Begin again in 2011

by David

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.”

-Henry Ford

Famous Friday Quotivations #7for December 31, 2010.

Every Friday I choose quotes that I think are motivating or inspiring.

Well well… here we are the last day of 2010.

The quote above from Henry Ford speaks about renewal. That’s why I choose it for today.

The failure quotient this year for me was high and that’s a good sign.

That simply means that in 2011 I will be that much closer to being worthy to drink from the golden cup of success.

I have endured therefore I am.

The evil of the enduring and continual learning curve has not claimed this here guy.

Won’t either.

I must keep going towards my goal of creating the best way of telling the story of how anyone can become “immune to failure” and beat the odds of becoming a worthless statistic on the road to success. I predict that I will do it in 2011. (Watch for my new DVD: Immune To Failure Essentials in the new year.) In fact just yesterday I made this point clear to copywriter and fellow blogger John Breese.

Is your time-line too long?

In reality it isn’t the curve of learning that does us in. The death of our ambitions is dashed on the rocky shoals of time. I’m not trying to be poetic here so let me explain a bit more.

We are all a bit impatient these days. This, after all, is the age of the microwaved five minute dinner, instant-on TV sets, video games that so easily let us start again even though we’ve been fatally cut down in a hail of laser bullets, and communications that…oh, don’t get me started.

Because of that need to feel impatient we are not at all accustomed to waiting it out by working it through. As a result we fail to see the vision of the future already completed as we would have it completed in our dreams. [I have always maintained that there is a difference between a dream and a vision but that is another issue.]

In other words… time itself will finish a lot of us off long before we are eligible to find ourselves waking up on the wrong side of the grass. Ambitions die with a silent whimper. After that we just go out and get our old job back (yuk!).

Not me though. Not now and not ever. Once this project is done I have a few others in my bucket to complete before the sky is darkened.

For now though I’ll continue on. Tomorrow is New Years day. You’ll find me here – same place same station – pounding this damn keyboard just as I have on any other day during the last 30-odd months straight.

Like Henry I want to start over tomorrow more intelligently than I did the day before when my head hit the pillow. I can only do that by going through a certain set of failures.

So tonight I will raise my glass and bless all the mistakes that have gone by the boards. Tomorrow is a new year and another day to start again.

I hope all of you who have ambitions will join me in turning them into a profitable future starting tomorrow.

Much success to you and to yours in the coming year.

PS: Looking for more balance and happiness in your life? Connect with me on my FaceBook page

Don’t Take a bath

by David

rubber duck takes a bath — If you payed for head-based self-motivation you could end up taking a bath

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” -Zig Ziglar

Welcome to this edition of “Quotivations” for December 17, 2010.

Usually every Friday I choose quotes that I think are motivating or inspiring. But today I’m doing something a little different.

Rather than being motivating I found this quote, from one of the original key figures of modern day Self-help, to be a less then a subtle complaint about one of the biggest faults of his positive motivational product.

It doesn’t last.

Never has and never will.

Poor old Zig. He’s been at this self-help game since before the earth was done cooling. A defensive quote like this one appears to bring out the curmudgeon in him.

It’s total spin though.

But there is something I’ve got to give him credit for. He’s always been good at adding a touch poetry to make his message more memorable. Remember the famous line “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude”. Clever stuff like that sells well and it sure did for multi-millionaire Zig Ziglar.

But I still don’t buy it.

Want poetry? How about this: “Disable the fable about motivational spinners making you able”.

Ok, maybe it’s not as good as Zig can do it but, hey, I’m still working on it.

I believe that the real reason why motivation appears not to last very long is because of the type of motivation that’s being delivered.

What doesn’t last is the typical self-motivation injected toward your head-brain by clever artful dodgers like Zig.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, anyone who’s been at for over forty years, like Zig has, deserves some respect. I’m sure he’s helped some people along the path.

But we need some hard truth here.

The problem is that Zig, like all of his compadres today, did not and has not been able to recognize that there is another overriding motivational force that comes from the gut and powers through all the head-brain muddle causing a desired goal to be achieved despite all the great motivational sayings.

That energy, we refer to it sometimes as persistence and determination, cannot and does not originate in the head brain. It’s strictly a property of the gut brain (scientifically known as the enteric nervous system).

The problem with trying to change thoughts from negative to positive is that as humans we have a slight negativity bias to start with and the head-brain, which is always open to messages from the eyes and ears, can’t avoid reverting to and taking on the polarity of whatever has the greater amount.

In other words, there is a lot of negatively charged media fighting for attention with the positive stuff (poetry notwithstanding). It usually swings back to the negative side because that is often the default setting. Negative is also the polarity a lot of our perceptions happen to have about how our existence is treating us.

For example, you could be studying one of Zig’s great books and feeling very positive about your day. That’s until some jerk cuts you off in traffic or you get a flat tire on your way to work and suddenly bamm! just like that you’re back to where you started. You need to bathe your brain again in more positive juice.

The fundamental Problem…

It’s taken me a lot of years but I can now describe the fundamental problem with just three words: lack of immunity.

See the mindset is constantly under attack by our negative perceptions of our situation. But the body’s physical immune system is primarily a buffer against the attacks of pathogens and most of the time it works quite well.

But mindset immunity is another animal all together. It’s not physical it’s ethereal because thoughts are ethereal. The problem with it is that it’s too weak and too slow acting in most people to act like much of a buffer. But, here’s the good news:

I’ve found a way to fix that with this.

Not one of the best head-based motivators working today has ever thought of this approach before. If they did they’d have to change their whole business model to include one where they only deliver the result just once and it sticks.

Like I do.

They wouldn’t want to ever do that though. If they did their business could end up taking a bath… daily.

That’s it for today, consider yourself “quotivated”.

More power to you.

Times Change

by David

“The times they are a’changing” – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's original hand-writen manuscript of The Times They Are A'Changing — Photo: Sotheby's

Famous Friday Quotivations # 4 December 10, 2010.

Today a tattered and worn old piece of paper was sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York. The buyer was a wealthy hedge fund manager who ponied up $422,500 for the artifact.

In this series I usually quote famous leaders who had written great unforgettable one-liners. But this time I came across something different. That old piece of paper that changed hands today was the original hand-written draft of Bob Dylan’s protest anthem “The Times They Are A-changing”. It rattled in my brain all day.

I was just beginning high school back in October 1963 when Dylan picked up a pencil and scratched out this song on a three-hole punched piece of paper. He couldn’t have known of course the changes that were afoot just a short time later when President John F. Kennedy was shot dead by an assassin’s bullet during a motorcade through Dallas. Many things changed that day.

Here’s the quote:

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

For Dylan this was a song to protest the war in Vietnam and the issue of civil rights. But for me now, some 47 years later, I see it as a reflection of the perils of not being adaptable to change.

Adaptability is an important human attribute and is a big part of what I cover in my discussion about my work and research as I continue to develop my theory of mindset immunity. Change is something that’s all around us and we’d better be good at handling it because one thing we can rely on is more of it in the future. Whether we’re ready or not.

Many are not.

That’s why I developed this.

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, for your enjoyment, here’s my favorite cover of that great Bob Dylan song performed by another iconic trio of the 1960’s era Peter, Paul, & Mary.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oU7M4OeSRM[/youtube]

More Power to you

Black Hat Immunity

by David

Today I’m wearing my black hat proudly.

But, lest you think I’m into promoting some kind of subversive web site app let me quickly explain.

Usually the term “black hat” references to some of the more sinister sort of methods used by daring marketers to temporarily get around or outsmart the search engines so that they can gain higher rankings.

But let’s be clear: I’m not into that.

Wouldn’t know the first thing about it anyway. I’m no smarty-ass coder. I hardly know my HTML from my HELP.

So, what’s with the black hat? Well, see I’m just loosely calling it that because (although it is black in color) it’s my way of demonstrating that what I’m presenting is going to be a tad controversial to those who have interests in the industry of personal development.

I’m going to be putting on a webinar later this month to explain Mindset Immunity and what it means for those who seek better results without getting all hyped or pumped up from teachings that continue to come out of traditional self-help. (If you want you can sign up to receive the announcement of the time and date in the form in the right sidebar.)

In this group I’ll even include the airy fairy LOA stuff as well as the dreamy head-based Himalayan snow breeze promoted by the TM’ers.

Personally I’ve always been uncomfortable with that stuff as well as the stuff that says things like “If you don’t feel happy at least act happy and soon you’ll feel happy.”

Too much lame fakeness for me. I’d much rather have that joy and happiness simmering away, as it usually does, in my gut.

Mindset Immunity, in a nutshell, is about the discovery of new type of immune system. It’s the one that looks after our thinking mindset and it appears to work much like the one that looks after our physical bodies although it’s painfully slower. The biggest difference is that it’s well… invisible.

But, strange as that may seem, that’s not what makes it all that “black hat”. That term is what I imagine all those gooroos will think it is. See, when people like you find out that you can easily discover that you have a new natural capability, one that’s already in you from birth, and that helps to control your mood towards the positive side automatically, then that could impact the whole industry. Capabilities are more permanent deliverables than information is.

Capabilities can’t be taken away from you by anyone. They are a real thing. An attribute that brings you more intrinsic power and freedom that comes from you and belongs to you. You’re not beholden to anyone and that’s new in this rock-star industry.

Remember, personal development is an industry that hasn’t seen much newness since the dear old Maharishi showed up back in 1958 promising to bring what he said would: “rid the world of all unhappiness and discontent.”

Ok, maybe didn’t turn out that way for this oblate spheroid we call earth but it did alright for him.

To the tune of millions of moochos moola.

Worth a tip o’the black hat wouldn’t you say?

More power to you.

PS: Tell me what you think in the comment area below. Or, if you’ve got something cool to say, just give me a shout in the box below.

Mobius Monday Minute #5

by David

Significant discoveries about life forms – Dec 6, 2010

“There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 1 scene 5

Six. That’s the number of basic chemical elements that make up all living organisms on planet earth. These are called the CHNOPS elements; the letters stand for the chemical abbreviations of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur.

Only six of them. At least till this past week anyway.

Seems that scientists have been experiencing a hard evidence bomb that has left them tightly gripping the controls on their spectron microscopes. A heretofore unknown microbe has been identified as pigging out on nun other than one of the most toxic ingredients known to man: arsenic. It loves the stuff. Even has it slathered all the way up to it’s DNA all the while kicking out the usual sulfur component that would make it fall in line with what’s considered usual.

Personally I can understand why. Sulfur‘s the stuff that smells like rotten eggs. I used to live about 40 miles from a paper mill and once in a while we’d get whiff of it.

Ug!

Anyway this thing has the guys and gals in the lab coats rewriting their definition of what a life form is.

They better hurry. The possibilities for the existence of ET just got ramped up even more thanks to another discovery this week. Seems that there are tons more stars out there than they first thought. Just take the numeral 3 and add 21 zeros to it and you’d get an idea of the latest estimate of the twinkling little specs that inhabit our universe. By the way that figure has a name it’s 300 sextillilion total stars.

But wait. What’s all this got do with a guy like me who usually talks about human motivation?

Plenty. Let me explain.

See I’ve being trying to tell people for a while now one of the most significant discovery is walking around with them 24 hours a day every day. We have all heard about our immune system and how it works. But that one only looks after our physical body. What If we had a separate one that looks after our thinking?

Still with me? Great.

I believe I’ve found it and, I can prove it too you.

I call it mindset immunity and everyday it’s there, buried deep within you, basically operating at about only 10% capacity.
It has a hard time doing more because it’s not at all recognized and so, unlike its physical sibling, it doesn’t make any noise and doesn’t get any support. It’s like an unknown 3rd world country still trying to survive with its stone-age economy.

But I’ve found a way to fix that. A way that is so simple that anyone could have thought it up but didn’t.

Want to know more?

No problemo. Just check out my new book: The Gut Brain Balm. While I’m still writing it I’m giving away the first chapter for free right now. Go HERE now to grab your copy. But hurry this free offer ends once the book is completed.

Until next time.

More power to you my friends.

David W. Parsons