Is there a leak in your boat?

Every day, it's the same routine.

Alarm goes off. Hit the snooze. Hit it again. Wake up. Head out on the ship's deck. Rearrange the deck chairs.

Repeat at noon, and then again at night.

Wake up tomorrow. Do it all over again.

All the while, something deep inside you know's something's wrong.

First, the ship seems to be slowing down.

Stagnation.

And is it just your imagination, or is the ship going lower into the water?

Should you go down below deck and check the engine room? See if something has pierced the hull and if the ship is taking on water?

That's just too much to think about. Ignore it. Don't "rock the boat" (pun intended).

Go back to rearranging the chairs.

The ship goes from slow to a complete stop.

Keep rearranging the chairs.

The ship is sinking.

Rearrange the chairs faster. Make sure it tires you out — because more struggle will fix the problem (right? RIGHT?!?!?!).

Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

Until one day, you come out on deck, and most of the ship is submerged. The deck chairs have floated into the sea.

Panic ensues. You blame it on bad luck.

And now, only now as you're about to drown, you're ready to admit there's a problem.

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In my book, Five Pillars of the Freedom Lifestyle, we refer to the sinking ship as an "infrastructure rattling" event (a phrase shared with me by podcaster/author/entrepreneur Tim Alison.)

Quite often, we can sense that event is coming; we know intuitively that the ship is sinking — but it's just too painful to deal with now.

It's not that we consciously want that event to occur, but our subconscious mind (which is responsible for 95% of our cognition) is steering our ship; convincing us that we can ignore it, that it's easier for the event to force our hand than it is to knowingly choose today to disrupt our peace and harmony.

And so we ignore the signs until our deck is submerged.

For more than eight years, I ignored the signs until everything around me started to crumble; until the pain of poor health, anxiety attacks, and threatened relationships forced me to realize that change was necessary. So I made a massive change and shut down my seven-figure PR/ad agency at peak revenue to prevent myself from drowning.

But not everyone makes the change in time.

And one of those painful things I've experienced during the past four years of coaching, training, and mentoring is having the same people come to me year after year after year — knowing their ship is sinking, feeling that they need to make a change, but "annually" refusing to do so.

One man recently even told me he "knew" that he was waiting until the pain was so great that he would be forced to make a change.

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If you feel like your boat is sinking, but you just can't seem to take action to plug the leaks — does that make you lazy, or unmotivated, or "less than?"

Absolutely not.

It makes you human.

And, as I wrote above, 95% of your cognition is controlled by your subconscious mind. So, even if you consciously want to make a change, that's only 5% — and that 5% will get it's arse kicked by the 95% every single time...

Unless you go below deck to identify the subconscious limiting and bogus beliefs that are causing you to self-sabotage and ignore the problems, your subconscious will continue to pull you into the depths of the sea.

In fact, it's those beliefs that are causing the leaks in the first place.

Because they're subconscious, you probably don't even know they're there or where they came from. But we all have them.

Since the time we're born, our subconscious is being programmed; downloading beliefs and other programming that's right in front of us, and in our backgrounds.

Parents. Peers. Politicians. Pastors.

All programming us.

Not all of that programming — not all of our beliefs — are harmful. Many of them are good.

And it's not that (most) people had ill-will in programming you with even the most limiting of beliefs. It's just that, well, they're programmed, as well, and don't realize their behaviors were also programming you.

The ignoring of problems and just focusing on rearranging the deck chairs?

Perhaps that's what one of your parents did throughout your life, and so you picked up this belief.

The list of beliefs could go on and on, and it's not about assigning blame and fault to your programmers — but it is about taking 100% responsibility to identify the limiting beliefs, clear and clean them, and then align them with your behaviors to start attracting what you want.

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So, what does this have to do with wu-wei — the state of "effortless action" we discussed in the previous newsletter?

You tell me — is a leaky ship that's taking on water flowing effortlessly through the water?

Of course not.

It slows. It grinds. It stops. It sinks.

No amount of rearranging the deck chairs, no matter how fast or hard or determined you rearrange them, is going to make the ship go farther or faster.

The first step to wu-wei is having awareness.

Awareness isn't about panicking or worrying about the leaks, but it certainly isn't about ignoring them and hoping they'll go away (or hoping they'll force your hand at some point in the future).

Awareness is about knowing where and why the leaks are there. Identifying them. Plugging them.

Once that's done, the ship can continue on, effortlessly, to flow toward your destination.

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Do you feel like your ship has leaks? Perhaps it's slowed or maybe it's even sinking?

Are you finally ready to identify, clear, and clean those beliefs so you can plug them and get back into your state of flow and effortless action?

If so, send me a message and let's chat. Our Beliefs & Behaviors Workshop or our 30 Day Mindful Month Decelerator might be just right for you.

****

Curt Mercadante helps you relax into your power and shift your beliefs to cultivate TRUE FREEDOM through a life of joy, health, and prosperity. He's created and scaled three profitable businesses, including a seven-figure PR and ad agency he shut down at peak revenue to to live a more effortless life with his wife and kids. Check out Curt's Freedom Experiences lineup here to learn more about he can help you live a life of wu-wei.

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