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Written by Damien Chinappi with Evolution Now Project Becoming a Greater Version of Yourself To become a greater version of yourself, you need to step into your potential. Yet, there are two very different sides to potential. When you talk about it and envision yourself expanding and living up to your potential, it feels good. However, when you set about the task of engaging with potential, it is quite the opposite. It is very uncomfortable. The sunshine and rainbows of talk turns into the frustration of active learning. If you are not prepared for that discomfort, you will turn away from it. Yet to understand that discomfort is a foundational aspect of growth; you can properly contextualize it. If harvesting your potential is supposed to be uncomfortable, you know you’re doing something right. You no longer avoid the discomfort, you seek it. And that is a very strong way to look at this process of becoming a greater version of yourself – you are harvesting potential. Harvesting Results Harvest is defined as the product or result of an action. It takes effort, time, and intention. The idea of a great life feels good, but the application and process can be very much the opposite. It is through this engagement of discomfort that you yield a greater level of comfort. To engage and to grow activates that potential, and by going through the frustration of learning and getting through it, you create positive emotion. You harvest your feel-good feelings. Your brain will reward you with a surge of dopamine. This sets up a powerful blueprint that can lead you into a self-reinforcing pattern of growth. Follow this blueprint enough times, and you hardwire your brain to grow. Another thing to keep in mind: potential is always there, waiting. It appears from nothing. It takes active engagement and toughness. More than that, it takes repetition. Learning Resilience The truth is, the first attempt at learning anything could be a massive disappointment. But like any harvest, this is a process. Failing on a first attempt opens up another quality of your being -- one that is a great alley of realizing your potential: toughness. If you fail gloriously and come back, you build mental toughness. Then you try again. If you fail again, you have that same opportunity to harvest more of your toughness. With a better connection with the part of you that is tough, there’s a greater chance you will be able to reengage with this on-going process of growth. You dig your heels in and step into your potential in the form of learning the skill you are attempting to acquire. With greater toughness comes greater resolve. By chipping away and returning to the perceived failure, you do move your skill level forward. You learn at the very least you learn what not to do. Then you try something else. And you repeat until you find success. Success is Fleeting Once you do find success in whatever the endeavor is, that toughness you have been building gets rewarded. You also learn a valuable lesson: success becomes secondary. Success is fleeting, it never lasts. It is not a reliable source of security. But when toughness is built properly it will always be there. You stop looking for the easy road and look for the hard road. You look for places to grow and also places to put your strength to the test. You develop a better relationship with failure. Not only that, you hold control of your life. The wavering range of emotions you feel takes a back seat to the steady power of your newly formed dedication. Building Tenacity This system of dedication is always getting tested, building on your resolve. Another thing about mental toughness, there is no limit to how strong you can build your mind. That strength can only be built within discomfort. So take a stab at something new. And keep in the forefront of your mind that the stronger you get, the more potential you can harvest. That strength isn’t built on success, it’s built upon the multitude of attempts that come after you fail. So get messy and get better, because your best defense against the negativity of the world is your ability to endure, engage, and evolve into a tougher, more resilient version of yourself.
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Written by Damien Chinappi with Evolution Now Project CAN ADDICTION BE A GOOD THING? Addiction, that’s a word that is typically designated to drugs, substance, sex, and even food. But the truth is we all have an addiction … to our thoughts. You heard me right, we are addicted to our own thoughts. What’s even more … they aren’t even ours. Still, everything from the opinions, personal thresholds, the attention spans to even the quality of the thoughts in our minds create a certain addiction. The brain wants to coast along on autopilot which means it gets used to the thoughts that populate the mind. And all of this is for better or for worse. We’ve all heard the saying, ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” Well this can be applied to how your mind works. WHAT ARE WE FOCUSED ON? You follow a particular version of yourself, that version is cycling thoughts. These thoughts feel like you, but they are really more like the station that the antenna of your mind is tuned to. All of this is to keep us in a place that is familiar, because familiarity breeds security. A deep part of our core being is to stay alive but to truly live, requires us to thrive. The key is to get addicted to the thought patterns that expand our curiosity which enable us to grow. The growth mindset allows us to endure the pain of change while we engage with the toughness required to stay persistent in those pursuits. So how do we shift into that mindset? We have to break the addiction to certain thoughts. I can’t, it’s too difficult, I’m not ready. BREAKING THOUGHT ADDICTION We break our thought addiction first through awareness and through accepting that it occurs. And second, by installing the conceptual frameworks. Mental frameworks that allow us to minimize the amount of negative emotion we feel while experiencing frustration in the early phases of building a new skill or habit. In short, you become aware of how to find positive emotion through failure. Moving forward isn’t a straight line, and the more you can find something positive in the process, the more likely you will stay consistent with it. Like Pavlov's dogs. This week on Evolution Now we explore how to get outside the bubble of our thought stream and create new habits of mind. Listen or Watch on YouTube HERE. #EvolutionNowProject #EvolutionNowPodcast #Reveel  -
Written by Damien Chinappi, July 2023 This essay was written as part of Evolution Now Project Blog Article #1 Welcome to Evolution Now Are you ready for life's greatest rewards? Are you ready to become the best version of yourself? Now, that may sound like some sales pitch, but stay with me... YOU WERE MADE TO ENJOY LIFE TO THE FULLEST! Really. How does it make you feel to read that? Does it excite you? Trigger you? Good. When we are able to notice where we feel resistance, where we feel activation or even pain, that's where growth happens. It happens outside our comfort zones. As the famous poet Rumi once said, "the wound is where the light enters you." We're supposed to enjoy our lives. We're supposed to be healthy, to be doing things that we love every day, and we're supposed to be proud of what we're creating with our lives day in and day out. ...if you're still reading then we've sparked your curiosity. (Or you're in our inner circle and you've been guided here by someone you trust.) Either way, thanks for being here to explore what we're creating. The Inquiry Evolution Now Project spawned from an inquiry... What is my best, and am I living up to that potential? This inner-facing question opens up a rabbit hole for this who are courageous enough to ask. I once heard a motivational speaker in Miami provoke his audience by telling us to ask ourselves, "What more am I capable of?" And when we ask that, we open ourselves up to a deeper analysis. The first step is to define what the words we're asking really mean. What is my best? What does "best" mean? In comparison to what? Where I've been, or where I want to go? The Conversation The dialogue, "tri-alogue" and conversation begins with self inquiry and then expands out to our tribe and world around us. In order to make any progress on our journey from our wild savage origins to our modern civilized society, we have to ask ourselves, how did we get where we are? And on what foundation is our existence built? When we ask these type of existential questions, we are led to the conclusion that our entire reality is built from words and their interpretation. From mathematics, to law, to physics, to philosophy and everything in between, the world that we live in is made from words. What do you mean? Interpretation creates meaning, and it is always subjective. One person feels that fairness means everybody is punished, and another feels that fairness means nobody is punished. Take the word "gay" for instance. Just half a century ago the meaning of the word went from "happy" to "homo-sexual." Another strange phenomenon of language is the word "ravel." Ravel, according to the dictionary, means for something to "come undone." But due to the nature of language, people habitually started adding the prefix "un" to the word "ravel." Now we have the word "un-ravel" which literally means the same thing as "ravel." (Look it up if you don't believe me…) Who do you think you're talking to? Henry Ford once said, "he who says he can, and he who says he can't, are both right." Or something like that. The point here is that it's our perspective that changes the reality that we experience. So that's the foundation of our pursuit with Evolution Now Project. How does our use of language change our life? Individually and collectively? How does language evolve? What are the real meanings of words? How does our use of language effect our persona and collective evolution? Body mind and soul. Physical and metaphysical. Evolution Now Project is a discussion of these ideas where every day people and world-class thinkers are invited to an informal conversation to discuss language and personal evolution, while sharing some of their best pearls of wisdom with you, our listeners, readers, our tribe, our... "Evolutionaries." Together we can evolve to a greater humanity. How to get involved with Evolution Now Project We publish our Podcast on all major platforms. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel, follow us on Instagram, and sign up for our THINK EVOLVE Weekly Newsletter aimed at keeping you focussed on your personal evolution. Stay tuned for upcoming events and shows. And always remember to keep growing!
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AuthorsEvolution Now Project blog features writing by Damien Chinappi, JJ Wolf, ENP Contributors, and guests. Find out more HERE. Archives
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DISCLAIMER Evolution Now Project, its authors, and affiliates release all liability of the effect of the information shared through its published works. We make no claim that our words are to be taken as legal or medical advice. We are not liable for any actions taken by anyone who has listened to or read any of our materials. |