The Green Platform Chapter One
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DECLAN COYLE<br />
THE GREEN<br />
PLATFORM<br />
SIMPLY LIFE-CHANGING
CHAPTER ONE<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Green</strong> And<br />
Red <strong>Platform</strong>s<br />
EVERY morning and indeed many times throughout each day, you<br />
and I, often totally unaware, make a decision to use either the <strong>Green</strong><br />
or Red <strong>Platform</strong>s.<br />
You might well ask – what is the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong>? Or what is<br />
the Red <strong>Platform</strong>? <strong>The</strong>y are terms that can on one hand show how<br />
imprisoned we are to our own limiting thoughts; on the other hand<br />
they can show you how to change and utterly transform your life<br />
for the better.<br />
How do they work? First let’s look at the Red <strong>Platform</strong>, the<br />
negative, self-sabotaging platform.<br />
Every day over 50,000 thoughts go through your head. Most of<br />
these – 40,000 or 80 per cent – are negative. It means that for every<br />
one time we have a positive <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> thought, there are four<br />
occasions when we land on the Red <strong>Platform</strong> in negative mode.<br />
So why do we see Red and why do we get on the Red <strong>Platform</strong>?<br />
Every time we decide to blame or complain or start telling a<br />
victim story such as: “It always happens to me” – we are on the<br />
Red <strong>Platform</strong>. That means most people spend 80 per cent of their<br />
time on the Red <strong>Platform</strong>, thinking negative thoughts day after day.<br />
Normally 95 per cent of the thoughts we have today are the same<br />
as the thoughts we had yesterday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ABCs of the Red <strong>Platform</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> ABCs of the Red <strong>Platform</strong> are Anger, Blame and Complain.<br />
When we are in this state, we use words like “you” or “they” or “he”<br />
or “she” to blame outside forces for our life circumstances.<br />
Underneath this platform, there is a tank of fuel called fear. When<br />
we are born we land on the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> and all we have in our<br />
<strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> tank is love. As we grow up we gradually learn all<br />
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THE GREEN PLATFORM<br />
about fear and fill our Red <strong>Platform</strong> tank with it. If we look for a<br />
personality or a figure emerging out of this tank of fear and living<br />
on the Red <strong>Platform</strong>, we find the Ego.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego<br />
We’ve all heard of him (or her). We say people have big Egos as if<br />
they are proud of themselves. But in reality the Ego is a sham. It<br />
is a false self who works night and day – if you let him or her – to<br />
undermine your state of happiness. <strong>The</strong> Ego’s main weapons are<br />
fear, anxiety and doubt.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego works his or her socks off to keep us away from joy<br />
and happiness in the present moment – the now. Like Dracula’s<br />
inability to live in the light, the Ego cannot live in the present. It<br />
stalks your mind by reminding you of how stupid, clumsy,<br />
inappropriate you were in the past and fuels your thoughts with<br />
fear anxiety and worries about what is down the line waiting for<br />
you in the future.<br />
So as a shadow cannot live in sunshine and darkness cannot<br />
live in a room when I turn on the light, the Ego cannot live in the<br />
present moment. Once we become aware of that and bring<br />
awareness to the present moment, we have a great weapon to<br />
undermine the power of the Ego, reclaim our lives and get back<br />
on the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong>.<br />
That key word – awareness – dismantles the power of the Ego<br />
and gets us on the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong>. <strong>The</strong> real you lives on this<br />
powerful positive platform while the Ego lives on the Red <strong>Platform</strong><br />
feeding on fear, anxiety and doubt.<br />
<strong>The</strong> key is to become awake, aware and alert.<br />
We become aware by activating our “Inner Observer”, our<br />
“Alert Watcher”, our “Witnessing Consciousness”. In a word you<br />
must become your own “Noticer.” If you manage that, it means you<br />
will be able to notice the shenanigans and manipulations of the Ego<br />
as it strives to keep you from your joy and happiness in this<br />
present moment.<br />
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THE GREEN AND RED PLATFORMS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego allows us to think that we can be happy – but only<br />
somewhere way down the line. It never, ever will help or enable<br />
you to be happy in the here and now.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego is a very important player in all our lives. And if we<br />
don’t wake up and realise the damage it is doing to us on an hourly,<br />
daily and weekly basis, he (we’ll call him “he” for handiness sake)<br />
will continue to be the orchestrator of our worries, fears, sadness<br />
and real suffering.<br />
Like all forces of darkness, the Ego is manipulative, clever and<br />
persuasive, particularly if you don’t stand up to him by the simple<br />
act of bringing awareness to recognise his underhand activities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego invites you to step onto the Red <strong>Platform</strong> by reminding<br />
you of the mess you made in work yesterday or the way your<br />
boyfriend or girlfriend is fed up with your behaviour. Once the Ego<br />
gets you on the Red <strong>Platform</strong>, he has you snared.<br />
Expertly, he will then go to work by filling your past with<br />
shame, anger or guilt. He is equally happy to project you into the<br />
future where he will highlight your areas of worry, fear and<br />
anxiety about financial problems or personal relationships or<br />
whatever area he perceives to be a weakness in your attitude.<br />
Imagine you are driving to work or on the train or on the bus<br />
or maybe you are just in the kitchen and this invisible hand of<br />
unhappiness is prompting you to bring resistance and nonacceptance<br />
to your life as it is now.<br />
Before you know it, the Ego has you making up imaginary fights<br />
with your boss, your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife or<br />
partner. Once you’re on that Red <strong>Platform</strong>, he is winning and knows<br />
his job will be easy for the rest of the day. <strong>The</strong> Ego is one of the few<br />
who is happy when he sees Red. He is at his happiest when you are<br />
at your unhappiest.<br />
He will prompt you with whispers of: “My boss is always<br />
picking on me,” or: “I do everything around here,” and without your<br />
knowing it, you are winding yourself up at a rate of knots. Tense,<br />
unhappy, wearing a scowl on your face. He is a grievance looking<br />
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THE GREEN PLATFORM<br />
for a cause and too often we unwittingly help him find that cause.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego is your deadliest foe in life – the enemy within. If you<br />
can understand that and then become aware of the Ego’s negative<br />
influence on your life, this is the first serious breakthrough.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is an old African proverb that says: “If there is no<br />
enemy on the inside, the enemy on the outside doesn’t matter.”<br />
I found it groundbreaking the first time, many years ago,<br />
when I was made aware of what prompts so many of my thoughts<br />
and negative attitude in the course of any given day.<br />
In the intervening period, I have had the need every day to stop<br />
and realise that the Ego is still there, trying to coax and cajole me<br />
onto his home base – <strong>The</strong> Red <strong>Platform</strong>.<br />
And, of course, sometimes he still wins. But at this stage I’m<br />
catching him more quickly now. <strong>The</strong> one thing we know for sure<br />
is that awareness is power. Often when I find myself slipping into<br />
victim mode about something, the simple thought clicks into my<br />
mind: “This is the Ego trying to fool me.”<br />
I can then jump from Red <strong>Platform</strong> to <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> literally<br />
by thinking that one thought. Bringing the light of awareness to<br />
the darkness of the Ego’s behaviour.<br />
A little miracle occurs in your life every time you realise that.<br />
Once we decide to put up our hand and say: “Enough. I will<br />
decide how I will live my life today,” we get a power into our life that<br />
is simply amazing.<br />
Like all miracles, it is just a simple change in attitude that brings<br />
a massive change in how we can enjoy our lives. Each one of us must<br />
reclaim our own lives by being aware of what makes us unhappy<br />
(the Ego’s agenda) and learn how to be happy and in control of our<br />
own destiny.<br />
Here is another little sentence that packs a real punch if we are<br />
to truly reclaim our lives.<br />
<strong>The</strong> best way to understand life is to accept it.<br />
To be one with life. Once you see the value of acceptance then<br />
you apply what I call the PAN formula … acceptance plus Positive<br />
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THE GREEN AND RED PLATFORMS<br />
Action Now. Acceptance without positive action could easily<br />
degenerate into indifference or apathy. So in a time of adversity,<br />
step one is acceptance.<br />
It is as it is.<br />
You cannot argue with reality or you will lose – 100 per cent of<br />
the time. We love to use the words “should” or “shouldn’t” in a way<br />
that challenges reality.<br />
“I should be getting that job,” or “This shouldn’t be happening<br />
to me.”<br />
But it is as it is.<br />
Step two is a powerful question that implies action: “Of a list<br />
of 100 items, what is the one thing I can do now to make this<br />
situation better? What is the one thing I can do to improve it?”<br />
<strong>The</strong>n do it.<br />
If it is a fine day, smile and enjoy the sunshine. If it is a rainy<br />
morning when you look out, it should not mean that you believe<br />
everything that happens you will be gloomy for the rest of the day.<br />
We are like that. We say: “What a dreadful day. And I feel terrible<br />
as well.”<br />
What’s dreadful is the toxic little story we are telling ourselves<br />
in our heads about the day. Now, tell me, if you write that headline<br />
for your day ahead, do you think you have any chance of having a<br />
fun-loving and happy time?<br />
Highly unlikely.<br />
That’s the Ego at work. You open the curtains or pull the blinds<br />
and instantly it makes up a story about the day.<br />
“That’s a dreadful day.”<br />
This is a toxic influence that we must eradicate from our<br />
systems. If we don’t, we can’t find the bliss of living on the <strong>Green</strong><br />
<strong>Platform</strong> on a day-in, day-out basis.<br />
<strong>The</strong> three shadows of the Ego are then, next, and more.<br />
“When I lose weight, then I’ll be happy.”<br />
But not now. Never now. Losing weight is not the key to<br />
happiness – happiness is the key to losing weight.<br />
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THE GREEN PLATFORM<br />
When I get this or that, then I’ll be happy.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n … next week.<br />
Next June.<br />
Next year.<br />
But never now.<br />
Or “more.” When I get more time off, more pay, more holidays…<br />
then I’ll be happy.<br />
But not now.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ego is quite literally that fearful thought that happiness<br />
is not and never will be in the present moment. If today you<br />
could just bring the power of awareness to your life, the Ego will<br />
disappear like a shadow in sunshine.<br />
<strong>The</strong> only place we will ever live is in the present moment. We<br />
live in a continual present and if you are enlightened enough to<br />
realise that and say: “Right now I have no problem,” then you are<br />
going to have much more joy in your life than someone who looks<br />
around corners.<br />
You are becoming an empowered person. You are breaking free<br />
from that reactive prison of the Red <strong>Platform</strong> and landing on the<br />
proactive <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> with 10 of the most powerful words in<br />
the English language, no word more than two letters: “If it is to be,<br />
it is up to me.”<br />
You have discovered responsibility. <strong>The</strong> ability to choose<br />
your response. You’ll discover on the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> that the<br />
happiest people do not have the best of everything; they just make<br />
the best of everything. On the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> you realise that<br />
life is not about getting what you want but rather wanting what<br />
you get. This is the major difference between success and<br />
happiness. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is<br />
wanting what you get.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n taking positive action that will transform your life<br />
situation. <strong>The</strong> ultimate gift of the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> is to be able to<br />
live life as if we didn’t have an Ego.<br />
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THE GREEN AND RED PLATFORMS<br />
<strong>The</strong> ABCs of the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong><br />
That brings us to the ABCs of the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong>: Awareness.<br />
Belief. And Commitment.<br />
We have now come to understand that awareness is activating<br />
your “Inner Observer” where you become the “Noticer” in your life.<br />
You observe what’s going on in your mind without judgement. With<br />
judgement your Ego is back in control. Your “Noticer” should<br />
never be the “Judgemental Noticer”, but the “Compassionate<br />
Noticer”. Compassion that does not include you is not compassion.<br />
Belief and the power to break limiting beliefs. Whether you<br />
believe you can or you can’t, either way you are usually right as<br />
Henry Ford reminded us years ago.<br />
Commitment is to do what I say I’ll do long after the mood that<br />
I said it in is past. It’s about a steely discipline. It’s about keeping<br />
your word to yourself. As Thomas Huxley said many years ago:<br />
“Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel<br />
like it or not.”<br />
Underneath the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> is the field of all possibilities.<br />
That’s where we find a new and a great and a wonderful world. It<br />
is a joyful place of creativity and inspiration where you contribute<br />
and make a difference in the lives of people.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘Real You’ on the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> says: “How can I serve<br />
others and add value to their lives?” <strong>The</strong> ‘False You,’ the Ego on<br />
the Red <strong>Platform</strong> says: “What’s in it for me?”<br />
On the <strong>Green</strong> <strong>Platform</strong> you contribute to relationships and the<br />
other person leaves you happier and more energised. You see each<br />
relationship as an assignment. You are an energy transformer.<br />
People on the Red <strong>Platform</strong> contaminate relationships. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
suck your vital energy with their complaining, whining and<br />
blaming. <strong>The</strong>y are energy vampires.<br />
When you make a choice you change the future. Decisions shape<br />
destiny. <strong>The</strong> choices you make, make you. It all comes down to a<br />
choice. <strong>One</strong> of your greatest hidden gifts is your power to choose<br />
which platform you want to land on and live on, no matter what<br />
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THE GREEN PLATFORM<br />
happens in your life. How come we spend so much time on the Red<br />
<strong>Platform</strong>? Part of the reason is that we spend a huge amount of our<br />
time on automatic, reacting to events, but not really consciously<br />
choosing our response.<br />
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