Archive for Inspiration
Substitute “I Want” for “Don’t” to Bring Success
Posted by: | CommentsA picture tells a thousand stories and you want successful pictures.
When you say “I Want” health, love, happiness, money, success, Lexus ES350, 4,200 sq ft home with 4 bds and 4 baths you get pictures; happy, positive pictures.
The great books over the last 100 years like the Master Key System for Abundance, Think and Grow Rich, The Science of Getting Rich, The Secret feature the “Law of Attraction” and how what you think about with feeling, you manifest.
They are built on additional scientific theory by master thinkers such as Plato, Newton, Kepler, Kant, and Einstein to name a few who say that there is a reality bigger than the one you perceive with your senses and left brain.
In Pimm van Kommel’s book “Consciousness Beyond Life” he combines his theories of ever lasting consciousness and Quantum Physics to conclude that the past, present, and future are all here at the same time, just outside of knowing.
When you use your energy to align with the energy that is the source of all existence, you can bring forth, in form, what you are strongly thinking. I have had enough premonitions and intuitions come true to give me a new theory that many of us would hesitate to put into words.
I think the future is here at the same time as the present because in space, which is the consciousness just outside of your senses there is no time. I think a premonition is frequently just seeing what is about to happen to you. You can do it because it is already known.
This might be a lot to wrap your mind around, so it is just as well to go to the suggestions of the several books that have millions of followers who have already wrapped their heads around these ideas and found they work.
Each morning before you get up starting saying “I Want” and list the things you want in your life. They bring in positive pictures. Eliminate the words “I don’t” because they bring in negative pictures.
If you say “I Don’t” want to be poor, sick, broke, unemployed, homeless, single, you can see the pictures they create in your head. The fact that they are preceded by “Don’t” doesn’t clarify the picture in consciousness. The picture is the picture.
Don’t tell your children, “I don’t want to see a messy room”. This creates a picture. Say “I want a clean, neat, organized, room.” Substitute “I don’t want to see dirty dishes” with “I want to see a neat spotless kitchen with everything put away.”
Every morning after visualizing what you want, start saying the same for all those that are close to you, your place of work, your neighborhood, your city, and your nation. “I want to see my friends have abundance, happiness, and fulfillment.” “I want to see my town prosper, be safe, and attract visitors and business.”
We can bring ourselves up and our entire environment with us. You can say “I Want” as often as you like. It starts making you feel better as soon as you start using it.
**
Tapping The Source. Using the Master Key System for Abundance and Happiness. Concept by Charles Haanel born in 1856.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Consciousness Beyond Life by Pim van Lommel, M.D.
The Secret You might like to take a look at the website and the short trailer they play. The documentary is available on Netflicks.com
http://www.thesecret.tv/movie/trailer.html
My Resources section has been revised. It now has free E Books I have written that you can download for Free. Soon to be displayed is Part 1 of “The Perfect Human”.
It also has a blog roll for the science and human interest sites I use.
It has a list of books I have read for my writing available through Amazon and my quick review of their contents. The books for purchase through Amazon range from a few cents for used through the New retail price. I always buy used and find they are in excellent shape. I often buy books for under $1 and plus shipping, that is a pretty good bargain.
I am starting a new speaking tour and for the first few months will appear at your organization for Free at the cost of travel and lodging only ( I am in San Diego). I have been speaking in front of audiences for over 25 years with some as large as 1,200 people. I can cover a number of topics but prefer personal development, peak performance, and positive living.
Ideas for your future brought to you by
Kaalm Media Group
Dedicated To Delivering Insights and Life Transforming Ideas Daily
through 8 websites, E Books, and Newsletters
1-760-231-8966. CA PST Services
What if Daytime Was the Dream and Nite the Reality?
Posted by: | CommentsSeveral credible sources say the Universal knowledge is far greater than what we access with our senses or know with our brain.
From ancient times scholars such as Plato have said that we are the shadow of the larger reality. Indian culture, Kabbala, natives of many lands, and ancient civilizations have believed that we are but a small player in a much bigger game.
Quantum physics has helped explain many of the inconsistencies unexplainable in classical physics. One theory is that the space that exists in matter is filled with information and consciousness that we continuously tap into and call progress.
In that matter has 99.9% space, this leaves a lot of room for knowledge. We are so tied to our senses that we prefer to ignore information that seems unexplainable. It is clear that our cells communicate with each other faster than our senses could perceive.
It is clear that revelations create in a second what it may take years to explain. Einstein gives revelation the cause of the Theory of Relativity. Many composers, artists, writers, and scientists have said their work appears in their minds and then they give it form.
Waves carry the information our computers, radios, and brains translate into terms we can understand. They travel at the speed of light. Just as everything on the globe is interconnected in one holographic conglomeration of information, so could we be to our past and future.
A few days ago, I was practicing some dream skills where I went into pictures of family or scenes I remembered well and relived the events. It so happens I went into three exercises involving my older daughter who now lives in London. Within 15 minutes of completing them she called me. She rarely calls and especially at night, her time.
Since I read “Dreamgates” by Robert Moss, I have been remembering and analyzing my dreams to see if they have any particular meaning. Some have familiar characters and reproduce what I might be experiencing in my daily existence. In a few, I have been in a room with people I didn’t know and who were having conversations that had no relevance to me that I could ascertain.
In that many believe our consciousness is ever lasting and enters and leaves our body at birth and death and that outside our reality, there is no such thing as time, we might experience the past present and future at the same time.
If our daily experience is the dream in that it is the smaller part of the larger reality, it might afford us some opportunities. It would always be great to create our dreams rather than be subject to them. If the daily experience which we call consciousness is not the larger reality, but one in which we have better control, why not make it suit us?
What could we create in our daily existence that which would make us happier? Love is good. We could do what we loved most as children and create things that express ourselves. We could engage in activities that make us feel better and sharpen our mental capabilities. We could find out what our particular and clearly temporary body/brain is capable of experiencing, achieving, or contributing.
Our day time existence or consciousness is our artist pallet and while it maybe the shortest lived part of our existence, why not make the most of it while we have the time? Create a good experience for yourself today, tomorrow.
**
See Resource Books for topics on economy, global warming, globalization, fitness, thinking, emotional intelligence, innovation, and happiness,
Ideas for your future brought to you by
Kaalm Media Group
Dedicated To Delivering Insights and Life Transforming Ideas Daily
through 8 websites, E Books, and Newsletters
1-760-231-8966. CA PST Services
You Connect Me
Posted by: | CommentsWho in watching Jerry McGuire didn’t want to laugh or cry at the line he delivers “You Complete Me”
But man is a social animal. He needs others.
How do you feel when someone you cherish sincerely and out of the blue says I love you?
It validates you. It connects you to life.
We are piles of protoplasm going about our business not sure of the outcome, but maybe getting paid to believe we are important or waking everyday to realize God hasn’t pulled our ticket yet.
But these are not the sources of real satisfaction, meaning, or purpose.
I believe that people can get through anything when they have at least one person that believes in them. I have heard interviews of people who survived stressful times give credit to this statement.
Love may be the most universal and powerful of all energies.
If any one feeling or realization or revelation transcends the mind/brain through both the conscious and subconscious brain waves, it has to be love. Fear could also produce this sensation, but if love and fear are on the same plane, then it shows how love is basic to survival.
Yet the world was not conceived out of fear. The fact that species mate for life and produce off spring demonstrate that connection and propagation are more natural to our planet than any other living dynamic.
The fact that without man, this planet provides everything necessary to sustain, embellish, and fascinate the senses, says there is more than fear at work; there is the opposite.
If you cannot call the existence of the living dynamic of life on earth, love, then give it your own term. But love connects us as well as anything.
Dedicated to my daughter Alexandra.
Being in the Flow is Like the Big “O”
Posted by: | CommentsThe other day I went to the post office around 11:30 a.m. and returned to work on my new E Book. Before I knew it, it was 4:30 p.m. Where had the day gone? I couldn’t remember.
Sometimes I write a post in the morning and when I am done I am aware that the clock moved forward, but I was unaware of the minutes. I sit back and look at the piece I wrote and tell my self it is amazing. Not another person in the world might agree, but at the moment it doesn’t make a difference. I did it for me. The satisfaction is so immense that it keeps me coming back like good sex.
You have had experiences where time passes but you are unaware. You often say, where did the day go? Ever have a conversation and pretty soon five hours have passed. How about reading a good book you can’t put down. We see movies that have us on the edge of our seat.
Being in the flow or the zone feels like total suspension of the left brain. You are in the emotional, creative, intuitive zone of the right brain. You are not thinking of logical steps, or organizational needs, scheduling, or why some things don’t make sense. Good movie makers have developed the art of taking you to their lair of total emersion.
You are not worrying about the economy or concerned about why the U.S. is at war or feeling sorry for people that are poor and starving. You are connected to universal energies that connect you to an object of interest like a laser. There is nothing outside the beam.
I have played sports where a few times I was in the zone. My motor skills were perfect and the world outside my focus did not exist. I could feel I was doing well but I was more excited by the fact that I was so absorbed. I did not want anything or anyone to distract my concentration. I wanted to stay in the cocoon for as long as possible.
The highest order of Emotional Intelligence is working in the Flow according to Daniel Goleman who wrote a book called Emotional Intelligence. The flow is usually in an area of competence that we have mastered or al least practiced ad infinitum. Then we begin to experience our work by concentrating on what ever it is and our mind takes over as if on automatic control.
I think we could set our lives to live in the flow. Having just an interest is not quite enough. We have to have a commitment to something that gets 110% of our focus at times. We have to work at it until we are developing some competence. It has to be something that we practice or in which we engage frequently.
In our lives, we have to be able to focus on our interest without major distractions. It would be enhanced with a near perfect diet that doesn’t allow digestion to become a major factor in our day. It would include fitness so that our brains are fully stimulated with alpha and beta waves. The brain would not have too little or too much dopamine that regulates it perfectly before anxiety creates adrenaline.
In our lives, we would minimize our daily distractions or be able to put them in a box. It is best achieved by minimizing all those little activities that one at a time tear from our capacity like cell phones, emails, text messages, TV, and the news.
Eliminating distractions is almost as important as practicing our habits. Then our days become filled with proper eating, exercise, creativity and engaging in our area of focus. Falling away are the ills of poor health, electronic and digital addictions, distracting world events, and non essential activities.
In the world of flow, distractions disappear but it is easier to get into flow if there are not too many to begin with. Then there is only you and the object of your desire.
**
What is Peak Performance and Living in the Flow?
See more about Living in the Flow and in the Zone
Soon a free E Book on “Peak Performance and Living in the Flow”
See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Get Free Download ‘Life Begins at Inspiration”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
The Three R’s of Innovation
Posted by: | CommentsYou might be old enough to remember when the three R’s of education were reading, writing, and arithmetic. They were all left brain activities and part of I.Q. Intellect was the true measure of one’s potential because it could determine if you could be a doctor lawyer or engineer.
Why was it assumed that there was no glory in working for a corporation? Maybe because major corporations were behemoths that manufactured average goods for the masses and the road up the corporate ladder could take a life time of low wages and politics. Not a pretty picture for the young, ambitious, and independent.
What happened? The age of industrialization moved to the age of technology and then information. Manufacturing for the masses went to Japan and specialization in niches required a new type of talent with smaller niches and the demand for a different kind of talent.
Today manufacturing has gone to China and we are left with the age of Innovation. We have to decide how needs that have to be delivered quickly and can’t wait for a trip from over seas can be met efficiently and with greater satisfaction as a trade off for price.
There are still doctors, lawyers, and engineers but they don’t seem to have the same cache. Education has gotten expensive and fewer can afford to spend that much time in school for positions that seem to be getting socialized.
In the days of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Face Book there is real cache in being an imaginative wonder kind that can visualize a need not yet demanded. Each had founding individuals that made a short trip from college to billionaire because they had the innovation of a life time.
There is no star in society that shines as bright today as the innovator. It is cleansed of the necessity of politics or appointments. It is real grass roots ascendance of the rugged individualist. Every big business is envious of the profits created by the first to the market place. The “also rans” can make profits, but by then they are dwarfed by the competition.
Leaders realize that everyone is just not a Bill Gates and there is a secondary level of accomplishment that can be garnered by using the Collective Intelligence of an entire work force.
What are the three R’s of Innovation for the new Era? Innovation implies something that is different, better, and profitable. It requires a process that challenges existing assumptions, processes, uses, and users.
Lateral thinking is the new math of thinking. It allows for the whimsical, illogical, impractical, and non sequential contribution of ideas in search for the breakthrough. It can be the creative right brain process of a group that understands the current dynamics of an existing problem, process or product. They are able to spin it around like a top on a table looking for looking for the amorphous form that could improve demand
Whole brain thinking is not just an explanation but a practice that allows an individual to move from the left practical to the right creative spheres of the brain to accomplish different phases of the innovative process.
The left sphere defines the problem and collects the research. The right sphere ruminates and looks for new relationships and revelations. Then the left sphere looks at the new ideas and evaluates for the best answer.
Whole brain thinking includes knowing how to get in and out of the appropriate sphere. It might also lead workers to understand their strengths and management to assign the right people to the right tasks.
Emotional intelligence is the discipline of knowing how to contribute and collaborate to create an effective group and not a dysfunctional one. It is the art of knowing your feelings and recognizing those of others. And finally it is the understanding of how to get into the flow for Peak Performance.
Every business has need for the evolved contributors and individuals can enhance their position by developing their innovative capacity. There is a new order that has need for new education.
What is Peak Performance and Living in the Flow?
Soon a free E Book on “Peak Performance and Living in the Flow”
See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Get Free Download ‘Life Begins at Inspiration”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
Downsizing and Optimism Can Lead to Peak Performance
Posted by: | CommentsI mix a number of themes with the purpose of giving my readers ideas on health, fitness, creative thinking, inspiration, emotional intelligence, and Peak Performance.
The reality of the economic situation is that if you are not big business, you are facing or have faced the necessity to monitor your budget. This runs in the back of your mind like an anti-virus program and can affect your performance. I say this because I recently had to disable an anti virus program on my computer.
The near term global economic outlook is not great and I yet I feel individuals can improve their personal welfare in face of the obstacles. We can still fulfill our purpose and have great lives.
A most important requirement is a positive attitude. A positive attitude, optimism and hope as discussed in yesterday’s post, are important for all mental, physical, and spiritual systems to operate at optimum. The systems must come together in what I call O.L.E., Optimizing Life’s Experiences.
Downsizing can be a positive experience. It can mean getting smaller but it can also mean getting to “savings”. There is very little capital available to the non-big business populace. Cash flow must come from business revenues, wages, passive income, or savings. Every big business has increased earnings from reducing expenses.
For the individual that might mean reducing the size of their residence, not buying a new car, cutting vacations, reducing the evenings out, cutting back on clothing expenditures, and maybe even reducing the coffee allowance.
In any case, as we experience the pain of doing without, we pick up the feeling of being more disciplined, secure, responsible, and independent.
If you want to build on some more positive experiences, start improving your healthy eating and fitness. Create more downtime to give your brain a rest and opportunity for creative thinking.
Find one or two activities for which you could develop passion, life’s most compelling emotion. Passion puts your life into “flow” regardless of economics.
I found that as I started eating healthy and building my fitness program, I became leaner; 41 pounds leaner at this point. The regular exercise supported my mental acuity, self esteem and confidence. The better you feel the more confident and optimistic you become. Keeping track of weight loss has a strange counter balance to asset loss.
I felt that in improving my personal well being, I also became more connected with my spiritual values because I was eating and living closer to the way Mother Nature intended for us to exist. I started feeling the connection.
The more positive I became, the more I wanted to express my appreciation for having the opportunity to be here and live my life in a meaningful way. I became inspired to write as a means of self expression and push my fitness as a secondary means of self expression. There is solace in physical exercise as a right brain activity.
Living inspired is the act of doing things just because we enjoy doing them. We don’t have to have an end game to pursue things that inspire us. They give our days real meaning and significance.
We can become much more competent in activities that inspire us.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, practice in competencies leads to “flow” and “being in the zone”. Participating in these competencies everyday leads to “living in flow”. Maybe these activities will lead to monetary rewards or maybe not.
In any case, it leads to appreciating the fact we are here and then our economic experiences just become something else we have to deal with. The whole world is dealing with things and in most Westernized countries we have a peace and freedom that make people in most countries envious.
Let’s count our blessings, assess our competencies, and find our passions. Downsizing and developing personal power can create an optimism that puts life in flow and enhances economic opportunities
**
You might enjoy my Free E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration”
I am also adding daily to a new site: “Innovative Downsizing” .com
I now call my collection of 7 websites the “Lateral Media Group” thanks to the suggestion of my friend JIm Greenwood of Tossly.com
Emotional Intelligence and Living “In the Zone”
Posted by: | CommentsEmotion can guide our lives in a way that intellect could never achieve. With the right emotional direction, preparation and practice are the strongest allies.
“The quality of attention in flow is relaxed yet highly focused…the most challenging tasks are done with a minimum expenditure of mental energy…well practiced moves require much less brain effort than ones just being learned..” Daniel Goleman, “Emotional Intelligence”
Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist who developed a theory of multiple intelligences sees flow and the positive states as a way to teach children and draw them into the domains of their natural competencies. “Flow is an internal state that signifies a kid is engaged in a task that’s right. You have to find something you like and stick to it” he says.
We have all experienced activities in which we were in the flow or zone but did not characterize them as such. If you have ever been engrossed in a movie, a conversation, a book, or an activity where life around you disappeared. It’s the book you can’t put down. It’s the conversation that went for five hours without you realizing it.
Some people get this in their work. The “mad scientist” might spend days working on his new invention. I see quarterbacks who in the final minute complete every pass as they take their team down the field. Roger Federer seems to be a master in high performance concentration where you ask yourself “how can he do that under so much pressure?”
When we learning to do something well and sticking to it, on occasion we have performances where we feel we are out of our minds. Everything comes together…we are unaware of our surroundings…
“Being able to enter flow is emotional intelligence at its best; flow represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performance and learning. In the flow emotions are…positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand.” Daniel Goleman
One of the emotional competencies that lead to this experience is optimism or hope. “Optimism, like hope, means having a strong expectation that, in general things will turn out all right in life, despite setbacks and frustrations.” Daniel Goleman
Having the faith that you can achieve your goals and sticking to them with a commitment, discipline and courage can lead to experiences of being in the flow.
Inspiration is living in flow because it is the act of doing what you love without concern for the end rewards. The act is the reward. So this stretches out flow from experiencing it in the moment to experiencing it over a long period of time. If I love to write, I can experience it every day. Some days it may flow and some days it may not. In surfing, I practice most everyday and some days its magic and some days it is not.
Getting engaged in something you love probably means you are incorporating some key competencies, adding an optimistic attitude that you can do it, willingly practicing or working at it, committing to doing the best you can, and not being overly concerned where it takes you.
Finding your competencies and committing to doing what you love is a combination that leads to living your life in the flow.
**
For further study you might want to read Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence
Download my Free E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration” . I discuss how eating and fitness can take you through the discipline and courage important to reaching your life’s work.
The Best Ideas Are Alive at 2 a.m.
Posted by: | CommentsAt two a.m. Pacific Standard Time, people from Hawaii to New York are sleeping.
Ideas are dancing in the universe waiting to be plucked like so many children waiting for adoption.
When we fall asleep our left brain goes into suspension and our right brain becomes dominant as we pass through the Theta waves into the Delta waves of sleep.
We enter the sleep and dream stages where the right brain has free access to the left brain unfettered by thoughts of scheduling, multi tasking, appointments, text messages, or emails. All our creative powers or abilities to create alternatives or reflect on hard data can access universal energies of the subconscious and the new ideas dancing in space.
As we awake in the night or just before we awake in the morning we pass through the Theta waves again leaving the .5 hertz Delta waves and passing through the 4 hertz Theta waves where we connect to our subconscious thoughts. Once we are fully awake we move into the right brain Alpha and left brain Beta waves at much higher hertz from 12 to 30 and beyond.
I pay full attention to my theta wave thoughts before I open my eyes in the morning. I am often not sure whether I have awoken at 2 or whether it is already time for me to get up at my normal 4:30 or 5 a.m. If ideas are flowing, I will lie in that state for as long as necessary to get the full benefit of the inspirations.
New ideas and breakthroughs often come when the left brain is in suspension. The right brain and pre frontal lobes of the neo cortex where left brain data and logic combine with limbic brain emotion and right brain creativity can all combine in a large play yard of interweaving thought and emotions.
Creativity requires a combination of left brain work suspended to give the right brain a chance to see the relationships between the defined problem and the researched data.
Full brain synchronicity allows the pre frontal lobes to captain the ship and combine the best of our thoughts, emotions, logic and passion like so many fruits in a blender. You can support this activity by creating the optimum circumstances for these occurrences.
Give the brain a rest. Or suspend the left brain with monotonous activity like running, long walks, biking, hobbies, gardening, car washing, house cleaning, shooting baskets, pleasure reading, dancing, meditating or any activity where you don’t need to compete or keep score.
Optimal brain function is served with healthy eating and regular exercise. Alcohol and drugs can destroy the creative process even though like TV they suspend left brain activity. The brain “working memory” is in the pre frontal lobes where data is collected and remembered while working on a task. At a certain point it may get fully taxed and need a break.
During this time if you let the right brain dominate by going on a walk, to the gym, for a run, take a nap, or meditate, your system has a chance to create useful ideas from the data that can be applied to solve your problem.
Taking a break to read emails, send texts, create schedules, or write memos might be part of your days “to do list” but it further crowds the brains memory capacity and rules out the entry of creative thinking.
You won’t create many times in the day like awaking from a restful night of sleep, but the more dream like breaks you give the brain, the more creative your day will be.
Emotional I Q is More Valuable than I Q
Posted by: | CommentsThe purpose of I Q is to measure our capabilities for math and linguistics. It might be a good predictor for how we will do in school, but has been shown to be only 20% of the contribution to how we do in life.
Even students with high I Q’s that score well on SATs have not always excelled over students who were high on “hope”; the willingness and belief that they could do well.
In life, I Q is no longer a guarantor of success even for scientists and engineers.
Keith Sawyer, noted innovative expert, in “Group Genius” claims over the last 50 years the biggest innovations have come from group collaboration, not individual breakthroughs. In today’s environment, everyone has to learn to play well with others
More CEOs say they are looking for sociability in interviews. Corporations are spending to develop Collective Intelligence and top innovators and collaborators have greater promise of promotion and job security.
When life started for man and every other species, the reptilian brain gave only a few real options. The olfactory senses detected most everything early life needed to know about prey or predators or sex.
The next evolution provided man with the limbic brain which is his emotional center. In emergencies the emotional center can over ride all thinking to invoke action. With the third evolution of the brain man developed the neo cortex which separated him from all other species.
Now he had the ability to evaluate with a “working memory” to collect and work on problems and to consider the meaning of emotions fed to the frontal lobes from the limbic brain and stimulus fed by the thalamus.
The emotions still have the power to interrupt all “working memory”. Integrated into the brain first, they evolved with strong powers. The emotions emitted by the limbic brain can undermine the “working memory”. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, worry, anger, and sadness all have powers to interrupt the left brain hemisphere of rational and linguistic thought.
Yet, there are powerful positive emotions that can create the highest form of mental productivity like love, hope, and empathy. In the positive state man can perform every function at the highest level often given the names of “flow” or being in “the zone”.
“The emotions are a call to action. They motivate positive feelings or negative feelings upon which the brain has to consider and act:
- Recognizing a feeling as it occurs is the keystone of emotional intelligence.
- Handling feelings so they are appropriate is an ability that feeds on self awareness.
- Marshalling the emotions to serve us in the form of attaining goals is the direction we want to create
- Empathy in recognizing the feelings of others is fundamental to people skills.
- Handling relationships is managing the emotions of others which is the highest call of popularity, leadership, and interpersonal effectiveness.” Daniel Goleman “Emotional Intelligence.
Learning to recognize our emotions and even evaluate them while they are occurring is the state and skill first needed to channel them towards positive action and disrupt them from destructive behavior.
I have mentioned in my E Books that I am able to observe my mind give me messages about health or exercise. I consider what the mind is telling me to do and then decide whether, for example, I am really tired and should rest or whether I can push through.
The same can be achieved with feelings of anger, worry, anxiety, fear, or hurt. We can observe the emotions, evaluate them and then launch counter measures. The difficulty of some negative emotions like “anger” is that they actually energize us and we could learn habitually to turn to them in times of stress. John McEnroe comes to mind as a tennis player who used to improve his game with bursts of outrage.
But this is not playing well with others and for the most part these emotions can have lingering affects on our moods that eventually affect our temperament and can even evolve into disorders.
The best performers are athletes who talk about “being in the zone” and workers who talk about “being in the flow”. This is most likely to occur when you know you have a skill and are in a situation where you are tested but not over whelmed. If you feel over whelm you will go into a panic or worry mode and stop your momentum.
In the mornings when I consider all the research I have collected on a topic and realize I can synthesize and write about it with my point of view, but that it will still be a test, I can sometimes get into the “flow” where it pours out of me just like I would have wished.
Flow is total focus without concern for how you are doing or judgment. It occurs somewhere between boredom and anxiety. To put someone in a situation where they have natural competencies and are challenged but not over whelmed can put them into their “flow”.
**
Information in this research was provided by Daniel Goleman in his book “Emotional Intelligence.”
To learn more mind mastery through diet and fitness that leads to inspiration down load my free E Book
How to Make 9 Qualitative and Quantitative Changes
Posted by: | CommentsI picked nine just because it’s an unusual number and wanted to tweak left brain sensors. I find after a great book on Whole Brain Thinking that some people are dominant left brain and mainly respond to that type logical or rational stimulus.
Some people are right brain dominant and respond to more creative and qualitative stimulus. Knowing our dominance can open up new possibilities and give us an opportunity to expand our view points.
I learned I am both brain dominant which has advantages and disadvantages. Strangely where as for most people, language is a left brain function, it sometimes is a right brain dominance like for me. That makes language more difficult.
It’s good to know more about yourself if you want to exceed present limits.
But I want to talk about how you can change and improve your life without cost.
Qualitative changes are those things that would improve your enjoyment, skills, health, fitness, spirit, relationships, peace, happiness or other factors you might think of. Getting to a new place is making the decision to change. Like my friend Jim Greenwood says in Tossly.com it’s often the beauty of Small Steps.
If you want your life to be better pick a few things right now that you could prioritize that would make you better. In a book I just read about Innovation by Robert Hunter who interviewed hundreds of top executives, they said they didn’t have time to innovate.
We do the same with our lives and then we’re dead. Where did the time go?
- Put love and relationship on your list first because they have the most impact. Resolve to spend a little more time or make an extra call a week to someone important.
- Resolve to live a little longer and a little better by putting one good food on your list and taking one harmful food you eat off the list.
- Then resolve to do something a little extra to your exercise routine. I don’t like to stretch but now I do it after I surf and I am loving it. One little thing has added a lot to my mental outlook of how I can improve myself tremendously with just a few minutes extra.
- Build your mind by reading something different. Reading outside your normal interests often leads to an inspiration as you cross disciplines to see how other people do things. Universities have made this a priority
I know you could add more to the list.
Now let’s try to create a little downsizing discipline. Sometimes change can result by eliminating something you have and adding something you don’t have. Even if you don’t know what you would add, taking something off your plate opens the opportunity for something new.
It also has a stimulating affect on your creativity sensors as you wonder what you could do that would be different and how to cope with something no longer there. I am probably a little more radical and have different needs than you, but I eliminated my cell phone and my TV connection.
I haven’t added anything yet but I am glad I am not one of those people always looking at their phone waiting for something to happen. I also don’t go into a coma every night for a few hours to seek relief from my stressful day. Yesterday I read a newly arrived book in its entirety along with my normal activities. I used my evening time to alternate between a pleasure book and this “business” book.
Look at your budget to see if there are not a few things you could tighten to give you more spendable. Even a few dollars saved can have a liberating affect on your mind of what you could achieve with a little discipline.
I have some things I want to buy like a new surf board, a good road bike, a nice monitor for my computer and for Netflix. I could just layout the money, but I would rather know it was coming from inside my budget and not money that should have gone to savings.
I have set new savings goals. Big business gets bank and government money and everyone else will get it from revenues, wages, passive income, and savings. The next few years could go in any direction and I would like to know I have the discipline to save.
So you can have qualitative and quantitative goals that stimulate your creative thinking and improve your enjoyment and well being. A busy mind is not a devil’s playground.
**
Inspiration is a powerful tool. You might tweek your own imagination with Free Download E Book
Who is Getting the Income and Security in the U.S.?
Posted by: | CommentsI am not against the rich, but in a democratic country, it looks like it is getting more difficult to be impartial when it comes to viewing the benefits of taxes, legislation and government spending. The three greatly influence the distribution of available income and resources.
Take a look at two current examples. The Obama administration had considered not extending the tax cuts for the wealthy. The Republicans then said if you want to extend unemployment benefits you had better extend tax cuts for the wealthy.
A one time payment of $250 for social security benefactors in return for not raising their income for a second year in a row was blocked by Republicans.
In light of Republican Tea Partiers wanting fiscal responsibility, does everything in the Republican Party go out the window when compared to how income is distributed in the United States? It is not too difficult to understand their platform and how the class wars are alive in the U.S.
There is a depression for non large corporate America. High unemployment, no bank financing, and anemic economic growth have choked off most Americans to sources of capital.
Whereas large corporations have income and need to reduce expenses and maintain competitiveness to ensure continuity, the bottom rungs have fewer viable sources for increasing income.
One of the reasons that there is no capital for small business and individuals is that banks over the last 20 years have been laying their consumer debt off to global private investors. The melt down eliminated private investors who were wiped out buying the securitized debt and banks no longer want to hold the paper.
The $600 billion the Fed is going to spend to keep interest rates low does not stimulate the economy. When banks were keeping loans they were responsible for about 70% of loan activity. Since they started laying off paper they became responsible for about 35% of paper. Therefore, Federal Bank policies do not have the affect they had in the Greenspan era.
We are seeing more civil unrest in Europe as the results of fiscal government austerity kick in. Eventually, governments have to cut expenses to maintain lower bond prices for financing their debt. Who bears the brunt of government austerity programs?
In response to a NY Times article on the shrinking self employment factor, one reader has a good summary:
“It is no longer possible for small companies to survive, unless they are in the financial industry or something similar where money is no object to their clients. The death of small business in America is not an accident. It is the result of legislation and fiscal policy which has consistently favored off-shoring and corporate business. The trend will not reverse. The unemployment which results when it is simply too expensive to start a new business has become a permanent feature of our economy.”
What is the solution?
Is there anyone not taking personal downsizing seriously?
Savings will be the best source of capital in the near future. Then how to increase income will be the best next question. It appears more likely that employment or contracting with a viable industry or business is important.
A few industries seem to be rising in the tide and alliance as a supplier or affiliate or employee is a good guarantor of income. What types of services are needed in the new economy?
Either great technical skills or innovative skills to see new processes and opportunities are key to continued employment or future employment. Corporations also seem to be stuck to hiring traditionally good corporate skills. If you were valuable before, you have a better chance of being valuable now.
Learning how to think laterally and how to incorporate whole brain skills for creativity and innovation would be important in creating personal value. As corporations spend more on gathering Collective Intelligence, your ability to prove you are a team player and think creatively could help.
Learning how to think more productively and perhaps escape narrow habitual patterns would also help in evaluating your own alternative scenarios and next step strategies.
For a great long article on our economy, how we got here and the hoops we have to jump through in the next few years to stay afloat read:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/category/thinktank/
For a an introduction on creative and innovative thinking visit Edward de Bono’s book on “Lateral Thinking”
And
Jacquelyn Wonder’s book on “Whole Brain Thinking”.
To develop your personal skills and discipline for improving your value visit the free download “Getting to Peak Performance”
How to Create More Revelations and Break Throughs
Posted by: | Comments
- Cover of Bill Gates
In this competitive world it would be great if we could spend eight hours coming up with revelations and breakthroughs. We could all be Bill Gates.
Some people are clearly better than others in tapping into their subconscious and getting the solution to burst to the surface in a revelation, epiphany, or aha! I get them now and then and am always very excited when I see the light.
Jacquelyn Wonder in “Whole Brain Thinking “ spells out how the mystery can be more organized or planned. With the right routines, we can be accustom or train our minds to be more inventive more frequently.
We use our left brain and right brain hemispheres to solve different kinds of problems. If we can use both together or alternately, we can be more effective.
Real creative thinking might start with a process of left brain first where we define the problem. Then we want to move to right brain where we work on various alternatives whether they are useful or fanciful. This was labeled by Edward de Bono in processes he called “Lateral Thinking”
Then we want to move back to the left brain where we evaluate and judge the alternatives for a few or the best solutions. Then we move to the right brain again to integrate our thoughts and evaluations into the best possible solution to the problem we defined.
Revelations are most likely when we have spent time researching and working hard on a problem by developing research or writing out what is known. Then when the left brain is suspended, the right brain will often see the whole picture, a pattern, a visualization, a thought or an inspiration.
These revelations often burst forth as a single sentence, thought or picture that might contain hundreds of words or even thousands of pages behind the one quick visualization. One guru that was teaching commercial real estate agents how to be more effective sales people said he received all his hundreds of hours of lectures and exercises through one revelation.
I find my best revelations arise in the low hertz mental states of pre wake up theta brain wave state. In the sleeping delta wave state our brain waves are at .5-4 hertz. In the subconscious theta states that we experience before waking, in meditation, or in very relaxed activities often with the eyes closed we are in the 4-8 hertz range. I often wake with the topic I am going to write about popping into my head in this stage.
At other times we might suspend the left brain thinking in more “brain less” activities like house cleaning, hobbies, gardening, or car washing. Some states we know suspend the left brain because they are rhythmic and monotonous like walking, running, dancing, swimming, and so on.
Marathon runners often report great revelations or even hallucinations.
Normal left brain hertz cycles are in the 14-22 range with over active and anxiety stages at 22-33 hertz and even short bursts over 33 hertz for memory consolidation and acute problem solving. Very high stages of sustained beta can develop into the adrenaline over powering our dopamine as a side affect and result in ADD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Alcohol can also suspend the left brain and even though it throws us into the child like state of our right brains and makes us often more sociable, it doesn’t seem to give way to many useful revelations.
So we can create the atmosphere for revelations by giving our minds time to unwind while working on important problems. Staying up for 24 hours might help create research and facts that may solve problems begging for logical outcomes but is not likely to evolve into creative breakthroughs.
I follow the habits of many writers who know that creativity occurs in waves. We work at times we know we are most creative and usually set up the circumstances. Then when we are “burned” we get into other activities to give our left brains a rest.
I have several activities I engage in to refresh. After a morning session of writing and research I will go exercise, surf, or even just go to the beach (where I live) and read or look at the ocean. I will then return to do different work or less demanding routine work. In the afternoon I will again do something that gives me a break and try to come into more vigorous work in the evenings.
If you are working hard on something in which you need a “creative break through” or if this is an important part of your job, you need to schedule the “mind less” and the rhythmic activities to into your routine to get those “pops ups” that will hopefully solve your problem.
Knowing How to Switch Brains for Tasks or Happiness
Posted by: | CommentsWe have a left brain that is dedicated to our rational and language thinking and a right brain that is dedicated to physical and creative thinking. The left brain by itself would be cold and rational and the right brain by itself would be an emotional train wreck.
Most of us have a dominant side and feel most comfortable operating in that sphere. I have double dominance and am very lateral which means one sphere dominates for some activities and another sphere dominates for others. Highly lateral thinking is very male.
In early adolescences girls have greater language aptitude and males have greater physical aptitude. That means early on, girls are more left brain and boys more right brain. That is why when children are very young, girls seem so much smarter. Einstein didn’t really talk until he was five and he was thought to be retarded.
One of my pervasive characteristics is that my right brain sphere of physical and creative likes continuous change; nothing wrong with that unless I wanted to stay at one job for a long time because it was a great job.
Nothing wrong with that unless I had a long term project that required daily input and the routine was pretty much always the same. I would just as soon drink arsenic. I need change which means I have to be doing something dynamic.
That is why in my career I was always a good builder but a poor maintainer. That also makes me a bit of an adrenaline junkie; good for some things, not good for others. People who get bored can have self destructive habits.
Luckily, I went the other way and my change is continued improved healthy eating and fitness. The continuous new goals keep my right brain interested. I could have gone either way.
Knowing which brain sphere is dominant and what it demands to be happy could be crucial for healthy constructive living.
I took a test in the “Whole Brain Thinking” book by Jacquelyn Wonder. After an opening explanation of the three topics her book will cover she gives you a test to see how you currently operate. The results could be eye opening. It was clearly an explanation for why I do things. I could also see that one of my daughters is very left brained and the other very right brained.
The next objective is to learn how to move into the appropriate brain sphere for the activity you want to pursue. As a simple example I realize that in the morning when I go to the kitchen to make coffee, sometimes my process is confused because I am obviously right brain thinking as I try to get the coffee filter, coffee, water and coffee pot all together in the same process.
If you want to do calculating, organizing, or analysis you want to be in your left brain; If you want to be creative; your right brain. If you want to get out of one or the other, you can do some simple mind exercises to help make the change.
But the bigger over riding issue I see is how many people might be stuck doing activities that are counter their dominant brain comfort and be frustrated, unhappy, and maybe incompetent.
The other side would be if employers gave simple aptitude tests that would place people in the jobs in which they would be happiest and most proficient, productivity could be increased. An additional insight might be that if someone was not performing properly, it may not be because they were not paying attention, it maybe because there brain functioning was not optimum for the particular tasks.
When we say someone is out of their mind, we may be right.
If you want to excel and find your passion and inspiration, it might be best to know which side of your brain you enjoy most and what type of activities would inspire you. The second benefit is that with a better understanding you might actually adapt your brain to the task at hand.
**
You can buy Jacquelyn Wonder’s book used starting at a $.01. I paid five cents so I could get a local shipper and get it quicker; Plus shipping of $3.99.
You might also want to venture into positive habits for left or right brainers:
Healthy, Lean and Happy Forever
Innovative Downsizing as a New Paradigm
Posted by: | CommentsDownsizing is not a very optimistic word, but it is a global reality. Whether you call it austerity or downsizing or deleveraging, the actions and affects are the same.
Strangely, in this era it is not just a reality for people who are receiving less income.
It started with the world’s largest corporations. Those that were able to intelligently cut staff by determining which people would not affect the innovation or creative capabilities of the organization have remained innovative.
Those that just cut indiscriminately to reduce over head have been shown by studies to have lost leadership.
Governments are faced with downsizing. Are they doing it intelligently or they going to ruin their competitive advantage for generations? Noteworthy is Britain’s austerity program that is eliminating the financing for scholarships that has been the primary source for citizens to attend their excellent universities. Now only the rich will get the best educations.
The austerity program gripping Ireland is having the same affect that austerity has had on many corporations. It demoralizes the masses. As the I.M.F.and ECU start dictating terms that could last for decades, the people realize they have in a sense lost sovereignty.
Without pointing the finger of blame, the world has spent its way to this situation. It has spent money it didn’t have enabled by fiat currencies and financing. A fiat currency means there is nothing backing the money but faith.
Financing means you can leverage the money to purchase something that is five to 1,000 times more expensive than the money you have in your hand. Debt backed securities were leveraging to infinity the financing of purchases made with fiat currencies.
Deleveraging, austerity, and downsizing are the same. The world was living on trillions of dollars it didn’t really have. It was like one cow being sold to 1,000 people hoping no one would actually want it.
Now as the world deleverages, the secret for continued optimism will be how we handle the psychological, financial, and recovery phases of rebuilding on a more solid foundation.
Because the income and assets we had were not backed by solid value, we will slowly settle to a more realistic level. This is not to say that in this process some will become more affluent. But statistics show that the super wealthy for a number of reasons are decreasing from 10% of the population to 1%.
Because this may be a long process, it is important we try to preserve human dignity and morale in the process. It is time to take a new accounting of who we are and what we can still accomplish.
Rebuilding our wealth may not be the most likely outcome. Therefore we had better find ways to enjoy our lives with lesser means. This is the psychological aspect that most people will find difficult.
We will have to find the value of human life in different scenarios. We will have to learn how to entertain ourselves with less spending. This usually means we can turn to exercise, hobbies, writing, reading, connecting with nature, and conversation.
If this sounds horrible to you, start contemplating the opportunities to slow down and release a lot of tension created by too much stimulus. If you slow down to a point where you can spend more time with yourself and even get into meditating, you will discover a new world, albeit different.
The financial reality will be that we will do with less. We will have to learn how to purchase and surround ourselves with things we actually need. If those purchases are items that could help us grow and explore areas we have not discovered so far, we can be more excited about the prospects.
Finally, we have to learn how to adapt to the new reality in the long settlement and then recovery period. Business will need to be innovative. It will survive in the transition as consumerism changes. Developing the ability to accept the change, institute our own positive program for coping, and creating thinking and innovation skills that can be applied in the new paradigm will help us come out on the other side.
**
Start with your own positive program for developing health, fitness, discipline and inspiration. These are great characteristics that can lead to more courage, acceptance of risk and passion for new growth.
Healthy, Lean and Happy Forever
Soon the new website InnovativeDownsizing.com and
Monthly Newsletter “Downsizing and Thriving”
The Thrill of the Break Through
Posted by: | Comments
- Image via Wikipedia
Innovation experts usually say that the revelations, epiphanies and ahas come after a history of hard work and concentration.
After the mind and subconscious have dealt with an issue for awhile in serious contemplation, one a day bubble pushes to the surface and you give it an OMG!
I just had one of those surfing. I have been relearning over the past several months, giving it my best shot every time I could, which on good weeks is four times a week. The last week I have been going out in small surf and cold water.
Yesterday the surf was bigger and I was thrilled to give it a go. I usually start getting a little revved up as I put on my wet suit. My pulse quickens and I realize that my excitement has me going through things a little quicker and even recklessly; the result of adrenaline.
That is why I like to get my board waxed before I put on my wet suit.
Once out in the ocean I was waiting for the waves which were coming in sets with ten minute rest periods in between. I saw a nice swell building and so I paddled to it, got in front and as it built I paddled over the top and got up.
As I was riding down the face I said to myself holy sh*t. It wasn’t the “oh no” holy sh*t, it was the wow HS. It was the biggest wave I have ridden and I felt like I definitely belonged there.
I felt like telling the wave, “yes it’s me on your back, and don’t roll your eyes because I’ve got this one.” At the end of the ride I realized that I had made a break through. Not just because it was my biggest wave, but because I was calm and confident and knew that I was going to ride it.
The next one I nosed, but so what. I realized that I had reached a new plateau because I mentally had accepted my belonging and the physical was there to match.
That is the result of effort day in and day out without ever thinking of quitting and never doubting that performance or knowledge can be improved. I do the same with my writing. I have easy times and tougher times but I just don’t quit.
Anyone can do this. The thrill of the breakthrough is definitely worth the pain of the struggle.
**
Develop the mind, body, and spirit that set up your break throughs
Download Free E Books on learning to manage your mind and improving your life
Healthy Lean and Happy Forever
