Miles was born into an average family in an average neighborhood in an average town in one of the states they call a “flyover”. His dad owned a local business that sold restaurant supplies, mom stayed home and did the domestic housewife thing. Miles had an older brother and a younger sister, there was a dog and a goldfish and a box turtle that lived in the enclosed backyard. All in all, they were a perfectly normal family, with all of the highs and lows, the ups and downs, the drama and boredom that comes with being a perfectly normal family in middle America.
Miles’s parents put an emphasis on getting good grades in school, and Miles did, but there was never much talk about what he might do with his life. After high school, Miles went to college because, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? After two years of general ed, he picked Business as a major. Not that he had any interest in business, it’s what a couple of his buddies were doing, so what’s good for the goose and all that. Most of Miles’s five years in college were a blur of parties, keg stands, and a stream of barely passing grades. After graduation, Miles looked around and said, Okay, now what?
He always figured he’d get married and start a family because, again, it’s what you do, but Miles never gave much thought to what he really wanted out of a relationship, or what it would mean to be a father. So he ended up marrying a woman when he was twenty-five because she got pregnant and they moved into the basement of her parents house while Miles tried to put together something that resembled a career. The problem was Miles still didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do. The Business degree opened some doors but nothing really interested Miles. He went through five different jobs in as many years and shortly after his thirtieth birthday, his wife decided she deserved more out of life and filed for divorce.
For the rest of his life, Miles drifted from place to place, from job to job, never able to hold onto a relationship for more than six months or so. He became estranged from his son and never even met the grandchildren that his son brought into the world. In his last years, Miles looked back on the aimless, disjointed path his life had taken with something like regret. He never imagined that he’d end up alone without much to show for the life he’d led. But then, he’d never imagined much of anything, which was really kind of the problem in the first place.
If I were to ask the average person, “What’s your vision?”, the most common answers I’d probably get back would be something like, “Slightly farsighted,” or, “I need glasses to read,” and the occasional boastful, “Perfect 20/20!” Some people, a bit more hip to the lingo, might want to tell me all about their vision board and how The Secret has completely transformed their life! Well…is in the process of transforming their life! Well…their cousin Janice promised it would transform their life! But most people won't be able to tell me what they want to create or what they envision for themselves in 5, 10, 20 years.
In my experience, I’ve found that around 1 in 100 people actually name what they want to create in their lives. Naming your vision is a very big deal, but naming it is only the first step. In order to actually create what you name for yourself, you need to focus on it incessantly, and cultivate the emotional importance you place on it. Your vision should light you up from the inside out. And that’s where the challenge starts for most folks. It's one thing to get excited about creating an amazing life...it's quite another to focus on it consistently. To renew your passion for it day in and day out. To take action toward it, and regularly measure, evaluate and calibrate your actions so that you're consistently moving toward it. That last bit, the action, the consistency, the intention and determination, is why only 1 in 10,000 people actually create the thing they want! I find that fascinating...and in fact, I've created an entire system around naming vision and actually fulfilling it!
So, our friend, Miles. Let’s say we could turn the clock back…rwldyldrwyrldryldwldy (that’s the sound of the tape rewinding)...and let’s say, somewhere around his sophomore year in college, Miles stumbled across Inner Matrix Systems. Maybe he met someone who’d gone through a program, or maybe he found one of our training videos online. Maybe he read one of these cool blogs and thought, Hey, I think I dig what this cat’s putting down. Whatever the case may be, let’s just say he found us. How differently might his life have played out?
Well, there’s not much we could do about his parents’ rather milquetoast approach to inspiring a sense of vision in their children, but we can certainly teach Miles how to make up for it. Turns out, Miles did have some ideas about what he would like his life to look like, he’d just never taken the time to stop and think about it. To put some intention behind it. Up until now he’d just done what his parents, his teachers, his coaches, told him to do, assuming his life would play out the way it was supposed to. Whatever that means. Miles wasn’t doing anything wrong, or being irresponsible or lazy or stupid. He was just doing what he saw everyone else doing: Just getting by.
But now Miles is awake. After one Power Series program, he’s created a solid vision for the life he wants to create. He sees the potential for creating meaningful relationships in his life. He sees the importance of creating health and vitality in his body. But maybe most importantly, he sees the thing he wants to do with his life, and it has nothing to do with taking boring business classes.
If you asked Miles what really lights him up, what’s the thing he’s most passionate about, he’d tell you about horror movies. Not really my thing but, hey, whatever floats your boat, right? If you asked him what he loved about horror movies, he’d tell you it was the makeup effects. Miles could spend hours watching slasher flicks, rewinding his favorite scenes again and again, picking them apart and trying to figure out how the guy in Poltergeist was able to tear his face off his skull. But because Miles had never received any real guidance in his life, and Hollywood may as well have been on another planet, it never even occurred to him that this was something he could do as a career. Figure out how to tear a guy’s face off his skull. I mean, how cool is that?
In this alternate reality, Miles doesn’t declare himself a Business major. Instead he takes some art classes. He does research online. He starts making models and miniatures and masks and fake arms and legs. After two years, Miles has put together a portfolio of sample work and enacts the next step in his action plan: Move to Los Angeles, baby.
It’s not easy. But then nothing worthwhile usually is. Miles hooks up with our IMS team in Los Angeles and continues his training. He keeps his vision front and center, aligning with it everyday. He sets benchmarks and follows his action plan. He regularly measures, evaluates and calibrates that action plan in order to optimize results. And he learns to identify when he’s straying from the plan, when fear and doubt and anxiety are present, and how to manage all of it while still moving toward fulfillment of the vision.
So, where is Miles now? Who knows? This is a hypothetical story. But I promise you this: Whatever path Miles is on is far better than the one we glimpsed in that other reality. Because now Miles is in charge. He knows what he needs to do to create a life of fulfillment and joy and serenity. It’s going to require consistent training throughout his journey, but that’s exactly why we’re here. At Inner Matrix Systems, our mission is to eliminate suffering as efficiently as possible and give people access to lives better than they imagined possible.
If you’re heading down the path of Miles #1 but you’re ready to become Miles #2, join us for our Power Series. We provide the tools, techniques, and strategies for not only naming your vision for the life you want to create, but also for measuring, evaluating and calibrating the plan that will get you there. Click HERE to learn more about the Power Series and sign up today!