Life Is Setting Me up for Success

Copyright © 2021 Victor Levy.

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ISBN: 978-1-9822-7643-0 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021922205

Balboa Press rev. date:   06/23/2022

CONTENTS

I Hope You Never Accomplish Your Goals

Fully Committed, Totally Unattached

Living to Be Successful Is Like Swimming to Find Water

Whatever You Are Scared of Is Based on a Lie

Fear Is So Boring

Resistance Is Suffering

The Only Problem You Have Is Believing You Have One

Let Your Subconscious Work for You

Understanding Surpasses Forgiveness

Free Yourself from the Illusion That You Are Not Enough

The Doorway To Your Intelligence Is Your Heart

It Is Not a Matter of Hope—It Is Only a Matter of Time

Effortless Reflection of My Own Frequency

Discipline Brings You Freedom

Environment, Environment, Environment

Life Is an Infinite Game

I Hope You Never Realize Your Potential

Life Is Setting Me Up for Success

Everything You Do Matters

The Economics of Energy (Law of Least Effort)

Living in a World of Full Possibilities

Be Here Now

Now, Yoga

Society Is a Reflection of Myself

Ahimsa (Nonviolence)

Life Is Relationships

Your Worry Is Blocking Your Potential

Why Would You Choose Misery If Joy Is Available?

The Physics of Spirituality

The Fabric of Life is Pure Joy

The Ultimate Matrix

Love Hurts … No, It Doesn’t

Obviously, Life Is Setting Me Up for Success

Dedicated to my mom

I HOPE YOU NEVER

ACCOMPLISH YOUR GOALS

Most people live life as if it is a race. Everybody is always in a rush, trying to get to some destination as quickly as possible. Is the earth circling around the sun as fast as it can to arrive somewhere? Of course not! So, why do you? You think when you get the big house you always wanted, achieve the promotion you are working hard for, find the perfect relationship, or lose an extra ten pounds, all of your worries are going to dissolve. You say things like When I get this job or When I find the perfect partner.

You believe happiness is always in the future and comes from something or someone outside yourself. The illusion is that peace and harmony come when situations match your expectations. If the outcome does not match your expectations, you experience a feeling of unworthiness. If it does, you feel good for a little bit until you do not. Naturally, you chase another goal to experience this feeling again. You are working so hard to chase a feeling that is already inside yourself. The fantasy is that once you accomplish whatever goal you are pursuing, you will finally be fulfilled. It is like a fish asking another fish, Dude, where is the water? They cannot perceive it because they are surrounded by it. For the same reason, you are working so hard to enter the gates of heaven when, in reality, there is not even a door. You think that freedom is getting somewhere, but wherever you go, if you are not present, you will never be free.

People’s favorite pastime is setting goals. A goal is a mental illusion that promises future meaning. It makes you see this moment as a means to an end. You are setting goals, achieving them, and then setting different goals again and again. This is what you call living. What is the purpose of this chasing and achieving? The tendency of the mind to search for more is natural. After all, everything in the universe is constantly moving and evolving. Yet you do not see a tree in a hurry and anxious to grow taller; it grows by being who it is. Stress happens because you are here, but your focus is on the future. The moment you create a goal, anxiety arises automatically. You worry about what can go right, what can go wrong, and how long it will take to achieve it.

There is a difference between searching and exploring. Searching comes from a place of lack. Exploring comes from a place of curiosity. When you search, this moment is never good enough. When you explore, this moment is more than enough. When you stop enjoying your daily activities for a future that has not yet happened, you miss the purpose of life. The purpose of life is not in the future.

There are three traps you fall into doing your favorite pastime:

1. Your goals are limited by how you see the world today.

2. You accomplish your goal and set another one automatically.

3. You do not achieve your goal and feel unworthy.

The goals you are chasing are based on your limited perception of how you see the world today. If you constantly learn and evolve, what means a lot to you today may not be important tomorrow. Suppose you set a goal, and then life presents a better opportunity, but you cannot see it because you are still pursuing the same old goal. Isn’t that a tragedy? If you have one eye on the goal, that leaves you with just one eye to fulfill your task. This is a very inefficient way to approach life. Both eyes should be on what you are doing right now.

When you focus your energy on the future, you cannot evolve because you are not leaving room for learning. Please close your eyes and try as hard as you can to wish that everything is not as it is. Now open your eyes. Did anything change? Obviously not! You should be completely involved in doing the best you can as the world presents itself today. If you only focus on the results of your actions, you will miss the opportunity to appreciate the outcome when it arrives. You think that if you are not chasing a goal, you will never be successful, but why would this be true? If you put your full attention on whatever you are doing now, the results will follow. You want to surpass your expectations, so why have them in the first place? If you are committed to always doing the best you can, what you call your goal today will be insignificant tomorrow. You cannot experience life to the fullest if you have an eye on the future. Your stress is driven by a limited perspective and constantly changes from goal to goal.

If you accomplish your goal, two scenarios can happen. When you achieve a goal, you set another and another, like a hamster running on a wheel. This is how society tells you to become successful. You live by the misconception that your worth has something to do with your ability to accomplish goals, and if you do not achieve these goals, you are a failure. You believe that the present moment is never good enough, so you keep postponing your happiness. Eventually, you might accomplish your dream goal, the one you have been chasing for years. The kind of goal that takes a tremendous amount of energy and effort. The one you believed would lead to your eternal happiness when you achieved it. Yet, the moment you accomplish it, you feel the same as you always did. All of those feelings of inadequacy are still there. You ask yourself, Why am I feeling the same if I accomplished my dream? Because you cheated yourself the whole way. This is why many people, once they achieve a lot of external success like fame, wealth, or recognition, struggle to find meaning in their lives. That is why Jim Carrey famously said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer. There is nothing wrong with enjoying all of the amazing experiences that this world has to offer. If you find in your heart that you want to have a particular experience, by all means, explore it. But if your activity is only a means to attain a goal, there is no way to enjoy it. You will feel hollow when you reach it. Understand that your value has nothing to do with your ability to scale the social ladder.

If you happen not to accomplish your goal, you are going to be miserable. You naturally blame yourself or worse, someone else, like your mother, the president, bad luck, your boss, or your wife. By living in this goal-setting perspective, you are losing from the start. You are playing a game you cannot win. Instead of having goals, create systems that allow you to experience and appreciate your existence.

There are three key systems you need to install:

• a system of gratitude

• a system of enjoying this moment

• a system of expansion

Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. Gratitude always brings your attention to the present moment. You will enjoy anything you do if you are fully present. Apply a system in which you train yourself to be constantly grateful. From the system of gratitude comes naturally the system of enjoying this moment. Have you ever noticed when you are enjoying the present, you are not chasing any specific goal? Actual treasures are not in the future. Each moment already has tremendous opportunities for growth. From the system of enjoying this moment comes naturally the system of expansion. You can never grow in the future; you can only grow now. Create systems, not goals. Systems always surpass goals exponentially—and without you even chasing them! You are setting a goal based on your limited perspective, and if you finally accomplish it, you will experience a feeling of meaninglessness. If you do not achieve that goal, you are going to be resentful. Goal setting is an absurd waste of time and energy. You are only chasing a goal, which is merely a slight exaggeration of something you already know. You are not letting new possibilities emerge because you are hypnotized by your goal.

So, what’s left? If I have no goals, what should I do? If you want to go somewhere in your life, constantly work on yourself. Do not worry about your damn goal. You do not know what opportunities the world will present at any moment. Continuously apply a growth system in which you evolve, and you will soon realize that the goals you are chasing are so small, they now look insignificant. As Sadhguru says, May your dreams not be fulfilled, let something you could not even dream of happen to you.

Your life should be an adventure and not an obsessive need to reach a destination. As long as you have some defined idea about the future, you cannot experience the present. Chasing a goal drives your attention to the future. If you are going to make a goal, your only goal should be to enjoy this moment. Do not sacrifice yourself for some ideal in the future. You can only experience joy at this moment. Do not fall for the trap the mind creates. When you truly understand this, life ceases to be a task and begins to be pleasurable. So, I hope you never accomplish your goals! I hope that something you cannot even imagine happens to you!

FULLY COMMITTED,

TOTALLY UNATTACHED

To understand the root of your behavior, I would like to explore what in the modern world we call a successful life. A successful life looks like acquiring things and people. But the moment you try to obtain something, no matter what it is, you always experience not having it. Your pursuit is reinforcing the fact that you do not have it in the first place.

A person looking for peace is obviously in conflict. Your quest for peace and happiness is what keeps them away from you. If you cannot be at peace at this moment, what makes you think you will be in the next one? Believing in future heaven creates present hell. Hell is living with expectations, and expectations create attachments. Attachments are the recipe for chronic dissatisfaction and nonfulfillment. Expectations are the source of unhappiness, and attachments are the source of fear. Attachments create fear of not getting what you want, getting what you do not want, or getting what you want and losing it. Attachments and expectations only exist in the mind. This is why nonattachment is discussed in every major spiritual tradition, but it is often misunderstood. Unattachment does not mean that you give up everything and move to a cave in the Himalayas. It only means that you are fully committed to what you are doing but totally unattached to the results. Expectations work like gravity. They cling to your mind and create all sorts of attachments, and it is only your expectations that create your stress.

As a culture, aspirations are focused on material attainment. The one who accumulates more toys wins. Yet have you ever noticed that money is always relatable? If tomorrow Bill Gates were to only wake up with one billion dollars, he would feel poor. Similarly, if the nice fellow who lives in the park would wake up in your shoes, he would feel like a millionaire. The idea that success is synonymous with money is like thinking safety is synonymous with wearing a bulletproof vest. A bulletproof vest can be helpful, but you can still get shot in the head! It is not about getting a specific amount of money; it is about living life to the fullest. This is why Chuck Palahniuk wrote in Fight Club, We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.

People are frustrated and exhausted because they are pursuing contradictory goals. Nothing in the outside world can possibly give you eternal fulfillment because everything around you is constantly changing. Society tells you that if you go to school, get a job, buy a house, or have a family, you will be eternally fulfilled. The contradiction is that you are trained to live for the future, yet you are always in the present. If a sense of inadequacy drives the seed of your behavior, it does not matter what you accomplish. It will never go away. Living in contradiction is exhausting. Anxiety happens because the mind is always saying, I want.

Isn’t it funny how people work to retire? You keep working, doing something you do not like, to keep on living, so you can keep doing something you do not like. Do you see the trap that you are in? If you work in order to retire, you are treating the present as a means to an end. If you are not enjoying your present, I guarantee you will not enjoy retirement either because you are training your mind to always look for happiness in the future. Your belief in future heaven is why you tolerate present hell. And hell is only in your imagination, so get out of there. Do not waste any more time in this trap. In fact, I hope you never retire! I hope you will always find projects that excite and challenge you. Working to retire is a goal-oriented life that is leading nowhere. The way you get everything you want is by realizing you already have it.

Do you not see the search for happiness makes you feel like you lack it in the first place? The urge to be happy is natural, but the means you are using are misleading. Happiness is always in some other place or some other moment. It is always in the past, in the good old days, or in an imaginary future. The past gives you an identity, and the future gives you a promise of fulfillment. Neither one exists. Both are an illusion. You are willing to sacrifice your present opportunity for joy for an imaginary reward in the future. How crazy is this? When you live life merely for the results of your actions, your sacrifices end up being in vain because you are wasting the only thing you truly have: this moment. Have you ever questioned why it is called the present? Because the present is a gift! Enjoy it.

Happiness does not depend on any person or circumstance. When you place it in something outside yourself, you live as a slave to external circumstances, scared that someone can take it away. Tethering your happiness to an external object like money or possessions, a person like your girlfriend or husband, or a circumstance such as a job is a recipe for dissatisfaction because you are constantly fearful and hypervigilant.