December 19, 2022 by Brian Weiner No CommentsChanging The World One Thought At A Time., Lessons From The Mountain

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming.

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming.

PAULO COELHO

Whenever we are on a trajectory, everything short of continuing on that trajectory feels counterproductive.

We sense we are losing, rather than gaining ground, and we are so myopic on our task at hand, that we are many times unable to really understand that a couple steps backwards is not the worst thing in the world. In fact, in some cases, it may prove to be the best thing that could ever happen.

The path to any goal of magnitude is very seldom, if ever, a straight line. In fact, if you track the path that has lead to most of the largest inventions over the last 500 years, you will discover that their inception was as circuitous and convoluted as any journey on record.

Da Vinci, for example, expended a significant portion of his life studying bird’s wings and bat’s wings, drawing every stage of the flap of the wing, and contemplating all of the engineering required to simulate this in larger scale. He built prototypes of all sizes… but he never flew. Hundreds of years later, Orville Wright was looking at the curvature of the bat’s wing in da Vinci’s illustrations and that is what finally gave way to the Wright Flyer. Further, other illustrations by da Vinci provided the guidance that gave way to the helicopter.

The path to brilliance is fraught with turmoil, conflict, blockades, denial, insult and injury. It is a hero’s journey, to be certain. Not for the shy or demure personalities.

So whatever path your life is taking, should you find yourself at that position of feeling two steps backwards to take one step forward, just envision yourself as the arrow, being drawn back against the immense pressure and force of the bowstring. In that visualization, you must recognize that in short order, you will be freed up to fly with everything you’ve got…. So do not waste that time while you are feeling drawn backwards, rather, embrace it with everything you’ve got and be fully prepared for the moment of release!

Happy Monday!

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Paulo Coelho

Written by Brian Weiner

When I was 5 years old, I discovered that the lemon tree in the backyard + dixie cups + water and sugar and I was in business. I have been hooked on that ever since. In 1979, I borrowed $14,000 to create a brand new product... photographic greeting cards with no text on the inside, called Paradise Photography. That was the start of The Illusion Factory. Since then, The Illusion Factory has been entrusted by all of the major studios and broadcasters with the advertising and marketing of over $7 billion in filmed, live, broadcast, gaming, AR, VR and regulated gaming forms of entertainment, generating more than $100 Billion in revenue and 265 awards for creativity and technology for our clients. When I took a break from film school at UCLA to move to Hawaii, my mother did not lecture me. Instead, she took 150 of her favorite aphorisms and in her beautiful calligraphy, wrote them artistically throughout a blank journal. That is the origin of the Lessons from the Mountain series. Since then, on my journeys to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise, I have spent countless hours contemplating words of wisdom from the sages of all races, genders and political persuasions, constantly accumulating the thoughts to guide me on my life path. I hope you enjoy my books. Please let me know your thoughts, as I highly value your feedback!