What are the "small" tasks you have in the Work?

[tridean]

Re: What are the \

If you want something which by Mr. G's own admission is not small, but certainly clearcut, you couldn't do better than this:

Quote
Q: I think my worst fault is talking too much. Would trying not to talk so much be a good task?

A: For you this is a very good aim. You spoil everything with your talking. This talk even hinders your business. When you talk much, your words have no weight. Try to overcome this. Many blessings will flow to you if you succeed. Truly, this is a very good task. But it is a big thing, not small. I promise you, if you achieve this, even if I am not here, I will know about your achievement, and will send help so that you will know what to do next.
This is the task that I was given, and it is truly worth the effort. It's going to be a task I will always have to be aware of, but as Mr. G has said, many blessings have flowed from the effort. It has meant a completely different, higher quality of interaction with other people. External consideration is easier by far when you are not talking yourself, but listening to what other people are saying.

Try and try again, if this is the thing that needs work. The energy you save will be astounding. Grin

Herondancer

May I ask who gave you this task, or maybe another way to this question, what does one do after they have read some of G's material, or book such as ISOTM, and wants to begin doing the work and having it assessed etc? Where do I begin after reading that involves input from others?

Thanks
Dean

 

[Helle]

Re: What are the \

Man has no energy to fulfill voluntary aims because all his strength, acquired at night during his passive state, is used up in negative manifestations. These are his automatic manifestations, the opposite of his positive, willed manifestations.
For those of you who are already able to remember your aim automatically, but have no strength to do it: sit for a period of at least one hour alone. Make all your muscles relaxed. Allow your associations to proceed but do not be absorbed by them. Say to them: "If you will let me do as I wish now, I shall later grant you your wishes." Look on you associations as though they belonged to someone else, to keep yourself from identifying with them.
At the end of an hour take a piece of paper and write your aim on it. Make this paper your God. Everything else is nothing. Take it out of your pocket and read it constantly, every day. In this way it becomes part of you, at first theoretically, later actually. To gain energy, practice this exercise of sitting still and making your muscles dead. Only when everything in you is quiet after an hour, make your decision about your aim. Don't let associations absorb you. To undertake a voluntary aim, and to achieve it, gives magnetism and the ability to "do."

I tried this today and found it a useful and motivating exercise. Afterwards it helped me focus on the above advice: observing automatic and nervous movements in myself and others around me

This passage almost made me cry! I had an awful awful weekend, and coming here and reading this, makes me feel it was written for me personally. This exercise is exactly what I need to do. I need an Aim, and I need to start out small.

Thank You :D

 

[romano]

Re: What are the \

(1)

Is it a small enough task?

Put a time on it: a week or two or three. This is useful to know when recharge the aim-clock.
If you want more difficult give you a time maximum to read your e-mail.
Personal i have take aim to read all the post in Work before post.
Oops (Now i am just trying to see if i had understand to use quote)

 

[Vulcan59]

Re: What are the \

Hi romano,

It's customary to post an intro in the Newbies section so that other members can get to know you. Browse through that section and you'll get the idea. :)

 

[Brenda86]

Re: What are the \

I definitely think focusing on the "small" tasks is a very good idea. I've noticed from reading some of the intros since I joined that a lot of people will feel overwhelmed by the big picture of the work and feel like they should know everything already, which keeps them from participating. I had a REAL problem with this when I was in school until I got to college. I realized one day you can't just do it all in one day. It takes time and work to get where we want.

So I decided to work on two things first: 1) to stop getting angry while driving (I've never had road rage per se, but the other people can't even hear me, it just ruins my day and it doesn't make my or their driving any better!)
2) To take the edge out of my voice when I talk to people. I've had a tendency since childhood to be honest to the point of really hurting people's feelings sometimes. Now, I do not want to stop being honest with people but I want to take that edge out, the tone that says it's meant to hurt. Because I have never meant honesty to hurt, although it usually does, but I need to present my honesty in a more neutral tone, I think.

And actually since I started work on just these two things I have seen a great improvement in my feeling of well-being and my relationships with people.

 

[andi]

Re: What are the \

Quote from: Bobo08
After thinking about what small tasks I can do at the moment, I come up with one. Until now, every morning when I go to the office, I often spend an inordinate amount of time checking emails, reading news, etc. before starting any real work. From next Monday, I will start work immediately when I sit down at the computer.

hello Bobo,

If indeed those morning occupations (as well as others) are dear to you , trying to eliminate them quickly would not solve the problem but only create new and similar ones witch you may not be aware of. These are little programs and is necessary before trying to eliminate them to just observe them - that is to see how they make you feel how do you do it , why others do it and observe them ...after a while you will see that you no longer feel the need to do certain things because they now feel boring or non sens ...this is a natural way to deal with programs without creating others while you think you have been successful in eliminating them.
Gurdjieff talks about this necessity to just observe first, wright in the beginning of Ouspensky's 'In search for the miraculous'

As for me , whenever i try to impose things to my self (witch could be against your own free will) I always fail not to long after.
Whatever you think you decision to fight the little programs is good or bad , does not hold objectivity. Because you start with the assumption that you are making the right move ,... then you are expecting it to work ....and after a wile you jump to conclusion that is either positive or negative .

All this is doomed to failure .
By simply allowing your self to naturally gain the understanding of the futility of that or the other ...and by consciously being conscious of the action in cause ...you have a good chance to succeed ...not to mention that this involves no stress and no pain , but simply allowing things to happen by opening to all possibilities.

hope it helps , if other members find it inaccurate or incomplete , please make note .

 

[seeking_spirals]

Re: What are the \

I've been reading "Bezebub's Tales" yesterday night, the piece where Belzebub speaks about particular sickness called "Tomorrow", which is in fact the terrible trait of many people who postpone all the necessary "doings" till tomorrow. I think another name of this disease would be "Later".

Hi J0da, I can definitely relate to the "Later" disease. In fact, when I think about it, the problem that I was trying to overcome with my "small task" in the first post of this thread is not just about checking emails and news at work but rather about putting off things that I don't like doing until forced to do them by their approaching deadlines. It's like there's a part of me trying to trick me into doing anything but the uninteresting things that I have to do. This could be one of the clearest example of the different i's in me showing up.

With a little further reflection, it can be easily seen that putting off tasks until right before the deadline encourages the mechanicalness in myself because I will then be forced to do them, which is utterly mechanical, rather than doing them when I have a choice not to, which is more conscious. Hopefully, this little analysis will help me better overcome the "Later" disease.

I am definitely afflicted with this disease. I've been a procrastinator my entire life, not just with day to day responsibilities, but even with the work, diet, EE, networking, etc. I always tell myself "I'll do it tomorrow" and then tomorrow turns into today, and so I say "I'll do it tomorrow" and so forth. And thank you Peto for making it clear to me that even when I finally get around to doing something, I'm not really "Doing" because it is no longer conscious as I've lost the choice. It has become mechanical. This is going to be a tough program to override but taking baby steps is how you learn to run right? I can't keep ignoring the messages to act NOW or I'll forfeit the opportunity to be able to..

 

[Eva]

Re: What are the \

In my understanding, stopping automatic movements relates to the attempt of seeing the actual meaning or lack of it in any and all of one's movements, internal or external.
With that thought in mind, everything I do during the day becomes a potential subject of my attention.

For example, I have to sit at my chair to work but do I really need to cross my legs in order to be seated? No. That is an automatic meaningless movement. Yet, if it's a habit for someone (as it is for me) it's easy to think you are more comfortable in that position instead of another. Which is simply a rationalization that serves as a mask for an automatic movement.

There are many small things we do without putting our attention to them and they are usually what we'd think as trivial. Regarding small tasks, from own experience I would suggest to just watch yourself and the moment you catch him doing a repeatable action that seems trivial without putting any attention to it, then you have your small task to work with.

I don't think that working on automatic movements is meant as an effort to become more effective at one's work, battling procrastination or generally fighting off 'bad' habits. That is a subject altogether different. On the contrary, I think it's those movements that make us comfortable or leave us totally uninterested in them that are the automatic ones and the most challenging to work with.

 

[tridean]

Re: What are the \

In my understanding, stopping automatic movements relates to the attempt of seeing the actual meaning or lack of it in any and all of one's movements, internal or external.
With that thought in mind, everything I do during the day becomes a potential subject of my attention.

For example, I have to sit at my chair to work but do I really need to cross my legs in order to be seated? No. That is an automatic meaningless movement. Yet, if it's a habit for someone (as it is for me) it's easy to think you are more comfortable in that position instead of another. Which is simply a rationalization that serves as a mask for an automatic movement.

There are many small things we do without putting our attention to them and they are usually what we'd think as trivial. Regarding small tasks, from own experience I would suggest to just watch yourself and the moment you catch him doing a repeatable action that seems trivial without putting any attention to it, then you have your small task to work with.

I don't think that working on automatic movements is meant as an effort to become more effective at one's work, battling procrastination or generally fighting off 'bad' habits. That is a subject altogether different. On the contrary, I think it's those movements that make us comfortable or leave us totally uninterested in them that are the automatic ones and the most challenging to work with.

It doesn't take much to work out how many of these automatic behaviours we have either. Sometimes if I start my day by deciding for the first hour to do everything with the opposite hand, from toilet, to showering, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, and its amazing to see how automatic we are and how much conscious effort it takes to do things with the opposite hand

 

[realitybugll]

Re: What are the \

two examples of big tasks: "stop talking too much" and "endure the manifestations of people".

my task has been to "talk more" essentially. maybe that is too big. I have been trying to make progress the last year but I have felt that I just cannot do it. I am stuck. I will think about smaller specific tasks to carry out...