Mark said there are basically two kinds of people, people who have given themselves permission, and who those who have not.

But, more than that, up until week 17, going through all these exercises and feeling better, seeing change, and getting complacent and laying off… many people feel good and don’t need to do them anymore! Week 17 is often seen as a splitting point, people tend to drop off.

With me, I feel it’s the opposite. I’ve been doing the exercises as instructed (for the most part) because over the decades I’ve done so many other “programs” that had not worked.

They helped, I saw the logic and value, but information is not transformation. In the Master Key Experience (MKE), I can see the value in the repetition, the linking, the steps…. it makes total sense and the dots are connecting. I just need to do the work.

Over the previous weeks I was doing the exercises as diligently as I was able to, given my schedule – yes, doing my best – although I certainly could’ve done better in my 20s when I had more energy.

But that’s OK. I am a miracle of nature and capable of so much. So I persevere, I keep working. And I’m stepping it up.

This week we’re talking about permission – and it is interesting because I feel like I’ve given myself permission. Permission doesn’t feel like its the issue. What does though is these old subconscious programs.

Permission granted in just the last few years on top of programs that have been running for 60 isn’t going to cut it. But it is a necessary start.

There are a lot of neural pathways, peptide addictions, a lot of “undoing” that needs to take place which is happening with the weekly exercises, the discipline.

In this week’s lesson, Haanel writes that true concentration is a form of immersion – to be so interested in a thought that the rest of the world falls away. From that state, intuitive perception takes over and difficult problems begin to solve themselves.

Desire awakens the subconscious; concentration gives it direction; vibration builds the bridge between idea and form. Energy changes form from spirit to physical.

I’ve been thinking about this through the old story of the tortoise and the hare. I am, without question, the hare – quick, clever, reactive, easily intrigued, easily distracted. A “yellow” temperament burns bright and moves fast.

But that also means attention is constantly scanning. Hare energy is built for survival; bottom-of-the-food-chain vigilance. Quick reactions protect the body, but they dissipate the mind. Undirected energy becomes noise.

Even when I have been consistent, it has often been on the hamster wheel — energy fed into the machine that hired me, rather than into my own becoming.

The tortoise, in contrast, never strains. It simply holds direction. One foot, then another. Slow, consistent forward motion. The tortoise isn’t about speed, it’s about concentration. Single direction. No dispersion. The tortoise wins not by speed but by coherence.

My challenge is learning to add tortoise energy to my hare. To stop reacting to the nearest stimulus, notice distractions and return attention to the one thing I actually want to create.

That requires desire strong enough to stay, and concentration steady enough to direct it.