long without acting on my passion – right now.

Suffice to say I’ll be publishing a glowing review, but more importantly: thank you for showing me that I am not alone in my idiosyncratic outlook on life, and in doing so, multiplying my power to rock by about one million megahurtz.

The book is a collection of interviews with some very inspirational and inspired people. Some of the quotes are awesome. The following quote in particular, by Canadian businessman Perry Niehaus, shattered some block in my mind with a powerful intensity that had me spinning in my chair and wondering what just hit me:

When you come to understand that there is nothing to fear, life will progress. Everything that happens in our lives that hurts us or holds us back is based on fear. When we can completely give up our fear, we can do anything.

As well as conquering fear, there is a running theme in the book about legacy. I have been guilty of never really giving much thought to the concept, until recently, as the reality that my little girl is one day going to grow into a young adult who will no doubt read and listen to my writing and music and otherwise look to my (increasingly huge) public record of thoughts, opinions and actions for guidance.

Thankfully, having just conquered fear, I did not go into a panic at the thought!!!

Instead I made a commitment in writing to what I want my legacy to be. I might even publish that process here soon, but the point is, it was this fantastic book that helped me to look myself square in the face and really have a good think about what it is I represent, what I stand for, what I contribute to the greater good.

So in closing, if you harbour a desire to break free from the shackles of drudgery, discover and/or start living your passion and could use a little push – well this ain’t the book for you – because it will give you a BIG push. Seriously, I developed such an action-bias while reading this it was like I had ADHD; I just kept getting so inspired to go for it I had to get up every few minutes and take descisive action towards the fulfillment of my truest desires.

Do yourself a big favour – go buy Life On Your Terms – it will be an investment that pays off handsomely, no doubt about it.

Now that I have made the commitment to blogging here again, I have been pondering what this blog is actually about. To start with it was about “personal development”, “self-improvement” and “success” but I have never felt comfortable with any of these labels whatsoever.

I think I prefer to decide that this blog is about “Meaning”.

Why? Because that’s what we all need and crave in this life – Meaning – and big time.

It is my humble opinion that all of human activity, everything we do, is shaped and coloured by the fact that we are given life, wonder “why?”, get no answer and then have to die. This shaky sequence of events, facts and mystery is the foundation on which the entire human condition is built.

But Why?

The thing that sets us apart from the animals, as far as we know, is that we hit the age of 2 or 3 and suddenly we wonder: “Why?”

It’s like – all this stuff exists … ok … got my head around that …

… but why?

Why does it exist? Why is my Mummy so tall? Why am I eating potatoes? Why does the dog have black hair with a white stripe on his nose?

In fact (can you tell I have a 2.5 year old kid?) it is very interesting to follow the train of thought of a toddler and discover in this, the entire problem of “being human” – we just don’t know what it all means. (Some people think they do of course, but they have no precise way to verify their beliefs about meaning so it cannot be denied that they are anything more than conjecture.)

Here’s a hypothetical discussion with my 2 year old:

Daddy what are you doing?

I am working.

But why?

Because we need money.

But why?

Because if we don’t have money then we can’t buy food or clothes or toys.

But why?

Because this is the system that is set up, it’s called Capitalism.

But why?

Well, truly, I don’t know why Capitalism exists, probably because of all the systems they have tried, it is the one that seems to work, albeit far from perfectly.

But why?

Dunno – maybe because it is the system that most honestly addresses and mirrors human nature.

But why?

Because humans are by nature very concerned with getting things, with survival and with the pursuit of pleasure.

But why?

Because that’s how our brains are wired up – we chase pleasure and avoid pain and do our damndest to survive.

But why?

Because that’s just what animals do and we are animals.

But why?

But why are we animals? Well … because we just are. Nobody knows the answer to that question.

But why?

Because when you ask the question, you’ll never get an answer.

But why?

You’ll never know why you never get an answer to this either. We do not truly know why we exist and we never get an answer when we ask the question. It’s just a big, big mystery.

I wonder if you started with any question whether it would always come down to the eternal question that every human must ask and never get an answer to: Why?

So I guess that’s what this blog is about – it’s about the eternal, fruitless search for Meaning (yes, with a capital M) and what to do about that.

It’s not really about trying to sell you on an answer – because there is none. Rather, this blog is about finding ideas and ways to cope with the absence of Meaning, and to connect with others along the way – so please, drop me a line and say G’day!

So you’ve downloaded our free eBook, Curly’s Law, about the need to identify your One Thing, your True Life Purpose – but did you actually read it?

And if you did read it – have you managed to actually identify your One Thing?

It’s not always easy is it?

I gave my method for figuring out my One Thing in the book, but that was just one way.

I don’t really know what other ways there are, or at least I didn’t until I read Brian Kim’s excellent “How To Finally Find What You Love to Do AND Get Paid For Doing It!”

The Trouble with the “Do What You Love” Theory

When it comes to careers, the clichéd advice is to “do what you love” if you want to succeed BUT what do you do if you don’t know what you love?

And hang on a second – don’t you know plenty of artists, writers, healers, musicians and wannabe-entrepreneurs who know very well what they love to do but just can’t seem to make it pay?

Well, if that’s you – relax. Brian’s excellent little eBook (with the very long title) is a Godsend for those who are undecided as to what their true purpose is or who haven’t got a clue how to make their passion pay-up some cold hard cash.

4 Reasons I Highly Recommend this Book

I don’t know Brian Kim personally, but I have been twice now impressed with his work (read about the other time his writing blew my mind here). The reasons I so heartily recommend “How to Find What You Love To Do AND Get Paid For Doing It” are:

• There’s no hippy-drippy nonsense; no “open your mind to the Universe and let the love flow in” crap. In case you haven’t woken up and smelled the coffee yet, all that Law of Attraction baloney doesn’t work – not on its own anyway. You can sit around and wish for success all you like, but if you do, all you’re really doing is settling for a life of mediocrity. Instead you need concrete, practical advice about how to get off your butt and make it happen already. This book provides just that.

• It’s a very structured book, a practical workbook that gets you to work it out over a period of time. Brian will have you delve deeper and deeper into your own nature until you find your True Purpose inside of you, just sitting there like a brilliant diamond waiting all this time for you to discover it.

• It’s specific – you’ll learn “What” and then “How”. First you find ‘what’ it is you truly should be doing with your life – your calling. Once you know what this is (and you will) then you move on to ‘how’ to make it pay. If you know you can’t be happy while you’re working a dreary, dead-end day job that doesn’t leave you with enough energy to pursue your dreams, then take my advice – buy this book now and get moving. Life is short! Stop wasting time!

• There’s no fluff. Coming in at 52 pages, this book gets straight to the point and will have you up and at ‘em in no time. In fact Brian says that the book was originally over 200 pages long but he boiled it down to the bare essentials so as not to overwhelm you with too much superfluous information and padding. If only more authors would do this! I don’t know about you but I am a busy man and I like to just get in, get the information I need, and then get on with it.

Who Else is Ready To Get On With Fulfilling Their True Life Purpose?

If you’re happy in your work or have figured out what your life’s passion is – and how to make it pay so that you don’t need no stinkin’ day job, then don’t buy this book. It’s not for those who are content with their station in life and feel they have no more learning to do, no more adventures to go on.

But if that isn’t you then you need to find out what your One Thing is now and how to go for it and succeed. What are your other options? Keep working for the man forever?

Consider these pertinent questions from Brian’s website:

Why sacrifice almost half of your day (if you include commuting) 5 days a week just to enjoy your nights and weekends?

Why sacrifice the best time period of your life so you can enjoy your golden years?

Why put yourself through all this pain and misery for the majority of your adult life?

When did people lie down and accept drudgery, boredom and dissatisfaction as a fact of life?

It doesn’t make any sense.

As I said at the beginning of this article, I already know my true life purpose – and I am making it pay already – but reading this book made me feel even more resolute to move on up to the next level and “go for gold” as the cliché goes.

Now – I paid 25 bucks for “How to Find What You Love To Do…”, but for a short time Brian has reduced the price to about $19 so click through now to check it out and ask yourself this – if you spend $19 on a book that finally brings you the success you have craved all your life – then isn’t that worth it?

I reckon it is, so hop to it and Click Here Now to find out more about the book.

Photo by kirtaph

This is a bit of a long post with two parts: 1) How the Mega Successful Use Curly’s Law To Achieve Greatness and 2) How To Discover Your True Life Purpose.

How the Mega-Successful Use Curly’s Law To Achieve Greatness

The great over-achievers of this world don’t just use wishful thinking or hard work to get to the top, they use the ‘real’ secret which is Curly’s Law. Curly’s Law states “Do One Thing” and is essentially the act of having laser-like focus on what you want. It is about identifying your One Thing and just going for that at the expense of other areas of interest. It’s about the power of mono-maniacal obsession, and if you want to achieve great things, then you can use this trick to get ahead in leaps and bounds.

The Richest Man in the World and His Great Secret for Success.

Long before Billy Crystal and his mates saddled up and rode of into the the sunset, Curly’s Law was known by some as ‘Carnegie’s secret’, after Andrew Carnegie, the old-world steel tycoon and philanthropist who advised people to ‘put your eggs in one basket – and then watch the basket’.

Carnegie, at one time the richest man in the world, and a self-made man, was said to have a ‘great secret’ about how to become rich. This was popularised by Napoleon Hill in his famous book “Think and Grow Rich”. The secret was not explicitly revealed in the book but was rather hinted at and the author said it was important that you figure it out yourself. People have since thrown a bunch of guesses around as to what the secret was, from the whole Law of Attraction thing to the less glamorous suggestion that you just need to get on with it and work hard. Searching around I found this quote, and as far as I am concerned it puts the stamp of authenticity on the worthiness of Curly’s Law and also puts an end to the speculation about what Carnegie’s secret was:

“Here is the prime condition of success, the great secret. Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it: adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it. This is the great secret…” Andrew Carnegie

I don’t understand the conjecture myself. the man’s exact words were “This is the great secret”. End of story.

All Great Achievers Use Curly’s Law to Make it Big

Whether they know it or not, I propose that all of the mega-successful use the Law of One Thing to get to the top of their chosen field.

Here’s an exercise: choose one of your greatest heroes and ask yourself this – do they have what you would describe as obsessive single minded determination, laser-like focus on what it is that they do?

I would be willing to place a bet that the answer would have to be ‘Yes’. Let’s take a few of my personal heroes as examples (in no particular order – and you may wonder why these people are my heroes but all I can say is, each to their own!).

• Jerry Seinfeld – obsessively cared only about and worked only towards being a stand up comedian for his entire life until he became the most successful stand up in the US and went on to become the wealthiest comedian ever.
  
• Steve Jobs (Apple Computers) – obsessively strove to achieve innovation in the world of computer design until he finally got it right and made Apple what it is today. (And tell me he didn’t lie up all night scheming about how to win Apple back when he got kicked out for a while!)
• Nick Cave – this guy has pursued a singular artistic vision relentlessly for his entire adult life and I’d be willing to bet that he’s artistically satisfied (although I doubt he’d admit it) and probably doesn’t get too stressed out about paying the mortgage off either.
  

Now these are just three of my heroes, and despite the twists and turns in their journeys, all three of them have always returned like a heat-seeking missile to their One Thing. They knew what it was – and they sure as hell weren’t about to let anything trivial stand in their way.

I challenge you to come up with a list of ten mega-successful people who achieved greatness by being wishy-washy, choppin’ and changin’, unfocussed, undetermined, people who could never make up their minds about what it was they wanted to do. I’ve never tried to do this, but I am willing to take a punt that it wouldn’t work.

Madonna: was obsessed with becoming the number one female pop star. Stephen King: wrote compulsively his whole life and only ever wanted to be a novelist. Bob Hawke: gave up alcohol so it wouldn’t get in the way of becoming Prime Minister of Australia. Abraham Lincoln, lost something like 8 elections before he went on to be President of the United States. The list goes on…

How To Discover Your True Life Purpose

But I can hear some of you already thinking “But I don’t KNOW what my One Thing is! That’s the whole problem!” and I don’t know either. But I have been through all of this and have some suggestions that may help you.

First get yourself into a contemplative, relaxed frame of mind. Have a bath, turn the lights down low and stare at the fire or go for a walk in the woods by yourself. If you know how to meditate, do some before you start this process.

There are a lot of techniques out there for discovering your true life purpose, but here is the one I used. It is deceptively simple but the key is not to move on to the next question until you have answered the one before it to your full satisfaction.

1. What do I want to be?

A very simple, short and open question. If you are in a relaxed, contemplative mood, the answer may come to you directly. Just like that. Your own voice in your head may just serve up the answer like a piece of pie on a plate.

Or it may not come for a while. If you don’t manage to hear your True Self straight away then it is up to you to simply wait. Wait for the answer. Wait for a number of days in need be but be sure to find quite time to contemplate this answer. Or talk to somebody you can be open with as this often helps you to unlock the inner workings of your own mind. Tarot cards or other oracles are also great for this kind of thing. They don’t tell you the answer they help your mind expand, provide the catalyst for the expansion of your consciousness.

When the answer comes you will know.

And here’s a hint. It won’t be about your career. By asking yourself what you want to be, the only honest answer lies much much deeper than that. We are talking about the true meaning behind your life, behind all of our lives.

I have to admit, my process was backed up by years of spiritual and personal development – reading, meditating and inner work – so if you’ve never gone this deep before, give it some time. Who knows, it could take years for the answer to come.

But listen very carefully to your inner voice when you first ask the question because it will without a doubt answer you straight away, without a doubt, but the question is whether you can be quiet enough inside your mind to hear what your true-self wants.

Once you know what you want to be, then ask…

2. “Why do I want to be what I want to be? Why have I chosen this as my main sub-conscious motivator?”

Here is where you will get into your own psyche and discover why you are who are why you behave like you do and why you want to be the person you want to be. Again, make sure you are quiet inside before you ask and then listen very carefully to the answer that will come directly from your True Self.

When you listen to the quiet voice of your True Self, you will not only know WHAT you want to be but WHY and this will be a great liberation to you.

If you listen softly enough, you just might be lucky enough to hear your own voice identify your true purpose in life. Good luck!

And remember what Curly the Cowboy said:

“Do One Thing … you stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit”.

Part One in a Series of Three

Do you struggle to achieve mental clarity in a world of busyness, complexity and clutter? Do you find yourself chasing your tail, always busy but never seeming to get around to doing the things that are most important to you, like discovering your True Life Purpose, achieving your dreams, or devoting the time and energy to your family that you know deserve?

Wouldn’t you love to know what the secret is that the great achievers of our age use to move mountains? What it is that your heroes know that keeps them at the top, the thing you are missing, the thing that holds you back? How do they manage to churn out such amazing work, and rack up win after win while you chase your tail and struggle to pay the bills?

Well, despite the hype of recent times, the ‘secret’ that these people have is NOT simply magically focussing on the end results that they desire. It is NOT simply a case of ‘ask, believe, receive’ or else we’d all be running around being fabulously rich and have all the time in the world to do whatever the hell we like (and look good doing it). Creative visualisation and the Law of Attraction are part of the overall process for success, no doubt about it, but there is another closely linked secret that gets overlooked.

And no, it’s not ‘hard work’. That’s an obvious, a given. Of COURSE you have to work hard – and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise. (That doesn’t mean that some things won’t come easy to you, they can and will if you set yourself up to attract that, but my point is you’d be a gormless ninny to sit around and expect everything handed to you on a silver platter.)

No, the OTHER secret is called Curly’s Law, and Curly’s Law states simply this:

“Do One Thing”.

Curly’s Law is the concept of “One Thing”, it is a concept that can help you identify your life’s purpose and make all of your dreams come true. It is the power of Obsessive Mono-Maniacal focus. It is also one of the great secrets of spiritual enlightenment. It means that you focus on one thing at any one time, with laser-like intensity, until the job is done. It works on a macro and a micro level to move mountains or just clean up all those little molehills that keep getting in your way. You can use this concept to do anything and as I will show, the greatest characters in history have used Curly’s Law to achieve some of the greatest things ever in human history.

And the funny thing is: Curly’s Law, in all it’s glorious Zen greatness, was invented by a fictitious character. A Hollywood cowboy in fact!

Now if that ain’t Rebel Zen in action, I don’t know what is!

I will explain further in tomorrow’s post