Tag Archives: Imagination

Think Your Way Out Of Trouble

A long time ago, they used to think that negative numbers were evil.

This was back when math was still in its infancy.

Since the idea of a “negative thing” (how can you have negative six apples?) didn’t seem to exist, the idea was considered heretical.

Slowly but surely (and luckily) people started to accept the idea of negative numbers.

Same kind of thing happened when they invented “imaginary” numbers.

But ask any mathematician, and they’ll tell you that “imaginary” is not really accurate.

But the name stuck, and here we are.

These “imaginary” numbers are necessary to calculate anything that has to do with sinusoidal fluctuations (like electronic circuits).

One of the famous scenes from the Bible is when Jesus threw out the “money changers.”

Why were they called money “changers”?

Isn’t that like going down to the bank and exchanging dollars for Euros?

Why would those people be bad?

The reason is that way back in the day, lending money at interest was considered a sin.

So the clever money lenders changed their names to money changers.

They would lend money in one currency, and collect in another.

And they collected their “interest” in the form of a “currency exchange fee.”

This is how they got around the ban against charging interest.

This isn’t to say money lenders today (or back then) are good or bad.

But if you are clever enough, and you can think abstractly enough, you can work your way around any limitation.

If you can’t think very cleverly, abstractly, or laterally, when you come up against an obstacle, you’re stuck.

You look around for somebody to tell you what to do.

This is the way most people run their lives.

But if you can think differently, think abstractly, think creatively, any problem is really just another opportunity in disguise.

To all the other simple thinking folks, it’s just a problem.

But to you, it’s an opportunity.

Seeing the world this way requires practice.

Consistent mental practice.

It’s not based on any magic switch in your brain.

If you are, however, willing to put in the few minutes per day of mental practice, you’ll soon see a world FILLED with opportunities that others only recognize as obstacles.

Learn How:

NLP Mind Magic

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

What Business Are You In?

One of the biggest ideas in self development is the idea of a “secret.”

The concept that if we learn “one weird trick” we’ll be able to finally realize our dreams.

Guys that want to do better with girls want to know the one “secret pattern.”

People that want to lose weight want to learn the “one strange diet trick.”

One common story is what happens to lottery winners after they strike it rich.

Especially if they are the blue collar, paycheck-to-paycheck type.

Humans NEED to be motivated by two things.

Moving away from pain, and moving toward pleasure.

Everybody’s got their own unique mix, but without BOTH of these, it’s hard to feel “on purpose.”

And when lottery winners have all of their financial PAIN taken away, it feels great.

At first.

But once that new level of “happiness” feels “normal” they start to get into trouble.

A person without any real motivation AND a lot of money is a BAD combination.

This is why invariably, people who suddenly get a lot of money are almost always ruined.

Humans need incentives, both inside and outside.

Most people that get up at the crack of dawn don’t do so because they like it.

They do so because they feel they MUST.

Either because they’ve conditioned themselves that way, or they have an EXTERNAL set of incentives.

Their job or family requirements demand it, for example.

Most people that made their fortune didn’t have their sights set on money.

Or even the “thing” they were building.

They liked the deeper process.

Of being driven.

To get more, do more, be more, create more, build more.

Walter White, the fictional meth cook, famously said he wasn’t in the meth business, he was in the EMPIRE business.

A sudden bucket of money will DESTROY your drive to build your own empire.

How do you write a classic novel?

So far, nobody knows.

The process seems to be wait a hundred years, and see what books are still being read and enjoyed by various generations.

Consider the “secret” to your life the same.

You won’t really know until you’ve built it.

Then you can look back over your long and successful life and think:

“Oh yeah, now I get it…”

Life, empires, fortunes are not secrets to be “discovered” or “taught” or “revealed” on a mountain top.

They are the sum total of your thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

Once you’re on the right path, you’ll know.

You’ll feel driven, you’ll feel the need to keep moving forward no matter what.

And money will be a useful byproduct.

Learn More:

Wealth Tuning

Metaphysical Body Fat

I read a really interesting book about Africa a few months ago.

It was a long history, starting over 5000 years ago.

When the first Europeans arrived, they started to trade.

But they did it in a strange way.

The Africans would leave a bunch of stuff on the beach.

Stuff they were willing to give.

The Europeans would row up and leave a bunch of stuff in exchange, and then row back to their ships.

And wait a day or two.

If the Africans accepted their offer, it would be gone.

That would be a signal for the Europeans to take their stuff.

But if the Africans didn’t take the Europeans offer, then either the Europeans would offer more, or the Africans would offer less.

This is something humans have been doing since the dawn of time.

Back in the ancient days of hunter-gathers, when two tribes met, they either traded or fought.

Trading seems to be a deep instinct in all humans.

Kids on the playground do it without thinking.

Trading baseball cards, marbles, cookies for chips.

Even bees and flowers do it.

Bees spread the pollen and for the reward they get “free” nectar.

One of the greatest inventions in human history is money.

If all you had was a sack of corn, you had to find somebody that wanted your corn.

But once money was invented, the amount of stuff SKYROCKETED.

The simple creating of money, a metaphysical, intermediary potential energy for stuff, allowed for technology to skyrocket.

Humans split from chimps six million years ago.

The first coins were minted 2500 years ago. A fraction of the time we’ve been around.

The amount of stuff subsequently created since the idea of money came into being is staggering.

The idea of money itself is instinctive.

All mammals have the capability of storing energy, in the amount of body fat.

Today that gets a bad rap, but having a layer of fat can provide a lot of needed energy when times are tough.

Money is an extension of a very instinctive and very basic idea.

So why does money get such a bad rap?

Plenty of reasons.

One is we all have this idea of “lack.”

Two is rich people want to be the only people that are rich.

Since the dawn of time, these elites have come up with all kinds of ideas that make it easy for THEM to stay rich, while everybody else stays poor.

But the concept of money (stored energy from previous work) has been around longer than money itself.

Longer than people itself.

Get Some:

Wealth Tuning

Whose Thoughts Are You Thinking?

Once I went to a bar with a friend.

As soon as I walked in, I noticed that the walls were covered with Corona flags.

We sat at our table, I ordered my drink, and he studied the menu.

After a little bit of thought, he ordered a Corona.

He acted like he’d decided on Corona ONLY after reading the menu.

I laughed, and he asked why.

I pointed out all the Corona signs and he looked stunned.

When I was a kid I saw this stage show at an amusement park.

The trick was that I was supposed to whisper something to a dog, and the dog would go and retrieve it.

I did, and the dog retrieved it.

Since I was a kid, I really thought the dog could understand me.

But my brother explained that the trainer had carefully slipped that idea into my mind, so I thought it was mine.

Every show, the dog would always get the same thing.

And every time, the kid thought it was HIS choice that he told the dog.

Just like my Corona ordering friend, the thought had been carefully implanted in there.

Had my brother not explained the trick to me, or had I not shown my friend all the Corona signs, we would have thought it really WAS our thought.

So here’s the uncomfortable question:

How do you know your thoughts are really yours?

Grocery stores are laid out to alter our buying choices.

TV ads are carefully designed to alter our thinking choices.

And since most people think the same thoughts every day, what does it mean if those same thoughts (that people think every day) are really put there by others?

Whose thoughts are we REALLY thinking all day long?

Our lives are built from our behaviors.

Our behaviors are a result of our thinking.

But if our thinking is secretly controlled by others, WHOSE lives are we living?

On a big scale, this sounds terrifying.

But on a much smaller scale, it’s not so bad.

If you’ve got a massive garden that is overrun by weeds, it’s not a very happy thought.

But if you just took out ONE weed per day, and replaced with a seed for a flower, pretty soon you’d transform your garden.

Your thoughts, and the behaviors that create, are the same way.

Even if ALL of your thoughts are really somebody else’s, you can start small.

And slowly replace them with YOUR thoughts that will build the life that YOU want.

Not anybody else.

Learn How:

Seven Disciplines

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

Destroy Fear of Mistakes

I was watching this interview the other day.

One of the writers who was talking about the next Star Wars movie.

The question was about one of the characters, and what the writer’s response was to the various “origin theories” floating around online.

He gave some kind of vague answer, saying it would be “satisfying” to everybody.

But the idea of an “origin story” is VERY common in almost all popular stories and myths.

Often times the formula is first we meet the hero, then we become interested in how they “became” the hero.

Why is this so compelling?

Maybe because all of us, on a deep level, want to know “where” we come from.

Maybe as ancient tribes were wandering across the face of the Earth, knowing where they came from would help them to learn from their mistakes. Or learn from their predecessors, mythological or not.

One metaphor is when driving your car, the ratio between the windshield and your rear view mirror is a good ratio.

Meaning you want to be focused MOSTLY on where you’re going, but you need to glance behind you from time to time.

When talking about Meta Programs, this means you want to be motivated a little bit by pain or fear, but mostly by the pleasure of where you are headed.

This is one of the problems many people have with goal setting. If they ONLY are motivated by moving away from pain, the further away from pain they get, the less motivation they have.

Compare the people in your local gym in the first week of January to the first week of March and you’ll see the difference.

How can you avoid this common trap?

Spend a few minutes each and every day meditation on where you are going.

Visualize what it will be when you get there.

Feel all the feelings, see all the sights, hear all the sounds.

This is the power of keeping a daily journal.

If you have a goal, write down ANYTHING you did that day to get you closer.

Then imagine ANYTHING you can do the next day. And actually take the time to imagine doing it.

The future will be EASY to create when you practice building.

Of course, there will be mistakes along the way. You can use journaling to USE THOSE to propel you even further into the future.

Once you realize how beneficial they are, the “fear” of “mistakes” will vanish.

It’s not magic. It takes time.

But with daily practice, you can slowly change your beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes, that will make it easy to achieve anything.

Of course, at the heart of most life plans is your ability to communicate with others.

Because part of EVERY hero’s journey is the support crew.

Get Started Building Yours:

Interpersonal Resonance

How To Become Unstoppable

There are a lot of cool movies about time travel.

The idea of knowing what is going to happen is VERY compelling.

But there’re also plenty of movies of going back in time, because you want to predict what will happen, only to destroy the present.

Ray Bradbury wrote a story about that. It’s been turned into all kinds of movies. Even a Simpson’s episode, where they had a magic toaster that could time travel.

Why is the idea so compelling?

Because EVERY SINGLE HUMAN has this thought:

“Boy, if I knew back then what I know now…”

Of course, this is why they say “hindsight is 20-20.”

Meaning it’s EASY to look back AFTER the fact. When you KNOW all the information.

But the ONLY time humans can KNOW everything is AFTER things happen.

Which necessarily means that BEFORE things happen, we NEVER know everything.

There is ALWAYS risk. ALWAYS.

You mitigate it, you can minimize it, but you can never remove it.

Of course, like anything else, you can go too far.

One of the strange things about us humans is we tend to CREATE what we FEAR the most.

Take some guy who is TERRIFIED of talking to a girl, for example.

He doesn’t want to get rejected.

If he gets rejected, he’ll end up being alone.

So what does he do?

He NEVER approaches any girls.

And he is ALWAYS alone.

Creating EXACTLY what he fears the most.

I’m sure you can think of many examples of this.

It is very common.

How can we get around this seemingly impossible human problem?

One is to simply accept that risk is ALWAYS going to be present. You will ALWAYS make mistakes. Only through consistent practice, doing the same thing over and over, will you get better.

That requires you to be willing to ACCEPT and LEARN from your mistakes.

But there’s another way.

And that is to PRACTICE MENTALLY.

Instead of just charging ahead with NO CLUE what to do, you can practice in your mind.

Take some time VISUALIZING what you want to have happen.

So when you DO take action, your subconscious will already have an idea of what you want.

Making the necessary behaviors seem more natural. More automatic. As if you’ve already DONE them before.

Ask any world class athlete. They BECOME world class athletes because they practice MENTALLY just as often as they practice PHYSICALLY.

You can do the same.

But not just closing your eyes and practicing.

You can be aided by powerful tools.

When you combine your mental practice, with these tools, you will become unstoppable.

Get Started:

Subliminal Programming