Do You Have a 50-Year Plan?
Ask where you want to be fifty years from today physically, mentally, spiritually, financially and family wise, because when you have a vision of what you want it becomes easier to know what to do now.
Dandapani describes his daily practice of catching awareness before it travels somewhere he does not want it to go, and the work he does with leaders in workshops and mentoring circles. Most of them, he says, lack clarity about their own future, so he has them write a fifty year plan across five categories.
What this talk covers
- His daily goal is to control where his awareness goes, and the whole day is an opportunity to practice it.
- When awareness starts traveling toward an upset area of the mind, the practice is to grab that ball of light and bring it back, because going there is a choice.
- How we react and respond to the world determines our outcomes.
- When companies ask him to teach meditation he dials back first to how the mind works, how to control awareness and how to focus, because everyone wants the fun work and no one wants the boring, tedious work that creates sustainable change.
- Entrepreneurs and executives are usually clear about business and unclear about themselves, so he has them build a fifty year plan: where they will be physically, mentally, spiritually, financially and family wise.
But when you have a vision of what it is you want, then it's easier to know what to do now.Dandapani
Questions
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It asks where you see yourself fifty years from today in five categories: physically, mentally, spiritually, financially and family wise. Can you walk unassisted, what is your state of mind, how is your memory.
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He dials back before meditation. Learn the basics of how the mind works, how to control awareness within it, and how to focus and practice it until it is part of who you are.
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Watch for awareness starting to travel to an upset area of the mind, and bring it back before it settles. Nothing says you have to go there, and the more you can control that, the more you control how you respond.
Transcript
770 words · 3:42
What is your daily practice like? What is your practice around bringing that focus in? What do you do? Every day, my goal is to control where my awareness goes.
So I can do it fairly well with the world around me. You know, sometimes when my wife says something to me, she has great power, but my own hand is in the way it goes. I see a commonality here. Hang on.
You just wanna join my support group after this. I would love to join the support group. Join the one-time group. I didn't, can I bring Bruno with me so I can hold him?
It's a company and this is what I need to share today. So, you know, for me, John, the whole day is a beautiful opportunity to practice this, right? Every time you interact with the guy at the store or someone in the street or when you're driving and someone says something to you or cuts in front of you, you know,
and you see awareness going to an upset area of the mind, your goal is to grab that ball of light as it's starting to travel somewhere you don't want to and bring it back and say, I don't need to go there. There's nothing saying I have to go there.
It's a choice. And the more I'm able to control that, more I'm able to control my reactions to the world around me and how I respond to things. And ultimately, you know, how we react and respond to things determines our outcomes.
Of course. Yeah. And tell us how do you work with clients? Tell us about the process you take.
What do you do? What are the services that you have for clients and corporates? Yeah. So mainly, you know, with companies that I work with and mainly leadership, it's either
through six month mentoring programs that we have with small group circles, like almost like a mastermind for entrepreneurs and CEOs and stuff that we have. So we do that. And then when I work with companies, usually it's workshops, half day workshops.
It's what I prefer as opposed to a keynote, because I feel like we can really dive deep into content. But the most important thing for me is just really getting people to understand the basics. Often people, when they hire me, are saying, like, can you come and teach us how to meditate? And I'm like, we need to dial back even before meditating.
Let's learn the basics of how the mind works. Let's learn how to control awareness in the mind. Let's learn how to focus. Let's learn how to practice it and integrate it
into our life where these fundamental first principle tools can just be part of who we are. And once we get that locked down, then we can start working on the other things.
And everyone, like I said, is excited to do the fun, sexy stuff. And no one wants to do the boring, tedious work. And I really focus on the boring, tedious work
because that's the one that creates sustainable change ultimately. So what sort of clients come to you? What are they stuck with?
What would be the ideal client when they're thinking about working with you? What would they be suffering from? I would say individuals in terms of entrepreneurs and CEOs and C-suite executives and stuff, lacking clarity of what the future looks like.
You know, one of the things I work with them is having a 50 year plan. You know, 50 years from today, where do you see yourself financially in five categories, physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, and family wise. So where do you see yourself physically?
Are you able to walk? Do you need assistance walking? How's your state of mind? Do you have good memory, bad memory?
If you want to have good memory, then you should stop saying things like, oh, I'm terrible with names. If you say that every time now when you're 45,
there's a liking guarantee you when you're 95, you can't really look at it. Yeah, yeah. But when you have a vision of what it is you want,
then it's easier to know what to do now. We don't know what to take, what the next step is, because we don't know where we're going. So helping them having clarity
around their personal life and sometimes with the business as well and how they are involved in the business. I think that's quite often the thing that most people are really lacking.