Rock Bottom And Where To Go From Here.

Developing Your Path to Mastery, to unveil your greatest visions and attain your truest potential. Explaining my process of reaching rock bottom and how I got out of it and built something and become someone I'm very proud and grateful for.

Transcript

Hi.

Today I wanted to share a little bit about myself and what I do and why I decided to share it in the first place.

About a year ago I experienced a collapse of many areas of my life.

My business was failing,

My relationships were fading,

My projects,

My goals were shifting or falling apart right before my eyes.

I was out of money,

I was out of ideas,

And I just felt like I lost hope.

Part of me felt excited.

I knew that this rock bottom would give me a level foundation to really start over and track what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong.

I knew what the bottom felt like so I was very familiar with it so I knew if I'm improving this,

I'm improving and vice versa.

So at first when things fell apart I started to notice myself blaming others and creating narratives.

I was able to recognize the familiarity of that blaming and pointing externally and I noticed that each chapter every few years of my life,

Which was a collection of projects,

People,

Ideas,

Views,

Problems,

Solutions,

Things I was proud of,

Things I was avoiding,

Was sort of like a chapter and that chapter would expand and be great and fall apart and then I'd sort of pick up the pieces,

Create a narrative,

And start to do it again.

Each time I noticed that I was growing and I was excited about that and I was attaining more success and experiencing life at the fullest each time,

But I felt like the volatility of having to start over and rebuild reputation,

Rebuild resources,

Rebuild new ideas,

I wanted to experience what compound interest was across those fields of relationships,

Business,

Everything.

So I realized that if each of these chapters ends in this narrative blame game,

That's the first place to start.

If I can stop and rather than blame I can take more responsibility and hold myself accountable as much as possible,

Knowing I couldn't be perfect but I could do better than I was before and wherever I was taking responsibility in the past in each of these chapters I noticed that I was growing in those areas and when I was blaming others I'd sort of uphold a story and gather people around me,

Vices around me,

To sort of justify that story or conform why that story isn't working in my favor.

So this time around I was able to kind of call myself out on that,

The bullcrap I guess you could call it,

And at first it was very very painful seeing where you're being lazy,

Seeing where you're being unskilled,

Seeing where you're trying to hide things and it takes a lot of work and it will,

You know,

That work will never really end but you start to recognize the,

Like I said,

The familiarity of bad habits,

Whether it's blaming or conforming or numbing,

Masking,

Distracting,

There's all these types of bad habits and I started to notice in opposite good habits.

So I thought of these more as like virtues,

Giving effort,

Being honest with the reality of the way things are,

With the truth of things.

True,

Honest effort,

Taking action,

Showing up,

Doing my best.

So there was kind of this reverse effect and I noticed the more I would lean into my virtues and the more I would limit my vices,

The better my life was and the more foundation began to build upon this rock bottom.

And so I started to piece together pieces of a framework and various frameworks.

I recognized that things were working.

At some degree,

At some level,

I was feeling growth and a new me,

Someone I've been longing to become and realize.

So I started to organize these things into frameworks and it was very vague at first,

You know,

Trying to figure out what you were doing differently.

It was just simple habits and simple things.

Oh,

I was doing a little less of this and a little more of that.

And so I had to take a step back and be like,

Okay,

If I'm trying to develop myself,

What is myself?

When I stand in my body and I am inside of my brain,

Somewhere in there,

Somewhere behind my eyes,

Somewhere through and in between all of that,

What is it?

And I noticed that I could frame it in any way I wanted.

And so I needed to just put something on paper and I would refine it over time.

And I like rhyming,

I like wordplay,

And so I kind of worked in between this intuitive,

Just,

Ideation and kind of this rhyming,

Memorable framework.

And what came through was four segments of self,

The aspects of self is what I call it.

And the first aspect of self is mind.

And I think of mind more than my thoughts.

It is the awareness behind all of it.

It's the person that's aware of you thinking.

It's the thing aware of you thinking.

It's your soul.

Maybe.

Who knows.

But the mind covers that point.

Within your mind,

There are your thoughts.

Within your mind,

There is a body in which you can control,

You have responsibility of,

You take care of it.

And then the environment,

The world around you,

Things that are within your control,

And things that are beyond your control.

So within mind is thoughts,

Body,

Environment.

I started to just write down things I would think of,

Problems that would come up,

Ideations,

Insights,

Solutions that I would find,

And I just start placing them inside of these documents,

These sections.

The next piece I realized was I'm not just a person thinking and moving a body and experiencing the world around me.

That's one very important aspect.

But another piece is my mission.

So the second aspect of self is mission.

And the mission is essentially what drives you,

Where you feel called,

Your destiny,

And the pathway to it.

And sometimes we forget about our mission,

And sometimes we remember it.

I notice in extreme highs and lows,

We are able to tap into it with like a longing energy,

Or I think I'm on on the right track.

So within mission is your purpose,

Why you're doing what you are doing,

Why you are seeking what you are seeking,

And your vision.

What do you wish to create into the world because of the purpose that you feel connected to?

And then action.

How do you break down the steps and show up and make this happen?

Bringing your mission to life.

Basically attaining your destiny.

The next piece was natural to follow.

I know and I'm discovering who I am,

My mind,

And everything within it.

My thoughts,

My body,

And the environment.

And I know my mission.

I know my purpose,

Or at least I'm learning to know.

I'm seeing my vision and continuing to refine that clarity.

And I'm taking action and getting better at that.

So what's the next piece?

The next piece came through as skills.

What do I need to learn and develop to be able to walk this path towards my mission as myself?

So skills I essentially was able to break down into three parts,

Just the same.

So foundational skills,

Speaking,

Writing,

Persuasion,

Sales,

Organization,

Contemplation.

Different skills that basically are universal for most people.

The next was technical.

Those were more niche towards you as a person.

And usually it's a tool between you and the craft.

So drawing,

Coding,

Designing,

Music.

Different technical skills fit within all of that.

There's so many compartments and areas.

Getting really good at notion is a skill.

Getting really good at managing your calendar is a skill,

A technical skill.

So skills kind of sit within foundational and technical.

And then the overarching basis,

The third part of skills is mastery.

Just the overarching engine that takes you all the way forever.

And then the fourth aspect of self I realized was systems.

So with systems,

It's basically what you do every day,

How you do it,

And why you're doing it,

And how it all connects.

So you can have systems for how you manage your home.

Systems for how you hold yourself accountable to exercising.

You can have systems for how you track all of your memories and archive your important keepsakes.

You can have systems for how you do tasks and make things and stay up to date with your family members and with your network.

These are all systems.

When someone doesn't have good systems,

They might be shoddy at responding.

They might be basically inconsistent.

So systems are a way to be consistent in many areas of your life and bring them all together.

So the three parts of systems are productivity systems,

Creativity systems,

And the consistency of systems.

So mind,

Mission,

Skills,

Systems,

And the three parts within,

I noticed that everything I was working on could kind of fit into these parts.

And then I was able to look at the emotions and the state of myself.

This is kind of the next framework.

I call this the pillars of life.

So the experience of life consists of many areas.

And I was able to get these down into 10 areas to be able to manage things and see my life in a more balanced way.

So I call this the pillars and projects actually of life.

So it's what makes you and what you create.

So what makes me are my pillars.

And I have these states of being.

My mental state,

Physical,

Spiritual,

Personal,

Philosophical,

Creative,

Professional,

Relational,

Organizational,

And environmental.

I noticed that I could rate these states,

These pillars on a scale of one to 10 and give myself a timeline on how I could get those to be a hypothetical 10.

And it would give me clarity on what I needed to do.

And then it would give me this balanced perspective of all of it together.

So rather than getting lost in worrying about your professional state,

Or your relational state in some sector and subsector,

You can say,

Hey,

My relational state matters,

But so does my mental state.

So does my physical state.

And so when I was able to see these pillars together,

The goal of pillars is to hold up a foundation above it,

Right?

They stand upon a foundation and they hold up another level.

So how am I supposed to climb to the next level,

If there's a pillar that's not as high as the other?

And no wonder I feel out of balance or in a state of dis-ease,

If these are not balanced,

If these are not at the same rate.

And if they're below five,

I'm not,

I'm going backwards.

And if they're above five,

I'm going forwards.

So where is below five and where is above five.

So I started to do this and play with this.

And I built a framework that would help me manage this.

And I would notice when I was feeling good,

Things were sitting around six,

Seven,

Eight.

When I was not doing too good or ignoring certain areas,

Things would sit around threes or fours or twos.

And it was very helpful.

It gave me a lot of clarity and a lot of perspective as a whole.

And then I noticed that if I placed my projects next to my pillars,

I could do the same thing.

And it also allowed me to stay within a certain number of projects because I'm the type of person that needs a few different types of projects.

And it just feels natural to me to be able to work between a few different things,

But not too many.

And so if I placed my pillars and projects next to each other,

I could see,

Hey,

I'm doing good.

I'm moving forward in balance,

Or hey,

I'm falling behind or I'm out of balance.

So that's the next framework.

We'll dive into these frameworks in much greater detail as we go.

And I also have a book coming out that dives into these,

As well as a template that you can use to essentially house a second brain to manage everything in your life within these frameworks.

And you can change them however you want,

Because there's no one size that fits all.

So the next framework that I've been developing is the path continuum.

One of the main things I realized on my journey of hitting rock bottom and climbing and tracking and iterating and preparing to share this was that life consists of two folds,

One of being and one of doing.

And so,

Like I said,

I like to play on words.

And so I found a memorable way to understand and remind myself what actually matters.

It allows me to be more patient and allows me to be more consistent.

So doing what you do,

Practices,

Ambitions,

Tasks,

And habits.

P-A-T-H.

Who you are being.

Purpose,

Awareness,

Tranquility,

And healing.

P-A-T-H.

And so I think of a continuum,

Like an infinity sign or a figure eight turned on its side.

And if on one side,

It says practices,

Ambitions,

Tasks,

And habits,

What you are doing,

Purpose,

Awareness,

Tranquility,

Healing,

How you are being.

And so you are doing and being and the doing supports the being and the being supports the doing.

It reminds me what matters and it reminds me to assess what am I practicing?

What are my goals,

My ambitions?

What are the tasks I'm putting before me?

What are my tasks today?

And what are the habits I'm upholding?

How can I improve these?

Because I want to improve my state of purpose.

I want to improve my state of awareness.

I want to improve my state of tranquility and peace within myself.

And I want to improve my healing,

Healing of my mind,

Healing of my body.

That's just what I want.

And so when you get lost in thinking you need certain things to fulfill yourself,

The path continuum allows you to step back and go within and find the source of what you actually are seeking,

Which of course is purpose,

Awareness,

Tranquility,

And healing.

That's worth more than any physical material item or social external validator.

And so basically keeps the engine running on a sustainable fuel and it just vibrates better as a whole.

So that's another framework I've been working on.

Like I said,

We'll dive into these much deeper and I have other ones I'm working on.

And like I said,

I'll have more and more content available to help put the pieces together.

And I encourage you to iterate and improve whatever I throw your way.

There is no one size that fits all.

This is Daniel Hanks,

And I'm a student of mastery at TECA,

The Center for Mastery.

Be happy and at ease.