Random thunks

Random Thunks
The Effective Watering of a Rock Garden
Chip Evans, PH.D.
www.theevansgroupllc.com

Random Thunks
Chip Evans, Ph.D. www.theevansgroupllc.com
I’ve been giving seminars to our consulting clients for many
years, and have two website subscription services in which I
do personalized “training for traders.” Over the years, many
of our clients have written to ask for information, or
comment on “Random Thunks.” I often tell people that they
will need to, very effectively, learn to water a rock garden.
People smile when they hear this. How you hear it
alone is part of who you are.
Your perception is often that something does not need to be
done, or that it “is this way,” and this is part of the problem.
What we perceive to be “real” is often not, and what we
understand is often incomplete. Everything necessary to
solve all human problems is simple and in you right
now.
You are the complete problem with yourself, so know that up front. It’s Mom and Dad, genetics, who
your friends were, and are, where you live and what you eat, but it is as much your perception.
Smoking is bad, some drinking is good, exercise is essential. White bread is bad. Prayer does help. Do
not eat too much, and exercise every day, and you will not get fat.
You can live a lot longer than before, and that makes you worry more.
It is important that you like your work, but most people don’t. When you are happy is when you do your
best work, so find work that makes you happy. Until you do this you will not be happy.
Get over yourself. You really do not have any real problems that you didn’t create yourself, so quit
creating problems. Think this out. Once you figure out all the problems you keep developing and stop
doing them, things are easier.
This all may take a lifetime but this is how you do it.
We need a lesson at the beginning . . . It is a Monday. You are 44 years old. Someone you know, that you
trust, well informed, tells you that must make a change. Life or death. Change or die.
This informed person tells you if you change you will live much longer, and with less pain. (A good
example might be to change your diet after your massive heart attack?) Of course you will do this as it
implies reason. But the fact is that you are probably deluding yourself and will do nothing.
The odds are 9 to 1 that you will do nothing.
Shocked. Don’t be. 8 of 10 people that take private therapy will do NOTHING with it, will make no
changes. Prescriptions for mental health are quite unnecessary with over 80% of the people that are
actual prescribed them. Down deep you already knew this, even if you are taking such
medications. The placebo is now often the effect, or the diagnosis is based on societal perception. Are
there really 40 million depressed people in the U.S.A? :)

Random Thunks
Frames are the mental structures that define how we see the world. We reject new facts that don’t fit
into our structure. To change behavior you have to change the frames.
The secret is that JOY is a better motivator than fear. Most change takes place, or we see the need of,
because of FEAR. Change is not motivated by fear. Crisis is not a powerful impetus for change. Facts do
not set us free.
Despite the fear, we are not respectful of it.
So here’s fear. People who live to 85 have a 50% change of being senile.
Do something about 200 times in a row and you’ve created a habit.
But think again. 2/3 of the people that are prescribed statin drugs for cholesterol stop taking the drug
because they see no change. They quit because they didn’t feel any better.
The good news is the brain has the ability to change lifelong, and that big changes produce big results.
Radical, sweeping fast change works best.
If we were just sitting together, drinking coffee, watching a sunrise over the Florida ocean, I might ask or
impart:
 How do know when it’s time to be depressed?
 You are supposed to be right where you are
 Awareness, in of itself, is transformative.
 Do you ever stretch like a dog, and think like a child?
 Life is a meaningless play going nowhere for no reason.
 Be in the world, but not of it
 What if it was here, what if it was now, what if it was already done?
 If you can observe, you won’t have the resistance
 We have a choice in how we respond, or even if we do
 Resistance is simply focusing on what you don’t want
 Focusing is making internal representations of what you want, or
don’t want. It’s your choice.
 When you focus on what you don’t want you feel pain
 We can have control over what we focus on; there really is a law of attraction
 Put passion in the goal you are visualizing
 Whatever is happening to you, you created
 We chronically focus on what we don’t want, what we don’t like, and what is wrong
 Actions must be good to really work
 You can’t change people from their developmental level. I teach from a style of spiral dynamics,
a way of understanding people
 Depression happens when you don’t get what you want, or feel controlled.
 Speak to people where they are; not where you are
 You attract people or situations that help make your beliefs true.
 You hallucinate that you are right.

Random Thunks
 You act in the way to make you right
 When you keep letting things happen that you don’t like: WATCH yourself doing it. It is much
harder, if not impossible, to do things CONSCIOUSLY.
 There is another way of looking at the world.
 There is no purpose.
 We create the purpose. And, every purpose thusly has a consequence.
 For any outcome you want there is a certain way of thinking or acting that will get it for you.
 You create my own reality. You do things to myself. I actually already know what to do.
 When you peel the onion away, as we all talk about, nothing is left. Exactly.
If we were meeting together, at your company, or about you as a trader or person, I would teach you to
think of everything you are doing, and want, simply. Here’s an effective, no internal games or dialogue,
approach to thinking about you (or your company).
It leads with WHAT DO YOU WANT?
1) The Six Developmental Steps
2) Know Who You Are
3) Know your Assets
4) 3 Know your Liabilities
5) Know Where you Want to Go
 If you don’t’ really know where you want to go, you can’t really start
going there
6) Take Action
 Do not wait until you know where to go - just start.
 It will help you figure where you really want to go
 Most failure takes place from lack of action
 Evaluate the Action
 Notice what happens
 Refine Your Action
7) Study the effectiveness of the action
 Know where you want to go, take, evaluate and refine the Action
As you move forward in defining what you are willing to accept in yourself, simple questions, along with
regular “effective releasing”, should be asked of yourself all the time.
Confront yourself. You created you.
These are the questions you must ask yourself, as a stock trader, a person, or a company:
What do I want?
What do I not want?
What am I afraid of?
To be successful in the unreal world you first must be good at something. Until you are truly good at
something you have little value to others, and have not even proven to yourself what you can develop.

Random Thunks
As you gain skills you must also love and be generous. Any part of you that is not doing this, that is
unforgiving, just wastes life.
Go out and:
1. Do what you’ll say you’ll do.
2. Finish what you start.
3. Be on time.
4. Say Please and Thank You.
5. Listen
When working to coach a change in environmental thinking, I begin with what I call “how we see
ourselves.” I first teach to go “outside of who you are” (as person or company), “or what you do” (as a
person or company),“and simply observe from the outside”.
The more you can objectively just watch a situation (the proverbial cat on the mantle watching), the
more you can begin to understand what you are really doing.
◊ To have a new belief, focus on it constantly and in every way you can
◊ As long as you continue to hold the same beliefs you’ll continue to get the
◊ same results
◊ Everything is TRUE to the person that believes it. Evidence will be created
by all and anyone to prove their point, and all evidence is irrelevant. Only
other people’s beliefs can be false. Your beliefs will always turn out to be
true. Ask: do my beliefs create good life, and desired results?
◊ You will attract, and be attracted to, people and situations that confirm the truth of what you
believe
◊ You will find ways to distort what you perceive so as to make a belief seem to be true, even if it
isn’t
◊ You will act in such a way that people finally comply with what you believe by acting in a way that
your belief is true. For example, if you believe you won’t be loved, that fear will cause you to act in
such a way that eventually the other person or people will stop caring.
◊ Lots of negative emotional experiences allow us to focus on what we do not want. The emotional
charge from such negative experiences pulls our focus to what we don’t want. You cannot ATTRACT
by focusing on what you don’t want.
◊ What your goal should be is: Discover HOW you create your feelings, behaviors, what and whom
you attract into your life, and what and who you are attracted to. Most people are concerned
about WHY they are doing something. Why, is not a good question. How you’re creating whatever
is happening in your life...for example, if you are anxious, HOW do you DO “anxious”? If you can’t
make enough money, HOW do you do “not making money?”

Random Thunks
◊ Except for a certain number of random acts and a few things that are biologically programmed into
us-death, for instance, and certain physical conditions-you create whatever happens to you, and
you do this by focusing your mind in certain ways.
◊ A very effective way to replace beliefs that don’t serve you is to adopt the witness posture- to
watch, with awareness, the process of HOW what you believe CREATES what happens in your life
◊ When you understand what you have been creating, light bulbs should go off, as most of the issues
a person has are really self-created. In fact, ALL of them ☺
◊ Connect with your life. How do you FEEL when you act a certain way, or are with a person, or are at
work? What and whom are you attracted to, as this is what and whom you will attract.
◊ Every day things happen to you. You have a choice on what to focus on. If you focus on what you
want to avoid, the price you have to pay, and what you’re afraid of, you’ll feel bad. ALL bad feelings
are the result of focusing on what you don’t want. When you focus on what you don’t want you
attract more of it to you.
◊ When something isn’t working out for you, it is because you are unintentionally and unconsciously
focusing on what you don’t want in that area. Change and focus on what you do want.
◊ Why is not a good question. How is.
◊ You are really learning to WATCH YOUR MIND. This increased awareness is what can change
behavior.
◊ There are really three ways we make whatever we believe come true, or at least seem to be true.
 Attract people and situations that make it come true
 So believe that there is no reality. You so believe your interpretation that it seems to be true.
(I am so ugly that no one likes me)
 Act in a way that your actions make it come true.
◊ No belief is intrinsically true or false. You make what you believe come true, or seem to be true, by
what you do inside and what actions you take. You cannot evaluate by “true or false”; it’s circular
logic.
◊ You can’t argue this thinking with indisputable facts. A rock is a rock, but you could create the
delusion it was not.
◊ If you believe something is possible, you want it, and you know this....you can make this belief
DRIVE YOUR ACTION. You first must know what you really believe.
◊ If you are really doing something you don’t want, but don’t know it, only your awareness of what
you are doing (the witness) can help you discover the belief you have that isn’t serving you.
◊ When you really focus your mind you can focus on what you want, what you want to move
towards, and create, OR on what you don’t want, which is when you are afraid, worried, stressed,
or confused.
◊ Right now think of “not an elephant”. To do so you have to make a picture of an elephant.
◊ Any time you have a bad feeling, you are focusing on what you don’t want. You can’t have a bad
feeling without focusing on what you don’t want. You must notice what you focusing on.

Random Thunks
◊ How many negative words do you use? “Not, bad, no, don’t, avoid”...you are obviously thinking
about what you don’t want. Notice your internal pictures and thoughts.
◊ The hardest job is reversing what you have let yourself become. At first you are focusing on what
you don’t want (unconscious incompetence), and you don’t even know you’re doing it. Then you’re
doing it, and you’re aware that you are doing it (conscious incompetence), but aren’t doing
anything about it, and then, you’re doing it (conscious competence), and really making progress,
but you really have to work at it...and then, you’re finally NOTICING and instantly changing your
focus on what you want, and it’s natural and automatic (unconscious competence).
◊ All effective personal growth approaches are really just ways to get you to focus on what you want.
◊ Carry a 3 X 5 card with you for two weeks. Make a mark on your card each time you notice yourself
focusing on something you don’t want. When you notice yourself doing this, ask what is you do
want. Write it down. Keep track of your notes for two weeks, and learn about yourself.
When working with people (looking to advance) such as stock traders who “want out of their jobs and to
trade full-time” or with company employees or potential new leaders for a firm I have been
“restructuring,” here’s how I teach:
On Moving Up the Ladder at Work
Work means many things. Flow is when we love what we do so much we do not know we are doing it,
and is really the only time you are moving up the ladder. There are books on this. Save the money.
Find what you do well, and do this.
Find what you do not do well, and do not do this.
Don’t fake yourself.
Find your flow in your life work. Until you find this all work will be work, filled with good, bad, tiredness,
unfairness, fear, and the stuff you know so well.
While you are working:
1. Tell the truth
2. Be fair to others
3. Do good for the shareholders.
Shareholders are the people you teach, or that you sell to, or that you work for as they work with you,
to create money flow, provide a service. This is also the Flow of Money (see On Money below).
This will make everything work. With truth you eliminate half of the untruths. With being fair you
eliminate much pain, and are being fair. And by being good for the shareholder (really think what the
shareholder means) everything is easy.
Do all this and you will move up the ladder. There are many other ways to do so, but in each one you
will fall. Sometimes you will fall very hard.

Random Thunks
And using the same principles, many clients have admitted to themselves while working with me that
they “don’t know what they want” but “always want more than they have”. This leads the complaints,
the concerns, or the “fear” – and that is the reason I’m there, and I ask them to review what follows.
On Moving Up the Ladder in Life
Things go wrong and right. Every day. Prepare a small list of when things gowrong label them:
1. I got _____ (choose swear word) over
2. I was wronged
3. It’s not fair
4. This should not have happened
Then, as you see things go wrong, identify them as #1-4. Nothing more. You may begin to see a pattern,
or not, on what goes wrong.
Once you have identified what goes wrong you are done and can move on to the next moment in life,
which allows you to go up the ladder more quickly.
Ladders have rungs and lead upward. Be careful here.
• Why do you want to go upward?
• Who told you this was the good and right thing?
• What happens when you get there?
• Where is there?
• Is there a way down?
Over 50% of the companies I have restructured, and 60% of all honest
traders I’ve ever coached, addictions are the lead culprit to what is not
working.
Be careful as you read this below, as it’s not as simple as “Oh, she has a
weight problem, or “Jim drinks too much”:
On Addiction to Drugs, Alcohol, Gambling, Failure, Success, Self Sabotage, et al:
There are very simple rules for addiction. You may take your whole life learning them. Or not. Most
important is the recognition that a typical human being is addicted to at least 7 “things” or “ways of
life/thinking”:
1) Take a weekly calendar and write down everything you TAKE or SPEND MONEY ON by the hour, 24
hours a day, 7 days.
2) Be totally honest.
3) Skip nothing.
4) Figure this out for how much you spend an hour on your rent, car insurance, EVERYTHING. Most
important, write down everything you eat, drink, smoke, pills you take, EVERYTHING. First you have
to make the whole list of all the places you spend money. EVERYTHING.
This will take about 4 hours, and make you really sick.

Random Thunks
Next you have to write down all the shit you TAKE, so you don’t forget when you start THE LIST. Coffee,
beer, Prozac, Aspirin, Meth, Dope, Water, EVERYTHING. This will take another 4 hours, and you’ll forget
stuff or lie creatively.
Now you are ready. You have 8 hours into it, and have a weekly calendar ready. You are being honest so
you will really have to remember a lot. List EVERYTHING.
You want to know just what you spend money on and give yourself (coffee to the lottery ticket) and
must write it down.
A week passes. If you have told the truth your calendar will be a shocking mess of things, and you’ll now
have to spend 4 hours just figuring out what it means.
If you haven’t told the truth you’ve half assed done the exercise and probably won’t even continue. If
you haven’t told the truth YET, but kind of see a channel of thinking here, you may decide to fucking do
the exercise all over again…for another week, and tell the truth.
There are about 20 hours total in this exercise. It takes a lot of input. When you complete it you’ll know.
It will all be clear.
What you did this week is who you are, and what you’ve become.
It may be the root of your unhappiness. There will be patterns
that shock you.
Who thought you drank 100 cups of coffee in a week, huh? Or
smoked 210
cigarettes? Or spent $1000 on _____? Or....?
The next part of the exercise is being naked.
For that same week you must be naked in front of yourself, and
really look at your body, ALL OF IT, FOR FIVE MINUTES each day.
SOME PEOPLE HAVE OTHERS TAKE PICTURES OF THEM, FROM
ALL FOUR SIDES, AND CLOSE UP.
It’s obvious what this will do for you. You are what you decide.
Money doesn’t even really exist, yet it is the root of it all. It’s the reason I’m hired as a consultant, and
the reason people work, and trade the stock market, and own businesses. Each time I am hired it is
about money.

Random Thunks
On Money
We created this instrument…currency…to allow value to something we had or were. People flow
currency as a means of exchange. It started with beads. It’s really no different now.
Money is not evil. Nor is it good. Money is. How you treat money, and yourself and others with it, is
what happens and matters.
There are really only a few rules.
1) Save some of your money always. 10% of what you bring in would be smart to hide someplace. The
rainy day thing, bigger.
2) When you GIVE money to others good things happen. You may not see them. Every person you see
that asks you for money should be given some. Regardless. You know how hard it is to ask for
money. You do it every day, too. Do not judge.
3) When you take money from others you must be giving something for it. This is the value we have
put upon money as our currency. (Spend five minutes reading everything on a $20 bill)
4) What you do with the money you have will come back to you. You know this really and only you
know what this means.
If you are “rich” and have a large yacht, three homes, $20,000 chairs in your home you are feeling
differently than someone with one room, 7 people, and Goodwill furniture.
You should not feel bad.
If you are an American middle class, struggling, buying more when you have more (this is the rule of
money, needing more when you make more, and seeing the guy with the three homes, and wishing….
Or the lady in that one room with 5 children, and a husband unemployed, living on food stamps, and
wishing…
This is all the flow of money.
The middle class person can change.
The rich yacht owner can change.
The poor family in that one room can change.
Or not.
All of this is the circumstances that have been dealt, and how the person(s) dealt with their life, dumb
luck, or just coming from the lucky sperm bank. Regardless. It is the flow of money, and in how you see
it, and participate.

Random Thunks
And, within all these “random thunks” that I blurt out in conversation and word, and despite being a
fully messed up and complicated older man myself, it is this:
Thinking is the source of all problems, and there really are no problems.
We always feel older or younger than we are.
There is no reason to move so fast, and to have so
much input. None. We create the intensity of life,
the “overstress” of ourselves. There is no such
thing as stress.
I can learn from you as much as you can learn from
me. This goes back to basic listening, which few of
us do well.
Stop all negativity. This is harder than anything,
especially when you think how big a statement it is,
and how negative you REALLY are.
If you haven’t figured it out, this is it. When
involved in anything negative you are immediately
under the influence of negative. This is stupid.
When you get good, things get better.
Whoever you were is over, even a second ago.
Listen Well. Do Good.
Be Well.

Random thunks

More Related Content

What's hot (18)

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to Random thunks (20)

More from The Evans Group LLC (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Random thunks