The One Thing Better Than Persistence

I'm sure you've heard statements like "persistence pays" and have
read stories like The Little Engine That Could that extol the virtues
of trying hard enough, long enough to achieve your goals.

Well, I'm hear to say that it's all bunk.

Persistence, will-power and teeth grinding effort will rarely
help you achieve goals that go above and beyond what you have
done before.

If you've ever tried unsuccessfully to lose weight, quit smoking,
get rid of a fear or get off your keister and work on a goal
that could change your life you know what I'm talking about.

You've tried, you've put your nose to the grindstone and you have
little to show for it.

So instead of trying harder what do you need to do?

Try differently.

For example I tried to stop procrastinating for years before I
found Psycho-Cybernetics.

I let fear about doing what it took to achieve my goals stop me
from going after many of the things I wanted.

And the goals I wasn't afraid to tackle I just plain resisted
because I felt trapped by activities that had to be done over and
over again like meditation, daily planning, exercise, daily
writing etc.

I kept trying to solve my procrastination problems with will
power then with one technique after another without getting any
long-term results.

Finally, I learned Psycho-Cybernetics and I learned that I could
change my self-image from a procrastinator to a producer.

This lead me to take consistent actions that have helped me to
make more money and lose weight amongst other life changes.

So the strategy of of "trying differently" finally paid off.

This is now how I think about almost all "problems" I face in
life.

I say to myself "I've already tried this... so what am I going to
try now?"

I think about what I've done, what I can learn from it and how
what I know now can help me do better.

I guess you can say I'm creatively persistent.

And that's what we all need to be when facing goals we've never
achieved before or solving problems we've never solved before.

We need to persist more creatively, think more clearly and most
importantly have more fun doing it all.

So how can you become creatively persistent?

Read Dr. Maxwell Malt's Psycho-Cybernetics.

The book is full of life changing strategies you've probably not
used before in making your life better.

When you read it and start practicing his methods leave me a
comment on this blog or better yet join the Psycho-Cybernetics
Discussion Group at MSN Groups and share your comments
with all of us.

Why You Don't Have To Be Smart To Be Rich

In fact being smart sometimes increases your chances for
financial difficulty.

At least that's what Jay Zagorsky, a research scientist at Ohio
State University, found in the US study published in the
Journal Intelligence on Tuesday.

The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics survey consisted of
interviews of over 7,000 adults who had been interviewed several
times since 1979.

They are now in their mid-40s and their 2004 answers revealed
that having greater smarts did not translate into greater wealth.

So if being smart doesn't make you rich then what does?

How you use your smarts.

You see we all have a Creative Mechanism inside of us that if we
learn to use it can allow us to solve problems seemingly without
effort.

It can help us learn ways to make money even when no one else can
see how.

And it can do thousands of other things for us if we know how to
give it the right instructions in the form of compelling images
in the Theater of Our Mind.

I suspect that those who had more wealth had at least one thing
in common--being wealthy was part of their self-images.

And I suspect that those who did not have much wealth despite
their high IQs had at least one thing in common--being poor was
part of their self-images.

This is why wealth and poverty are generational.

If you grow up rich you develop a rich self-image.

If you grow up poor you may develop a poor self-image.

But of course you can change your self-image using techniques
from Psycho-Cybernetics.

You can wake up each day and remember what you've done well in
the past and see yourself as the successful person you are meant
to be in the future.

You can do this so often that your mind begins to act on these
images.

You develop a greater sense of confidence and start moving
towards your dreams.

Forget about whether you have the talent, the intelligence, the
beauty--none of that matters.

What does matter?

That you change your self-image so that you will automatically
believe you have what it takes to succeed.

So stop reading now and go on and do it.

Take 10 minutes now to remember a time you succeeded and see it
vividly.

Then take a few minutes to see yourself succeeding at something
you've wanted to do for a long time.

Then see yourself visualizing at the same time tomorrow, then the
next day and then the next.

OK. Go do it now!

A Daily Routine That Gives Me Extraordinary Power

Almost two months ago I took what I knew of Psycho-Cybernetics
techniques to create for myself a daily routine to allow me to
create a powerful self-image and propel me towards success.

Here's what I what do daily:

Get up, stretch

Do relaxation exercise

Imagine past sucesses as if I am there again to bring up that
winning feeling

Using that winning feeling I see myself in the future after each
activity I plan to do that day including the items you see on the
list below--I call these my Outcome Visualizations.

Then I visualize myself as the kind of person I want to be, doing
the kinds of things I want to habitually do--I call these my
Action Visualizations because I actually see myself taking these
actions.

I see myself confidently:

taking my vitamins,

brushing my teeth,

doing my exercises from my Zero Resistance Living course

making my bed,

eating a healthy breakfast,

getting to work at my computer,

speaking with my clients on the phone...

And I see myself doing all these things extremely well, with a
smile on my face, and seeing these things happen easily and
effortlessly.

When I'm done with this routine I feel like a rubber band ready
to snap into action.

I feel supercharged and the feeling lasts for hours.

If I need a boost later in the day I will remmeber one success
from my past and see myself enjoying the Outcome of the next
activity and then see myself love getting to work.

Since I've been doing this I get more work done with less effort
and the quality of everything I do has improved.

Have you created a routine from your study of Psycho-
Cybernetics?

If so please leave a comment below to share what you do and how
it's helped you.

Science Proves You Can Train Your Brain To Feel What You Want

A scientific study of long-term meditators who meditated on
compassion daily shows that you can train your brain to become
better at feeling specific emotions like compassion.

What the researchers did is take two groups of meditators and
compare them.

One group had been meditating on compassion for over 10,000 hours
over a period of years.

The other group had been meditation on compassion for about 14
hours over a period of two weeks.

Scientists then measured the brainwaves of these two groups in
the lab and found something that had never been seen in previous
measurements of brain activity--the long-termmeditators had
extremely high levels of gamma activity when meditating on
compassion and were able to sustain these levels during the
entire period of their meditation. The second group produced
very little gamma during their meditation period.

This is significant because people usually only show short bursts
of gamma activity during periods of very intense concentration.

However, researchers also found that before beginning their
meditation during the testing the long-term meditators had higher
than normal levels of gamma activity in their brains.

This shows that their training didn't just increase their ability
to produce feelings of compassion during meditation but also
increased their ability to feel compassion at any time.

Why is this so remarkable?

It gives scientific evidence that you can change how you feel
with mental training.

And isn't this exactly what we do with Psycho-Cybernetics?

We go into the Theater Of Our Minds daily and remember successes
from the past and imagine successes in the future to train our
brains to have that "winning" feeling.

If we do this daily our general sense of confidence will rise
just as the long-term meditators general sense of compassion
improved with time.

You'll become a person who feels successful, who expects success.

And of course this will cause you to create success over and over
again.

So if you haven't already committed to remembering past successes
and imagining a successful future on a daily basis then let the
idea of permanently changing your brain motivate you to do it
now.

What I Learned From Today's Mistake

For the past two nights I've gone to bed very late and woke up
very early.

So it was no surprise when this morning I woke up at 8am and felt
awful.

I had two one-hour phone appointments. One from starting at 9am
and the other starting at 10am.

So it wasn't until 11am that I could do most of my Psycho-
Cybernetics exercises like practicing relaxation, recalling past
successes and visualizing myself as the person I want to be.

This energized me for a while but then I had more phone
appointments and lunch and in between everything I did I tried to
take a nap unsuccessfully.

During this time I never did one of the most valuable activities
I could do. An activity that might have helped me regain my
energy and help me to solve the real problem that was causing me
to feel so low.

The activity is my daily goal-setting exercise.

I never got to it today.

And it wasn't until this evening that I realized that I had a
fever that was causing me to feel ill.

Had I set my daily goal I might have decided that my goal was to
feel healthy and strong.

I would have seen myself as healthy and strong and then recalled
the steps I took to achieve this goal.

Then I would have written out the steps and I may have noticed
some important facts and what they meant.

One, I felt hot.

Two, my head hurt.

Three, my body ached.

All clues that I may have had a fever.

And even if I did not have a fever, one solution to all these
symptoms would have been obvious--take some aspirin.

I did this in the evening, made some chicken noodle soup for
myself and a few hours later I felt fine.

Now there is no way I could know for sure that I would have
noticed all these things if I had set my daily goal earlier in
the day.

However, based on my past experiences I've noticed that my
thinking becomes extremely clear when I do my daily goal-setting
exercise.

All of a sudden I'll notice resources that can help me achieve my
goal or I'll notice people who can help.

Often I'll remember things I learned long ago that can help me
today.

So it's not a big stretch to think I would have better diagnosed
my problem and solved it had I done my goal setting earlier.

And in the future that's what I'll do.

When tired, ill or being faced with any problem I'll immediately
do my goal setting exercise. I'll focus on what I want so that I
won't miss such obvious solutions in the future.

Another Milestone Reached

I am now on Week 2 of my 12-week Zero Resistance Living course
based on the teachings of Dr. Maxwell Maltz.

And an exciting week it is.

During this week I'm to learn more about how to improve
confidence Psycho-Cybernetically (Dr. Maltz calls his teaching
Psycho-Cybernetics.)

I've learned to adapt a special visualization exercise called
"Step In Step Out" to increase confidence and minimize past
failures.

I've learned how to clear my mind of all distractions so that I
can focus completely in the present.

But most importantly I've learned more about setting daily goals
in a way that makes it likely I'll achieve them.

I'll give you an example.

I've wanted to get myself more organized for years.

Every time I tried in the past I'd make some progress and then
slide back into the pit of disarray--only to clean up when
company comes over.

And lately, if I told myself I'd clean up and organize my things
I usually only got so far and then couldn't seem to make
decisions about what to do next.

So it never got done and meanwhile more things would pile up.

Well, today was the first time in years I've felt like I had a
place for everything and everything was in it's place.

I didn't just "rearange the mess" as usual.

I actually created a way of organizing everything from
correspondence to major projects and books so that I can find
everything and keep things out of site until I need them.

And the wonderful thing about this was that it was so easy
compared to my past efforts at organizing.

Why?

I followed the goal setting process in my Zero Resistance Living Course.

This process involves five steps that build upon what I've
learned in the first week but I'll give you the gist of it.

First, I visualize the outcome I want in great detail a few times
to bring up the feeling of having sucessfully completed the goal.

So I literally saw my room clean, neat and organized and allowed
myself to feel the confidence and satisfaction of a job well
done.

Second, I recall all the steps it took to help me achieve my
goal.

That's right I pretended I was looking into my memory of how I
got my room clean.

Third, I wrote down the goal and the steps it takes to reach it.

And lastly, I took action.

As a result, I'll be going to bed with a feeling of satisfaction
that I have a clean room and that I can enjoy all the time and
energy I save as a result of being organized.

To learn more about the Zero Resistance Living course visit
http://www.psycho-cybernetics.com/zrlcourse.html

The Hidden Value Of Planning And Organizing

When I was a teacher there were days when it seemed I could do no
wrong in the classroom.

I would handle student misbehavior expertly and immediately. I
would get my class interested and keep them focused and on task.

On other days I would hesitate to handle student misbehavior. I
would have a hard time getting a lot of my students to work. I
just didn't feel in total command of the class.

Why was one day so good and the next not so good?

Well, in looking back the days that went well were the days that
I had a clear goal for that days lesson and I had outlined the
exact steps I would take to help my students achieve that goal.

On the days that didn't go so well, my objective wasn't so clear
and I hadn't clearly written out the steps to helping my studnets
achieve it.

When this would happen I would feel less prepared and less
confident and it would affect everything I did in the classroom
that day.

Dr. Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics explains that as human beings we
have a Creative Mechanism inside of us that works well only when
it is given a clear goal.

When you have a clear goal and have decided on a path to achieve
it, this Creative Mechanism will help you to notice what you need
to do to help you achieve this goal but more importantly will
give you focus and a feeling of confidence.

So having clear goals and plans actually helps to build your
self-confidence.

That's why I was able to handle student discipline so well on the
days I had a clear lesson objective.

So what I've resolved to do is to really focus on the practice of
having a daily goal and a plan to reach that goal that Dr. Maltz
teaches in Lesson 2 of his Zero Resistance Living course.

It's a major Psycho-Cybernetics practice that I have not yet
consitently applied.

But since I want to reach the highest levels of success and
achievement I will figure out a way to do it daily for the rest
of my life.

Back To Basics

When I first began using Psycho-Cybernetics I felt like I was
starting off with a BANG!

I was getting things done, my motivation seemed to last all day
and I was creating what I wanted more and more.

Since then there have been some ebbs and flows but basically I am
more productive and every so often I hit a milestone like doing
my taxes with great ease this year that show how much I've
changed.

However, when I first began using Psycho-Cybernetics something
was different and even though I hadn't made all the changes I've
made now, there was something better. Something about my entire
day seemed to flow better.

And just recently, I figured out what it was.

I was visualizing what I would do for the entire day.

And visualizing it coming so easily and myself being happily
productive.

That's what was different.

So I decided to begin that practice again.

I've found the description of my ideal day. I visualized it this
evening and I will continue visualizing it every day for at least
the next two months or so.

I want to visualize that perfect flowing day until it becomes a
deeply ingrained habit.

I'll report later this month on my results.

However, if you would like to see what effect visualizing your
ideal day daily would have on you try the experiment for
yourself.

I think you'll be delighted by the results.

A Big Change... Achieved Effortlessly

After putting in several hours to do my taxes this year I
realized that I wanted to take better control of my finances.

I've had this feeling before and it didn't lead to much long term
change for one simple reason--FEAR.

I was always afraid whenever it came to looking at my bank
statements, seeing how much money I owed, thinking about my
bills.

Well, not anymore.

Until just a few moments ago after reviewing my bank statement
for the first time in years and categorizing my expenses I
realized that it didn't create one ounce of fear (although it did
bring up some feelings of regret about money wasted).

Why has this changed?

I believe that it is a result of my daily Psycho-Cybernetics
exercises.

These exercises have conditioned me to feel that I can handle
anything.

I now no longer have many of the anxieties I used to have and I
feel confident that I am now taking control of my finances and
that I will remain in the drivers seat when it comes to my money

for good.

So if you haven't already start doing the daily self-image strenght

conditioning exercises described in my earlier posts.

In just a month and a half I've made many big changes with no

end in sight.

You can do the same.

"We can use the past to improve our lives just as we can use it to destroy us."

Recently I was reading an article about how scientists are
developing drugs to attempt to cure Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD).

(I won't get into my thoughts on how several interventions
developed over the last decade or so that don't involve drugs
have been of great benefit to PTSD sufferers and are often
overlooked merely because they are unusual.)

People with PTSD have experienced a traumatic event or events in
the past and the memories of those events continue to haunt them
often causing them to experience anxiety, depression and ill
health--sometimes for the rest of their lives.

It's amazing that with even just one traumatic event that plays
over and over again your life can be ruined.

Well, luckily the same trend works in the reverse.

If you continue to play back over and over memories of past
positive experiences it can improve your life.

I started doing this about 5 or 6 weeks ago and I can tell you
that it's changed my life.

Daily, I go into what Dr. Maltz calls the Theater Of My Mind and
I re-experience past successes over and over again.

And of course you can guess what has happened.

I've become happier.

I've become more confident.

And I have more energy, vitality and feel much healthier.

We can use the past to improve our lives just as we can use it to
destroy us.

Each day you can decide what you will create by deciding what you
will remember.

Instead of Post-Traumatic Stress DISorder that destroys your life
you can create for yourself Post Automatic Success REordering
that creates the life of your dreams.

Being Courteous And Civil Even Works With Bank Robbers

I know it sounds unbelievable but it is true.

Being courteous, civil and to top it off smiling and happy can
help you get what you want from bank robbers which is to just
have them just go away.

I read this in an article on MSNBC which details how FBI agent
Larry Carr teaches this new approach called "The Safecatch
System." Carr credits this system with a recent drop in bank
robberies in Seattle from 80 in the first three months of last
year to just 44 during the same period this year.

The premise is that by being a little "too friendly" a bank
robber gets freaked out and thinks something is wrong.

And it works.

The article describes the following scenario which is typical of
how the Safecatch System works"

"When a man walked into a First Mutual branch last year
wearing garden gloves and sunglasses, manager Scott Taffera
greeted him heartily, invited him to remove the
glasses, and guided him to an equally friendly teller. The
man eventually asked for a roll of quarters and left.


Carr said he suspects the man was the “Garden Glove Bandit,”
who robbed area banks between March 2004 and November 2006."

So the "nice" approach actually dissuaded a known bank robber.

Incredible!

So why do I bring this up in my Success Blog?

Because it validates an important principle of Psycho-Cybernetics
that helps to maintain and build a healthy self-image and it
shows that others even bank robbers are positively influenced by
this behavior.

Dr. Matlz always said that we should be kind to others. Respect
others. Love others.

And that when we do this has a positive impact on us.

It makes us feel good about ourselves.

And of course it does help you get more of what you want and need
from others.

Even when it's a bank robber that you just want to go away.

On April 12th (yesterday) I Reached An Important Milestone

For the past few years I hadn't been able to follow through on
any program of self-development.

I had tried using the Sedona Method daily, Emotional Freedom
Techniques, NLP, Hypnosis.

I didn't keep using these methods mostly because I didn't notice
myself improving on a daily basis.

I didn't see the results I wanted and I was spending a lot of
time on these approaches hoping for that final breakthrough that
would free me.

Well, over thirty days ago I had that breakthrough.

But it didn't come in the form of some instant flash of insight.

It came in the form of a scientific approach to personal growth
called Psycho-Cybernetics created by a plastic surgeon who often
convinced his patients to improve their self-esteem instead of
their faces.

I began using Dr. Maltz's teachings after reading an e-mail Matt
Furey sent about how to use Psycho-Cybernetics to improve self-
confidence.

I used this self-confidence boosting practice daily, noticed
results and so I began an in-depth study of Psycho-Cybernetics
techniques.

One technique I learned was Dan Kennedy's method of keeping a
chart of all the behaviors you want to become habits for 30 days.

I kept such a chart about a week after I began studying Psycho-
Cybernetics.

Yesterday I finished my 30th day on my program that included the
self-confidence exercise, daily planning, visualizing myself
achieving my goals and other activities.

The funny thing is that these activities really have become
habits.

There were times when I resisted some of them and so I followed
Dr. Maltz's advice to commit to visualizing myself doing the
activities if I didn't feel like doing them.

And of course I eventually did what I was visualizing sometimes
in minutes sometimes hours later without even realizing it.

This stuff works.

So if you want to make some lasting changes in your behavior I
suggest that you read Psycho Cybernetics, maybe purchase
The New Psycho Cybernetics course on CD and when you
are ready get the Zero Resistance Learning Course.

Mine just arrived in the mail yesterday and I've already learned
a lot more than I thought in just the first lesson.

I'll tell you more about the Zero Resistance Learning Course
and Psycho-Cybernetics in future posts.

When "Negative Thinking Is Good For You

Since most people who know me consider me to be a very upbeat,
positive person, you might be surprised that I could find
anything good in negative thinking.

Well, there is something very good and very useful about it and
I'm not the only one who recognizes this fact.

Edward De Bono, noted creativity expert actually recommends that
at every meeting in which creative ideas are discussed there
should be a "devil's advocate" to say all the reasons why an
apparently good idea won't work.

You might think that this would stifle creativity but when done
right it causes people to come up with ways to overcome each
objection and to refine ideas until they really sing.

I had an experience of this in college.

I was the president of a community service club and my vice
president would often come up with objections to many of the
ideas I or others proposed.

She was very polite and delivered her objections in such a way
that no one ever felt threatened or put down.

We always listened, and we almost always refined our ideas to
overcome her objections.

So what's the point?

The point is that there is nothing wrong with thinking about
"negative" possibilities as long as you do so as a way to help
you get the positive outcomes you want.

Every safety protocol form wearing seat belts in cars to checking
passengers before they get on planes is based on "negative
thinking" about what could go wrong.

But this negative thinking is in service of an important goal--
keeping us safe.

And that's what really matters--keeping your positive goal in
mind and making sure all your thoughts, positive or negative,
help you to achieve this goal.

A Scientific Basis For The Value Of Remembering Past Successes

One of the Psycho-Cybernetics techniques that has helped me to
change my life is the technique of remembering past successes.

This technique helps you to create that "winning feeling" Dr.
Maltz talks about and, if done before visualizing yourself taking
successful actions, dramatically increases your effectiveness.

Well, science has recently validated this 40-year-old technique.

In the January 2007 issue of the The Proceedings Of The National
Academy Of Sciences Karl Szpunar, a lead researching on memory
wrote, "Our findings provide compelling support for the idea that
memory and future thought are highly interrelated and help
explain why future thought may be impossible without memories."

Szpunar's team used functional MRI to show how (1.) remembering
the past and (2.) envisioning the future are related, as each one
triggers a similar pattern of brain activity in one area of the
brain while creating a different pattern of brain activity in
another.

This may be because when people in the study thought about the
future they tended to use information from the past. For example
to imagine themselves at a party in the future they saw
themselves in places they've been before. (This may help explain
why amnesiacs have difficulty imagining a personal future.)

So imagine how difficult it might be to imagine future success if
you don't access previous memories of success.

This is why the technique of remembering past successes has such
value.

It makes seeing a successful future easier and over time
automatic.

Why My Brother's Friend Brice Is "Destined" For Success

My brother Austin has a severely overweight friend Brice.

People who don't know him well might think him crude in some ways
and might wonder about what personal flaw has him be about 300
pounds.

However, if they understood that he has somehow discovered some
keys to living successfully and creatively they might think
otherwise.

You see Brice has a clear goal, a highly detailed target in his
life that he is aiming for.

He's going to a mechanic's school to learn to work on oil rigs.

He likes working with machines.

And he also wants to travel the world.

He's already learned important details about how oil rig
mechanics are paid, the companies he could work for and where he
could work and live.

As a result, he's highly motivated in his studies and everyone
wants to join his lab because he knows exactly what he's doing.

When we talked today he shared with me that there are less
motivated students that join his group and make simple errors.

One student frequently fell asleep in classes and often answered
his cell phone during labs.

After making another simple error Brice asked him, "Why are you
even here?"

This student replied "I just didn't want to go into the military,
and didn't want to go to junior college so this was the only
option."

So why will this kid fail?

Because he knows what he doesn't want and why.

He has no clue about what he really wants and why.

If he had answered, "I want the satisfaction of helping people
fix their cars" or like Brice "I want to travel the world while
fixing oil rigs" he'd be a much better student and a much happier
person.

As it is now he is like a ship's captain that doesn't really care
about getting to his destination.

Every little distraction like a cell phone during lab, or TV show
at night can distract him from getting to port.

And if he does get to port his ship will be all the worse for
wear.

This is why it's so important to have a long range target that
you care about and that you visit this target daily in what Dr.
Maltz calls the "Theater of Your Mind."

You should also have at least one daily goal you care about as
well to focus your efforts in the here and now.

Well, it's Saturday now and I'm going to work on the goal of
making my niece happy on her birthday. :)

Daily Planning Can Make You Powerful...

...But Only If You Do It Right

For the past 23 days I've been filling out a checklist of 9
things I want to become positive habits in my life.

Absolutely the hardest of them all to get myself to do was the
daily plan.

Why did I resist this?

For two reasons:

One I had a sense of being trapped by goals and plans.

Two I had the self-image of someone who just didn't follow
through.

To handle the first problem I used the Lechy Method of handling
my beliefs.

Lechy found that one way you could help a person get rid of one
belief by showing them that it was inconsistent with another.

So here's what I told myself:

"If you let the feeling of being trapped keep you from doing the
things you want then you are really trapped. You are trapped by
feelings from the past and will never get what you want.

These things you want are choices you have made. No one is
forcing them upon you.

But something inside of you is forcing you to feel trapped by
them. That's the real trap.

Your goals, your plans, those are your choices. If you don't
like them you can choose something else."

After giving myself that talk the feeling of being trapped went
away and so far it hasn't come back.

But if it does I know just what to say to myself to get back on
track.

Now the second problem was solved by visualizing myself creating
a daily plan and excitedly following through on that plan.

After doing this for several days it became easier and easier.

I noticed I would write my plan earlier and earlier, to the point
now that I start writing some parts of my plan the day before.

(Just a note: I did the visualizing first and when the feeling of
being trapped emerged I had that pep talk with myself.)

Why is this so important?

One thing I noticed about following a daily plan, besides getting
more done in less time and with a greater sense of ease, is that
I began to have a powerful sense of self-confidence.

Dr. Maltz talks a lot in his books about how having a sense of
direction improves the self-image. Well, a daily plan is a
practical way to have a strong sense of direction.

The daily goals strengthen your self-image and along with
everything else begins to give you a feeling of self-confidence
and empowerment that's indescribable.

I have to say that because of my daily and weekly plan I've
already accomplished every goal I had this week by mid-day today
(Thursday).

And I've already started working on next weeks goals.

HURRAH!

Don't Visualize On An Empty Stomach

What do I mean by that?

You see, visualization can be a powerful tool to learn new skills

or improve on existing ones.

Most athletes today already know this.

However, most people don't know that they can use visualization
to get rid of nasty habits, change how they feel and that it can be

used to improve all aspects of ones life...

...but only if you are full of emotion when you begin your
visualization.

So for example, if you want to become a confident sales person,
you need to feel confident BEFORE you visualize yourself giving a
successful presentation.

And how do you do this?

By visualizing past successes so you can re-caputure that
confident, winning feeling you had in the past.

Then you visualize your future success and it gets infused with
the energy and enthusiasm of winning in the past.

You see how this works?

I'll give you an example, I needed to write an e-mail to use in
an advertising campaign for a product I market called Undo Your
Fear Of Public Speaking.

This e-mail will be sent out to a list of 10,000 people and I
wanted it to be good.

So before writing it I spent some time visualizing myself winning
a race in elementary school way back in 1984.

I got a medal for winning that race and was featured in the local
newspaper for beating kids a lot older than me.

This really helped me recapture that "winning feeling" I talked
about earlier in this post.

Then I visualized the kind of person that would recieve my e-mail
and I see this person getting excited about the product and
excitedly clicking on the link in the e-mail to visit our site
and order.

Then I visualized myself effortlessly writing the e-mail that
connects to that one person.

Once I was done visualzing these things I couldn't wait to start
typing that e-mail.

It turned out great and it was some of the easiest writing I'd
ever done.

And what made it work is that I didn't do it on an empty mind and
heart.

I made sure I was full of energy and emotion before striking the
first letter on my keyboard.

When you do the same you, you'll get better results in your life and

life will get easier.

The Power and Necessity of Self-Forgiveness

Today was one of those days where it took some time to get into
my success mindset.

I stayed up about two hours too late last night, then some bugs
bit me while I was getting to sleep which kept me up for another
hour.

So when I woke up I was just not ready to begin my day.

So I did my success conditioning routine:

I re-imagined my past successes and re captured that winning
feeling
I visualized my positive outcomes and allowed myself to feel good
about them
I then visualized myself writing and enjoying it and following my
plan for the day

Unfortunately, I allowed myself to be distracted by some other
things then I took a bath.

While in the bath I felt down. I just didn't want to get out of
there and begin my day.

Why?

Because I had wasted so much time already.

I had hit an emotional barrier that I'd faced before and luckily
I had already devised a solution.

Forgiveness.

My great teacher Dr. Maltz talked about the importance of
forgiving yourself for mistakes so you won't be held back by the
past.

So that's what I needed to do here.

Dr. Maltz didn't give any techniques for forgiving yourself in
his book Psycho-Cybernetics but so I had to devise my own
forgiveness meditation.

It's really simple actually.

All I do is say to myself "I forgive myself for..."

And fill in the blank with whatever it is I feel bad about.

So this morning I said "I forgive myself for wasting so much time
this morning" over and over again until I felt good about it.

Then I started to feel bad about all the times in the past I had
wasted time in the morning.

So I said, "I forgive myself for wasting so many mornings in the
past."

Other things I'd done "wrong" came up and I forgave myself for
each of those until I felt loving towards myself.

I felt a lot better but still didn't feel like jumping out of the
tub to begin my day.

I noticed that I felt that I should have gotten more rest last
night.

I wished I could sleep a bit more.

So I visualized myself getting out of bed after a full nights
sleep.

I repeated this visualization four times until I really felt
good.

Then I jumped out of the tub, brushed my teeth, put on my clothes
and began my day.

The Start Of Some Big Changes...

Sometime over four weeks ago I began to make significant changes
in my life.

It's been an incredible journey.

It all started with Matt Furey's e-mail about a man who wanted to
start a business but couldn't because he lacked confidence.

Matt showed this man one technique from Psycho-Cybernetics to
boost his confidence.

He told him to remember successes from the past and relive them
in great detail.

Then when he's feeling the confidence that came from past
successes he was to imagine confidently taking actions in his
business.

In just a few weeks this man was moving ahead in his business and
began to make more money.

When I read that story I realized that I too lacked confidence
and that this lack of confidence was one of the biggest if not
THE biggest barrier to my success.

However, I had another problem...

For the past few years I rarely stuck with any personal growth
program for more than a few days or weeks.

I knew that to use Matt Furey's idea I would have to figure out a
way to get myself to do the exercise daily.

Then I remembered an article by Jeff Putnam that tells how you
can motivate yourself to do anything... and like it.

You can find the article at End Procrastination.

Honestly, I only used his technique a few times and it worked to
get me motivated to do some things but it didn't help me to
improve my confidence and lack of confidence kept me from doing a
lot of what I needed to do to succeed.

So I'm sure you realize what I decided to do.

I used Jeff Putnam's technique to motivate me to do Matt Furey's
technique.

In just a few days I was getting all kinds of things done and not
only that I felt I was doing higher quality work with a lot less
mental effort.

As a result, I found my copy of Psycho-Cybernetics (the book that
taught Matt Furey much of what he knows), purchased The New
Psycho-Cybernetics audio course as well as the new Psycho-
Cybernetics book.

I started to really move.

I now keep track of all the success habits that I want to do
daily with a chart I began using on March 14th.

So far on April 2nd, 2007 I've kept this up for 20 days.

I now live with great excitement in my life. And I feel like I
am breaking through new barriers effortlessly every day.