If you want to become more, grow, evolve, self awareness is important. But it is not enough. Meditation is not enough. Having a person to model yourself after is not enough. Reading is not enough. Understanding is not enough.
Something is missing, the presence of which would make the most difference, and could take you through the barrier to full knowledge of your machine.
What machine, you ask?
This is the same as when you mention to someone that their little voice is always talking... What little voice they ask?
90% of what matters about a human, about you, is in the invisible, the vague, the hidden. Even others can only see the peak of the iceberg, not the whole... not the part that is immersed, not the part that we call 'the machine'.
If it is an iceberg, why call it a machine? It's an iceberg because the immersed parts of it hold it up... And it's a machine because it works like a machine. It has moves, it has gears, it seems to have even a design.
I have a whole 53 video course on it, the 53 invisibles. I created that course a long time ago, and since then I have seen more, in more details, but this article is not about that.
This article is about mastering recognizing the machine in others.
Without mastering it you remain in the dark about yourself, and not in the driver's seat of your life. Without that you remain too focused on what you feel, what you think, what you want, what you need, and stay ineffective in life, ineffective with your own machine, ineffective in getting what you want.
And without mastering it you won't understand why you are still unsuccessful, miserable, unloved, and don't feel good about yourself, in spite all your efforts. all the 'work' you invested.
As you may know, I am leading an experimental program called The Playground.
For children, the playground is where they can, without pressure, without needing to, having to, or should, practice using their bodies in different ways, with different challenges, learn to get along with others, share, butt heads, etc. so when they get to Life ready, Life where they have to and need to. Get there knowing who they are, so they can perform.
Of course the playground can be a kindergarten, the street, the backyard with lots of trees, other people's backyards...
Climbing trees and falling down, riding the scooter and falling, swimming, running, competing who can pee farthest... you know all the things that children need to know to know who they are... to have enough independence and self awareness to start life on the right foot.
Most people never quite learn it.
In OUR Playground we do what we, adults, need to do to know who we are, where we are standing, what moves us to do what we do, why we get angry, upset, why we beg for being liked, accepted, appreciated, how we posture and why... Why we play hero, victim, attacked, never do well... Our unique machine.
But, and this is my newest learning, knowing ourselves, the inner workings, is near impossible if we don't see it reflected in others.
In the Playground we focus only on four of the 53 invisibles.
Understanding is the booby prize... near worthless.
Unless we can recognize those four invisibles when we see them, outside of us, we won't be able to see them and manage them inside us.
Some 35 years ago I participated in a seminar where the leader shared that he bought a red Honda. He bought red, because he wanted to be special. Different from everybody else. Because he had never seen a red Honda.
So he paid for his spanking new shiny red Honda, and drove off the lot. And to his surprise, all he could see on the road, in driveways, even behind half closed garage doors, were red Hondas.
Once you can distinguish something fully,