Get Everything Done

I'm doing a presentation on "Dreams" for our mastermind group and re-read the book for maybe the 5th or 7th time. (I'm one of the fortunate few to have the actual paperback, version 1.0.)

What I found interesting on this go-through was that I liked and remembered the first half of the book more than I remembered the second half. And it struck me that, even though I've read the book multiple times, I've always been fuzzy on the second half's details and could never quite get my hands around it.

The first half of the book is Mark using these techniques and discovering things about himself and the process. There are gains and setbacks and gains, two case studies (not enough case studies and not long enough, for me), and insights piling up on insights. Those dialogues, the exercises, even the essays, I find compelling to read. And since it's written in a diary format, there is that narrative undertow pulling the reader along.

But the second half of the book becomes, I think, more interior and personal and it loses the drive of the first half. It's as if the methods have gone from beginner mode to WHOOSH expert mode as Mark accesses his unconscious more fully and successfully. He's leap-frogging from goal achievement to life philosophy, and it whiplashed me again on this re-reading; and I was again struck with the idea, "How do I implement what he's going through? How do *I* get from here to there, and what are the trapdoors or guideposts I should be looking for?"

There's relatively little middle ground explored as he transitions -- or there's less structure bridging beginner to intermediate to expert. Although the last page attempts to extract a structure, I found myself keeping several indexes in the book, regarding exercises, questions to ask, self-coaching, etc. Another analogy would be that just as the theme was introduced we were rushed into variations, and I wanted a better thematic grounding before seeing what else the method could achieve for me (such as the exercises for changing one's past).

I also noticed this time Mark's references to "Paradise Lost" a couple of times -- how more people read that poem than they do "Paradise Regained," which is a story without conflict. And it struck me that the first half of "Dreams" is Paradise Lost -- involving, compelling -- whereas the latter half is kind of "Paradise Regained" -- less conflict, lots of philosophizing, and to a degree less interesting. Mark and his future-future self kind of talk like two angels sitting on a cloud.

Now, that said, it was, and still is, a daring approach to a goal-achievement book and I would not have the book in any other form. Well, maybe I *would* like the traditional kind of non-fiction instruction book of which "Do It Tomorrow" is the exemplar. But that book was about the runway, not about flying, and while I learned as much from it, I don't go back to it as often as I go back to "Dreams." Maybe I'd like a little more structure and more examples from other of Mark's clients who implemented the methods, and how they met various hurdles.

Another point on re-reading, which Mark has referred to in his recent posts on the book (and which I don't think anyone else has commented on): how different the last Future Vision is from the first, that it's more a statement of Who he wants to be rather than what he wants to achieve. That's a shift that seems to emerge over time and doesn't appear to be a good place to start if you're new to the method.

What I also got out of this re-reading was that the process is more important than the result, that becoming the person who gets that result is the true goal hiding under what the conscious mind thinks is the goal.

I'm still a little confused about how many vision statements Mark is juggling by the end of the book: a long-term vision reviewed weekly, and then as many visions as you need for your various short-term goals? Or just use the method on one short-term goal at a time plus the weekly long-term vision? Still a little fuzzy on that.

Anyway, those were stray thoughts from this re-reading. One of the things I love about this book is how much there is to find in it.