Category Archives: Belief

Yeah Baby!

Why Junk Food Tastes Good

If you were a highly skilled chemist, where would you work?

Assuming you weren’t going to break bad like Walter White.

I had a friend once in that situation, being a skilled chemist and looking for work, and he took a job at a major cosmetics company.

Another place where chemists work is in food companies.

The kind that are responsible for food that is nearly addictive.

That is specifically designed to trick our taste buds.

If you’ve ever tried to eat healthy, you know how hard it is.

It takes a LONG TIME to “acquire” a taste for healthy food.

Or “re-acquire” since that’s the stuff we are SUPPOSED to eat.

Even fruit is a Frankenstein creation.

If you took a time machine back a couple thousand years, you’d find “natural” fruit that was nowhere near as big and sugary as modern fruit.

In some respects, it’s GOOD that we can trick our instincts.

That’s precisely why we enjoy movies so much.

We get to feel “non-normal” emotions (fear of death, love, loss, etc.) without having to actually deal with the consequences those emotions would normally produce.

In other areas, our instincts, especially our social instincts, are purposely being jacked all over the place.

Look in any crowded area, and check how many people are STARING at their devices.

Chances are they aren’t reading an in depth article about the economic and social implications of modern life.

Chances are they ARE getting their “fast food hit” from social media.

That “likes” and attention that feel good for about a second, but really only want them crave more.

Very much like those advanced chemists to carefully synthesize supermarket food to make us want more with each and every bite.

Luckily, training (or rather re-training) your social instincts is much easier than re-training your hunger.

Because social health food FEELS much better than social junk food.

And once you re-calibrate your social instincts, you’ll feel much better as well.

Learn How:

Ego Taming

Volcano Of Money Ideas

Can You Change Brain Polarity?

I used to love watching the X-files.

One of the reasons was it always explained things in two ways.

One was through paranormal reasons.

Another was from the perspective of medical science.

Even though some of it was “TV science,” it was a good strategy.

The show was on for several years, and they kept the same angle going.

That one character (the doctor) could still be believably skeptical about all the aliens and other paranormal stuff.

While the other guy was convinced there were aliens everywhere.

Being able to see things from both sides is very useful.

I read an interesting article the other day about a hedge fund manager.

He made a ton of money before the crash of 2008.

But remarkably, he made money both ways.

Meaning he made money while housing prices went up, but then he realized the dangers, flipped his strategy, and made money as they crashed.

The article was focused on his “intellectual flexibility.”

Something that is very rare.

To see something from one perspective, but then switch to the opposite perspective.

This is very hard for us humans to do.

Once we get our mind set on something, we usually never change.

They say to the skeptic, no proof is enough.

But to the believer, no proof is necessary.

One of the toughest things to change our minds on is how we think about money.

One of the most strangely “comforting” ideas about money is that it is bad or evil.

Why is this comforting?

This is a very clever mind trick that we play on ourselves in far too many areas of life.

It’s our own humanized version of “turning a bug into a feature.”

It works like this.

We see something we want.

But getting it would be difficult, or scary.

So we “reframe” that which we want from “good” to “bad.”

Then instead of feeling “bad” about ourselves for not getting a “good” thing, we get to feel “good” about ourselves about not wanting to go after a “bad” thing.

Make no mistake, making money takes effort.

And most people don’t like to think about that.

So they readily accept the idea that money is “evil” so they don’t have to feel bad about not wanting to get it.

But that “effort” can be enjoyable effort, or unenjoyable effort.

For example, lifting up bricks for five dollars an hour would suck.

But lifting up bricks of gold you got to keep would most definitely NOT suck.

Same physical effort, but different perspective.

No matter what you do in life, you have to put in effort.

You have to move your body around, say things to people, listen to what they say in response.

If you “believe” money is bad or evil, those things will seem frustrating and scary.

But if you “believe” money is good and holy, those SAME behaviors will be fun and interesting.

Learn More:

Wealth Tuning

Brains

How To Train Your Inner Self

Money and body fat are the same thing.

When bears gear up to hibernate, they store as much energy as they can.

Way back in the days when governments and bankers messed up our financial system, people kind of did the same thing.

The saying of “Go out and make your fortune” was create during that time.

Back then it was actually possible for a normal human to leave home at the age of 18 or so, work their ass for ten or twenty years, and have enough saved to live the rest of their lives in relative comfort.

Structurally speaking, a human saving up money is the same as a bear building up body fat.

Today, both are misunderstood.

Human body fat is a very necessary part of our biology.

Without the ability to turn consumed energy into stored energy, we never would have survived.

And without our ability to turn work into stored money-energy, our societies never would have gotten very large.

Today if we look in the mirror and see some body fat, we get angry at ourselves.

Sure, if you have a couple hundred extra pounds, you might want to live a little healthier.

But the process of turning consumed calories into fat is a life-enhancing process on a personal level.

This might sound a bit silly, but consider the message you are giving to your inner self when you get angry at your hips or your belly.

Even sillier, consider pinching a couple of inches of fat and thanking your body for always looking out for your interests.

Money is the same way.

We get angry at ourselves for NOT having enough money.

Or we get angry at the world, or at others.

Consider that your inner self is like a dumb caveman, only capable of following his or her instincts.

Getting angry at your fat or your lack of money could be similar to getting angry at a dog who hasn’t been trained.

How can you train your inner caveman?

If you know anything about training animals, positive reinforcement works MUCH BETTER than negative reinforcement.

If you thank and genuinely appreciate your body’s ability to turn consumed energy into fat (so you don’t die later on) it might be easier to go the other direction.

To convert some of that body fat back into energy (if you want).

Similarly, consider giving your inner caveman or woman some positive reinforcement when it comes to money.

Physically take out some money, hold it in your hand, and appreciate it.

What does the word “appreciate” mean?

To make larger.

When YOU appreciate money, you’ll be directing your inner self to “appreciate” money as well.

Learn How:

Wealth Tuning

Build Whatever You Want

The Human Ant Hill

Imagine the life of a highly gifted athlete.

Usually at a very young age, he or she knows they are different.

In PE class, they excel when the other kids struggle.

As soon as they get involved in team sports, their coaches realize how lucky they are.

By the time they’re in high school, they’d got big name colleges coming to their homes and promising them everything.

And if they make it to the pros, they live the life of kings.

All kinds of money, everything taken care of for them.

So long as they don’t make any stupid mistakes, they’re life is set.

These people NEVER have to worry about much.

They just show up here on Earth, do what comes naturally, and get all kinds of admiration and recognition and money.

Generally speaking, this is the same structure of people who build fortunes.

They just do what comes naturally, and it works out.

Sure, they struggle for years, sometimes decades.

But they have a collection of qualities where they KNOW they are doing what they are “supposed” to be doing.

What do they have that most people don’t?

It might not be based on what they HAVE, but what they DON’T have.

Once upon a time, there was nothing on Earth but a bunch of dirt.

And some cave people and some animals.

Now we’ve got all kinds of stuff.

AND all kinds of money.

If you were an alien studying humans, you’d conclude that we humans are pretty good at a few things.

One of them is making more humans.

Another is making more stuff.

If we study an anthill, you might conclude that we are similar.

Humans are busily running around all day.

Ants are busily running (or whatever ants do) around all day.

But ants are genetically programmed. They don’t have much of a choice.

Upon closer inspection, these aliens would see that humans have a bit more going on.

Human do stuff, and get paid.

Then they take that money, and do whatever they want.

Spend it, save it, invest it, give it to the poor.

People have been doing this since the dawn of civilization.

Do what they can, to make as much as they could.

The MORE people did this, the MORE stuff was invented.

Those metaphorical aliens might conclude that ants are genetically programmed to build anthills.

But humans are genetically programmed to make money.

All you’ve got to do is re-calibrate your brain, and get in the game.

Learn How:

Wealth Tuning

In You Is Money

What Have You Hidden From Yourself?

One time I was in Vegas with a couple of friends.

I had a sudden flash of insight, and hid $40 in my wallet.

In case I lost everything, I’d still have the $40 to buy gas with for the drive back.

Only I totally forgot about the hidden money.

(I suppose because I never lost everything).

I didn’t find that extra $40 until a few months later.

For a brief few seconds, I thought I’d been visited by the money fairy.

A lot of people do that.

Hide resources.

And then forget about them.

Sometimes for their entire lives.

They are always those stories of old people who lived extremely frugally.

Then when the authorities come to collect the body and clean up their apartment, they find stock certificates worth millions.

We always wonder if they knew they were worth millions and just chose to live an ascetic lifestyle.

Or maybe they just got into good habits, of investing wisely and consistently, and then forgot the REASON for the habit.

There’s a song from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” about “tradition.”

The theme is doing things just because you used to do them, without really knowing why.

The word “squirrel away” is obviously from squirrels. They collect and hide food, because they expect to USE IT later on.

But as humans, with our often confused minds, it’s easy to forget WHY we do certain things.

It becomes even MORE “mystical” when we consider that we may have made these decisions LONG before we came into this life.

If it was pretty easy for me to forget my hidden $40, imagine the kind of stuff our HIGHER SELVES might have hidden in our physical bodies!

This may be the REASON we are here.

To FIND that which we hid, long ago.

Or at the very least, to enjoy the search.

Get Started:

Sex Transmutation

Money Money Money

How Many Problems Can You Solve?

How do you get money?

There are only a few proven ways.

One is you could find it. Go out looking, and hope you get lucky.

This CAN work, but it’s not very sustainable.

You could get it as a gift. This strategy tends to work for little kids around their birthday.

Adults, not so much.

You could steal it, (or otherwise con people) but that’s not very sustainable either.

You could just walk up to people and ask for it, but people tend to be a little sketchy when strangers walk up to them on the street and ask them for money.

And supposed they asked, “OK, what do I get?”

Turns out, this is actually the most consistent way to get money.

Just figure out what people want, and figure a way to get it to them.

Everybody has problems they need solving.

The more effectively YOU can solve their problems, the more you can get paid.

It’s actually pretty simple.

Aside from government coercion and corruption (of which there is plenty, unfortunately) this same method is how most fortunes were made.

Old school railroad guys solve the problem of travel.

Before they railroads were made, travel was slow.

The problem was, “I want to visit grandma in Kentucky, but it will take us a week to get there.”

Railroad people who solved this problem made a ton of money.

They made it easy to get to Kentucky (or wherever) in a couple of hours instead of a couple of days.

What about JK Rowling, the Harry Potter lady.

What problem did she solve?

“I’m bored, there’s nothing on TV.”

That’s what!

Everybody has a collection of experiences, an imagination, and ideas on how to help others.

And everybody also has a collection of problems that need solving.

Combine those together in an information age, and you’ve got a MASSIVE global economy.

Get in the game, and get paid.

Learn How:

Entrepreneurial Mind

Mountain Climbing Metaphor

Circles or Straight Lines?

They say you can’t step in the same river twice.

Meaning every second that passes by, the river is changing.

The fish, the rocks and sand on the bottom, the amount of water is always in flux.

So too are us humans.

Once in chemistry class, the professor told us to close our eyes and think of a deceased person we admire.

I thought of my grandfather.

Then he told us to take a slow breath, and then open our eyes.

He told us that we’d just inhaled at least one molecule, (the very same one) that the person we’d just thought of had inhaled in their lives.

Then he explained all about the volume of our atmosphere, how many breaths we take, etc, and why what he’d just told us was statistically likely.

Scientists tell us that every seven years or so, all the atoms and molecules in our body are replaced.

Kind of like on Star Trek, when they beam themselves around, only in slow motion.

All the thoughts in your mind that make up your personality are continuously being updated.

So even who you ARE (when you think of “I”) is always changing.

Life, and every part of it, is a never ending process.

Always changing.

If you could take all those endless changes, and line them up, what would you produce?

Something magnificent.

On the other hand, if you took all those changes, and arranged them in a circle, you might find yourselves in the same place a few years or even a decade from now.

Either way, it’s up to you.

But it takes courage, and dedication.

You have to take small actions on a daily basis that are just a hair outside of your comfort zone.

But if you take your time to plan those actions, you’ll be surprised how quickly things add up.

No matter where you are or who you are or what you have or haven’t accomplished, the best time to start is now.

Learn How:

Stop Self Sabotage

Build Your Own Roadmap

Re-Gain Your Childlike Excitement

Why are little kids so happy?

Well, obviously not all of the time. But when they ARE happy, why do they look MUCH happier than adults? (on those occasions when adults are happy)

Do they know something we don’t?

Or do they know something we’ve forgotten?

One reason might be that they are always discovering things.

Especially right after they learn to walk and run confidently.

Their brains are like sponges, desperate to be filled in.

Now, there are a lot of ideas that we somehow “stop” learning when we get to age seven or so.

But that can’t be true, otherwise the only inventions we would have would come from seven-year-olds.

Since many inventions (especially medical and scientific inventions) come from people WAY older than seven, there’s something else going on.

Why does it SEEM that we stop learning at seven? (or at least for many of us)

Because we fall into the trap of needing to BE TAUGHT by other people.

People that continue to invent things are always thinking, “what if…”

And then trying a bunch of stuff out.

Truth is we ALL have that capacity.

Only in most of us, once “school” is over, we shut our brains off.

But your learning capacity is still there.

Your capacity for discovery is still there.

How do you use it?

Just like a little kid does. Just like a scientist or entrepreneur does.

Ask “What if…” and try something.

And see what happens.

Obviously, you want to try something that will get you going in a direction you’d like to go.

Like making more money, or having better relationships, or getting healthier or smarter.

The tendency for many is to wait around and BE TOLD what to do.

But that isn’t any fun!

It’s more fun to discover on your own. To continuously INVENT your life, one small step at a time.

To RE-DISCOVER that thrill of having curiosity and excitement about your future.

Because it’s out there, waiting for you.

Make It:

End Self Sabotage

Love Advice

Maximize Collective Genius

A famous quote that’s been attributed to many different guru-types, and even a few politicians is a variation of this:

“It’s amazing what humans can do together when nobody cares who gets credit.”

Meaning if you combine enough people together, with a diverse enough background, and set them to a common task, their collective problem solving ability is enormous.

Much more so than any one guy or gal.

(Or even a supercomputer for that matter.)

This has been proven time and time again in all kinds of studies.

One thing that will kill this genius problem solving ability is if ONE GUY is in charge and needs to be recognized as the “idea man.”

We all have experiences with people like that.

You’re in a group, trying to figure out something, and on one level, people are trying to come up with an actual solution.

But on another level, it’s like people are having an “idea contest.” Once they spit out their idea, they defend it no matter what.

They’ve even done studies on jury deliberations that show this.

When everybody says out loud, “guilty” or “not guilty” those trials take twice as long as those when they always keep it secret.

Meaning when they write “G” or “NG” on a slip of paper and then count the votes anonymously, those trials are over a lot quicker.

People are more focused on finding the truth rather than defending their version of it.

Something about saying “your idea” out loud makes it VERY HARD to change later on.

Social scientists are always trying to figure out ways to tap the collective problem solving ability of groups, without getting killing it with the “my idea is best” syndrome.

This is one of the reasons why giving advice rarely works.

It’s a subtle way of saying, “My idea is better than you’re idea.”

And since you’re giving them advice, they sort of presupposes that they’ve ALREADY stated their idea.

But here’s the funny thing.

If you tell a story, and wrap your “advice” in the story, they’ll look at it, and see your idea, but think it was their idea.

Especially if you take a bunch of similar stories, all on the same theme, and tell them one after another.

They’ll think you’re just talking random gibberish when this sudden spark of inspiration hits them.

They’ll actually look at you as if the idea just “came to them.”

Any idea will work, so long as you can wrap it in a few simple stories.

And the more people you tell the stories to, the better ideas they’ll come up with.

The only thing you need to do is turn off your own, “my idea is best” switch in your brain.

And you can get them to do anything.

Learn How:

Hypnotic Storytelling

Secrets Of Influence

Allow Them To Discover You

Giving advice is always a tricky subject, both receiving and giving.

Nobody really likes to be told what to do, even if we have a pretty good idea that the other person has our best interests in mind.

One of the fundamental concepts of our human nature is given a choice, most of us would rather live self-determined lives rather than be micro-managed.

But sometimes, though, you see somebody doing something and you KNOW it’s not going to end well.

Or you have an idea of something they could do, and you KNOW it would work out well.

But it’s not really something you could give “advice” on.

What do you do in that situation?

If you’re in a straight up persuasion situation, where you KNOW what they want and they KNOW they it’s your job (either as a friend or your actually job) to help them, it’s pretty easy.

Like if you were a waiter and somebody asked you, “what’s good?”

You’d give them your opinion.

If you sell something and somebody walks into your shop, it’s a fair assumption they will EXPECT you to help them decide.

But what if you’re hanging out with friends, or even socially, and it’s not really appropriate to say, “Well, what I think you should do is…”

What then?

Telling stories is perfect.

Give them an example of somebody else, who was in the same situation as them, and explain how THEY solved the problem.

But you’ve got to be careful.

Because sometimes you KNOW what they should do, but not only do you suspect they won’t like your “advice,” they also don’t think they should be doing anything differently than what they are.

Maybe they’re about to make a huge mistake. Or maybe they don’t recognize the opportunity that is standing right in front of them.

If you aren’t careful, your “story” will sound VERY MUCH like “advice.”

Luckily, there’s a way to mix up a few stories so they will easily be able to “discover” your “advice” on their own.

What’s more, is you can set it up so they will REALLY LIKE this “advice.”

And they’ll have the pleasure of thinking they “discovered” this advice on their own.

All in a couple of minutes of regular social conversation.

And once you figure out how, you can use this powerful technique in any situation where people are talking.

Learn More:

Hypnotic Storytelling