The Past DOES Equal the Future (Blog)

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by James81

I really think you're taking him too literally. And in that regard, his post about this is pretty confusing.

His point with this post from what I can gather is that the past will equal the future. So in order to CHANGE your future, you have to change your past. Which, in this case, means you have to start doing things in the PRESENT that will become your past, that will become your future.

Which is clear as frikin mud, I know.

Essentially the basis of his entire post is: take action today such that you create past reference points and habits that carry over into your future.

Yup, I know what he's saying, I just don't like how he's saying it because I know after a few weeks or months people will remember the title of the post literally and forget the "meaning" behind it.

Last week I was talking to someone who has a part time job and loves it, and they are building their own business part time too, but it is not one of those cases where they want to build the business up to the point where they can quit their job because they really don't like it. In this case the person actually like the job they have and the business they are building.

However, they had feelings of guilt about having a job so I asked them why and after some digging we found that this person had a belief that "You should never get a job". When I asked him who he learned that from, he said "Steve Pavlina".

It's these kinds of statements that turn into beliefs for people.

I supposed I should thank Steve, as he's creating a whole set of new clients I can help 6 months from now by uninstalling the "Future = Past" limiting belief they'll have, lol.

[James81]

Originally Posted by impaul99

Yup, I know what he's saying, I just don't like how he's saying it because I know after a few weeks or months people will remember the title of the post literally and forget the "meaning" behind it.

The type of people who will forget the meaning behind his post are the same type of people who won't make those changes anyway.

If you don't even care enough to hang onto the concepts you learn in personal development, what makes you think that you'll care enough to actually put them into action?

(general "you" there btw, not you specifically)

[Angela]

Originally Posted by impaul99

I supposed I should thank Steve, as he's creating a whole set of new clients I can help 6 months from now by uninstalling the "Future = Past" limiting belief they'll have, lol.

That's a nice perspective. I've already helped some people who believed they were nazis thanks to Steve.

[James81]

Originally Posted by Angela

That's a nice perspective. I've already helped some people who believed they were nazis thanks to Steve.

God bless you for that.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Angela

That's a nice perspective. I've already helped some people who believed they were nazis thanks to Steve.

Yeah, maybe we should both just shut up and reserve our opinions for paying clients.

I haven't ran across the "Nazi" one yet, but polarization comes up all the time, lol.

Incidentally, I did think of one spin on this article that will benefit me I think. I'm going to go through my journals and look at different areas in my life and ask:

(1) What's changed in this area of my life that I am currently discounting? How have things gotten better/worse?

(2) What hasn't changed in this area of my life and why? Is it because I am happy with how things are, or have I simply not applied enough energy into it to make a positive change?

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by Angela

ssandra, Sasha was at it again, trying to get at your avatar, so this time I thought I'd capture a photo of her -- see if it's a love connection.

LOL I like your cat a lot. She's very pretty... Unfortunately, Tortuga doesn't seem interested... she just wants to look outside where the birds are....

Tortuga isn't really a cats cat. We had another cat that we had to give away because she is simply too jealous...

[AdamZ]

Thanks for the article. Like a lot of what you write it shows good common sense.

The part I liked the best was when you said (paraphrasing), who will be more likely to have written a book in a year? Someone who has an idea and goes around talking about it, or someone who has the habit of sitting down and writing a couple of pages every morning, even though they might not have a clue what the book is going to be about? To state the obvious, I would certainly put my money on the second guy.

This reminds me of stuff I have read on a religious website that says its much easier to change your feelings by changing what you do every day than it is to change what you do every day by changing your feelings. The latter may be possible, but is very difficult. The former is much easier, and seems to be more in sync with human nature.

I appreciate this blog very much. I guess the writer is making a real effort to be brave and honest, and to share what he has learned along the way.

[Jim Freeman]

Speaking of replying, or commenting, or caring about each others input, I'd very much like to thank all of you guys, sincerely, because I've truly enjoyed this discussion(s). Almost all analysis and insights were profound and rich. Along the way there have been some very good laughs too thanks to "The Ladies" .

Special thanks to Acting Like Godot, for the Problem of Ted. In fact, whether Ted exists or does not exist rather inspired me of a solution to the historical riddle: Why did the chicken cross the road? Because the chicken used to, I may now argue. Because it feels good. It's a chickens' unconscious habit to cross the road. People like you make us always think the chicken had a goal whereas, obviously, there were absolutely none. lol

* * *

Finally, as this thread is almost exhausted by now, I'd like to clarify only one off-topic point in the end, to whom it may concern. I just care not to be misunderstood particularly regarding the Law of Attraction.

Contrary to what my earlier words here may have suggested, I do wholeheartedly believe in the law of attraction. This law, however, is only one of at least 10 other laws all integrating and always working together. It therefore requires so much knowledge, development and sensitivity before we can master or control its power. Truth is, it's by God's grace that many do NOT manifest what they try to, for they're probably unaware of the price involved if they do. Yes, there is always a price (by the twin Law of Balance), a basic fact perfectly hidden today for the Industry of Dreams to keep running.

Well, this is just for now to clarify my stance. In one word, I didn't mean to deny or even question The Law, God forbid ; only how accessible it really is especially for a "complete jerk" as I then described.

* * *

Thanks again everyone and have a good night.



* * *

[danas]

Originally Posted by Angela

That's a nice perspective. I've already helped some people who believed they were nazis thanks to Steve.

That just made me laugh out loud
beautiful avatar btw

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by danas

That just made me laugh out loud
beautiful avatar btw

Yeah, me too. At least Steve makes it really easy to challenge his beliefs in the minds of our clients. All you really have to say is "Don't believe everything Steve says, just because he says it. Heck, he himself admits that he doesn't believe his own beliefs."

[danas]

Originally Posted by impaul99

Yeah, me too. At least Steve makes it really easy to challenge his beliefs in the minds of our clients. All you really have to say is "Don't believe everything Steve says, just because he says it. Heck, he himself admits that he doesn't believe his own beliefs."

I can imagine a client saying " I ate an omlette today, maybe I deserve to be hanged because Steve Pavlina said..."
but anyway I think that's the thing about his posts, the titles make you read them, not because you agree with them but because you don't, if I knew the post's meaning was already in the title maybe I wouldn't be as curious to read them. They serve as teasers

[Futhark]

This is an interesting article. When I started reading I had to realize I was reading Steve Pavlina and not some Law of Attraction author. Exactly why I liked the article. No ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. These kinds of articles are inspired and bring people's made up world crashing down. I especially liked how analyzing my past showed me both good things and bad things. At its best, this article helps people destroy illusions they have as to what paths they are on. The effect is that one can look at their past with logic and make changes on logic rather than emotions.

One for me that I especially loved is that, without a doubt, a year from now I will be writing, on a healthy job path that slowly is climbing in terms of quality, and a good relationship with my wife.

The bad things I realized is that I will continue some kind of chemical dependence (I am an occasional smoker, especially on weekends with friends, and I love coffee even though I have more energy when I don't drink it).

It's never the wrong time to break up some illusions! Good job Steve!

My immediate reaction to this blog article I posted under "Into the Forest Phenomenon" on my blog listed below.

[pjhaggerty]

so basically, steve thinks that the goal is to get to a place in your life where you can objectively predict that everything will keep getting better if you keep doing what you've done. The only way to do that is to establish new habits and break old habits. You can only relax into the habit when you have concrete evidence in the past 30-90 days that you've followed the habit, at which point you can reliably predict you will keep doing the habit.

goals, visualizations, forum reading, life coaches, etc. are all designed to help you establish the habits that you want and destroy the habits you don't want.

once the new habits are in place, then just stick with the habits and watch out for any deviations

putting the new habits into place is the project where most people get stuck, unfortunately, because habit change is harder than they realize and takes a concerted effort. in fact, because of this, you should only focus on one or two habits at a time and specifically establish those habits. once established, you just have to keep doing them until you reach your goal, and then decide rather to continue or not.

but as long as you can develop that habit, it's all good to get to your goals.

and if you haven't established that habit and don't have concrete evidence from your recent past that your habit/goal getting behavior is underway, then the safest thing to predict is that your goal is not happening any time soon, and you need to focus on establishing that habit if you want to achieve the goal.

[Federer]

Originally Posted by spirit4711

No problem and no need to apologize.



Online discussions are a bit different than real life discussions. The fact that you don't get a reply doesn't mean your contribution isn't valuable.

What I do if I really want a response and I don't get one: re-phrase.

Thanks spirit.

fact is i was waiting with great patient, then i saw great communication here and rushed to it. Thought what if people miss my effort to understanding this article. Now it has been cleared and i am cheering up!

[Andrew Michaels]

Nice. I just finished my third-person perspective analysis of my likely future based on my recent past. It got fairly detailed and hit up all the suggested categories. I've set up a calender alarm for April 22 2011. Should be fun to see how I've done.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by pjhaggerty

so basically, steve thinks that the goal is to get to a place in your life where you can objectively predict that everything will keep getting better if you keep doing what you've done. The only way to do that is to establish new habits and break old habits. You can only relax into the habit when you have concrete evidence in the past 30-90 days that you've followed the habit, at which point you can reliably predict you will keep doing the habit.

...

and if you haven't established that habit and don't have concrete evidence from your recent past that your habit/goal getting behavior is underway, then the safest thing to predict is that your goal is not happening any time soon, and you need to focus on establishing that habit if you want to achieve the goal.

YES!

Our results in life are largely created by our habits.

For example, the habit of writing and self-publishing has brought many cool results into my life. Writing an article one time or even 10 times didn't achieve much. But the ongoing habit made a remarkable difference over time.

Logically I have good reason to expect those results to continue to accumulate. After 5+ years of regular writing, it would take a major force to knock me off the habit.

One thing I didn't mention in this article (but I do talk about at CGW) is that positive prediction begets positive emotions. It's easy to feel positive when you can logically predict a positive future for yourself... simply by taking note of all the good habits you have on autopilot. When your predictions are largely negative, however, you'll often end up with feelings like worry, dread, and stress.

You can't help but make predictions. Your brain does it automatically, whether you like it or not.

[pjhaggerty]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

YES!

Our results in life are largely created by our habits.

For example, the habit of writing and self-publishing has brought many cool results into my life. Writing an article one time or even 10 times didn't achieve much. But the ongoing habit made a remarkable difference over time.

Logically I have good reason to expect those results to continue to accumulate. After 5+ years of regular writing, it would take a major force to knock me off the habit.

One thing I didn't mention in this article (but I do talk about at CGW) is that positive prediction begets positive emotions. It's easy to feel positive when you can logically predict a positive future for yourself... simply by taking note of all the good habits you have on autopilot. When your predictions are largely negative, however, you'll often end up with feelings like worry, dread, and stress.

You can't help but make predictions. Your brain does it automatically, whether you like it or not.

so, it will get you what you want and you'll feel good about it. if you bring that line of reasoning backwards, it would imply that if you do have feelings such as worry, dread, and stress, there's actually a good reason (i.e. a negative prediction based on your habits) for those feelings. The way to permanently erase those bad feelings would be to change the underlying habit, change the results, and change the prediction. The feeling should be a motivator to change. As opposed to how most people do it, which is try and feel better without really changing their habits or predictions, which won't sustainably make anyone feel better.

on the other hand, if you are feeling positive about something, then it doesn't really require too much of your conscious attention because most likely it will continue to improve on it's own if you don't change anything, which is good.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

YES!

Our results in life are largely created by our habits.

For example, the habit of writing and self-publishing has brought many cool results into my life. Writing an article one time or even 10 times didn't achieve much. But the ongoing habit made a remarkable difference over time.

Logically I have good reason to expect those results to continue to accumulate. After 5+ years of regular writing, it would take a major force to knock me off the habit.

One thing I didn't mention in this article (but I do talk about at CGW) is that positive prediction begets positive emotions. It's easy to feel positive when you can logically predict a positive future for yourself... simply by taking note of all the good habits you have on autopilot. When your predictions are largely negative, however, you'll often end up with feelings like worry, dread, and stress.

You can't help but make predictions. Your brain does it automatically, whether you like it or not.

But how exactly do people establish these new habits if they have a limiting belief like "The Past DOES Equal the Future"?

Before I started writing Blog posts for my Blog 4 years ago I had zero Blog writing experience, I had no daily established habit of writing Blog posts, no habit of marketing my Blog, nothing. At that point in April 2006, I visualized a future where I would write Blog posts on a regular basis and build a habit out of it.

Even though I had ZERO indicators from the past that I would ever be able to run a successful Blog, I believed that "The Past Does NOT Equal the Future" as per Tony's teachings, and I used that belief to "predict" a new future which motivated me to start my new Blog and build a new habit of writing.

The past does not equal the future is a favorite saying of Tony Robbins.

Unfortunately he’s dead wrong.

How exactly do people go about even first creating the desire to establish a new habit if they don't first believe that "the future does not equal the past"?

In Tony's story he talks about how he DID create new habits and take new actions, growing his income from nothing to over +$10k/m, but then he sabotaged his success due to a fear of success and found himself broke, overweight and unhappy. To make things worse at that time he had a belief that "The Past DOES Equal the Future" so he didn't even see a point in trying to rebuild those success habits because he "predicted" that he would just sabotage things again.

It was only later, after some tough love from a friend that he had the realization that the past does NOT equal the future which gave him the motivation to re-establish his previous success habit because he now believed that just because he sabotaged his success in the past, doesn't mean he's going to do it again in the future.

We're not the same people we were a week ago, or even just yesterday, so our "past performance" is not an accurate indicator of the future. Otherwise we would never be able to change anything in our lives, we would just be stuck where we are today forever.

Also, when I ran different companies in the corporate sector, some of the best employees I hired were the ones who were young, ambitious and had a vision of where they wanted to be in the future, not the ones who had the best track record.

In fact, in almost every case except maybe one, the ones who had resumes with "proven track records" in the past expected to get paid much more based on that track record and then performed sub-par compared to it.

[Carl Carlson IV]

IMO Both Tony and Steve are correct here. I think when Mr. Robbins talks about this he is saying don't hold the limiting belief that if you did something horrible in the years past that is can and should effect your future. You have the power to change. Not change the past, but change how you feel and act on the past. You should not let the past limit you, that's the message I get from Robbins. Using the past to predict the future is also a very strong way to assess where you're heading.

It's the same message, just spoken in a different way.

[Savage]

@Paul: For the how-to part, read the linked article "Goals Into Habits."

[supertom]

Dont remember a post that created so much resistance.

To add on writing, Stephen king writes 1500 words everyday and he says that books just pile up by them self

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by supertom

Dont remember a post that created so much resistance.

Missed the Chicken Nazi's?

Modern-Day Nazis (Blog)

[supertom]

i didnt even get this post until he posted the habits entry

[Les]

So true! I especially relate to the "Gung Ho Dufus". I often quote Jim Rohn: “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.” Another is "What do you get when you motivate a moron?" Answer: "A motivated moron" - the point being that motivation without learning is not only useless but often leads to bad consequences.

[Jim Freeman]

Unbelievable! Just unbelievable! I thought long ago this die-hard thread had been already exhausted. But it still attracts even new comers to share with their very first impressions. Why? I've never seen anything like this. The thread doesn't like to go? As if it just refuses to die.

Originally Posted by supertom

Dont remember a post that created so much resistance.

* Is it some unconscious, huge desire accumulating through the years to lay siege to Steve Pavlina--and, so it seemed, eventually came a chance;

* Or, is it Steve Pavlina enjoying the show, himself manifesting more and more comments on one of his worst--or his most misunderstood--articles, so that he may fully learn, or fully rejoice;

* Or, is it a third party, the collective thought form, the Spirit of the Forums, still sensing more potential to be exhausted, secretly turning the thread into a vortex for the next paradigm shift, and subtly attracting everyone whose souls have been longing for so long?

uhhh... this is awesome... We don't need to pick any of these answers though. It will just reveal itself--sooner or later! For now let's only see, would there be any more posts after this one?

* * *

[spirit4711]

You don't really want this thread to die - or you'd stop adding to it.

Same for me.

[Jim Freeman]

Originally Posted by spirit4711

You don't really want this thread to die - or you'd stop adding to it.

Same for me.

loooooooooooool
Even though. I reasonably have my reasons. But how about you?

* * *

[spirit4711]

Originally Posted by Jim Freeman

loooooooooooool
Even though. I reasonably have my reasons. But how about you?

* * *

I have my reasons too.

Seriously, I like the thread and want to see if something new comes up. Nothing further to add content-wise for now.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

@Paul: For the how-to part, read the linked article "Goals Into Habits."

I read that article when it first came out. I just re-read it again. However, it still doesn't answer my question.

I am not asking "how" a person goes about turning a goal into a habit, but rather how does a person build the desire and motivating to get started if they look at their past performance in that area and see no hope?

For example, a coaching student of mine may tell me that they would like to start a Blog. So I do coaching with them and I look for the blocks that prevent them from starting. In a lot of cases they have fears about starting and one of those major fears may be something like "But I've never written Blog posts before... I have no experience in being a Blogger, and I'm not really an expert in anything".

I then have to remind them that the Past does NOT equal the Future. That if they start writing Blog posts, they will become good at them, and they can become an expert in any field they put their energy and attention towards.

By showing them a vision of a future that is different from the past, they get "motivated" and excited and use that energy to start writing, which then leads them to build a habit of writing.

If I believed that "Past = Future" and that the best indicator of future events is the past then none of my coaching students would have any chance or motivation to get started.

[impaul99]

Here are my main arguments against the idea that "The Past DOES Equal the Future"

1 - Any area of life that I apply energy and attention to tends to grow, improve, get better and flourish

2 - Any area of life that I ignore and don't apply attention to tends to shrink, get worse, and deteriorate

3 - Some areas of life that I tend to apply just enough energy to maintain "equilibrium" seem to be staying the same, however in reality they are getting worse. For example if I eat unhealthy foods but I keep my calorie count down, I may not gain weight and on the surface it may appear like my health isn't getting better or worse, but underneath my health is deteriorating even if the symptoms aren't there yet.

The same can be said about running a business. If you're doing just enough to maintain the business, but you're not growing innovating etc. it may seem like things are ok for a while, but behind the scenes the world is changing and evolving so if you don't evolve with it, you become a dinosaur, become obsolete and get caught with your pants down. ie. Microsoft ignoring the "Internet fad" years back and getting caught with their pants down by Google.

I know people who run businesses and STILL don't have a website today as they're not convinced that the Internet is "worth it". They spend $200/m advertising in the Yellow Pages. (sigh)

4 - Because of #3, the closest statement to TRUTH that I can deduce from my experience is that things are either (a) getting better , or (b) getting worse, because nothing stays the same. Everything is always changing.

5 - The world "Out there" is always changing too, so you need to account for that. For example, someone eating the EXACT same diet today (for example a steak dinner) as they ate in 1970 is actually eating worse because the food we eat today is different from the food in 1970. For example mineral deficiencies in soil result in "weaker" vegetables, and perhaps the steak the person is eating is now injected with growth hormones, antibiotics etc.

If the world around us stood still, the same habits you have today would probably produce similar results throughout your life, but the reality is that the world stands still for nobody so you're being affected from the "outside" as well.

6 - Some areas of life DO improve by themselves even without changing your habits in that area, due to the interdependency of different categories in life. For example, I may have a habit of NOT doing regular maintenance on my car. Therefore my car may not run as smooth as it should. And because I can't afford to pay someone to take care of it for me, the car gets worse as I focus on my business.

However, a few years later my business begins to flourish and I have plenty of extra income coming in, therefore I pay someone to come and take my car in for maintenance on a regular basis. I didn't build a habit of doing it myself, instead I focused on a different habit (improving my business), and the other habit was able to pay someone to take care of that for me.

7 - Conversely, some areas of life get worse even if you do have an established habit that USED TO be good enough. For example, you can have a habit of writing every day and it earns you $X/year and everything is fine. Then YouTube come along and everyone wants video content instead of written content, for example, and your income diminishes regardless how much writing you do.

8 - Trying to predict the future with a belief like "Past = Future" is not very accurate because of #1 through #7.


Because of these, I still say that Tony Robbins statement of "The Past Does NOT Equal the Future" is much more aligned with TRUTH than "The Past DOES Equal the Future". I don't agree that he is "dead wrong" at all.