“Creationary ness” (BeFirst Course 115)

Right off the bat here. I Okay, thanks and welcome back. Um, this is the sixth lecture in unit one of the be first Adventure that we're having Hopefully again, you found these things useful. Let's talk about a word that I totally made up Creationariness and another one reactionariness, you'll probably find that My goal in life again is to brighten the world one smile at a time and oftentimes I do that with stupid goofy humor So humor me if you would as we go through here something Something happens to me. Let's use the image of me on my way home from work driving down interstate 6440 through Lake st. Louis a large truck swerving in and out through traffic ends up cutting me off in a fairly aggressive way Naturally, my response is to get upset Some of us would even get to the point of saying some special words some short special words are making some unique gestures as this Large truck continues on its way down the highway So here's the interesting point and the point that I'd like you to consider as I read the rest What actually happened to me what actually happened? I saw a truck a little too close to me and applied the brake for a couple of seconds, right the end That's it. That's what happened. No harm. No foul. No damage inflicted Except perhaps my ego or sense of pride and why I mean, here's a guy that yes a little little risky But if it was zooming off really what risk was there to me aside from a fleeting second or two What really happened, right? My reaction in a way that allows me to become angry isn't really necessary Sure There is some potential for an accident and that type of driving to get you pulled over with a ticket or even worse and cause an accident But in this example, it did nothing to me except lead me to apply the brakes for a brief moment because I was paying attention So pay attention. So why should I become upset? Why should I allow that reaction from another person to make me angry? Does the guy driving the truck have control over my mind somehow Think about that. Does he Control my mind. Can he mentally manipulate my thoughts and emotions? The answers to both of these questions is actually and factually no but for some reason most of us in reality give up our mental or emotional control and Thereby our power and capability for individual response to the situation To the occurrence to what happened to us to the prompt does that make sense? So he doesn't have the ability to manipulate my thoughts or emotions the truck that he's driving doesn't Have the ability to actually influence my thoughts and emotions It just doesn't happen that way, right? But some somehow especially in traffic on the highway behind a large Multi-thousand pound moving vehicle We get so angry. We give up our choice ability To these prompts that happen around us. So what if I could separate myself? I'm sorry separate my response from the prompt from the situation the action of the truck cutting me off should only be an impetus a prompt and That action that prompt stops short of influencing my decision my action At least it should stop there, right? Each of us have done some programming of our responses and reactions over the course of our lives We've trained our minds and bodies to do certain things in certain situations. We have reflexes developed reflexes can be very helpful and Productive and protective but can also perpetuate a negative and demanding pattern of action and reaction What we're talking about here is a platform for developing the skills necessary to force a wedge or create a space in Between the external action or prompt and our personal Individual response and I'm gonna write that down. Okay Prompt I'll try to write it so you can actually read it and response. Okay, I'm gonna write it one more time Because I have a purpose here So this is oftentimes how it happens There's a prompt and there's immediately a response, right? Immediately, that's how we oftentimes react. We've trained ourselves. We've developed these reflexes, right? But really this is what should be happy happening and we should be able to drop a giant wedge Right there between the prompt and the response We all to get all too often give up our ability to respond our response ability Isn't that interesting response? ability not responsibility response ability we oftentimes give up our responsibility when some external prompt incites emotion and causes discomfort immediate response, right Imagine the power that we each of us possess as we come to understand how much individual response ability choice Power we actually have between someone's actions that might impact us or how we can personally Individually choose to respond. Okay, how much power is in the recognition that we have time and space here? I remember learning about this principle from Stephen R the space between stimulus and response I Remember the time when I was sitting in an apartment in phone you in Taiwan as a chuanjiao sir as a missionary reading in some of my some of my downtime about the space between stimulus and response and how we Oftentimes as human beings we train ourselves to just boom. Boom. Here's what happened to be in boom immediate response immediate response but what in reality needs to happen is We need to take the time to pause put that wedge in there consider a response an appropriate well-meaning response based on values and principles interesting unyielding unchanging eternal ideals and then put that after we've considered it here into a response an appropriate response, right Okay, as I look to those people who are my mentors and leaders in life We all have these people that we look to I can see that these people have recognized how much power they actually have In the place in between the prompts of life What other people do or what situations they come across and their actions their reactions? the That come as a result of those prompts and in it is in these places in this space between prompt and choice that the power of creative Creation can be demonstrated. Let me read that again because I stumbled over it It's in these places in these spaces between prompt and choice that the power of creative creation can be demonstrated If there's one thing I want you to write down. It's that in the space between Is where the power is so I'm going to draw a little write a little power That's where the power is Right in the space between prompt or stimulus and our response Don't give up your power right And you have a hard time fitting it in here. There's not a lot of space in there, okay? Take time to respond it can be one millisecond, but don't just knee-jerk reflex Okay, just imagine the difference in choices of the person who realizes and uses the power to choose their own adventure Versus the choices of someone who reacts with an emotional reflex after every prompt or stimulus We should endeavor to begin creating life experience through choosing our own actions rather than simply reacting And you need to get that choose our own actions They are reactions meaning they're an action that came after an action, but they're also our own actions so you could define your action as Independent of someone else's prompt or stimulus. It's your action alone Does that make sense? Yes, it's a reaction, but it is your action That takes place So this is really the power of being we have power now to consider What I'm doing as a result of you know the financial choices. I made in the past What kind of a job I have in the past or currently? What what I've said or done or how I've interacted with people. I know and love or don't know and love Don't know and don't love So that's our prompt what we're going to do is consider that We're going to compare it against this moral compass these foundation principles that we've talked about We're going to compare it actually put it next to our foundation principles And then we're going to respond we're going to actively choose to do those things that we should do based on Who we are Who we are being? Okay So again, this is the sixth lecture the end of unit one There's so much more to come. I'll do my best to continue creating this in a timely fashion Let's let's just consider here how much power we have as We are choosing to be a better version of ourself as we are considering. What's happening to us and As opposed to just immediately jumping straight to a knee-jerk reaction response Something emotional something angry usually or sad We have power in between the prompt the stimulus and the response Now here's what gets really interesting we talked about Musicians and artists and you know athletes who do all this training and all this practice, right? So that they can do things really well when the moment comes we talked about my doctor You know the music professor in at Central, Missouri State who had perfect pitch And I have no doubt he practiced Identifying those pitches, and you know what notes they were what? Individual notes they were as we're considering The the practice part as we're considering the training the muscle memory we've talked about the hours and hours I spent down working on these muscles that now you know don't play trumpet very well at all anymore Essentially what I'm doing is training. I'm training My body or my muscles or my mind to have a certain response To a certain prompt this is training right so for an athlete They train themselves in endurance they train themselves You know many of us have run. I ran cross-country and track. I didn't really enjoy the endurance part of it But we train our bodies to respond to this Endurance pain this muscle soreness this exhaustion we train ourselves to push through it And that's one of the reasons why we run more and more and more and as you're training for a marathon if you've ever done That I never have although my sister and my brother tried to convince me talk me into doing it and I had some interest but Not that much interest, but as we're training ourselves our physical body Becomes more accustomed to these situations and the reaction becomes more natural through the training Okay, the reaction the response becomes More natural through the training so it becomes a more natural response But it's because we have programmed that response by utilizing the power to consider and evaluate and compare our response our response to whatever prompt it is in the space between And then we've trained ourselves now to have an appropriate accurate correct response based on our values and principles so even though we want to take advantage of the space between We also want to train ourselves so that we can have the correct correct response almost immediately so if we go back to this gentleman Who may or may not have cut me off and this may or may not be based on reality Maybe my response was Throwing my hands up, and you know I don't swear And I don't flip people off, but perhaps I thought something that I shouldn't have thought you know maybe I drove around a little bit And you know threw my arms up or whatever But perhaps the correct response is you know as he's coming around Just break and let it go move on you know To add one more piece to this puzzle the concept of context Oftentimes those prompts that we have Come to us We don't understand the context that they're coming from Potentially this driver Was on the way to the hospital to visit his wife who had just been in a car accident. I don't know Perhaps there was some urgent extenuating circumstance emergency you know There's a story that I recall being told about how a man was on a subway train And his kids were just out of control there were three or four of them Just noisy and loud and running around and doing things and and there was a man That approached him and said hey you really need to do a better job But you know keeping your kids under control and the man who looked really sad said I am I am so sorry We we just came back from their mother's funeral, and I am out of energy I don't know how to deal with them, so can you imagine that context if if if we if we as bystanders May know that context would you react differently in that situation I? Certainly would I mean I would have asked hey can it can I help what can I do so the question now becomes? Can we establish? Can we train ourselves to have a certain set of responses? regardless of what the prompt is So that's where the creation the power of creation airiness Comes from can we create our responses before they're needed? Can we get to the point where we've practiced where we've developed that muscle memory so that when the response is necessary? We already have it, and it's the response. We want as opposed to the response That gets us in trouble or causes a fight or ends up in a road rage incident You know we need to have the appropriate responses based on our personal Programming for our individual choices All right ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for spending the last Hour or two with me on this adventure of creating who you are Please continue through these lectures. I I really enjoy this hopefully you can tell that This is something that I always have enjoyed doing sharing these concepts and thoughts. I don't have a monopoly on knowledge I have a unique set of experiences and a personal paradigm that comes from my life experiences as we all do and Hopefully this data this information is helpful So so what so what now so what's next? Digest these tidbits of data that you've you've captured these Principles these nuggets of knowledge And then catch up to me in the next lecture. Okay. Thanks so much