Master Key – Master Mind Alliance – Week 7 – The Furnace

Wow.  The heat keeps getting turned up!  I thought that avoiding opinions was difficult but this weeks challenge is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  Not only that, but I am no where near where I need to be.  The assignment/challenge this week was to partake in the Mental Diet.

The Mental Diet is a simple, straightforward process in which a person commits to 7 days of not allowing themselves to dwell for any moment on any kind of negative thought.  You can start any time, day or night.  The only catch is that whenever you find yourself dwelling on a negative thought, you must start the entire process all over again!

TV news, politics, world events, co-workers, spouses and children – this is just a sampling of what the typical American adult gets feedback from on a daily basis.  Learning to hear bad news, gossip, opinions and viewpoints and not dwell on them or allow them to derail your thoughts of a positive, nurturing environment is a true challenge.

Getting cut off in traffic, being late for a meeting and a whole host of other triggers awaits each and every one of us every day of our lives. How then, do we muster up the courage, fortitude and resilience to press forward with dwelling or allowing ourselves to dwell on even one negative thought, for even one minute?  It’s simple.  Not easy, but simple.

If you’ve been following my blog and have realized some basic truths about the conscious, subconscious and Universal mind, you should know three things.  the conscious has the ability to reason and make judgment’s.  The subconscious has the ability to deliver anything the conscious mind requests, as long as it is an upright, moral and ethical request.  The Universal is the glue that links together every subconscious mind into one incredible web of possibility and opportunity.

With that said, the simple thing to do is to allow the subconscious and Universal mind to do the heavy lifting and you’ll be amazed at what results you can achieve.  The difficult part, probably less than 1/10 of 1% of all the people on the planet have that type of ability and control their subconscious. So, what about the rest of us?  What can we do to leverage the power of the Mental Diet and do so with a high degree of success?

My advice?  Pick five.  Thats’ right, pick five.  Think of five empowering, uplifting, enchanted words that just the mere mention of these words will result in a change of state/attitude for you.  Joy, happiness, peace, abundance, freedom, liberty and prosperity are just a few.  Find five that work for you and assign them to each finger of your dominate hand.  take some time and really link these words to a specific finger.  This might take a small amount of time but the end result will be well worth it.

Once you really have the words anchored on you fingers, start working to consciously link the word/finger combo together.  Once you do this, you’re well on your way!  With the linking complete, your mind will constantly be receiving signals of positive, nurturing thoughts and that is a great offense in taking on this Mental Diet.  Secondly, if your fingers are linked to positive emotions, you can rely on your hand for gestures during any type of unpleasant or potentially heated situation.  Any time someone or something polarizing appears in your world, look at that dominate hand.  Touch your face, snap your fingers pick something up or put something down.  Simply focus on that dominate hand and the linked words and with some focused time and attention, you’ll be able to slowly but surely minimize and eventually eliminate those negative thoughts for good.

This is not an exercise for the meek.  This will require probably more effort than anything else you’ve ever attempted.  Go ahead and make the choice, commit and see what happens.  I guarantee you that the results will blow your mind.

Master Key – Master Mind Alliance – Week 6 – Giving Up

Yep, that’s right, it’s week 6 and I’m giving up!  I’m excited, giving up is where its at!  Now, before you think I’m quitting, think again.  I’m not quitting, I’m giving up.  What’s the difference?  More than you could ever realize!

You see, until I started this journey, I would think that giving up and quitting were synonymous.  I tried, it was hard, too difficult, the heat was on and kaboom!  Time to fold.  Pack in the towel, quit, give up.  That’s the perspective I’ve always had on people when I heard that they were giving up on something and the truth is, I still feel that way.  Just not this time.  Why?  Because this week I learned something new about giving up.

Giving Up, not giving up.  What’s the difference?  Giving Up is taking something that you have and giving it freely, allowing the Universe to raise you to heights you’ve never seen before.  That’s Giving Up, and it’s truly an incredible experience.

In this instance, the Universe is like a stove.  You can’t go to a stove and say give me heat unless you provide the stove with something, namely wood.  More wood = more heat.  Simple concept when talking about stoves but when you start talking about your goals, dreams and ambitions well, that’s where people really start to fall off.

The subconscious or Universal mind is the stove.  The problem is that people go to the stove and ask for heat, without bringing any wood.  Wood, in this case is the sum total of all the random acts of kindness, love and acceptance that you give, without any thought of reciprocation.  If you want more love, give more love.  More acceptance, give more acceptance.  Give freely and without expectation of receiving anything in return.

Try it.  That’s how the Universe works.  It doesn’t just give for no good reason.  It all evolves and flows naturally.  The crazy and very cool thing is that the Universe has an uncanny way of disguising where, how, when and who your ultimate payback comes from.  Just when things might seem dark, desperate or lonely, something incredible happens.  No explanations, no possible connection but somehow, someway something incredible happens and light shines in the darkness and all the fears, worry and anxiety are all but forgotten about.

Give it a shot this week.  Greet every person you encounter with love.  Enjoy every sunrise, sunset and everything in between.  Show true gratitude for all things and watch how life starts becoming a more incredible, beautiful experience!

Master Key – Master Mind Alliance – Week 5 – Freedom

Week 5 is midway through and I am happy, amazed and absolutely dumbfounded!  This has by far been my hardest week in the course and for that matter, the hardest mental week of my life.

Question:  What am I describing?

We all have them, we’re willing to give them out to complete strangers, we have more than we’ll ever need or use and they are endless and free. (keep reading for the answer)

To recap from some of my earlier posts, we have a field (our subconscious) that will provide any seeds we cultivate.  Happy, sad, energetic, lowly, magnetic, successful or destitute, the subconscious will deliver whatever our predominating thoughts are.

Planting the seeds is our conscious mind.  The “Guardian at the Gate” of our subconscious.  The conscious mind makes the all the decisions.  It can discriminate, form opinions, make judgements and fill the subconscious with whatever thoughts it wants.  This is both good and bad.  It’s good because we control our thoughts and if we focus on putting the right seeds in our fertile soil (subconscious), we can reap a truly incredible harvest.  It’s bad because most people get so caught up in their day-to-day existence that they spend most of their conscious effort thinking of everything they don’t want and they keep getting the results they predominately think of, instead of what they truly want.

One of the biggest challenges for myself, and I would imagine everyone else out there, was finding the quiet time to truly focus and direct my conscious mind.   Think about it, there are 24 hours in a day.  If you sleep 8, that leaves 16 hours.  8 hours of work plus 2 hours of getting ready, commuting and getting the kids off to school and you’re down to 6 hours.  Homework with the kids, dinner, a quick shower, house and yard work and boom you’re down to just a few precious hours a day.  If you give yourself some “me” time in the evening for your favorite drama and a quick nightcap of the evening news and viola!  You have officially ran out of the day.  Don’t worry, you can always start over tomorrow, or if tomorrow doesn’t work, there’s always next week, next month or, well, you get the picture.  It just seems that there’s never enough time in the day or week to really get focused on what really matters most.

There’s the old saying that “most people are so busy making a living that they forget to make a life!”.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of truth to that statement.  Think about it, whether it’s you, a friend or family member, how many people do you know that are truly living their life on purpose, with purpose and with passion?  My guess is very few of you.  Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  In this fast paced, keeping up with the Joneses lifestyle we all lead, it is easy to get completely overwhelmed and put the important things off, until you get your head above water.  Once you do, then you’ll focus on your future.  This is the great hamster wheel in life.  Just give me until tomorrow to start something and I guarantee you that I’ll get right on it.  Sadly, tomorrow never comes and life simply passes up by and we look back with regret and sorrow at what promise and dreams we once held.

Sounds pretty glum.

Not so fast!  There is a way to free up your mind and give your conscious an abundance of time each day, every day to focus, plan and build your ideal future.  So, how is that accomplished?  Well, that’s where this weeks major breakthrough comes in.  In the beginning of my post, I said that I was dumbfounded and amazed at what I’ve been working on this week.  I also said that it was the hardest mental week of my life.  What could possibly be so mentally tough and eye opening as well?  It’s simple, its called an Opinion.  That’s right, an Opinion.  They aren’t only the answer to the riddle earlier in my post, but they are the most time consuming, detrimental, waste of conscious thought ever!

This weeks exercise was to stop any type of opinion from being expressed.  It certainly sounded easy enough when it was presented.  Then about 5 seconds went by and then BINGO!  Opinion after opinion after opinion!  I couldn’t believe it!  In any given 60 second span, I must of had hundreds of opinions.  So verbal, some internal, some nice, some not so nice and a whole bunch in between.

This was a real eye opener for me.  Think about it.  If 85% or more of your waking hours are spent doing something unproductive like thinking, giving or expressing your opinion, how much conscious time does your mind really have left?  Day after day of opinion is exhausting.  What would happen if you were able to eradicate all of these opinions?  Don’t think them, don’t say them, don’t project them, simply get rid of them.  The time you’ll have for solid, beneficial, focused thought will increase by magnitudes.

If you don’t think this applies to you, that’s okay, just give this a try.  For the next 5 days, just be aware of every time you either give or think of some opinion.  Just doing this will be a real eye opener.  It won’t be easy and its almost a bit scary at realizing how much of your conscious time is spent opining about this or that.

For the second 5 days, consciously be aware of when you’re about to give or think of an opinion and focus instead of something peaceful.  It could be anything, walking your dog, flying a kite or playing with your kid.  At this point the thoughts don’t matter, they are simply a break in your mental routine of being ruled by opinions.

For the third and final 5 days, change your thoughts from being random to being focused and peace and abundance.  Truly use any chance you get to give our opinion as a cultivator for positive thought.  Give it the full 15 days and I guarantee you’ll be amazed.  In no time, you’ll have more time to build your incredible future than you ever thought possible.

Have fun with this.  You might learn more about yourself than you could ever imagine!

Master Key – Master Mind Alliance – Week 4 – Letting Go

Week #4 has been a truly insightful period in my life. I once heard a statement that the only people who ever liked change were babies with dirty diapers. I can’t verify that they’re the only one’s, but I definitely fit in with the non-change group.

Change is defined as “to make or become different”. This has all sorts of scary connotations to it. “Everything is going fine, why do I need to change?”, my goodness, if I had a dime for every time I said that! The fact is that change is scary and sometimes it’s downright painful and that’s all there is to it. The scary part can always be reasonably dismissed through some good self-talk or logic but the painful part…no thank you!

I can think back to numerous times in my life from having a seating assignment change in kindergarten, to changing classes in middle school, to having our cubicles shuffled around in the office. Change has always been inevitable and honestly not a very welcome guest in my life.

I don’t quite know where this fear or apprehension of change evolved from but I do know that change has never been a comfortable experience for me. Week 4 of the Master Key is where some major change took place in life. I started looking at change as something to be embraced and not something to shy away from or be worried about.

Now, the logical part of me thought this would be easy. Just “convince” myself that change was good, welcome and filled with happiness and viola!, everything would be better. Unfortunately, that logical part hasn’t served me well and it actually created more angst and nervousness than it ever helped. You see, simply telling yourself something isn’t going to make any situation any better. Until you can determine true, life-long strategies for creating change in your life, you’re just spinning your wheels. This is once again where the conscious and sub-conscious come into play.

The conscious mind is always going to be reactive, judgmental, logical and emotional. These are incredible traits, but they don’t fare well in the world of the subconscious. My logical, rational brain would try to control everything always justifying and validating my actions and reactions to everything going on in my life. If there wasn’t a clear, concise, black and white logical answer to everything, I simply couldn’t understand or comprehend how the situation I was in could ever be of benefit. Obviously, this hasn’t served me well in life and I need to learn to move forward, regardless of how scary or intimidating the task at hand may be.

The subconscious mind, on the other hand just delivers. No thought is wasted on anything other than the end result. The trick is to realize that the conscious mind cannot tell the subconscious what to do. The only thing the conscious can do is give the subconscious a desired outcome and allow the subconscious mind to deliver that outcome in any way that the subconscious deems fit.

And here is where change gets scary! Most people aren’t even aware of the subconscious and all the phenomenal tools at it’s disposal. Not only that, but most aren’t too willing to just “let go” and let the subconscious do it’s thing. Letting go and not trying to control, alter and influence the world around you can be the scariest decision you can ever make.

No logic, no rationale and no reasoning, just “letting go” and allowing the subconscious and Universe to work their magic is all you have to do! I know that this sounds easier than it is but look all around you and realize that the subconscious and Universal Mind deliver the ultimate gift, whether you can logically argue it or not.

The next time that you inner control-freak, perfectionist, black and white, logic obsessed conscious mind starts getting you amped up about change, moving forward or letting go, just remember this. Without struggle and massive pain/change, the butterfly would never be able to fly away from its chrysalis. The change from being a caterpillar to a beautiful, soaring butterfly would never take place without incredible pressure, pain and change, yet I’m sure that any butterfly would gladly go through that pain again versus ever having to go back and live their life as a caterpillar.

We are all caterpillars on the verge of breaking through our chrysalis. It will involve, change, pain, new perspectives and most importantly, letting go. May you learn to “let go” and allow your inner butterfly to soar to heights you’ve never imagined!

Master Key – Master Mind Alliance – Week 3 – The Humble Servant

It’s week 3 of my personal discovery journey and it’s been a week of breakthroughs. The biggest breakthrough I’ve had this week is to let things take their course, knowing that my “Humble Servant” subconscious mind would do all the heavy lifting for me.  Growing up always wanting to be bigger, faster and better has supercharged my focus on coming out on top and being competitive in everything I’ve ever done.  This has resulted in being a high-strung, type A personality who has always had to be in control of everything.  In fact, this life and perspective turned me into a major control freak.  If I couldn’t control it, something must be wrong.

Unfortunately, this type A, control freak attitude is both unsustainable and unhealthy.  While some aspects of these personality traits are beneficial, needing to be in control of every single facet of every single activity in my life resulted in a life filled with stress, anxiety and dissatisfaction.  Sooner or later, everyone comes to the realization that they can’t control everything.  On the converse, being the opposite doesn’t serve anyone well either.  Just hanging out, thinking that everything will be okay or somehow just work out isn’t a great life strategy either.

So how can someone get what life has to offer and do so in a way that doesn’t violate or diminish their true identity or personality?  The answer lies within the “Humble Servant”.  You see, the “Humble Servant” or subconscious mind has a direct link to Universal Intelligence and it is that intelligence that holds the answers and solutions to every want or need ever desired.  That’s right, every want, every need, effortlessly delivered to your doorstep by the all-knowing, all-loving “Humble Servant”.

This “Servant” is available 24 x 7 x 365 today, tomorrow and all the way through eternity.  That’s great.  You’ve got a “Humble Servant” willing to give you anything you want, anytime you want it and it has always been and will always be available.  So, whats the catch?  The catch is communicating with your “Humble Servant” without using a control freak or disconnected mode of communication.

The control freak method doesn’t work for one simple reason.  The subconscious is connected to the Universal Intelligence that controls your heartbeat, cellular respiration, growth and a host of other functions and processes that man will never quite comprehend.  The goal isn’t to understand it or dictate how things are done, it should be to understand how to communicate with this “Servant”.

The laid back, lets just see what happens method doesn’t work either, for without direction, the subconscious just sits at idle waiting for instruction.  Hoping, wishing and burying your head in the sand will do nothing to spark your “Servant” into action.

The key, or in this instance the Master Key is to learn to control your conscious, thinking mind that has finite range and scope and build it up like a muscle until it can effectively and freely communicate with the “Servant” or subconscious.  This is a new paradigm for most and once understood, it is life changing.

Freeing your conscious and learning to direct positive, beneficial thoughts to manipulate the subconscious into providing your every wish and command definitely takes some serious time and effort.  The subconscious will always deliver, it just won’t necessarily follow the roadmap or timetable that your conscious mind puts out.  In other words, you can’t tell the subconscious how to do something, rather you need to simple communicate your desire to the subconscious and allow the subconscious to deliver as it and the universe decide.

For the next week, spend just 5 -10 minutes per day thinking about harmony and having harmonious relations each and every day.  “This week, my focus is on harmony and harmonious relations in every interaction I have”.  Repeat that phrase out loud, silently, often and with passion.  Mix it up, just keep working on that phrase and let it become something you focus on for the week.

Don’t get lazy and not do it, after all, it’s repeating a phrase, it doesn’t cost anything and who knows, maybe it will be the first spark in some wonderful events in your life.  Don’t get amped up and try to understand it, direct it or figure it out either.  Just simply put emotion and passion into the phrase and truly let it seep into your being this week.

There’s a good chance that this simple exercise will be harder than you think, but with time and patience, you can master this skill.  Take note of when your conscious mind tries to interfere with your harmony, either be being reactive and getting caught up in some heated emotional outburst, or when you’re just lounging around, being too lazy to put forth a real effort into this exercise.

As noted in the Master Keys, “harmony within results in harmony without”.  Learn to start opening the lines of communication with your “Humble Servant” and watch the Universe unfold and provide you with a life or abundance, love and harmony that exceed your wildest expectations.

May life and the Universe smile down upon you each and every day!

Master Key – Master Mind Alliance – Week – 2 The Farmer

Well, the journey for me continues.  After two weeks of lectures and videos on The Master Key System, The Greatest Salesman in the World and various other pieces of knowledge and wisdom from our group, the haze is lifting and some things are starting to click for me. The biggest revelation for me this week was a comparison of the conscious, sub-conscious, farmer and soil.

The conscious mind is like the farmer. The farmer does all the planning, seeding, tilling and reaping. The conscious mind is similar.  It is the seat of free thought, discrimination and reasoning.  Together the farmer and conscious mind,set the direction. They have the plan, they know the outcome and they reap the harvest.

The sub-conscious is like the soil. It doesn’t matter if you plant weeds, organic vegetables or poison ivy.  The soil and sub-conscious work along the same pattern. Whatever the farmer or conscious mind plants, the soil and sub-conscious will deliver. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Healthy, sickly, wealthy, poor, energetic, fatigued, vibrant or devoid of vitality – to the sub-conscious or soil, it just doesn’t matter.

Take a step back and think about that for a moment. It doesn’t matter, at least to the sub-conscious. Now, your outward reality, thoughts, dreams and aspirations may not be everything you want them to be right now. That would put you in the same group as about 98% of all people on the planet. So the question becomes…why?

Well, the answer is simple. You’re the farmer and this is the harvest you have sewn. It may not be the harvest you want but it is the harvest you have. You see, the soil or your sub-conscious has delivered to you exactly what you have put into it.  No, not some mere hope or dream, but the true energy of your thoughts.

The bad news?  Chances are that where you are isn’t where you want to be.  The prevailing thoughts of your life to this point are the sum total of where you are. Kind of depressing isn’t it?  Not really, because….

The good news.  Your sub-conscious or soil delivered 100% what was planted 100% of the time, without fail.  Think about that.  Your sub-conscious doesn’t question what you’re planting (so long as it doesn’t bring harm to anyone else).  It doesn’t get caught in the minutiae of the how’s, why’s, how comes, when, where’s and how’s…no, your sub-conscious dutifully delivers 100% of the time 100% of what you’re planting into it.  And that, is incredible news.  Just think, we all possess a genie that will grant our hearts every desire.  All we have to do is know how to communicate with the genie what we want and then, poof!  Our dreams come true.

The challenge?  If it’s that easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?  I never said it was easy.  It’s simple but isn’t easy.  That’s why everyone isn’t doing it. Communicating with your sub-conscious with full intent is a skill that must be mastered. Mastery takes time, patience, dedication and persistence. While these are investments that may take some momentary time from such vices as reality tv, sports, hanging out and a whole host of time wasters, I can guarantee you that giving these up for a few weeks, months or even a year or so will be but a small price to pay for the dividends and harvest that this time, effort, planting and reaping will provide.

As you continue to follow me and my journey more light will be shed on how to communicate effectively with your soil, plant the proper seeds and enjoy a harvest more bountiful than anything you could ever image. Thank you for taking this journey with me and may your journey and life be filled with incredible abundance and prosperity.

Master Key Master Mind Alliance – Week 1 – Uncovering the Gold

Well, it’s my first week in what I hope will not only be the greatest adventure of my life but also the most impactful.  My Master Key journey actually began years ago after initially reading Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think and Grow Rich”.  This book has been a foundation for me throughout my college years and all throughout my sales career.  The ideas and guidance the book has provided have been outstanding, yet I still have never felt fulfilled and wondered what was missing.  Club trips, Presidents Club and even Global Salesperson of the Year were all great accolades and while the achievement was great, it was only momentary and honestly something that I didn’t know if I could ever repeat again.

As part of my “self-help” journey, I watched the video “The Secret”.  This was another groundbreaking moment in my life but sadly, I was unable to sustain any true success for any lengthy period of time.  After watching The Secret several times, I ran across the Master Key System as part of one of the opening video montages.  It turns out that the Master Key System was a huge part of the success of The Secret and that it was actually the foundation for a large part of the movies message.

Reading the Master Key System was no easy task, or should I say that understanding it and actually putting it to use was the area that I found difficulty with.  You see, the Master Key System is a 26 week journey of self discovery.  It isn’t self-help.  It isn’t any new guru’s latest reiteration of something that hasn’t worked in the past.  It isn’t something you’ll find on late night TV.  No, the Master Key System is a tried, true and proven system of self-guided personal development that will open the doors of possibility in the lives of all of those who actually make the effort and follow the program.  The problem?  No instant gratification here.  This is a 26 week journey of self-discovery and something that cannot be bought, rushed, ran through  or hurried.  While 26 weeks may seem like an eternity to the instant gratification generation we live in, I can assure you that it will be a journey that will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

So, what have I learned so far during this first week of self-discovery?  I’ve learned that you, I and everyone we can possibly think of need to uncover the gold.  Where is this gold, you may ask?  It’s right where it’s always been.  It’s buried deep inside of each and every one of us.  The gold is the carefree, happy, prosperous and ever-present love that each and every one of us were created with.  Unfortunately, years and years of hearing what we are supposed to do, think, act like, behave like and be like has lathered us with a tough outer coating of cement that has unfortunately covered our gold.  The gold is still there, it just needs to be uncovered.

Uncovering this gold will prove to be the greatest challenge and most rewarding experience of your life.  It’s simple, but that doesn’t make it easy.  If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.  Day by day and week by week, I’ll be taking this journey to break free from the cement that is covering my gold and preventing my true-self from fully embracing all the world has to offer.  I’d like to invite you to join me on this journey and hopefully my experiences will have an impact in some small way that will help you or someone you know change their life in ways they’ve never thought possible!

Until next time, may your journey in life be filled with passion beyond your wildest dreams.