Intentions and the Winding Staircase

The Winding Staircase

Some people say I’m a late bloomer.

I didn’t start my first company until I was 43.
I’m having the most fun of my life now that I’m over sixty.
I’ve never felt more creative. More energized. More curious.

If this is “late,” I recommend it.

History is full of so-called late bloomers:

• Grandma Moses picked up a paintbrush at 75 and became world-renowned before passing at 101.
• Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65.
• Harry Bernstein published his debut novel at 90.
• Julia Child didn’t learn to cook until 40.
• Jack Ma was rejected repeatedly — including ten times from Harvard — and couldn’t get hired before building Alibaba.

None of them had a straight line.

None of them could have predicted the staircase.

Because no one can.

The Myth of the Straight Path

We love the fantasy of clarity:

“I’ll do this, then that, then arrive.”

Real life doesn’t move like that.

It moves like what I call The Winding Staircase.

Imagine you want to go from the ground floor to the second floor. You walk up the stairs confidently because you know they connect.

Now imagine a Martian beams into your living room. You tell him, “Upstairs is where we’re going.”

He starts climbing.

But the staircase curves.

At several points, he’s facing completely away from the second floor.

He panics.

“This is wrong. We’re going the wrong way.”

And he goes back down.

Why?

Because he doesn’t trust the staircase.

He can’t see the connection.

The Revisionist Illusion

In hindsight, our lives always look purposeful.

Every twist seems necessary.
Every detour meaningful.
Every rejection strategic.

But in the moment?

It feels random. Confusing. Even unfair.

That’s the test.

When you are on the winding staircase, you often look like you’re moving away from your dream.

A job ends.
A partnership dissolves.
A deal collapses.
An opportunity disappears.

You turn a corner and it feels like regression.

But corners are not reversals.

They are part of the climb.

When It Feels Like It’s Not Working

You’re doing TQT.

You’re spending time in nature.

You’re running your Mini-Mind Movie.

You’ve set your Intention.

And yet… things feel sideways.

Here is the only correct response:

Maintain discipline.

Not frantically.
Not desperately.

Calmly.

Because the winding staircase requires trust.

You don’t need to see the whole structure.

You only need to keep climbing.

The Energy Perspective

When you change patterns, systems reorganize.

Sometimes that means things leave before better things arrive.

Sometimes it means instability before expansion.

Sometimes it means facing a direction that looks wrong — even while you’re ascending.

The person who stops halfway up the staircase never reaches the next floor.

The person who continues, despite temporary disorientation, inevitably does.

Late Blooming Is a Myth

There is no late.

There is only readiness.

There is only alignment.

There is only the moment when identity finally matches capacity.

And when that moment arrives, things accelerate.

Your path does not need to resemble anyone else’s.

It only needs to be yours.

So if today feels like a corner — a turn away from what you thought you wanted — pause before descending.

Ask yourself:

Am I actually going down?
Or am I simply on the curve?

Then breathe.

And keep climbing.

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Just Do the Work

You don’t actually have to believe this will work.

That’s the beautiful part.

You don’t need blind faith.
You don’t need to chant.
You don’t need to convince yourself every morning.

You just need to do the work.

Because this process is grounded in how the brain filters reality, how emotion drives behavior, how identity shapes decision-making, and how repeated internal rehearsal changes neural wiring.

Eventually, if you apply it consistently, it works.

Belief becomes irrelevant.

Discipline becomes everything.

And removing the pressure to “believe hard enough” removes stress.

The Winding Never Stops

The winding staircase doesn’t suddenly straighten out.

Twists are curves.
Curves are waves.
Waves are energy.
Energy is change.

Life doesn’t become linear when you set an Intention.

It becomes dynamic.

You’re not trying to eliminate movement.

You’re learning to surf it.

Timeagination is not about freezing reality into a static fantasy.

It’s about playing with energy intelligently so change bends in your favor.

Lessons from Disappointment

Psychologist Anna Rowley, who coaches executives at major corporations on developing what she calls existential mastery, argues that emotional elasticity is one of the most valuable traits in modern life.

Flexibility, she says, creates internal strength and safety in a chaotic world.

And how do you build it?

Failure.
Recovery.
Repeat.

She even suggests that chasing happiness is a distraction — that life satisfaction comes from becoming someone who can handle disappointment well.

She’s not wrong.

The ability to absorb setbacks without collapsing is a superpower.

But here’s the upgrade:

You don’t just manage disappointment.

You reframe it inside a larger narrative.

The winding staircase again.

Every setback is either:

• A redirection.
• A recalibration.
• Or a resilience training session.

If our paths ever cross, I’ll happily teach her the Mini-Mind Movie tool — because emotional elasticity becomes much easier when you have a clear, awe-filled Intention pulling you forward.

When you know where you’re headed, disappointment becomes data.

Not identity.

The Real Skill

The real skill is not avoiding failure.

It is continuing anyway.

Running TQT when you don’t feel like it.
Going into nature when you’d rather scroll.
Playing your Mini-Mind Movie when the mail brings bills.

That is mastery.

Not perfection.

Consistency.

Just do the work.

The staircase will curve.
The waves will move.
The energy will shift.

And you will become someone who doesn’t break when it does.

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“It’s Not Working…”

I get a lot of emails on this topic.

Many come from people who spent decades rehearsing thoughts that harmed them — doubt, fear, resentment, scarcity. Then they do Transformation for a few weeks or months… and when life appears to wobble or take a step backward, they assume the tools aren’t working.

Let me be blunt and kind at the same time:

This system works whether you believe in it or not.

But it does not work on your timeline.

It works on the timeline of pattern reorganization.

And that can look messy.

A Classic Example

One man — a big fan of Three Simple Steps — took Transformation. He was fired up. Energized. Hopeful.

His biggest desire? A life partner.

He was exhausted from failed relationships. He also hated his job, but the soulmate was the headline issue.

He did the “What do you really want?” exercise.
He did the commitment ritual.
He ran TQT.

For a few months I received enthusiastic emails. Nothing externally had changed, but he “felt” something shifting.

In every response I gave him the same advice:

“Stop analyzing. Stop trying to figure out how. Just do TQT, get into nature, and let life fill in the details.”

He didn’t like that tone. I can be direct. Sometimes that reads as condescending. It’s rarely my intention.

Then November arrived.

He lost his job.

Still no soulmate.

He was furious. With me. With the program. With everything.

He demanded a refund.

I refused.

And replied again:

“Stop analyzing. Just do TSS and let life fill in the details.”

His response contained suggestions about my anatomy that are physically impossible without circus training.

The Winding Staircase at Work

Near Christmas, he emailed again.

Still frustrated.

But he mentioned something interesting:

For the first time in years, he had been invited to Christmas with his family. They had fallen out long ago. Now the door reopened.

I could see it.

Life filling in the details.

I replied:

“Stop analyzing. Just do TSS and let life fill in the details.”

He didn’t respond.

January

Then came this:

“Christmas was great. We’re all family again like nothing ever happened. I did the ‘let go of the past’ ritual. I even got my mother doing TQT. My aunt visited for the first time in years. She’s looking for a business partner with a specific skill set. I match it perfectly. We’re on a trial period and it’s going great.
At her office I met someone. We started dating.
I’ll need to commit to the business long-term. I need the money. I’m getting married in the summer.”

No mention of the program.

No word of thanks.

Just… life reorganized.

The Point

He wanted a soulmate.

He got fired.

He thought that meant failure.

In reality, the staircase turned.

Job gone → family reconnected → new business opportunity → new social environment → new partner → marriage.

He couldn’t see the connection while on the curve.

He thought the system failed him.

It didn’t.

It was rearranging him.

You Don’t Have to Believe

This is why I say:

You don’t have to believe.

Belief is overrated.

Consistency is not.

Do TQT.
Go into nature.
Run your Mini-Mind Movie.
Stop micromanaging the “how.”

Life fills in the details.

Often sideways.

Often inconveniently.

Often disguised as loss.

But it fills them in.

Sun Tzu said:

“The best leader is the one whose people say they did it all themselves.”

If you one day look back and say, “I turned my life around,”

Good.

That’s exactly how it should feel.

Just make sure you did the work while the staircase was turning.

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