Any human being can clearly see that all their successes and failures were the result of what they did or failed to do in the past. Likewise, the successes and failures of tomorrow will certainly be the result of what they do or fail to do now. In other words, it is about the chosen behaviour.
Everything one did and succeeded in was not the product of a perfect plan, let alone significant prior knowledge—one simply decided, corrected course, sought out those who knew, learnt from them, strove to achieve overcoming and got where they wanted to go.
When they were the happiest, it was because of the strong energy felt in the overcoming of obstacles while moving towards goals that were initially considered impossible.
When they failed, it was because they did not do what should have been done at the right time, be it out of ignorance, negligence, laziness, or a lack of a clear purpose. It does not matter.
What does matter is knowing the reasons that prevent us from “doing what needs to be done” and how we can be more effective in life-changing tasks.
Knowing how to solve your own problems means a life with less anguish and more joy.
We all have our needs, in the most diverse fields and of the most diverse natures. We are capable enough to fulfil them, but something prevents us from doing so.
Knowing how to solve other people’s problems makes this skill the best way to ensure income, security, a future; in short, to ensure comfort. This should be your trade—dedicating yourself to it means learning how to unlock your superpower by changing behaviour.
WHERE I LEARNT FROM
The school of knowing
At a time when having a Christian and academic education ensured a comfortable life, I dedicated 14 long years to my studies, concluding them when I completed a technical course in engineering that landed me a job in the government’s geographic service.
The school of feeling
In 1967, I was drafted to the armed forces of my country, which was involved in a war, where I served for four long years as a cavalry officer.
I went through elite troop training at the commando training centre, then I trained various combat groups, having been selected to join one of the first mounted cavalry squadrons operating in guerrilla warfare. I tamed and trained dozens of horses, and I also trained the riders to fight on them. I commanded difficult missions at the front, on foot and on horseback.
Many people have left their mark on my life. Many have helped me. But if, out of all of them, I had to choose those who best did this, in fairness, these would be my instructors at the commando training school. To me, they set true examples of discipline, resolve and confidence.
The school of reasoning
For the last 50 years of my life, I have managed and trained both small and large companies. I have tirelessly searched for formulas that could keep people happy while they perform their tasks. I have used the methods of the most diverse and renowned mentors. Did I get results? Yes, but these were never satisfactory enough. They all dealt with more or less complex strategies and all their details. I felt like an agronomist looking after the leaves of a tree, without ever understanding where the root of the problems laid. I never achieved the same levels of performance, satisfaction and balance that I observed in times of crisis.
From time to time, I would nostalgically look back to my wartime years. It was not a nostalgia for the war itself, which I consider to be the worst solution to any conflict. It was nostalgia for the efficiency of organisation. Everything worked there and then. No matter the difficulties, the lack of resources, the storms. If we had to do something, we would get it done. We would never sit and wait for someone else to do it.
My great teacher
Seven years ago, when, in one of those moments of boredom, I stopped climbing the ladder of life, hesitating between reinventing myself yet again or slipping into the pitfall of anguish, I spoke of how I missed the times when things worked. They asked me why. I answered them the same way I always did, but that question kept echoing in my thoughts. At the age of 70, with plenty of time to devote to research, I decided to deepen my knowledge in order to understand why that feeling haunted me.
Little by little, I began to understand the reason why most life-changing methods do not live up to expectations.
Reflecting on the data from the research I am hereby describing, I was led towards the most important, relevant and extraordinary teacher, who has guided everyone and everything for millions of years, ensuring the survival of people and things. This is only holder of true and sublime intelligence, with clear answers to all questions, who uses the universal language of “feeling”, from which we can learn. Curiously, though, few are aware of this.
It does not matter. What matters is that nobody denies this. All living beings recognise it, although they give it different names. Some humans call it the homeostatic system, non-explicit and explicit intelligence, others call it God. From this teacher, we can learn about: life and its challenges along the way, the importance of emotions, mind and consciousness, or the tools that some people mention as if these tools were products of their very own personal discoveries. This knowledge was already used by Him, billions of years ago, but these were so ubiquitous that they went unnoticed. These are indispensable tools for survival in any scenario, on any subject. I am talking about focus, imagination and discipline, among many others, which we shall discuss.
Since then, I began writing the story I am telling you today, even though I know I lack the erudition to communicate it with the clarity that He deserves.
The real world
When I left the army, I found a dysfunctional world, a world in which being right was more important than being happy, or comfortable, or significant. A world with recurring questions like “why do bad things happen to good people?” Questions that everyone tries to answer by looking at the leaves on the trees, not looking at the roots. Where humility is a virtue exclusive to saints, where procrastination is seen as a righteous reaction to an unequal society, where there are favoured people with access to education who wave their diplomas around, believing these diplomas entitle them to be supported by taxpayers.
Where much is discussed about values, but little is discussed about virtues, and where we no longer can tell one concept from the other. Where everyone says they can change the world, but are incapable of changing their own lives. A world of resentful people who try to ignore life as it is. Where people, faced with their failures, no longer display shame and turn to shifting the blame to others. A world where we are bombarded with some discourse that sells magic formulas for everything: becoming rich, becoming famous, becoming happy. All of this effortlessly, all of this quickly. But the reality is quite different.
Since then, one question has haunted me:
How is it possible to bring together men from the most diverse cultures, ethnicities and upbringings, with the most diverse traumas and addictions, and, in six months, get them to adequately perform in the hell that is war?
Why do virtues thrive in inhospitable scenarios?
Why is it that, after a major catastrophe, war or event in which fear is terrifying, the community reinvents itself and achieves great progress in everything that leads to quality of life?
In difficult times, no one waits to be told what to do. There is no time, no bureaucracy, no blaming others, no lamenting the darkness—candles are lit; people are determined, authentic, they do not wait for visibility or approval. They do not have time to waste on superfluous things. Together or individually, they focus on what needs to be done, however difficult, hard or painful it may be. Even if the result is not perfect. They learn from whatever they have done and invent whatever they need. They help their neighbours, even strangers or adversaries. They think differently, they break paradigms. They exercise creativity.
History offers numerous examples of this, and I am a witness to it. This is how, in training for war, the so-called “esprit de corps” is built up overnight. You, too, can find examples in your own life.
We now know that, on such occasions, there are biological changes that enable us to fight future aggressions.
It is the secret of the evolution of life.
Why do civilisations, organisations and people collapse after a period of growth and progress?
Why do newly hired people show good performance, only for this performance to drop afterwards?
The same question has haunted me all these years.
How come war training has, for hundreds of thousands of years and using practically the same training methods, produced excellent results, and how come today's schools, universities and companies, with all the developments brought along by science and technology, are unable to achieve the same quality?
In war training, nobody knows nor seeks to find out how the training programme correlates with the result; one simply applies it.
Only in the last 20 years did clues begin to appear and encourage me to deepen my research in order to find answers to those questions.
I looked into philosophy, religion, psychology, neuroscience and other fields dedicated to the study of human behaviour. I looked in history, in archaeology, in the most remote teachings.
I compared the things that life has taught me (before, during and after my time in the war) with the things that we know to be common among those who are capable of reinventing themselves, of facing life’s challenges with courage, who come from all walks of life and backgrounds, from scientists to top athletes, people who made history.
I was then able to recognise the skills and behaviours that are determinant to the obtained results. In an attempt to solve this enigma, I analysed the techniques used in various methods of training in life, and, thanks to science—which now affords us the possibility of studying live brains—I was able to understand what justifies the results of said training methods, as well as how to adapt them to a process of change that serves all purposes.
I can now say that the best schools of self-knowledge, of emotional intelligence, of doing better with less effort, are those that awaken your inner warrior, who resides within your biological kit.
The truths unbeknownst to reason
Most of the training methods we use to prepare ourselves for life are based on psychological studies which essentially state that thoughts generate feelings and feelings generate behaviour. In other words, they start out from a rational perspective in order to achieve the desired behaviour. They also suggest that, in order to achieve a meaningful life, we need willpower, motivation and passion for what we do. The methods used have detailed objectives and plans with clear and measurable goals.
All of this is true, but none of it is a decisive condition for achieving the desired results. The essential is to “know how to get it done”, that is, knowing how to perform the necessary actions; knowing how to overcome the pain of change every day, prevailing over the antagonists that reside within us, continually improving the knowledge necessary to these actions. And this can only be achieved with the courage to expend energy.
Other methods train the appropriate behaviours for each task, until the expected result is achieved. These are generally used in the preparation of top athletes or high-risk professions, as well the armed forces in peacetime and in war training. In these methods, one sets the example of what has to be done and where one is supposed to go. It is the process that has to be followed, with each step repeated over and over until the final goal is reached. Each person knows where to start and where to go. Each person discovers the most appropriate method, executing it through the use of their creativity and physical ability, so as to obtain the best result with the least effort.
Getting things done is difficult. It uses up energy, while our brains were designed for survival and are thus set up to save energy.
Example: If instructors need to teach trainees how to run with a ball, or to jump off a moving lorry, the instructors say what they want from the trainees, provide them with an example, and then each person practises—for as many times as necessary—until they achieve the expected result and convert it into a habit, so that it may be done automatically, with little effort, without requiring active thoughts on how to do it.
The way we save energy is by making habits out of the things that are important but uncomfortable. Until this is achieved, every action has to be triggered, without thinking.
The true wisdom is knowing how to get it done
It is not knowledge, nor good plans, nor intentions. There will never be good conditions to get it done. We will never have all the data. The conditions arise when one acts to get it done, not when one has the intention to get it done, or when one knows everything that needs to be done and that can be done.
As far as my understanding goes, given my experience in training methods, I would say that the things used in war training can be applied to everyday life, by reducing the intensity, taking more time, reshuffling some priorities and reconsidering the way that routines are managed. We will address this in further detail, later on.
As a sign of gratitude to all those who taught me, who helped me to overcome the obstacles in my life and to understand that which I failed to achieve, I have decided to share the results of the comparative analysis of the data from the research I conducted over the last 25 years, on a field which I call the science of getting things done.
I hope I can help others to see, with greater clarity, that it is possible for them to be the heroes of their own existential battles, with no need to waste time seeking such a thing in erratic paths and complex proposals, waiting for the miracle to manifest itself.