DAY 48: Is That Your Final Answer?

DAY 48: Is That Your Final Answer?

April 2, 2011
9:45 am

These last two to three weeks of the Quest always go by so quickly. Days 42 through 60 represent the culmination of everything the reason we took the Quest in the first place. How else can you find definitive answers in the first week, live a moment that defines your life in the second week, and then receive a truly meaningful reward on the third week? These are the moments we live for; again, the reason we take the Quest. I’ve never felt more alive and more competent then in these moments. I will need that feeling because on DAY 60 I will be asked to pull off something not “Impossible” but only realizable if I go in completely focused and committed to the highest outcome of my Quest.

This week, which I have called the phase of “Sacrimentor”, has certainly lived up to its promises: a mentor has come through for me in a big way. (And, believe me, I am eternally grateful for this person.) I’ve had to sacrifice my current path to prepare for what I’m now calling “The Big Moment” to come on DAY 60. This “Moment” has become both my psychological center and psychological “edge” as I near the completion of this Quest.

The Climax, which commences next week, is also known as “The Moment of Truth”. Either we go out and take a “big risk” or you can experience a phenomenon, like I have, where “dumb luck” seems to intervene. I don’t believe this to be dumb luck but the natural response of saying “yes” and being committed to the Quest. Had dumb luck intervened before I took this Quest I would not have been ready for the “Big Moment” to come. But now I may approach my own personal Moment of Truth with Conscious Competence.

I have my work cut out for me this week. Luckily, I’ll have a relaxing retreat in western Florida to prepare for my return and the Moment in New York. I have a very ambitious video to edit and produce, I’m designing a one-sheet pitch, and also “rehearsing” how to present my core message in one minute or less with confidence and conviction. I will need to prove, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that I’m ready to present the Destiny 5 Experience in front of 3 million people!

So now I’ll approach my seventh and final question thus concluding the “Sacrimentor” portion of this Quest. For today’s “Question Council” I’ll recruit the services of all the great mentors from fictional stories.

MIKE: How do I continue to have fun and experience enjoyment every day from here on out?

FIRST LAYER/FIRST QUESTION:

GANDALF: A fine question, my boy. It is a clear choice between fear and love. Love, as you know, leads to joy then peace then enlightenment. Since you’ve so expertly articulated the Quest’s development, all the stages, it becomes clear that the sheer knowledge can make it fun and enjoyable. It’s just like performing in a play. Just because you’re playing a character who is experiencing terror doesn’t make being an actor fun for you, correct? With every Dark Night period comes this Sacrimentor period. Knowing that on an emotional level can’t help but pierce the clouds of fear and uncertainty and bring the rays of joy you’re experiencing at this moment.

(First Layer Question.) Why does theater and drama seem to be the key piece of metaphor for you here, Mike? Oh, my apologies. I’ll let Master Yoda answer that question.

SECOND LAYER/SECOND QUESTION:

YODA: Wise question, that was, Master Gandalf. Goes back to one of Mike’s core message, it does. Translate my message from Yoda-ese to English, I will. The people of Earth escape through story - movies, television, fiction, music. It’s a powerful phenomena. How else but through the power of story can one go from desperation to inspiration? Movies and television (which is really theater that can be marketed, packaged and distributed) hold the key to unlocking our highest emotional, and therefore FUNCTIONAL, potential. Mike’s Quest, that is The 21^st Century Hero’s Journey, represents turning that same power inward. Instead of giving away our money (and power) to artists giving us the vicarious experience of a story, Mike’s Quest represents giving power to the ACTUAL experience of living a story and having the tangible results to prove this path credible and reliable.

(Second Layer Question.) In what ways will Mike find this enjoyable?

THIRD LAYER/THIRD QUESTION:

DUMBLEDORE: It is enjoyable because it brings the myth to life! They say “myth” is the song of the universe! The tune that’s felt is the emotion the artist wants you to feel. As the artist, Mike wants the listener to experience extreme joy, accomplishment and personal enlightenment. Mike finds enjoyment through this because that’s the song he’s dedicated to playing! Even during the Shadows, Deserts and Dark Nights. It is through the Quest, the Hero’s Journey, the Monomyth that greater frequencies of joy and understanding can be experienced. Mike doesn’t have to create enjoyment, right now he is in the full experience of enjoyment. Why complicate that?

(Third Layer Question.) Why is it the mission of this council to complicate something as simple as joy? Why do we ponder this natural experience?

FOURTH LAYER/FOURTH QUESTION:

MORPHEUS: Because almost everyone in material creation is in a complicated story. It requires a complicated plot to fascinate these people. But the Climax the point of the story is the same: Let go. Allow yourself the fell the joy of creation. We need complicated plots, or mind games, to captivate the American consciousness. We require simplicity to lead them to what they ultimately truly want deep inside. The human being desires above all else to feel intelligent, competent, confidence and the center of their universe. The Quest gives them the experience of being all those things. What is required for true master, for ultimate intelligence and unconscious competence, is to let these egocentric factors go. But the Quest, the complicated story and plotline, serves to attract the human intellect.

(Fourth Layer Question.) What does knowing this information inspire Mike to do today? How does he make useful?

FIFTH LAYER/FIFTH QUESTION:

GLINDA: The fact that Mike shares this knowledge makes him feel good. He knows it doesn’t serve any purpose but the increase the strength and confidence in his own conviction. If these words are what a reader needs to take action, so be it. What it inspires Mike to do is share it with no expectations. He doesn’t expect anyone to read or care about these words until he has become a “public success” - but that doesn’t make these words more valuable. All this information does is allow Mike to have his psychological center as he performs the duties which he was going to do anyway. That will bring the successful conclusion of his Quest.

(Fifth Layer Question.) What does Mike imagine his reader will take from these words?

SIXTH LAYER/SIXTH QUESTION:

ASLAN: If the reader isn’t bored by all this perseverating, Mike would be very surprised. If the reader chooses to appreciate these words then that reader is a truly unique individual indeed. Many human beings have such a short attention span that true words of wisdom go unnoticed, unheeded and, in truth, non-existent in the hypnotized human’s world. These represent a quiet oasis to the initiated reader. Mike doesn’t expect anyone to find this oasis easily. But it is here where the hero experiences rest, rejuvenation and the will to embrace his or her destiny. Though the ego likes to create complicated mazes and labyrinths, the emotional path will always be clear and lead to the center. Even when the eyes deceive, the heart will show the way. Mike images the reader coming to this psychological center if the reader has come this far.

(Sixth Layer Question.) How do we end this chapter? Do we really want to leave this oasis?

SEVENTH LAYER/SEVENTH QUESTION:

MIKE: The answer is very much both ‘yes and no’. ‘No’ in the sense that this kind of wisdom informs me that it’s only pride that pushes me to the culmination of my Quest. My Quest is meaningless if it doesn’t inspire another to take his or her Quest. I always have the option to say ‘No’ because in this oasis, the world is but a half-remembered dream. Sometimes a nightmare, sometimes pleasant, but always fading. Regardless of whether I say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ I know I’m going to end up back here. If I say ‘yes’ I get to live in a moment where, at the Quest’s culmination, even all the horrors and disappointments become justified and part of a beautiful story because I know we’re destined to come back to this oasis.

(Seventh Layer/Original Question.) How do I continue to have fun and experience enjoyment every day from here on out?

I think if I simply go back and read DAY 48 in this journal blog, fun and enjoyment will find me. It’s a choice. I’ll quote one of my dearest life companions when I say, “We always have a choice. It’s when we forget this choice exists that we put our soul in danger.”

Michael Shoeman
Leaving the Council to Finish This Quest