New You, New Life (Part 1)

The Neothink Society · Self-Leadership · May 2009

Procrastination is the signature of a person cut off from the core self that initiates and completes on its own power. Self-leadership begins by restoring that connection. Once it is restored, action stops requiring force.

The core self is the part that rings true under any condition. It is present, durable, and grows in range and precision the more it is used. A self-led person draws on capacities that hold steady however the surrounding environment shifts. This is the difference between being moved by circumstance and moving from one's own center.

The Core Self The self that rings true under any condition is the source self-leadership restores, not a trait some people are born with.

Watch how a child learns. Bold, fearless, eager to know and to do, willing to master a task by any honest means, playing at it with the patience of someone who simply wants to absorb everything in front of them. The child does not negotiate with limitation; the child assumes the ground is theirs to cover. That orientation is the natural state of a mind that has not yet been taught to censor itself, and it is the seed from which an advanced self grows through every stage of its development.

The method below restores that orientation in an adult. The early steps are played with abandon, without self-censure, open to whatever enters the field of attention. As self-knowledge returns, knowledge and skill are applied with deliberate aim. The urge to censor does not vanish; it becomes a choice rather than a reflex.

Reconnecting with the core self

Begin with the ground. Lie on the earth, on grass, wherever bare ground can be reached, and watch the small creatures move. Let the memory of an early kinship with nature return. Watch the air, the birds and insects in flight, the plants and trees, or the nearest cityscape and the nearest park when that is what the surroundings offer. Find moving water and watch it run; even water from a faucet or held in the hand will serve. Look into it, see what it flows over, and take in everything around it. Look up and watch the clouds drift and change color.

Throughout, hold attention on the inner response. Notice the feeling, the appreciation, the awe, the curiosity, the surges of energy as they arrive. This is the recovery of the self that began connected to nature.

Self-leadership begins by restoring the connection to the core self, and what it changes is not the world but the capacity to perceive it.

Extend the same attention to the people and animals nearby. Grow quiet enough to sense them as though seeing them for the first time, open to a comprehension that ordinary looking skips over, then relate to them from that clearer perception. At night, look into the sky and let the questions and the answers come to the part of the self being reconnected. Then carry this sharpened awareness into the daily world.

What Changes The world stays the same; the capacity to perceive it widens, and that is the first result self-leadership delivers.

A world already in view

What changes is not the world but the capacity to perceive it. The structures of ordinary life remain; work continues, a family is provided for, obligations are met. What opens is a level of perception that was always present and rarely used. Carry the new awareness into familiar surroundings and the habit patterns of those still running on the old, narrow attention become visible. This is the first result of self-leadership, and the starting point of the method that follows.

Part 2 continues the method.

Common Questions

What is the core self? The core self is the part of a person that rings true under any condition. It is present, durable, and grows in range and precision the more it is used, supplying capacities that hold steady however the surrounding environment shifts.

How is self-leadership different from willpower or ordinary self-help? Willpower forces action against resistance, and most self-help adds techniques on top of a divided self. Self-leadership restores the connection to the core self first, so that action proceeds from one's own center and no longer requires force.

Why is procrastination treated as a connection problem rather than a discipline failure? Procrastination is the signature of a person cut off from the core self that initiates and completes on its own power. The remedy is reconnection, not harder pressure, because the capacity to begin and finish already lives in the core self.

How does observing nature reconnect a person with the core self? Direct attention to the ground, moving water, the sky, and living creatures revives an early kinship with nature, while holding attention on the inner response recovers the self that began connected to it. The observation is the mechanism; the feeling it surfaces is the evidence the connection is returning.

Why does perception change rather than circumstance? The structures of ordinary life remain in place, but a level of perception that was always present and rarely used begins to operate. Carrying that sharpened awareness into familiar surroundings makes visible what narrow attention had skipped.

What does childlike attention have to do with an adult method? A child learns bold, fearless, and uncensored, assuming the ground is theirs to cover. That uncensored orientation is the natural state of a mind, and the method restores it in an adult so that self-knowledge can return and skill can be applied with deliberate aim.

Further Reading

• Self-leadership: how acting from one's own center replaces force and circumstance as the driver of action.
• The core self: the durable part that rings true under any condition and grows with use.
• Overcoming procrastination: why the signature of being cut off from the core self dissolves once connection is restored.
• Reconnecting with nature: the observation practice that revives an early kinship and recovers the connected self.
• Conscious perception: the level of awareness that was always present and opens when attention sharpens.

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