How to Reverse the Gap

In this solo episode, James reviews “The Code of the Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani and discusses some major concepts from the book, which can allow you to live the best life possible.

In his book, Lakhiani reveals how he built Mindvalley, but got to a breaking point and almost had to close the doors. After making a major shift, which he refers to as “Bending Reality”, the company grew revenue over 400% in just 8 months and started attracting their dream clients along with an amazing team.

He did this by bringing the powerful presence of gratitude and happiness into the present moment, and in the book he says:

“Be happy now. Your thoughts and beliefs do create your reality, but only when your present state is joyful.”

The second step was creating an excited anticipation for the future. James notes that as entrepreneurs, we already have goals, but often run into frustration, become impatient and burn out. He says there is a huge difference between going through the motions of gratitude and having an experience of truly feeling it.

“Gratitude is the vibration of receiving, and if you’re grateful for what you already have, it only invites more to come your way”

Lakhiani refers to Dan Sullivan’s theory of appreciating the “reverse gap.” We often beat ourselves up when we’re not where we want to be in life, but we can take a moment to reflect and look back at how far we’ve come. To do this, make a list of the results that you’ve created in your personal and work life. This can be one of the best things you can do to move forward when feeling overwhelmed.

Every day, as part of your routine, Lakhiani says to identify three to five things that you’re grateful for. You can start with the small things that make you happy and you smile about.

“We shouldn’t do things so we can be happy, we should be happy so we can do things”

To shed our past, one of the most powerful things we can do is to practice the act of forgiveness. First, make a list of people that you don’t feel 100% complete with in your life. Then, follow the next steps:

1) Set the scene

Close your eyes, get present and imaging the person standing before you. Then recreate the scene that has triggered your emotions.

2) Step into the anger and pain

Relive the situation while bringing up the emotions as much as you can.

3) Forgive and love

Take a moment to actually step into the other person’s shoes and imagine what life might be life for them. Then, intentionally forgive them and imagine them doing the same for you.

James adds that carrying around frustrations of the past will affect your productivity, intuition and creativity, and these steps will act as “detox” for your soul.

“Take a moment to forgive and move on; the past is done and this is about now”

The book also asks readers three important questions to consider:

1) If time and money were no object and I did not have to seek anyone’s permission, what kind of experiences would my soul crave?

2) In order to have these experiences, how do I have to grow? What sort of man or woman do I need to evolve into?

3) If I have the experience that I have listed above and I’ve grown in these remarkable ways, then how can I give back to the world?

Make sure that you don’t have an attachment to your big goals, and remember that the future doesn’t define you if things don’t happen to go your way.

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LINKS:

“The Code of the Extraordinary Mind” by Vishen Lakhiani

Why Happiness is the New Productivity (Video)

Mindvalley

“The Great Pain Deception” by Steve Ozanich

“Waking Up” by Sam Harris

Forty Years of Zen

Dan Sullivan’s Website