To be conscious of a state, to observe it, means you are not that state. This is the secret—the first secret of esotericism. Yet people say: "How can I change my Being?" Hear and do the Work. Do and practice what it teaches on yourself. Then you will get gradually to another level of Being. So think what practical work is clearly taught in this Work. Begin with what the Work tells you to begin with, and so do not keep asking: "What shall I do to change my Being?" The Work tells you how to begin.

But have you ever thought of following it practically—of actually doing it now? The subject of this Work is not the blackboard: it is you yourself. You are the subject of the Work. How many times have you been negative today? And how many times have you noticed it and not identified with it? Have you lifted yourself even once today out of your mechanical moods? Even an act of noticing a negative state, of observing that you are negative or speaking negatively, separates you a little. Sometimes this moment of self-observation will change you for the moment completely. A sufficient number of such Work-moments may change you, not for a moment, but for all your life.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Realizing That One is Not Conscious” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1005).