Tag Archives: Metaphor

Fantasy Money Land

Your Internal Fusion Reactor

Scientists have been trying to find self-sustaining fusion for a long time.

Currently, all nuclear energy comes from fission.

Splitting a Uranium atom in half and getting a lot of energy.

That energy is used to boil water which turns turbines which generates electricity.

Fusion is much safer than fission.

Fission creates accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Fusion is what powers all of the stars, (including the sun) and subsequently all life on Earth.

On a personal level, we all require energy with every movement.

We store energy, burn energy and consume energy.

You might describe us biologically as “energy pumps.”

Every take we take in (eat) energy and expend (move) energy.

We continuously pump energy in and out.

But just like fusion, we too have access to a virtually unlimited energy source.

Those who have tapped this have created great empires.

Manifested great works of art.

And solved scientific riddles to cure diseases and extend the length of our lives.

What is this virtually unlimited energy source?

It is only a thought away.

But it is so well hidden we RARELY recognize it.

We don’t like to talk about it.

Some of us have even been conditioned to feel guilty when we think about it.

But it is always there.

Napoleon Hill recognized it in the great leaders and empire builders he studied.

He also noted its misuse among the most poor that he studied.

How you use it is up to you.

But you do have it.

Learn More:

Sex Transmutation

Flow

Resonate The Flow Of Life

What does it mean to be “Self Actualized?”

Some say this is being at the top of our potential.

Of performing as effectively as we can.

According to Maslow’s famous hierarchy, we need to satisfy “lower” need before we can satisfy “higher” needs.

Once we get these lower needs out of the way, (food, safety, sex,) we can move up the ladder.

But is it possible to “be” self actualized?

After all, you can’t just stop eating. What happens when you’re at the top of the “self actualized” pyramid and you get hungry?

Or what happens if everything’s perfect, your living your “higher purpose” but then an earthquake hits, and your house starts falling apart?

There’s a saying in enlightenment circles, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

Meaning that no matter HOW “enlightened” you become, you still gotta eat. You still have to put on your seatbelt. You still have to pay your electric bill or else all your ice cream will melt.

Consider that “self actualization” is not a destination, like Las Vegas.

Where you can see it up ahead, and you whoop and holler when you cross the border.

Consider that “self actualization” is a delicate balance.

When you, an unfathomably complex mind-body system, is operating at a high level of efficiency.

Csikszentmihalyi (seriously!) studied athletes. When they are “self actualized” he called it a “flow state.” Those RARE moments when they act purely unconsciously, when they “be the ball.”

When conscious thought stops and they perform with utmost efficiency, grace and skill.

But here’s the thing.

Even the BEST athletes only experience true “flow” sporadically.

After all, if they could reproduce it at will, they would never lose.

What does that mean for us normal humans?

Can we EVER become self actualized?

Yes, yes we can.

How?

Consider a couple of simple concepts.

One is we can NEVER predict the future.

Which means every time we take action, something UNEXPECTED will happen.

And every time something unexpected happens, we learn something.

This means that every single time we do something, we IMPROVE our ability to look out our future and decide what to do.

Since we are ALWAYS updating our “map of reality” we can NEVER arrive at point where we understand everything.

Which means being “self actualized” is an orientation, a way operating, rather than a static state.

Kind of like a high performance race car. The engine is only “self actualized” on straight roads when it can hit those high RPMs.

Consider that the MOST “actualized” we can be is when success is just out of reach, and we are operating as efficiently as we can to get there.

And lucky for us, the more we succeed, the more we CAN succeed.

Learn How:

Entrepreneurial Mind

It Sees All - It Knows All

Unlock Life’s Puzzles

I remember back in college my roommate had one of those 3D books.

The kind that looked like some abstract picture, but if you stared at it, you could see some 3D object.

It took me a while (longer than most) but when I “got it” it was pretty cool.

And once you “got it” on one picture, you could “get it’ on a lot of other pictures.

Optical illusions are cool because they leverage one of our “shortcuts” in thinking.

Because it takes a lot of brain processor time to look at EVERYTHING every single time, our brain has a kind of “cache” memory.

Scientists believe that up to forty percent of what we see isn’t what we’re REALLY seeing.

It’s what we’re ASSUMING based on that “cache.”

So when we look at an optical illusion, something that is PURPOSELY drawn differently in some way, it kind of sends our brain into a loop.

Like in Excel or any other spreadsheet program where you try and “divide by zero.”

These can be fun, but they can also cause problems.

Like when we’re trying to do something IMPORTANT (not look at some goofy picture) and we keep getting mistakes.

One of the problems with our brains is we tend to generalize quite a bit.

We also distort and delete.

If we had to process EVERY SINGLE THING outside of our senses, we’d go insane.

In order to keep up, we’ve got to “perceive” the bare minimum.

But if we’re getting the bare minimum wrong (which is pretty easy considering the small sliver of stuff we perceive compared to what is actually there) it can be maddening.

Of course “wrong” is purely subjective.

Imagine if you were trying to drive a car, and you perceived the world as if it were an optical illusion, like those stairs that go all over the place!

(It’d be like the movie, “Inception!”)

Luckily, once you recalibrate what’s out there, and more importantly the part that will help you get where you want to go, it’s pretty easy.

Kind of like those optical illusion puzzles.

Once you “get” one of them, you can “get” all of them.

And once you figure out how to “get” one thing you want, you can use the same strategy for everything else.

Learn How:

End Self Sabotage

Crash Through Barriers

Overcome Duration Mismatch

Imagine going on a bike ride with a friend.

Only you were on a tandem bike. And both of you were pedaling at different frequencies.

It would be frustrating. You’d be much better off on two separate bikes, so you could pedal at your own rate.

Back in the days before banks became speculation machines, they had something called “duration mismatch.”

People would deposit their money to earn interest. And then the bank would loan out that money, to earn MORE interest.

The theory was that the bank made their money from the difference. If they paid out 2% interest on deposits, and charged 5% interest on loans, they’d pocket the 3% difference.

Only the loans (money going out) were for fixed terms. Usually long terms. Car loans are five years. Home loans are fifteen or thirty years.

But the deposits (money coming in) could be pulled out at any time.

Even if people got a CD (certificate of deposit) to get a higher interest, it was for only a year.

So the money coming IN was short term. The money going OUT was long term.

The trick was to make sure it was always in balance.

When the Great Depression happened, all the money was pulled out, and plenty of banks went out of business.

When humans do things, (or try to do things) there are always different “levels.”

Like in the short term, it feels good to eat pizza (or nachos or whatever).

In the long term, we’d rather be fit and in shape.

Kind of like a “duration mismatch” of our wants.

Often times what we want in the SHORT TERM is different than what we want in the LONG TERM.

Usually the opposite.

This is the heart of what most people call “self sabotage.”

Like two people on a bike pedaling at different speeds.

Instead of combining their efforts, they cancel each other out.

Putting in all that effort for nothing.

When you have different parts of you fighting each other, it sucks.

But there’s a way to fix it.

A way to start slowly, and improve slowly, so that EVERYBODY involved (all the different parts of you wanting things at different times) are FINALLY working together.

And just like two people pedaling together on a bike, you can get going pretty fast.

Learn How:

Stop Self Sabotage

This Eye Is Staring You In The Brain

Embrace Your Inner Suck

Some things can be learned in a linear, step by step method.

Like baking a cake, or building a birdhouse.

Even then it can be complicated.

The first time you do something it’s generally accepted to be part of the “learning curve.”

Nobody would expect to bake the perfect cake on the first try, or build a perfect birdhouse.

Far from it.

Even in simple, non-crucial things (unless you own a cake shop or a birdhouse factory) we give ourselves LOTS of slack.

We bake a goofy looking cake that tastes kind of funny, and we laugh about it.

We KNOW we are SUPPOSED to suck at it the first few times.

But when we do REALLY IMPORTANT things like create relationships, apply for jobs, we act like we’re SUPPOSED to be PERFECT the first time.

Even though these things are WAY more complicated.

What are we, crazy?

We KNOW that by building a birdhouse a few times (or baking a cake or whatever) we’ll get better and better.

Why not look at life the same way?

Why now accept that it’s OK to SUCK?

As long as each “step” isn’t our “final answer,” we can keep getting better.

See, by allowing yourself to suck, you virtually GUARANTEE that you’ll get much better results.

If you DEMAND that you do it PERFECTLY the first time, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up.

Since the first time is NEVER perfect.

So when you embrace your inner “suck” and allow yourself to “fail” you open yourself to continuous improvement.

Because it’s really HARD to NOT get better if you keep trying.

Every time you bake a cake you’ll get better.

Every time you build a birdhouse you’ll get better.

Every time you do ANYTHING, you’ll get better.

Sure, when you think FAR OFF into the future, dream big.

Just realize that every single step between here and there will involve a lot of missteps.

A lot of outcomes that “suck.”

But whether you suck or not isn’t really important.

So long as you’re moving forward, you’ll get there.

Get Started:

End Self Sabotage

Create Your Own Success

Build Your Own Blueprint

I’ve always liked building stuff.

When I was a kid I had a set of Lego’s.

They usually came in a kit so you could build what they wanted, but you could also build whatever you wanted, so long as you had all the parts.

Which was also a good marketing strategy, because the more kits you bought the more raw materials you could have to build all kinds of stuff.

Hot Wheels were kind of the same.

You had a bunch of cars, and you had various pieces of tracks. You could build it according to the picture, or you could build whatever you wanted.

Of course, not everything is like that.

If you went to Ikea or any other furniture store that sells “need to be assembled” stuff, you pretty much have to stick to the instructions.

Otherwise you’re bookcase will fall apart in the middle of the night while you’re sleeping (ahem).

On the other end of the spectrum, you could go to Home Depot a bunch a bunch of boards, nails and saws.

Then build whatever you want.

Either straight from your imagination, or from blueprints.

Or a combination of both.

Some blueprints are pretty straightforward.

Others are take a while to figure out.

(Some are straight up fantasies, like how to build a combustion engine that runs on water).

Like if you were to build a bookcase, it would be pretty simple.

All you really need is to cut the wood in the right sizes.

On the other hand, building a house would require a LOT more knowledge and work.

Plumbing, electricity, insulation, etc.

But it would still work, if you had the skills, time and building materials.

Luckily, pretty much anything you’d want to learn is on YouTube somewhere.

There’s one thing that DOESN’T have a blueprint.

Unfortunately, it’s the most IMPORTANT thing.

Your life.

Sure, there’s plenty of people that would LOVE to tell you HOW to build your life, but that tends to help THEM more than it would help YOU.

In order to build YOUR life to help YOU most, you’ve got to design your own blueprints.

Luckily, that’s pretty easy.

Since your DNA is programmed with blueprint building technology.

Just point yourself in the direction you want to go (more money, more health, better relationships) and get started.

So long as you’re only looking a couple of weeks or months out into your future, you’ll know EXACTLY what to do to keep moving forward.

Get Started:

End Self Sabotage

Sweet Dreams

The Cake and Ice Cream Strategy

Most people get nervous, at least a little bit, when talking in public.

Of course, there are many different spectrums with different endpoints.

In a one on one situation, there’s people we talk to that we like and hope like us.

Those situations can be tough to be relaxed and conversationally “entertaining.”

Whenever we’re around people we like and admire, there is always the fear of rejection.

One way that fear manifests itself by worrying that we’ll run out of stuff to say.

Or we’ll run out of stuff the other person finds “interesting.”

If you’re in a group, and you’re hanging out with friends, and there are a couple of new people in the group, this can also happen.

You suddenly find yourself in the center of the “conversational spotlight.”

It’s almost worse than giving a speech.

At least if you’re giving a speech, they more or less have to listen.

But if you find yourself talking in a group, there’s the ever present danger of getting interrupted by somebody.

And if that somebody has a MORE interesting story than yours, it can feel pretty crappy.

Especially if you were hoping to “impress” one of those new people in your group.

Luckily, there’s a VERY EASY way to take even the shortest, plainest story and tell in a way they will HAVE to pay attention.

Our brains don’t like unfinished business.

That’s why whenever something bad happens, we NEED closure.

Otherwise, there’s a painful “open loop.”

Having a bunch of painful open loops sucks.

But you can do the opposite.

Purposely leave open loops, but not the painful kind.

The cliffhanger kind, that they put near the end of your favorite TV show.

You can do this on a sentence level, a story level and a conversation level.

The better you are at creating these open loops, the more they will be DESPERTATE to pay attention.

Putting out a bunch of open loops in a regular conversation is like showing up to a kid’s birthday party with a bunch of cake and ice cream.

They won’t be able to resist.

Learn How:

Hypnotic Storytelling

Dig For Truth

Stop Clucking Like A Chicken

There’re a lot of clever movies involving hypnosis.

Some of them involve a hypnotist giving somebody a suggestion, but then the hypnotist dies, leaving the poor subject unable to snap out it.

One particularly funny one involved Jim Carrey before he became a superstar.

He played the part of the subject. He, an ultra rich guy, was at a club with his girlfriend.

They were at a hypnosis show, and they hypnotist hypnotized him into talking like a chicken.

Then the hypnotist dropped dead from a heart attack.

Three years later, Jim Carrey’s character was no longer rich. He was broke, homeless, and still clucking like a chicken.

This is both unrealistic, but also terrifying realistic.

Unrealistic in that you can’t really hypnotize somebody against their will, especially to the extent that they’d cluck like a chicken for three years.

On the other hand, most people spend their ENTIRE LIVES under some kind of hypnotic trance.

Trances they’ve learned when they were kids.

We’ve all accepted suggestions like, “speaking in front of others is scary.” Or “making money is difficult.”

The reason it doesn’t seem like hypnosis is BECAUSE these seem so real.

But unlike hypnosis in the movies, real hypnosis (the limiting kind) happens slowly.

Technically, it’s a lot more like brainwashing than hypnosis.

We didn’t go into a trance and somebody said, “From now on, every time you get up in front of others to speak, you’ll get nervous!”

We learn from plenty of experiences, and once that belief is set, it’s hard to undo, since it SEEMS so real.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to undo our own hypnosis, and undo the debilitating trances on those around us.

The truth is that all of us go in and out of trances all the time.

In fact, you can look at one of the main purposes of our brains as “trance machines.”

It’s VERY DIFFICULT (and uses a lot of energy) to keep our brains a hundred percent focused on all of the technical details around us.

We NEED to slip into trances to maintain our sanity.

This means if you are the one CREATING those trances, you can have a lot of fun.

Most of the time our trances (TV, social media, etc) are just situations where we turn our brains off.

But if you learn to lead people’s minds during their daily trances, you can make them feel a lot better.

And help them to make MUCH BETTER choices.

What will you help them choose?

Learn How:

Hypnotic Storytelling

Metaphorical Power Punch

How To Become a Jedi Master

Most people are familiar with Joseph Campbell.

He studied mythology from around the world, and found some interesting things.

Namely, that all myths and their characters are very similar.

He called it the “Hero’s Journey,” as the stories are very similar.

A young kid, bored, safe, longing for adventure.

But at the same time not quite brave enough to set out on his own.

Then some tragedy happens and FORCES him on his journey.

And along the way he makes friends, learns skills and eventually has to fight the bad guy.

Why do we love this story so much?

Why, out of all the stories that were told around all the campfires since humans learned to speak, do we remember and retell this same structure over and over?

Why does this structure RESONATE with us so much?

Because the hero is us.

Every time we start a new grade in school, or start a new job, or begin a new relationship, or begin a large project, we are repeating the same steps of the hero’s journey.

Usually we don’t start because we want to, we either have to (school, job, etc.) or it just kind of happens (relationships, family, etc).

And since there’s not really a “how to” guide to do any of the important things in life (fall in love, build a career, etc.) we’re always bumbling our way through.

So “Hero’s Journey” stories are VERY compelling.

The represent the IDEAL to which we all strive.

But there’s something even BETTER than listening to (or watching or reading) hero’s journey stories.

What’s that?

Telling them.

We all love hero’s journey stories because we are always on SOME kind of hero’s journey.

But every hero’s journey has the wise old helper.

Spiderman’s Uncle, Dumbledore, Obi Won Kenobi, Morpheus, etc.

But guess what?

When you take whatever you want to say to other people, and wrap it in a hero’s journey type tale, YOU can be the wise helper.

The sage, guru, wizard, or Jedi Master.

And when you mix in all the tools from conversational hypnosis, you’ll be better than any mythological character.

Imagine the fun you can have!

Learn More:

Hypnotic Storytelling

Beware The Flying Brains

Disengage Their Brains

A punctuation ambiguity is something that is VERY powerful in its “mind-fading” ability.

On it’s own, it will cause people to think their brains went offline for a second.

Which happens to us all the time anyway.

We’re listening to somebody talking, and our brains take a quick holiday without telling us.

Then they come back and we have to ask the person to repeat themselves.

This is pretty funny when you’re with friends, but kind of embarrassing if you’re in a meeting at work.

So when you use the punctuation ambiguity, your listener will think that’s what happened.

So you can have fun, gently pushing their brain offline over and over, or you can use it to build some REAL confusion, and slip in all kinds of ideas and commands.

The punctuation ambiguity is pretty simple. The trick is to deliver it like you are saying something perfectly normal.

If you smirk or smile, they’ll KNOW you’re the one playing with their brains.

The first couple of times you may be a bit nervous. So it’s a good idea to practice these on bartenders or waiters.

(Just be careful, a friend of mine tried this on a waitress and she messed up his order…)

But once you get comfortable with this, you can use one of these every couple of minutes, and by the end of a regular conversation, whoever you are talking to will wonder if they tripped and fell inside of a wormhole or something.

Anyhow, here’s how you make one.

Just take any regular sentence, and take the LAST WORD in the first sentence, and make it the FIRST WORD in the next sentence. Ideally the conversation should flow into the first sentence, past the ambiguity, and then on after the next sentence.

Example:

The other day I was shopping for shoe stores are starting to disappear since everybody is buying things online. I wonder what they’ll do with all that empty space?

They will feel a “topic change” since you’re talking about something different, but they won’t remember HOW you changed.

So they’ll try and “replay” what you just said, WHILE trying to listen to you talk.

Eventually they’ll say, “Wait, what?” with an embarrassed look on their face.

What happens next is up to you.

You can pretend you didn’t know, and keep talking about the SECOND TOPIC (empty malls in the example above).

If you keep dropping these in every couple of minutes, it will have a powerful effect on their brain.

And if you can work in some of the other patterns, so much the better.

Street Hypnosis