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Supercharge Your Thinking
Each problem has hidden within it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity.
—Joseph Sugarman
The way you think about yourself and your life determines almost everything that happens to you. Your primary responsibility is to take full control over your thinking and to keep your words and thoughts clearly focused on the things that you really want. Simul- taneously, you must refuse to think about the things that you don’t want. This simple formula is the real key to health, happiness, and personal prosperity.
This chapter is about “possibility thinking.” This is the process of looking at everything that is going on around you in terms of pos- sibilities and opportunities rather than as difficulties or problems. Your goal is to make this a habitual way of thinking, and, like all habits, it is learnable.You can develop it with constant repetition. Eventually, you will become a completely positive and constructive person in everything you do.
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■ POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE
A positive mental attitude is closely associated with success in every area of life.The kind of people we like the most and want to associ- ate with tend to be people who are generally cheerful and optimistic about their work and personal lives. No one wants to spend time with a negative, pessimistic, complaining person.
Unfortunately, it is easy to slip into the habit of criticizing and complaining.We are bombarded continuously with negative infor- mation, from radio, television, newspapers, and magazines and in our daily interactions with others. It may not be easy to rise above the flood of negativity that engulfs you, but it is absolutely essen- tial to do so if you want to keep your spirits up and your mind clear and positive.
■ RESPOND CONSTRUCTIVELY TO STRESS
A positive mental attitude can be defined as a constructive response to stress. It doesn’t mean that, no matter what happens, you are happy and cheerful all the time. Having a positive mental attitude instead requires that you deal with the inevitable problems of your daily life in a more effective way than the average person.
Stress is inevitable. Problems are never ending. Failures and dis- appointments happen to everyone, all the time.The only thing over which you have any control is how you respond to these stressful events. If you respond in a positive, constructive way, you will main- tain a generally positive attitude.When your mind is calm and clear, you will be more creative and alert.You will be more likely to see more ways to solve your problems, and to keep moving toward ac- complishing your goals.
When you respond in a negative or angry way to a problem or difficulty, you trigger a series of nervous reactions that shut down the most creative parts of your brain. Instead of going into a “react and respond” way of thinking, you develop a “fight or flight” mentality.
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■ FIVE STEPS TO PERSONAL POWER
There is a five-step power process that you can use to keep yourself positive and to achieve your goals faster. This five-step process brings together several of the very best techniques ever discovered for permanent mind change. It contains and illustrates all of the key principles that you need to know to become a highly effective, posi- tive “possibility thinker” in your own life.
The five steps are: first, to idealize; second, to verbalize; third, to visualize; fourth, to emotionalize; and fifth, to realize. Let me explain how they work one at a time, and then, altogether.
■ IMAGINE YOUR PERFECT FUTURE
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to creating a wonderful life is “self- limiting beliefs.” Everyone has them, and some people have so many of them that they are almost paralyzed when it comes to taking action. A self-limiting belief is an idea you have that you are limited in some way, in terms of time, talent, intelligence, money, ability, or opportunity. As a result of these beliefs, most of which are probably not true, you hold yourself back from taking the steps necessary to create the kind of life you really desire.
The way you free yourself from these negative brakes on your potential is to change your thinking about who you are and what is truly possible for you.You put aside any thought of limitation and begin to idealize and imagine the kind of life that you want to have a week, a month, a year, and five years from now, as if anything was possible.
In idealization, you consider each of the key areas of your life and imagine what each would look like if that area of your life were exactly as you would want it to be, in every respect.
■ SHOW ME THE MONEY
Start with your income. How much do you want to be earning one, two, three, and five years from today? Look around you and ask, “Who else is earning the kind of money I want to earn, and what
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are they doing differently from me?” If you don’t know or you aren’t sure, go and ask them. Do your homework.
What knowledge, skills, and abilities would you have to have to be able to earn that amount? What kind of work would you, or could you, be doing to achieve that kind of income? What position will you have in your company? How high up will you have to be in your field or profession? If you are in sales, how much will you have to be selling, and to whom?
■ DESIGN YOUR PERFECT LIFE
Imagine your perfect lifestyle. If you had no limitations at all, how would you like to live, day in and day out? If you were financially in- dependent, what kind of home would you like to live in? What kind of car would you want to drive? What kind of life would you like to provide for your family? What sort of activities would you like to en- gage in throughout the week, month, and year?
How much time would you want to take off on vacation, and where would you like to go? What would you like to do? What sort of activities do you most enjoy? If you were forced to take a month off from work and you had all the money you needed, how would you spend that time?
■ FAMILY PLANNING
Involve your family in your design of an ideal lifestyle. Make this an ongoing part of your relationships.The more people get a chance to discuss a course of action, the more committed they will be to what- ever is finally decided.
Some time ago, a good friend of mine sat down with his wife and children to discuss the fact that he was working too much and not spending enough time with the family.They imagined how they would spend their time as a family if they had no limitations. Every- one contributed ideas, including the young children.
As a result of this exercise, they made some decisions about both time and lifestyle. They decided to move out of the city to a larger home with a bigger yard in the country. He reorganized his workweek so that he worked four days per week in the city, 10 to 12
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hours per day, and then worked only three or four hours on one day in his office at home in the country. He ended up spending much more time with his family and getting far more satisfaction out of life.The best part was that both his results and his income actually increased with this new plan.
■ TURN YOUR IDEAL INTO REALITY
When you sit down and design your ideal lifestyle, you can then compare it to what you are doing today and notice the differences. You can then start thinking about how you could bring your real or current lifestyle closer to your ideal.
When you idealize your income and your lifestyle, you develop a vision for your life.You begin to practice a key quality of personal leadership.You begin projecting into the future and making plans to turn your future dreams into a current reality.
■ HEALTH AND FITNESS
You should idealize about your health, as well. Imagine your health was perfect in every way. How would you be different from today? Exactly how much do you want to weigh, and what level of fitness do you want to enjoy? How does that compare with where you are today? What steps will you have to take, and what changes will you have to make in your health habits in order to become the ideal per- son that you desire to be personally? This description then becomes your ideal future vision for yourself.
■ THE PERSON YOU BECOME
Create an ideal future self in terms of your personal and profes- sional development.What kind of a person do you want to be in the future? What additional knowledge and skills do you want to ac- quire? In what areas would you like to become absolutely excellent? What subjects would you like to master? What do you need to learn to move to the top of your field? What is your growth plan to get from where you are to where you want to go?
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■ YOUR MISSION STATEMENT
When you conduct personal strategic planning for yourself, you al- ways begin with a mission statement.This is clear definition of exactly what you want to be and accomplish at some future date. To de- velop your mission statement, you project forward and imagine that you have been completely successful in achieving all your goals in a particular area.You then describe your life and activities in this area exactly as if they were already true today.
For example, your personal mission statement could be some- thing like: “I am a happy, healthy, positive person who does excellent work, is paid extremely well, is highly respected by his customers and co- workers, and is deeply loved by his family.”
This kind of mission statement can then serve as an organiza- tional blueprint for your life.You can use it to make decisions by comparing what you are about to do to see if it is consistent with your mission. If it is not consistent with your mission, or with your ideal image of the very best person you could possible be, you would not do it.
■ A BENCHMARK FOR DECISION MAKING
I conducted a strategic planning session for a large corporation not long ago. The executives had more than 250 potential projects on their drawing boards. After we had defined the values, vision, and ideal mission of the company, they were immediately able to discard more than 200 of those potential projects. It was clear to everyone at the meeting that these projects were not consistent with who they were as a company and where they wanted to be in the future.This can work for you as well.
One of your problems today is that you are overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time. You have too many things to think about.You are swamped by too many problems, possibilities, and opportunities. When you idealize and become crystal clear about what your perfect life would look like sometime in the future, you will immediately start to make better choices in your day-to-day
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activities.You will immediately begin eliminating activities that are not consistent with where you really want to end up.
■ A KEY TO HAPPINESS
A clear definition of your ideal, in any area of your life that is impor- tant to you, is the starting point of making better decisions in the present that will lead to greater success and happiness in the future. As you feel yourself moving toward the achievement of a worthy ideal, you will feel happier and more confident. The more progress you make toward a clear goal or set of ideal conditions, the more energy and enthusiasm you will have.
■ THE DEFINITION OF INTELLIGENCE
Some years ago, the Gallup organization interviewed 1,500 very successful men and women in a search for some of the common de- nominators of success. But when they asked them to define “intelli- gence,” they got an unexpected answer.
The top people in the survey defined intelligence not so much as IQ or good grades in school, but more as a way of acting. Intelli- gent behavior was defined as doing only those things that moved them toward their goals. They defined intelligence as the ability to systematically eliminate those time-consuming activities that did not help them to achieve their goals, or even worse, moved them away from their goals.
■ GET SMART
Whenever you are doing something that is moving you in the direc- tion of your own self-professed goals and ideals, you are acting in- telligently. This is true irrespective of your education or your IQ. This is why there are many people of average intelligence or who did poorly in school who are accomplishing far more than people with university degrees. These high achievers focus more and more of their time and energy on activities aimed at accomplishing only those goals that are most important to them.
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■ PUT IT IN WORDS
The second part of this five-step process is for you to verbalize clearly the person you want to be, the things you want to do, and the goals you want to achieve.You verbalize with positive affirma- tions. Because you can completely reprogram your subconscious mind with affirmations, by using them repeatedly you will find that your potential is unlimited.
The Law of Subconscious Activity says that whatever you repeat over and over to yourself in your conscious mind will eventually be accepted by your subconscious mind. Once your subconscious mind accepts your conscious thoughts as commands, it passes them on to your superconscious mind, which then works 24 hours a day to bring those goals into your life.
With positive affirmations, you can take full control over the content of your conscious and subconscious minds.You can acti- vate all your mental powers. You can tap into a great universal mind that can help you to move more rapidly toward your goals of higher income, better health and relationships, and greater success in your field.
■ THE THREE Ps OF POSITIVE PROGRAMMING
A positive affirmation is phrased using the “three Ps.” This means that for maximum effectiveness, an affirmation should be personal, positive, and stated in the present tense.
Your subconscious mind is like a special computer. It can be ac- cessed and activated only with words and commands that are pre- sented in a specific language. It accepts only positive commands that are phrased in the personal, present tense, as though the goal has already been achieved. It knows no past or future tense.
My favorite affirmation is, “I like myself!” repeated over and over again in a spirit of complete confidence. When you repeat, “I like myself!” several times per day, you send this message deep into your subconscious mind. The more you like yourself, the higher will be your self-esteem. The higher your self-esteem, the better
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you will perform in every area of your life.The more you like your- self, the better you will do, and the better you do, the more you will like yourself.
■ BECOME YOUR OWN CHEERLEADER
To improve your performance in your work, or in any other area re- quiring skill or ability, continually repeat the words, “I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best!” By talking to yourself as if you were al- ready the person you want to be sometime in the future, you be- come your own cheerleader.You will then find yourself doing better and better at whatever you attempt.
Another powerful affirmation you can repeat every morning be- fore you start off is, “I love my work!” Sometimes when you wake up in the morning, you won’t feel particularly excited about the com- ing day. But you can take control over your mind and emotions by repeating, “I love my work!” until it actually feels true.
Even better, you can start every day with the words, “I like my- self and I love my work!” This affirmation, repeated enthusiastically several times every morning, will rev you up and get you excited about getting to your job.
■ CONTROL YOUR SELF-TALK
Fully 95 percent of your emotions are determined by the way you talk to yourself. Dr. Martin Seligman’s book Learned Optimism says that your “explanatory style” is the critical factor in determining whether you are a positive or negative person.
Your explanatory style is defined as how you explain things to yourself. If you explain or interpret things to yourself in a positive way, you will be positive. If you explain them in a negative way, you will be negative.What Seligman concluded is that optimistic people, when something goes wrong, always explain the event or experience to themselves as though it were a temporary, specific situation, rather than a long-term, general condition.
Imagine that you make a sales call and the prospect is not in- terested in what you are selling. It didn’t work out. It was a waste
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of time. If you are a positive person, you will say something like, “Well, it’s just one sales call.” This makes it temporary. You will say, “The customer is probably having a bad day.” This makes it specific. You then say, “I’ll be more successful on the next call.” This focuses you on the future. When you dismiss temporary set- backs in this way, you keep your mind positive.You remain confi- dent and optimistic.
■ DON’T TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY
When negative people experience problems, setbacks, or difficulties, they interpret them differently from confident, optimistic people. When they fail temporarily, which is inevitable, they immediately interpret this as a personal statement about their deficiencies. If the sales call is not successful, they say, “I must be a terrible salesper- son. The product is no good. Customers are not interested in what we have to sell. I’ll never succeed in this field.”
In other words, they overgeneralize and overdramatize a small failure rather than dismissing it as a temporary setback and going on to the next call.They interpret the experience negatively. It then has a negative effect on their self-image: “I’m no good.”Their work performance declines and they do even worse next time.
The good news, however, is that how you interpret an event is under your control. It is a matter of choice.You determine how you are going to feel and react by how you choose to explain a situation to yourself. Choose to put a positive spin on it, whatever it is.You are in charge.
■ MAKE IT SIMPLE
When you verbalize your goals in the form of positive affirmations, you should use words that your subconscious can easily understand and go to work on. Make your statements simple and practical. For example, “I like myself” is personal. “I’m the best” is personal and positive. And “I love my work” is personal, positive, and in the pre- sent tense.
These are the kinds of affirmations that are immediately ac- cepted by your subconscious mind as commands.They have an im-
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mediate impact on how you think and feel about yourself.They in- stantly boost your self-esteem and self-confidence. To remain opti- mistic, you must be continually talking to yourself in terms of the way you want to be rather than the way things are at the moment.
In neurolinguistic programming, the way that you talk to your- self about what is happening to you is called your “interpretive style.” The way you interpret things is a key part of changing your thinking. The question is always whether you interpret things that are happening around you in a positive or negative way. Remember, the optimist sees the glass as half full while the pessimist sees the glass as half empty. Choose to be an optimist.
■ BECOME AN INVERSE PARANOID
The multimillionaire W. Clement Stone started off selling newspa- pers on the streets of Chicago at the age of 12. He went on to build Combined Insurance Company of America, and died recently at the age of 100 worth more than $800 million. He was a great inspira- tion to thousands of people, and was famous for his habit of being an “inverse paranoid.”
A paranoid is someone who believes that people are conspiring against him or her. An inverse paranoid, in contrast, is a person who is convinced that the world is conspiring to make him or her success- ful. An inverse paranoid insists upon interpreting everything that happens as part of a great plan leading to success. W. Clement Stone used to respond to every difficulty with the emphatic state- ment, “That’s good!” Then he would concentrate his attention on finding out what was good about the situation. And he always found something, even if it was just a valuable lesson.
If you change the definition of a problem to a situation, a chal- lenge, or an opportunity, your response to the problem will be posi- tive and constructive, rather than negative and angry. If you look at every problem as a potential opportunity, you will almost always find within the problem an opportunity or benefit that you can take advantage of.
Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “When God wants to send you a gift, He wraps it up in a problem.” The bigger the problem that you have, the bigger the gift—in the form of valuable lessons,
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ideas, and insights that it probably contains. Is the glass half full or is it half empty? It’s up to you.
■ YOU WILL BELIEVE IT WHEN YOU SEE IT
The third part of the five-part process of supercharging your think- ing is visualization.You already know how powerful this can be in helping you to achieve your goals. It is only when you learn to use visualization on every goal and activity that you will truly tap into its amazing power for good in your life.
As it happens, everyone visualizes, all the time.The difference is that successful people visualize the things they want, and unsuc- cessful people visualize the things they don’t want. Prior to every new experience, a successful person will take a few moments to re- call and relive a previous successful experience in that area. Unsuc- cessful people, in contrast, prior to a new experience will recall and relive a previous failure experience.
In each case, people are creating a predisposition to succeed or fail. When they visualize, they send a command to their subcon- scious minds.The subconscious mind then coordinates their words and actions in the upcoming situation so that they perform consis- tent with that picture.
■ IMAGINE A PERFECT OUTCOME
In visualizing, you project your mind forward and create a clear pic- ture of your ideal future goal.You imagine what it would look like if it were already achieved.You make your picture as vivid as possible. You repeat this mental picture over and over, as often as you possi- bly can during the day, and for as long as you can.
There is a direct relationship between how clearly you can see your goal or performance on the inside and how rapidly it comes into your reality on the outside.Visualization is one of the most pow- erful faculties available to you to become a possibility thinker, to change your thinking about your life and your future.With visualiza- tion, you can make your current dreams into future realities.You can change your thinking completely by changing your mental pictures.
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■ PROGRAM YOUR MIND
There are three techniques combining verbalization and visualiza- tion that you can practice to achieve your goals faster.These are of- ten referred to as “mental programming techniques.” They are amazingly effective in preparing yourself and your mind for an up- coming event.
The first of these methods is what is called the quick program- ming technique. Here is how it works. Prior to any nonrecurring event of importance, like a sales call, a meeting, or an interview, you take a few moments to prepare mentally, like an athlete would warm up for a competition.
First, take a few deep breaths. This relaxes you and drops your mind into the alpha state. In this state, your subconscious mind be- comes highly receptive to any incoming command. Second, you vi- sualize the ideal outcome of the upcoming situation.You imagine it as turning out perfectly for you in every respect. For example, if you are making a sales call, visualize the client responding to you in a positive, receptive way. Especially, visualize the client signing the check or sales order at the end of the conversation.
One of my good friends has used this technique for many years to become one of the highest-paid people in his industry. He says it is absolutely amazing how many times the sales situation works out exactly as he visualized it before he went in.Try it for yourself and see.
➤ Affirm and Visualize The third and last part of the quick programming technique is for you to verbalize or create a positive affirmation that is consistent with your mental picture. A simple affirmation would be “This sales call goes extremely well and concludes satisfactorily for everyone involved.”This command instructs your subconscious mind to give you the words, feelings, behaviors, and body language consistent with achieving your goal of a successful sales call.
We teach this “quick affirmation” technique to applicants who are going on job interviews, speakers giving public talks, performers in the arts, and even to politicians. It is an extraordinarily effective technique, and it only takes a few seconds prior to each event.
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■ WRITE AND REVIEW YOUR GOALS
The second method you can use to bring about rapid internal changes to your thinking and your life is called the standard affirma- tion technique.This technique requires that you write out your major goals in the form of present, positive, personal affirmations on three-by-five index cards, one goal per card.You can work on 10 to 15 goals at a time using this method.
Carry these cards around with you. At the beginning of each day, take a few minutes by yourself to review each goal.
Take the first card and read it. Perhaps the first card says, “I earn $50,000 per year.” Read the card and let your eyes focus on the message so that it is imprinted on your subconscious mind. Then, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and repeat the affirma- tion five times. As you affirm, visualize your goal as already achieved. See it. Feel it. Then open your eyes, relax, exhale deeply, and read the next card.
■ PREPARE FOR THE DAY
This entire exercise, with 10 to 15 goals, takes about 10 minutes. It programs your subconscious mind at a deep level, and prepares you to perform at your very best for the rest of the day.
If you practice this each morning before you start out and each evening before you go to bed, you will be absolutely amazed at how quickly your goals begin to materialize.
Your subconscious mind is the sending and receiving station for the power of attraction in your life. The more you feed your subconscious mind with words and pictures consistent with what you want to accomplish, the more you magnetize your goals.You become a living magnet. You begin to attract people, opportuni- ties, ideas, and resources into your life that make achieving your goals a possibility.
■ PRACTICE MENTAL REHEARSAL
The third mental programming technique that you can use to per- form better and achieve your goals faster is often called mental re-
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hearsal. It is taught and used extensively in sports of all kinds. The process is both simple and powerful.
First, you sit or lie down, completely relaxed, with your eyes closed, and breath deeply until your whole body is calm and quiet.
Second, you clearly visualize an upcoming event, or a goal that you desire. You allow yourself to enter into the experience and see it clearly in your mind. You imagine yourself actually doing and saying the things you would if the upcoming situation is perfect.
One of the very best times to practice mental rehearsal is just before you go to sleep. By verbalizing and visualizing your ideal goals or activities for the coming day immediately prior to sleeping, you program your subconscious mind to work on those goals all night long. Then, when you wake up in the morn- ing, you will often have insights and ideas that you can use to make those goals a reality. It is an amazing technique and is ex- tremely effective.
■ PREPROGRAM FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE
You can use this technique to preprogram your mind for a variety of things. For example, let us say you have a problem that you are wor- ried about. Just before you go to sleep, turn this problem over to your superconscious mind and ask for a solution. Then, forget about it and go to sleep.Very often, when you wake up in the morn- ing the solution will occur to you. It will be crystal clear and perfect in every respect.
You can use this method of mental programming to assure that you wake up feeling positive and energetic.The process is both sim- ple and effective. Just before going to sleep, say to yourself, “When I wake up in the morning, I feel terrific!” Repeat this several times. Imagine yourself getting up the next morning feeling happy and full of energy. Especially when you go to bed late and you need to be at your best the next day, use this technique to wake up feeling re- freshed. It works every time.
9
Unleash Your Mental Powers
The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.
—Brian Tracy
Every change in your life will come about as the result of your mind colliding with a new idea. Ideas are the keys to the future. Ideas con- tain the answers to all of your problems and the ways to achieve all of your goals.Your need is to become an idea generator, so that you are continually coming up with new and better ideas to deal with the continuous changes and opportunities taking place around you.
Fortunately, you are naturally creative. It is an innate quality. You are born with it. But creativity is subject to the Law of Use, which says, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” at least temporarily. The good news is that you can reignite your creativity by practicing the specific methods and techniques discussed in this book.
■ PROJECT AND THINK FORWARD
BACKWARD
Changing your thinking requires that you expand your ideas and imagination about the person you could be, the things you could
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do, and the things that you could have. Every person who accom- plishes anything worthwhile in life begins with a big dream or a vi- sion of what is possible for him or her.They rise above their current surroundings, their existing limitations and problems, and instead they imagine themselves sometime in the future living the kind of life they would like to live.You need to practice this way of thinking as well.
Earlier, we talked about your ideal future vision.You create this by projecting forward five years and imagining that all of your dreams have come true. What would your life look like if it were ideal in every way? Where would you be? Who would be there with you? What would you be doing? How much would you be earning? And so on.
You then return to the present day and your current situation. You think of specific steps you could take to capitalize on your op- portunities and to overcome your limitations and obstacles. This is the primary use of creative thinking. It is to solve your problems and trigger mental breakthroughs that you can use to move faster toward achieving the goals that are most important to you.
■ THREE MINDS IN ONE
You think and operate your life with three different minds.The first is your conscious mind.You use your conscious mind to take in new information, compare it with your current knowledge, analyze it in terms of its value or relevance to you, and then decide to act or not to act.This is the mind with which you direct your life.This is often referred to as the objective mind.
The second mind you use is your subconscious. Your subcon- scious mind is a huge data bank that records every thought, idea, emotion, or experience that you ever have throughout your life.This is called the subjective mind. Its role is to keep all of your words and actions consistent with your self-concept and with your current atti- tudes, beliefs, fears, and prejudices. Your subconscious mind does not reason; it only obeys your commands.
Your subconscious mind is also responsible for the operation of all of your bodily functions. It controls your autonomic nervous sys- tem and your heart rate, breathing, digestion, basic memory, and so
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on. It is like a huge computer, so powerful and precise that it can process a hundred million commands per second. It maintains a precise balance of hundreds of chemicals in each one of your bil- lions of cells, 24 hours a day.
Your third mind is your superconscious mind. This mind is your direct connection with infinite intelligence. It contains all knowl- edge, and can bring you all the ideas and answers you will ever need to achieve any goal that you can set for yourself. This mind is the source of all inspiration, imagination, intuition, and hunches. It op- erates 24 hours a day, and will bring you exactly the right answer to your problem or question, exactly when you are ready for it. It is stimulated by clear goals, vivid mental pictures, and clear, positive commands in the form of affirmations.
When you use all three minds in harmony, with each mind per- forming the functions for which it was designed, you will accom- plish more of your goals, faster than you have ever imagined. The proper utilization of your three minds is central to your changing your thinking and changing your life.
■ THREE TRIGGERS TO CREATIVITY
There are three main factors that trigger creativity.You can use each of them regularly, in everything you do. They are: first, intensely de- sired goals; second, pressing problems; and third, focused questions. When you use them all, you begin to generate ideas at a rate that will amaze you.
By using these three methods of mental stimulation—goals, problems and questions—you activate all three of your minds si- multaneously and you begin to function at much higher levels than the average person.
■ INTENSELY DESIRED GOALS
The first factor is a clearly defined, intensely desired goal. You must know exactly what you want, set a deadline, make it measurable, and develop a plan for its achievement that you work on every day.There is a direct relationship between how clear you are about your desired goal and how many ideas you will come up with to achieve it.
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One of the most powerful ways to harmonize the activities of your three minds, and to activate your creative powers, is for you to rewrite your goals in the present tense each morning.
Get a spiral notebook. Each morning, after your daily reading, take a few minutes and rewrite your major goals in the present tense, exactly as if they already existed. Take a few seconds after rewriting each goal to visualize it as though it were already accom- plished. See each goal in your mind as if it already existed. Then, smile, relax, and let go.
This method of rewriting your goals each morning, visualizing them as if they had already been achieved, and them letting them go with complete confidence is a vital part of creating the mental equivalent of the things you want.
By using this method, you will help your goals to materialize ex- actly when you are ready for them. By writing and rewriting your goals, you burn them deeper and deeper into your subconscious mind. At a certain point, you activate your superconscious mind. At that point, you begin attracting into your life people and circum- stances that can help you to achieve them.
■ GET THE FEELING
Emotion is the key. The more intensely you desire a goal, the more rapidly it materializes. Combining your idea of your goal with the intense emotion of desire or excitement is like stepping on the ac- celerator of your mental potential.Your mind will speed up and gen- erate ideas for goal accomplishment. The more positive, excited, and enthusiastic you are about achieving anything, the more rapidly your mind goes to work to bring it into your life.
Think about how you would feel if you had achieved your goal. Would you feel proud, happy, relieved, joyous, or exhilarated? What- ever the emotion would be, you should confidently and happily imagine yourself enjoying the exact feeling that you would have if your goal were already a part of your life.
If you want to earn more money and achieve a higher standard of living, imagine that you are already there, living the life you de- sire. Imagine how you would feel. Close your eyes and get the feeling of happiness, joy, and inner satisfaction.
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When you can combine a clear mental picture of your goal with the same emotion that you would have if it were achieved, you activate your higher powers of mind.You trigger your creativ- ity.You get insights and ideas that will help you to achieve your goal far faster.
■ PROBLEMS AS OPPORTUNITIES
The second factor that triggers your creativity and activates your positive mind is pressing problems. It is only when you are experienc- ing the pressure of problems and obstacles that you are motivated to perform at your mental best. Facing and solving the inevitable problems and difficulties of life make you stronger and smarter, and bring out the very best in you.
Most people do not understand the nature of problems. Prob- lems are a normal and necessary part of life.They are inevitable and unavoidable. Problems come in spite of your best efforts to avoid them. Problems, therefore, come unbidden.
The only part of a problem over which you have any control is your response to your problems. Effective people respond positively and constructively to problems. In this way, they demonstrate that they have developed high levels of “response-ability.”They have de- veloped the ability to respond effectively when unexpected or unde- sired difficulties occur.
Problems of all kinds bring out your very best qualities. They make you strong and resourceful. The more pressing your prob- lems, and the more emotion you invest in solving those problems, the more creative you will become. Each time you solve a problem constructively, you become smarter and more effective. As a result, you prepare yourself for even bigger and more important problems to solve.
■ THINK ON PAPER
One way to improve your ability to solve problems, and to trigger your creativity, is for you to think on paper.Take a few moments to ask, “What exactly is the problem?” Then write the answer down in such a form that it describes the problem exactly.
Unleash Your Mental Powers ➤ 159
You can then ask, “What else is the problem?”You should beware of any problem for which there is only one definition. The worst thing you can do is to solve the wrong problem.The more different ways that you can state a problem, the more amenable it becomes to a solution.
Whatever difficulties, obstacles, challenges, or factors that are hindering you or holding you back in any way, define them clearly in writing. As they say in medicine, “Accurate diagnosis is half the cure.”
Sometimes, when you begin to define a problem, you will find that it is actually a “cluster problem.” That is, it is a single large problem surrounded by several smaller problems. Most problems you deal with will be composed of several smaller problems. Often in a difficult situation, there is one large problem that must be solved before any of the smaller problems can be solved.
The best approach to this type of situation is for you to deter- mine the main problem and then define the individual parts of the problem separately.You identify the core problem that must first be solved and then deal with the smaller problems in order. Some- times solving one part of the problem leads to the resolution of the entire situation.
■ GOALS ARE JUST PROBLEMS
A goal that you have not yet achieved is merely a problem that you have not yet solved.This is why success has been defined as the abil- ity to solve problems. If you are not earning the kind of money that you would like, that is an unsolved problem. If you are not enjoying the levels of health and fitness that you desire, this is just a problem that you must solve. An obstacle that stands between you and your goal is merely a problem waiting for a solution. Any limitation that is holding you back is just another problem waiting for you to solve. In every case, your job is to not let the problem get on top of you, but rather for you to get on top of the problem.
■ YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION
If I asked you what you did for a living, you would tell me the name of your current position or job description. But whatever
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your title, your real job is “problem solver.” This is what you do all day long. It is this ability that makes you valuable.You are a professional problem solver.Your success in your career is deter- mined by how effectively you solve the problems and achieve the goals of your position.
Never complain about your problems at work.You should be grateful for them. If you had no problems at work, you would have no job. When people become unable to solve the problems that arise in their work, they are quickly replaced by people who can. When you become an excellent problem solver, you are quickly promoted to solving even bigger and more impor- tant problems.
From now on, see yourself as a problem solver.The only ques- tion is, how good are you at your job? Your goal is to become ab- solutely excellent at solving any problem that the world can throw at you.
■ ASK FOCUSED QUESTIONS
The third way to activate your creativity is by asking focused ques- tions.Well-worded, focused, provocative, challenging questions acti- vate your mind and stimulate your thinking. The very best consultants often describe themselves as “insultants.” They don’t give answers. They instead force their clients to ask and answer tough questions.
To trigger your own creativity, you have to ask yourself some tough questions as well, and then question your answers.
Remember zero-based thinking? Keep asking yourself, “If I were not now doing this, would I start it over again today knowing what I now know?”You will be amazed at how creative you become when you examine every aspect of your life as though you could choose to start it again, if you wanted to, based on your present knowledge and experience.
Often, the answer to your biggest dilemma is simply to discon- tinue an activity altogether. If it’s not working out, sometimes the smartest thing you can do is to simply abandon a particular course of action. Always ask, “What is the simplest and most direct solution to this problem?”
Unleash Your Mental Powers ➤ 161
■ CLARITY IS EVERYTHING
There are additional questions that you can ask to trigger your cre- ativity—for example, “What am I trying to do?” Be absolutely clear about your answer to this question.
Whenever you experience any frustration or resistance in achieving a goal or getting a result, ask yourself, “How am I trying to do it?” and “Could there be a better way?” Don’t fall in love with your current methods.
What are your assumptions? What are your obvious assumptions and what are your unconscious assumptions? What are you assum- ing to be true that if it were not true, your thinking would change altogether? Alex McKenzie wrote, “Errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure.”
■ THE REAL PROBLEM
I often work with companies that are trying to market a new prod- uct or service and they are having difficulties in the marketplace. When we seek the reasons for their business problems, they usually give me long lists of difficulties with advertising, promotion, people, sales, distribution, delivery, and service. However, the core problem is always that their sales are not high enough.
I then ask them three questions.They are questions that you can ask when considering any potential product or service for any market. The first question is, “Is there a market?” Are there people who can and will buy this product or service in competition with other products and services currently being offered? Many people start businesses without realizing how hard it is to attract a customer away from another supplier if the customer is currently happy with the other vendor.
If the company’s answer is, “Yes, there is definitely a market for what we sell.There are people who want it and are willing to buy it from us,” my next question is then, “Is the market large enough?” Many a product or service is good, valuable, and worthwhile, but there is not a large enough market to justify investing all the time and energy necessary to bring it to the market.There are better and more profitable uses for the money.
162 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤
■ WHY COMPANIES FAIL
Many people go broke, especially in entrepreneurial ventures, be- cause the market is simply not large enough for them to sell enough to justify the trouble and expense of producing the product or ser- vice in the first place. Every investment must be compared with other possible investments that are available at the same time.There may be better places to put your time and money.
This principle applies to you personally, as well.Your job is to in- vest yourself so that you are getting the highest “return on energy.” There are a thousand different ways that you can spend your time and your life.You yourself are your most valuable resource, and you must always invest this resource where you can get the highest return. The third question I ask my clients is, “If there is a market, and the market is large enough, is the market concentrated enough so that you can advertise and sell to it in a cost-effective way?”
This final question is what often sinks a new product idea.Yes, there is a market, and yes, the market is large enough, but the mar- ket is spread over such a wide geographical area that it is virtually impossible to sell to it effectively.
■ CONSIDER THE CONSTRAINTS
A good way to trigger creative solutions to your problems is to apply the “theory of constraints.”This theory says that, in every process or series of activities, there is a limiting factor. There are constraints or bottlenecks that determine the speed at which you get from where you are to where you want to go.The very act of identifying the crit- ical constraints in your environment often triggers ideas and in- sights that help you to alleviate them.
For example, let us say that your goal is to double your income over the next three to five years. You begin identifying the con- straints on achieving this goal by asking, “Why isn’t my income twice as high already?”
Be honest. Ask yourself the brutal questions: Why aren’t you al- ready earning twice as much as you are earning today? What is holding you back? Of all the things that are holding you back, what is the ma- jor limiting factor that will determine how fast you achieve your goal?
Unleash Your Mental Powers ➤ 163
■ APPLY THE 80/20 RULE
The 80/20 Rule seems to apply to constraints, but in a special way. In this context, this rule says that 80 percent of the constraints that are holding you back from achieving your goal are inside yourself. They are contained within you, rather than in your environment.
Only 20 percent of the factors that are holding you back are in the outside world.This discovery is a shock to most people.The vast majority of people think that their major problems are created or caused by situations and people around them. But this is usually untrue. Most of the reasons why you are not moving ahead have to do with your own lack of skills, ability, or good personal qualities.
■ DOUBLE YOUR INCOME
Let us say that you are in sales.You want to double your income in the next three to five years, if not sooner.The first critical constraint you will identify is the amount of your product or service that you have to sell. If you could resolve this problem, you would achieve your goal.
Once you have identified this main constraint, you then ask, “What is the constraint behind that?”Your next constraint could be the number of prospects that you have to find. If you could speak to enough prospects, you could probably double your sales and double your income.
You then look behind that constraint and ask what is the con- straint that is causing this limitation. This actual constraint may be your ability to prospect, something that is inside of you rather than in the marketplace.
■ LOOK AROUND YOU
One good way for you to determine whether the constraint is inter- nal or external is to look around you and see if anyone else is ac- complishing the same goals that you want to accomplish. Is anyone else already earning twice as much as you are earning selling the same product or service in the same market? If someone is already doing it, then the constraint is internal, not external. It is something
164 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤
inside you. It is the lack of a particular ability or attribute that you need to overcome.
It has been said, “When a man’s fight begins with himself, he is really worth something.” The superior person always asks the ques- tion, “What is it in me that is holding me back?” Superior people al- ways look to themselves first. It may very well be that there is something in your outside world that is acting as the brake on your potential, but the place to start looking is inside. The odds are you’ll find it there.
■ PULL THE TRIGGERS
When you pull these triggers regularly, you will be stimulating your creative ability and switching on your mental lights, like turning up the lights in a dark room with a dimmer switch.
When you set clear goals that you have a burning desire to achieve, you activate your creative mind. When you combine your goals with pressing problems, clearly defined, you generate more ideas. When you continually ask focused questions that provoke your thinking, you see more and better possibilities in every situation. And when you identify your key constraint to achieving any goal or solving any problem, you begin to perform like a genius.You put yourself onto the high road of success and great achievement.
■ USE ALL YOUR INTELLIGENCE
You have at least 10 different forms of intelligence, according to the research of Howard Garner at Harvard and the work of Charles Handy in England. Throughout your schooling, you were tested only on the basis of your verbal and mathematical intelligences. But research in the past few years indicates that you have a variety of in- telligences, in any one of which you could be a genius; in combina- tion, they enable you to accomplish extraordinary things.Your first job is to identify your predominant intelligence or intelligences; you then apply yourself using more of that intelligence in whatever it is you are trying to achieve.
Unleash Your Mental Powers ➤ 165
■ VERBAL INTELLIGENCE
Your first intelligence is verbal. This is your ability to speak, your command of language. The ability to understand and to use lan- guage well is closely associated with success in any field that in- volves communication with others. In every society, there is a direct relationship between your level of fluency in your language and your income.You can actually increase your prospects and your rate of promotion just by learning and using more words.
Each word is actually a tool for the expression of thought. The more words you know and understand, the more complex thoughts and ideas you can form. The better your vocabulary, the more re- spected and listened to by others you will be. This is why language skills are considered a key measure of intelligence.
■ MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCE
The second intelligence used to measure IQ is mathematical. This is your ability to use numbers skillfully, to add, subtract, divide, and multiply. In business, this is your ability to read financial statements and develop financial projections.The more knowledgeable you are about prices, costs, expenses, and financial ratios, the better deci- sions you can make, and the more valuable you become.
Many people feel that they have no ability for numbers. They therefore avoid any area or activity where financial fluency is necessary for success. This can be fatal if one of your goals is to achieve financial independence. Fortunately, you can learn to un- derstand the critical numbers in your business with a little study and application. As a result, you will be far more competent and ca- pable of making good decisions for the rest of your business life.
■ PHYSICAL INTELLIGENCE
Your third area of potential genius is physical intelligence. This is the kind of intelligence enjoyed by top athletes who have extraor- dinary abilities of timing and coordination in the movement and use of their bodies. A person could fail in school on verbal and mathematical tests and still be an extraordinary success athleti- cally, even though it would never show up on a report card.
166 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤
Many people sell themselves short by believing that they are not particularly capable at sports or certain physical activities.The good news is that with proper instruction and practice you can perform quite well in a variety of sports, such as swimming, skating, or ski- ing. It is really only a question of desire on your part.You have far more physical ability than you have ever used before.
■ MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE
Your fourth form of intelligence can be musical. A Mozart or a Beethoven could have been poor at sports and poor in school and yet capable of composing some of the most beautiful classical music of all time. Many of the top musicians and popular singers today did poorly in school but turned out to have an exceptional ability to create and express music.They were able to perform at outstanding levels musically.
■ VISUAL-SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE
Your fifth area of mental potential is visual-spatial intelligence. This is the ability to see and create shapes, forms, and patterns. An archi- tect, an engineer, a painter, or a person who has developed the ca- pacity to visualize very clearly would have this intelligence.
An architect, for example, might be able to develop, first in his or her mind and then on paper, beautiful buildings that then people with mathematical intelligence would be able to convert into blue- prints and exact dimensions for construction.
This is also the intelligence you use for visualizing and see- ing your goals in your mind’s eye before they emerge in your reality. This is an intelligence and an ability that you can develop with practice.
■ INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE
Your sixth form of intelligence is interpersonal. This is the highest- paid form of intelligence in the United States. It is the ability to communicate, negotiate, influence, and persuade other people. It is characterized by a high degree of sensitivity to the thoughts, feel-
Unleash Your Mental Powers ➤ 167
ings, motivations, and desires of others. A person with high inter- personal intelligence has the ability to interact with people effec- tively to get things done.
Successful managers, team leaders, and even military officers usually have interpersonal intelligence developed to a very high de- gree. As a result, people want to work and cooperate with them in the accomplishment of group goals.
The highest-paid salespeople are those who are excellent at per- suading others to purchase their products and services. The most effective businesspeople, consultants, and professionals demon- strate this intelligence constantly. It is the most important single ability of the successful politician.This may be your particular area of genius, as well.
■ INTRAPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE
Your seventh form of intelligence is intrapersonal. This is the ability to be aware of yourself—who you are and who you are not. With this intelligence, you know exactly what you want and what you don’t want. You are capable of setting goals for yourself and making plans for their accomplishment. People with high levels of intrapersonal intelligence are good at introspection.They reflect on how they are thinking and feeling. As a result of understanding themselves better, they are more effective in dealing with others.
The greater your level of self-awareness, gained through thought and introspection, the greater your level of self-understanding. The better you understand yourself and why you think and feel the way you do, the greater will be your level of self-acceptance.The more you accept yourself as a valuable and worthwhile person, the more you like and respect yourself. And the more you like yourself, the more you like others and the more they like you. Intrapersonal intelligence is very important to a happy and successful life, and you can develop it with practice.
■ ENTREPRENEURIAL INTELLIGENCE
Your eighth form of intelligence is entrepreneurial. This is the ability to see market opportunities and then to bring the various resources
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together to produce products and services that can be sold at a profit. Entrepreneurial intelligence is one of the highest-paid forms of intelligence in our society today, and is the foundation of all suc- cessful, fast-growing businesses.
Most self-made millionaires and many self-made billionaires started with nothing and made their money by applying their entre- preneurial intelligence to market opportunities that appeared before them. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft with an idea to develop software for the emerging market in personal com- puters. Michael Dell began assembling personal computers in his dorm room at college.They had high levels of entrepreneurial intel- ligence.You probably do as well.
■ INTUITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Your ninth form of intelligence is intuitive. This is the ability to sense the rightness or wrongness of a situation, to judge people quickly and accurately, and to come up with ideas and insights sep- arately from your logic or training.
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