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Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave

George Gurdjieff

Philosopher, composer, teacher

The brain can only assume its proper behaviour when consciousness is doing what it is designed for: not writhing and whirling to get out of present experience, but being effortlessly aware of it

Alan Watts

Philosopher, author, speaker

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You're Built for Reality; You're Optimized for Results

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think

A.A. Milne

Novelist, poet, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh

‘This system uses your innate capacities and instinctive abilities, developed by evolution over hundreds of thousand of years…’

I'd never thought of myself as a fighter, but just a few hours into the experiment, I was hit by a sudden realization about our nature as human beings…

You're built for reality

You're optimized for results

You've evolved to survive, transform and thrive

The experiment was Krav Maga, a powerful self-defence system invented in the 1930s to help Czech Jews protect themselves against Nazi thugs. I was doing a weekend workshop designed to train ordinary people to respond quickly and effectively in dangerous situations. And why is it so effective? Because it runs on the ‘operating system’ of your innate capacities and instincts; pre-existing abilities that show up automatically, without you having to think about it consciously. I'd never thought of myself as a fighter, but in just a few hours I was introduced to the fighter that had been right there within me, my whole life.

You're going to be introduced to the ‘operating system’ of your innate capacities and instincts for creating meaningful results and living a life you love. As you discover the results-creator that's been right there within you your whole life, your ability to create the results you desire and enjoy the process is going to increase exponentially.

You're built for reality, optimized for success, with the factory-settings for creating results. By definition… Whether you believe it or not. There's a built-in quality check that nature has performed on every one of your ancestors going back millions of years: were they fit enough, resilient enough, attractive enough, creative enough, aware enough, courageous enough and wise enough to get safely to breeding age, have children and pass on their genetic material? The fact that you're here means the answer to that question was ‘yes’, hundreds of thousands of times in succession.

You are a state-of-the-art results-creator, tempered in the furnace of millions of years of evolution

This means that the hardware and software that comprises you have been through countless iterations, beautifully tuned, improved and adjusted for living in this world. You're built for being, walking, talking, loving, learning, playing, working, resting, thinking, making, growing, appreciating, reflecting, realizing, transforming, creating and much more. And one of the most valuable gifts that helps you survive and thrive in reality is your innate capacity for realization and insight.

You have an innate capacity for realization and insight

A realization is a fresh new thought; an insight that brings your understanding more closely into alignment with the truth of some aspect of life. History has numerous examples of dramatic realizations that have changed the world, for instance…

• Isaac Newton's insights into the principle of gravity that transformed our understanding of the material world and paved the way for the Industrial Revolution.

• The realizations about ‘invisible matter’ on doctors' hands that prompted Ignaz Semmelweis' pioneering of antiseptic procedures.

• James Watson's breakthrough discovery of DNA's double-helix structure, leading to numerous modern-day applications including agriculture, pharmaceuticals and forensics.

Realizations reveal pre-existing facts about the reality you're built for

In each case, the realization revealed the existence of pre-existing facts about some aspect of life; principles or laws behind how life already works. There are many more examples that make the history books, but it may surprise you to learn that you've had countless realizations and insights in your own life…

Let's start with a universal example: walking. You spent the months before you were born in a near-weightless environment. Then you emerged into this world and started learning about the implications of gravity; a pre-existing fact of life. As you started exploring this new domain, you effortlessly processed the megabytes of data pouring through your senses and had realizations about the fact of gravity. These realizations came automatically, without you even having to think about it consciously. By the time you were able to stand on two feet and walk freely, your realizations had given you a deep ‘embodied understanding’ of the implications of gravity. Today, your ability to walk is built on that embodied understanding; an understanding you developed without even knowing you were doing it.

You have an innate capacity for realization

A realization brings you more closely into alignment with reality

The more aligned with reality you are, the more effective you can be at creating results

Realizations give rise to results

Look around you… How many of the things that you can see have been created by human beings? Each one of these objects exists because someone, somewhere had a realization; a ‘lightbulb moment’.Your mobile phone (for instance) exists as the result of countless realizations, insights and discoveries. They may have started with Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone in the 1870s, but numerous other people's realizations and results have combined to bring you the device you now use. Think aboutit:

• The designer who envisioned the model you own

• The people who created the apps that run on it

• The musician who composed the ringtone you hear

• etc

Every one of these ‘links in the chain’ represents a cascade of insights and realizations that have given rise to results.

Realization is a natural function of your mind

You've had countless realizations and insights over the years; ‘hits’ of fresh new thinking that have aligned your embodied understanding of life more closely with reality. If you'd like a simple metaphor for this, look at the FedEx logo. There are two images, hiding in plain sight, contained within the logo: A white spoon (poetically concealed in the word ‘Fed’) and a white arrow (hidden in the word ‘Ex’). These two images have always been part of the ‘reality’ of the logo. You may have looked at them hundreds or even thousands of times. You may not have noticed them until now, but they've always been there. The mechanism that takes you from ‘looking’ to ‘seeing’ is realization; a hit of fresh new perception that arrives from beyond your existing model of reality. And once you've seen them, you'll never be able to un-see them. Your realization will have brought your understanding more closely into alignment with reality. Every time you see the FedEx logo from now on, you're going to be reminded of your built-in capacity for realization, of the principles we're exploring in this book, and your innate ability to get results.

Figure 1.1: The FedEx logo

You possess superpowers

Your innate capacity for realization is one of a number of ‘superpowers’ you possess; the deep drivers you benefited from as you learned to walk. Take a moment to imagine you're looking out at the world through the eyes of a toddler…

• Your innate capacity for direction shows you a purpose and possibility that inspire and motivate you.