Parts & pieces & paradigms.
Oh my!
Here’s what it is, how it works, how you do it, and the point of it all.
No metaphor. No buildup. No easing you in.
If you’re here, you’re here because you want to see how the thing is put together.
So let’s put it together.
The Parts.
You. The Player.
You’re a system of systems.
Think of it like a computer. You have hardware — your biology. An operating system — your default perspective, the one you didn’t choose, the one that was installed before you were old enough to know it was being installed.
You have software — programs, coping mechanisms, automations. Things you picked up along the way to deal with your experience. Some of them served you. Some of them served you once and don’t anymore. Most of them are running right now without your permission.
And you have a programming language — what you say, how you say it, and what you mean by it. Your inner dialog. The instructions you give yourself constantly, mostly without realizing you’re doing it.
You are a computer that wrote its own code and forgot it did.
Inside that computer, there are versions of you. Ego states, formed at different phases of your life, each one still running.
There’s the version of you that formed around age five — before you had any say in the matter. The one that learned how the world worked by watching what happened to you in it.
There’s the version that formed around fourteen — the one that got clever, got sharp, got good at surviving by performing.
There’s the version you’re running right now — the current adult, the one reading this, the one who’s accumulated all of the above and calls it ‘me.’
And then there’s the one you’re becoming. The Elder State. The version you’d be if you could get all the other versions on the same team, playing for the same ends.
Together, they form what we call A Tribe Called Self.
They all have needs. They’re often in conflict. And most of the time, you don’t know which one is driving.
That’s the player. That’s what you’re working with.
Not broken. Not wrong. Not in need of fixing.
Just… not yet fully aware of what’s running the show.
The Pieces.
The Four Levels To It.
This whole thing — what we’re doing here, what you’re doing in your life, what every human who’s ever asked ‘what the fuck is this?’ has been doing — operates on four levels.
The first is the program itself.
Learn how the program works. Learn how to program yourself. Learn how to reprogram yourself. Your daily operating system — boot up, run program, shut down. The process is universal, same for everyone. The ritual is personal — how you implement it is yours.
It’s intentionally turning specific chaos into specific order at will. It’s like having the cheat codes, only it’s not cheating.
The second is the inner game.
Relationship with self — or, more accurately, the relationship between SELF, Self, and self. The first-tier game. The main game. Meeting the cast of characters who’ve been running your show, and learning what it takes to lead them instead of being led.
Your identity is literally the ‘box’ they’re talking about when they say think outside the box.
Dude, there is no spoon… you are the spoon and the being looking at it.
The third is the external game.
You, in the world. Other people. Circumstances. Learning when to control, when to influence, and when to simply participate. Getting what you want without treading on others. Open, honest, clear, and direct. Not nice. Kind.
The fourth is being the magic.
Doing the doing. Self-leadership. Demonstrating it to yourself and the world, using your authority to author your experience. The tools dissolve into second nature. You stop playing the game consciously because you’ve become the game.
Completing the game is game over. Winning happens while playing it.
The Paradigms.
The Ground Rules.
Every game has rules. Most of them, you didn’t write. Here’s how this one actually works.
The Base Code.
(Think + Feel + Do) = Be. Have. (Being. & Having. Or, Behavior.)
That’s it. That’s the equation that runs everything.
What you think, what you feel, and what you do — taken together — produce how you’re being. And how you’re being produces what you’re having.
Your behavior. Your experience. Your life.
How you’re being brings about what you’re bringing about.
The Closed Loop.
Your ‘beliefs’ are conclusions — a small but meaningful distinction.
You don’t have negative beliefs or false beliefs. You have conclusions you drew from experiences you had, and those conclusions formed your perspective.
Your perspective sets the rules you play by. The rules dictate your behavior. Your behavior gets you results. Your results confirm your perspective.
Closed loop.
You are constantly talking yourself into and out of everything you want. You do this on autopilot because you’ve rehearsed it to perfection.
Each time you do it, you add layers to the original story, the base code… providing yourself more proof that you can or cannot have something a particular way.
You’re so good at being who you’ve become that you think that’s who you are. The fact of the matter is, it’s simply a perspective. A perspective that works well enough to survive.
And then you’ve rehearsed that to perfection in order to keep you safe, accepted, and loved… or so you think.
You can rewrite any part of it — once you see it.
The Operating Logic.
You question. You answer. You decide. You act. That loop runs constantly, mostly unconsciously. Make it conscious and you’ve changed the game.
Decide what you want. Define it clearly. Act on it. Test. Adjust. Repeat.
That’s not a method. That’s what you’re already doing. You’re just doing it on autopilot with someone else’s instructions.
Know thyself. Understand thyself. Lead thyself.
That’s the architecture. In that order. Can’t skip steps. Can’t lead what you don’t understand. Can’t understand what you haven’t seen.
And the answers? You give your own. Not find them, not figure them out… give them. That’s what writes the rules to your individual game.
The Canvas.
We haven’t re-created the wheel here. Far from it.
That’s already been done.
Instead, our focus has been in the other direction.
What’s further upstream… what is that thing underneath it all? The foundational thing, the common denominator, the base building blocks all those who came before used to layer their ‘way’ on top of?
Whether that’s the mystery schools, the philosophers, or the scientists — what were the religions born from, where did the Shamans get their magic, and what are the Wizards using to perform theirs?
We’re interested in the framing, the code, the base, the foundation upon which any and every ‘way’ sits on top. The first layer on top of that is the ‘way’ — we’re interested in that core thing, the main thing.
We’re interested in the skeleton that the ‘thing’ is built from.
We’re interested in seeing the code of the matrix and not the pretty paint job… so that we can paint our own picture.
We’re interested in the canvas. Once we’re familiar with the canvas, all the ‘ways’ we have come into contact with make sense and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
When you see that Christianity and Voodoo are the same thing… Catholicism and Witchcraft are the same thing… Buddhism and (fill in the blank with whatever) are the exact same thing… humans trying to explain what ‘it’ is from different points of perspective on the spectrum of being human.
We’re all talking about the exact same thing. We are what is different and therefore our telling of it is different.
‘It’ is what it is.
Understanding how exactly we do ‘it’ and what that actually is, is what we’re interested in.
Call it whatever you want. Just make sure that the languaging of it carries appropriate weight and is devoid of baggage.
Understanding the foundation, what it is, how it works, and then layering on your own way, using the points of perspective from those who have come before us — that’s how to craft your own game.
The Point.
The purpose of being human — what this thing is and is for, this experience you’re having, what you call your life — is literally to be and to have experience.
That’s it.
The nature of that experience, whether it be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is entirely up to you. And, you can have it any way you choose.
Even if you don’t decide, you have still made a choice.
It is what it is.
It will be what you make it.
Because it is what you think it is.
You’re doing it.
Relationship with self is the core game. The first-tier game. The main game. All the other games we play are either second or third order games at best.
If you knew what you were doing and how it worked… and then learned how to do that at will — meaning, with intention, fully consciously aware of your doing it — you could recraft your entire experience into anything you wanted, whenever you wanted.
No, you likely can’t turn yourself into a Giraffe… and you probably shouldn’t turn that frog into a Prince… but hey, you do you.
Life is the path. You are the way.
What’s next?
Hi, I’m Justin. Have we met?
Or, DIG a little deeper?
The Park’s this way. If you’re ready to play for real…