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I'm trying to wake up my friends and family, but they won't listen. They tell me I'm wasting my time

Topics relating to managing people and relationships

AndrewNC

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Theres going to come a point on your journey where you'll reach a final test before you reach the next level.

"My friends and family are holding me back. I try to convince them, but they won't change."

...but in reality, it is only you who needs to change.

At this point of the journey, you've already woken up, you know that there is something great out there waiting for you in life, and you've already began to make this internal shift and realized that it's possible for you think to becoming successful.

You haven't been there yet, but you know it's there.

We all go through that phase where we have woken up, yet our friends and family have not.

The harder you try to convince them, they more they resist.

Remember on this journey to keep the focus on you and your growth.

When you change yourself, the rest will take care of itself.

Everything you notice in your world around you is a symbolic representation and projection of your own unconscious mind.

I know it might sound kind of trippy that your friends and family resisting your desire to change them is actually symbolic of part of you resisting change.

If you want your outside world to change, you must be the change and the rest will follow.

Imagine for a moment that the life you are living now is as if you've been born into a tribe on some island in the middle of the ocean. You hear tales of abundance and prosperity across the ocean into the distance, but you haven't seen it yourself.

At first, you didn't know it existed. Then, you hear more and more stories and believe that it's there. But can someone like you make it? Have you been there yourself, or are you telling a secondhand tale?

The question I have for you is this: Are you already getting the results in your life that you want to get?

When you realize that it's possible for anyone to get there, you've been woken up. At this stage, your natural inclination is to wake up your friends and family and bring them along with you.

There you all are are, on this island, the only island anyone in your tribe has ever known for generations on end, and you come running along telling others to swim off into the cold dark ocean with you to a place you've never been before.

On this island, they have food. They have comfort. They have security.

Why would they risk it all to swim into the dark ocean on a secondhand story told by a person (you) who hasn't been there yourself?

A wise man once told me, if you want to change others, you must change yourself first.

You can spend your time trying to convince others, but they aren't ready. I tell you this because I've done this before.

Do you want to know what it took for them to finally listen to me?

I realized that in order to live the life I wanted to live, I had to jump in the cold, dark ocean and begin swimming and get there myself.

When they see me get there, they will believe.

But I had to do the scary thing and leave the old behind before I was able to bring in the new.

I swam and I swam, with no land in sight. Soon enough, I'm in the middle of nowhere. The island behind me disappeared, and I hear the voices of my friends and family in my ears "You're wasting your time. The life you were born into is all that exists. You should turn back now. Be realistic."

But you know there is no turning back.

At this point, talking back would waste my breath. So I kept swimming.

I stopped listening to those voices and trusted my inner compass. And then one day, after you swim long enough, just when the night is the darkest, the sun rises and you see the mainland.

As you get closer, you swim faster and you make it there.

When those around me saw me make that transition first hand and live that life I told was possible, instead of just talking about it; when they began to wake up.

Symbolic Projections of Your Unconscious

I'm going to lead you into some advanced neuroscience learnings that you'll learn in more detail later in this book.

The world around us has no attached meaning.

Those meaning you attach to the events around you are nothing more than projections from the deepest parts of your unconscious mind.

When you see others around you not waking up, it is actually a projection that you haven't made that full transformation yourself. You're almost there, but they are the ones that are the final test.

The test goes as follows: You are at a crossroads to cling on to the old version of reality that you've been stuck in all along, or you can choose to let it go and make room for the new.

When you leave the old behind, that is the symbolic shift in your mind that you've finally let go of the old, and are ready to reach the next level of YOUR journey.

It's not until after you make that leap until you begin to notice new people appear in your life. These new people will be on this journey, just like you, and they will be the ones that will help you reach the level after that.

Once again, the new people who are about to appear in your life are going to do the things and say the things that represent this new level you have just reached.

It starts with YOU letting go, now...

Whether you make room for this new life you've been wanting to life, or if you continue to cling on to the old...the choice is yours.

Your friends won't disappear forever.

A funny thing happened to me the last time I made that leap into the new. I noticed a friend of mine wasn't progressing on his journey. For months on end, I tried to tell him to work harder.

But in reality, I wasn't working harder myself (what I saw in him was my unconscious attaching a meaning to something I needed to work on in my life).

When I let him go, and began working harder than ever before, I reached the point where I was making $300-$1,600 per day for a couple of weeks straight with my business.

A month after I made that shift, I heard back from this old friend. The interesting thing is that when I made the shift, he caught up a few weeks later.

Think of what you're doing right now not as saying goodbye to your friends. It's more of a vacation where you can say "See you later."

A really cool analogy someone else made was thinking of it like a racetrack. You're with one pack of cars and you finally decide to step on the accelerator.

When your friends see you moving faster and up ahead, they'll want to catch up.

It all starts with you making this next change, and has nothing to do with them.

The focus has been, and always will be with your growth and you taking this next step, now, on your journey to success.
 
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Envision

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Damn.

So true.
 

Ubermensch

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Theres going to come a point on your journey where you'll reach a final test before you reach the next level.

"My friends and family are holding me back. I try to convince them, but they won't change."

...but in reality, it is only you who needs to change.

At this point of the journey, you've already woken up, you know that there is something great out there waiting for you in life, and you've already began to make this internal shift and realized that it's possible for you think to becoming successful.

You haven't been there yet, but you know it's there.

We all go through that phase where we have woken up, yet our friends and family have not.

The harder you try to convince them, they more they resist.

Remember on this journey to keep the focus on you and your growth.

When you change yourself, the rest will take care of itself.

Everything you notice in your world around you is a symbolic representation and projection of your own unconscious mind.

I know it might sound kind of trippy that your friends and family resisting your desire to change them is actually symbolic of part of you resisting change.

If you want your outside world to change, you must be the change and the rest will follow.

Imagine for a moment that the life you are living now is as if you've been born into a tribe on some island in the middle of the ocean. You hear tales of abundance and prosperity across the ocean into the distance, but you haven't seen it yourself.

At first, you didn't know it existed. Then, you hear more and more stories and believe that it's there. But can someone like you make it? Have you been there yourself, or are you telling a secondhand tale?

The question I have for you is this: Are you already getting the results in your life that you want to get?

When you realize that it's possible for anyone to get there, you've been woken up. At this stage, your natural inclination is to wake up your friends and family and bring them along with you.

There you all are are, on this island, the only island anyone in your tribe has ever known for generations on end, and you come running along telling others to swim off into the cold dark ocean with you to a place you've never been before.

On this island, they have food. They have comfort. They have security.

Why would they risk it all to swim into the dark ocean on a secondhand story told by a person (you) who hasn't been there yourself?

A wise man once told me, if you want to change others, you must change yourself first.

You can spend your time trying to convince others, but they aren't ready. I tell you this because I've done this before.

Do you want to know what it took for them to finally listen to me?

I realized that in order to live the life I wanted to live, I had to jump in the cold, dark ocean and begin swimming and get there myself.

When they see me get there, they will believe.

But I had to do the scary thing and leave the old behind before I was able to bring in the new.

I swam and I swam, with no land in sight. Soon enough, I'm in the middle of nowhere. The island behind me disappeared, and I hear the voices of my friends and family in my ears "You're wasting your time. The life you were born into is all that exists. You should turn back now. Be realistic."

But you know there is no turning back.

At this point, talking back would waste my breath. So I kept swimming.

I stopped listening to those voices and trusted my inner compass. And then one day, after you swim long enough, just when the night is the darkest, the sun rises and you see the mainland.

As you get closer, you swim faster and you make it there.

When those around me saw me make that transition first hand and live that life I told was possible, instead of just talking about it; when they began to wake up.

Symbolic Projections of Your Unconscious

I'm going to lead you into some advanced neuroscience learnings that you'll learn in more detail later in this book.

The world around us has no attached meaning.

Those meaning you attach to the events around you are nothing more than projections from the deepest parts of your unconscious mind.

When you see others around you not waking up, it is actually a projection that you haven't made that full transformation yourself. You're almost there, but they are the ones that are the final test.

The test goes as follows: You are at a crossroads to cling on to the old version of reality that you've been stuck in all along, or you can choose to let it go and make room for the new.

When you leave the old behind, that is the symbolic shift in your mind that you've finally let go of the old, and are ready to reach the next level of YOUR journey.

It's not until after you make that leap until you begin to notice new people appear in your life. These new people will be on this journey, just like you, and they will be the ones that will help you reach the level after that.

Once again, the new people who are about to appear in your life are going to do the things and say the things that represent this new level you have just reached.

It starts with YOU letting go, now...

Whether you make room for this new life you've been wanting to life, or if you continue to cling on to the old...the choice is yours.

Your friends won't disappear forever.

A funny thing happened to me the last time I made that leap into the new. I noticed a friend of mine wasn't progressing on his journey. For months on end, I tried to tell him to work harder.

But in reality, I wasn't working harder myself (what I saw in him was my unconscious attaching a meaning to something I needed to work on in my life).

When I let him go, and began working harder than ever before, I reached the point where I was making $300-$1,600 per day for a couple of weeks straight with my business.

A month after I made that shift, I heard back from this old friend. The interesting thing is that when I made the shift, he caught up a few weeks later.

Think of what you're doing right now not as saying goodbye to your friends. It's more of a vacation where you can say "See you later."

A really cool analogy someone else made was thinking of it like a racetrack. You're with one pack of cars and you finally decide to step on the accelerator.

When your friends see you moving faster and up ahead, they'll want to catch up.

It all starts with you making this next change, and has nothing to do with them.

The focus has been, and always will be with your growth and you taking this next step, now, on your journey to success.

Man, this place is so much different than when I joined in 2008.

@AndrewNC Seems like you drop a nuke of an OP every other day.

Killin' it on the forum only happens when you're killin' it in real life.

Thanks for the motivation, man.

True as F*ck.
 

Ninjakid

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Faced the same thing when I started out, no one believed in me really.

But looking back on it, I realized that it hurt because I really didn't believe in myself either.

In fact when I did believe on myself, everyone became more supportive. And when I would have doubts, that's when I would hear criticism.

So if I ever hear doubts from people, I don't internalize it or take it personally. I look at myself and ask myself what doubts I am having that's causing this to show up in my life.

Great post, buddy.
 
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SteveO

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Fantastic post.

A wise man once told me, if you want to change others, you must change yourself first.
Why would you want to change others? It seems like a natural desire to try and take others with you on your journey. Don't do it though. It does not work the way your mind draws it up.
 

AndrewNC

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Why would you want to change others? It seems like a natural desire to try and take others with you on your journey. Don't do it though. It does not work the way your mind draws it up.

This got me thinking that my entire post may be paradoxical.

I wrote it because a lot of people (including myself in the past) spend a lot of their energy trying to change others. But isn't the mere fact that I wrote the post and example of ME intending to change others?

Could it be that it's ok to help others who want to change?

OR, the mere fact that the replies so far are from people who moved on from this, is an indicatoin that I already have moved on from it.

So maybe that post was just me talking to myself?

:D
 

SteveO

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I wrote it because a lot of people (including myself in the past) spend a lot of their energy trying to change others. But isn't the mere fact that I wrote the post and example of ME intending to change others?
There is a difference between helping people that want to change and trying to change people that think they want to change. I think that makes sense...
 
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AndrewNC

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There is a difference between helping people that want to change and trying to change people that think they want to change.
haha yes, thank you for bringing me back up from that much deeper level of analyzing things.
 

RamEri475

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Some people just don't want to wake up. You could show them the fast cars, the watches, the fine wines and country clubs to try to wake them. But when you seriously start asking them to take action they will tense up and say it is too much of a hassle or they say I don't want to have to deal with people and excuses and excuses.

I have tried to get others to join me. And I have offered to turn peoples hobbies into full fledged businesses but none of them want to be freed. I think it is better to just focus on yourself. Help them if they want help but don't go out of your way to change them.
 

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