[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Mr.Mustache

I agree that generally speaking that to earn a billion dollars requires the generation of a billion dollars worth of value to others, but in the article you seem to imply that all that is required is that one needs only an abundance mindset to attract a billion dollars or whatever amount of money. How much of a role do you believe intention has (or potentially has) over productivity or vis versa.

I recommend that you learn more about Steve.

Your question is interesting, but in general, I find I can answer most questions I have about Steve's content (I have very few now since I kind of "get" Steve pretty well) by drawing on my knowledge of Steve.

Since his content shifts in many different ways so often and so quickly, it's not ideal to rely on understanding the content alone--unless you enjoy being confused.

Interestingly, I now find information about Steve's personal projects and progressions to be even more helpful than his actual content, probably because such reports turn into quasi-articles since I'm essentially further fleshing out things he's already written about, and his real-life project reports (i.e. things he mentions he's doing, etc) act as examples.

I've never actually considered why that is before, but there you go, heh. This quote continues to hold up for me:

Fortunately, the act of composition, or creation, disciplines the mind; writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.
– Strunk and White, Elements of Style, Sirlin.net — Your source of shocking insights on game design » Writing Well, Part 2: Clear Thinking, Clear Writing

Originally Posted by Mr.Mustache

Then why not simply double the amount of value you're creating? What do beliefs have to do with anything other than motivation? How practical is it to try and develop an abundance mindset when you could be thinking of ways to generate more value? How do you know you're not attributing an effect from the universe that isn't there?

Your "what do beliefs have to do with anything other than motivation" question kind of makes me do a double-take (the answer: a lot!), but in general, I find that asking these questions isn't terribly helpful--at least, not directly--since it has more to do with a process that you don't need for the particular issue you may be working on.

For example, yesterday I read Steve's article and thought, "huh, some nice ideas there... I wonder if I could apply them to what I'm trying to do" (which is far too large in scope to cover in this forum post). Long story short, I realised that the best way was to trust myself and go with the original solution I had already decided on.

I find that this pattern holds up, too. Usually the most effective route is what I think I should do, regardless of how good a specific idea may seem. Perhaps my execution of some ideas isn't good, but then, does it need to be? Perhaps listening to myself just naturally aligns me with my strengths, and developing in other areas, at least in terms of strengths-theory, isn't an effective use of my time (I'm not saying developing other skills and gaining knowledge is not useful; that's another point entirely).

Perhaps you get what I'm talking about, but this whole "trust yourself, not external concepts" seems to be a really obvious concept and I'm not sure why it isn't widely known (in general, there's a heavy emphasis on processes and methods instead of self awareness and self trust--what Steve might call truth, which also includes power somewhere in there). I'd have figured that humans would have solved and clearly documented this already.

But then I've been known to greatly exaggerate what people are capable of (not trying to talk myself up here at all; people just consistently don't meet my expectations, although I do encounter some nice exceptions). I'm also aware that you can be so close to your talents that you aren't even aware of when they're in play. Perhaps I should start a blog.

(I'm only half kidding there. I've considered it, but really, I'm not sure how I can convey these ideas without them becoming processes, or without people being confused by the high level-ness of it all, since most of these ideas fit into a philosophy and don't work too well in isolation. But I digress, although, really this is all related, but me talking about how related it is will probably be far to abstract for people--again, not bragging, most people just think more in terms of--to use a GTD analogy--the "runway" while I think more in terms of "lightyears away in space" Really it's all about different ways of looking at the world, but my digressing is becoming intense.).