Become all you can become by raising yourself higher on the Tree of Life

Are You Jinxing Your Success or Expressing Gratitude?

Are You Jinxing Your Success By Sharing About It?

There is a curious phenomenon, that sounds really counter intuitive. It also sounds counter to the teachings of teachers that teach how to become prosperous, etc.

The phenomenon is as follows:

You have a little bit of success. So quickly you tell everyone about it. You write home about it. You celebrate. Then you watch as it dissipates, fizzles out, goes away. Flash in the pan. Continue reading “Are You Jinxing Your Success or Expressing Gratitude?”

Trusting only your own decisions keeps you a caterpillar

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Should you trust yourself and only yourself? This is the question that keeps coming up… demanding an answer.

But the answer, of course, is not a simple yes or no.

So let’s look what could be the factors that decide if, for you, trusting yourself would be a yes or a no.

I got curious and queried google with the exact search phrase ‘should you trust yourself?’ Continue reading “Trusting only your own decisions keeps you a caterpillar”

How does the brain work? And what does the mind do?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A number of years ago I bought a home study program, and then I did the live course. It was a super fast reading method, PhotoReading. In that you look behind the pages, flip them one page per second, and voila, you’ve read the book. Truth be told there are other steps, but this was the step I had a problem with.

I didn’t trust it. I didn’t believe that the brain, or whatever it was doing it, would actually see something I don’t consciously see.

Hell, it was a long time ago… I just looked it up and I did the course in 2007. Continue reading “How does the brain work? And what does the mind do?”

Don’t set ambitious goals! sounds counter cultural?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In the famous marshmallow experiment by Walter Mischel. He said that the 30% of the kids that didn’t eat the marshmallow, didn’t even look at the marshmallow. They kept doing other things, keeping their eyes off the marshmallow. Consciously, intentionally, and purposefully.

The marshmallow is ‘the thing’, the goal people want… and it is what actually causes them to jump the gun, to quit pursuing it prematurely.

Continue reading “Don’t set ambitious goals! sounds counter cultural?”

How do I keep my humility high and my about-me score low?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

How do I keep my humility high and my about-me score low… day to day to day to day?

This question came from one of my students in a class. Interestingly none of the other students in the class asked this question. They didn’t ask, even though this may be the most important question to ask, and the most important skill to master.

You see unless you master this skill… unless you can reduce your about-me score to under 10%, your chances to interact with reality are slim… and for many people the chances are none. Continue reading “How do I keep my humility high and my about-me score low?”

If you manage to take away the ITCH what is left?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Some of my students are starting to see that if they didn’t have the self-concern: The ITCH, they would react to life differently, they would be less upset, they would have a life, maybe, worth living.

So how does this work?

When you are in reality, things are as they are. A is A.It is what it is. Continue reading “If you manage to take away the ITCH what is left?”

If you grew up in a dysfunctional family, does it mean…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I have been working with my core group… and some of them I have had a difficult time to see why they never put out, why they never do what is theirs to do.

This article to unwrap that issue… and look at behavior differently. The student is judgmental… Has high, impossible standards for others… So let’s see what she could do so she could become a productive person, and maybe love herself…

The dysfunctional family

Here are some behaviors that I say come from this kind of upbringing… growing up in a dysfunctional family. Continue reading “If you grew up in a dysfunctional family, does it mean…”

I there any truth in the ‘law of attraction’?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I read someone’s email this morning and in it the dude says: It is important to bet on the person and not on the deal

Why? Because deals are a dime a dozen

So, he says, it is import to bet on the process no on the result… not on the pot of gold.

And if there is a person going to do the process… hell, you should bet on the person first and only if you deem you should, only then bet on the process.

It is the classic example of not putting the cart in front the horse…

But, alas, knowing what to bet on and in what order requires a little bit of thinking. Continue reading “I there any truth in the ‘law of attraction’?”

Some of you demonstrate neither sentience nor consciousness

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Imagine you are driving down the highway at 65 miles per hour, and your car’s hood (bonnet?) pops up and suddenly it is all over the windshield.

Now that is some conundrum, wouldn’t you say so? It is a problem asking to be solved? What would you do? Better yet: What could you do? What would be the consequence of the different actions you take?

Now imagine how you sound when you actually do your thinking? Continue reading “Some of you demonstrate neither sentience nor consciousness”

What is at the heart of the matter? Of loving life?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What is a distinction? And a definition?

Distinction is at the heart of the matter.

If I ask you what is a human, you can talk for weeks without stopping, and that would be a definition. Everything a human does, feel, aspires for, hopes for, talks about fit well into definition.

But if you look all those, that torrent of words don’t really say the heart of the matter. Continue reading “What is at the heart of the matter? Of loving life?”