By George A. Boyd ©2022
Q: Why is it that certain people seem to achieve a lot with their lives, when others struggle? Does this have to do with karma? Does this have something to do with their psychological make up?
A: People operate out of mental platforms or mindsets. If they do not inhabit the mindset where they create their own destiny through their volition, they may not act on their goals and dreams, and so you will not see much achievement. These eight platforms are:
- Catatonia – In this mindset, you are frozen: you cannot move. You give up completely. At this stage, others must care for you.
- Delusion – At this level, you believe there are unseen, malevolent forces that sabotage your life. You feel that these unseen forces control you and command you to do things, even if you don’t want to do them. This is the stage of psychosis.
- Terror – At this stage, worry torments you, and you think about the catastrophic things that could go wrong with any choice you make. You envision frightening scenarios. If your worry and fear are compelling enough, you may be afraid to venture out of your home. At this stage, anxiety permeates your life, and any decision is terrifying.
- Narcissistic entitlement – When you operate from this platform, you believe that others exist only to satisfy your every wish and desire. They exist only to ensure your happiness. If they do not immediately satisfy your demands, you abandon or betray them—their utility only exists for them to serve you. If they fail to do that, you send them out of your life, and may revile them.
- Dissatisfaction – When you function in this mindset, you are unhappy with your life and the world around you. However, you don’t take responsibility to make the changes that will bring you greater happiness or will bring positive changes to the world. Instead, you blame others and act out your anger upon them.
- Fantasy – When you act from this level, you have hope and enthusiasm that your dreams could actually come true. But you resort to magical thinking at this level. You may pray to whatever Higher Power you believe in; use vision boards to visualize exactly what you desire; burn candles; and participate in rituals that are supposed to bring you luck, merit, and good fortune. You might gamble or play the lottery, believing this will bring you the money you desire. You invest in get rich schemes that are supposed to bring you quick wealth, only to be disappointed again and again. Those who are overweight may try a series of diets and get thin quick schemes. The issue here is that you don’t make it happen: you hope and believe it will appear magically.
- Planning – When you occupy this platform, you become obsessed with goal setting and making meticulous plans. The drawback with stage is that you may not enact your plans, and achieve little. Your challenge here is to find out what holds you back from taking action, and carrying out your plans.
- Choosing – Here you discover your Self, and experience that your volition actually carries out the plans you make and reaches the goals you set. At this stage you are empowered. You take full responsibility to make things happen. You don’t make excuses; you get results. In this mindset of self-awareness and personal empowerment, you create your destiny.
The breakthrough that is needed here is for people to discover their Self and operate from this empowered mindset. If people don’t go to the place where they can make things happen, things don’t change and they don’t achieve much on their lives.
In Mudrashram®, we teach you Centering Techniques in our intermediate meditation classes—the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the by-mail and online Accelerated Meditation Program—to directly focus you on the Self to help you realize it, and in time, to act from this platform.
Psychotherapy aims to gradually rehabilitate your ability to function from this empowered core of your personality.
Coaching expects you to operate from this level, and holds you accountable to achieve the results that you can only do from this place of choice.
It may be that there is a karmic element that influences the mindset from which they operate. You may view this like a curtain of darkness that veils the Self. When you begin to focus on the Self, and allow it to work with the elements in this field of darkness that shroud it, you can begin to retract this covering. As more and more of the elements of this field of darkness fall away, you gain greater integration and personal effectiveness.
There is no magic in this process. There is not a pill you can take, an incantation or mantra you can say, or a special magic formula that will make these dark elements disappear. You need to work on each element in turn until you solve its riddle, and it finishes.
Operating as your empowered Self is your birthright. May you find your way to reclaim it!
