How many times have you started something and not finished it, even if you really wanted the result? And how many times have you felt like you should do something (like diet or exercise), but just couldn't get started? For that matter, how much time do you spend wondering what you really want out of life, anyway?
And how many yearsof your life have passed you by, your big hopes and dreams going unfulfilled because you couldn't get yourself to...
Start, focus, or FINISH anything!
That's what my life used to be like, not too long ago. And although I tried a lot of books on organization and fancy time management systems, they just gave me more stuff to do!
So then I figured it must be my fault. Clearly I wasn't "disciplined" or "motivated" enough, so I must need more "willpower" and "concentration" to make myself "work harder".
And I read literally hundreds of self-help books and studied all sorts of obscure psychology and new age stuff, only to find nothing but useless platitudes, short bursts of motivation (followed by rapid burnout), and even more stuff to do every day!
So for nearly two decades, I gave up on my big dreams, because I thought...
I didn't have what it takes to succeed
Still, I always had hope in the back of my mind. I mean, what if I could change who I was? What if there was some way I could become the kind of person who's naturally organized and motivated. (You know, the kind of person who doesn't need to read time management or self-help books, and doesn't understand why anybody else does, either!)
Yeah, right!
But as it turns out, the decades I spent as a computer programmer finally paid off, when I discovered how to "hack into" my own brain... and change the settings.
No, I'm not talking about the kind of new age/self-help garbage that ignorant people are always spouting about "reprogramming your brain". Those people are not computer programmers and have no f***ing clue what they're talking about when it comes to computer programming!
Heck, those idiots think that you can "program your brain" by repeating crap you don't believe, over and over and over. But if mere repetition could really change our minds, then everybody would be buying "enhancement" pills from the spammers... even women!
So no, the stuff I discovered doesn't involve repeating anything. In fact, the best practices of modern computer programming (not the ancient, decades-old stuff that NLP was based on), dictate that you should never repeat yourself.
And it was by using those practices, that I finally figured out what really makes the difference between all those "naturally sucessful" people... and losers like me.
And then I changed myself!
So for the last few years now, I've been doing what I love, and going after my big dreams. And I've also been teaching a tiny group of select people how to use my methods to transform their lives, too.
But while I was doing that, I was also adapting my methods to work with different people's problems, and learning how best to communicate and teach these methods. Not just to computer programmers, but also to artists, writers, musicians, speakers, managers, and all sorts of entrepreneurs.
So that now, I'm finally in a position to share what I've discovered. With you... and the rest of the world.
Because inside of you is a naturally succesful person. A person who can achieve whatever he or she sets their mind to.
You see, we are all born with the ability to think things done: an automatic and effortless way to accomplish virtually...
Anything we can dream of!
So over the next few months, I am going to write the definitive book on how you can do precisely that. And to demonstrate just how well it works, I'm going to do it right here on this web site, in public... where everybody in the world will be able to see if I'm not getting it done!
I'll be blogging, and uploading video and audio so you can see and hear everything I'm doing to go after my dreams... and how to apply the same methods to go after yours. I'll even be interviewing people I've helped, and being interviewed by experts in related fields.
And you know, I've never done anything this big on my own before, and certainly never with so much at stake, and so many people watching to see if I screw up. (Because I would never have even thought of attempting something like this, before I changed myself!)
And, making it even more of an experiment in personal risk-taking...
I want your input!
Because I want to make 100% sure that the book will answer the biggest questions you have about living the life you want... without having to use any of that so-called "willpower" or "discipline" crap to do it! (In fact, as you'll discover in my later articles and the book itself, "willpower" is actually hazardous to your productivity and energy! So keep an eye out for more info on that.)
So, if you'll help me by filling out this survey, I'll make sure you get a FREE downloadable copy of my book, before it even goes to print or hits the bookstores. (And I'll also email you updates on my progress.) It's just my way of saying "thank you" for helping me get this started in the right direction, and helping to spread the word about this important work we're doing here.
In addition, I'd also really appreciate your comments and feedback on the audios, videos, articles, and reports I post here on this site. Because it's really important to me that what I'm doing will really help people who are struggling with organization and beating themselves up about it.
Because when I was struggling, there wasn't anything like this out there for me. But together, we can change that.
For ourselves, and for those who come after us.
Sincerely,
--P.J. Eby
P.S. Be sure to fill out the survey, so you can get your free book!
CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHEN YOUR BOOK WILL BE READY?
PJ
can you please/ do you have a date for your book to be finished? the waiting is brutal and here is why. you have given several/changing dates for its completion and then nothing. WTF? you got me on the hook, im ready to discover my friggin robot and all, and then... nothing. i think to maintain the integrity/trust of the people you have excited, it would be helpful if you would at least keep an update on your website about the progress of the book. to not have any word after hearing its coming in dec, its coming jan, its coming late feb, etc., is like not keeping your word and that conflicts with who i imagine you and you work to be. maybe im wrong, just sayin. its ok if you have to keep changing the release date, its ok if your release date is 8 months from now, what feels incongruent is to suddenly hear nothing about work that holds such promise about how to discover our own integrity based on a real and effective understanding of our minds. thanks. best of luck, john.
Hey John, sorry for the delay...
During the last few months I've been exclusively focused on helping the paying customers who joined the Guild in January. That took precedence over everything, including updating the website.
There is no final release date set, but there is now some updated news about the status, as you'll see on the front page.
It would be nice if...
Could you remove the "filling out this survey" link? You really had my hopes up for a minute.
really dude?
i call absolute bullshit. mr let me help you start, focus, and finally finish everything youve been putting off. your bloging and cavetching (justification for procastination and new enlightenment about the book you meant to write) wreaks of convenient self serving bullshit. you have a book to tell us how we can improve our lives by gettin to the nitty griity? really? i have no doubt you have some much needed wisdom to impart but sir can you not see that the incongruency of constantly promising the delivery of a book that suggests help with the efficiency of ones own mind while constantly delivering new excuses despite the new "revelations" you have discovered? you proclaim some authority, understanding, whatever and all we get is some bullshit about paying customers. do you not see this. im certain in your algebra about starting, focusing, and finishing there has to be some element of personal accountability. im expressing disappointment as someone who is genuinely interested in the ideas you espouse and i call bullshit. i have been patiently waiting for this book back in mid 08 when you put it on your website ad coming soon. your press and early chapters wetted my apetite for something new, got me on the hook. then nothing. then explanations. then nothing. then im working, but taking care of responsibility by serving paying customers. then nothing. now you revelations about your personal incite. are you a complete fraud sir or just cant operate with the wisdom you proclaim to have available for sale. here's an idea, maybe dont put something in the public domain until you have incubated, worked and tested the empirical evidence of what you have formulated until your hypothesis holds water. it feels like youve sold an idea and you are carrying us along while you figure it out. i think that is irresponsible sir. i think that is unfair and shady which inhibits your credibility. do you not see any of this? this is just to express my extreme disappointment. not with having the book delayed so much as having been hooked on a idea and then been givin what seems like excuses, nothing, excuses, nothing, excuses, etc.,. perhaps im impatient or their is something i dont get here, im the asshole for reading you website, maybe, but i am certain my experience is not in a vacuum. there are untold volumes who feel the way i do. potential customers if that gets your attention. invalidate my comments as you will but i think your kinda self sabotaging your efforts to create a market and interest in your ideas. all that said i look forward to reading your book if im stiil around to read it.
yours
exhausted!
You know...
...if you'd become a paying customer in January when the chance was available, you'd have not only gotten all 7 chapters of the first version of the book, but you'd have also gotten to speak with me live on multiple workshops by now, and get a lot of your issues sorted out.
You'd have also gotten tons of other material that I've already written and recorded in the past, that covers many of the same techniques I'm writing about in the "official" book. And you'd have even gotten help from other members who've been studying with me for years... as paying customers.
Every month, I produce 1-3 new workshops, plus new newsletters and CDs - and I always give that stuff precedence over finishing the book, because people are already paying me for that other stuff.
That's all the stuff I do for my PAYING customers, and they will always take precedence over new ventures. That's just sensible business practice, and taking care of my priorities.
Hell, that's why I stopped taking *new* Guild members last year. I only took on new members briefly this year, because I thought it would help with the book effort.
As it turned out, it did, but not in the way I expected. The first seven chapters were good, but not good enough for what I wanted. I have good things to teach, but I wasn't very good at teaching them in a compact form.
Some of the ideas I had, although they were working for me and some of my students, were still too abstract for a general audience, so I've been refining those into more concrete and specific tools with very step-by-step instructions.
If I wanted to, I could've finished the book in the same style as I wrote the first seven chapters in, and had a modestly successful book, but not one that really delivered on the promises made in the first chapter. But the new version is going to go well past the original promises.
In the meantime, if you can't wait for the book, you really should be in one of my monthly programs. Last month's CD and workshop were on a major, major theme of the book, and you'd have gotten on-the-phone coaching from me if you'd been in the group. One guy literally cleaned his entire apartment while we were talking, and another guy started developing an iPhone app he'd been putting off. (Also while we were still on the call!) ;-) Major cool stuff.
So, I get that you're upset and all, but bear in mind: if you were a paying customer of mine, and I was neglecting your monthly workshops and CDs and such to work on some book so OTHER people could learn something that I'd *already* taught you in a workshop, how much WORSE would you feel?
Really, I'm sorry you're disappointed, but I think I'm doing the right thing by prioritizing my commitment to my paying customers. That's not something new, or something that's changed. In fact, last year I phased out a high-paying contract job specifically so that I wouldn't have THREE jobs: the contract, the book, and my paying customers. Now I just have two: the book and my customers. And the customers still come first... which is why I've barely blogged or emailed this year, and why this site is so out of date at the moment.
Customers come first, always. And you're always welcome to become one. ;-)
(Now is an especially good time to get into my entry-level newsletter & CD program, by the way, because between the April and May issues you'll get some really key techniques from chapters 4, 5, and 6 of the new version's outline, just in a combination of audio and written form.)
wow pj, try reading the email again, slower.
hey pj,
"An anonymous reader is really really upset with me for not having the book done sooner, and calls me a fraud, among other things. Ouch."
for a guy who makes his living noticing and pointing out subtle and varied distinctions your comprehension is a little troubling to me. here it is again, slower, in case you really dont want to get this about yourself and the people whose time and energy you absorb when you put yourself in a public domain and say "i will do x by this date".: i/we are upset you didnt keep your word. thats all brother. just get and move on. i was expressing disappointment not because you didnt do the book sooner, because you said several times by a certain month that certain parts of the book would be done. then not only do you miss the deadline, you failed to acknowledge that you missed the deadline. months later you would respond saying your busy, other groups, etc.,. you made public declarations about your book public, failed to meet those deadlines, then failed to acknowledge them timely. can you see how that would incourage a diminishing belief in someone? im disappointed you didnt keep your word. thats it. just get it dude and save the stories. try reading the email again if you care. aside from the frustrated terce language, i think the comment is valid and probably what more than a few people are thinking. its about accountability. if there is anything valid in my comment take what is useful discard the rest.
still waiting.
Actually, I set only ONE firm date...
And I acknowledged I missed it, the very next day:
http://thinkingthingsdone.com/2008/09/seven-laws-of-belief.html#comment-100
ISTR having mentioned the carpal tunnel issue and the delay prior to that point, but in retrospect, that might have only been on Twitter.
Anyway, if you read closely, all my other mentions of dates have been (and continue to be), "I expect" or "I hope".
The only other book I've written was You, Version 2.0, which, except for one chapter, was a collection of previously-published blog articles. Writing a book from scratch is a very different proposition, and I seriously underestimated the effort in certain ways.
im sorry dude.
pj
im sorry for my angry vectives. lets just say that when i read the the first two chapters, i thought this is exactly the kind of info that could have a huge impact on my life. my life has been falling apart just the way i designed it to and i check your website daily for news of progress. i want/need your book yesterday and i took the frustration of my own misunderstandings and defeats out on you not having the book done when i need it. i am truly sorry. i am sorry for the distraction from completing your book. i still cant wait to read it and i understand and appreciate you sharing your learning experience with try to complete, (no small task) your very promising book. again, im an ass (obvious), and what i said before was more about me, not you.
john
S'cool
I got something from the experience.
One good thing that came out of your message: it finally occurred to me that I need to batch up my work on the newsletters and CDs so I can do a few month's worth in advance, and then focus totally on the book, because switching back and forth between them is killing my focus. I couldn't do this when I started last year, because I also had a programming job I was squeezing in, but once that changed it didn't occur to me to rethink my strategy. So thanks for that.
But you know, you don't have to wait for the book to come out to take advantage of some of the things I teach. As of today, you can still get the deal on the April+May newsletters and CDs for $29.95+s/h, that I mentioned on my blog. These four things (2 newsletters, 2 CDs) are basically on topics that will be three or four chapters in the finished book, but that I have not previously published or written about. They explain how to get into the naturally successful mindset, and how to train your brain for persistence and a positive attitude. It's all new stuff, and very powerful.
I'm just finishing up recording the second CD today, and hope to ship them out tomorrow, and at that point the 2-for-1 offer will be over. So if you want it, grab it now.
I, for one, am happy that PJE
I, for one, am happy that PJE is taking the extra time and effort necessary to make the book as good as can be. He knows more now than he did when he started and he wants to reflect that in the book. I think that's awesome.
As PJE knows from his time in software development, when you set a deadline, you'll probably end up having to do one of two things: limit what you produce to meet that deadline (this often means cutting planned features), or slipping the deadline (which means a full-featured product).
Which is the right call to make depends on the circumstance. If you're rushing a game out for Christmas, then cutting features is the way to go. If you're developing a self-published book that you want to be a timeless classic, then slipping the (essentially arbitrary) deadline is the way to go.
I'm sure you'll appreciate the extra effort when you finally do see the book.
P.S. PJ, I assume this book will contain details on these techniques you keep teasing us about, CALL, IDOC, Fourgiveness, etc.? Thanks.
CALL & IDOC yes, Fourgiveness no
Fourgiveness will be part of a different book, later. (Note that I already sell workshops like Instant Self Esteem which cover Fourgiveness.)
CALL and IDOC are two of what might be called the "Seven Systems of Thinking Things Done".
One of the factors that's driving the reboot is that I'm being forced to make these things very practical, very specific, and very directed at changing mindsets. The full Seven Systems are CALL, "Plan B", "Flash Forward", IDOC, RSVP, and two things which aren't entirely finished and don't have a name yet.
These are far from the only things that will be taught, but they are the seven things that make up the actual organizational method - all but IDOC and RSVP are part of the "Daily Cycle", in that they're done basically once a day. IDOC and RSVP are done on-demand in response to the need to solve problems or make plans, respectively.
At this point, there are still some practical issues to resolve about the Seven Systems, the chapter outline I recently released will likely still get tweaked a bit before I'm done. And, in all probability, I will begin training Guild members in these methods either before or as I write the chapters, so that they get beta tested, so to speak. I've already started previewing some of the new stuff in recent workshops, CDs, etc.
This might work
Dear Pje,
Hope you’ll take my piece of advice, let go of ALL your current commitments ALL of them, put ur programming ,cds, newsletter ,everything on hold EVERYTHING .
Go to a special place alone ,say a mountain with the fresh air ,the view & all , grow yourself a beard ,smoke pipe , look like an artist ! . Make no contact with the civilized world. No more discoveries for god sack, just put whats in ur head Now in the book .
Pje myself & many others check the site DAILY with fingers crossed. I read many self help materials seen many videos tried many things im skeptical hard to convince or satisfy bastard BUT,, I genuinely completely believe that I finally found it ,the answer ,end of my misery .. Its you Pj.
Loyalty to your costumers is important , admirable and I wont settle less when I become one . but think about it man .. Its for their own good ,getting sporadic small dozes of medicine is nothing like one powerful pill . its not like you’re failing them or anything
I know that all you’re doing here is trying to get it 100%perfect but man there will always be something to add & u will never get it done this way. those really interested will become your costumers anyway , those discoveries & imperfections can be handled in your updates ,phone confs, cds ,newsletters …
Go my friend .. disappear for a while(meant in a good way), come back with a book in your hand . eveybody will be happy including the customers you don’t want to disappoint .
yours
Ash