Today's Transcendence » Uncategorized

Welcome to Today’s Transcendence (Introduction and Overview)

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:01:02 +0000

I’m on the verge of releasing my very first book, so in order to finish everything on time, I’m giving the daily blogging thing a break. This’ll help me to meet writing deadlines, restructure the site for 2012 and take time out to unplug, reflect and ultimately come back stronger.

(If you’ve been with me for awhile this is nothing new, really. I take a small vacation like this around the same time every year, so not to worry.)

But even though I’m on “blogging-leave”, that doesn’t mean I’m not “here.” Help yourself to a free consultation with me, and – especially if this is you’re first time here – enjoy the extended, best-of section featuring some of my most well-received work: 33 full articles, detailed reports, in-depth videos, audio podcasts and more…all to help you get focused, all at your convenience and ALL AT NO COST to you.

Again, I’m on temporary leave, but that’s just to finish the book. You’re always welcome to contact me for any questions, concerns or consultation needs, enjoy the work I’m best known for and sign-up for the email newsletter below to preview the book and stay updated on everything happening.

Peace,
+B

Get your hands on 2 full chapters from my upcoming book,
Doing The Knowledge: Ascending Into Action, FOR FREE:

How to Handle ‘Digital Distractions,’ PART TWO: The Top 3 Ways to NOT Waste Time When In Front of Your Laptop…

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:01:22 +0000

“Digital distraction” is a big problem these days, partly because we live in a hyper-communicative world where cell phones, email and social networking has conditioned most of us to be OVER-accessible, and thus, constantly distracted and interrupted from what generates profit and builds long-term success.

We covered a strategy for that yesterday though…the other part of digital distraction (its more insidious side) is that the tools we now use to work are inherently PREDISPOSED to distraction and interruption as well…so even when no one’s around, the technology itself encourages (and facilitates) the *squandering* of time and attention, which just happen to be your two most valuable resources if you work with information, media and your mind.

So it’s a double-edged Moorish-scimitar: if other people are your problem (“external digital disruption”) read yesterday’s piece, but if you yourself are your problem (“internal digital disruption”), read on young Skywalker…

Technique #1: Use Organized, Targeted Bookmarks

As simple as it sounds, first create a bookmark system for yourself that’s completely ORGANIZED (not just a crazy-large folder of “cool” websites you haven’t looked at in years). Create one set of bookmarks in a folder called “work,” another in “school,” another in “bills” and so on.

Second – and most importantly – make sure the bookmarks link DIRECTLY to the act they’re associated with, because the main way we’re distracted online is by ads, headlines and other shiny objects on our way to a specific task.

Use bookmarks like a direct teleport-system to the places you need to go *precisely* (not general areas). This’ll save time, but also circumvent most of the distractions that would’ve came up along the way.

For example, in “How to Make Facebook Productive” I talked about bookmarking your facebook profile page, instead of the super-active homescreen with the Times-Square newsfeed effect. THIS WILL WORK WONDERS FOR YOU…just trust me and check out that post out for more details.

Technique #2: Turn the Internet OFF

I remember moving out of my old apartment, spending a day with my roommate to get all the utilities transferred to his name and coming back home that day to find the internet completely shut off, AFTER the company specifically told me they wouldn’t regardless of the transfer. (Note: “Cox” Communications IS NOT your friend in the digital age.)

Needless, to say, I was heated (I planned to put a new blog post up when I got back or something), but in a few minutes, I calmed down and woo-sah’d myself enough to realize the only thing left to do was write my book.

Take a second to think about this: most of your real work DOES NOT require the net, and was accomplished (in some form or fashion) for at least the last few centuries without it. So in a lot of cases, if you simply turn off your connection (or set up a circumstance where you can’t access it), you’ll find there’s nothing else to do but work.

Technique #3: Associate Devices w/ Specific Purposes

Next year, I plan to get one of those sleek tablets that keep coming out, because I don’t want to use my main work-computer for entertainment purposes anymore.

The idea here is to slowly condition yourself to associate specific taks with specific machines, because your unconscious mind will eventually learn to delineate between each one and automatically put you into a certain “zone” as soon as you pick the device up.

Try writing the next time you’re laying in bed (as opposed to sitting at a desk) and see how long you go without sleep. Try talking on the phone next time you’re standing in front of the fridge (as opposed a living-room type area) and see how long you go without stuffing your face.

It’s the same idea here, just the digital parallel to it: your subconscious mind orients your moods, psychological states and actions based on conditioning, so if you use a specific machine only for work, you’ll Pavlov-dog yourself towards more productivity over time, simply by picking it up or sitting in front of it.

If you’re not in a position to “cop gadgets” like that right now, try the going into different rooms (or places) thing just mentioned. You’ll find it having a good, effortless effect on you.

That’s all for now, so remember: we live in a techno-cratic age where constant digital distraction is THE NORM…most people simply aren’t familiar with what actual productivity looks and feels like anymore, so you need to consciously work against that social dynamic.

Prevent the external distractions (bothersome people) by simply trafficking correspondence to specific, predetermined times of day, and prevent internal distractions (you disrupting yourself) by circumventing the subtle dynamics that encourage it.

Use organized, targeted bookmarks to teleport yourself directly to the important tasks and, from time to time, outcast yourself from digital society so you’ll have NO CHOICE but to work. After that, start using your devices exclusively and you’ll end up associating them with their respective purposes and states of mind.

Hope this helps. Leave a brother a comment or something below: what’s your favorite of the three? Any technique of your own you’d like to add on???

Peace,
+B

How to Eliminate Digital Distractions, pt.1: Handling People’s CONSTANT Interruptions & Demands for Your Attention…

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:01:12 +0000

The other day I put up a facebook status that read, “You train people how to behave when they’re around you, and you teach people what expectations to have OF you, regardless of whether you’re conscious to the process or not.”

And what I mean by that is most of the rules that govern our relationships are formed in unconscious and subtle ways…

So if we don’t take time to learn what these ways are and then consciously set up strategies for how to deal with them, we’ll constantly find ourselves in relationships that:

>> drain our energy and leave us feeling exhausted,

>> perpetuate a cycle of being used and manipulated,

>> INHIBIT our ability to set and achieve personal goals,

…and (as you already know from experience) A LOT more. For example:

If you start seeing someone romantically, they start leaving articles of clothing and other trinkets around your apartment, and *YOU* don’t challenge them on this, the subconscious rule being formed is “My place is here for you to (eventually) start using however you please.”

If you start working on a project for someone, they start asking pointless questions and inquiries by sending you emails and text messages all times of day, and *YOU* reply to them 5 seconds later each and every time, the subconscious rule being formed is, “You can bother me at any given time of day – as soon as you get the whim, really – and expect an immediate response.”

Basically, we establish “unspoken agreements” based on how we respond to relatively subtle interactions, and since this is happening ALL THE TIME, do your best to stay sharp and as “conscious to the process” as you can.

Here’s my strategy for dealing with second one…

Set Up “Response Periods”

One way I’ve address this (based on a time-management guru’s advice) is by having deliberate, pre-determined times for both project-related and business correspondence…I “train” people, from early on, by only communicating with them during “response periods” that work for me.

Instead of answering and return emails, phone calls and texts “as soon as you get a free second,” try responding proactively: only during a predefined time that you know will work for you, and be consistent.

Again, if you start to work for (or with) somebody and you respond to each of their bothersome concerns AS SOON as they send them to you, you’re creating a leash for overwhelming demands and interruptions. You’re conditioning them to believe that you’re available at all times of the day, any time of the day.

So instead, always respond to business correspondence like this during specific 1-hour or 2-hour periods that work for you, because it sets up an understanding and a boundary that people will respect.

If this feels manipulative or too unyielding , remember it’s something you’ll NEED to grow and accomplish more. As you begin to leverage higher amounts of demands and greater amounts of work, you’ll find there’s no end to how much people can ask of you (trust me). Listen to this:
Download audio file (e-mail.mp3)

So again, simply traffic your distractions: set aside specific windows to respond to all project and work-correspondence, and people will get the picture themselves…

Peace,
+B

Should You Really Be THAT Persistent??? Isn’t There a Limit To ‘Never Giving Up’???

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:00:49 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from an old Q&A session of mine (through email), discussing dedication, persistence and knowing how and when to use it, and it’s one of the best questions I’ve ever been asked actually…If you’re not already on the weekly email newsletter (to get free updates, tips and techniques, and more), use the yellow sign-up form on the right to join.

Should You Really Be THAT Persistent???

“…perhaps you could elaborate on that statement about never giving up. While there’s a lot to be said about tenacity of spirit and never giving up on your dreams, there’s a fine line there too…

Remember that saying ‘Don’t flog a dead horse?’ I think sometimes it’s necessary to ‘give up’ on something or someone as a continual investment of your valuable resources or you’ll end up draining yourself dry.

Take for example….a wall street investor continuing to pour good money into a losing stock until they’re wiped out, or the gambling addict who just HAS to put that next dollar into the slot machine. Or trying to influence a heroin addict to quit and going about all manner of effort to that end only to have the person continue using, or being deeply and passionately in love with someone who doesn’t feel the same way (‘unrequited love.’)

At some point you can’t continue trying to pound a square peg into a round hole.

Anyway….food for thought. Perhaps you’d like to expound upon this subject and provide some of your personal insight/experience/wisdom. I’d love to hear what you have to say on this subject.

Thanks Bryan.”

My Response

“Identify with your purpose, but be flexible in your approach…

Identify with the REASON you have a particular goal (usually for an emotional state or personal conviction) and focus on that when a particular plan isn’t working.

Napolean Hill (in his book Think & Grow Rich) has a concept called ‘Creative Persistence,’ and Robert Greene (in The 48 Laws of Power) ‘Assuming Formlessness,’ both of which apply.

Where the goal is to start a company, THE PURPOSE may be financial wellbeing, and so one should not be attached to an inefficient business model.

Where the goal is to have a relationship, THE PURPOSE may be to give and receive love, and so one should not be attached to an incompatible person.

I quit drumming when I was having some trouble with my music career because I zoomed out, looked at the forest and realized that my purpose was to express my individuality, not ‘to be a drummer’ per se.

Now, with the website, I’m creating more audio-visual content instead of writing all the time because I realized my purpose is to promote intelligence, self-growth and maturity, not ‘to be a writer’ per se (and multimedia is a more effective means toward that end, given this day and age).

Identify with your purpose, but be flexible in your approach. I’ll release another self-discipline video soon that’ll go further in-depth.

Peace,
+B”

How to Think Like a Scientist….& (More Importantly) How to ACT LIKE A SCIENTIST So You Get Scientific (i.e. Dependable) Results.

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:00:03 +0000

In an old talk-show radio program about self-discipline, I shared how since “everything is an equation,” one great way to raise your self-discipline (and start getting RESULTS) is to be more of a scientist who *experiments.*

What I mean by that is you can QUICKLY overcome your limitations and almost IMMEDIATELY discover the best methods, techniques and tools to accomplish your goals by having an experimentation-approach.

An Experimentation-Approach???

And what I mean by that is simple: DO EVERYTHING AS A TEST. Do things small initially to see the type of results you get FIRST and then – after you find what works – SCALE THAT UP.

Stop thinking that you need to start off with a great, big idea that’s going to have this major impact and requires a *huge* investment of time and energy up front. Instead, try experimenting with different things to see:

>> what you like,

>> what fits your personality,

>> what leverages your particular strengths,

>> what gets you the results you want and

>> what you can see yourself being dedicated to FOR A MINUTE.

Big goals – especially new ideas that you’re unsure of – create a sense of *pressure*, and that pressure is at the root of most procrastination.

Worse off, you don’t even know if it’s going to work, so you might end up investing a lot on the front end only to find out that it was a bad idea (or a complete waste of time to begin with) after the fact.

THIS IS WHERE A LOT OF OTHERWISE EXTREMELY PROMISING INDIVIDUALS MESS UP: THEY HAVE THIS GREAT IDEA ABOUT SOMETHING UNREALISTICALLY HUGE AND PROMISING BEFORE THEY EVEN START, BECAUSE IN THEIR HEAD IT SEEMS SO PERFECT…

As an Example…

A few years ago I wanted to start a writing group and when I told a poet friend of mine about it, his immediate response was “Yeah, you know I can get you set up at such-and-such a venue, and my man does promotion, so we can even get it popping on campus and start a poetry-movement!!!”

I just said, “Well, that sounds good but uh, let’s see how the first meeting goes and take it from there.”

And that’s the type of realistic, experimentation-thinking I’m talking about, because it’s much easier to be disciplined, focused, productive and effective when it comes to setting up *a single meeting* then it is to when it comes to starting a “poetry movement.”

What I’m really getting at here is that you can’t let yourself get carried away by the enthusiasm. A new idea might be promising or sound good, but unless you have raw data (real feedback from small samples) it’s still too fictional to take seriously…

But I Want to Do BIG Things…

Now you might be thinking, “Yeah, you’re right Bryan, but I don’t want to just do small things, I want to do BIG THINGS…I want to be somebody who leaves an impact.”

And THAT’S GREAT: you should want to leave an impact, but worry about that after you “strike gold.” The time for you to start thinking big is when you find an opportunity *that works* and builds momentum on its own…it’s something you’ll feel intuitively insteaassume preeminently.

(Just like a great relationship, it’s something you want to just happen and grow naturally, not conscientiously plan out. Simply put, scientists don’t jump to conclusions.)

Again, I’m not saying don’t be dedicated, but what I AM saying is that when it comes to specific projects and specific plans, start small and then scale up…always test your hypothesis before you commit.

Remember that you, I and everyone else you know that’s about progress *is constantly learning.* Our minds are always going to the next level, and that means that the vast majority of ideas we have AREN’T GOING TO WORK.

Just like most relationships don’t last and most businesses don’t last, most of your IDEAS won’t last either, so your best bet is to *experiment* (to try different things and play around with different things in a detached way) before you get too hyped or too involved with any particular program…ESPECIALLY when it comes to working with other people.

Hope this helps. Know you can contact me at anytime for more, and take care…

Peace,
+B

What’s ‘Today’s Transcendence’ All About Anyway??? It Sounds a Little Too ‘New-Agey’ For Me…

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:00:24 +0000

Today’s transcendence is about power, but not “Higher” power, “Universal-Cosmos” power or any other vague, metaphysical notion of personal growth you’ve heard elsewhere. Today’s Transcendence is about PRACTICAL POWER…

This blog is meant to help (already) conscious individuals become more *action-oriented* individuals, because (in my humble opinion) too many self-aware, intelligent, articulate, talented, interesting, promising, insert-whatever-adjective meaning “potentially powerful” people aren’t accomplishing anything NEAR what they’re truly capable of, and since that was your’s truly for a good minute, I started this website to put that sad tendency to an end. (Read more about “conscious-laziness,” here)

So instead of adding to all the conspiracy theories and cosmic-alignment videos on youtube, I figured it better I create a place that channels all that “conscious learning energy” towards productivity and results (not merely “information”). I figured this way, I’d at least end up with something unique and more useful.

Specifically, “Today’s Transcendence” is a conscious path to:

>> end procrastination,

>> manage your time,

>> stay organized,

>> attain self-discipline, and

…find unstoppable motivation (which is also the title of my upcoming book). So if any of that sounds “up your alley,” you’re in good online-blogger hands.

There’s Also…

There’s also the occasional rant here and there, (okay, more then just occasional), but that’s besides the point…I simply thought it more constructive to create a RESOURCE rather than just waste internet gigabytes with my opinion, and time management, staying organized, getting focused, etc. are all things that I’m naturally good at enough to effectively teach.

So no, Today’s Transcendence isn’t new-agey at all: interestingly enough, it’s meant to guide people AWAY from that type of thinking and more towards practicality, focus and a good work ethic in today’s digital wilderness…

Honestly, when I first started, the blog WAS a little woo-woo (aren’t we all a little “out there” at some point in our lives?), but I’ve matured somewhat since that time.

Again, on this blog, you’ll find advice on how to get your mind right, how to stay focused, how to eat better, how to manage your time, and ultimately, how to conquer yourself. Use the navigation bar above to get an idea of what I mean.

Every day when I get out the bed, I aim to be a bit more wiser, focused and “together” before the next time I lie back in it, and I just think the world would be a better place if we all pushed ourselves to perform past our “default circumference” in similar fashion. Today’s Transcendence exists to help you do just that.

You can now return to your regularly scheduled online conspiracy theory.

Peace,
+B

Trouble w/ INFORMATION OVERLOAD??? Here’s What to Do When Knowledge Has You ‘Fiend Out’

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:00:16 +0000

KNOWLEDGE IS CRACK…I don’t care what anybody says, there’s no high like the high from a great new insight that revolutionizes your thinking, and that’s why my friends and I are ALWAYS in search of our next hit.

It’s one of the few positive addictions that are actually healthy, but like anything else, it can turn UN-healthy if you don’t discipline the crave. If you’re not careful, the process of learning can turn into the superficial performance of learning-related tasks, and – even worse – living in today’s hyper-communicative, digitized world makes this all to easy.

So learning to learn in a sensible way is a CHALLENGING enterprise, but a PRICELESS SKILL. Since we now live in an information economy (no longer an industrial one), the ability to learn, adapt and distill actionable plans from hordes of oncoming information is slowly becoming the new currency.

So let’s cover 4 techniques for dealing with information overload, because before you can truly “conquer” information, you need to feel liberated from it. Each tip will link to a specific post that’ll go more in depth. …

4 Techniques for Handling Information-Overload

1: Show “Intellectual Discipline”: Set up specific (as in numerical) guidelines for action and hold yourself to it. Say “at the end of each chapter, I’m going to try 3 techniques and measure the feedback.” For more on this approach, view my more in-depth article from back in March.

2: Delete Bookmarks, Emails, etc, etc.: and also give away some of your books. If you’ve been collecting material for a long time, that’s a good sign that you’ve probably GROWN PAST some of your historic interest, so getting rid of stuff helps alleviate the burden of feeling you obligated to finish so much. Click here for more on managing email.

3: Set aside a “knowledge” time: for me, I have a dedicated reading time first thing when I wake up in the morning, and first thing when I get off work. Not only does this get me inspired and keep me feeling on-point, it also chips away at my reading pile QUICKLY and CONSISTENTLY (because it’s a habit). See here for more on morning routines.

4: Try Accelerated Reading & Mind-Mapping: In my old-school radio show “Recommended Scrolls: Great Read for Overcoming Compulsive Eating, Building Concentration & More”, I shared some specific reading techniques to digest information FASTER, as well as specific note-taking techniques to RETAIN MORE. The first is called “Accelerated Reading” and the second “Mind-Mapping”. Click the respective links for more, and click here to enjoy that classic radio session.

So again, if you’d like to get a better hand on your reading, start by setting specific, reasonable metrics to gauge how much you’re actually getting from it, relieve yourself of all the unnecessary reading you’ve grown past, set aside a dedicated times to do this DAILY, and use advanced methods to speed up the process and get the most out of it.

Thanks again for checking this out. Hope it all helps.

Peace,
+B

Be The Sun, NOT THE PLANET: New Video on Defining Success & Being Successful ON YOUR OWN TERMS…

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:15:21 +0000

I’ve been playing around a lot with video recently: the idea is to keep it short and simple (which makes things MUCH easier, actually) while I have fun messing with some new programs, features and techniques. Enjoy and leave commentary…

“Be the Sun, NOT THE PLANET…”

“Be the sun, not the planet, and what I mean by that is not so much an ego-centric, I’m the center of the world, kind of thing, but to simply take responsibility for your life by defining it and living it on your own terms.

Don’t orbit around somebody else’s plan or somebody else’s worldview, and be proactive about setting up a Solar System that reflects your own understanding and your own personal “laws,” if you will…”

Peace,
+B

How to Be a ‘Fly’ Person: Early Writings on Building Self-Confidence, part 3 (On Positive Self-Talk & Knowing Your Spiritual Nature)

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:00:41 +0000

Here’s part 3 (the finale) of how to be a “fly” person: some of my earliest writings on self-confidence I thought worthy of reposting now. Be sure to check out part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t already, and – if you prefer – enjoy some of my more modern work on self-confidence too.

The 3rd Step for Self-Confidence

The third and last step is to realize that thinking is a habit…to realize that you have the same thoughts over and over again not because they’re valid or accurate, but simply because you’re in the habit of thinking them.

If you’re in the habit of thinking limiting and discouraging thoughts, then you have to get INTO the habit of thinking supportive and encouraging thoughts, and you can gain this habit in the same way you gain any other…repetition.

Think about it:

>> At the start of a new year, when you write down the date, you accidentally write down last year’s number because of repetition.

>> When you check your email online, you type out your username and password without even having to think about it because of repetition, and

>> When you stop using an alarm clock, you get your behind up at the same time anyway because of repetition.

So to be positive, motivated and proactive in your life, you have to condition yourself, through repetition, to think thoughts that are conducive to positivity, motivation and effectiveness.

To free yourself of anxiety depression and low self-esteem, you have to condition yourself, through repetition, to automatically think thoughts conducive to faith, joy and high self-esteem.

That’s why I focus so much on the affirmation process here on the blog: by consistently forcing yourself – literally bombarding your mind – to think thoughts of your own conscious volition, you gain control over both your mentality AND your emotions, as well as (logically) their consequent behavior. It’s called The Science of Autosuggestion.

So take the affirmations seriously, and find creative ways to make them part of your automatic, habitual mindstate. You already know the suggested technique.

Conclusion (Notes on Spirituality)

Lastly, don’t think of what we’re building on here as just “self-improvement.” Instead, think of it as “Ego Exercise” or even better, “Character Conditioning.”

As physical conditioning develops vitality and body-form; character conditioning develops personality and self-image…it’s the same principle applied to an alternate plane. With a strong, healthy and well conditioned self-image, you’ll carry out life-tasks with finesse – you’ll take on challenges and goals with a proactive, youthful spirit.

If you think about it though, terms like “self-improvement” and self-development” are really misnomers, because the True Self, the spiritual being you really are, comes from an Eternal Source, and in what ways can this Eternal Self ever be improved or developed???

Still however, your levels of persistence, personal integrity, vision, kindness, humility, emotional intelligence, humor, knowledge, patience and forgiveness (towards both yourself AND others) can ALL be improved and developed, and your self-talk, the internal dialogue that governs these things can be improved and developed as well.

Regardless of the circumstances contained in your present, and regardless of the history contained in the past, YOU control the destination contained in your future.

In your life, you’re the sole-controller, so free yourself from what happened and take charge of what IS happening. Today is the first day of the rest of your life, so clean the slate mentally and start building something right and exact in the here and now.

After all, the “you” that you dislike isn’t even the real you anyway – it’s only a garment holding your essential spirit. Remember, just as the wardrobe in your closet can change, so too can the character which adorns your soul.” ~ fin

So again, just for emphasis: being FLY begins with how you talk to and feel about YOURSELF, INTERNALLY…you can get all the greatest clothes, newest electronic devices and even accomplish the greatest things, but if you don’t work on this internal dynamic and heal that process, NOTHING ELSE WILL MATTER.

Thanks for reading…

Peace,
+B

CAN YOU HELP ME CHOOSE A BOOK COVER???

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:00:56 +0000

The video pretty much explains it all: I’m going with the green one, but I thought it would help to get some feedback first. Check out the samples below to get a closer look at each cover design. Enjoy…

Can You Help Me Choose a Book Cover???

Click HERE to view COVER #1 (the orange template),

Click HERE to view COVER #2 (the blue template),

Click HERE to view COVER #3 (the green template), and

Click HERE to view COVER #4 (the mixed template)

Use the comments section below to let me know your thoughts, and thanks again for your time…

Peace,
+B

Don’t Be Afraid to Expose Yourself: How Friendship & Bonding Make You More Productive & Remove Inner-Blocks

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:00:58 +0000

YOU NEED GOOD FRIENDS TO BE PRODUCTIVE, not because of they can “hook you up” with massive networks or valuable resources, but because they’ll *force* you to take a good look at yourself whenever you’re slacking…

Remember, being productive isn’t simply managing time, building concentration or anything else practical and obvious (that’s just the technical part). At a deeper level, productivity is about “leveling up” like an RPG (ask your resident geekazoid…he’ll know what I’m talking about). It’s about examining your entire life’s framework and seeing where your head is at…seeing those subtle, “subconscious confinements” most people are too shook to acknowledge.

Seriously: things like low self-esteem, unhealthy relationships, fear of the unknown and fear of being exposed CREATE FRICTION inside the prospectively productive-person’s system (hope that makes sense) and having this friction is a lot like looking into a broken mirror in that can literally DESTROY your ability to “reflect.”

In other words, inner-conflict is tricky because the thought process you use to get a hold of it is actually at the root of the problem. Therefore, the conundrum requires said prospectively-productive person to BORROW a good friend’s thought process as a means to help examine, neutralize and re-modify their own (really hoping this all makes sense).

Just think about the last great book you read: what were you doing except BORROWING somebody else’s thought process, temporarily? Anytime you read nonfiction, you’re borrowing somebody else’s thought process, and anytime you read fiction, you’re borrowing somebody else’s imagination. Think about that for a second.

So if this resonates with you – if you’re going through a rough patch in life right now and can’t seem figure out why you’re in “prospective” status – remember the basics: you need somebody else’s viewpoint to be objective and move forward in a rational way. (Duh, silly.)

There’s Nothing To Be Ashamed Of

This is just me “getting deep” to explain commons sense, but it amazes me to see so many brilliant, talented and knowledgeable people literally SCARED to open up about their fears and concerns, as though not feeling 100% driven and motivated *all the time* was something to be ashamed of, or as though having a real problem you need help figuring out makes you uncool.

If it helps, know that I MYSELF wasn’t feeling too motivated just last week. I don’t mean to get controversial here, but trying to “not” lose focus is like taking an HIV-test: ANYTHING CAN SET IT OFF…bad eating, family problems, girlfriend problems, sleeping problems, a damaging, ridiculing comment…literally ANYTHING.

Okay, so I take the HIV comment back (don’t want no beef), but my point is that being focused is a fragile thing, it’s so delicate that even your own thoughts can undermine it, so you need other “thought-mirrors” to bounce off of and make sure you don’t look jacked up. (This is also why I’m honored that you trust me enough to teach you this sort of thing…it’s really difficult, both to do and to explain.)

So don’t be afraid to expose yourself: eleven times out of ten, whatever you’re going through is something your friend went through themselves or knows somebody else going through RIGHT NOW, so they’ll empathize and won’t be judgmental.

(I even went to a suicide-prevention class one time and guess what…IT WAS PACKED. Point is: everybody’s going through drama and confusion – it’s called life. You’d be surprised what people have been through if you just take the initiative to reveal a little yourself.)

Remember that sharing a weakness actually opens the bridge and deepens the connection. Friendship and bonding help make you more productive and remove inner blocks, but they also help to strengthen your alliances as well.

So again, if you have trouble staying focused and being productive, it may be because you have some inner-conflict about your goals and AREN’T sharing those inner-conflicts with a more reasoned, experienced or objective thought process.

Don’t get too caught up meditating and reading self-development books, because one of the best ways to get over your *ish is the old-school way: BY TALKING ABOUT IT…

Even if you can’t think of anyone to open up to, you can contact me. Toll free too: 1-800-B-R-Y-A-N (it’s supposed to be 10 numbers though, right?).

Hope this helps…and if it doesn’t, ughhh…well…damn. Tough cookies. Glad I’m not you…

Peace,
+B

NEW VIDEO || 5 Time-Management Tips MADE EASY (Just In Case You Forgot)

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:10:10 +0000

Here’s a great new video called “5 Time-Management Tips MADE EASY (Just In Case You Forgot)” based on an older, written blog post of the same name. Enjoy:

5 Time-Management Tips MADE EASY..

Peace,
+B

How to Be a ‘Fly’ Person: Early Writings on Building Self-Confidence, part 2 (On Overcoming Guilt & Forgiving Yourself)

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:00:36 +0000

So here’s part two of being a “fly” person: being fly mentally of course…in terms of your self-confidence, not in terms of your fashion (although the young lad above is kind of jig). This is really some of my early work slightly revised, so be sure to check out the first installment and the third, finale one to enjoy this series in full…

So the second step for building self-confidence is to take large doses of this special medicine called forgiveness: learn to forgive yourself.

Self-forgiveness is challenging, because we tend to harbor extreme guilt and shame towards ourselves for things we’ve done in the past.

In the past – through our selfishness or lack of self-control – we may have caused someone else – maybe even someone we loved – to experience pain, and through our anger, we may have even done this intentionally.

If this is you, accept the fact that it happened, and that there’s nothing you can do about it now. You can’t go back in time and undo what’s already done, so dwelling on it now serves no purpose at all.

What Guilt Does to Us…

When you harbor guilt towards yourself, the only thing you do is prevent yourself from making the most of your life in the present, and in effect, you end up denying the world of the brilliant contributions only you have to share.

We all have things in our past that we’re ashamed of…the mistakes you’ve made (yes, even the most terrible ones) DO NOT make you a bad person, they only make you human…

“But how can I forgive myself if I knew EXACTLY what I was doing at the time, and still did it anyway?”

That’s a good question, and I’m glad you asked: the answer is to realize that everyone you know, including you, is, at all times, only doing the best they can.

Everyone’s doing the best they can. Everyone’s operating to the greatest extent that their awareness will allow them to.

While we may know something on an intellectual level, that doesn’t mean we truly UNDERSTAND it…it doesn’t mean we’ve integrated into the core of our psyche.

That’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom: while it’s relatively easy to grasp something conceptually, it takes *life experience* to internalize wisdom, and this experience usually comes in the form of pain, such as the guilt you feel from your mistake now.

That’s why you hear people say “You’re so smart, you’re stupid…”. Since “intelligent” people grasp things so well with just their brain, they tend to get over-confident in their own thought process, and thus disregard life-experience….they don’t pay attention to the signs they’re getting, and therefore fail to gain wisdom.

Wisdom is a bio-feedback mechanism: the prefix bio means life, and wisdom is the mechanism that obtains lessons from life by reflecting on it.

So realize that you had to make the mistake in order to learn from it, because if you really did know it, you wouldn’t of made the mistake in the first place. Forgive yourself for not having enough wisdom at the time, and move forward in life with the lessons you can extract from it now.

Channeling Guilt into Purpose & Direction

Debbie Ford talks about this in her audiobook The Secret of the Shadow: The Power of Owning Your Whole Story, where your “shadow” is the past that you’ve been avoiding or feeling guilyt about and your “secret” is the hidden jewels of insight contained within that same past.

While you THINK your past is negative, it actually holds the central keys to knowledge of self and life-purpose.

For instance, if your shadow has something to do with a significant other, the secret might lead you to devote yourself to creating love in ALL of your relationships. If your shadow has something to do with family, the secret might lead you to dedicate yourself to becoming a wonderful parent and helping others to do the same, so on and so forth…

You can’t play cut and paste with your life history, and you can’t relegate the parts that you’re ashamed of to some place in the back of your mind. If you do, they’ll continue to haunt and limit you from the subconscious realm.

You have to “own your whole story”; you have to accept EVERYTHING you’ve been through – the good, the bad and the ugly – in order to gain the wisdom necessary to live up to your Highest Design.

Hope this helps. Take care and check back in next week for part three.

Peace,
+B

How to Stop Failure NOW (Overcoming Negative Patterns of Defeat, Underachievement & More)

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:00:24 +0000

Here’s an audio clip of Mike Brescia (founder of Think Right Now Intl.) telling the story about how he used the power of his mind to overcome the immense failures of his early life…

Trust me, if you think YOU got it bad, *this audio will put things into perspective*. It’ll also show you how to reframe your circumstances so they empower you for positive change. Check it out:
Download audio file (trn3.mp3)

Again, Mike Brescia is a founder of Think Right Now Intl., a company that provides the same “Accelerated Success Conditioning Software” that I use on a daily basis…

When you check out there site, they’ll give you this “Life-Transformation Kit” FOR FREE (that’s where this audio comes from), a collection of short-manuals on:

>> “How to Absolutely, Positively Guarantee Success In Everything You Do…”

>> “How to Feel Powerful Instantly…”

>> “How to Instantly Gain Momentum (AND Keep It)”

>> “The 11 Mental Patterns That Naturally Attract The Life You Desire…”

>> “The Unedited Conversations In People’s Minds EXPOSED…”

>> “Over 500 Think Right Now Case Studies from Clients…” (testimonial proof…*my* story might be in here too, matter of fact)

…and even more. To get your hands on these free resources, click here now.

As I said, me not telling you about these audio programs would be like me not telling you about the books I read that revolutionized my thinking or the holistic health choices I made that freed me from depression.

It’s THAT serious…ThinkRightNow.com is the most visited personal development product site ON EARTH, and it’s also the primary tool I use (everyday, mind you) to stay focused, motivated and in a constant state of growth and expansion, so do yourself a favor and check them out now to get those free tools.

Peace,
+B

True Beauty is ALL NATURAL: Holistic Health Advice from Beauty Expert & Guest Blogger Nikkeve Toi

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:00:40 +0000

Here’s a helpful guest post from fellow blogger (and good friend) Nikkeve Toi, who has a great YouTube channel (and website) that gives beauty advice from a holistic perspective.

In essence, Ms.Toi teaches women how to enjoy the benefits of an ALL-NATURAL beautification process, so they don’t have to worry about the chemical build-up and toxic long-term effects of normal cosmetics. This particular piece of hers is on healthy eating however, which the sister also talks delves in from time to time. Enjoy…

Beautify Your Diet

“An often overlooked beauty secret is maintaining a balanced pH level inside the body. Your pH (potential of hydrogen) level is what measures the acid-alkaline balance within your body.

The average American is inclined to have an acidic pH level due to lifestyle. According to Dr. Jonathan B. Levine – DMD, world-renowned dentist and correspondent for The Dr. Oz Show – “the majority of Americans eat mostly acidifying food, with minimal alkalizing intake”. Acidifying foods include processed foods, sugar, and meat. (High acidity can also result from high stress levels.)

A highly acidic body is unable to efficiently assimilate nutrition from the food we eat and therefore, causes our body’s functions to diminish. The results are all but noticeable in the mirror:

>> Chronic acne,

>> premature aging,

>> dark under eye circles, and

>> a dull complexion

…are just a few of the issues that can stem from high acidity. You can easily test your body’s pH by purchasing pH strips from a local pharmacy. Follow the package directions and consult your doctor if you are concerned with the results.

A healthy pH ranges between 6.0 – 6.5 in the morning and 6.5 – 7.0 in the evening. Maintaining a balanced pH level has a great effect on your health and beauty. *Here are some tips to help keep your body’s pH level balanced*:

Drink your water with lemon. Lemon becomes alkaline after digestion, therefore, aiding pH balance.

Eat more dark leafy greens. They’re nature’s ultimate alkalizing foods.

Get proper amount of sleep. Sleep reduces acid formation within the body, and lastly

Breathe deeply. Slow, deep breaths raise carbon dioxide level in blood which has alkalizing effects…”

Again, be sure to enjoy Nikkeve’s blog or YouTube Channel for more. Stay wise and take care of yourself…

Peace,
+B

The Friendly Way to ‘Keep People in Check’ (ASSERTIVENESS SKILLS 101 w/ Step-by-Step Formula)

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:00:51 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from Lucy Jo Palladino’s Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction & Overload, which follows an initial post on OVERCOMING FEAR you can check out here.

“I was watching pre-schoolers being interviewed on television about events in the news one day, and when one child was asked, ‘Why do you think people go to war?’ he replied: ‘Because they don’t use their words…’

Assertiveness skills are ways to use you words so you can stand up for your rights WITHOUT stepping on the rights of others. Since they let you express yourself effectively (without bullying others or letting others bully you), assertiveness skills help you get your needs met without passive-aggression or losing your temper. Here’s some examples:

Your boss refuses to listen to your ideas about a project…

>> Passive-Aggressive: you don’t say anything, but stall on getting it ready.
>> Hostile-Aggressive: You blow up and quit your job.
>> Assertive: You suggest a team meeting to discuss it.

Your significant other makes plans that involve you without consulting you first…

>> Passive-Aggressive: You go along with the plans but act coldly.
>> Hostile-Aggressive:You blow up, slam the door and leave.
>> Assertive: You decide independently what it is you want to do. Whether or not you choose to go, you discuss the issue with your significant other.

Your child won’t turn the TV off when she’s supposed to…

>> Passive-Aggressive: You don’t want to stop what you’re doing, so you let her keep watching; but you feel resentful and snap at her the rest of the night.
>> Hostile-Aggressive: You yell at her and threaten to ground her for a week.
>> Assertive: You walk into the room and matter-of-factly ask her if she wants to turn the TV off or if she’d rather you turn it off; and then you follow through.

Neurology & Anger

But obviously, it’s hard to use your words to solve problems when you’re mad. When you’re mad, your amygdala (a part of your brain’s “limbic system” responsible for processing emotions) diverts your brain’s resources in order to keep your anger burning.

So interestingly, at the times when you need to be most assertive, your brain’s CEO (logic) is less available to you because the amygdala is forcing it to rationalize your anger and keep that norepinephrine (a “neurotransmitter” underlying the “fight-or-flight” response) pumping.

Your focus gets narrowed, and you get quicker to think things like “This guy is an a-hole,” rather than “I wonder if there’s another way to do this. Maybe I can talk to someone else on the team.”

So to help you put your words together when you feel provoked like that, here’s a formula – a template for writing your own script, if you will:

1: State the facts,
2: Say how you feel,
3: See through the persons eyes, and then
4: Ask for what you want.

So let’s say you need to talk to the stubborn boss:

1: That new software project has complications and costs not listed in the current proposal.
2: It’s hard for me to jump on board, because I’m concerned about them.
3: I understand you believe it has a strong potential for success.
4: Let’s schedule a team meeting and see what everyone thinks.

This time you’re the frustrated parent with a TV-loving child:

1: It’s 9 pm and the TV is still on; we both know that it’s time to turn it off.
2: I don’t like having to enforce a rule you know is up to you to keep.
3: I know you want to keep watching and that it’s been a tough day.
4: Do you want to turn it off or would you like me to do that for you?

And now you’re the significant other who wasn’t consulted:

1: I see you’ve scheduled us again to play golf with the Duffers. I’m OK with going this time.
2: I want you to know, though, I don’t like it when you confirm plans without asking me first. I feel left out…as if I don’t matter.
3: I know you’re just trying to be sociable and plan nice things for us to do.
4: Next time Chip or anyone else asks you, would you say that you need to check with me first?

Step 3 helps diffuse the situation: when you make an honest attempt to see the conflict through the other person’s eyes, that person feels validated, just as you would if the other person tried to see it your way. This decreases the other person’s defensiveness and also keeps the rational part of your brain in charge.

HOWEVER, BE CAREFUL TO NOT TO START STEP 4 WITH THE WORD “BUT.” With that one tiny word you alter the entire sentiment of the message and undo what you said in step 3.

With the word “but,” you’re no longer validating the other person’s viewpoint…instead you’re saying “I see your point of view and now discounting it…” ~ Lucy Jo Palladino, PhD.

Peace,
+B

Romantic Obsession IS NOT Love: An Excerpt from ‘The 5 Love Languages’ By Dr. Gary Chapman

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:00:51 +0000

Right now I’m enjoying this AMAZING read, The 5 Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate by Gary Chapman, that explains how there are five, completely different “dialects” of deep, emotional connection and that we each come predisposed for a particular one. (“The personality types of love,” if you will.)

Unfortunately though, *we only understand OUR OWN language*, so too many great relationships and marriages eventually grow cold by us not VALIDATING one another – not “speaking love” to one another – on the frequency that other person is attuned to. Essentially, most relationships become the equivalent of someone speaking German to another who only understand Chinese.

So the five languages Chapman discovered are – write this down – (1) words of affirmation, (2) quality time, (3) receiving gifts, (4) acts of service, and (5) physical touch, but before he “breaks down the science” and gives techniques for each one, he covers two VERY important points:

(A) That the need for love is not simply a childhood phenomenon… that it’s something we ALL need even in our adulthood, and (B) that the initial romantic infatuation we go through IS NOT REAL LOVE, that it’s guaranteed to fade away with time (even though it seems perfect midstream), so we need to approach loving our mate in a more disciplined, conscientious way.

So for your reading pleasure (thank me later…or thank YOURSELF by buying the book), here’s an excerpt on that last point. Enjoy…

On “Falling In Love”

“Some researchers, like psychiatrist M. Scott Peck and psychologist Dorothy Tennov, conclude that the ‘in-love’ experience shouldn’t be called ‘love’ at all. Dr. Tennov coined the term ‘limerence’ for the in-love experience in order to distinguish it from actual, genuine love.

Dr. Peck says that falling-in-love isn’t real for three key reasons: first, it’s not an act of will or conscious choice. No matter how much we may WANT to fall in love, we never actually “make” it happen (it’s often when we’re NOT seeking it that we’re overtaken) and that’s why we tend to fall in love at inopportune times and with unlikely people.

Second, falling in love isn’t real because it’s effortless. Whatever we do in the “in-love” state requires little discipline or conscious effort on our part:

>> the long, expensive phone calls we make to each other,

>> the money we spend traveling to see one another,

>> the gifts we give and

>> the professional work and projects we sacrifice

…are as nothing to us. Just like a bird, by instinct, builds a nest, so being in love, by instinct, pushes us to do outlandish and unnatural things.

Third (and most importantly), someone who’s ‘in love’ is not genuinely interested in the personal growth of the other person: our main purpose is *to terminate our own loneliness* and perhaps ensure that termination through marriage.

Again, being ‘in love’ DOES NOT focus on our own development OR on the development of the other person. Instead, it gives us the (false) notion that we’ve “arrived” and need no further development at all. When we’re in love, we’re at the apex of life’s happiness and our only desire is to stay there: certainly our beloved doesn’t need to grow…she’s *definitely* perfect, and we simply hope she’ll remain that way.

So What IS Real Love Then???

If falling in love isn’t real, what is it? Dr. Peck concludes that it’s (brace yourself…we’re about to get analytical):

“A genetically determined instinctual component of mating behavior: the temporary collapse of ego boundaries that constitutes falling in love is a stereotypic response of human beings to a configuration of internal sexual drives and external sexual stimuli, which serves to increase the probability of sexual pairing and bonding so as to enhance the survival of the species…”

(NOTE: Now if you’re thinking “WTF???” after reading that, don’t worry…I was too. Basically, we’re wired to fall in love so the species can continue: limerence exists to insure that we keep getting our freak on.)

Whether you agree with that or not, you can’t disagree that the experience catapults us into emotional orbit like nothing else and DIS-engages our reasoning: we do and say things we’d never do and say if sober and – after we come down from the emotional obsession – wonder why we even did them in the first place.

When the wave of emotions subside and we’re back in the real world, we see our differences and ask ‘Why did we get married? We don’t agree on anything.’ But at the height of in-loveness we *thought* we agreed on everything…at least everything that was important.

So does this mean that after our genes trick us into marriage we either (a) resign ourselves to a life of misery with our spouse or (b) jump ship and try again??? Most of our generation has chosen the latter, but statistics prove – with 40% of first marriages ending in divorce, but 60 and 75% of second and third marriages ending in divorce, respectively – that the chance of living happily ever after the second or third time around is insubstantial.

But research indicates that THERE’S A THIRD AND BETTER CHOICE: to recognize the “in-love” experience for what it was – a temporary emotional high – and pursue ‘real love’ with our spouse…the kind that’s emotional in nature but not obsessive.

It’s a love that unites reason AND emotion. It involves will and requires discipline, AND it recognizes the need for personal growth.

Remember, our most basic emotional need is not to fall in love, but to BE genuinely loved…to know a love that grows out of reason and choice, not instinct. I need to be loved by someone who chooses to love me…who sees in me something worth loving.” ~ Dr. Gary Chapman

Peace,
+B

How to Be a ‘Fly’ Person: Early Writings on Building Self-Confidence, part 1 (On Reframing Your Mistakes & Failures)

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:00:37 +0000

For most people, being “fly” means being “jigged out,” or simply having a strong fashion sense. But for me – being the conceptual nerd that I am – being “fly” means being psychologically unaffected by your trials and tribulations: it means being able to speak to yourself in an uplifting, elevated and liberated way, REGARDLESS of what happens to you…

That being said, here’s some of my earliest writings on raising your confidence and self-esteem. Let me know what you think, and enjoy both part 2 and part 3 of this series to get all the goodies. (Not “goodies” like Ciara though…that’s definitely not the subconscious association I need to be making…uh-oh, too late.)

The thing is, your value as a person can NEVER be measured by your accomplished, and while you’re desire for success is healthy, the false notion that you need success to BE desirable is not…

If you have this false notion, the following cycle might sound familiar: (1) you get inspired to do something, (2) you make a minor attempt at it, (3) you experience a small setback, (4) you lose the motivation to keep trying, and (5) you beat yourself up about it continuously after the fact.

The internal dialogue goes something like “Look at me, here I go messing things up again.” “What the hell is wrong with me? Why can’t I get this right?” “I’m just stupid…stupid, stupid, stupid.” “See, I knew this would happen. Why do I even bother? Just forget it.”

This is low self-worth, and in time, the negative self-talk associated can become ingrained, making the more positive self-talk that encourages success (an internal champion) seem unimaginable.

So to help fight this tendency, here’s part 1 (of 3) of my favorite techniques for becoming a “fly” person, which again, is about your motivational sense, not your fashion one…

1: Separate Your Results from Your IDENTITY

The first step to liberate yourself from this is to separate your experiences from your identity…it’s to learn evaluating yourself as separate process from evaluating your results.

If you can’t seem to “stay motivated” for instance, that just means you don’t know how to motivate yourself, which is *a skill* you can learn.

If you can’t seem to build anything with the people you meet romantically, that just means you don’t know how to build a relationship, which is *a skill* you can learn.

If you can’t seem to manage your finances, that just means you’re not strategic (or positive) about money, which is *a skill* you can learn.

None of this means that something is wrong with YOU, but simply that you don’t know how to do a particular thing.

When you were born, you didn’t even know how to walk, but you learned, didn’t you? And, you had to fall down numerous times, but did you say to yourself, “I’m destined to just crawl for the rest of my life. Why do I even try???”

Failure is a stepping stone to success. You have to fail multiple times in everything you do before you learn to do it, so stop interpreting your failures as indications of your personal value, and “stop making identity meaning out of external events.”

Before you can truly “unfold your wings” and take off, you have to understand that you are perfect exactly as you are now. You don’t need to improve, evolve or succeed in order to grow in value as a human being: You are valuable as a human being simply because you exist.

More coming soon…

Peace,
+B

THE 4 LEARNING STYLES: How to Create MAGNETIC Information That Speaks to ALL Personality Types

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:00:53 +0000

Ever try to teach somebody something important and get the weird feeling it went right through one ear and out the other? Ever have someone explain a vague concept to you by randomly pulling together facts and ideas that lead nowhere??? Both sides of the coin – having a poor teacher or having a lazy student – can be VERY annoying.

What if I told you that when this happens, it’s not because the person is just dumb (although that might be the case) or – on the reverse side – because *they* have absolutely NO idea what they’re talking about, but simply because they have a completely different “personality type for knowledge” than you do?

What if I told you that there are actually four *different* “learning styles,” that if you consciously knew and used to structure YOUR information, you’d ALWAYS be listened to…that people would seek YOU out to learn from and that you’d never be ignored (or thought of as “whacko” or preachy) again???

The Thing Is…

…while we all know about the personality types (introverted/extroverted, type A/type B, etc.), for some odd reason, we rarely think about how that same theory might play out in more specific areas of life.

For instance, Dr. Gary Chapman talks about the personality types of love in his book The 5 Love Languages which we’ll get into later this week, and Prof. Wyatt Woodsmall (author of numerous books on psychology and NLP) talks about the personality types of knowledge with his concept, “The 4 Learning Styles,” which we’re about to get into right now.

Now to be clear, these are NOT simply the various “mediums” you can put information in (like verbal, visual, or audio), they’re fundamentally different ways our psyches come pre-wired to understand new ideas.

By instinct, most of us only talk OUR OWN language: whenever we have something to teach or explain, we resort to our own natural style and assume that the other person should just “get it,”…and if they don’t, that that’s their problem, not ours.

But as you know, that’s a passive, failure-prone approach to have, so let’s get straight into it and talk about how you can start implementing the four learning styles in your own life today.

1: The “WHY” Learning-Style

“Why-learners” are always asking the question “WHY?” as in “Why am I learning this?” or “Why are you even telling me???” Quite literally, a why person CAN’T learn unless it’s made clear from the outset “why” knowledge is being shared in the first place…

One powerful way to talk to a why-learner is with BENEFITS & CONSEQUENCES. Remember a few paragraphs ago where I said, “People will seek YOU out to learn from…you’ll never be ignored/thought of as preachy again”?? That’s what I mean: tell the person directly, “If you learn this ____ (insert positive benefit) will happen, but if you DON’T learn this ___ (insert negative consequence) will happen.”

This is why most of my blog titles are so benefits-focused. Since *most people are why-learners*, I make sure, from jump, to tell people EXACTLY to expect and what they’re going to get out of it.

2: The “WHAT” Learning-Style

“What-learners” are the conceptual people: they always want to know “What’s this really about?” or “What’s the deeper meaning here?”, because for the what learning style, if there’s no deeper concepts, theoretical framework or even symbolism (in the case of a movie), there’s really no point.

One powerful way to talk to a what-learner is with THE HISTORY, like in one of my better posts on time-management where I said: “Time management is played out, and what I mean by that is that traditional ‘time management’ comes out of a world that no longer exists…

…the term dates way back to the *industrial revolution* which was the first time when ‘output’ for the average person was no longer confined to nature…whereas before,

>> work used to be determined by seasons and sunlight hours,

>> holidays by inclement weather and

>> even time itself by looking at the Sun,

…this was the first time when people started using clocks, working in factories and leaving their rural hometowns for major cities.” >> con’t reading

See what I mean? Anytime you talk about the history of something (or where an idea comes from and why), you’re almost guaranteed to satisfy a what-learner’s conceptual hunger. Go back and re-read from the sub-heading that starts, “The Thing Is…” for another example.

3: The HOW Learning-Style

“How-learners” are always asking “So HOW do I actually do this?” and learn best through step-by-step formulas. These are the people who want detailed plans, similar to cooking instructions or a GameFAQs walkthrough…

Obviously, the way talk to a how-learner is by HAND-HOLDING. Even if it sounds silly (or unnecessary), say “First do this, then do this, and then do that…” or somehow CREATE A PROCEDURE that tells them exactly what to do.

For examples, go towards the end of my post on Healthy Selfishness, or watch from 5:30 – 6:30 in my video on the “4 Elements” morning routine.

4: The “WHAT-IF” Learning-Style

And lastly, “What-if learners” are the entrepreneurs of the world: they’re the people who want to go do something *as soon* as they get a valuable idea (to the point of even leaving a seminar midway because they “got what they needed.”). They want to really test ideas out and see if they work…

I’ve found that the best way to speak to a what-if learner is to GIVE THEM PERMISSION. Be succinct, to the point and simply say “Alright, now go out and try and let me know how it works for you,” they’ll appreciate the brevity and feel like you’re more in touch with the real world.

Tying the 4 Styles Together

Now you may be wondering, “So how do I know what style a particular person is before I start teaching?” and the answer is, YOU DON’T, so the best thing to do is incorporate all 4 styles to make sure you’re information speaks to everyone. (Go in this same order – Why, What, How and then What-If – because most people are Why’s, then What’s, so on and so forth.)

Next time you have something to teach, sit down and devise why (play out all the benefits and consequences of knowing/not knowing it), explain what (teach the history or theory), and after you teach it, summarize with a procedure for the how’s, and then give the what-if’s permission get out there and do it.

Before you get started thought, take a second to leave your thoughts in the comment section now. What type of learning style are you? How do YOU like information to be shared so that you learn best???

Peace,
+B

Get your hands on 2 full chapters from my upcoming book,
Doing The Knowledge: Ascending Into Action, FOR FREE:

Subtle Secrets: The Valuable, Hidden Character Traits I USED TO BE ASHAMED OF…

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:00:37 +0000

We don’t always offer up the truth about ourselves, do we? The Fugees were on-point when they said, “everybody wears the mask,” because almost ALL of us walk around in this society scared to reveal a thing, don’t we???

It’s almost like Eyes Wide Shut except without all the sex…or WITH all the sex, but without all the money and prestige, and what’s interesting is that the things we’re so hesitant to reveal about ourselves are often the same things that give us our unique power.

Personally speaking, in many cases, the key character traits that made me who I am today are things I used to be ashamed of and confused about when I was younger. Take a second to see what I mean and let me know what you think in the comments section afterwards…

(1) Being a LISTENER

When I was younger, I was ashamed of the fact that I didn’t have much to contribute to group discussions. I was the quiet one, and thought that since everybody else was vocal, outspoken and loud, that I should be that way too.

Little did I know that my mind was more concerned with assimilating and incorporating *new* ideas than with verbalizing the ones I already had, and that being a good listener would lead to me becoming GREAT at structuring and sharing ideas.

Ironically, if you let go of the need to always be the “deep” one, you become the deep one instead. Listening is a hidden character trait that leads to compassion, influence, respect, believability and more…

(2) Being a LEARNER

Similarly, when I was younger, I was ashamed of the fact that I liked reading. I hid my books from other people’s sight, and I thought it was weird that I understood the symbolism in English class when other kids didn’t.

Little did I know that if you limit yourself to the ideas you have direct access to (other kids, parents, people in your neighborhood), you limit yourself to the reality that they exist in, and that being a reader would lead to me constantly aspiring for something greater for myself.

Ironically, some of the things you do while sitting still (reading, meditation, etc.) end up taking you further then the most extroverted activities ever can. Reading is a hidden character trait that leads to eloquence, motivation, creativity and emotional strength.

(3) Being a SEEKER

And lastly, when I was younger, I was ashamed of the fact that I was always looking for meaning. I thought something was wrong with me because I didn’t get the same satisfaction and pleasure out of what seemed to make everyone else content.

Little did I know that my search for depth was the seed of what would ultimately become my life purpose, and that being a seeker would lead to me creating the blog you’re enjoying right now.

Ironically, when we spend a long time looking for something and never find it, we develop a way to create it ourselves. Seeking is a hidden character trait that leads to vision, depth, self-knowledge and contentment in life.

I guess the biggest irony of all is that the things I used to think made me weird and made my life difficult – the things I used to feel so frustrated and conflicted about – are the same things that make me a unique and valuable person.

Another good thing about these “subtle secrets” is that if you’re still reading this, it was probably just one big affirmation for you, but let me know in the comments section now: what are you’re “subtle secrets”? What character traits have you historically despised about yourself that’ve led you to becoming the stronger, more developed you you are now???

Peace,
+B

HEALTH-CONFIDENCE: The Secret, Psychological Component to Physical Wellbeing That NOBODY Seems to Talk About

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:00:43 +0000

DISCLAIMER: What you’re about to read is my simple, Hempstead, New York-bumpkin *opinion*. I AM NOT a professional health professional (don’t let the glasses or decent vocabulary fool you), so what follows is IN NO WAY meant to replace ANYTHING you’d get from your good ol’ family doctor, therapist (or “shrink” if you’re really nuts), nutritional consultant or any other licensed practitioner. Nothing in this blogpost (or anything my crazy behind says on this blog in general) constitutes medical advice.

Now I know that YOU personally don’t need to be told that, but remember: we’re on the internet (and remember those two girls who tried sue McDonald’s for obesity, too). Giving information like this without a disclaimer can be like having sex without a condom…or worse. So for the record – if it applies – I ain’t got jack-diddly to get sued for in the first place, so do us both a favor and don’t even try it. Onward…

WE ALL KNOW how important confidence is…ask a woman what attracts her to a man, a sales-rep what closes the deal or any life-coach (whatever the heck that is) what he teaches people to be, and your research’ll bring you to the common theme of CONFIDENCE. Confidence, confidence confidence confidence…

But for some odd reason, most of us fail to draw this same parallel when it comes to our own physical wellbeing. Simply put, it’s obvious that just like we need SELF-confidence in order to succeed professionally or socially, we also need what I call “HEALTH-confidence” in order to sustain long-term physical shape and constitution, but

You literally need a certain type of faith in your body’s natural inclination towards healing: a certain overall positive mental attitude ABOUT health that most people are lacking these days (both young and old, mind you).

Unfortunately, if you examine how most people think and talk about health, *they’re doing the exact opposite.* So let’s get into specifics and see what WE can do to protect ourselves:

Health-Confidence vs. Health-Anxiety

First off, the opposite of health-confidence is something I refer to as “health anxiety”: a fearful apprehension towards (or general feeling of helplessness about) one’s overall wellbeing.

A major way this manifests itself is by avoidance, like a few weeks ago when a friend said to me, “Yeah B, I have this pain in my side, but I’m scared to go check it out…what if the doctor tells me it’s something serious and I have to get all these weird operations and take tons of drugs????” (I’m not lying…that quote’s basically verbatim)

But another way this manifests itself by amplification, like when I told someone I work with that I was tired, and he said, “Oh yeah? Well y’know, you might be anemic because of low this-that-and-the-third. If I was you I’d go to a doctor and check that out…”

People with health-anxiety tend to blow minor aches and pains out of proportion and see every little tick as an opportunity to focus on the disaster of terminal illness. On the other hand, people with health-confidence know that the human body is not invincible, so even when small issues come up, they stay calm and maintain a sense of serenity about their situation.

(The idea here is to catch yourself whenever you’re worrying about something minor incessantly and STOP.)

Health-Optimism vs. Health-Pessimism

In addition to this, some people are generally optimistic about *the idea* of being healthy (they’re positive and interested whenever the subject comes up) whereas some people feel like it’s a drag…like it’s “too complex” or too much of a negative bore to even bother with in the first place (the “eat your vegetables” syndrome, but the grown-up version).

For instance, my previous employer was near 70 and “still kicking” as they say. He would work just as hard (if not harder) then the rest of us, and was outspoken about the power and benefits of a healthy lifestyle: “I knew that if I just took care of my body, ate somewhat decently and got my exercise, I’d be more than okay….I’d be fine.” and he now had the Cenegenics body (the energy, not the muscles) to prove it.

“Health-optimistic” people are genuinely interested in being a healthy person and it shows. They actively seek out the information that’ll them help you be strongest they can be, and apply it with a positive mood, so you should to: be lighthearted and cheerful about your entire approach, and you’ll be more than okay…you’ll be fine.

The Danger of Disease-Prone Thinking

And lastly, some people have what I call “disease-prone thinking,” where they THINK of health simply as the absence of disease (rather than the expression of life). Since their entire “health knowledge-base” is essentially a language of illness, they approach the whole thing from a deficit.

Think about how medicine is marketed (watch some commercials), how health-food is explained (“this fruit has ‘cancer-fighting’ properties”) and the type of sex-education we get in schools (don’t get me started), it’s no wonder so many people are such defeatist about it. We’re literally conditioned to think about “nasty, deadly diseases” anytime anything health-related comes up.

For instance, a lot of people associate sex with dirtiness, pregnancy, STD’s and religious trangressions, but NOT a lot of people know that it releases endorphins (the body’s natural pain killers), boosts creativity and that regular orgasms lead to increased self-esteem.

Not a lot of people know that regular exercise BOOSTS sexual self-esteem

Not a lot of people know that apples have protein in them (read the book Fruits & Farinacea for more.)

Not a lot of people know that massage before an athletic event enhances speed and power and makes the athlete more flexible and less prone to injury…

GET WHERE I’M GOING HERE??? Our society gives us a syntax about health that’s disease-oriented, so we have to condition ourselves to think more abundantly towards the whole thing.

One way you can do this is by learning things that are uplifting in nature…by sticking to knowledge that’s positive and success-oriented (not scary and failure-oriented). It’s called “towards-motivation.”

Qualifications and Conclusion

Qualification #1: I am NOT saying that you should “just be confident and positive” and do absolutely nothing. Educate yourself, seek counsel from health professionals you trust and follow up on high-quality advice.

Qualification #2: I am NOT saying that you should be indifferent towards people who *are* actually sick (just because they may have less positive attitude). If you know someone who’s terminally ill or going through something, being there for emotional support can make a big difference, and

Qualification #3: I am NOT saying that you should be dismissive towards someone’s genuine concerns or lack of knowledge. If someone’s uneducated but open-minded to a different point of view, take it as an opportunity to enlighten them in a compassionate way.

However, what I *AM* saying is that health is subtle MINDSET first and that, in our culture, we literally have a “disease-oriented society” you need to disassociate yourself from. (Think movies like Contagion…the billboard for it reads: “Don’t talk to anyone, don’t touch anyone.”)

Like always, your mindset determines your approach: if you don’t have the psychological component in place, you’re not going to do the right things and you’re not even going to be motivated to find out what the right things are in the first place. Without health-confidence, you’ll be “locked-down”… you’ll trapped and addicted to your own self-destructive behaviors, and won’t even know why.

Have faith in your ability to stay healthy and strong over the long-term. Know that if you simply do the right things and follow sound advice, you’ll be alright, and don’t assume (or feel destined) that something terrible is going happen just because that’s been the fate of people around you…

Again, have faith in your body’s natural inclination towards health, and have faith in your own knowledge-base and the resources you have available to you to help.

Peace,
+B

Your World Serves as a Reflection of Your Own Psychology…

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:00:51 +0000

The first thing I want to say is that this post really isn’t for YOU pers se, cause I know you know this stuff already. It’s “for you” only as (1) a reminder to keep you in the right frame of mind and (2) as verbal ammunition – or facebook wall-post ammunition – to get the right idea across to the person in your life who needs to hear it. Let’s get started…

“One of my spiritual beliefs is that a man’s world serves as a reflection to his own psychology, meaning that the positives we notice in other people are, at a deeper level, signs indicating our own strengths and the character traits we can realistically aspire towards.

The corollary to that however is that the negatives we notice in other people also indicate our own faults, and in some cases, the “final destination” our current behavior is leading us towards.

Why Learn This Style of Thought???

I like thinking like this because it encourages me to spend LESS time criticizing or condemning other people as and more time simply OBSERVING them while reflecting on how their strengths and weaknesses relate back (or can relate back) to me.

(Even Confucius once said: “When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves…”)

Once you master this style of thinking, you get leverage over your limitations you’d otherwise never parallel. If you DON’T learn this style of thinking, you get other people’s anger, disrespect and hurtful actions consuming you and destroying your quality of life.

Another bad thing happens when you don’t do this: you’ll get intimidated at times when you should be uplifted. Instead of “seeing men of worth and thinking of equaling them,” – thinking of how to absorb their power into your own (like Rogue from the X-men) – you’ll just sit their and wonder what’s wrong with you.

Know that even though I have a “self-development” blog, in real life, I don’t spend my time and energy telling other people who they should be or how they should think. In most cases, I’m just the silent observer. I think you should do the same because it allows you to find much more opportunities in life while sheltering your personal experience from hurt, loss and unnecessary sacrifices.

Be a “Detective Psychologist”

A big key to this is being what I call a “detective psychologist”: being obsessed with understanding how success-prone, positive people think as well as how failure-prone, negative people think. A detective psychologist is able to delineate between these two types and articulate those differences consciously.

You can do this generally (as in “Why are some people generally optimistic while others are pessimistic?”) or more specifically (“Why are some people always broke or in debt whereas others always seem to have cash on them?”), but the point is to START DOING IT.

For instance: I’ve found that someone who stays focused and manages their time IS that way because they believe in the purpose of what they’re doing and they enjoy the tasks involved. Someone who stays procrastinating and only manages their laziness IS that way because they misunderstand what their work means (that it may “expose” their *assumed* lack of personal value to the world, for instance).

Someone who’s a good communicator is generally concerned with what the person he’s talking to understands, while someone who’s a poor communicator is generally more concerned with what the person he’s talking to perceives about HIM personally.

We could go on for days (people with consistently high-quality relationships want to build their partner up, people with consistently low-quality relationships want a partner for their own selfish gratification, etc. etc.) but I think you see what I mean…

Point is, don’t be too focused on just, “learning from other people’s mistakes,” (which is good too), but more so on exploring the psychology that motivates other people’s behavior and attracts their experiences, and seeing how that reflects and corresponds with your own thinking.

“Learning from other’s mistakes” implies, “Oh, he did X so I gotta make sure to NEVER do that…” (it’s simplistic).

“Reflection” implies, “Oh, he did ‘X’ because he sees situations like ‘Y’, and really, I do that too sometimes, in my own way, because I also ‘Z’…I need to chill.” (it’s more intricate and leads to actionable insights).

Remember, a man’s world serves as a reflection to his own psychology. Take care and let me know what you think anytime…

Peace,
+B

The 3 Key Areas of Self-Development: A Simple & Helpful Framework for Measuring Your Progress & Teaching Others Successfully (FREE Diagram & Exercise)

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:00:44 +0000

SELF-DEVELOPMENT GETS OVERWHELMING SOMETIMES, doesn’t it??? I mean, if you’re like me, sometimes just one good trip to the bookstore or just one good session online (OR just one, simple halfway-decent blog) results in an AVALANCHE ofinteresting information you wish you could just download into your brain like Neo in the Matrix (“I know kung-fu…”)

Seriously…if you’re like me, you just want to become the best “you” you can possibly be, but with all the time-management techniques, self-esteem boosters, motivational quotes, health and nutrition advice, new-age metaphysical concepts, Afrocentric thinking, “for women” series, “manhood training,” classical stuff that’s a 100 years old and newer stuff that came out 5 minutes ago, it gets hard figuring out where to even start.

Enter “The 3 Key Intelligences”:

Luckily, my father recently shared something with me he calls “The 3 Key Areas of Life,” to help simplify things. He’s not *the first* person I heard this from mind you (all the good stuff comes from my Mom anyway), but he is the first to sit down with me and really school my ass on it. The 3 Key Areas of life are:

1.) Health & Wellness (everything pertaining to your physical wellbeing),

2.) Career & Money (everything pertaining to your financial wellbeing), and

3.) Love (everything pertaining to your relationships).

“Once you have these 3 things, YOU’RE SET: you’ll be happy and feel like you can accomplish anything” he said, “but whenever you DON’T have just one of these 3 things, something feels off. You won’t necessarily understand it, but something will feel missing and you won’t be at 100%.”

Now what made this powerful wasn’t that it made sense (which it does…more on that later), but that – from my years of blogging about personal growth – I know that these 3 fields actually account for around 70% of ALL sales in the self-development industry.

Let me say that again: the vast majority of REAL money being made in ALL of the self-help books, tapes, programs, lectures and consultations relate to one of these 3 fields (or any of their logical denominations). The actual term for it is “the three ‘mega-niches,’” because this is where people are spending their hard-earned cash.

I call it “The 3 Key Intelligences” because (1) these areas are a good yardstick to measure your own progess, (2) If you’re looking to teach, these 3 areas are the BEST places to focus your energy and (3) calling it intelligences just makes it sound more sophisticated.

Also, if you’re like me, you’ll probably find yourself strong (or just “okay”) in 1 or 2 areas, but needing a little improvement in others, and THIS IS NORMAL. Let’s get started with a quick explanation and then go into depth with a great exercise…

Intelligence #1: Health & Wellness

…which you find in almost anything that pertains to diet, weight loss, vegetarianism, exercise plans, yoga, pilates, etc., etc. I touched on this with posts like “Why I Became Vegetarian” and “How to Eat Healthier AUTOMATICALLY Without Any Conscious Effort” (as well as the video series I did with Nutritional Consultant Hondo Solomon). You can also try recommended scrolls like Afrikan Holistic Health and “Fruits & Farinacea: The Proper Food of Man”.

What makes this one interesting is that IT’S THE ONLY ONE YOU’RE BORN HAVING (with the exception of rare diseases, of course), so consequentially, most people take it completely for granted until it’s too late. Don’t make this same mistake.

Here, ask yourself questions like: “How confident am I in my overall health?”, “What type of small changes can I start doing to improve?” and lastly, “What do I know about health that I can share with other people?“

Intelligence #2: Finance & Career

…which you find in anything that pertains to professional success, money-management, wealth-building, real estate, internet marketing, forex trading and even time-management (which is all me of course). I touched on this with posts like “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (Audio-Book Excerpts)” and almost everything on getting focused. You can also try recommended scrolls like “The Millionaire Next Door“ and “Living Well On One Income…In a TWO-Income World.”

What makes this one interesting is that IT SETS THE PARAMETERS for how well you enjoy the others. As Norwegian Playwright Henrik Ibsen once said: “Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt…”

So here, ask yourself questions like, “How financially secure to I feel about my (& my family’s) future?” “What type of things will lead me towards economic strength?” and lastly, “What type of skills can I teach to help someone else become more of a financial success???” (This includes public speaking, frugality, etc….think outside of the box if you have to.)

3: Love & Relationships

…which you find in anything that pertains to (obviously) dating advice, marriage counseling, sexuality, etc. etc. and also parenting. I touched on this with posts like “7 Ways to Let Go of a Past Relationship So You Can MOVE ON…” and “WHAT DO WOMEN WANT???” You can also try recommended scrolls like “The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts” (more on this next week) and “Building Your Mate’s Self-Esteem”

What makes this one interesting is that IT’S THE ONLY ONE YOU CAN’T CONTROL. True love (not romantic obsession) only comes around once or twice in a lifetime, and that’s if you’re lucky…for some people it never comes.

So here, ask yourself questions like: “How confident am I in your ability to attract (and keep) a high-quality partner?” “What type of things can I start doing NOW to improve the relationship I already have?” and lastly “What type of things can I teach OTHER people that’ll help them their dating life/marriage???”

But What About Spirituality, Psychology, etc.???

Now you might be thinking, “Bryan, that sounds good, but what about deeper stuff like psychology and spirituality??? Aren’t those the ‘bigger’ fields that kind of ‘oversee’ these other ones you seem to be talking about?” and my answer is that, even when people cover information from those angles, THE RESULTS they’re usually targeting still come back to these 3 major concerns.

For example, in The (so-called) Secret, almost ALL of the “law of attraction” techniques were explained as conducive to attracting “the perfect mate” (whatever that is, cause NOBODY’s perfect), eliminating a serious illness or attaining financial security (hence the big red Ferrari).

And even with the Think Right Now programs I offer (which are strictly psychological), almost ALL of the products relate to success in business or health-oriented ways, with titles like “I am Smoke Free Now”(health), “Eating For Excellent Health Now!” (health), “Conquering Social Anxiety Now!”(social/career), “Anger-Management Now!”(relationships), “Fearless Public Speaking Now!” (career) and “Accelerated Sales Success Now!” (money), just to name a few…

Be truly honest with yourself and you’ll realize that the REAL reason you study almost ANYTHING psychological, spiritual, etc. etc. ultimately relate back to these 3 fundamentals. (Even Bobby Hemmitt was selling “Angelic Stimulus Packages” at one time. Remember that?)

Just think for a second: what brings people back to the church after DECADES of a more decadent, somatic lifestyle??? RIGHT…usually a life-threatening disease or severe financial turmoil. When do people call out for God and start praying??? When they seriously think they’re going to die!

What I’m really saying here is that these 3 mega-fields are the basic DRIVES that motivate all of our other searching. It’s not that anything else isn’t important, just that it’s human nature to use those other things as conduits towards our more basic needs.

If it feels like I’m trying to confine you by saying “there’s only 3 key areas to study in self-development,” know that this is a framework primarily about HOLDING YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE for real, actual results. What makes the keys powerful is that they’re the least subjective areas of study…

Anybody can be “spiritual” by tonight and return to being a *complete asshole* tomorrow morning. The 3 keys requires you to statistic and objective about your own progress, as well as the progress of other people around you and the quality of their information. If you’re hesitant to consider this idea, you’re probably also hesitant to be more disciplined about your overall personal growth.

Free Diagram to Pull This All Together

So here’s a pretty cool diagram you can use to put the 3 keys to work. Use the “goals” section in each area to describe what you want to change, the “knowledge” section to describe a thing or two you already know and then SHARE IT WITH SOMEBODY…download the exercise here.

I say teach somebody because that’ll reinforce what you know as well as the fact that you really DO know a lot of things (even if you’re not consciously giving yourself credit for it now).

Also, when I say you should be focused on these fields, I’m not talking about ULTIMATE PERFECTION. For instance, if you’re not in a great financial place right now, but you’re working to get there and you’re on that path, that counts. If you don’t have somebody special, but you’re getting rid of somebody not so special anymore – becoming clearer on what you need and want – that counts too.

This is a framework for growth, not something to beat yourself up about, and remember, anytime you’re sharing knowledge and information, always relate it back to one of these three mega-niches… because this is the type of stuff people are ACTIVELY searching for on their own accord.

Peace,
+B

CAN FEAR BE PRODUCTIVE??? (3 Things Every Driven, Fully-Engaged Person is Literally AFRAID Of…& Why YOU SHOULD BE TOO)

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:00:02 +0000

In everything self-help, people are constantly dissing fear: all the experts, gurus and consultants (and even little ol’ me sometimes) talk about “overcoming fear,” how “fear is an illusion,” the “10 steps to eliminate fear for good,” etc. etc. as if it’s productive-person enemy #1…

So just the other day it occurred to me that most of us “self-developmenters” (I’ll continue to make up words for the rest of my life, so get used to it) never think about how FEAR CAN WORK IN OUR FAVOR…that there may be a few ways in which fear can actually make us MORE driven, ambitious, creative and efficient without us even being aware to the fact.

So – “generating off the headpiece” like I always love to do – here’s FOUR instances my black-behind thought of where being afraid of something ultimately led people I know to more productivity and SUCCESS then they would otherwise obtain (at least from my limited perspective). Check it out:

Productive Fear #1: Ending Up Just Like “What’s-Her-Face?”

Every productive person I know has someone they work with, someone they went to school with or someone in their family (or all 3 and then some) that’s THE DIRECT OPPOSITE of what they’re aspiring towards, and that person motivates them in reverse.

Like 50 Cent once said: “Daaamn homie…in high school you was the maaaaan homie…what the eff happened to you???”. Literally every ambitious person I know can relate.

…seriously though: EVERY productive, on-point, self-motivated individual I ever met has someone they see (at least from time to time) that makes them virtually scared about what’ll happen if they don’t “pull up their shoes,” and they REVERSE ENGINEER motivation out of that bad example.

So I ask you: who’s your nightmare-motivator? Take a look at how they talk, carry themselves, think and behave and then simply do the direct opposite.

Productive Fear #2: Being Dependent

On a deeper note, a lot of productive and accomplished people are also afraid of being dependent on someone else to take care of them. If you listen closely, you’ll hear a lot of focused people saying things like, “I just don’t want anybody else to control me.”

Now if this sounds negative to you, remember that this fear usually comes from a direct experience of what being controlled looks like on a day-to-day basis. These people are motivated to NOT GO BACK to something destructive that they’re intimately familiar with. It’s called wisdom…

Me? I don’t judge anybody, and although I don’t have a direct experience of being dependent like that, I know the power of learning from other people’s mistakes, and I suggest you do the same.

Productive Fear #3: Staying The Same

This one really applies to me the most of all: productive people are AFRAID of staying the same. They say to themselves, “I don’t want to look down the road, and after 10 years still be making tacos and playing video games with Norbert and Winston.”

When I was in high school, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life going to parties and chasing girls (because it felt pointless), and when I was in college, I didn’t want spend the rest of my life going to activist meetings and organizing protests (because it felt futile and victimizing). And to be honest, now that I’m here, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life blogging either (it feels good…but I also feel like there has to be some greater call for me too).

Maybe it all boils down to a fear of being trapped: I want to have new talents and skills, not just be a writer and I want to travel and see the world, not just live (and die) in America. All I can say is, once I begin to master something, I get scared that that mastery will become the circumference of my life-experience, so I start channeling my energies in a new direction…

So take a second to think about all this. If any of it makes you go, “Y’know Bryan, these fears really stem from being critical of others,” or “Maybe they just have trust-issues from childhood, and they need to dissolve their Ego into Universal Cosmic Non-Beingness” remember the bottom line: THESE PEOPLE ARE OUT THERE GETTING IT…

I know people doing all types of creative, magnificent things to reengineer their lives and get themselves and their family in a better situation. Take it as you want, but the older I get, the more results-oriented and less ethics-concerned my thinking becomes, so I have nothing but support for them.

My main point though is that productive people are simply AFRAID of the things un-productive people are content with: they’re not necessarily better or more talented, but their fears often drive their behavior down an alternate path.

Now leave a brother some love in the comment section: which of the “productive fears” above resonate with you most? Are there any other things you’re afraid of that help you to stay focused? If so, what are they???

Peace,
+B

5 Books Every Productive Person NEEDS to Read…That AREN’T Actually About Productivity

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:00:39 +0000

As you’ve probably noticed, I love recommending scrolls (suggesting great reads), but – as you’ve ALSO probably noticed – I’ve been slacking on my game for a minute now…

I haven’t written an actual, unique book review in about 2 or 3 months now, so let’s get back into the flow by mixing it up a little: a list that’s ALL fiction, social critique or otherwise not really about productivity at all…books that don’t talk about getting focused, but cover ideas so “ingrediential” to it that every productive person NEEDS to them on their bookshelf.

Enjoy, and like always, don’t hesitate to leave a comment recommending some great reads yourself.

5 Non-Productivity Productivity Books

(1) JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL by Richard Bach: the classic novella ( or “mini-novel”) about a talented, ambitious seagull learning to fly amongst mediocre, typical seagulls that can’t even envision a goal beyond finding their next pathetic meal…

“How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!”

This book parallels some of my work on being unique and living a life of metamorphosis, even when surrounded by those with no aspiration for anything greater. The fact that it’s a short read (as in less than an hour) makes it all the better, so click here for more…

(2) ATLAS SHRUGGED Ayn Rand: the well-known, best-selling novel about entrepreneurial genius learning to thrive despite a parasitic environment of governmental control…

“Hordes of savages have never been an obstacle to men who carry the banner of the mind.”

“Never feel guilt for that which you should feel glory: you are not a sacrificial animal. Refuse to be punished for the sin of your intelligence, or to perish at the alters of mindless brutes…”

This book parallels some of my writings on healthy selfishness, self-direction and internal power, because – slightly different from Bach’s work – Rand talks about sheltering your brilliance from exploitation. Check it out for more…

(3)EMPIRE OF ILLUSION by Christopher Hedges: a non-fiction social critique that defines America AS a culture of deception. Hedges details the various parts of our world that slowly gear ALL OF US towards a collective, subtly agreed-upon form of delusion.

“We ask…to be fed lies. We demand lies. The skillfully manufactured images and slogans that flood the airwaves and infect our political discourse MASK REALITY, and we do not protest…”

“The worse reality becomes, the less we want to hear of it, and the more we distract ourselves with the squalid pseudo-events of celebrity break ups, gossip and trivia.”

This book parallels some of my writings on eliminating distraction, the extinction of intelligence and how to avoid the mediocrity that literally ENTRENCHES our “kindergarten society.” Read this book for an intricate understanding of just how devastating our world is. Click here for more…

(4) FOUR ARGUMENTS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF TELEVISION by Jerry Mander: another non-fiction social critique, this time focusing specifically on the advent of television and how it’s DESTROYED our ability to introspect and understand the world around us in any sort of real, organic way.

“Television offers neither rest nor stimulation…it inhibits your ability to think, but DOES NOT lead to freedom of mind, relaxation or renewal. It leads to a more exhausted mind: you may have time out from prior obsessive thought patterns, but that’s as far as television goes.”

This book parallels some of my old work on “Sovereign Thought” and how television destroys thinking, in that it explains how the advent of mass media marks the redefinition of existence itself (through the eyes of highly-paid corporate marketers). Today, virtually everything that almost everyone knows, thinks, feels and experiences has – at some point – been filtered by insatiable corporate agendas for “profitable” manipulation of the human psyche. Click here for more…

(5) BUILDING YOUR MATE’S SELF-ESTEEM by Dennis & Barbara Rainey: the only traditional, “self-help” book on this list, which goes in-depth about how relationships are really platforms for both partners to build one another’s confidence and self-worth.

“Each of us need someone to tell us we value…we want to be accepted without mask, facade or veneer. We want to be loved APART from our performance, totally and completely.”

This book parallels to some of my posts on dating (WHAT DO WOMEN WANT???, Choose a Woman Who Chooses You, and that video on building healthy relationships) in that it talks about relationships from the standpoint of self-development and self-knowledge…click here for more.

Hopefully these books gave you some ideas. I guess the main theme is that productivity is part of a WHOLISTIC process: that other things you study (whether it be relationships, dating or even your political perspective) can help amplify your ability to get focused and stay driven over a longer period of time.

Peace,
+B

DON’T ALLOW YOURSELF TO GET INTIMIDATED, Because It’s Not a Competition…

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:00:53 +0000

Check this out…it’s an image of what my website first looked like when I originally got started way back in 2007:

…and here’s the first video I ever put up on YouTube:

I’m not showing you this so you can see how far I’ve come, but so YOU can remind yourself that we all need to start somewhere.

Be Inspired, Not Compared…

On your path to be more successful at anything (a blog, a musical instrument, your dating life or anything else), let the people who are already successful in that be a source of inspiration, NOT a source of comparison, because – like my father would always tell me – “No matter how good you are at something, there’ll ALWAYS be somebody better.”

He didn’t say this to me so I would feel defeated…he said this to me so that I wouldn’t get caught up in measuring my own progress against an impossible standard of people who were already ahead.

There’s no logic to not feeling motivated simply because you’re not one of the best: there will ALWAYS be somebody who paints better paintings, writes better songs, generates more revenue or has more karate trophies in his living room then you do. Just accept this as the reality and give it your best anyway.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, “What if I’m just starting out, and I’m THE WORST person I know???” And the answer is that this still applies because your goal is to better yourself, not to be better then anybody else out there.

It’s not a competition, and even in things where it IS a competition, it’s still not a competition… Let me explain:

A Sports Analogy:

When you ask NFL players why it is they won a game as opposed to an equally-capable opponent, you get answers detailing their mental state:

“Well, they were a great team too, we just wanted it more.”

When you ask NBA stars about their performance on a particular night, you get answers referring to their drive or team-dynamics:

“I knew I had to come through for the team, so I gave it my all,” or, “We came together and decided that we were going to take it just one play at a time.”

Typically, it’s the commentators, sports analysts and fans – the people OUTSIDE the game – who focus more on comparing statistics and technicalities. The people out there making it happen know that the real game is inside themselves…

So with whatever it is you have going on, don’t allow yourself to get intimidated. Just “play your position”: learn from the people ahead of you, set realistic, feasible goals based on your particular situation and focus only on being better then what you once were. See the motivation section of this blog for more…

Peace,
+B

Conquering Social Anxiety NOW!!!

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:00:04 +0000

“You and I both know that social anxiety, with its emotional and physical symptoms that hit you like a runaway freight train, is one of the toughest challenges in the personal development field. But yet, I’m here to tell you this:

With what we know about the human brain and new thought and behavior modification techniques, social anxiety is NOT that “unstoppable force” in your life you may have resigned yourself to “managing” as best you can.

On the contrary, it’s time for you to break free from social anxiety completely and never look back.

>> Even if you’ve struggled with social anxiety for years or decades on end…

>> Even if you’ve had little luck with talk therapy, group therapy, medication or herbal relaxants, and…

>> Even if you feel utterly trapped in a life of near TOTAL avoidance and see no way out of it…

Conquering Social Anxiety Now! Can Help

The Conquering Social Anxiety Now! program can help you break the chains and show the world the true you: comfortable in your own skin, self-assured, engaging and more than able to hold your own in any social, scholastic or professional setting…

Imagine the ability to erase “stage fright,” doubt and insecurity with confidence, poise and personal power…Imagine sharing your true personality and talents…not being afraid to express your thoughts, ideas, sense of humor and opinions…and have people love you for it.

…and it’s all now at your fingertips!”

What you just read was from the TRN’s Conquering Social Anxiety Now!, a webpage I *personally recommend* if any of the above statements resonated with you.

To discover more about the program, read the 100′s of testimonials and success-stories and make social anxiety vanish like it was never even there, click here now.

Peace,
+B

HEALTHY SELFISHNESS??? (3 Steps to Live the Life You Deserve WITHOUT Feeling Guilty For It)

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:00:04 +0000

In the book Healthy Selfishness: Getting the Life You Deserve Without the Guilt, coauthors Richard and Rachael Heller explain how a particular type of selfishness is good…that the selfishness that leads to honoring yourself and establishing boundaries on what (and how much) you’ll tolerate from other people is a healthy, virtuous and indispensable skill…

Unfortunately though, it’s a skill most of us never develop because we’ve all been taught to be self-sacrificing: in one way or another, we’ve all been taught to believe that there’s actually something wrong with defining our own needs and expecting others to respect them.

So it’s pretty deep: while on one hand we live in a culture that teaches us to be self-indulgent – to be consumers who constantly want things – we also live in a culture that teaches us to be self-denying…to be donators who constantly GIVE AWAY every last little bit of whatever we have. So…

>> We ignore our own desires in order to help someone else get theirs,

>> We carry the burden of someone else’s ignorance and mistakes because we “love” them, and

>> We harbor guilt towards ourselves just for occasionally thinking of putting someone else second and ourselves first.

What’s also interesting is that the most self-indulgent are usually dependent upon and parasitic towards the most self-denying: it’s a yin-yang thing where one always capitalizes off of the other, but since they naturally attract, the dynamic ends only when the “host” steps up in a courageous, assertive and (so-called) “selfish” way.

Some Examples

Looking at a romantic relationship like this from the outside, most people think, “Dag, that’s messed up – why is she treating him like that?”, but the bottom line is HE’S ALLOWING HER TO.

HE (not she) has to realize that no one benefits from his sacrifices…that all he’s doing is hurting himself while reinforcing her inappropriate behavior. By failing to stand up for himself, HE PREVENTS HER from facing reality and learning her own lessons.

Likewise, if a business owner employs a lazy friend who only hurts profits by barely doing anything at all, he’s not doing the bum a favor by keeping him on payroll. His best bet is to sit down with the man and let him know he only has a short period of time to get his act together, or it’s a wrap.

A 3-Step Method for Healthy Selfishness

So if you’re personal productivity, personal health or personal life is currently being inhibited (and exploited) by someone else’s laziness, try this 3-step technique to bring things back into balance:

(1) First, get a full understanding of the sacrifices your making: don’t brush anything off as small…

Remember, if you’re noticing it now, chances are it’ll add up, multiply and eventually become something much bigger before you even know it…so if something (or someone) is annoying you now – even if it’s slight – honor that notification: project into the future what’ll happen if you don’t change things now, and think about the positives that can occur if you do.

(2) Second, be extremely present the next time it goes down: notice the details of everything that happens, AS it happens…

Take stock of the way you feel, the specific things their doing (or saying), etc. This way when you speak to them about it you can be concrete and objective. You’ll also come up with a better strategy and get more clarity on the situation…strengthening your resolve to actually change it.

(3) Third is the action, which in my experience usually just requires a serious talk.

If you stay specific and non-critical about it – if you explain WHY it’s a problem for you objectively, remain calm and speak with respect – you’ll get respect in return.

Use a lot of “I” statements (“When you do ‘x,’, I feel ‘y’ because ‘z,’” etc.). This lowers the person’s defenses, making it easier for them to truly hear what you’re getting at.

In Worst Case Scenarios:

I’ve found that most people are generally good-hearted and understanding: they’re not walking around with an agenda to “eff” with you purposely (unless they feel you hurt them first), so step to someone on a positive level and you’ll get a positive response…especially when it’s about things you deserve in the first place.

But in worse-case scenarios, my best option was to leave the situation altogether (end a relationship, quit a job, etc.). I’m not saying it’s ALWAYS between these two extremes (either a quick talk or just leave), but in my experience, people either respect you or they don’t, so when you’re feeling exploited, you have to force them to show that card.

Whenever I was in a situation where I’d mention an issue and not even see them try to make things better, there was always a long, drawn-out series of attempts by me trying to make things better BY MYSELF only to ultimately realize “Hey, this circumstance (or person) is never going to change: if I don’t remove myself from it (or them) NOW, I’m just going to end up in an even worse position then I already am..”

Here’s a link to get your copy of Healthy Selfishness: Getting the Life You Deserve Without the Guilt, and lastly, in the words of Richard Heller, “Respect your needs and feelings, even when others do not…ESPECIALLY when others do not.”

Peace,
+B

MEDIOCRITY IS THE NEW ‘BLACK PLAGUE’: It’s Literally Ingrained Into Our Culture & You Need to AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:00:09 +0000

You know how people say “40′s is the new 30″ or “30′s is the new 20″? Well, I say mediocrity is the new “I’m chilling”, and although I’m not big on using “black” in a negative context, it’s so damn close to that epidemic plague of the Middle Ages I feel I need to…

Mediocrity, aimlessness and indifference have become so embedded into our culture that it’s virtually an invisible norm, breeding its viral infection into every man, woman and child no matter how skillful or brilliant they inherently are.

We can go on for days about where this all stems from: maybe from living in an “empire of illusion” that conditions us to deny reality and focus more on entertainment and distractions than on actual results while programming us for consumerism instead of production, or maybe from a backwards education system that encourages passivity and submission rather than true intelligence, or just from being raised in a “kindergarten society” that devalues maturity and adulthood itself.

…or maybe it’s all this “ignit” rap music circulating around, but I’m not really dwelling on causes today, because I just want to tell you to AVOID THE PLAGUE AT ALL COSTS.

Just like there’s air pollution, water pollution and even noise pollution, this contagious epidemic of mediocrity is a form of THOUGHT pollution, so if you’re not vigilant against it, it’ll occupy your mind quicker than an unemployed college graduate on Wall Street.

How to Stop the Plague From Reaching YOU…

I honestly believe now that you need to make an oath to yourself to start saying things like: “I’ve let go of settling for less than the best I can be…,” “I am an action-oriented person,” “My best friends are people that are ambitious, loyal and wise…”, as much as you possibly can, every single day, because these relatively simple statements are the bedrock for an attitude and state of mind impervious to all the bullshit.

This might sound a little “out there,” but you need to sit down and make a conscious decision about the type of thoughts you need to be thinking, and then devise a plan to make them SUB-conscious thoughts you start AUTOMATICALLY thinking by default for the rest of your life.

What type of beliefs, ideas and values will draw you closer to where you want to go? How can you find ways to INSTALL these thoughts deep into your brain so you can think (and ACT ON) them without effort???

My answer? Think Right Now Intl.’s Accelerated Success Conditioning Software: the “Thought and Behavior Modification Programs” I’ve been using on a daily basis for the last FIVE YEARS to literally rip through my brain and rid it of all the disease-infected, bacteria-breeding limiting beliefs and disempowering attitudes I’ve picked up from the world around me.

Your subconscious mind is the key. Simply learn and install the key beliefs and attitudes of the world’s most effective, productive and happiest people, and you’ll think like they think, feel how they feel, and, most importantly, take the actions they take to live the life that THEY live…the best part being that it’ll all feel completely natural.

Again, mediocrity is the new black plague, and the only vaccination you have is in shielding your mind from all the foolishness and harnessing its sacred, subconscious power to finally activate your unlimited potential. Join me on this magnificent journey now.

Peace,
+B

The 7 Deadly Sins of Self-Motivation: Common Habits That Literally ROB People of Their Ambition and Drive…

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:00:01 +0000

Here’s a quick list of what I call “The 7 Deadly Sins of Self-Motivation”: the most prevalent ways we tend to SABOTAGE our focus and hunger before it ever gets the chance to build up in the first place…

It’s interesting: we spend so much time trying to “be motivated” that we don’t even catch ourselves wasting all the motivation we already have stored inside. If you get nothing else from this post, know that just as you need to add motivation INTO your life, you also need to REMOVE the ignorant tendencies secretly squandering it away…

Think of it as frugality applied to your ambition instead of your bank account. Let’s analyze the top 7 ways we waste these motivational “dollars” and some methods to stop it from happening…

Motivational-Sin #1 is CERTAINTY

…or the ignorance of trying to be completely assured before taking action. This sin keeps you trapped because you can’t be certain of something you don’t know, and you simply can’t know something you haven’t already had experience with. (Think about it.)

So instead, spend your motivation on TAKING RISKS in an educated way. Let go of hesitancy and be courageous enough to act in the absence of a foolproof guarantee.

Motivational-Sin #2 is APPROVAL-SEEKING

…or the ignorance of trying to make your goals and creative work acceptable to others “from jump.” This sin keeps you limited because if you’re worried about how your project looks at from its inception you’ll never experiment or push past your creative boundaries.

So instead, spend your motivation on “FIRST DRAFTS.” Give yourself freedom to explore and don’t worry about editing or refining things until you have something going.

Motivational-Sin #3 is TASK-MAGNIFICATION

…or the ignorance of making every assignment an overwhelming test, big deal or detailed enterprise. This sin keeps you in anxiety because you’ll begin to associate worry, stress and “being swamped” with the act of working itself.

So instead, spend your motivation on SMALL SEGMENTS you can work on piece by piece. Use your imagination to break things down into tasks you can enjoy conquering, and then bring them all together.

Motivational-Sin #4: ANXIETY ITSELF

…or the ignorance of always expecting things to end in a complete disaster. This sin keeps you in a drama of cataclysmic destruction because it perpetually diverts your consciousness towards despair.

So instead, spend your motivation on CALM PROGRESS. Stay level-headed, and when things go wrong, take a break to regroup mentally.

Motivational-Sin #5: KNOWLEDGEABLE COWARDICE

…or the ignorance of thinking that knowing something intellectually equals knowing how to actually do it. This sin keeps you in mentally stimulated but never really “hitting it,” in terms of success because being a more knowledge person doesn’t necessarily make you a more productive one.

So instead, spend your motivation on ACTION-ORIENTATION. Discipline yourself to always “do the knowledge,” and remember that true learning literally EQUALS behavior change.

Motivational-Sin #6: PERIODIC ENTHUSIASM

…or the ignorance of leaving motivation to chance instead of developing a science and wiring it into your person. This sin keeps you confused because you’ll eventually questioning your own sincerity and wonder how dedicated you really are.

So instead, spend your motivation on being REWARDS-FOCUSED. Stay grounded in your original purpose and keep your mind centered all the benefits you’ll gain.

Motivational-Sin #7 is SELFISH CREATIVITY

…or, lastly, the ignorance of keeping your brilliance to yourself (which was me for a minute). This sin keeps you de-motivated, because without the feedback of another human being, your goals will never take on the force of living, breathing thing.

So instead, spend your motivation on SHARING YOUR BRILLIANCE. Select a few friends you can trust to get feedback from, and gradually extend out from there.

THANKS FOR READING, and remember: the only reason I can accurately describe all this is because I’ve been a serious “motivational-sinner” in my own right. Stay patient, diligent and self-forgiving as you work on these habits, and you’ll be on you’re way…

Peace,
+B

Are You Hijacking Your Own Success By BEING ETHICAL???

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:00:05 +0000

LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION: let’s say you drive home late today (like, three in the morning) and accidentally run a red light…do you take yourself down to court tomorrow and go, “Hey, I ran a traffic signal last night by mistake, but since a cop wasn’t around to stop me, I came here to pay the fine myself…”???

Of course not, but before we even go any further, let’s first establish the difference between “being ethical” and having a conscience.

A “conscience” is a moral sense of right and wrong: an instinctual drive for justice embedded in who you are as a person. Like Eddie Griffin once said, “Nobody needs to tell you, ‘Don’t kill yo mama.’ Somehow…you just KNOW that.”

But ethics is a little different…

Ethics is a branch of philosophical study PERTAINING to morality: an exercise in logic that results in an intellectual sense of right and wrong. It’s a “code of conduct” derived from THEORIES about how a conscience may (or may not) manifest itself under particular circumstances.

What I’m getting at here is that ethics are rules based on concepts that don’t always correspond to reality. They’re SUBJECTIVE by nature, so we all hit pivotal moments where we need to re-evaluate them (or let them go altogether) because they don’t lend themselves well to our real-life situations.

Now when it comes to success, I believe you have to be willing to do whatever it takes, but you’ll never reach that level of devotion until you can see your moral sense (or “conscience”) as something completely distinct from the rules and regulations you’ve learned from other people (as so-called “ethical behavior”).

I now personally believe that in most cases, the ethical conflicts we have about our success STEM FROM OUR DEEP-SEATED NEED FOR APPROVAL, and serve as one of the biggest barriers to personal growth and positive change. Let’s get into some examples….

Some Examples & My Perspective On This…

Nas has a line in his song, “Something Foul,” that goes, “Am I charismatic enough? Does my charm reach people that can make a change? If I shoot with straight aim…at the positive target, and swoo them to make a deposit into MY account, is that really progress???”

…which represents a major conflict all “conscious” artists share: “Is my work really making a difference at all?”, “Is it even right for me to make so much money from this?” and countless other ethical dilemmas that poison their productivity and creative focus.

A more common example is the abusive or parasitic partner leeching off the other, self-sacrificing one: “Can I really just kick his ass out on the street???” she wonders, as her “man” literally drains the lifeblood out of her every move.

Bottom line: you can’t be effective with anything important by riding its ethical-fence. When you’re too worried about the “rightness,” of what you already know you need to do, that preoccupation destroys your drive, undermines your productivity and NULLIFIES your ability to even think clearly and make healthy decisions in the first place.

Again, success requires you to do whatever it takes: to be committed enough to try whatever, be whatever, for however long and by any means necessary, so unless you’re 100% about the moves you need to make, you simply won’t make them in time…or, even worse, just won’t make them at all.

Wherever you see a lack of ambition, broken focus or hesitancy to make an important (an obvious) choice, an ethical hang up is somewhere in that person’s subconscious causing FRICTION…creating a dichotomy that defeats them before they even think to stand up.

And remember that life is complex: your challenges will NEVER perfectly line up with clear-cut definitions of right and wrong, and in this light, success in and of itself becomes one indefinite, perpetual act of identity-reform. It becomes the biggest ethical conflict because it’s actually asking you to transcend your own mentality, continuously…

What are your beliefs? How does the world work and how do the people in it operate? Who are you really? Is this truly how you want to continue to define yourself? Are you willing to give up this behavior (or idea, or person) for those more in line with what’ll bring you forward???

In other words, the triumphant, motivational, rags-to-riches success story is a childish one…a simplified narrative more reminiscent of the fairy-tales we’re told as infants than the reality of what success and progress truly entails.

In my experience, real success is a story of intense, internal psychological warfare: a journey to conquer yourself far too demanding for the average bear.

Knowing this, YOU can start by seeing yourself as a pure and honorable force: the clear, guilt-free conscious that comes from an identity which never questions itself leads to a motivation that knows no limitation.

Peace,
+B

6 Methodical Ways to Handle Large-Scale Work & Long-Term Projects SUCCESSFULLY (pt.2)

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:00:47 +0000

Here’s a continuation of yesterday’s science on handling large-scale projects and serious work: two more practical, straight-to-the-point methods for leveraging your productivity skills on a higher plane. Enjoy…

Method #5: Get Help & Stop Pretending Your Superman

This one really speaks for itself. As I said in that classic lecture on time-management: “No one is superman, no one is superwoman, no one is an octopus and no one has 8-legs…there’s multiple people in the Universe for a reason.”

I’ve ALWAYS had trouble with this, so if I can get my act together – with guest contributions to the blog like Sepia Prince’s Does Your Cell Phone Have You On A Leash?, Mansu Edwards’s Ambition EQUALS Distraction and Genially Green Earth’s Beauty Begets Love – you can too. And in case you’re wondering, these posts got better responses then most of my own original pieces, so I saved time, my friends got the word out about their work, my audience enjoyed a break from my rambling behind and we all had fun putting our heads together on something positive.

Once you’re clear on what you want to do, find people who are talented, responsible and mature and ask them (in specific language) what you’d like help with, why you’d like their help specifically (as in compliment them) and tell that they’re free to say no for any reason whatsoever (if they said no it wouldn’t change the fact you think they’re a cool person)…it lifts the pressure.

If what you’re doing is positive and sensible, most positive and sensible people would love to add on their own two cents. Just be clear, specific, respectful and complimentary, and remember to ask the right people in the first place (people you know you can count on).

Method #6: Model After Others

I don’t care how creative you are, YOU’RE NOT THAT HOT. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but don’t kid yourself: none of us are soooo original that nobody’s ever done anything like what we’re hoping to do. The whole idea’s ridiculous, so if it applies, just stop…

Honestly now, if you can’t find someone else doing something at least SOMEWHAT similar to what your large-scale stuff is meant to be, it’s probably because you’re not fully clear and specific on what you’d like to do in the first place.

Also, one thing that helps me is knowing you can model yourself after a COMPOSITE of multiple influences. It’s just like in your life: you have one friend that’s in good shape (or eats pretty good), another friend with a great job (or some serious guap) and yet ANOTHER friend with a fine honey, so you model or aspire after different people in different ways, so too can you model or aspire your overall big-level goals after different businesses, organizations or groups in different ways as well.

For me, I’d like my teaching style to have the attitude and humor of Akil, the educational, professional approach of Eben Pagan and the lyrical finesse (and scholastic references) of Chris Hedges.

What’s interesting is that, the more I study, the more I find myself AUTOMATICALLY modeling myself after positive influences, subconsciously. So do your research, and no matter how bogged down you get with the day-to-day workload, don’t let it keep you from staying abreast as far as what’s working out there and why.

Now give a brother some love in the comment section! Later…

Peace,
+B

6 Methodical Ways to Handle Large-Scale Work & Long-Term Projects SUCCESSFULLY (pt.1)

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:00:56 +0000

Sometimes a little jolt in productivity isn’t enough, right? Sometimes, especially when it comes to doing MAJOR projects like a new website, children’s program or whatever, you need stronger skills that’ll leverage your productivity past just another session or two…the reality is you need an entirely different APPROACH.

So here’s quite a few methods that I use to handle my large scale work (this blog specifically). It’ll be in two sessions: today we’ll cover four that are mostly about approach, and tomorrow we’ll cover two that are more concrete, practical techniques. Enjoy…

Method #1: Realize That It Actually IS Big

This might sound silly, but I’ve found that most people don’t even realize they’re signing themselves up for large-scale work to begin with. Personally, I believe the ability to consciously register how much (and the type of) work a new project entails is a discrete skill learned over time, because most people just have a “good idea” and go about it completely at random.

“I remember starting a writer’s group a few years ago: when I told a poet friend of mine about it, his immediate response was ‘Yeah, you know I can get you set up at such-and-such venue, and my man does promotion, so we can even get it popping on campus and start a whole poetry-movement!!!’

I said, ‘Well, that sounds good but uh…let’s just see how the first meeting goes and take it from there.‘” ~ from an old radio show I did about productivity and self-discipline

This is one of those things that’s obvious to point out, but still difficult to catch yourself forgetting. First REALIZE that your getting “amped up” about something that’s involved, then STOP and pace yourself into it. (In the example above, I just had one meeting and decided it was unnecessary).

To be honest, we’re actually being childlike when we’re overly-enthusiastic about a project just because it sounds cool: we’re forgetting that everything costs resources. This isn’t an entirely bad thing, I just want you to see it for what it is so you can control that tendency.

So be realistic: think about whether you really want to nominate yourself for all that work, and whether you have the time and money to do so in the first place. If you’re not sure, phase your way into it slowly and experiment before you make any serious (or public, or financial) commitments.

It’s not the most pleasant way to use your imagination, but it’s worth it. If the project was meant to be, you’ll make it through this phase stronger and more level-headed.

2/3: Benefit-Focus for the Mid-Term, MASTERY-Focus for the Long-Term

What I mean here is a lot simpler then it sounds: if you’re working on something that’ll take a couple of months, focus on all the rewards and benefits, but if you’re working on something that’ll take several YEARS, focus on mastering the craft it’s based on instead.

I’m focused on being the best writer and teacher I can possibly be, not really having a well-trafficked blog, but when it comes to finishing my first book, I’m focused on the income, accreditation and leverage it’ll provide me. Make sense???

Think about how long something will take, and structure how you motivate yourself with that in mind. Generally, if a project needs a few weeks or months (like a term-paper), focusing on benefits is good because it pushes you past your normal limitations, but if a project needs a significant portion of your life (like a martial art), focusing on mastery is good because it becomes part of your maturity as a person. For more on mid-term motivation, see here, and for more on long-term motivation, see here.

Method #4: Use Automation, Structure and Routine

AUTOMATE AND ROUTINIZE EVERYTHING YOU POSSIBLY CAN, and even if something isn’t “automatable,” make it as structured as humanly possible.

For instance, if you have to get people on the phone and talk, HAVE A SCRIPT…I don’t mean “stick to” a script, obviously, but have a general outline (written down somewhere) of how the conversation is supposed to go. It’ll save you the psychic energy of having to build yourself up to the task each time.

If you’ve ever had telemarketing or canvassing (door-to-door) gig you know what I’m talking about. Businesses structure and automate major tasks in order to take make processes more efficient.

Another aspect of this is to do everything at the same time each day, because once you have a habit of doing something at a certain time every single day it builds a life of its own and gets easier to do.

If you think about it, what I’m really saying here is “be a machine,” which sounds messed up on the surface, but it’s also why the industrial revolution was so profitable and productive: people eventually realized “Hey, we could produce A LOT more stuff if we automate and mechanize all these processes.” So structure and routine is the reason we have cars, the printing press, refrigerators and everything else…our whole standard of living is based on automation, actually.

Remember, automate and structure your work until it becomes a habit: do the same exact things in the same exact way at the same exact time every day (or every week) and watch it free up your physical energy and take almost NO mental energy at all…people will be literally AMAZED at how much you’re able to get done.

Check back tomorrow for more tips on handling large-scale work and long-term projects, and leave a comment below letting me know your thoughts. How do you handle long-term stuff???

Peace,
+B

THE SCIENCE OF SUPER HEROES (and Other Great Books Today’s Transcendence Readers are Reading…)

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:24 +0000

Just the other day, I asked the the facebook fanpage “What are you currently reading?,” and got some VERY interesting responses. Apparently, my readers are into EVERYTHING, so take a look and see if any of the titles catch your eye:

Where to Get These:

I thought you’d be interested to see if there’s any common literary tastes between you and OTHER people who enjoy this blog, so here’s a link to all the titles I actually could find. (Don’t forget you can share whatever’s on your shelf in the comment section below too):

“Hunter Thompson (author of Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail) was a journalist who rewrote the book on journalism: he was almost completely subjective, wrote from the gut, and disses everybody in politics like they deserve to be dissed…”

“From Science to God was written by a physicist, describing his personal struggle to bring science and spirit together…”

(The Case for Father Custody by Daniel Amneus was also recommended, but Amazon wouldn’t let me put it in the widget for some reason. Check out some of my personal recommendations or my post 4 Simple Tips to Get Yourself Reading Again for more.)

Peace,
+B

The 11 Core Mental Patterns of Success: SPECIFIC Ways to Train Your Mind for More Progress, Productivity & Perpetual Accomplishment

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:00:37 +0000

Just realized the other day that I did a great post on the 11 mental patterns of failure, but never “flipped the script” and talked specifically about the mental patterns of SUCCESS in reverse. So let’s take a quick look…

11 Key Ways To Train Your Mind for Success:

(And just in case you’re wondering, NO, these are not simply the failure patterns inversed: that would be corny and unimaginative of me…although a good reinforcement. Enjoy the quick read and tell me your favorite pattern in the comment section below.)

1: Train your mind to have the self-image of a success, because someone who feels they already ARE what they’re aiming to be is destined to eventually get what they’re working towards. Condition yourself to believe you truly do have all the necessary components and qualities inside you.

2: Train your mind to focus on your purpose, because knowing “what’s in it for me,” is critical to staying inspired. Condition yourself to place your moment-to-moment concentration on WHY you’re doing what you’re doing (or why you’re here on Earth in the first place) and never lose sight of that.

3: Train your mind to visualize each successful step, because your subconscious mind constantly projects images, sounds and feelings onto your conscious one. Condition yourself to have a vivid, virtual reality of all the different SPECIFICS that success entails, because then it’ll feel more natural to take the right actions.

4: Train your mind to constantly focus on ALL the benefits of reaching your goal, because that’ll constantly renew your motivation over weeks, months and even decades. Condition yourself to keep all the different positive side-effects at the forefront of your mind.

NOTE: If this sounds similar to pattern #2 about knowing why, remember that 2 is about constantly thinking PURPOSE while 3 is about constantly thinking RESULTS. A purpose is usually personal or emotional (“For my child’s future…”); a result material or consequential (“The freedom of a passive income stream…”).

5: Train your mind to believe in your ability, because self-assurance creates courage. Condition yourself to believe you’ll do whatever it takes and your confidence will EXPLODE.

6: Train your mind to take appropriate action, because nothing works without follow-through. Condition yourself to believe that if there’s a job to do, a decision to be made or an obstacle to overcome, you’re the one to do it.

7: Train your mind to find joy in goal-related activities, because when you enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll want to do more of it and do it better. Condition yourself to always look for and always find what’s enjoyable about the decisions and tasks your goals require…it makes everything A LOT easier

8: Train your mind to look for and find lessons in both failures and successes, because the best in every field, in every sport and in every area of life learn more from their mistakes than anybody else does. Condition yourself to love learning everything necessary and you’ll develop mastery FAST.

9: Train your mind to see problems, mistakes, delays and setbacks as inevitable, because (newsflash) THEY ARE. Condition yourself to embrace the inevitable pitfalls of life and goal-setting WITHOUT fear and overreaction…shrink them down in your mind as small and manageable and plan for them ahead of time.

10: Train your mind to know and appreciate what you receive from success, because the most effective people alive have a way of squeezing out the maximum amount of joy from each moment, and this is DOUBLY true when it comes to their accomplishments.

Condition yourself to be aware of and deeply appreciative of every possible benefit and reward you get from working toward and achieving your particular aim.

11: Train your mind to feel proud of your efforts and accomplishments, because successful people have HIGH STANDARDS. Condition yourself to feel enormous joy, excitement and ecstasy with each victory no matter how small they may be.

So there you have it. Find out more about the automated program I use to train MY mind for success – Accelerated Success Conditioning Software – go here, and don’t forget you can also contact me for any questions, comments or suggestions using the contact form too.

Peace,
+B

Why Most Self-Help ISN’T Helping (& Why You Need to CONSCIOUSLY Control How You Use Your Brain)

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:00:35 +0000

If you’ve been trying all the programs, reading all the books and getting all the newsletters but still can’t get YOURSELF to start taking all the actions, first know that you are not alone.

A lot of people go through this same frustration and really, interestingly enough, there’s only a few key things you could be missing. Download this audio to find out what I mean or click here to listen:
Download audio file (eben2.mp3)

Let’s Talk About the Unconscious Mind:

“Let’s talk for a second about what’s called the unconscious mind, and the analogy here is an iceberg: You probably know that only 10% of an iceberg actually shows above water and that about 90% is below water. Well that’s the way the mind is as well, with one key difference…

With the mind about 99.99% is below water and invisible, and only about, maybe 0.01% is visible in your conscious thought. NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK IS IN THAT WHOLE REALM OF THE UNCONSCIOUS??? You’re right…

>> Things like beliefs,

>> Things like identity and self-image,

>> Your view of what reality IS and what’s possible,

>> The ability to create optimism, and actually even your habits of thought are in your unconscious mind…

So you can learn all the fancy creative thinking and logic exercises you want: if your unconscious mind is wired wrong, NONE OF IT WILL WORK, period…even if some it does work just a little, you’ll forget it, because it’s not permanently wired.

Now I’ve never said this publicly before, but most of the work I do when teaching people is getting them to let go of outdated beliefs, inefficient mental habits and to change their mental image of themselves, because only then will techniques actually work…”

Full Video This is All From:

That is from the video “How To Use Your Brain” by Eben Pagan. (I just stripped the audio from it, cut it up and put the best excerpts over some cool instrumentals.)

This rung true for me because I know I spent most of my life NOT thinking for myself. I spent most of my life getting into trouble and feeling confused about where I was going because I was “fronting”… because I wasn’t being authentic about who I am or who I want to become.

So one of my biggest lessons in life was that I needed to CONSCIOUSLY control what I thought and believed, and then consistently ACT on those beliefs in order to refine them and make sure my ideas were accurate. Here’s another clip explaining what I mean:
Download audio file (eben1.mp3)

“So why would you want to “control” the way you think? Why wouldn’t you want to just have it happen naturally??? Well, what I’ve learned in life is that if you learn the powerful thinking tools and strategies that the most successful people use to focus their mind – to use reasoning and logic to create the results – you’ll:

>> Have more power and influence in the world,

>> You’ll attract more successful people into you’re life (they’ll automatically be attracted to you), and

>> You’ll achieve the results you want to achieve in your life: in business and in your relationships…

What I’ve also learned by watching very closely is that those that DON’T take control of their minds – those that never learn to use their minds in an ‘expert capacity,’ if you will – don’t make things happen.

In fact, what happens is the opposite: they LOSE power and status, people REJECT them and aren’t attracted to them, and they ultimately FAIL at the things they try to do, and it’s all because of what’s going on in their heads.

(later on) Almost no one actual does this…as I’ve been studying this topic and paying very careful attention over the last few years, I’ve noticed that ALMOST NO ONE I MEET OR INTERACT WITH IS THINKING INTENTIONALLY, using sound thinking techniques, or verifying their ideas with tests and measurement.” ~ Eben Pagan

Once again, here’s some links to watch the video this is all from in full and enjoy more audio mixes like these. Take care and don’t forget you can contact me for anything.

Peace,
+B

Not Getting Good Enough (or Even Just ‘Enough’) SLEEP??? Here’s 5 Possible Reasons Why…

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:00:42 +0000

I have a couple friends with (so-called) “sleeping disorders,” and believe that adequate, rejuvenating sleep is VITAL to being focused in hundreds of little ways we fail to realize. Luckily, this short article from TRN’s “Tranquil Sleep Now” explains why, so take a quick look and thank a brother later (preferably in the comments section below):

The “5 C’s” Behind Most Sleep Problems

“If you’re like most people, you try to live life all at once and you bring it all with you into bed, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg…

Experts explain how the five Cs — Change, Conflict, Criticisms, Concerns, and Crises — can burden our lives with unhealthy stress. Any of these factors can ruin your sleep faster than you can say ‘good night.’ Look at what you do when you turn the lights off:

>> You play the day’s events over and over in your mind.

>> You mull over mistakes and disagreements.

>> You think about a deadline racing up.

>> You worry about your kids’ grades.

>> You dwell on PROBLEMS. Money problems. Family problems. Work problems. Health problems. Marriage and relationship problems.

Factor that all together, and it’s no wonder sleep is elusive. As the sleeplessness goes on and on, the frustration keeps mounting up:

>> You get down on yourself for being a failure at “sleep”

>> You soon dread going to bed.

>> You feel powerless over your sleep problems.

>> You just assume you won’t be able to sleep.

>> You don’t know how to relax anymore.

>> You can’t get comfortable in bed.

>> You resign yourself to being an insomniac.

>> You don’t think you’ll EVER get a good night’s rest.

>> Your mattress is too hard and the pillows too soft.

>> You have terrible nightmares, so “what’s the point?”

But why, with so much on the line, do these issues take over your mind when you’re trying to fall asleep???

It’s just the way we’re wired… Most of the 50,000 thoughts that pop into your mind every day are AUTOMATIC. They’ve been with you for decades (perhaps even a lifetime) – they’re the by-product of conditioned negative thought patterns that have hijacked your natural sleep processes.

That’s why just saying “STOP!” to yourself won’t do the trick, and blaming yourself because you don’t have any “internal discipline” won’t either…”

The healthiest, most effective way to correct your sleep problems is to change the unsupportive mental patterns (beliefs, thoughts, attitudes) that lurk behind them.

Sleeping pills and herbal remedies don’t change the underlying causes of sleep problems one iota. Tranquil Sleep Now! does—safely, effectively, and permanently.

It’s as simple as that…” ~ fin

Where This is All From…

That particular excerpt stood out to me, but there’s a lot more too, so click here to finish reading. The main headline says:

Remember, I’ve been using these programs since 2007 to stay focused, motivated, fully-engaged and ON-POINT. Click here to find out more now…

Peace,
+B

Affirmations AREN’T Working For Me…What am I Doing Wrong??? (Here’s The Top 3 Most Common Mistakes)

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:00:18 +0000

I remember getting a business consultation a while back, where when I mentioned that I provide guided meditation and affirmation programs through my site, the guy said:

“Oh yeah? That’s funny – I read a statistic the other day that said most people who use affirmations are more depressed then the average person.”

And this got me thinking, “You know what? He’s probably right: most people who try this affirmation thing probably are more depressed then the average person, because (just like most people who start businesses, try to lose weight or do anything else constructive) THEY’RE PROBABLY GOING ABOUT IT ALL WRONG.

So if you find yourself having trouble with any affirmation-related practice, first make sure none of the following apply, because these are the top 3 common mistakes I find people making ALL THE TIME:

Mistake #1: Being Unrealistic or “Too Positive”

If you feel like a loser, saying “I’m a winner, I’m a winner, I’m a winner…” is NOT going to work, cause if you’re in a bad mood, you won’t feel like saying it, and even if you’re in an okay mood, just saying that’ll make you more aware of how you actually feel on a general basis…

Likewise, if you’re 200 pounds overweight, saying “I have a slim and healthy body…” just isn’t going to cut it, because you’ll know you’re lying to yourself.

Instead, someone who feels like failure should try statements like “I forgive myself for not getting things done…” and someone with with weight concerns might try “I know and believe in the value of being a healthy person…”

This is why the program I mentioned earlier uses both “affirming” and “releasing” statements: some affirmations focus on moving you towards where you want to be, and others solely on getting you away from where you presently are.

Some key phrases for RELEASING (before you try to install anything crazy) are: “I forgive myself for…”, “I’ve now let go of…”, and “It’s okay for me to…” The key here is to go at your own pace: since you know where you’re at better than anyone else, take your time to gradually nudge yourself in the right direction.

Mistake #2: Being Too Verbose or Not Hitting the Point

I remember this e-mail newsletter for Sovereignty (Law and Civics lessons, basically) I was on a few years back where they sent out an affirmation list called “Cosmic Trigger Enlightenment” with statements like:

“I AM CRYSTAL STAR SEED AND I MERGE IN ONENESS IN THE UNIFIED FIELD OF DIVINITY WITH THE CRYSTAL EARTH AND CRYSTALLINE COSMOS…”

Now c’mon: I’m not here to knock anybody’s spirituality, but to me, that’s basically ASKING for “more depression (and confusion) then the average person” to begin with…

Remember, affirmations are meant to re-pattern something that happens below your awareness: they work to change how you think, feel and act BECAUSE how you think, feel and act is governed by subconscious processes…things like self-image, identity, beliefs, perception and habits of thought.

Now here’s the secret: your subconscious mind IS NOT concerned with stars and galaxies…it’s concerned with your fears, pains, guilts and frustrations. Your subconscious mind doesn’t think, “I’m a star-seed child,” it thinks: “I’ll always be poor…”, “Women always reject me…”, “I have no self-control with food…” and so on.

In short, it’s the hidden, self-limiting beliefs that effect you in a direct and emotional way…it’s the stuff that makes you go, “How am I going to make rent on time?,” “Is my girlfriend going to dump me?” or “Will I ever have be healthy and functional again???”

THEREFORE, affirmations tend to work best when they’re focused on things like dissolving anxiety, gaining freedom from depression, building real self-esteem, releasing your fear of failure or developing unstoppable motivation. Those are really the key areas, so instead of “Cosmic Triggers,” try:

>> “I transcend all jealousy of those who have more then I do…”
>> “I alone am responsible for both my failures and successes…”
>> “It’s easy and natural for me to keep mistakes in proper perspective…”
>> “Life isn’t always fair, so I don’t expect it to be…” and
>> “I believe in tending to situations before they become problems…”

You have to understand a bit of your own psychology before you can craft the really effective ones: you need to know what you fear specifically so you can address that specifically, and you need to know how other (successful) people think about it so you can learn that too. (Like anything else, this is a skill you learn overtime.)

Also, another related problem people have is being too damn wordy. Simply put, when it comes to the subconscious, “less is more,” so follow E.B. White’s advice and OMIT ALL NEEDLESS WORDS. This is not where you show off your skills and get mega-deep – it’s where you come to understand your real frustrations and address them directly and compassionately…

Mistake #3: Not speaking with EMOTION…

And lastly, as you can see by now, the subconscious mind hears emotions, not logic. So if you want your affirmations to work, you have to speak to it in an emotional way.

Emotions are what drive us: emotions make things real and what gets us involved. Emotions are why certain movies, books and people are interesting instead of others, and emotions are why certain affirmations are actually believable instead of some of the ones you may be using now. So say them like you mean them. Say them like they’re values and convictions that you actually hold and watch them become values and convictions that you actually act ON.

Thanks for checking this out. For a free manual I put together on affirmations (with an in-depth method, sample affirmations and more) download this (it’s old, but still good…I’d change some things if I were to do it over), and to check out that guided audio program, click here. (Don’t worry, you don’t need to know a thing about affirmations to use these correctly, because they make the entire process VIRTUALLY AUTOMATIC.)

Like you’ll hear me say countless times, this is the #1 tool I use DAILY to stay motivated, disciplined, focused and ON-POINT, so do yourself a favor a take a second to check it out now…

Peace,
+B

Today is Your Day to Win, Pt.1: Going From the Bench to the Playing Field…

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:36 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from Mike Brescia’s (leader of the Think Right Now Intl. organiztion) classic book, Today is Your Day to Win. It’s not the most well-written piece you’ll come across, but it does cover the hidden psychology of unstoppable motivation, so tough out the reading and give the man some of your precious time and attention (instead of Facebook). You’ll be glad you did…

Today’s Empowering Quote:

“I have brought myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Today’s Empowering Question:

“What am I willing to give up in order to reach my objective???”

Today’s Session: From the Bench to the Playing Field

Since I’ve had so many requests about how I went from a real bum to being able to write to tens of thousands of friends all over the world, here’s the story. It’s…interesting.

Up until early 1987, I regularly used to beg the gods for an answer to the question of why I couldn’t get myself to do what I needed to do to get my simple goals met. Why was I so lazy and miserable? Why was I just…a bum.???

I got fired from countless jobs. I flunked out of college, and then got fired some more. Finally, after reading some very popular books on selling and motivation over and over…I CONTINUED TO FAIL, not making one single solitary thin dime in my commissioned sales job for close to TWO more years. (If it weren’t for friends and then my trusty Ford Econoline van, I literally would’ve been living “on” the street.)

One day while sitting in my van, a man walked up and started talking to me. He was brilliant: he went on to tell the story of when he, as an announcer, covered the World Series back in the late 60′s. He had all the names; he knew stats like it was yesterday. His voice was clearly that of a broadcaster, but the thing that was most incredible was…

…he was pushing a shopping cart, which carried ALL his earthly possessions. He was homeless too, living on the street like me, and I couldn’t believe it. He told me that he just got sick of the daily challenges – of “one problem after another” – and literally became unable to function in any capacity. Very quickly he had lost everything, and at the end it was by choice.

Sadly, I could identify with THIS guy more than anyone I had met in a while. I was VERY low, but fortunately, I hadn’t quite reached that level…yet.

I did want to get off “the street” and stop being a bum. So I found this great bookstore around Hermosa Beach that had comfy chairs, and started spending a lot of time there. I got familiar with a number of self-help change methods, including NLP, self-talk and Accelerated Learning techniques..like I said, I had A LOT of time on my hands.

Back to New York

Soon I came back to Upstate New York, got a menial job and created my own Superlearning tapes with three cheap, borrowed tape players. Only instead of learning a language or factual data at lightning speeds, I figured I’d teach myself new attitudes and instruct myself to do the things that sent tremors of fear through me, the actions that would change me from a loser to someone I’d be proud of.

So from every sales, biography, motivation, NLP and “don’t worry, be happy” book I could find, I pulled out all the lessons, beliefs and attitudes of life’s top performers. I turned them into self-instructions, and recorded them onto tapes with very specific baroque music passages playing in the background. (Editor’s note: hint, hint.)

It was quite a setup: I was desperate, willing to try ANYTHING, and couldn’t get fired from $5/hr jobs anymore.

In what seemed like just a few days, I began to feel differences. In my new job, I started working lots of hours putting coin-operated TVs together and installing them, and soon, I was making telephone calls to prospective customers (large travel plazas with big restaurants).

These early TV boxes were downright ugly, but I was able to convince the presidents of nearly every one of these huge corporations to let us tear up their nice dining rooms and put them in. It was wild…I mean, I just got in a frenzy of conviction before each call.

The more I listened to my tapes while I slept, the more fanatical I got about reading and learning. Among my recorded self-instructions were ones that told me I loved learning and that I was the greatest salesman in the world. Ha!! I put in that the more I succeeded, the more success I wanted. Talk about a vicious cycle, huh?

Well, soon I had exhausted the company’s inventory of TV’s, and since the revenue each one made wasn’t that high, the company had no money to buy the parts to build hundreds more. Even though it proved to be a dead end job, it felt good not being fired.

So I left to start selling hearing instruments, and I got scary good: in an industry with 20-25% closing ratios, I was selling 95. In just about 4 months, that self-instruction about being the greatest salesman in the world was eerily coming true (at least in that industry). Soon I was going seven days a week, and missing a sale WAS NOT not an option.

How I Eliminated My Blocks:

I continued to listen to my tapes and develop new ones. Considering where I came from to where I was now, I figured that anything was possible, so I researched and made tapes for everything from diet practices to dissolving anxiety. I had gone from being scared of everything to feeling like I couldn’t fail.

I used to use double negatives when I spoke too (“I didn’t do nothing” was a famous line), and this drove people around me crazy, so I researched communication and public speaking and made an accelerated success tape for that too.

Whenever I wanted to eliminate a block, get good at something, or feel better about myself, I looked for the top professionals, researched their findings, uncovered lots of conflicting data, found what made sense and made a tape in the accelerated learning format.

I found there was NOTHING that I couldn’t literally install into or rip out of my mind. And with the right thoughts and instructions, you could create an endless loop of success, each good outcome fueling in you the desire to keep the positive change and to improve even more.

In short, that’s the early part of the story that leads me to today, getting to talk to you.

I hope this answered a few questions and inspired you to believe that no matter what you’re going through right now, you are truly magnificent. All you have to do is release your blocks and embrace your unlimited potential. There’s enormous power within you. It might be buried, but it’s there.

I know, I know: if that seems a little beyond what your belief system currently allows you to accept, I understand, and that’s OK. Just keep reading and repeating your self-instructions. You’ll become a believer soon enough…” ~ Mike Brescia

Today’s Winning Beliefs:

>> “Every success I achieve fuels in me the desire for more…”

>> “I can achieve anything that I can imagine…”

>> “I have the ability to visualize EVERY aspect of my success…”

>> “My ability is greater than any challenge I could face…”

Remember, “burn the thoughts, beliefs and attitudes of the happiest, most effective people into your mind and you’ll feel how THEY feel, do what THEY do and get the same results that THEY get!”

I’ve been personally using Think Right Now Intl.’s Accelerated Success Conditioning Programs to keep my head in the game” DAILY for 5 years now, so click here to find out more:

Peace,
+B

Ambition EQUALS Distraction (A Quick, Motivational Read by Guest Blogger & Author Mansu Edwards)

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:00:17 +0000

Here’s a special guest post by a colleague and good friend of mine Mansu Edwards, author of the books Mental Diet and The Disappearance of Hate, both of which I urge you to learn more about here. Enjoy…

Ambition EQUALS Distractions

“Yes, ambition equals distractions. It’s an anomaly from the usual Personal Development theory, but does this sound familiar? ‘Make goals. Change your mindset. Surround yourself with positive people. Eagles soar. Repeat everyday for 10 minutes, ‘I’m a Winner’ and watch how your life changes.’

They’re all good suggestions. I’m not hating on these solutions (so shout outs to all the people making it their mission to improve people’s lives), but most of them don’t tell you that you will encounter many distractions. It’s a test that you can pass if you have a strong will. If you don’t, GAME OVER. Know thy enemy. Don’t get upset with distractions.

The phone rings while you’re working on a project that’s due next week. Oh yeah, and they’re people you haven’t spoken to in years. Why are they calling now? You know why? Because you’re ambitious and focused. Will you answer the phone or call back when you’re done. What’s more important? As the saying goes, DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS.

Uncle Ted watches a new episode of Alphas in the living room. You hear explosions and Malik Yoba shattering a titanium glass window with two quick jabs while you’re at the kitchen table drafting a business plan. Uncle Ted yells with excitement. You’re eager to stop the writing and researching. My future versus Alphas. Hmmm. What will I do? ‘I’ll take a 5 minute break and then go back to the business plan,’ you say. But, let’s be real, it won’t be a 5 minute break, you’re either watching most or all of the show . It’s just like when your Moms tried waking you up early for school and you told her “5 more minutes.” She came back to find you still sleeping.

Just, think about your future. What do you want to do? What do you want to be? Sacrifices are tough, but rewarding. I’m not a Guru. Just, in case you’re thinking, ‘this guy’s doing a lot of talking, I wonder what his life is about, he must have it all together.’ You know what, I DON’T. I’m imperfect like everyone else. My goal is self-mastery and yours should be too. And guess what, we’ll still be imperfect lol. Be ambitious, but be wary of life’s distractions.”

by Omar Hasan
Author of The Disappearance of Hate and Mental Diet
http://www.thedisappearanceofhate.wordpress.com

Peace,
+B

Does Your Cell Phone Have You ON A LEASH??? (w/ Special Photographs Courtesy of Sepia Prince)

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:00:17 +0000

One thing you’ll hear me suggest A LOT on this blog (especially in anything about getting focused and conquering yourself) is eliminating distraction, because distraction and interruption, particularly the digital kind, rob us of more productivity than just about any other single factor.

What’s interesting is that digital distraction – interruptions from text messages, twitter updates, email alerts and the like – have us on a leash. Most of us (and I even catch myself sometimes) respond to our cellphones like one of the slaves Harriet Tubman COULDN’T get to leave the plantation, and don’t even realize how ridiculously absurd this conditioning is.

My good photographer friend Sepia Prince has a great photostream on Flickr about this called Electronic Leashes, and since “an image is worth a thousand words” (a very prejudice cliche I as a writer take offense to by the way, but whatever), enjoy the collection below. See if you can pick up on the highly ironic yet semi-depressing state of affairs these kodak moments so accurately portray:

“Electronic Leashes” Photostream Slideshow

Be sure to check out Sepia’s Flickr account for more great pieces, because the brother knows what he’s doing.

Take care of yourself, and remember: you are not a gadget, so next time your phone goes off, LET IT RING…resist the crack-needle-in-the arm, Pavlov-dog response syndrome and focus on the task (or real-life conversation) at hand.

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself CONCLUSION: Resource Materials, References & Recommended Scrolls…

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:00:03 +0000

And lastly (I say this with a little feeling of triumph in my heart), here’s the resource page to the Conquer Yourself series. Just for fun, I did it in audio format for your listening pleasure too, AND there’s a cool beat at the end. Check it out…
Download audio file (conquer.mp3)

Online Resources (All FREE)

Simpleology.com w/ Mark Joyner: I first came across this in 2007 – a great productivity training course with simple daily exercises and quick videos all focused on “the simple science of getting what you want.” They’ve definitely stepped their game up since back then, so do yourself a favor and take a second to check them out now…

Productive Flourishing w/ Charlie Gilkey: a blog that’s “all about the science and art of meaningful action.” Just trust me when I say this brother has a lot of knowledge under his belt…his blog will help you demystify the creative process, understand entrepreneurship in this digital age and much, much more…

Zen Habits w/ Leo Babauta: Another site on “Simple Productivity,” Leo leans more towards the philosophical side. One of the most famous blogs on the internet right now for a good reason: his short but deep posts always give you something to think on WITHOUT taking up your time…which a brother appreciates these days.

43 Folders w/ Merlin Mann: You’ll see a great video from this guy below, but here’s a link to one of his blogs, a website all about “finding the time and attention necessary to do your best creative work.” His information is great, but I also appreciate the technological, geeky dimension he brings to the table…

The 5 Pillars of Self Discipline by Steve Pavlina: Another great read I stumbled upon while doing some initial youtube research. I really like this guy’s writing style, and this articles always link to a bunch of other dope reads…

4 Steps to Raise Your Productivity & Consistently Get More Out Of Yourself (pt. 1) by yours truly: This was the first post I ever did strictly on productivity, right at the turn of the new year…in my mind, I knew a lot of people would be looking to set 2010 off right, so I decided to go with this concept of personal effectiveness. This post covers some of the most powerful ideas I came across all in one writing. Catch pt. 2 here…

Wake Up Productive w/ Eben Pagan: One of my favorite teachers online right now – what I really like about this guy is that he does mostly video training instead of the typical, boring written word. You’ll see one of his videos below, but check his blog for more…they’re really good. (Most go so in depth that they end up being kind of long though. For shorter clips, check the youtube channel…

…also, don’t forget about Think Right Now Intl.’s Accelerated Success Conditioning Software. Remember, this is the ONLY program a brother’s been using DAILY for five years to stay motivated, focused, faithful when times got hard and ON-POINT (them having a free newsletter, life-transformation kit and audio-interview series doesn’t hurt either). Click here to find out more now, and thank me later…

Recommended Scrolls

Video Archive

Contact a brother for any questions…I’m here for you.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true power…Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” ~ Lao Tzu

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself, Lesson 13: How to Raise Your Productivity By HAVING MORE FUN

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:00:59 +0000

Lastly, here’s lesson 13 of the Conquer Yourself series: DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN, whatever that means to you, because a big part of productivity IS guilt-free leisure time…lesson 13 is that if you never spend time enjoying yourself, you’ll actually end up procrastinating by proxy.

Don’t Become a Workaholic

This was one of my biggest issues: if you’re a procrastinator, being a workaholic probably seems like a good problem to have, but the reality is that procrastinators and workaholics have A LOT in common. (More on this further down…)

In the past, I had a habit of not eating well, not connecting with the important people in my life and barely get away from the computer at all. I’d read while I cooked, check emails while talking and act like I was too tough to take care of myself. You could of made a movie about me called, “What Happens When Ambtion Supersedes Wellbeing”.

I don’t want this to happen to you (because the tendency is to shift from one end of the spectrum to the other), so I’m ending the Conquer Yourself series with this advice: DON’T BECOME A WORKAHOLIC…IT IS NOT TRUE, SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTIVITY.

A truly productive life is meaningful and purpose-driven, NOT enslaved to an infinite onslaught of tasks and responsibilities. When you’re a workaholic, not only do feel overworked all the time, you also forget why you started doing things in the first place: you lose your sense of purpose and what was once significant to you degenerates into another source of monotonous “work.”

I’ll spend the rest of this post quoting from Niel Fiore in his book The Now Habit, because he explains this a lot better then I can. Fiore actually dedicates an entire chapter to this idea called, “Guilt Free Play, Quality Work” and it’s some solid advice…

Guilt-Free Play, Quality Work

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living…” ~ Dale Carnegie

“‘Putting off living’ is the most tragic form of procrastination we can engage in…attempting to skimp on holidays, rest and exercise leads to a suppression of the spirit and a decline of motivation because life begins to look like all spinach and no desert. To sustain high levels of motivation and lessen the urge to procrastinate, we need guilt-free play that provide us with periods of mental and physical rejuvenation.

Similar characteristics separate workaholics and procrastinators from producers and peak performers. They both:

- See themselves as always burdened by incomplete work. They see themselves as always working yet still undeserving of rest.

- Think of their lives as “being on hold,” with only a faint hope of someday being successful enough to enjoy living.

- View human beings as lazy and in need of discipline, so they feel people need pressure in order to be motivated. Procrastinators respond to this pressure with feelings of overwhelm and anxiety; workaholics with constant busyness and stress.

- Maintain a negative attitude toward work, seeing it as infinite and insatiable (impossible to satisfy). They think success requires deprivation and sacrifice, a sacrifice workaholics are willing to make often to avoid getting too close to anyone. Procrastinators exaggerate the sacrifice and escape it with halfhearted play out of the fear that they’ll never be able to play again…

Both workaholics and chronic procrastinators are either constantly working or constantly feeling guilty about not working…

(Producers and Peak Performers on the other hand think,) ‘I don’t have to force myself to come to work. I’ve escaped the confines of those old-school definitions of work, play and human nature. I have my own sense of purpose that helps me combine work and play.’

From studying their performance styles, I’ve learned that guilt-free play is essential to attaining quality work and minimizing procrastination. A firm commitment to guilt-free play will recharge your batteries, create renewed motivation, enhance your creativity and energize you for all the other areas of your life. When you know that work WILL NOT deprive you of enjoying the good things in life, you can more easily tackle a large tasks without the fear of having it rule you.

Guilt free play is based on the seeming paradox that in order to do productive high-quality work on important projects, you must stop putting off living and engage wholeheartedly in recreation and relaxation. That’s right, you can actually be more productive if you play more! And as you put the strategy of guilt-free play to use, you’ll learn to play more AND complete more work.

Since one of the reasons we procrastinate is out of the fear that work will deprive us of play and enjoyment in life, guilt-free play fixes this problem by insisting that you plan recreation into your weekly schedule…

It all starts in childhood: adults usually think of play as being separate from learning and work, but play is an essential part of every child’s developmental learning about work. Through play we learn the physical, mental and social skills necessary for adult life.

With toys and their imagination, children create scenarios that rehearse them for work, relationships and conflict – they express difficult feelings, negotiate promises, solve problems, and learn perseverance and deep concentration. Some of the most essential and complex learning we get about “work” is actually done while “playing.”

(However, work environments, well-meaning parents and society as a whole eventually teach children that) work is unpleasant and that we are all lazy. We’re lead to believe that we need the pressure of “have to’s” and “should’s” in order to keep us from escaping through play, and this loss of guilt-free play makes the task of life seem more depriving and difficult then it needs to be. Consequently, incorporating guilt-free play back into your life can revive your early childhood excitement about learning and doing.”

Pull-Motivation, Push-Motivation

“We’re more likely to work productively when we can anticipate pleasure and success rather than isolation and anxiety…When attempting to motivate yourself to start working on a goal, do you use pressure to push yourself with force or attraction to pull yourself forward naturally???

Here’s some examples of each:

PUSH
‘Private Jones, if you don’t finish peeling that truckload of potatoes by 1700 hours, you’ll lose your weekend pass for the next six months.’

‘This firm needs to generate $200,000 worth of sales this month or we’ll all be looking for jobs.’

‘Unless you increase the number of clients you find each day to at least fifteen, you can find yourself employment elsewhere.’

‘This freshman class had better learn now that you’re in for a lot of hard work. By the end of the semester, you’ll have read this entire shelf of books; and by the time you graduate, this entire wall.’

PULL
‘Private Jones, with each basket of potatoes, you’ll be earning another days leave. If you can finish that truck by 1700 hours, you’ll earn an additional weekend pass.’

‘We need to generate $200,000 worth of sales this month. That means we’ll all need to put out some extra effort so we can breath easier next month. I’d like to hear some ideas on what we need to do to increase calls, customer contacts and closing of sales by at least ten percent.’

‘This week you’ll be learning how to keep your client on the topic and politely complete the contact. Within two weeks you’ll be able to comfortably see fifteen clients a day.’

‘Imagine that as you read a chapter in your textbook, you’re placing it on this empty shelf. Chapter by chapter, book by book, you’ll fill this entire shelf 1st semester, and naturally, by graduation, this entire wall.’

The Pull Method of Self-Motivation understands that distant and indefinite rewards have little power to motivate someone to face continuous difficulty, and instead, uses the more immediate and definable rewards of life: leisure, time with friends, etc. In other words, to control your work habits, make the periods of work shorter (less painful) and the rewards more frequent (more pleasurable).

…If you’re interested in tackling a large task and minimizing procrastination, you must structure the rewards so as to increase the probability that you’ll start on the task each day.” ~ Niel Fiore, PhD.

Hope that all makes sense…take care of yourself, and be sure to check back in tomorrow for the series conclusion.

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself, Lesson 12: How to Leverage The Power of Your Subconscious Mind to Work FOR YOU…

Bryan Ogilvie — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:00:01 +0000

Here’s lesson 12 of the Conquer Yourself series, that true, sustainable productivity comes from leveraging the power of your subconscious mind, so make sure your core beliefs and deep-level mental scripts support you in your drive to be more effective…if they don’t, NOTHING YOU DO WILL WORK LONG TERM, no matter what.

Your Subconscious is the “Sovereign Master”:

Throughout this entire series, in the first posts I ever did about productivity, in an old video on free-thinking and in almost ALL of my writings, I talk about the subconscious mind being a sort of “sovereign lord” over the “realm” of your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

I keep repeating this because IT’S VITAL: I don’t want any of my new readers miss it and repetition is the only way I know it’ll sink in. So to paraphrase once more, your subconscious beliefs about yourself (and about the world we live in) are like the totalitarian government of a suppressed nation, or the ventriloquist behind a puppeteered dummy: they control EVERYTHING.

So if you don’t have this part right – if you’re not constructively leveraging your subconscious mind – you’re undermining all of your efforts. You’ll keep hitting your head against a brick wall wondering why nothing you do ever seems to work and why you never seem to stay with a goal like you know you need to. For instance…

>> If you have an unconscious habit of disaster thinking (i.e: thinking “If I don’t make this sale, I’ll lose my house,” “I’ll kill myself if she says no,” “If I don’t lose 10 pounds this week, they’ll all laugh at me.” etc.),

>> If you associate overwhelm and burden with necessary, goal-related tasks (“I can never write that much.” “I’ll never have enough time.” “This is too big a job for me.”),

>> If you have a failure-prone self-image (“I just AM smoker.” “I am a procrastinator.” “I’m not good enough to such-and such in my life.”) etc.

…or anything along those lines, you’re mentally sabotaging yourself., but fortunately, these subconscious habits can all be changed. Just as you might have mental patterns that compromise and draw you away from success, you can also have mental patterns that leverage and draw you closer towards it.

Steps to Changing Your Subconscious Patterns

My favorite technique for this is called “Auto-Suggestion,” where you place yourself in calm, relaxed state of mind (making your unconscious more receptive) and “suggest,” or state to yourself the new, supportive beliefs you’d like to hold.

Instead of the more destructive self-talk used above, you’d practice and condition yourself to think things like: “I’ve let go of settling for less than the best I can be,” “I forgive myself for lacking direction in my life,” and “The days of being overly self-critical are gone forever.”

Here’s another free pdf I put together called “An Affirmation List,” which’ll walk you through this process in depth, but, more importantly, here’s a program that’ll automate this entire process FOR YOU:

It’s Think Right Now Intl’s Accelerated Success Conditioning Software, the #1 visited personal development product site in the world. I first heard about them in 2005, but didn’t use any of their programs until 2007. Here’s my story:
Download audio file (trn2.mp3)

Take the time to listen to my story, don’t forget to download your free guide to autosuggestion, and be sure to check out the Think Right Now website in full. You’ll be glad you did.

And remember, true, sustainable productivity comes from leveraging the power of your subconscious mind: make sure your core beliefs and deep-level mental scripts support you in your drive to be more effective, because if they don’t, NOTHING YOU DO WILL WORK LONG TERM, no matter what…

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself, Lesson 11: Attaining Peak-Level Performance (How to Push Yourself to YOUR GREATEST)

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:27:23 +0000

Here’s lesson 11 of the Conquer Yourself series: that to get the most out of yourself, approach your performance like an Olympic athlete approaches theirs. The operative word here is “performance,” because it implies an activity that’s both SPECIFIC (as in, a discrete act unto itself) and QUANTIFIABLE, the key traits that’ll allow you to develop FOCUS and METRICS for feedback…

The Athlete’s Inner Game

“When a player comes to recognize that learning to focus may be more valuable to him than his backhand, he shifts from being primarily a player of the outer game to being a player of the Inner Game. Then, instead of learning to focus to improve his tennis, he practices tennis to improve his focus…” ~ W. Timothy Gallwey

In Gallwey’s classic, The Inner Game of Tennis, he talks about using the sport as a “platform” for developing concentration, similar to the concept of flow discussed in one of my latest videos. (See more in this free pdf download.)

What I want you to do here is isolate the different aspects of your craft into constituent skills so you can develop each one of them independently. This fragmentation (individual focus) is the first step to developing the flow that’ll help you perform at your greatest.

Think of what you do as a kind of “sport” you can break down into key functions that can each be honed separately in a methodical way. For instance:

>> In soccer, this might be speed, tackling, dribbling, stamina, shot accuracy and play formation,

>> In tennis, this might be forehand, backhand, serving, stamina, shot accuracy and concentration,

>> But in blogging, this might be drafting, idea formation, social networking, video creation, audience building, basic html, etc.

Whatever it is you do, sit down with a pen and paper to identify those core competencies. This sets you up to practice each aspect in-depth (so it’s not one big confusing mess), get “into the flow,” and zone out long enough to pick up the genius level insights that’ll take your game to the next level.

“The worse part about multitasking is that it leaves you incapable of developing skill or proficiency at any particular thing: In order to cultivate your talents and turn them into strengths, CONCENTRATE on refining the particular dynamics that those talents and strengths are composed of. Does that make sense??? If you really want to get ‘nice’ at something, you have to go in-depth and master all the minute details and aspects of that thing, but you’ll never get around to doing that if you’re too busy ‘multitasking.’” ~ from a piece I put together on productivity not too long ago

So stop “multitasking” your performance, and take the more precise, scientific approach an athletic trainer would towards his clients. Break it down, focus on each part individually and gain the flow needed to revolutionize every aspect of your game.

The Next Step is Taking METRICS

The logical progression after this is to get statistical data upon which to measure and track your performance over time. Whereas in step one you’re compartmentalizing your craft into discrete skills, here you’re getting numerical feedback that’s RESULTS-ORIENTED…

In Basketball, players are measured by games played (as well as games started), points made, field goals made (as well as attempted and the percentage), three-pointers made (as well as attempted and the percentage), rebounds (offensive and defensive), steals, blocks, assists, turnovers, personal fouls and more.

But in the blogging, I measure sales made, fanpage growth, newsletter membership growth, most well-received blog posts, the open-rate of the emails I send and many other things. (Technology makes this a lot easier then it sounds…don’t worry, I’m am keeping my sanity over here).

Concrete data creates a line of communication between your efforts and your rewards. Truth is, unless you have some sort of quantifiable metrics going on, you’ll never get a thorough understanding of what you need to do to improve.

In fact, I’ve once heard it said that “the ability to graph and quantify information is one of the greatest invention humans ever created,” because we’re not inherently wired to accurately measure and perceive change.

Human beings will ALWAYS be biased in subconscious ways: just like we mis-communicate in our relationships or recall things from the past in our own peculiar and skewed ways, we also lack the ability to objectively track performance (and how it plays out) with only our own distorted thinking.

The evidence is all around you: sports, business, banking, the medical industry, and even governments and schools (controversially enough) are all based on taking TONS of different kinds of metrics on performance. Think credit scores, tax returns, grades, misdemeanor and felony offenses, imprisonment, etc. etc…it’s literally EVERYWHERE.

So START TAKING DATA ON YOUR PERFORMANCE and create your own “dashboard” of sorts. At first it’ll be crude, but if you stick with it, you’ll develop a keen sense of what you’re doing wrong and the fundamental changes you need to make to take your game to the next level.

Again, break your craft down so you can focus on mastering each specific aspect, and start taking metrics on your performance…if you think about it, what I’m really saying here is be more scientific about your entire approach and your guaranteed to CONTINUOUSLY push past boundaries and perform at your greatest.

Hope this helps. Be sure to tune back in Monday and leave me a comment letting me know how you think.

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself, Lesson 10: THE SCIENCE OF WILLPOWER

Bryan Ogilvie — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:10:47 +0000

For lesson 10 of Conquer Yourself, we’re going to do something a little different: learn the science of willpower with Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, coauthors of the new book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Listen here:
Download audio file (willpower.mp3)

I love this clip because the authors do two key things: (1) combine the old-school, Victorian style approach to “self-regulation” with updated scientific data, and (2) provide a complete framework for how to cultivate and develop it, seeing willpower as a mental function strengthened by exercise, depleted by decision-making and preserved by routines, for example. (You can enjoy a free segment from the book by clicking here).

Quotes from the Show…

“There are so many new distractions and temptations, that we need to set our own rules for dealing with them. It used to be that you’d go to the office and you couldn’t much else except work there, but now you can sit at your desk and goof off anytime. The temptation is always there to turn on your phone, to go to facebook, to do anything…”

“Like a muscle, willpower gets fatigued as you use it during the day. Successful people learn to husband their resources: they don’t just count on that muscle getting them through a marathon day after day. But over time you can build it…”

“Typically, you have much less by less (willpower) by late in the day…I stop trying to make big decisions after 4 o’clock, and in fact, I stop having meetings after 4 o’clock practically.”

“Keeping track, objectively, is the easiest way to start on improving self-control, and you can do this at age 10 or at age 60 or 70. Start to record your successes and failures. Pick something you want to work on about yourself and just record your progress on it.”

Take your time and LISTEN TO THIS SHOW IN FULL (you’ll be glad you did). Don’t forget to download your free book excerpt, check out the original website this is from and enjoy the rest of the Conquer Yourself series at your leisure

Peace,
+B

A Short Break from Conquer Yourself (Resources, References, Charts, Diagrams, Downloads & More FREE Good Stuff)

Bryan Ogilvie — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:34:42 +0000

Today we’re going to take a short break from Conquer Yourself, but to review the entire series “suma total” (that’s right: I’m working on my Spanglish…you know you like it), go here. There’s even some secret, never-before-seen posts in that archive as well.

(They’re really just classic entries from back when my blog had the whole nature-walk, boyscout look going on…one that’ll show you the hidden architecture of self-discipline and another that’ll show you a preview of where we’re headed. Good stuff.)

Charts & Diagrams

Here’s the (revised) affirmations worksheet with extra space for personal notes, and here’s the foodlog journal for taking metrics on your diet and corresponding energy levels. THIS WILL GIVE YOU SO MUCH LEVERAGE ON YOURSELF IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY…so trust me and put my fancy design skills to good use:

Audio-Visual Resources & More

As review, here’s a couple of audio mixdowns teaching you how to harness, cultivated and protect your attention in the digital age (all imperatives in today’s techno-stressed world, mind you). Download the first one by Eben Pagan here, and the second one by Merlin Mann here.

Download audio file (eben4.mp3)

Download audio file (e-mail.mp3)

And here’s the video-tutorial, “How to Conquer Yourself: 5 Tips for Building Your Self-Discipline.” (See my youtube channel in full for more.)

And last, but not least – probably MOST IMPORTANT, honestly – here’s a link to Effective Time-Management Now!, which has been helping literally thousands of people to “Get more done faster, better and EASIER while DRAMATICALLY reducing your stress.”

Seriously, I’m one of six-thousand+ success stories, and if it wasn’t for Think Right Now Intl. (the company that makes these thought-and-behavior modification programs), this blog wouldn’t even be here. Give them a shot and check the page out now.

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself, Lesson 9: Technology is UNDERMINING Your Productivity, Not Raising It. (How to Bring an End to Email Overload)

Bryan Ogilvie — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:30:32 +0000

Lesson 9 of the Conquer Yourself series is simple: it’s that technology is UNDERMINING your productivity, not raising it. Hyper-connectivity and information overload inhibit concentration, disrupt important relationships and sabotage your ability to think and act creatively more then anything else…

The Evidence is All Around You

Facebook and other social networks wasting hours of our day, e-mail alerts constantly interrupt us from actual work, High-Definition, flat-screen TVs (with literally 1000′s of channels) entice us to escape in mindless entertainment and, under the illusion of progress, all of this technological advancement has produced an attention-deficit SOCIETY…a world where, since the inability to focus is THE NORM, we don’t even realize it.

“As our culture has become more mobile, high-speed, techno-stressed, information-cluttered and media-saturated, we’re getting pushed out of our ability to focus without even noticing it.” ~ Lucy Jo Palladino, PhD, author of Find Your Focus Zone

…but no, I’m not about to tell you to throw your cell phone out the window, and I realize that telling somebody you don’t have email these days is like telling them you don’t have electricity. All I’m suggesting here is that you ALTER how you use these tools so as to not as to not jeopardize your work-ethic or waste the precious free-time and energy you do have.

(What follows is going to focus on email. For a foolproof way to “productivize” your facebook and social networking in general, click here.)

How to Do Email The Productive Way

You can make email productive with two simple steps: (1) open your inbox only at predefined periods and (2) stop “checking” your email and start PROCESSING it instead.

The first step is self-explanatory: think of email as something you only need to tend to during pre-established windows of time, like the office hours of a college professor.

That’s because email is primarily firefighting…email is other people making requests on YOUR time, not you prioritizing what you’re going to do and doing it. So when you’re checking your e-mail, you’re not really getting anything accomplished besides reviewing the demands other people have in mind for you (like spam, pointless informational links, jokes, chain letters and social network notifications).

When you’re checking your e-mail, even though you’re not doing anything, you’re still expending your mental energy. Too much time here -or going back and forth between email and whatever you’re supposed to be doing – and you’ll get drained out. You’ll actually get exhausted and still feel like you got nothing done.

So TURN OFF the random bleeps that come up on your phone and stop “checking” your email randomly throughout the day. Promise to yourself, “I’m going to process my email once at __ a.m. and again at ___ p.m., and then leave it alone until the next day.”

On “Processing” Email

By “process,” I mean is have a discreet, limited set of actions that you can apply to EVERY email that comes your way. For instance, with almost all the emails I get, I only need to do one of 3 things: (A) respond to it, (B) delete it, or (C) categorize it.

If I get an email I need to respond to, I take the 5 minutes (during my predefined time) to respond to it. If I get spam or anything I’m not interested in, I swiftly hit the delete button, and if I get something that I AM interested in, but don’t have the time to follow up and read (or watch) now, I just file it away in a folder, because I know it’s not going anywhere.

Watch this for details:

Hope this helps. Trust me: once you see a clear inbox and feel the psychological release from getting rid of all that clutter, you’ll thank me later. Now get to work…

Peace,
+B

Conquer Yourself, Lesson 7: Challenging (& Enlightening) Yourself AWAY FROM Laziness…

Bryan Ogilvie — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:56:49 +0000

If you want go from procrastinator to producer, the first thing you need is a new definition for both terms…in session 2, we already discussed procrastination as a coping mechanism in response to anxiety, so here I’ll show you the corollary: that productivity is a fundamental expression of the human spirit.

Even Abraham Maslow once said: “Human nature has been sold short…(humans have) a higher nature which includes the need for meaningful work, for responsibility, for creativeness, for being fair and just, for doing what is worthwhile and for preferring to do it well.”

“Life, by living, multiplies (i.e: produces) itself,” says Wallace Wattles, and what I’M saying is that being productive is your inborn, default state, not something you never had that you need to attain. So see everything interfering with your natural drive to produce as an ABERRATION…as a divergence away from who you truly are, no different then a physical illness (albeit more subtle) that needs to be cured.

Also, know that being productive is NOT the same as drudgery, so if you feel bored, overtaxed or anything along those lines when you’re “trying” to be productive, you’re doing it ALL WRONG. Like I said in the latest video-tutorial, self-discipline raises your self-esteem and creates a sense of gratification you can’t otherwise obtain, so although it’s not ALWAYS fun, it generally feels good.

(By the way, if any of this sounds like I’m ridiculing you, that’s cause I am, but only the part of you that’s still settling for less then the best you can be, not “you” per se. You even wouldn’t be here unless you wanted to do away with that person, and I definitely don’t want that person here on the blog wasting internet bandwidth in his spare time, either.)

So here’s a helpful acronym I put together to help you think like a producer, feel like a producer and ACT like a producer as well. Take a look at it and thank me later…

“P” stands for POWER

…because power is what you attain when you’re a productive person. Inside of “productivity” is the root word “produce” – a is synonym for the word “create.” This ability to create on-demand is a power that’ll separate you from the rest of the pack and make the most of your talents and skills.

“R” stands for RULE

…or more specifically, self-rule. This series is called “Conquer Yourself” because it’s about winning the war going on between your goal-oriented driven self and your comfort-seeking passive self. Producers have the tools to fight this battle conscientiously, procrastinators don’t…

“O” stands for OBSERVATION

…which means two things: (1) being present-minded and (2) SEEING COMPLETE SYSTEMS, not just isolated tasks and fragmented busy-work.

Procrastinators “miss the forest for the trees” and squander all their time and energy away on disconnected, pointless activities that lead them to the great destination of not-too-far-from-where-they-started. Producers use “systems-level thinking,” to leverage their time and energy and play the game from a higher plateau.

“D” stands for DIRECTION

…because in order to hit a target, you must see it clearly. Producers know that “a problem well-defined is half-solved” and a goal well-detailed is well within their reach. Start being as specific, concrete and tangible as you can, because without direction, you have no orientation…

“U” stands for UNDERSTANDING

…understanding that, again, procrastination is really a coping mechanism in response to anxiety…that it’s a SYMPTOM to (and indicative of) underlying fear, not “the problem” in and of itself. (See session 2 for a detailed example.)

Producers also understand that our culture literally CONDITIONS us for consumption, over-indulgence, entertainment and distraction: traits that are all ANTITHETICAL to a fully productive life (see the latest video for more), so even though they have fun and relax, they never let themselves get sidetracked.

“C” stands for COMPASSION

…because producers have high self-esteem (and they tend to treat other people nice too). Niel Fiore, author of The Now Habit says, “In order to maximize your performance in a stressful world, you must create a protected and indisputable sense of worth for yourself.”

So stop beating yourself up for not being where you want to be, and focus on making minor improvements overtime. Also, learn to talk to yourself in a more compassionate and supportive way.

“E” stands for ENERGY

…because, obviously, your health and vitality levels dramatically effect how much you’re able to accomplish (we’ll talk about this more in later sessions), and…

The final “R” stands for Recreation & Rewards

…because producers enjoy their leisure time guilt-free…they’ve let go of the robotic, slave-yourself-away mentality most people take towards being more efficient.

If you don’t take time out to play and enjoy yourself, you’ll actually INCREASE procrastination, because you’ll begin to associate work with force, pressure and pain.

So instead, try using reverse psychology on yourself by scheduling in leisure activities INSTEAD of actual project tasks, and work around that. (There’ll be more on this in upcoming sessions too. )

My overall point is that you have both a producer and a procrastinator inside you, and you have to choose which one you’re going to feed. If these 8 points helped you at all in that regard, then I guess I did okay. Leave a comment below letting me know which letters stood out most for you.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned tomorrow for more goodness…

Peace,
+B