Lack of concentration or lack of challenges?

It took me almost 40 years to understand and accept that I don't have a concentration/procrastination/add problem - I am just highly intelligent, very multifaceted, with extreme amounts of experience, due to a courageous life well lived, and I need challenges of that caliber, otherwise I can't be bothered. 


Like a sheep dog I need exercise, and variation, if not I basically "eat the furniture" or go crazy :)  


My problem has been that I have some times followed the popular conceptual thinking that one has to start from the bottom or start with A before B. Now I know better and coach others on designing and living a life fitting of their strengths and genius, and to stop playing "the consideration game" and think critically about the origin of some of their thought patterns. This of course takes serious self-management skills. Skills that many people do not have and paradoxically many with extreme strengths/skills/genius rely too heavily and singularly on these (plus too many people around them have respected these strengths/skills/genius far too much and not helped them use the "tools", and far too many understand very late in life that they are a double edged sword that one can easily hurt one self with).


One of the many things that opened my eyes to this was interestingly Poker. My father had a certain fondness for the game and I had joined him a few times at the casino when visiting him, without much success. The game just couldn't keep my focus or motivation, and as a result I didn't play it or take it seriously. 
Then one day I asked to be transferred to another poker table and in the move a human error led to me sitting at a table with considerably more money on the line, and all of a sudden I was totally focused and highly engaged, and winning.


The moral of the story is this - make sure you are always "playing at a table" that captures your focus and motivation! 

Perspective is key.

Because perspective is the little brother of beliefs. It is like smoke and fire. Once you find perspective you soon find yourself a belief. And beliefs shape your experiences, so thus shape not only your life, but the You that is shaped by your life experiences. And t h a t quickly becomes a lot of programming to break free of on your own, and a lot of You to say farewell to - should you wish to do so...

Some perspectives and beliefs are indistinguishable from one another, and many are handed to you by your environment, never based on your own experiences, never framed in your words or language that you yourself have defined. Yet they can have profoundly negative impact on your life if you are not aware and/or get your hands on some mental floss.

One of my big one's was the fact that Humanity wasn't very human. Not fair, not nice, not rational, not self preserving, etc etc. Yes, there is evidence or rather statistics that points to the veracity and fault of these judgements, BUT the points is not what is the truth of the matter. The point is what is my truth of the matter.

My truth was a fuckin downer. A far reaching, all encompassing, standard lowering, dualistic, generalizing, judgemental downer...

Until I became aware of it and gave it a good thought, and found a new perspective.

Here it is:

We, humanity, are the monkeys that domesticated ourselves. That evolved internally and externally, as individuals and as groups, from being feces slinging, ass picking, belly scratching, tree dwellers (like many before me I enjoy the extra emphasis, even when it for the time being parts from the truth) to what we are today. It may not be much in your eyes, but who/what else are you going to compare with?!

No matter what your argument is there is no denying - we have come a loooong way.

And that my dear friends is a positive belief.

There is no such thing as a problem.
Unless you have a preferred outcome, intention or goal of some sort.


It is not a problem to be sick unless your goal is to be healthy.
It is not a problem to be poor unless your goal is to be wealthy.
It is not a problem to be unknown unless your goal is to be well known.
It is not a problem to be alone unless your goal is to be together with some one.


Yet many hold on to their problems as if they are a version of monopoly's "get out of jail" card. Except this card is a "get out continuing your life" card, and as such it is usually used in order not to do the stuff that needs to be done.


Why is it so H A R D ?


Usually we experience "problems" not because we have a goal/intention/preferred outcome, but because we have so many that they are in conflict with one another almost constantly, pulling us in different directions, at different times.


This is one of the reasons self awareness and expressing yourself out loud, preferably to others, in order to hear yourself talk about your "problems", goals, and ultimately your priorities and commitments to yourself is such a strong tool.