I'm going to attempt to put complex things into simple terms. As you see I have not yet started the storyline. I have recorded all of the clips over the last several days. Technically this would be considered a prologue - which you'll be getting to later.
Do you remember the last reflection? We're going to look back at my behavior pre-pandemic. I need to tell you a story.
Yesterday I heard a Stuart Varney say: "history is an excellent teacher if you're paying attention"
I was raised in a period of food scarcity. I used to watch the Galloping Gourmet to figure out ways of using the little ingredients we had in the early 60s to make meals for my stepbrother and stepsister. I was the oldest. I propose that change is possible - old dogs can learn new tricks - and so can you. You can use brain plasticity, awareness, understanding, and discipline to transform your thinking. I believe that I am demonstrating a migration from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. In more modern terms: I have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. In other words, believing that I can change and therefore I'm making the effort to change, and I'm watching myself change which reinforces the process. It's essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy by 'gaming' yourself.
IN THIS EPISODE
In this episode, I'd like you to recognize that I don't know where I'm going. I'm simply extending my intention and recording the events. I went into this episode thinking of it more like a review - looking back - how did I do? Where am I at now? That kind of a thing. I've come away with a new understanding of relationships -specifically the scarcity of relationships. Relationships are special.
In this prologue, I'm curious with you to see how transformation unfolds and whether it's as good as I say it is. I want to encourage you to record yours for your reinforcement and for the corpus to train future AI.
All right let's see what happens.
We are now in the Badlands National Park, far from UM. We're reflecting on the episode on abundant scarcity. I want to give you a strong sense of encouragement and curiosity to summit your Personal Everest and to record your journey to be an observer of your progress out of UM. In this episode, I wanted to see if there would appear opportunities for learning in addition to those in Volume 1 and those in Volume 2.
FAULT FINDING SCARCITY
Yesterday I recorded a few bits about scarcity with the mindset of exploration. We had no cell phone coverage, no data, no voice, no texting, and no video at all, even though we were in this intensely popular and abundant location.
There were no empty campsites but lots of noise and people. It was the perfect setup for this episode.
Even though we're in a full campground, this is about the fifth or sixth car driving by. I think it's curious that the topic is abundant scarcity and I have an abundance of interruptions. It doesn't seem possible to get to a quiet place.
One of the ways that scarcity shows up in my thinking is with fault finding - by finding things that are broken, or need work. I find things that demonstrate a failure or potential failure maybe because that's where I found value and recognition by fixing things. So airstreaming is perfect for that.
For example: when you pull away from a dump station with a tight turn you go from having an abundance of tire tread to lots of scarcity.
OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW
In the Scotomaville abstract is the idea that you can dance with the invisible world. When you offer yourself for good, and fully commit to changing your behavior through observation, opportunities for learning to present themselves. They'll often look like things that want to stop you from either recording or proceeding with your episode or even with your entire series.
One of the first abundances that show up is broken parts. Demonstrating: you have to push a little pin in here now to open the refrigerator door. I'm holding a broken door latch. I glued it, but it will break again. I have to reinforce it. I made a little wedge to fill in a large gap with epoxy.
Here it is finished.
COUNTERING TRIGGERS WITH ABUNDANCE
When we first started Airstreaming we would run out of Paleo Pancake Mix, grapefruit, or distilled water. We would be far from a town or in an area without the distribution of A2 milk. We've learned to avoid those triggering events that bring up all those emotions. We now have the discipline to purchase inventory in advance so that as we travel we don't have to stress.
REVIEW SCENE FROM v1.04
The host yelled: "Sir, give me that second gallon of water back." I countered: Wait. We drink a gallon a day. This is my third 30-mile trip. Her rebuttal was: but you're only allowed one gallon. And with that judgment came a flood of the emotions of scarcity from childhood. It amazes me how easy it is to trigger that stuff.
This is a point worth noting. I said; "old dogs can learn new tricks." That applies to young people too. You can learn new skills through awareness where you gain an understanding of your beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Therefore, you can use discipline to modify your trajectory by setting your sail differently.
LEARNING FROM RECENT HISTORY
At this point in the production of this episode, we set up our campsite at Badlands National Park. Soon afterward I heard honking from a Ford F150. It wasn't from my truck. It was parked behind us with another Airstream.
We motioned to each other and started talking.
Two hours later I came up for a breath of air.
Two things came out of our conversation. We share a nearly lifelong scarcity of relationships with other men, and we have an enthusiasm for technology, information, the kingdom, and grand outcomes.
LEARNING REFLECTION
Steve shared: "our time together taught me something important which is: I thought I could wear the other guy out a lot more than I really can, and then I met my match and had a wonderfully long time with my new friend Daniel."
A lesson for me is that as a creator preparing things in advance of an audience when I find someone listening then it's super easy for me to firehose them with everything I believe in multiple facets - just like the landscape surrounding us.
I'm learning to say more with fewer words!
To summarize: our dendrites limit the amount of new information we can digest. My enthusiasm for the content can overwhelm others. Wisdom comes in being able to meter that delivery - to throttle it - regardless of whether it is still in the corpus. Digital agents also need to throttle recommendations to not flood recipients.
The landscape of Badlands is a half surrounding circle with many fabulous facets. It resembles my conversation with Steve yesterday. He let me do a complete panorama of Scotomaville. I learned it's not considerate to stuff that much information into the human brain. We can't grow dendrites that fast. My recollection of the conversation has bookends. It is summarized as: "that was an enthusiastic and passionate exchange of ideas that probably wore both of us out."
HOW BOOKEND MEMORY WORKS
Our brain stores a summary of the beginning and the ending of memorable experiences like bookends. Consider a two-week-long vacation out of UM. It might have started with stressful traffic going to the airport, and ended with exhaustion from a red-eye flight back to UM. Although there were a dozen wonderful days on the beach, our memory is reduced to: "that was a chaotic vacation. Let's not do that again!"
SCOTOMA OF INFORMATION FIRE HOSING
If you're in UM or a small community and get in line to check out your groceries, notice if the assistants are looking at each other - making facial gestures like: "please don't let him come to my register!"
Let me practice that insight by purposefully not using the remaining hundred video clips in this reflection episode!
I hope that that helps you get your butt out of Scotomaville [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
