Notes of a Paranoid Schizophrenic

Yesterday I went skiing with six friends. My 50^th birthday was just a few days ago, and one of my close friends had made the 5 hour trip from his home in Vernon to attend. He decided to make it into a holiday, so he booked off the whole week and brought his skis, golf clubs, and his mountain bike.

So yesterday was the big ski day. We had invited a woman to come with us, a woman who had been at my party, she was an old friend that we had lost touch with. During the process of calling each other’s cell phones to try and get organized and meet up for our ski day, I accidentally called her phone a second time without knowing it, and my phone sat on the breakfast table picking every comment of all who were present.

The rest of the ski party had already gathered at another friend’s place for breakfast, and all the others in the group were men. All the men were behaving badly and saying things that could only be described as sexist and nasty. What none of us knew was that our female friend was listening to every word, as various people described her as being controlling; we made unkind comments about her husband (whom she is in the process of splitting up with). We said hurtful things that she didn’t deserve, and she heard them all. Particularly interesting about this awful scenario is that one of my friends has a romantic interest in this woman, and would have done anything to impress her. Unfortunately, he said some of the worst things about her, and she heard those things too.

In spite of the awful things that she had heard, she met up with us to go skiing anyway. During one chairlift ride, when it was just her, the friend who was interested in her, and I, she looked over at us and said, “Can I tell you guys something?” At which point she told us what she had heard over the phone, the things that none of us knew she had heard. She recounted each slight, each blow, with total accuracy. And then she started to cry.

I honestly didn’t know what to do. I was in shock. I was more embarrassed than I have ever been in my life. My friend felt even worse, as he had said some horrible things, things that had invoked peels of laughter among the other men. Each of us tried in our own stumbling way to apologize; it was really kind of hopeless, as we knew that none of those things could be unsaid. However, she seemed to forgive us, and we skied together for a few hours. Then she left, leaving the rest of us to ponder our sins.

The incident pretty much robbed me personally of any joy that day. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Discussing it with my friend, we decided that the lesson to be learned is this:

“Never say anything about anyone that you wouldn’t say directly to them”.

Above all else, show your kindness and compassion. It’s an easy gift to give.

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

Yesterday my topic was Goals and Distractions, and I talked about the importance of setting aside everyday distractions and using that time for moving towards a goal.  This morning a friend sent me an email containing an excellent article about how just one hour a day towards a goal can transform one’s life.

Here is the article, by Perry Marshall:

The first time I heard the phrase “get in your 10,000 hours” was in an interview I did with John Carlton several years ago. He was talking about copywriting and he said if you want to be world-class-good at something, log your ten thousand hours of practice. Today I’ve got 2 thoughts to share about getting in your 10,000 hours:

1) It’s hard for most people to appreciate the rich rewards of being truly world class. The doors it will open for you, the opportunities it will bring month after month, year after year. Especially if you build a public platform around your skill, you’re automatically at the front of every line you stand in - if you even have to stand in line at all.

When you’re world class you can achieve things in your sleep that most people can’t pull off with every ounce of energy and concentration they possess.

2) You don’t have to be even close to certified world-class to enjoy substantial advantages. I’ve always liked the phrase “in the land of the blind, the man with one eye gets to be king.” In most industries and most markets, you don’t need world class marketing chops to win big-time. 1,000 hours of practice will equip you to beat almost everybody in almost any game.

Remember, to succeed online you only need to be good at TWO things - ONE kind of traffic and ONE kind of sales conversion.

If you spend 1,000 hours learning how to generate ONE kind of traffic and 1,000 hours mastering ONE way of converting prospects to buyers, you will be darn close to the best guy or gal you can find at those two things.

So how do you log your 1,000 hours?

You MUST MUST MUST shove minutia out of the way and FOCUS for 1 hour a day.

• 1 hour a day for 3 years is 1000 hours.
• 2 hours a day for 18 months is 1000 hours.
• 3 hours a day for a year is 1000 hours.
• Even if you take one day off per week, which you should.

You will never miss the minutia you shove out of the way. It’ll probably be time you spend responding to emails that will never result in any sales or time you waste twittering or facebooking or whatever.

There are many trivial tasks you can give to a $10 per hour assistant. Things other people can do for you like laundry or housecleaning. Short-term chores that you’ll never miss once they’re gone.

What if you gave those jobs to somebody else and blocked out ONE HOUR to hone your highest skill to perfection?

I’ve basically spent at least an hour writing every day for the last 10 years. It’s my best skill and it’s paid off. I’ve wasted a lot of time doing a lot of stupid things during the last decade but it’s the time I spent doing that that made a difference.

The other thing I’ve been doing for the last 10 years - yes, probably about an hour every day, on average - is being a certified Marketing Maniac. Having my radar cranked up for every possible angle on human psychology and what makes people respond; what makes people change their minds, change their beliefs, part with their money.

Collecting every strange story and case study about websites and infomercials and direct mail campaigns and sales meetings I can find and filing them away in my brain.

I’ve wasted a lot of time doing stupid stuff but time spent doing that has paid off handsomely.

—–> There’s one point I must NOT leave out.

Just “doing ten thousand hours of whatever” all by itself is not enough and will get you nowhere.

There are all kinds of accountants and engineers and secretaries who have done ten thousand hours of accounting or engineering or secretarial work, who are not even close to world class at anything.

Why? Because they’ve just been punching the clock. Sleepwalking through their life. They haven’t been sharpening their saw. They’ve only been going through the motions.

That’ll earn you a paycheck but little else. No, I’m talking about conscious, deliberate effort to get BETTER. To challenge yourself; to seek out new discoveries, to try things you haven’t tried before; to put yourself under the tutelage of an exacting and demanding mentor; to press the edges of your comfort zone and expand your ability.

THAT is what you spend your 1,000 or 10,000 hours doing. Acting instead of reacting. Pressing forward instead of floating downstream.

Before I go, there is one last advantage that I’d like you to consider:

Consider the PEER GROUP you will belong to when you achieve regional, national or world-class chops in ANY endeavor.

You will command instant respect from other world-class people, regardless of profession. The conversations you have with them will be stimulating, invigorating, fascinating. People who embrace excellence. People who, you will find, are usually generous and creative and adventurous. They introduce you, in turn, to other creative, adventurous people.

You will also find that contrary to stereotype, folks who hang out at country clubs are neither stuffy nor dull nor boring. They’re usually the most happenin’, engaging people in town.

A couple weeks ago I spied a Google ad by a world-class artist who is revered in certain circles. Someone I highly respect. (I bet he got his 10,000 hours in by age 19.) I saw a couple of mistakes he was making and dropped him an email offering to help out. He Googled me and when he saw I was also world class at what I do, he replied back and we had a great conversation.

I helped him out, I had a cool opportunity to converse with someone whose work I admire, and perhaps we’ll have more exchanges in the future.

I bet you can think of people you’d like to meet. If you’re as good at what you do as they are at what they do, it won’t be hard to make that happen.

The pursuit of excellence is truly worthy of your time. I challenge you to name anything that’s more worthy of 1 hour per day than that.

Whatever you do - whatever minutia you have to shove out of the way - commit right now to your 1,000 hours of mastery. It’s the first step to getting your 10,000 hours. That hour-a-day is not optional if you want to have a great life.

I promise, it will take you to places you’ve hardly dreamed of.

Perry Marshall

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

” The most depraved type of human being … (is) the man without a purpose” – Ayne Rand

If you want to be successful in life you must set goals. Now that statement might seem obvious, however we live in a time of many distractions, particularly in the western world. TV’s, Radio, Internet, iTunes, telephones, cellphones, while all these things are interesting inventions, and some might argue are even life-enhancing, I would argue that they are mostly distractions that pull us away from achieving our goals. Sure, they can provide pleasure and entertainment, but if they become the center part of a person’s life, then they can only provide anxiety and depression.

I have always had trouble paying attention for long periods of time. As a child in school, I was always the one gazing out the window and thinking about playing after school. As a result, I got pretty mediocre grades throughout my school life.

Back then, I had a love for airplanes and aviation (and I still do). The school I attended decided to have a craft day every Thursday afternoon, and I decided that my craft was going to be designing and building a model helicopter. I started drawing my plans, and eventually came up with a decent framework for a helicopter. I got so absorbed in my project that time seemed to stand still, I had entered “the zone”. As I got older, my model airplanes became more and more sophisticated, and every time I sat down to work on my model airplanes, I became lost in time and entered “the zone”.

Creative people know all about “zone” experiences. Perhaps I should rephrase – Actively creative people know all about zone experiences. I say actively creative, because all people are inherently creative, but many people in our modern world have become lost and distracted. They watch too much TV, or they sit in front of the computer for hours on end browsing the internet. They may start out searching for “how to make money” and end up looking at a monster trucks site. Has this every happened to you? It has certainly happened to me!

The majority of people also work at autopilot jobs, working for an hourly wage, doing their ceaselessly boring repetitive work every day for their entire working lives. They clock in at 9 and clock out at 5. Then, being under-stimulated throughout the day, they come home to their TVs to try and save themselves from their boredom. Eventually, their lives go by and they get old without ever really accomplishing anything.

It is important to set goals and then stick with them until they are completed. This provides us with the immensely rewarding zone experience, reminding us that we are creative and powerful beings that can create anything we want. I always think about large bridges. I think, wow, somebody had a vision to put a bridge here, then he sat down and wrote a plan to build a bridge. Then, he assembled all the right mixture of engineers, city councilors, concrete workers, steelworkers, welders, electricians, and all the other myriad skilled workers to make the bridge a finished product. It all started with a goal! If that person had instead thought, “I’d like to build a bridge” and then sat down to play solitaire on his computer, or watch Seinfeld on TV, the magnificent bridge would never get built.

“Most men live lives of quiet desperation” - Thoreau

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

This excellent article is by Willie Horton:

“I was recently asked why authors such as Ekhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra and Tony deMello (and myself for that matter) place so much emphasis on the present moment. My reader also asked me to explain why living in the past or future can be so detrimental - and that’s where this article starts!

Very often, we look back on our past - fondly, with regret, sometimes with longing. There’s no harm in that - after all, it is our life experience to date that makes us who we think we are. Without our memories, we’d wake up each morning, turn around in the bed and scream “Who the hell are you?” - of course, there could be benefits to that!

The real problem with the past is that our subconscious mind lives there by default. This is a major problem because psychology tells us that our subconscious mind (using the twin psychological “abilities” of automaticity and categorization - more like disabilities actually!) dictates our automatic reactions and enables us complete repetitive tasks without paying attention. Unfortunately, as we go through life and become accustomed to the people and places around us, everything becomes repetitive so we end up paying attention to nothing (research indicates that we only pay 1% attention to the here and now).

Here’s the problem. By paying so little attention to the present, our subconscious mind roams freely in a past long gone - thinking that it’s the present. It uses past experiences - our “programs” from our formative years, when we learned our beliefs in everything including ourselves - to dictate our current behaviour. How we behave now determines how people (who are buried in their own past) behave towards us and, as a result, our automatic behaviour creates our present everyday life.

Of course, we’re completely unaware that any of this is going on, because we’re not paying attention!

Now, to add to that mess, your conscious mind constantly wanders into the future. The average adult (most of us are average) has about 50,000 random thoughts each day, many of which are “what ifs”! The problem with a distracted mind is we lose focus on what we’re supposed to be doing now. As a result, it becomes more of a burden, we become more frustrated.

So, between our subconscious’s old programming (which is generally skewed towards the negative) and worry about the future, we end up not being present to what is actually happening here and now. We pay little or no attention to now - and recent neuro-psychological work has proven that your ability to be successful (and experience peace of mind) is directly linked to how much attention you’re paying. Put no energy into the present moment and you get nothing in return!

It’s a bit like the old IT saying “garbage in - garbage out”! Quantum physics tells us that this universe of ours (including everything and everyone you encounter) is made up of energy and that energy responds to your energy. Put almost no energy into being focused in the present and universal energy simply won’t bother to respond to you - why should it, you haven’t even bothered to turn up!

On the other hand, when you do pay more than 1% attention to the present moment, your experience changes. Athletes call it “the zone”, the University of Chicago calls it “flow”, sports people call it “focus”, business people call it “single-mindedness”. Same difference! We’re at our best when our energy is engrossed in what we’re doing - here and now. When we are in flow, things flow for us - we seem to be the right person in the right place at the right time. The famous psychologist Carl Yung called that “synchronocity” - quantum physics has proved how synchronicity works in proving that universal energy is responsive to intention and emotion.

Put simply, if you channel more of your energy into “now”, universal energy will respond now - these are scientific facts, if you want more details just let me know! Conversely, if my energy is “all over the place” (in the past and future) universal energy will give me a normal “not too bad” return on my pathetic 1% investment!

Whether you look at it from a psychological of physics perspective, the key benefit of the Now is this. If you are more present, you have presence - which makes you more impressive and attractive. You will impress those around you simply because there’s more of you present in the moment than everybody else. You will be more attractive to those around you for the same reason. But, importantly, you will be more attractive to events as well (some people call it the Law of Attraction).

So, letting your subconscious live in the past - and letting your conscious mind wander - takes you away from the only time and place we have - Now. You need to learn how to pay more attention to now, to engross yourself in what you’re doing. It’s easy - meditation gives you the mental discipline required - but you could start by simply doing a little more seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling and tasting of where you are, right here, right now, as you finish reading this article”.

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

I was listening to yet another of Eban Pagan’s videos this morning, and he rang my bell quite loudly.  He talks about the modern phenomenon of multitasking - which oddly is a habit that people often boast about.  But multi-tasking is a by-product of our fast-moving times.  Even as I write this article, I am trying to follow the plot of the TV show CSI.  Of course, I missed the climax of the show, and can’t concentrate on my writing.

I think this is a pandemic of sorts, this multitasking thing.  From motorists who are busy texting while hurtling along the highway, to office workers who are constantly interrupted by incoming emails, to everyday consumers being nagged by their ringing cell phones…  How can anybody ever get anything done?  The human brain simply was not designed for multitasking.  We are mono-taskers by nature, but technology has us always trying to do many things at once.

I am convinced that really successful people deliberately turn off the distractions to get things done.  They give themselves time-slots with which to get things accomplished, and they do NOTHING ELSE until their task is finished.  Eban Pagan takes it one step further by using timers.  He suggests that we map out our tasks, then set a timer and do nothing else until the task is done, then allow ourselves a break, then set the timer and get the next thing done.

Certainly makes sense!  I’m going to give it a try.

Be well!

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

Neurosis: When we choose to do something that is negative but familiar, rather than something that is positive but unfamiliar.

“Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it only changes form” - Einstein.

I am always on the lookout for inspiration.  I just became aware of another teacher whose main business is teaching Internet Marketing, but he happens to also have some wisdom about changing from a negative and habitual mindset to a positive mindset.  I watched one of his videos this morning, and I found him to have some compelling things to teach us.  His name is Eben Pagan.

One of the things that he says, and that many of the other self-help gurus also say, is that we have to observe our own behaviour without judgment.  Just quietly observe the way we are.  I have been practicing this for a couple of months now, and believe it or not, it does bring some peace.  It’s as though we are observing the behaviour of a troubled friend, or a homeless person - we don’t hate these people (at least I don’t), but we empathise with them.  So why are we so tough on ourselves? Let me rephrase that – Why am I so tough on myself?

There has to be something that is holding us back from realizing our full potential, and yet so few of us really ever achieve our greatness.  Eben Pagan tells us that the brain is really three parts: the physical brain, the emotional brain, and the logical brain.  When these three parts are not in harmony, there is friction.  The friction is an inefficiency, and the inefficiency consumes our energy. Is this why depressed people are often listless and tired?  I certainly think that’s possible.  This energy could be better used for creative endeavors.  So how do we break the cycle?

So let’s say that the Logical Brain has a vision for success, and comes up with an original idea.  The Emotional Brain then steps in and sabotages the idea, to protect us from failure.  Emotional Brain says, no, don’t do it, it’s risky and dangerous.  So really Emotional Brain is just trying to protect us, to keep us safe.  The longer this happens, the more that this response becomes “hard-wired”, and it seems like a normal response for us.  And so we remain stuck in our mediocrity.  We  have “learned” that success is a dangerous path.

Eban Pagan suggests that we introduce the Logical Brain to the Emotional Brain, and then step aside and observe what the two sides are saying to each other.  This is an important thing… step aside from your EGO, and watch the two parts of your brain argue.  Yes, it might fatigue you, but this exercise actually gets easier with practice.

I can give you an example of my personal demon and the inner-conflict it provokes - smoking.  This is where the Logical Brain and the Emotional Brain really get it on with each other.  Smoking, for me, is the ultimate self-punishment.  Here is the sequence of events that springs forth from my daily urge to smoke:  ”I really want a smoke now.  Great, this gives me a reason to leave the house and go somewhere! (boredom).  So then I go out, and buy a single cigar, and smoke it right there outside the convenience store.  Inhale smoke, exhale.  Ahh what a rush!”  So then a few more drags, I am feeling satisfied now, I got my rush, and now wondering why I am standing around a convenience store looking like I’ve got nothing better to do, hoping that nobody I know sees me (now we’re moving into guilt territory).

Now the internal battle goes out of control.  Logical brain says, “what the fuck are you doing, you stupid asshole?  Don’t you know that smoking’s bad for you, and it sticks to your clothes and makes you stink?” and Emotional Brain is saying, “Whattya mean?  You love smoking, admit it!  We got to go for a drive, and it got you out of the house!  Cmon, bro, LOTS of people still smoke!  Just keep it under control, you’ll be alright!”

The thing is, it’s just easier to stay the same, until it becomes so uncomfortable that it’s no longer an option, and you begin to seek a higher knowledge of yourself, and you begin to OBSERVE your own behaviour.  That’s what happened to me.  Three days ago, I just simply lost interest in smoking.

In conlusion – be aware of your inner parts, and constantly observe. Over time, the rest of it takes care of itself.

Here is Eban Pagan’s video – make your own conclusions.

http://www.wakeupproductiveblog.com/2008/09/training-video.php

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

There’s a new guru on the scene, Dr Daniel Amen. He has written a book called “Change your Brain, Change your Life“, and the premise of the book is that your brain is vulnerable to all kinds of health issues that are entirely controllable. I like this kind of stuff, because it stays clear of the murky mysteries of psychiatry (I am not knocking psychiatry, but I have personally never found any solace from it).

Instead, it interprets brain health on solid science derived from a brain scanning method called Neuroimaging. I found myself browsing through this book on one of my latest trips to the bookstore, and soon I was sitting down and reading the first chapter, then the second, as if I was reading a thriller and couldn’t wait to get to the climax…

Dr. Amen has collected a bunch of before-and-after photos from his brain image scans, showing how brains can heal just by making a few simple lifestyle changes. There are, for example, brain image scans of people who drink too much alchohol, who are deficient in certain types of nutrients, people who smoke, even people who don’t exercise enough. When these people alter their lifestyle for the better, their “after” brain image scan is clearly more healthy looking.

Even though Dr. Amen is a psychiatrist by training, he seems to have found a breakthrough science that has dramatically helped his patients. Recently Dr. Amen was on PBS Public Television, and he talked about some simple things that people can do to increase their brain performance. One of them was to take fish oil supplements.

I was so convinced by his lecture, that I immediately ran out and bought some Omega 3-6-9 supplements and started taking two a day. I also began taking a multivitamin at the same time. Although the difference is quite subtle, one thing that seems to be improving is my short-term memory (which is disappointingly poor, I sometimes wonder if this is the early onset of Oldtimers Disease!

Dr. Amen also outlined some of the best foods to eat for brain health; here it is:

• avacodos
• green tea
• broccoli
• blueberries
• oatmeal
• oranges
• red peppers
• salmon
• spinach
• tuna
• turkey
• walnuts

Eat and be healthy!

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

It truly is an unbelievably hard thing to do, to change.  Why would a person, being terribly unhappy with the way he is, persist in being that way anyway?  It’s puzzling alright, even to the person so-afflicted.  I can tell you that from personal experience.

Why, for example, would a person continue smoking, even though few of his friends smoke, his parents and sister don’t smoke, his best friend doesn’t smoke, in fact only one of his friends smokes… and given all the evidence of the dangers of smoking to one’s health, the harm it does to one’s sporting performance, not to mention the embarrassment of smelling like smoke, or the shame in being discovered smoking by someone well-deceived, who this person has led to believe that he is a NON SMOKER… why on earth would a person continue smoking?

Why would a person who was born with inherent gifts, a good ear for music, a good hand for drawing, a natural ability with writing skills, very strong mechanical skills, a natural spatial understanding of things… a strong and healthy body… why would a person squander all these gifts and not use ANY of them?  OK, save for skiing and biking.  He uses his body for those things.  But you get the idea.

Why would a guy who was given all the right directions and advice, by people he loves and/or respects, regarding financial strategies, why would he blow it all and lose it all?  Why would he command his ship back onto the rocks, all the while subconsciously knowing how to navigate his way out?

Why would a guy who was given the best upbringing in the world, with two dedicated and loving parents, with a lifelong best friend, with many good friends met and lost along the way, with a private school education, why would a person leave these things behind as he wanders, why would he abondon them?  I don’t understand.  Why?  And when this person approaches his 50th birthday with no family of his own, no career of his own, no real accomplishments or bragging rights for anything worthwhile, only a past that’s a wreckage of half-completed plans, a past with an aching and gnawing envy of others’ accomplishments, why would he find himself lonely, and gut-wrenchingly so?

Why is it so hard to change?  Because it’s comfortable, I guess.  It’s familiar.  It’s the way we operate, and we know nothing else.  But what happens to some of us, we panic about the rapid advancement of time, we realize that if we are going to accomplish anything worthwhile we have to start  now…  we realize that what was once comfortable is now bloody uncomfortable and something has to be done about it.

But still, it’s hard to change, very hard.

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

I watched the Michael J. Fox documentary on TV, Adventures of the Eternal Optimist.  Mr. Fox describes his battle with Parkinson’s Disease, and wonders why he is still able to be optimistic about life.  It was definitely interesting to see a man who has not let PD slow him down too much.  He’s also written a book, traveled the world, raised a large family, and stayed happily married.

This raises the question: why is it that people who are perfectly healthy unable to be optimistic?  Michael J. Fox also wonders why this is.  Is it genetic?  Are people just biologically programmed to be positive or negative?

As a lifelong pessimist myself, I also have to wonder why this is.  Some days it seems IMPOSSIBLE to think positively, and I am certain that pessimism gets stronger as one gets older.  That is why it is important to change this HABIT as soon as you are aware that you have it.

I am not having a good day today.  I am feeling negative and pessimistic and I have done nothing worthwhile today. The result of this is that I feel guilty, and guilt is negative, and it’s a whole nasty loop that feeds on itself.  Perhaps optimism is the same, but I wouldn’t know.

Maybe I should give a Michael J. Fox a call…

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

You know, I am notorious for avoiding doing homework, and lately I’ve been driving around in my car listening to my ipod plugged into my cassette adapter plugged into the radio (hey, don’t knock it, it works just fine).

So I’ve been listening over and over to Karim Hajee’s 4 week Creating Power program.  This program requires the student to stop from time to time and do an exercise, a writing exercise.  Well, this always derails me right away.  My mind goes, “What, you mean pull off to the side of the road right here and write something down?  Are you kidding me??  Like I’m going to do that!” and so, I push on, eager to hear the next piece of sage advice Karim gives me.

Sometimes you have to hear something 20 times before you act on it, and it hit me over the head today as I was driving back from helping out a buddy, and all my other work today, I was listening to Karim (OK, I was only half-listening, but I’m ADD remember?)  Suddenly it shook me to the bone that that aforementioned thought, that was a habit!  That’s exactly the old thinking that I am striving to change, remember?  Well, Duhh!  But it still doesn’t make it easy to do one’s homework, just easier.

That’s part of the reason for writing this blog, actually.  I realized, I really don’t mind writing if I have an audience (and I know what that’s like, as a former weekly contributor to our local rag, The Whistler Question.  Now I have a cure for my avoidance mechanism - make it fun!  Tell it out loud!  Hopefully, soon, people will come and read my blog…

Anyhow, getting back to AFFIRMATIONS, some of Karim’s exercises require one to say affirmations a few times a day.  My brain does the same thing, it says “Ya right.  Like I’m going to utter something over and over again that I don’t believe… Harumph!  I can’t do this affirmations thing, so what’s next Karim?

And yet this is exactly what Karim is talking about… it’s that persistant negative mindset again, what he calls the Great Deceiver.  It’s a negative thought that automatically preempts the positive one.  I’m not even giving the positive one a chance, because it seems a little corny.  Voila!  Negative thought wins, just like it always does.

It’s the very thing that Karim is striving to teach us.. Get Rid of the Negative Thoughts.  They are nothing but a bad habit.

From today forth, I am going to do my affirmations, I am going to do my affirmations, I am going to do my affirmations.

Until next,

Cheers.

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

I have procrastinated my whole life.  ”There will always be time for that”, I would say to myself.  Relationships came and went, jobs came and went.  Even my most productive years, businesswise, soon collapsed into several years of procrastination and mismanagement, until the business’s ultimate demise, with my slothful hands at the wheel.  Too bad, that, I had the whole town’s respect there for a few years…

Anyhow, the years flee by, don’t they?  Here I am, 49 years old (or young, depending on the day), and still single, never started a family or anything, didn’t even come close really.  Career-wise, I had a few good years in my 30’s.  I started a reputable business, I joined the chamber of commerce.  But I got lazy, or complacent perhaps.  I always had the impression that there was lots of time, so it didn’t matter if I made a balls up of it.  But I guess it did matter…

I don’t know when I woke up and realized that there isn’t a LOT of time.  There is  however, quite a bit of time left, but somewhere in the recent past I’ve had an epiphany, and I realized that I had better not waste any more of it.  I have not experienced love yet!  I haven’t been to Africa yet!  I haven’t learned the guitar yet!  I haven’t experienced wealth, and I deserve it! (that’s an affirmation, by the way)

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time”. - Theodore Roosevelt

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” - Charles Darwin

Life is short - we shouldn’t waste it.

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

Recently I was watching an excellent PBS program, featuring Deepack Chopra.  He stated the 10 keys of happiness, and I scrambled for pen and paper so as to write them down.  Luckily, I have one of those PVR’s that you can start and stop as much as you want, so I was able to get them all.  Here they are for all to see:

1. Listen to your body

2. Live in the present moment

3. Embrace Silence (meditation, yoga, being in the moment, etc)

4. Relinquish your need for external approval (be immune to criticism and flattery)

5. Let go of grievances and anger

6. Have a total knowledge of yourself (”know thyself”)

7. Don’t judge others or yourself

8. Eliminate toxins from your body and your life

9. Replace fear-based thinking with joy-based thinking

10. Cultivate witnessing awareness

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

Twenty years ago or so I read a book called The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck.  The first line in the book is “life is difficult”.   That line has always resonated with me, to the point where I never forgot it (and I forget things).  What does Dr. Peck mean by this?  Why is life difficult?

As I was jogging this morning to shake off the Sunday morning blues, I listened to my audio tracks of Karim Hajee.  He talks about the difficulty of changing one’s negative thinking.  I will testify to that!  When Mr Hajee describes the absurdity of negative thinking, I wonder why I don’t just simply dismiss them and replace them with positive thoughts… but I don’t.  The reason I am plagued so often with negative thoughts is that they are a HABIT.

Karim Hajee calls the consious mind THE GREAT DECEIVER.  If one has a natural disposition towards negativity, then that is the The Great Deceiver at work.  The conscious mind will continue to re-inforce those negative messages that it has been using for probably years, and unless a conscious effort is made to change those thoughts, they will continue to dominate one for the rest of one’s life.

My message here is, learn how to defeat your own Great Deceiver.  Try to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, try to observe your own thinking.  Whenever you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, then objectively observe that you have just had a negative thought, and then dismiss it as negative, and it doesn’t have a place in your life.  Just try it.  It works!

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

I have been listening to my Creating Power audio tracks, and I really like the lessons that are taught in this course. Today, I have been listening to week two, which talks about replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. Now, this is an incredibly difficult thing to do. If you have been feeding your subconscious mind with negative thoughts, then your subconscious mind will direct you through life in a negative way. It’s like a garden; if you plant weeds in the garden, then weeds will grow. If you plan flowers in your garden, then flowers will grow. If you have already planted weeds, then they will be harder to get rid of.

***The purpose of this blog is to learn how to be happy and successful***

Today I feel great! I set a goal, I set a deadline, and I am actually ahead of schedule… this is great news for anyone who is ADD!

My goal was to create a blog using Wordpress, make some blog entries, research SEO for my blog, quit smoking, and shut off the TV for a couple of days.

Well, all is going according to plan. I quit smoking January 1st, then caved in around the beginning of April, and started smoking again. Instead of beating myself up, I just let myself smoke, stepped aside from my ego and observed the absurdity of it, and set a deadline for a return to abstinence. That day was today, May 1st. I skied all day with my cigar-smoking buddy, watched him smoke a couple times today, and never had any of my own, so I feel like this is a good start.

But getting back on topic, TV Sucks, last night I decided only to get things accomplished on my blog, and not watch any TV. I also went shopping for groceries, made a nice chili, and listened to music as I worked. You know, even though I am admittedly addicted to TV, last night was such a relief! Turn the damn thing off, and do something creative, one feels so much better at the end of the day. So Turn off the TV, for chrissakes! If you don’t believe me, go visit my video gallery and watch the clip entitled Zeitgeist Final Edition, then you’ll understand why you should throw your TV set out the window.

OK, OK, I haven’t thrown mine out yet, but I can see the day when I do! TV will only suck the life out of you until you are old, and then you will say, What happened to my life?