BLUEPRINTS
“Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - October 26, 1967 - Barratt Junior High School, Philadelphia
We all possess a unique combination of “blueprints” which determine how we approach life and the results we get.
Blueprints are at the root of how we think, feel and act. They are ingrained and run in our subconscious mind and they ultimately determine how successful or mediocre our life is.
But where do they come from?
From the moment we are born, we start crafting our blueprints based on our early life experiences. They are strongly influenced by the “teachings” of authority figures or influencers in our lives, such as parents. They are then shaped by our own preferences and experiences as we grow up, which may serve to reinforce those teachings or minimise them in importance.
Take for instance siblings who have grown up and been educated in the same overall environment. Why are they all different? They will share some similar aspects of their blueprints, but they will each interpret them differently.
I have identified seven main blueprints that we base our lives on. These blueprints determine the approach we take to each of these areas of our lives.
The PHYSICAL blueprint – this is your approach to food, exercise and lifestyle;
The DHARMA blueprint – this is about your place in the world, and your responsibility in this life. Ultimately, it’s about your purpose in life;
The CAREER blueprint – this is the reason behind your career choice, where you are professionally today, and your expectations about what your career/job should deliver in your life;
The MONEY blueprint – why is it that for some people money comes easily and for others it’s a constant battle?;
The RELATIONSHIP blueprint – this is about how you relate to others, your expectations and understandings of relationships;
The CREATIVE PLAY blueprint – what do you do to relax and have fun, or recharge your batteries, and why?
The SPIRITUAL blueprint – this is the foundation of how to live a fulfilled life.
To make lasting and profound changes in your life, your blueprints need to be understood and then redesigned to deliver the outcome you want.
Let me explain it another way: imagine you are a lemon tree.
You can change your physical growing conditions by seeking out improved irrigation and perfect weather conditions. You can ensure you get all the nutrients you need. And as a result, you will have many, perfectly formed, lemons.
But if what you really want is apples, you will be forever disappointed.
Blueprints are the ‘programs’ that run your life and they run automatically. The physical world, where things manifest (ie the lemons) are a manifestation of what is going on inside you. Your blueprints work from the roots up. The unseen manifests the seen. Your inner world creates your outer world. If you have lemons in your blueprint – you will grow lemons!
Your life will never change by trying to change your physical world (Einstein called that insanity) and that’s the biggest mistake people make. They try to change jobs, relationships, houses, etc. with the hope that the changes will make them feel better.
In order to make changes in your physical world, you first need to change the programming in your mental, emotional and spiritual world. Because ultimately, your health, bank account, job, friends and relationships are all a result of your inner world - your beliefs and habits.
You may be highly talented at something, but if you have a limiting blueprint, chances are that you will have limited results.
Others have high blueprint beliefs. They are full of confidence. They set the bar high and achieve amazing things. Donald Trump was a millionaire, then lost everything, then became a millionaire again. And then he believed that he could be President of the United States!
Your blueprint determines your level of success, mediocrity or failure.
If the authority figure in your childhood had issues or limiting beliefs about money, the chances are that you will experience issues and limitations with money too. If your parents didn’t express love easily, the chances are that you will not show love easily either.
There is an exception however, which is that you may have adopted an extreme opposite to the blueprint manifested by someone else in your childhood. If you felt embarrassed or angry about how an authority figure behaved, chances are that your blueprint will manifest in the opposite way.
Here is a practical example of how to redesign your blueprint.
When I was a kid and I was invited to have a sleepover at my best friend’s house, I would always ask permission from my mother, as she was the ‘softer’ touch. But she would usually tell me to ask my father for permission. Which wasn’t easy – in fact it was a bit scary. You see, it was hard to get a yes from my father, especially if I wasn’t performing well at school – which was most of the time.
So what did I learn from this growing up? That it is the man in the household who makes decisions in the home.
Fast-forward 30 years, I live with my partner… who has the audacity to think that we should make decisions jointly (as that is how things were done between her parents when she grew up).
Can you believe that!?
So I had three options:
1. Find another woman who chooses to be led by a man.
2. Re-program my blueprint to learn how to live with a woman who likes to share decision-making.
3. Try to change my partner by convincing her to re-program her blueprint to my specific needs.
I went for option 2, although even after 13 years, we sometimes still experience a “clash” in our blueprints.
So there is good news: you can reformat your blueprints, but it takes a bit of effort and awareness to identify them.
Why not spend some time this “Mayday” by taking an honest look at how things are working in your life, and writing a list of the blueprint areas where you want to experience change.
Have a great May Day!
Nico
