WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE!

I first apologize for my absence for a while. My mother passed away in August and I took some time for introspection and remembering.



Our brains are wired in such an amazing way. Whatever we think and speak about immediately become a target or goal for our subconscious mind. Once we entertain a thought or speak a word our mind takes it as instructions for what we desire whether its what we intended or not.


I am reminded of an experience involving my 20 year old son that illustrates this principle of the mind. When my son was five years old, he would at some point during dinner everyday spill whatever he happened to be drinking. Regardless of how many times I would warn him or REMIND him not to spill his juice or milk he would always spill it. This was so frustrating! Then one day it occured to me to apply at home what I was using at work everyday. One of the basic principles of the mind. So that very evening, at the dinner table before we all sat down to the meal, I said to my son keep your milk in the glass unless you are drinking it. Well... low and behold he didn't spill it the entire meal. I continued to speak that way there after and we no longer had the spilling problem.


Previously when I had been REMINDING him not to spill his drink, I had been creating in his mind images of a spilled drink which immediately became a goal or target for his subconscious mind. The ever faithful subconscious saw to it that the goal was achieved. Once the goal was changed, that of keeping the liquid in the glass unless he was drinking it, the behavior changed.






Are you giving yourself the wrong goals yet wondering why things continue to happen? Are you telling yourself in certain situations not to be nervous only to find that you begin to feel nervous? Change your images and words. "I am calm and ready for this." Try it and enjoy what the amazing subconscious can do when given the directions of what we truly desire. So often it is a matter of communication. When we are not feeling or behaving the way we desire, perhaps "What we have here is a failure to communicate"!

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

Let's expand on the theme of motivation.  Our conscious thoughts impact our subconscious mind which determines whether our motivation is centered in moving "toward" something desired or "away" from something feared / unwanted.

We move mentally, emotionally and even physically in the direction of our dominant thoughts.  Our subconscious mind is a powerful and completely reliable servant.  It will always give us what we ask of it.  What are we asking of our subconscious?  How do we ask our subconscious for anything?  Generally, the pivotal issue is that we are not aware that we ask for things or direction from our subconscious by every conscious thought that we have and every word we speak.  The historic Bible character Job taught us the power in this principle of mind when he said, "that which I feared most has come upon me!"  What we send outward in conscious thoughts, words and actions we also send inward to our subconscious.  It becomes direction to the subconscious mind which the mind will respond to without critical judgement.  It is a loyal, reliable and nonjudgmental servant.  The subconscious mind responds to everything as if it is true!  It cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined.  It responds to every thought as reality.

The Key is to direct our subconscious by sending thoughts focused on what we want, not on what we don't want.  The simple yet complicating factor is that we tend to think and speak in 'negations'.  'Negations' are thoughts or statements that seem positive on the surface but are actually based on a negative.  Examples of 'negations' are; "I don't want to be fat", "I don't want to be late", "I am not afraid", " I am not nervous".  These are all 'negations'.  The subconscious does not recognize 'negations' or negatives.  It does not respond to "don't", "can't", "not", "won't", etc.  So when we say or think "I don't want to be fat" the subconscious is receiving  and responding to "I want to be fat" or "be fat".  Every thought and statement is received by the subconscious as direction or as a goal.  When we think "I am not nervous", the subconscious receives "I am nervous" and as a goal, helps us to become that way or achieve that state.  When we use 'negations' we are focusing on what we don't want.  Here is the key, think and speak in terms of what you want.  Rather than "I am not nervous", a more productive thought and direction would be "I am relaxed and confident".  Rather than "I don't want to be fat", how about " I am slim, trim and fit".  Would these not be more desirable and powerful goals for your subconscious?

I know it sounds simple... because it is!  It is Simply Powerful because it is Powerfully Simple!!  

Next time we will fine tune our skills in directing the subconscious by discussing the power in Empowering Questions. 

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

The topic of motivation seems to be ever present in books and articles. It is an area of great interest and concern in our society. In fact, there is a career field, a profession, dedicated solely to the topic of motivation. This profession is filled with an array of amazing 'Motivational Speakers'! We all need a little help now and then with our motivation.


What motivates you? How are you moved to action? No, I'm not asking what causes inspire you. I'm asking, how are you motivated? How you are motivated determines to a great extent the quality of your performance in anything and the joy in your life.



As human beings we are motivated in one of two ways. We are either motivated by moving 'toward' something we desire / want or we are motivated by moving 'away' from something we don't want / desire and are seeking to avoid. Some people are motivated to get up out of bed and get to work to 'avoid' being fired from their job. Other individuals are motivated to get up and get going because they look forward to the work they do. Some people buy flowers for a significant other on their birthday to 'avoid' an argument for having forgotten or disappointing them. Others buy flowers for their significant other because they love to see the surprise in their face or enjoy the feeling of making them happy.



Assess the different areas of your life. How are you currently being motivated? Are you moving 'toward' something desired or 'away' from something feared or undesirable? Negative motivation robs our creativity and reduces our quality of life. We can change the nature of motivation by changing our thinking. Maybe you don't like your job, but you enjoy the freedom the paycheck gives you. Explore that area as a beginning to a shift in motivation. The moving 'toward' motivation is most powerful and continually opens new vistas in life.



WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

I recommend ... QUIT!

There is so much of our internal dialogue or Self-talk that exists in the form of questions.  Our subconscious mind responds most powerfully to questions.  It always answers / responds to questions! Not necessarily right away, but it will respond resulting in feelings, thoughts and behaviors.  It is the questions we ask ourselves that activates the subconscious and determines the direction of our thinking, emotions and our ultimate behaviors.  There are countless books, articles, and videos available now teaching various forms of "self-talk" and "afformations" that address this critical mental technology of asking questions. Our Subconscious mind serves us perfectly by giving us powerful answers to the questions we ask ourselves.  If we ask ourselves why we are not successful at something or why we always fail, it will give us volumes of reasons and also ensure that we continue to live and think in such a way to validate the premise of that question .  Yet if we change the question to How can I succeed?, or even, How have I become so successful?, or What do I need to do to...? it will give us volumes of reasons, information and guidance in that direction as well. These new technologies are worth investigating (I highly recommend SR).  When we understand the power of questions to unlock the power within us and redirect our subconscious mind, if applied,  we can literally transform our lives.  It is simply beautiful because it is beautifully simple.  I recommend ...QUIT! ...Questions Understood and Internalized Transform!!

Can Regret make us SMALL?

There was once a man who loved to go fishing.  Whenever he had  free time he would take off to one of his favorite fishing spots.  In fact, he loved his fishing trips so much that he often neglected his business and family responsibilities in order to get in a little extra trip or two.  He was often found missing at work related meetings and family gatherings with no explanation.  Early one Sunday morning, the man got up early and headed to one of his favorite fishing spots.  He drove for some time anticipating the peaceful time alone and the excitement of the nibble, the bite and the catch!  He arrived near a beautiful lake.  He parked his car, grabbed his gear and walked a long trail for about an hour down to his perfect spot!  He had been fishing only a few minutes when he noticed rather ominous clouds gathering rather quickly.  Suddenly there began a down pour of very heavy rain.  Looking for some kind of shelter from the storm, he saw a hollow log not too far from where he was fishing.  He made his way to the log and crawled inside to wait out the storm.  While he was laying in the log, the rhythm of the rain falling against the old wood of the log became hypnotic and soothing to him.  It wasn't long before he fell asleep ... After some time, the man awoke, looked out the end of the log and could see that the sun was shining again.  Anxious to get back to his fishing, the man attempted to crawl out of the log only to find that he could not move.   He struggled and struggled but could not budge at all!  While he had been sleeping, the old hollow log had absorbed the water from the rain and become swollen thus trapping the man inside.  The more he tried to get free it seemed the tighter he was stuck.  He shouted for help several times and then realized that he was miles from ear shot of anyone.  He also realized that no one knew he had gone fishing that morning and, in addition, he had never told anyone about this particular special fishing spot.  After some time he concluded he would probably die there in the log.  He began thinking about his funeral, all the people that would be there, how big the funeral would be and so on.  This was shortly interrupted with thoughts of all the times he had promised to do things for others and then not followed through because he had gone fishing.  He thought of the family gatherings he missed because of fishing and only thinking of himself.  He thought more and more of all the little things he could have done but didn't because he wanted to do what HE wanted to do first.  The more he thought about these things, the smaller he began to feel... in fact, after some time he began feeling smaller, and smaller so much so that he was eventually able to stand up and walk out of the log without any problem.  Some times we need to reevaluate our priorities.  Regret can make us SMALL!

WORRY IS A WASTE!

"A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man dies but once." Worry is a waste! In the past 30 years there have been a variety of studies on worry that have varied only slightly. Generally the findings are: 80% of what we worry about will never happen; of the remaining 20% we can do nothing about 17% of it. That leaves only 3% of valid worry... if there is such a thing. None of us live life according to reality. We live life according to our perception of reality. "Two men looked out through prison bars, one saw mud the other saw stars." How we view or think about things determines how we experience our world. The most powerful part of our mind, the subconscious, determines our physical and emotional state. What we think about becomes input or a goal to the subconscious which acts immediately to accomplish that goal. What trips many people up is the fact that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. It interprets everything we think about as reality and responds to it as such. Have you ever entered a dark room thinking someone might be in there who could frighten or hurt you? Your heart starts to pound, your muscles tighten, your nervous system releases adrenalin, all this happening ... then you turn on the light ... and no one is there. Well they might as well have been there. You experienced all the physical and emotional responses that would have occurred if they were. It is our thoughts that create our experience. That is why many people say that we create our own reality. What is worry? I view worry as vividly imagining what we don't want to have happen. Now if we do that, worry, what is our subconscious going to do? Our subconscious will interpret those thoughts as a goal or having already occurred and help us feel and be as if it is reality. If we would vividly imagine what we WANT to have happen (some call this faith, visualization, positive imaging) the subconscious will do powerful, amazing yet natural things for us. Lets not make life so hard. Worry is a Waste!

THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE

I frequently hear, "Knowledge is Power."  I strongly disagree!  Knowledge in and of itself is powerless.  Knowledge, when APPLIED,  is POWER!!  As we apply the knowledge we obtain, we experience growth and with that growth gain even more knowledge.  We have all seen the two different states in our lives.  Their are those who have gained knowledge and never apply it.  Then there are those who gain knowledge, apply it, and continue to learn.  We see them as, one individual has twenty years experience in a field of expertise and the other has one year of experience twenty times.   LEARN - APPLY- GROW

FOCUS

Any man who can drive safely while kissing his wife is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves! In everything we do, we should be there 100%!!  It makes life so much more Rich and Fulfilling when we are totally in the present.  If you are going to spend time with your children, then truly spend time with them. Be there in body and mind.  You will both benefit tremendously.  When you are at or doing work, be THERE 100%.  You will find that you are so much more efficient and that life takes on a joy that only comes when living in THE ZONE!