FINALLY: The secret to a fulfilling life. It's not only in real knowledge - instead of just thinking that you know. Neither is it just more money, nor even to have more time. Nor does it lie in having outstanding relationships - although all of these are indeed important.

A fulfilling life is deceptively simple: - achieve what you really want. Although you probably have many areas that need attention, this is a good place to start. Here's how to avoid one of the commonest mistakes, just ask yourself...

How Do You Know That You Know?

My exclamation was involuntary, "Oh bother!" Actually, those aren't quite the words I used. I'd dropped my glass shampoo bottle on the tiles in the shower, and it shattered.

The floor of the men's shower in the University student building was covered in broken glass. So I had to get someone to stop anyone cutting their feet on the glass, and went to find a broom.

Although the attendant was relatively kind about my stupidity, I felt like a real idiot. Not only because I had dropped the glass bottle, but I'd also ignored the notice. The new notice. The new notice that he'd posted at the entrance to the shower. The notice that told us only to use plastic bottles!

But I was young, and figured I knew everything - a few months at university had done little but increase my arrogance. Since I didn't drop things, I just knew that it didn't apply to me.

The sign was clearly visible and I logically understood that plastic bottles were a good idea. But my shampoo container was glass. I knew about shampoo making glass slippery, so I understood that being careful was important.

But understanding is not real knowing, so I guess I needed to remedy my deficiency! Once I'd broken the glass, I knew that a plastic bottle was better - from experience.

My mind had told me that I knew all about it, yet I didn't follow through. So how could I really know? When you really know - authentically - you do it! With the experience of dropping a glass bottle, I changed to plastic. I have never taken a glass bottle in a shower again.

The Arrogance of Youth

It was actually funny. I laughed out loud when I remembered this incident and realized how arrogant I'd been as a teenager. The number of times I'd insisted that I did know - even when I didn't. There's an authentic message in that wonderful bumper sticker:


Many years ago, I used to think that the logic of all my thoughts was irresistible. Once I’d learned anything about a subject, no matter how little, I became rather opinionated in thinking I knew it all. Okay, okay, I admit it - I used to be very opinionated.

Everybody Thinks They Know

"All my mistakes have made me an expert in overcoming self-sabotage," I explained years later to my friend. "So I write about self-sabotage. Yet the problem is that people actively seeking to stop their self-sabotage seem to be rather limited. How do you find them?"

"So don't just write about self-sabotage, write about something else," urged Verne. "You can write articles about anything."

I had no immediate answer to this seemingly sensible advice, so said nothing. Verne thought he had made a valid suggestion, but had instead demonstrated a profound lack of wisdom.

Do I have experience in overcoming self-sabotage? Yes indeed, I’ve had lots of practice! But that doesn't mean I'm effective at everything else, or even at anything else. Yet when I was a teenager, I didn’t understand this perspective at all!

So How Do You Know That You Know?

How do you know that you know? That's easy - you do it when the time comes for you to do it. If you don't do it when appropriate, or you make mistakes, then you don't really know!

The mistakes that come when you only know about something can be very stressful. Especially when you think that you really know!

Learning how to overcome such self-sabotage is the essential ingredient in becoming more effective. So our clients become more productive, whether or not they are clear about what they really want.

The whole idea behind writing articles for the website is to become well-known in the self-sabotage field. Writing meaningful articles need you to be effective, which comes when you spend more time overcoming mistakes than most people. An expert shares wisdom from his context of experience - rather than passing on what he just understands.

As Mark Twain pithily explained:


Thinking “you know for sure” doesn’t mean you know! You don’t become an expert by writing about something. You get the necessary experience by doing it. Experience comes as you solve problems and overcome mistakes.

Experience is Vital!

Unless you've actually done it, you won't have gained any experience. So how can you know to avoid the mistakes, walk round the pitfalls, and overcome the problems that will inevitably occur?

There's a lot of value in the definition of experience as what you have gained immediately after you it needed the most!

One of the reasons people hire an expert is to avoid the costs and waste of time of making mistakes. As you gain experience of the problems that can arise, you become more effective and can pass on the benefits of your perspective.

Do you Really Know?

The world is full of people who have only their opinion, yet misunderstand the very real distinction between opinion and wisdom.

Despite your mind’s denial, if you don't do it when you know that you should, then you do not really know. Your lack of action demonstrates that you don’t know, although you may understand it.

When you lack experience - even though your mind may insist "But I Do Know" - that lack confirms you don't really know. Without experience, how can you know how to overcome the inevitable challenges? That insistent thought itself is self-sabotage.

Once you really know that something doesn’t work, you change. You stop doing it because you know the cost of overcoming mistakes. At Life Strategies you learn to stop doing what you know doesn't work, which means you stop believing your mind's untruths!

Do you Believe your Thoughts?

It takes energy to research a subject carefully. Yet when your mind is quick, and understanding comes easily, you may think you know - and stop spending any more time. But are you willing to go past the point where you just understand and change to the context of wisdom?

You're just being gullible if you believe all your thoughts. Just because you have a thought doesn't mean it’s valid. Some thoughts are true, and yet many are not. You can find out which are which by exploring each one.

Then you will know which ones to pursue - and which to ignore. This involves learning not to delegate your thinking. Just as you don’t get fit by delegating your exercise!

My mother was very wise. When growing up, I don't know how often I heard:

The Dilemma

The tendency for the mind to tell you that you do know - even when you don’t - is very strong. Yet how can you really know when you lack experience? You won’t know how to overcome mistakes.

When someone else has gained the experience, it is true for them. But without your careful exploration, how will you ever know? Are they following your agenda, or their own? Are you getting the whole truth? How many companies and people will try to manipulate you?

Many people take what seems to be the easier road. They settle for just believing others, without putting in the effort needed to come to their own truth. And then they try and lead others.

But Life Strategies doesn’t believe in believing, we believe in the wisdom of real knowledge. Which you gain with experience, by investing your own time and energy.

Knowing how to tell when you really do know will save you the costly consequence of many mistakes. Learning the crucial value of experience in bringing wisdom is an important step. You need to understand these empowering distinctions.

Yet if this wasn't already abundantly clear to you, self-sabotage has obviously stopped you reaching this conclusion!

But I Know All This, some say

Are you one of the many who believe they know "All This", despite your current experience? But if what you know is not bringing you the results you want then how can you know? You cannot be doing what works.

Your experience tells you whether or not you really do know. No matter what you say, reality knows the truth!

Much of the human race lives in denial. And this doesn't mean on the river in Egypt! Our society says we want:

• to care for the Earth, yet we chop down her rain-forests and plunder her resources as unlimited
  
  
• a society free of rage and violence, then we entertain ourselves - and our children - with TV programs of graphic rage and violence
  

• our young ones to be responsible, yet our school "Zero-Tolerance" laws take that responsibility away by mandating totally disproportionate, often dysfunctional responses
  

• the truth, yet we follow Adolf Hitler's strategy of lying whenever we think it expedient. After all - doesn't The End Justify The Means? (What's your answer to this vital question? Mine is no - never!)
  

Do any of these strategies work to create the society we want? Aren't these mistakes obvious? Isn't there sufficient evidence of their inevitable consequences right in front of your eyes?

If you don't have the results you really want - which means you live a stress-free life while choosing how to spend your time as well as your money - then you cannot really know "All This." You’ll find your experience will change when you change your perspective.

If you're finding that any of this speaks to your heart, then you know that truth has its own beauty. The elegance of truth gladdens the heart. If you continue exploring these truths, they will bring amazing joy into your life.

The difference between just thinking you know, and real knowledge, is crucial. It makes a world of difference. What could have kept this realization from you? :-)

Stop your Self-Sabotage

Achieving what you really want means learning how to overcome your self-sabotage mechanism. Everyone has one, and it operates all the time.

The self-sabotage mechanism generally operates through context, rather than content. What's the difference?

• your context is where you come from when you do what you do
  
  
• your content is what you do, how you handle your affairs
  

So manage your context and stop your self-sabotage. Learn the wisdom of doing what works, and not doing what doesn't work. Achieve more while saving both time and energy with this ground-breaking, twenty-first century, Life Strategies e-book program and action plan.

Why Invest in Improving Your Capabilities?

An investment has a return, and your return in stopping your self-sabotage is enormous. There's no bigger return than in improving your capabilities, in becoming more effective. Life Strategies clients report becoming at least 20% more effective, and one client recently enjoyed an increase of ninety percent after just one year.

In the long run, your increase in effectiveness will increase your earnings by at least the same amount. And the increase is permanent. As Benjamin Franklin famously observed,


How much will a twenty percent increase in earnings amount to in dollars over the rest of your lifetime?

Work this out right now. Don't allow yourself to procrastinate - a very common self-sabotage strategy. Take all the time you need to answer this crucial question this very moment. The answer will change your life!

The result of your calculations will prove to you beyond doubt that your increase in earnings will pay for your investment in your further education many, many times over.

Yet, just like heat from a fire, results are never instantaneous. You first have to buy the logs, then you need to put some kindling in the stove before putting in the wood. Only then can you light and look after the fire, which after a delay will give you heat.

Enjoy a big 25% discount - as well as some very special bonuses - if you act today. What better way to improve your life and enjoy more time than by stopping your self-sabotage with...

Your results are guaranteed, and so is your investment! We eliminate all and any risk with your 100%, no-questions-asked, more-than-you-paid, two-way, 365-day unconditional guarantee.

Food for Thought