Friday, September 10, 2010

Excerpts from 2,000 Percent Living--2,000 Percent Living Blueprints: Follow These Directions to Achieve More Breathtaking Breakthroughs.

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us,
for we were not disorderly among you;
nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge,
but worked with labor and toil night and day,
that we might not be a burden to any of you,
not because we do not have authority,
but to make ourselves an example
of how you should follow us.

— 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 (NKJV)

After I started writing this book, I visited an exhibition of
Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings at MASS MoCA in North
Adams, Massachusetts. In case you are unfamiliar with
this aspect of the artist’s work, let me explain a little bit
about it. Mr. LeWitt found the process of conceptualizing
art to be interesting and worthy apart from producing
the art, and he liked to draw. As a result, he worked on
helping people recreate his drawings on a grand scale
without him being present. If you would like to see some
of these recreated wall drawings, you can find examples
at the MASS MoCA Web site, www.massmoca.org. I also
encourage you to visit the exhibition, which will continue
until 2033.

As I toured the extensive display of wall drawings, I was
impressed by examples of the complex plans that Mr.
LeWitt (who is now deceased) provided for those who
want to render his wall drawings. The details are so
thoroughly developed and easy to understand that
virtually anyone who can read English can expect to
create an excellent wall drawing that will appear as
Mr. LeWitt intended. If you are musically inclined,
think of these instructions as being similar to the score
of a symphony. By playing what the composer wrote on
period instruments, you can recreate the music that
existed during the composer’s lifetime.

A new question occurred to me while I was touring the
exhibit: How well would people understand the nuances
of how to create 2,000 percent living breakthroughs after
the best current practitioners are no longer available?
I imagined that many well-meaning people might
misinterpret what has been written on the subject and
that, consequently, much effort could go into relatively
ineffective activities.

Having become aware of the humbling question of how
to best serve unborn generations, I immediately began
to appreciate that Mr. LeWitt’s instructions could be
likened to blueprints. With a good blueprint to make
something, any reasonably competent person who
knows how to use blueprints can create the desired
result.

I immediately determined that I would include
blueprints for a few of the most important aspects of
2,000 percent living in an appendix to this book. Those
who just want to graze through the concepts of 2,000
percent living will get what they want from the fourteen
lessons. Those who would like to create many
breathtaking breakthroughs can use the blueprints to
make progress more quickly.

Since providing blueprints is such an obvious idea, you
might wonder why I haven’t done previous work of this
sort to advance the 400 Year Project (see Adventures of
an Optimist). I have certainly toyed with the thought,
but I have avoided doing much about it beyond
coauthoring The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook. In
choosing to be mostly silent about detailed instructions,
I was primarily concerned that I not stifle anyone’s
creativity. I believed that what I’ve learned and been
writing about can be reconceptualized into a simpler and
better form. I also hoped that many 2,000 percent
solution tutors would soon emerge and that they would
develop better blueprints than I could by drawing on
their experiences with the process.

Over the first fourteen years of the project, I learned
something that surprised me: With God’s help I can
develop improved breakthrough methods much faster
than most people become interested in learning how to
use them. That circumstance suggests that I need to
focus on making it easier to grasp the importance of
using these breakthrough methods and to appreciate how
little time and effort can be needed to apply the processes
to create remarkable solutions. As a result of my concern
about the relatively slow growth in the number of people
applying the process, I have decided to become a
blueprint maker for you.

In thinking about these blueprints, I realize that my task
is a little more complicated than Mr. LeWitt’s. What he
wanted to enable will still be literally relevant centuries
from now. What I am describing should be improved over
time as new resources, knowledge, and skills emerge.
Therefore, I need to write the blueprints to allow for
those advances to be incorporated into future solutions.
I’ll do my best to project potential advances in methods
by imagining some possibilities so that your application
of the blueprints will be more likely to benefit from any
fundamental improvements. I’ll also make this
information more relevant for the future by grounding
my writing as much as possible in circumstances that
are likely to remain similar to today.

Let’s get started by looking at the first blueprint: the
principles behind identifying ideal practices.

You will also find blueprints for being a breakthrough
leader and a breakthrough follower on my other blogs:
Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire and Create a
Billion Dollar Business.

Copyright 2010, Donald W. Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.

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