Gunter,

the inner pirate

He helps you to find your treasure. If you train him well…

1. The Young Gunter

This is Gunter. Gunter is your inner Pirate.
He lives in your head and protects you from all evil in this world.
A long time ago, when you were still a child, Gunter was still a baby pirate. Then, your parents, grand parents, uncles, older brothers, sisters, teachers, friends and colleagues fed Gunter.
“Look after your master”, they said and explained over and over, what was good for you and what was bad for you.

Gunter took all this to heart and he warned you immediately, whenever you wanted to do something that you could not do yet. “This is dangerous”, he told you or: “This will be difficult” he warned you. And because Gunter gave you so many good tips, he was fed well and taken good care of. And over the years he grew into an adult pirate.

2. Gunter Today

Today, Gunter is a grown-up.
Over the years he has become self-assured, aggressive and dominant – just like any good pirate.
He is not keen on learning anything new – except how to pirate more stuff. He thinks he knows what is best for you. Gunter is proud of his advice and he is diligently taking care of you.

Each time when you try to do something new, when you need to learn or achieve something, Gunter is by your side. “Don’t do it!”, he says or “You’ won’t succeed!” This is how Gunter tries to protect you, just like your parents, grand parents, uncles, older brothers, sisters, teachers, friends and colleagues did in the past.

But even though they always meant well for you then, they had no way to know what is good for you now. And because Gunter always listened to the others and never to you, he does not know that you know better what is best for you today.

3. Beautiful Things and Less Beautiful Things

During the many years in which Gunter was your devoted guide, you built up your life. Many good and lucky things happened to you – but unfortunately also some bad and sad things. Much good could happen because Gunter gave you good advice. But Gunter also gave you bad advice and bad things happened.

Of course it was not always Gunters fault when something bad happened. Often bad things happened and nobody can be blamed. But some times Gunters advice was wrong and harmed you. This is because your parents, grand parents, uncles, older brothers, sisters, teachers, friends and colleagues have been feeding Gunter for years. And they could not always know what is really best for you.

4. How To Read Signs

Do you live your life with ease and flow? Or do you stumble from one misfortune to the next?
Every day life gives you clues if you are on the right track or not.

But Gunter is a pigheaded fellow. Once he gets started in one direction, he never deviates. No matter how obviously wrong the path may be – Gunter only reverses course when the shit hits the fan and catastrophe is inevitable.

You could view reality as it really is, and read the cues. But more likely it is that you waste your time and energy in endless discussions with Gunter.
Even if you had a feeling already from the beginning that Gunter would lead you into a dead end.

5. Attention, Trap!

If you knew for sure when Gunters advice is bad you could give him less trust and better decide for yourself what you want to do.
It’s not that hard: Gunter always sabotages you when something looks like the easy way in the short run, but damages you in the long run. Have you been telling yourself for months that you should stop taking unnecessary risks, yet you keep breaking the law for no particular reason?
Or do you get into piracy troubles even though you don’t actually need the pirated documents at all?

If you encounter bad luck in always the same situations then Gunter did it. Gunter does not recognize these situations. But because he is too lazy to think, he does not learn anything new and keeps giving you the same bad tips over and over.

Are you wasting your time over pirated standards even though you have enough money to buy them and get work done? Or are you openly using pirated standards at work even though your work place has a zero-tolerance-with-piracy policy and hope that nobody notices? Gunter is everywhere!

6. Attention, Another Trap!

Gunter has learned how important it is to listen to other people. This is why you often do things that other people require from you, even though you do not want to do those things yourself. Then you feel as if you had no control over what happens to you. Be careful, a typical Gunter trap!

For example, do you keep pirating extra hours because of the fear that your piracy friends would look down on you if you didn’t? Or do you let friendships with non-pirates slide because your piracy friends don’t like your non-piracy friends?

If you do not have the courage to do simple and harmless things or to change them, because of an inexplicable fear, then Gunter is probably giving you especially bad advice.

For example, can you not summon up the courage to contradict other pirates, even if they obviously speak nonsense?
Are you afraid of buying a standard, even if you have enough money to do so?
Then you need to know how to deal with Gunter in a better way.

7. Areas To Improve

Do you want to know what you can improve in your life? Let’s draw a balance and let’s look for improvements in six important areas of your life.

If we look at the six areas, … and ask a few questions, we will soon know where Gunter is causing the most problems.

Do you have a good…
Do you like your…
Are you healthy…
Do you live by your highest values?

If you get triggered… it’s probably Gunter.

8. Using Your Map

In the following chapters you will learn, where, how and when Gunter sabotages your life.
Afterwards you are going to learn with which mindsets and techniques you can overcome his sabotage.
These tips come from many smart people who have written many smart books.

9. Patron Manifesto

If we don’t know who we are then our actions lose focus. Gunter easily loses focus. He just wants to try everything but does not want to commit. Since he knows the pirate identity so well, he is not attracted to the patron identity.

So what we need is a manifesto.

Show Gunter the patron manifesto. Tell him that patrons do not abuse standard creators. They never see themselves as victims. They heal addictions and provide sustainable support. And most of all, patrons share their treasures.

Print the manifesto and tape it to your wall, so Günter can look at it every day.
He will be glad to remember who he can be to achieve better results and will remind you whenever you do something misaligned with the patron identity.

Print the manifesto and Günter will get used to the pirate identity.