Traits

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE SOURCE OF MERCY, THE MOST MERCIFUL.

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.

#1. Be Real 

Call it being authentic. Call it being yourself. The fact is that few things are as powerful as standing in the presence of a person who is really comfortable in their own skin. What I am suggesting is that you speak with your unique voice and that you live under your true values and that you present the real you to the world around you. Please trust me on this one. I promise you that when you get to the last hour of your last day, you will regret having lived the life society sold you versus the life that you knew deep within was meant for you.

#2. Smile

Sure this sounds obvious. But what makes greatness is the daily executing around simple ideas. And if smiling during good and hard times was so easy, then why is it so hard for most people? But no matter where you are, a quick and genuine smile to a stranger always connects, Uplifts.

#3. Use People's Names 

A person's name is the sweetest sound to their ears. And yet, it's so very easy to forget to go the extra mile and remember and then use someone's name. World-class communicators get that when they address people by name, it brings them closer and makes them stand out.

#4. Look People In The Eye 

Okay. I really need to rant mildly on this one. Sure we all have our smart phones, iPads and PCs. But this new way of communicating where our mouths move while we speak to the person in front of us but our eyes stay on the screens before us sends a message to that person that they just are not that important. The best gift you can give a customer teammate loved one is the gift of your presence. In this age of easy digitization, giving the human being you're communicating with 1000% of your attention is a spectacular method to lead the field. So, look people in the eye. Engage with what they are saying. Make them feel special. No, make them feel for the brief moment they interact with you, that they are the most important person in the world.

#5. Be Honest 

Again, simple, I know. But leadership and success really does come down to the daily doing of a series of fundamentals staggeringly well. Be the most honest person you know. Let your ethics drive your behaviour. And please remember, anyone can be honest when times are easy. The true measure of your leadership is how honest you are when everything's falling apart.

#6. Choose Good Words 

Walked into a new restaurant that advertised breakfast until 11:30 am. It was 11:50. I asked the man behind the counter: "Is it possible to still get breakfast?" His instant reply: "Absolutely not." Now I understand this man wasn't trying to be rude. He was most likely unskilled with his words. Just not a great communicator. But his words had impact (as all words do). A more effective communicator could have said, "I wish we could but we've just switched over to the lunch menu. I think you will love it. Common in and give it a try." It's all in the language. Instead, his words caused me to try his competitor and to think that this is a restaurant that just doesn't care that much.

Six pretty fundamental yet powerful ways to amp up the impact of your communication focused on appreciating relationships. Try them. Apply them. And innovate around them. Those around you will be grateful you did.

Food For Thought

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

It's not just food, it's also how we think about food.

I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I have made an observation that when people learn a lot about health and nutrition, even though they enjoy better overall health when they act on their knowledge.

Personally, in the past I only had positive associations about food. When I ate some chocolate, my main thought was that I was getting energy from it. Cheese, for me, meant protein. Milk was calcium.

My life changed in many ways as I learned a lot about good nutrition. As I put my knowledge into action, I lost weight, my skin tone even improved and I felt fantastic compared to how I would always felt and got sick on and off.

Now, I don't personally think sickness had anything whatsoever to do with my new diet. My new diet was excellent. So what was the cause? I think the root was the fact that now I was acutely aware of all the foods that were 'bad' for me.

Eating chocolate no longer meant energy for me. Now it meant sugar (bad) and saturated fat (bad). So when I ate chocolate (which I find hard to resist), I was really telling myself that I was taking stuff that was bad for me into my body, whereas in the past I was affirming it's good qualities. The shift was in my mind and it was creating stress.

Similarly, I found myself obsessively reading labels for sugar and fat contents and feeling guilty when I ate something that had high contents of sugar, salt and fat. Funnily enough, I was actually imagining the internal damage they were doing to my body like a negative visualization. That's OK if we avoid the foods but it's not so handy if we eat them anyway.

I have been wondering if this could have created a negative placebo effect (a nocebo effect) that resulted in me getting more sickness. I think it did. The solution was to change what I told myself about foods.

Of course, it is important to eat a healthy diet. Diet is crucial for health. A healthy diet can reduce the likelihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer, as well as a number of other illnesses, and it can increase mobility as well as mental clarity.

But we also need to think wisely about food. It would make more sense to think of the positives we get from all foods and then just choose the ones that we know to be better for us in the long-term.

When we have a slip-up day from our diets (which I think most of us do), then we might simply remind ourselves that there is actually energy and nutrients to be obtained from whatever we are eating.

And, of course, I don't think it would be wise to test the power of food beliefs by eating typically high sugary, salty, and fatty foods and just telling ourselves that we are getting good nutrition from them.

I am talking about a sensible balance, where we eat wisely and healthily, but merely observe our minds a little, catching ourselves when we think negative about what we are eating.

Eating healthy is a choice. But choosing to eat healthy foods is different from cutting out unhealthy foods. On the surface it's the same, but the difference is in the mind. Cutting out unhealthy foods labels unhealthy stuff as bad, while choosing to eat healthy focuses, instead, on what is healthy. The difference is in the mind.

As we go through life, learning new things, we need not always dismiss what we knew or believed in the past, swapping it for new knowledge. Oftentimes, the wisest thing to do is to build on what we have learned up until then. That way, life doesn't have to be black and white, new instead of old, but can take on many textures and shades along the way. We can take in the new, but also retain what was good about the old.

That's how I think of things anyway. So that's just some of my thinking about food. As I said, it might not apply to you but it applies to more people than we would imagine.

Nature's Voyage.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE SOURCE OF MERCY, THE MOST MERCIFUL.

Nature's Voyage.

When we speak of "relaxation" many will immediately think of, for example reclining in a comfortable chair in front of a television, relaxing in the garden or taking a holiday or leisure break. You might feel that you are already relaxed, however if you consciously check all of your muscle groups and your state of Mind you will usually soon discover that the reality is very different indeed. You might well find tension in various muscle groups preventing complete relaxation as well as tension and stress of the Mind. Pleasant and welcome though these more general forms of relaxation might be, they are not what we mean by "Relaxation" at a deeper level. 

Deep Physical Relaxation. 

The benefits of learning and regularly practicing deep physical relaxation simply cannot be understated which is why we often discuss this most important subject. In a state Deep Physical Relaxation brainwave frequencies automatically become slower, moving from the normal Beta rate to the slower Alpha rate. In very general terms, Beta may be thought of as the frequency of the Conscious Mind, while Alpha and Theta are the frequencies of the Subconscious Mind. Now in order to function in the material world, interact with others etc Beta brainwaves serve a valuable function; after all it would be impractical to walk around in a permanent trance like state when dealing with daily life. However, Beta is also the frequency of the Ego Mind which revels in "trying" to do things, and the more we "try", the more we are likely to "fail", simply because the Conscious, Ego Mind is almost powerless.

Source of all True Power is from our interface with our Subconscious Mind. When we sideline the powerless Conscious, Ego Mind and open ourselves to the Power of the Subconsciousness, then there is nothing we cannot achieve effortlessly. Most top performers in any sport, martial artists and others are accessing the power from the Subconscious Mind to achieve their great feats, which to them are effortless. It is only when the Conscious, Ego Mind intervenes that failure is almost inevitable.

The Alpha and Theta states are also the states of "inner connection" and "interaction" as with Remote Viewing, Mind  Projection etc, none of which are possible through the Conscious Mind. The more we relax, the slower our brainwaves become, and the more open we become to the source of true power. Nature's Voyage integrates powerful brainwave entrainment to facilitate Deep Physical Relaxation, which become progressively easier until once again becomes a natural ability, opening you to a much  greater potential, particularly when backed by Concentration and Imagination.

Single Pointed Concentration.

The ability to totally concentrate at will is not only extremely beneficial but in fact is one of the most important of all abilities, and one, together with Deep Physical Relaxation, upon which many other abilities ultimately rely. The benefits of developing the ability to totally concentrate at will includes but is not limited to the complete control of thoughts, absolute peace of Mind, self-confidence, inner strength, will power, ability to focus your Mind, improved memory, ability to make and carry out decisions, more control over your daily life, ability to study and learn much more quickly and efficiently, control over extraneous passing thoughts and not giving in to them, freedom from needless, annoyance, obsessive, compulsive or upsetting thoughts, routines and habits, inner happiness, the development of valuable abilities, more advanced powers of the imagination including visualization, and the ability to focus effectively. 

Many people have considerable difficulty in concentrating for more than a few seconds at a time, with the Mind constantly jumping around from thought to thought and subject to subject without any sort of conscious control or structure whatsoever. People are often heard to complain for example, “I cannot possibly think of a hundred things at once”, but therein is a real issue they are indeed thinking of a hundred things at once instead of just one single thought, the immediate task in hand or point of focus. Another expression for this inability to concentrate on a single thought is “Monkey Mind” an expression that describes the Mind constantly chattering away, endlessly creating mental "noise", thus dimming its true power, abilities and therefore effectiveness. Diluting the Mind with thoughts is like diluting anything; the totality of its effectiveness will be reduced in proportion to the amount of dilution as the concentrated effectiveness is scattered and dissipated. A single strongly focused thought is extremely powerful “Phenomena” which to most people would seem to be completely miraculous are easily possible by means of single pointed, completely focused and concentrated powers of the Mind. I hope you can now appreciate just how valuable the Power of Concentration really is both alone and with Deep Relaxation and Imagination.

Imagination.

When considering imagination it must never be confused with mere fantasy, unreal thoughts or simply as a “figment of the imagination”, but rather as an extremely powerful, natural ability that every human being without any exception possesses. 

Within the inner spheres of reality, as everyone will discover everything desired can be brought into manifestation by the use of will, intent and the power of focused, concentrated imagination. Thoughts take shape instantly and the more power and emotion projected into thoughts, the more real they become and the longer they will remain. Thoughts are vibration, manifestations of Energy. Most thoughts are transient in nature, that is to say they manifest, linger for a time depending on the focus and concentration applied and then dissipate. 

To create something more permanent for example the use of Imagination with as much will, intent and concentration as possible. By constantly making use of and thinking about a particular desire, for example a home, the more solid and real it will become and the longer it will persist. As we already know, the entire Ether of Universe consists of vibration, which is Energy. Thoughts, emotions and powers of the imagination are therefore also degrees of vibration of the same Energy. Keep in Mind that Energy cannot be created or destroyed by us and it can only be influenced. It is the interaction and influence of Energy by Mind that results in the manifestation of the objects that are the focus of and are therefore influenced by the imagination in accordance with Divine laws. Exactly the same laws also apply to Expression of Experience into the physical world. Before anything at all can manifest as a reality into the physical world it must first be preceded by thought, a very powerful characteristic of which is imagination supported by focused, single pointed Concentration, with Faith, Belief and Feeling. I hope you enjoy this Nature's Voyage, the first of many powerful tracks I am developing and making available exclusively to help you to achieve your fullest potential in the most enjoyable and effective way.

Rapport

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE SOURCE OF MERCY, THE MOST MERCIFUL

There's one thing that's absolutely essential to have to get results with MCS. (Mind Control system)

That vital element is called rapport. For our purposes, you can think of rapport as...

A close and harmonious relationship in which two or more people understand each other's feelings and ideas, and can communicate well. It's often said that with rapport, anything is possible. But without rapport nothing can be achieved. And it's all too easy to make a mistake, when you don't have the proper guidance.

Here are the 6 most common blunders,

Rapport Mistake #1

The first mistake is trying to be too "nice" to people.

Why is this a problem?  Because sometimes people are nice at the expense of the real communication that needs to be happening. Rapport then actually breaks down. As an example, let's consider a school teacher who wants to be nice to their pupils. They may let them get away with anything they want. Bit by bit, the teacher loses respect and the pupils stop paying them any attention. The end result is that it's all gone horribly wrong. So to avoid this be nice only to the extent that it's not interfering with the process of communicating feelings and ideas with the other person.

Rapport Mistake #2

The second mistake is that of trying too hard.

The problem with this is that it makes you come across as a little desperate and you trigger "The Law Of Reversed Effect". This states "The harder you try to do something, the more likely it is you'll fail". Now the way around this is to follow the simple rapport building approach set out for you in the "Mind Control System" Be aware of the things you need to do, relax and "get out of the way" to allow your unconscious mind to make things happen.

Rapport Mistake #3

This next mistake is linked to the previous one. It's wanting something from someone else too much.

You've probably had the experience of being in a store and talking with a salesperson who is a little too pushy. They want you to buy too much. They want you to like them too much. Because they're moving too quickly and because they want something from you, you begin to back off. Now the solution is something called "Fractionating Rapport". This involves building some rapport, then backing off a little. Then build a little more rapport and back off again. This way you'll avoid being seen as "needy" and still be able to build rapport surprisingly quickly.

Rapport Mistake #4

Mistake #4 is a lack of genuine interest.

A lot of communication between people actually happens on a non-verbal, even unconscious, level. Because of this, it's hard to fake being interested. If you're thinking "I'm bored, I'm disinterested, I don't want to know any more", the other person will most likely respond to your signals by shutting down or getting annoyed or just losing interest in the conversation. The solution is straight forward. Simply have a high, unconditional respect for the other person. That's probably a good way to view people in any case.

Rapport Mistake #5

This might sound a little odd, but it's playing the wrong role in a relationship.

When two people interact, status is involved. Now, often people will be of equal status. But in many cases one person will be a higher status and the other a lower status. When I talk about status, this is not a value judgement. It's a role that's being played.

For example, with a teacher and a student the teacher needs to have the higher status in order to teach effectively. You can probably see that a person's status will vary, depending on the circumstances. Problems can arise for you as a MCSP, however, when you come across someone who is inflexible and they can only relate to someone in a particular status. So be flexible in your communication. Sometimes you'll play the lower status. Sometimes the equal. And sometimes you'll be the charismatic or authority figure that leads the way forward.

Rapport Mistake #6

This final mistake is something few people ever realise. It's understanding the difference between "Deep Rapport" and "Wide Rapport".

Deep rapport comes about when you have a shared experience with someone. Now, this can be very powerful. But problems may happen if this rapport is very specific to a particular situation or context. If that's the case, when you see the other person outside that situation, it can be awkward. It's out of context and somehow feels wrong or unusual. The solution is to create what is called "Wide Rapport". This is where you build a connection with someone with different experiences in different environments. This can take time of course. One way to speed up the process is to use stories covering a range of topics. This way the other person gets a sense of your entire personality and gets comfortable with you in a range of different circumstances.

That concludes the 6 most common rapport mistakes.

Mental vs. Physical Training,

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

How we get stronger by doing a mental workout.

‘Mind Control System’, is about gaining strength by using our mind; to imagine exercising and that we can lie in our bed instead of going to the gym and just do the workout in our mind. So I was excited to learn of some very recent scientific research that showed just how much we can replace actual training with training in our mind. The research was carried out the Institute of Sports Science at the Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany and led by Mathias Reiser and published in Frontiers in Psychology in August 2011.

They compared 5 groups of people. One did 100% of a training program physically, one group did 75% of it physically and 25% of it in the minds, another did 50% physically and 50% mentally, yet another did 25% physical training and 75% mental training, and the last group did no training.

The training consisted of 12 sessions where they did 4 sets of 2 maximal isometric contractions physically or mentally.

Incredibly, there was only a very small difference in strength gains between doing 100% of the training in the gym and doing just 25% in the gym and doing the extra time mentally. You really could lie in your bed on a cold, wet morning instead of going to the gym. The thing is, though, you’d need to do the whole session in your mind. But research of this sort really does show the incredible potential of the human mind.

The authors concluded that ‘high intensity strength training sessions can be partly replaced by mental strength training sessions.’ Is that a loud cheer I hear from those who love the feel of a warm bed on a Friday morning?

This is meaningful for people who are not able to do any physical exercise, perhaps through illness or injury, because they can offset some loss in strength by working out in their minds. Neuroscience research shows that the same areas of the brain are activated regardless of whether a person does actual training or simulates it in their minds and, incredibly, the amount of force produced by the muscles is directly proportional to the degree of activation of the brain area. In other words, the more you activate the brain through mental work, the stronger the muscle.

Research of this type is highly encouraging, for people with illness or injury, for people in competitive sports, but also for most people who do recreational exercises to keep fit. It lays to rest any ideas of the mind as an impotent ghostly thing, whose only role is to think thoughts and to analyse life circumstances. It is time we recognised the power of the mind and put it to good use in our lives.

Happy Brain Life

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

Happy Brain, Happy Life

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, make sure you keep your brain happy. Why? Because being happy matters more to your brain than you might think. In fact, feeling pleasure can be so stimulating for your brain that it is primed to respond to pleasure in a way that reinforces pleasure. Your brain offers rewards to steer you on a pathway to happiness, and you can offer your brain rewards that will encourage it to become even more finely tuned and to grow well into your old age. Other reasons to want a happy brain: Negative mood variance disturbs your interaction with your environment, affecting your ability to perceive, remember, and reinforce existing or create new neural connections, while being happy improves your ability to be more cognitively alert and productive. Other than being much more fun to be around, being happy:

Stimulates the growth of nerve connections

Improves cognition by increasing mental productivity

Improves your ability to analyze and think

Affects your view of surroundings

Increases attentiveness

Leads to more happy thoughts

Happy people are more creative, solve problems faster, and tend to be more mentally alert.

The Power of Positive Thoughts

Your thoughts form your character, how you operate in the world, how far you travel mentally, physically, and spiritually. You are what you think you are, and all of your actions proceed from thought. Your inner thoughts will always be reflected in your outer circumstances, because self-generated changes in your life are always preceded by changes in the way you think about something.

As far as your brain, every thought releases brain chemicals. Being focused on negative thoughts effectively saps the brain of its positive forcefulness, slows it down, and can go as far as dimming your brain’s ability to function, even creating depression. On the flip side, thinking positive, happy, hopeful, optimistic, joyful thoughts decreases cortisol and produces serotonin, which creates a sense of well-being. This helps your brain function at peak capacity.

Happy thoughts and positive thinking, in general, support brain growth, as well as the generation and reinforcement of new synapses, especially in your prefrontal cortex (PFC), which serves as the integration centre of all of your brain-mind functions. In other words, your PFC not only regulates the signals that your neurons transmit to other brain parts and to your body, it allows you to think about and reflect upon what you are physically doing. In particular, the PFC allows you to control your emotional responses through connections to your deep limbic brain. It gives you the ability to focus on whatever you choose and to gain insight about your thinking processes. The PFC is the only part of your brain that can control your emotions and behaviours and help you focus on whatever goals you elect to pursue. It helps you grow as a human being, change what you wish to change, and live life the way you decide!

Why Optimism Leads to Greater Happiness

Neuroscientists have discovered that people who have a more cheerful disposition and are more prone to optimism generally have higher activity occurring in their left PFC. But that’s a brain explanation. Interestingly, behavioural scientists have observed fascinating differences between optimists and pessimists. Optimism, for example, involves highly desirable cognitive, emotional, and motivational components. Optimistic people tend to have better moods, to be more persevering and successful, and to experience better physical health. One factor may be simply that optimists attribute good events to themselves in terms of permanence, citing their traits and abilities as the cause, and bad events as transient (using words like “sometimes” or “lately”), or the fault of other people. In addition, optimists: Lead happy, rich, fulfilled lives. Spend the least amount of time alone, and the most time socialising.

Have good relationships

Have better health habits

Have stronger immune systems

Live longer than pessimists

On the flip side, pessimistic people explain good events by citing transient causes, such as moods and effort, and bad events as permanent conditions (using words like “always” or “never”). Pessimists: Automatically assume setbacks are permanent, pervasive, and due to personal failings are eight times more likely to be depressed than optimists. Perform worse at school and work. Have rockier interpersonal relationships Die sooner than optimists.

According to a researcher, unhappy people spend hours comparing themselves to other people, both above and below themselves on the happiness scale; happy people didn’t compare themselves with anyone. The good news is that you can use your mind to train your brain to tamp down the negative thoughts that lead to pessimism, while ramping up the types of positive thoughts that lead to optimism. You can be the master of the neuronal changes that will lead to greater happiness, and the rewiring starts in those teensy miracles known as your brain cells, or neurons. Even if depression runs in your family, you have the capability of improving the way your brain functions, of setting up neuronal roadblocks and diminishing the neuronal patterns linked to negative thinking. You may not be able to eradicate a genetic disposition towards depression, but you can greatly reduce its impact and its reoccurrence.

Negative Thinking, Negative Balance

Negative thinking slows down brain coordination, making it difficult to process thoughts and find solutions. Feeling frightened, which often happens when focused on negative outcomes, has been shown to decrease activity in your cerebellum, which slow the brain’s ability to process new information limiting your ability to practice creative problem solving. Additionally, the fear factor impacts your left temporal lobe, which affects mood, memory, and impulse control. Your frontal lobe, particularly your PFC, decides what is important according to the amount of attention you pay to something and how you feel about it. Thus, the more you focus on negativity, the more synapses and neurons your brain will create that support your negative thought process.

Your hippocampus provides the context of stored memories, which means the emotional tone and description your mind creates can potentially rewire your brain by creating stronger neuronal pathways and synapses. What you think and feel about a certain situation or thing can become so deeply ingrained that you will have to work hard to dismantle the negative connections and rewire your brain in order to be less afraid, to think positively, to believe that dreams can come true, and to trust that your efforts will be successful.

Train Your Brain to Think More Positively

One of the oldest precepts of neuroscience has been that our mental processes (thinking) originate from brain activity: that our brain is in charge when it comes to creating and shaping our mind. However, more recent research has shown that it can also work the other way around: that focused, repetitive mental activity can affect changes in your brain’s structure, wiring, and capabilities.

The actions we take can literally expand or contract different regions of the brain, firing up circuits or tamping them down. The more you ask your brain to do, the more cortical space it sets up to handle the new tasks. It responds by forging stronger connections in circuits that underlie the desired behaviour or thought and weakening the connections in others. Thus, what you do and what you think, see, or feel is mirrored in the size of your respective brain regions and the connections your brain forms to accommodate your needs.

What does all this mean? It means that what we think, do, and say matters; that it affects who we become on the outside, the inside, and in our brain. Mostly, it means that you can retrain your brain to be more positive.

Start by thinking happy thoughts, looking on the bright side, and refocusing your brain when negative thoughts occur. Your mind has the ability to determine how your brain thinks about what happens in your life. Use it to your own advantage to reframe events and think positively.

Attitude

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH – THE SOURCE OF MERCY – THE MOST MERCIFUL

Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms is to choose one's attitudes in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Attitude is a choice. You could be faced with a thousand problems, many or most over which you have absolutely no control. However, there is always one thing you are in complete and absolute control of and that is your own attitude.

When you surrender control of your attitude to what appears to be a negative situation, you will react to that situation. More often than not, reacting is inappropriate. On the other hand, if you were to remain objective, you would respond to the situation appropriately, thereby creating a winning situation.

If attitude is such an important word, why do so few people understand it? To be honest, it wasn't until I was in my late 70s when I finally understood its full impact. All through my teens and into my early adult life, I can't tell you the number of times that I heard, "if you'd just change your attitude, you would do a lot better." In retrospect I can easily see the cause of my problem. I didn't know what attitude was, let alone know how to change it!

Attitude is the composite of your thoughts, feelings and actions. Your conscious mind controls feeling and ultimately dictates whether your feelings will be positive or negative by your choice of thoughts, then your body displays those choices through action and behaviour.

Attitude is actually a creative cycle that begins with your choice of thoughts. You do choose your thoughts and that choice is where your attitude originates. As you internalize ideas or become emotionally involved with your thoughts, you create the second stage in forming an attitude; you move your entire being; mind and body into a new "vibration." Your conscious awareness of this vibration is referred to as "feeling". Your feelings are then expressed in actions or behaviours that produce the various results in your life. Positive results are always the effect of a positive attitude. 

Attitude and results are inseparable. They follow one another like night follows day. What I mean by that is: one is the cause, the other, the result. There is a term we use to distinguish this "cause and effect" relationship, it is called The Law of Cause and Effect. Simply stated, if you think in negative terms, you will get negative results; if you think in positive terms you will achieve positive results. A person is what they think about all day long. The results you achieve in life are nothing more than an expression of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Take a close look at your life and evaluate the results you are achieving in various areas. See if you are able to relate your attitude to your results.

Winning and losing are opposite sides of the same coin and that coin is attitude. There are many things wrong in this world; unfortunately that is all some people are able to see. Those who view the world in this light are often unhappy and somewhat cynical. Usually, their life is one of lack and limitation and it almost appears as if they move from one bad experience to another. I know people who are like this and I'm certain you do as well. It would appear as if they were born with a streak of bad luck and it has followed them around their whole life. These individuals are quick to blame circumstances or other people for their problems, rather than accepting responsibility for their life and their attitude.

Conversely, there are others who are forever winning and living the good life. They are the real movers and shakers who make things happen. They seem to go from one major accomplishment to another. They're in control of their life; they know where they are going and know they will get there. They are the real winners in life and their wins are a matter of choice.

You can experience that kind of life as well, you only need to decide. Making that simple decision is the first step to a new life. Act as if it were impossible to fail, and I challenge you to do so. By simply becoming aware that you can choose your thoughts each and every day, you will change your entire outlook. You have the power to choose an abundant life no matter your circumstances. That active choice will allow other positive people and opportunities to be attracted into your life.  

Don't wait to experience all the wonderful things the universe has in store for you. Start today by working on your attitude and welcome the abundant life that you were meant to lead. For some people it can seem as if their mind has a life of its own. Despite their best efforts, they find it difficult, or even impossible, to make lasting change in their feelings and emotions. The following ideas, tools, and techniques can help you gain mastery of your mind once and for all—in a way that's easy, powerful, and fun. Can You Really Do It?

I have been passionate about MCS (Mind Control System) since stumbling into my first workshop. At the time I was very quiet, shy, withdrawn. I was also terrified of public speaking or even having an opinion. I simply thought that was my "lot in life," my innate personality, and there was nothing I could really do to change it.

What follows are some of the exercises and coaching questions that literally transformed my life forever in the space of a few short weeks. They can transform your life, too. We will explore:

These easy questions to help you gain mastery of your mind

How to make changes stick by identifying what potentially blocks your ability to make the changes you desire. The secrets of eliminating self-sabotage forever. How to change negative emotions and break old patterns and habits. Ways to transform your mindset for a more rewarding life, simple but effective tools and resources you can put into practice straight away to start changing and transforming your mindset, emotions, and life. 

How to Gain Mastery of Your Mind 

These key questions can get your transformation off to a powerful start: What specifically do you want?

Take some time to really sit with this question. Many people spend a lot of time focusing on what they don't want, rather than putting their attention and energy on what they do want.

Let's use the example of public speaking. When asked, "What do you want?" you may find yourself replying, "I don't want to be nervous. I don't want to have palpitations. I don't want sweaty palms. I don't want to feel like a rabbit in the headlights and be frozen with fear. I don't want to completely forget what I am going to say. I don't want to feel nauseous or sick."

All of these statements firmly put the focus on what you don't want, which means neurologically you start to create the very thoughts and feelings you are seeking to avoid. What stops you from achieving what you want?

If what stops you comes down to beliefs, negative emotions, past experiences, or previous failures, it is important to get to the root of the issue so you can eliminate the cause once and for all.

Listen for tell-tale signs in responses such as "I can't…," "I'm not capable…," and "It will never…"

How will you know when you have achieved the changes or goal you desire?

Answering this question will automatically start to take your mind into the future and help you create the steps and actions necessary to achieve your goal.

Make Changes That Stick

To get started, focus on these four key aspects: See beyond the issue and identify your big "why." Why do you want to make changes or achieve your goal?

Identify your "values" and, ultimately, what is important to you. Ask yourself: "What is important to me about x?" Keep answering that question until you hit a void, where you run out of thoughts or things to say. Then ask: "What else is important to me about x?" Keep going beyond two or three voids. 

If your changes are not linked to your values, it can be difficult to sustain them over time or as you go through the learning curve. Ensure your "beliefs" are in alignment with the changes you now want to make. Put a "support system" in place, and build in some accountability. Accountability is a close relation to action. A support system will ensure your good intentions translate into action and ultimately results.

How to Eliminate Self-Sabotage

Rather than becoming upset or frustrated if things do not go according to plan, view it as a form of feedback. Sabotage usually infers there is some kind of internal conflict, the side effect of which causes you to get in your own way and sabotage your efforts. People sometimes describe the conflict in terms of "parts." Part of you wants to do X while the other part wants to do Y, thus causing an internal tug of war.

One of the secrets of eliminating self-sabotage is to discover the underlying intention of both sides or parts because this will help uncover what drives the internal saboteur. What you are listening for as you explore the opposing parts is called the "positive intention." Take the example of smoking, eating, or drinking too much.

Typical answers when uncovering the positive intention may include: "It helps me to relax/unwind/feel good/get attention/have an excuse to indulge myself." The potential underlying positive intention may be the desire to be happy, relax, feel comforted, or have peace of mind. If you simply try to remove the disruptive behaviour, the mind may rebel because you are also removing a necessary and vital function, which is the ability to unwind or relax, etc. The part of your mind responsible for attaining what you want will often use the path of least resistance and go for immediate gratification, rather than thinking through the longer-term consequences.

To change this pattern the question becomes: "What else can you do to unwind and relax without overeating/smoking/drinking too much?" Come up with ecological ideas that serve the same purpose but can be done in a healthier way.

Change Negative Emotions 

Essentially emotions just "are." Each emotion has its function, and there will be times where emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, or guilt are appropriate. Problems arise when an emotion has outlived its purpose yet still remains in place. In MCS we refer to this as being in a stuck or unresourceful state.

Perceptual Positions Exercise

A great way to take a step back and change the feelings or the emotions in the moment and to stop the sense of being on autopilot is to literally step out of yourself to gain a new perspective. Next time a sabotaging behaviour or negative emotion creeps up on you: Stop… breathe… then imagine floating above so you are looking down on yourself. Imagine you can see the whole situation from a bird's-eye view. Ask: What else can I do in this moment? What additional choices do I have? From this vantage point, what ideas or solutions come to mind?

To take it a step further, imagine seeing yourself and the situation from someone else's perspective or point of view (we call this "second position") and ask: What do they suggest as they look at me and my situation? How does it look, feel, or seem from their point of view? What would an objective third party suggest or think if watching you and observing the whole situation?

Just sit with this for a few moments and see what comes to mind. From the bird's-eye view and second position perspective, you will almost magically come up with ideas other than your own! Also, being above (or "Meta" to) the situation and your feelings automatically dissociates you from the feelings so you can think more clearly and strategize. This technique is great for business meetings or situations where is it not possible to physically leave the situation in order to think or compose yourself.

Breaking Old Patterns and Habits

Here are some very simple yet powerful ways to break old patterns that you can put into practice immediately.

Ask: "What did I learn?" Understanding what there is to learn means you can start to move on from old habits.

Ask: "What will I do differently next time to get a different or better outcome or result?"

This allows you to start unconsciously building new strategies and encourages the formation of alternative solutions or ideas. When you feel or notice old patterns coming on, create a break state or "pattern interrupt." Change your physiology, move, shake it out, breathe, or sit/stand up straight, and change your internal focus to better align with what you want to feel.

Understand Your Strategies and Convincers

To better understand your habits and patterns, identify what is called a "convincer" strategy. For example, I have a "three times convincer." Generally speaking, when I learn something new, I will run through it three times before I neurologically "get it." Before I discovered this, I was convinced there was no point in continuing something if it did not work after the first or second try. Some people have a convincer related to a period of time. Recall learning how to use a new gadget. If you have an instant convincer strategy, you learn it once and you get it. On the other hand, it may take you a longer period of time. If so, set milestone goals so you can see you are making progress along the way. To make personal change and transformation easier, understand and work with your innate strategies initially. Then, if you realize the strategy is not working for you, set about changing it.

Strategy Elicitation

To identify what leads to a particular habit or behaviour, it is important to identify the underlying sequence of events or strategy. Here's how: Think of a habit you would like to break. Identify a specific time it occurred, and notice the first thing you did. What happened next? Then what happened after that?

Keep going until you have identified the full chain of events. For example, when first deciding to have a cigarette, you might look at the clock and determine it is time for a cigarette. You then imagine how satisfying it will feel in that moment. You might think about the pros and cons of smoking and then hear yourself say, "Well, just a quick one won't hurt, because I've been smoking less this week." You then get up and have a cigarette.

Going through this process will help you elicit your strategy or the internal sequence of events leading you to a certain outcome, in this case, having a cigarette. Once you have identified a strategy that no longer works, you can change it. As soon as you notice the strategy starting to run, say something silly to yourself (perhaps in a Mickey Mouse or cartoon voice): "Bunkles, balloons, and cat in the hat, what are you doing?" Going through this process a few times gives you the opportunity to consciously assess what you are about to do and instead make a different choice.

Transforming Your Mindset

Everything shared so far the questions, contemplations, games, and exercises can subtly, but powerfully, start to change and transform your mindset. Here are a few more things you can do to kick negative thoughts out of your life forever. Change the Equation: Rather than looking at what is wrong, move your thoughts to what is going right and what you actually want to achieve. This subtle internal shift will future pace your thinking and move you into solution focus mode. Get from Effect to Cause: Move away from dwelling on whose fault something is or how unfair things are. Identify instead what you can do to take some control and start making changes.

Change the Context: Widen your perspective or frame of reference and ask, "What else could this mean?" When you change the context, it will shift your internal response. For example, rain is neither good nor bad, it just is. You will see it as good if you love your garden and there has been a dry spell, but you will see it as bad if you are on your way to a garden party or BBQ.

Exercise: Take a challenging situation or problem and transform your thinking. Ask: How else can I think about or see this situation? What else could it mean?

Get What You Need to Learn: Notice where things did not go as planned, and consider what you could do differently should a similar situation arise in the future. Also, identify where things did go well to help build your success strategy for the future.

Change Your Inner Dialogue: Just for a day, change your inner dialogue from "I can't" to "I can" and from "I will" to "I am." Many people reinforce old habits with their internal self-chatter and unsupportive thinking. As you become more aware of your thoughts, you can consciously change them. Very soon it will become automatic, and your mind will autocorrect itself.

Room for Growth: Move from black and white/all-or-nothing thinking to creating a kaleidoscope of colour. Give yourself time and scope for new behaviours to develop, and allow the space for the changes to become established.

Re-evaluate Your Beliefs: 

Beliefs can potentially change the world. Before May 6, 1954, the world did not believe it possible for a human being to run a 4-minute mile. It was considered an unbreakable barrier, an invisible force, the confines of which kept people from even considering the possibility. Then on May 6, 1954, Roger Banister ran a mile in four minutes. Within a couple of weeks of the achievement, the seemingly impossible record was broken again and again. This newly created belief allowed others to both meet and surpass their previous limitations.

Exercise: Identify someone who has achieved what you want to do. You may know them personally, or it may be you simply model them from afar. Knowing it is possible can dramatically change and transform your thinking and beliefs. Celebrate Your Successes: Reinforce and celebrate the behaviours and habits you do want. Every time you make progress, give yourself a metaphorical pat on the back. Congratulate your inner mind and it will do more of the same for you. Before you know it, you will be living your new habits with ease. Taking the time to congratulate yourself and acknowledge even small improvements and changes in your behaviour encourages what I call the snowball effect. Each small change and step builds momentum, and before you know it, changes are happening faster and more naturally than you could have possibly imagined. That is the beauty of MCP the changes can often be fast, seamless, and almost sneak up on you without your notice. When you stop and look back, you will likely say, "Wow, look how far I've come!"

The amazing thing is you do not even realize how seamless and automatic the changes are, because they start to feel part of your everyday life. This is wonderful when you take the time to notice it happening. Every once in a while stop, take stock, and get feedback. Identify where your mindset is now different or how you handled a situation better.

My parting words: "Notice what you notice." When you set your purpose, which is to notice the magic, change, and transformation that is taking place, that is exactly what starts to happen.