Tag Archives: Goals

Imaginary Friends

Get Some Imaginary Friends

When I was in college, my friends and I used to play this goofy game.

I’d stand in some conspicuous location and my friends would feed me horribly cheesy lines to yell out at girls as they walked past.

The game was to see how big of a reaction we could get.

Now, doing this with my buddies behind me was easy.

But if I did the same thing on my own, that’d be a different story.

Anything can be a lot easier if you’ve got a group of good friends at your back.

But sometimes, most of the time, this simply isn’t feasible.

Imagine if you walked into your boss’ office and presented a new business idea with a group of hooligans cheering you on!

However, you CAN imagine having an imaginary Mastermind group following you around.

Not really a mastermind group, as that is to collectively come up with new ideas.

This is more of a master “coach” group.

Now, at first glance, this seems pretty strange. But if you make sure you don’t tell anybody, it will work out pretty well.

Just choose two or three people. Best if they are actual characters. Historical figures or people from history or role models you’ve actually met.

The more you “recall” them, the more “real” they’ll seem

Imagine them with you when you’re doing borings, mundane things, everyday things.

Get used to having them looking over your shoulder, checking your work.

Not to criticize you, but to be impressed by you.

Of course, this is all a hallucination.

But being able to switch from “student mode” to “coach mode’ in your brain is very helpful.

It can also help you keep an objective viewpoint when you’re doing important things.

This is just one technique you can start using TODAY to help make those “difficult” things just a little bit easier.

Because after all, it’s your willingness AND your ability to do the “difficult” thing that will make the difference between a life of mediocrity and one of fantastic success.

And you may as well use as many techniques as you can.

Learn More:

Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Match Your Goals To Your Instincts

Satisfy Your Inner Caveman

I saw this weird competition once on TV.

A group of high school kids, about fifty of them, side by side, with their legs tied together.

So wherever you were in the line, your legs were tied to the guys on either side of you.

They were all on one side of a big field.

And they had a run a 100 yards.

Each school had a team, and they saw how fast it was.

Clearly, these kids practiced, because they were VERY tight.

If you’ve ever been in a “three legged race” where there’s only TWO people like this, it’s pretty tough.

Especially if you haven’t practiced.

Whenever you have two opposing forces, you can create A LOT if they are in sync, but you can be held back just as much if they are going in different directions.

Humans are goal seeking machines.

We can’t exist for more than a couple seconds without acting. Just shifting in your seat is an example.

And all action is for a purpose. None of it is random. It may not seem that way, but consider what happens when you shift in your seat.

Certain muscles get tired, and they need a rest. Muscles that are more rested decide to take on more weight, and take off weight of the muscles (or muscle angles). The shift has a PURPOSE of increasing comfort, and decreasing discomfort.

Every single goal you have, whether conscious or unconscious has this INTENTION.

Sure, if you completely misunderstand the situation, you may do something that makes everything worse.

But this INTENTION (increase comfort and decrease discomfort) is always there.

Now sometimes we realize that to increase comfort in the LONG TERM, we have to experience intermediate periods of DISCOMFORT.

Like when a caveman sees a tiger. Running away screaming with huge amounts of fear is not exactly more comfortable than just standing there.

But your brain is also MASSIVELY quick. So it CALCULATES all the possible outcomes in the near and medium term future.

In microseconds.

It chooses what will give you the BEST possible outcome given all your options.

Humans have a lot of PRE-PROGRAMMED desires.

Food, companionship, safety, sex, esteem, social status, recognition and validation.

If you try and ignore these, meaning if you try and OVERRULE your caveman instincts with your conscious mind, you won’t usually get very far.

That’s precisely why willpower based diets NEVER work very long.

But when you carefully CHOOSE YOUR GOALS that are congruent with your caveman goals, or at the very least, figure out a way to take your CHOSEN GOALS and put them in the context so your CAVEMAN will ALSO be happy, you’ll have a much better chance.

You can learn and do anything you want, so long the skills you are building are CONGRUENT with your deepest instincts.

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Mind Persuasion Ebooks

How To Avoid Letdown

Inoculate Against Letdown Depression

When I was a kid my dad took me bird hunting.

I was pretty excited. Buying the gear was exciting.

Driving to the small motel in the small town was exciting.

Getting up super early and eating breakfast in the 24H diner was exciting.

Driving out to the field to hunt was exciting.

The actual hunting part?

Pretty boring.

We all spread out across a big field.

And then waited.

Despite all our preparation, the most important part of bird hunting is being patient.

If the birds don’t come, you have nothing to shoot at.

All that preparation, excitement, buildup for a pretty lame payoff.

I remember once commenting to my friend after a HUGE dinner party.

She’d spent a couple weeks preparing, worrying, looking up recipes.

But the actual eating part was over in about an hour.

Lots of preparation, but BOOM! It was over.

A lot of things are like this.

Problems develop when you expect the payoff to be TOO BIG and monumental.

As if it’s going to change everything.

When in reality, it’s the preparation, the building that is the best part.

This is why having HUGE goals WAY out there is better than ONLY having a couple of short term ones.

Many people fall into the trap of thinking they “only” need that one “thing” and then FINALLY, everything will somehow “click” into place.

Unfortunately, when (or if) it does “click” into place, it’s only for a little bit.

And if you somehow convince yourself that getting that “thing” is going to solve your problems FOR GOOD, then you might have a lot of “post success letdown.”

Olympic athletes that win gold medals, championship sports teams, even soldiers returning from war or active duty experience this.

They focus on that BIG GOAL so much, that when it happens, they don’t know what to do. Because they’ve focused on that BIG GOAL so much, they didn’t notice that increase in energy, focus, intensity and all other things that are necessary for a fulfilling life along the way.

And when that BIG GOAL is achieved, all that energy that got them there is GONE.

It’s very easy to feel empty after that.

So at the very least, you’ve got have another goal in your back pocket ready to go when that goal in front of you is realized.

OR, make sure to create a MASSIVE ONE that is literally bigger than life.

Bigger than YOUR life.

That way, you’ll always have forward drive, forward momentum, and all of the other good stuff that makes life worth living.

Most people don’t have goals. And those that do tend to have goals that they didn’t choose, but were given to them by others.

It’s your life, and your choice.

Build it YOUR way.

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Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Big Picture

Simple Steps – Huge Results

A lot of famous statements are taken out of context.

Like the famous one from Shakespeare where one of his character said, “kill all the lawyers.”

Many people use that today as prove that lawyers are evil, and always have been.

But the context of how it was used was the opposite. The character was talking about how to destroy a society.

Since civilized society is based on laws, if you kill all the lawyers, they’ll be nobody left who understand the law, and society will descend into chaos.

Another famous saying that is often misunderstood is PT Barnum’s, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Most people attribute this to people who are taking advantage of poor innocent people like pensioners and old ladies.

But the whole context of the statement is there’s a sucker born every minute, because each sucker is trying to further take advantage of others.

Meaning the easiest people to take advantage are those who are always trying to take advantage of others, or looking at some “shortcut” so they can get the good stuff without having to do the work that “honest people” need to do.

Get rich quick, lose fifty pounds in one week, make money in real estate with no money down, etc.

But there ARE some simple statements, easy to understand, that DO tell us eternal truths.

And these same statements and simple stories have been around for thousands of years.

Aesop’s fables are one such source.

Taking on the attitude of the turtle will generally help you, in the long run, more than the rabbit.

Sure, we all want to race ahead and get the good stuff before everybody else.

But while some people are busily chasing each and every shiny new object, or jumping on each and every fad, there’s also people like the turtle who are slowly and steadily going after some HUGE goals.

And getting a little bit closer every day.

If you set HUGE goals, WAY out there, and make thinking about them part of your daily life, you will have purpose.

You’ll never feel lost. You’ll always believe there’s SOMETHING you can do to get closer.

One thing you can do to make ANY goal easier to achieve is improve how you think.

Just like doing general physical exercises will help you in any sport.

Working on your brain will help you in ALL areas of life.

The sum total of your life is the result of your daily habits and behaviors.

Your daily habits and behaviors are based on the quality of your thinking.

Change how well you think, change everything.

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Intelligence Accelerator

The Outside Is Not Always What Is On The Inside

Significantly Reduce Social Anxiety

The other day I was at this burger shop at the mall.

I was going to see a movie, and doing some journaling in the food court.

The picture of the burger looked really enticing.

But then when I got it, I was a little underwhelmed.

A lot of products are like this. Big and fancy on the box, not so much when we open them up.

Other products are the opposite. Like this one hole-in-the-wall, hidden behind some furniture store steakhouse where I used to live.

I didn’t even know it was there until somebody told me.

But the food was AWESOME.

When things BEAT our expectations, we feel like it’s the greatest thing in the world.

But when things fall BELOW our expectations, they are the opposite.

Even if the same thing can be AWESOME if we were expecting it to be crap. Or we’ll think it’s crap if we were expecting it to be awesome.

This is one the reason sales and marketing can be really hit or miss.

Since most of us carry around a vague set of ideas, wants and desires, those that come up with sales slogans are always guessing what’s going to work.

If you’ve ever been in involved in any marketing campaign, you know it’s ALWAYS risky.

Even when talking to somebody one on one, when you’re getting ready to “close” it starts to become nervous time.

Whether you’re asking for the date, asking for the sale, or simply getting ready to recommend a vacation destination for this year’s trip, it can be difficult.

Because we all fear rejection, AND we tend to imagine the worst case scenario on some level.

So when we throw OUR ideas out there, and HOPE they are accepted, it’s pretty nerve racking.

On the other hand, when we know a little bit about the person we are talking to, AND we structure our “proposal” in a way to BEST MATCH their “model of the world,” it won’t be nearly so hard.

That same idea of them having a bunch of vague dreams and desires can be used in our favor.

Just present your ideas so they can “fill in the blanks” with their own details, and YOUR idea will seem a lot more like THEIR idea.

Even talking to people that you’ll never see again will be a lot more fun and rewarding.

And they’ll remember you forever.

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Covert Hypnosis