Category Archives: Learning

What Would Your Ideal Job Be?

Fresh Popcorn!

What Does Follow Your Bliss Mean?

What is your passion?

One of the greatest gifts in life is being able to share your passion with others in a way they truly appreciate it.

Not just accept it, or acknowledge it, but appreciate it in their own way.

A great way to do this is by expressing it through your business somehow.

Now, in some cases this pretty easy and straightforward. If you love programming and you get paid lots of cash for programming, then you’re work IS your passion.

Other times the connection is a bit more subtle, but it’s still there. For example, you might love speaking persuasively and convincingly in front of groups, so you make a decent living selling products and services that you may not use yourself, but you know serve a real need.

It can certainly feel empty when you feel zero passion for your job. Like you’re just going through the motions in order to collect a paycheck.

To be sure, a passion filled job is NOT the norm for most people, but it is certainly a goal.

That’s why KNOWING what your passions are is a very important first step.

Next is to find any way possible you can express them on the job.

For example, when I was in high school, I worked at a movie theater. I did a lot of jobs, usher, taking tickets, selling tickets, selling popcorn.

Working behind the snack counter was my favorite. It was busy, we had to do quick calculations in our heads (our boss thought cash registers would slow us down) and we got to interact with a huge cross section of the population.

It was nice seeing people who were happy, as they were about to see a good movie, while enjoying some junk food.

I’ve had plenty other jobs that made a LOT more money, but were incredibly boring, tedious and sometimes stressful.

The key is to take whatever you’re doing NOW, and find SOMETHING about it you like, or at least don’t hate so much.

Since most humans need money to survive, we generally need to have some kind of occupation most of our lives.

The ideal progression is to keep finding better and higher paying jobs that allow for a more direct expression of our passions.

Until you get to that magic sweet spot where your fully passionate, absolutely LOVE your work (whether you’re working on your own or for a huge company) AND getting paid a TON.

If you keep focusing on that ideal future, while always looking for ways to improve, you simply WILL NOT fail.

Get Started:

Prosperity Generator

Prove Them Wrong

Forge Your Own Path

Forge Your Own Path

Most of us would love a brain-dead-simple way to make money.

Or do pretty much anything, for that matter.

Guys would LOVE a surefire, guaranteed way to get a girl in love with them.

Girls AND guys would LOVE some magic, step by step “fix” to “get their ex back.”

Most people would readily say that they are truly willing to do ANYTHING, as long as somebody just told them what to do.

You see this in the movie all the time. The guy tells the girl, “Tell me what to do to get you back!”

Salespeople are even trained to ask customers this question:

“What can I do to earn your business today?”

Bottom line is if they’re not feeling it, it’s not going to happen.

Think of it this way. Imagine you showed up at your friends house, your belly full after eating a nice dinner.

They’ve just finished baking an onion and broccoli pie, with sliced squid on top.

You say, “No, thanks. I just ate.”

And they say, “C’mon! Tell me what to do in order to make you hungry for this!”

If you’re not feeling it, you’re not feeling it.

I hate to break this to you, but if your ex doesn’t want you want, you ain’t getting them back. No matter HOW perfect you are together.

The same goes with creating things, from scratch, like businesses, relationships, families, careers.

First of all, nobody, not even YOU, knows the full range of your skills and abilities.

Which means NOBODY can give you more than basic guidance on how to build those things.

Your job is to keep trying different things, to see how they work.

If you get closer, do more. If you don’t do less.

The truth about this is that when most people say, “I’m willing to do anything, just tell me what to do,” what they REALLY mean is “tell me the secret easy way that doesn’t involve any risk or me feeling uncomfortable.”

But this is wonderful.

The process of discovery, not only of what works, but what you’re REALLY made of is like nothing most people will ever experienced.

Most people ARE content to be told what to do. And since most people ONLY do what they’re told, most people only get what most people get. Which ain’t much!

In order to rise above the mediocrity, you’ve got to FIGURE OUT what to do, ON YOUR OWN.

This means taking risks, feeling foolish, and yes, even hearing those close to you, maybe even your loved ones, tell you you’re an idiot.

But the flip side of is that later on, when you ARE successful, they’ll PROVE their worth to you by saying, “Wow, you really ARE awesome! I’m glad I was wrong! I’m glad I know you!”

So get going.

Prove them wrong:

Prosperity Generator

Your Pre-Programmed Genius Mind

Easy Learning

You Can Learn Anything

The world can be a confusing place.

Most people don’t know what’s what, but they’d never admit to it.

Which means if you ask them about something important, rather than saying, “Gee, I have no idea…”  they’ll usually come up with some answer they think makes them look intelligent.

No big deal, unless we actually believe them.

Many people spend their lives based on these “truths” that really are nothing more than “best guesses” that were conjured up in the moment to protect somebody’s ego.

Then later on, once they realize things aren’t working the way they are supposed to, it feels as if we’ve been conned or lied to. This is a pretty shocking conclusion to come to, and it feels like a deep sucker punch to the gut.

It’s enough to make people throw in the towel, and give up. And many people do this.

But regardless of where you are in life, or what you’ve been told, it’s NEVER too late to get started building something magnificent.

Because you can discover the true secret any time, any place.

How?

Because smack dab between your ears is a master learner. A super genius explorer.  An action-feedback mechanism that helped you learn to walk, learn to talk, and can help you learn anything else.

Because you really only need two things.

A target, and a willingness to take action.

Every step you take will give you one of either two things, both of them good.

Closer to your target, or more information that will help you get closer to your target.

Regardless of how big or how far out your target may feel.

Of course, this means you’ll have to one very important thing. Something that many people are simply not willing to do.

And that is to stop believing in magic.

Anything you want, you can get.

But it will require your participation. It will move toward you, but you’ve got to meet it halfway.

Once you start taking action, you’ll not only flip a switch in your brain that will fire up your motivation, but the world will respond.

Every single thing that exists in the world today, and will exist far into the future was created through this very simple process.

Which means if you’re willing to take action, the world is yours.

Up And Down The Hills Of Life

Get To The Bottom and Go Back To The Top

Earn Your Pleasure

I used to love riding up and down hills on my bike.

As I did, I’d always play “Helter Skelter,” by the Beatles, in my mind.

Especially the first part, which goes:

“When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
till I get to the bottom and I see you again…
Yea yea yea…”

I love going up, and I also loved going down. But I also love being up on top, especially if was a particularly good hill with a particularly good view.

Some of my friends would like riding on long, flat spaces. I thought that was pretty boring.

It was easy, as you didn’t have any hills. But you also didn’t get the views, nor the massive speeds you got riding back down.

The fastest I ever clocked was 53 mph, just coasting down this big long hills.

It’s hard to separate out best part, in my mind. All three (the climb, the view, and the ride back down) all have their unique pleasures.

There’s also these trips you can take in famous places, where they haul you and your bike up to the top of a mountain and then let you coast back down. Usually places like Hawaii or Costa Rica or other Island type resort spots with high hills.

I went on a canoe trip like that once. They drove us up river, and then let us ride the current back down for a few days. 

It didn’t take much work, so we just kind of relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

(and drank lots of alcohol!)

Now, that can be fun from time to time, but it’s also pretty boring. Since you didn’t really put in any effort, there’s not much enjoyment you can get out of it.

If you’ve got kids or know anybody that’s got kids, then you know it’s not such a great idea to simply give them whatever the want without the necessary feeling of “earning it,” especially as they get older.

This can create some pretty spoiled kids. (A lot of famous people like that these days…)

What about you? What kind of life do you envision?

A flat, stable ride that’s safe, easy and boring?

Somebody to do all the work, while you get the benefits?

Or the ability to do the work, enjoy the view, AND the ride down?

And then, as Paul screamed, “go back to the top of the slide”?

Your life, your choice.

If you want it safe, it’s easy, but limited.

If you want somebody to do all the work, it’s pretty boring.

But if you want to put in the effort, your life belongs to you. And you’ll get much, much more.

What do YOU want?

Make It Happen:

Prosperity Generator

How To Be Your Own Eye In The Sky

Spy On Your Future

Peer Into Your Own Future

What’s the difference between fate and free will?

Whatever your thoughts are, here’s a mind experiment to make it more confusing.

Let’s say you’re jamming along down the freeway. 

At the same time, there’s some guy way up in a spy plane looking at all the freeways. He notices a wreck about ten miles ahead of where you’re currently driving.

So he KNOWS that in about three to five minutes, you are going to slow, and then you are going to stop.

But you have no idea.

Now, there’s a lot of ways to explain this, in terms of free will or fate.

One way might be that the person who has the most information is in the best position to exercise his or her “free will,” while people with less information are locked into “fate.”

Most people go through life and readily give up their choices, or their free will, to fate. It’s easy that way. If you rely on fate to give you good things or bad things, you’ll never feel like a failure.

Sure, you won’t usually get very much, but you won’t feel as if you’ve tried and gotten rejected.

I’m sure you can understand the attraction of this position. Getting rejected sucks. A lot.

But if you plan your life around what you DON’T want to have happen, rather than what you do, you ARE leaving it up to the gods.

But what if you were to look at your life like the guy in the spy plane?

What if you got a really, really big picture of where you were going?

Instead of each situation being a life or death, fail or succeed, win or lose, you’d see it as one step along the MASSIVE journey that is your life.

If you practiced looking at your life in this way, it would be easier to “shift” between “big picture” thinking and “in the moment” thinking.

What if the guy in that spy plane told the guy in the car about the wreck, as soon as it happened?

He’d know about it before everybody else, and would know EXACTLY which roads to take to avoid the accident, and get to wherever he was going. Safe and on time.

What if you learned how to do this? Looking at the big picture, and at the same time, looking out through your own eyes inside each and every situation?

This is what you’ll learn in the Self-Confidence course.

A way to choose several VISIONS for your life, so you can easily place any situation where it belongs, giving you an inside angle.

Are You Ready To Leave The Pack?

Leave The Crowd Behind

Go You Own Way

Long time ago, I went on a backpacking trip in Scotland.

I was coming from the States, and was meeting a buddy of mine in some train station I’d never been to, next to some big clock, which was a popular meeting place.

I was coming from Southern California, and he was coming from Texas.

It seemed simple enough on paper, but the logistics were pretty complicated.

Especially since I hadn’t really planned HOW I was going to get there. I was just going to “wing it” as I went.

My first “test” came in getting from the London airport to the London train station to the Glasgow train station.

Luckily, there were enough other people who were leaving the airport, via bus, to the train station.

So I didn’t really need to do much thinking. A mix of following the signs, and following the crowd.

Mostly following the crowd.

When I finally arrived smack dab in the middle of Glasgow, I didn’t really remember much of how I got there.

I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences. It seems that humans are hard wired on a deep level to simply forget themselves, and go with the flow.

In fact, up until the recent past (and I mean the RECENT past) humans have done pretty good to kind of just “go with the flow.”

Go to school, show up every day, do your homework like you’re told, pick a college, send out some resumes, get a job, show up on time, do what you’re told, and you can make enough money to live a pretty good life.

In a sense, our entire society is built so we don’t have to do much “thinking.”

You may have to stop and look at a couple signs on the way, but then you just get right back in the shuffle.

And for many people, this is perfectly fine. So long as you’ve got enough extra cash left over every month to buy some nice things, it’s all good, right?

Only that way of living is quickly coming to a close.

For whatever reason, just following the crowd, and doing what you’re told is no longer good enough.

In fact, if that’s ALL you did, there’s a good chance you’d end up in a pretty bad place.

Now more than ever, it’s up to each and every one of us to wake up and see what’s going on.

NOT to to be super heroes and save society or anything corny like that, but to simply save ourselves.

Because as I’m sure you know, NOBODY is going to do this for you.

A really scary thought to be sure. But also incredibly liberating once  you fully accept it.

Once you break out of the “follow the crowd” mindset, there’s really not much you can’t do.

If enough people like you start doing that, it may very well save society.

Are You Waiting For A Miracle?

Life Is A Journey, Not A Destination

Never Ending Journey

I remember once, a long time ago, I was hanging out in the physics lab at my uni.

All kinds of cool equipment.

The guy that was responsible for maintaining the equipment was “famous” for giving out wise advise. He’d been there a long time, had known a lot of professors, and had seen his share of students, both exceptionally brilliant and exceptionally average.

Anyhow, he gave me and my buddies a piece of advice I’ll never forget. One because it continues to be true, no matter how much experience I get and no matter much older I get.

Two because at the time it kind of shattered a “dream” that I had.

Being young and dumb, I thought that if I studied hard enough to get a degree, then I’d be on easy street.

I figured companies would want to hire me, then all I’d have to do is show up, work and get paid.

But what he said contradicted that “myth.”

He said life was like a poker game, and any degree, no matter how expensive or prestigious or highly regarded, was merely the “ante” into the poker game of life.

In case you’re not up on the poker lingo, an “ante” is the minimum first bet you need to play.

It’s not uncommon for poker games to start off with a dollar ante to end up with pots of several hundred, or several thousand dollars.

There I was, a young kid, thinking I’d get a degree, and I’d be on easy street.

But like I said, that’s been proven to be a myth, over and over again.

Now, this may seem like a horrible thing. Like life is one big con job where you are “tricked” into thinking that “all you have to do” is X, Y or Z, and you’ll just sit back and enjoy everything.

But the truth is, if life really WERE like that, it would be pretty boring.

It might seem like a relief if you suddenly came into a lot of money, but sitting around enjoying the good life would get REALLY monotonous after a while.

It may not seem like it, especially if you’re struggling, which a LOT of people are these days.

But it’s a well known and often proven fact that when people win the lottery, or otherwise come into a lot of money, it actually makes things a LOT worse.

So what’s the answer?

To realize that life is one long journey. A succession of smaller goals, that will all stack up into one magnificent creation. 

Not a “once and done” kind of thing.

A step by step, always learning, always growing, and always getting better kind of thing.

If you aren’t sure where to start, this will help:

Do You Have Portable Skills?

Which Skills Should You Carry With You?

The Best Skill Of All

When I was a kid I got a Swiss Army Knife for Christmas.

All kinds of tools, knives, scissors, saw, magnifying glass. I was in boy scouts, so it came in pretty handy.

Later on, as an adult, when I was into backpacking, I got all kinds of cool gear.

Since backpacking requires you actually walk a long, long ways (usually 20+ miles over a couple days) with everything on your back, you’ve got to be pretty efficient.

So a lot of the equipment is built to not only be very light and portable, but also to serve many purposes.

Especially the food. Freeze dried. Easy to cook. (Not so tasty!)

Compared to “car camping,” where you drive your car right up to the campsite, and then just unload all the junk from the trunk. You can get away with a LOT more (and a lot more enjoyable) stuff.

Huge coolers filled with beer. Lawn chairs. Plenty of wood for a fire. Big thick juicy steaks to BBQ.

The skills you carry with you will have a huge impact on how well you do in life.

The more translatable they are, the easier you’ll be able to switch from job to job, or situation to situation, and still come out on top.

One of the biggest “presuppositions” in NLP is that the more flexibility you have, the better you’ll do.

While that freeze dried food isn’t something you’d consider “delicious” it allows you to get to places that very, very few people have ever seen.

Gorgeous valleys way up above the tree line. Huge meadows filled with beautiful flowers, and NO people. Only animals.

Car camping, on the other hand, only allows you to go where everybody else goes.

Your skills are similar. If you’ve got the same skills that everybody else has got,  then you’ll only be able to go where everybody else goes.

On the other hand, if you’ve got some very portable skills, that you can take with you anywhere, and aren’t tied to a specific situation, you’ll do much, much better.

What skills are these?

Mental skills. Learning skills. Communication skills. People skills.

But there’s one “meta” skill that will let you learn all other skills.

Being able to look into the unknown future, and think to yourself, “Yep, I can do this,” and then get busy learning.

Most people cower in fear, and wait for somebody to hold their hand.

Most people wait for step by step instructions. For somebody else to “go first,” so they know it’s safe.

What about you?

Are you willing to boldly go where you’ve never gone before? So you can continue to learn new things, gain new skills, and reach even higher levels of success?

This will help:

Self Confidence Generator

Are You Walking Across Tightropes? 

Are Your Fears Really Real?

Fear: Real Or Fake?

If you’re ever going to walk a tightrope between two skyscrapers, here’s a good rule to remember:

Don’t look down.

Yea, I know, you already knew that!

But why is this rule so important? If you look down, you’ll get scared. If you get scared, you’ll lose confidence, start wobbling, and fall to your death.

Splat!

Now, let’s forget about a tightrope, instead let’s assume you are walking across a board, that’s a foot across, and very sturdy.

But it’s also between two skyscrapers. No wind, (or birds attacking you or whatever) but it’s still a 1000 foot drop.

Could you do it?

Most people wouldn’t even try unless there was a HUGE reward at the other end. Like not dying, or bag filled with endless money.

We’d take one step out, look down, and say, “nuh-uh!”

But think about it. 

Same board, laid across a soft field of grass. Would you walk across?

Of course you would. It would be easy. A foot across?  You wouldn’t even need to worry about your balance. You’d probably be able to play Angry Bird on your iPhone the whole time, no problem!

So why is the skyscraper so terrifying, but the grass so easy?

Same EXACT process. Only one has a potential deadly outcome, and one is you just step on some grass.

Now, these two “mind experiments” both have REAL outcomes. Grass is easy to step on. Falling to your death is horrible. (Or so I’ve heard.)

So even though the chances of falling are pretty minuscule, you’d have to have a pretty good reason, since one mistake would end you.

But most of the time when we think about doing something, the fear is really imaginary.

Especially social fear. Sales, speeches, talking to strangers, (especially attractive strangers) feels like we’re going to fall to our death if we fail.

But seriously, is it really that likely?

If we give a speech and people get bored, or think it’s silly, are they going to throw hand grenades at us?

If we walk up and start talking to somebody, and they’re in the middle of something, are they going to give us a spinning roundhouse kick to the throat?

Probably not. But we act like we THINK they will.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

We can train ourselves to really appreciate the potential positive, and literally blow it up in our minds so we’re COMPELLED to do what we want, while minimizing the negatives so we don’t even give them a second thought.

Blasting away all social fears, and replacing with automatic self confidence.

What will you be able to do then?

Economic Myths and Seduction

Economics Is Everywhere

Perceived Value Is Everything

One of the biggest causes of human suffering is expectation beyond what the data suggests.

This happens to guys all the time. The claim is that they’ve been told (I don’t know by whom) or have been sold the idea (again, I don’t know by whom) that all they have to do is get a decent job, get in decent shape, and the women will somehow flock to them.

Then they show up, don’t get what they expected, and get angry.

This is a common misunderstanding, and it’s actually present in economics as well. Many producers, for example, rationalize their high prices by how much it costs to produce them. However, this isn’t how prices are determined.

Prices are ALWAYS determined by supply and demand. Producers make products that satisfy demands. But the demand only holds at a certain price.

In economics there’s something called “elasticity.” Meaning if the price changes, the demand will change. A supply-demand curve that’s highly elastic will show a significant demand change based on a slight change in price.

For example, if the price of beef were to suddenly go sky high, people would simply switch to pork or chicken, and the demand for beef would plummet.

The beef producers could argue until the cows come home (yuck yuck) about the water shortage, and how much it costs to raise a steer these days, etc.

But NONE of these “input costs” (what it costs to make the product) would get people to pay the price.

Now for some products, like gasoline, we’re pretty screwed. If the price doubles, we still have to buy it. We may drive a little less, but it’s not like we can switch to something else right away.

The bottom line is that input costs, what it cost to make something, have little effect on people’s desires to pay, ESPECIALLY if there are alternatives on the market.

Think of it this way. You’re standing at the supermarket, looking at the steaks, which are $50 a pound. Then you look at the pork chops, which are $2 a pound.

Is the cattle rancher standing there complaining how much it costs to make the steak going to affect your decision?

Nope.

How does this apply to dating?

Well, when you show up and expect women to suddenly fall in love with you simply because of the work you’ve done on yourself, you’ve got another thing coming.

The ONLY reason a woman is going to fall in love with you is if she wants you, based on how you interact with her.

And if you DEMAND a high price, meaning you expect her to be loyal and submissive and never look at another guy, JUST BECUASE of your high “input costs” (whatever work you’ve done on yourself), you’ll have about as much luck as the farmer trying to sell steaks at $50 a pound.

Ain’t gonna happen.

Just like in economics, the ONLY thing you can do to improve your odds is INCREASE YOUR VALUE.

And decrease the cost. Maybe demand a bit less from her, at least at the beginning.

Because in the world of dating, the supply demand curve is HIGHLY ELASTIC.

Meaning in the eyes of ALL WOMEN, there are many, many substitutions for YOU.

Harsh but true.

But guess what? The more you improve yourself, your confidence, your frame, your conversational skills, and everything else women find naturally attractive, there will be LESS SUBSTITUTIONS for you, and your value will soar.

Improve Your Life:


mindpersuasion.com