For years I have studied the masters who seemed to have it all – success, good family lives, excellent health, exciting lives, unbridled joy. I have studied their methods, their strategies, and as Tony Robbins recommends, modeled their behaviors.
At times in my life, I experienced extraordinary success; and during those times, it seemed almost effortless. I have also experienced times when nothing seemed to work, when everything was effort, and when I frankly felt like the dreams I had were simply figments of my imagination.
During the “down times,” I went back to the drawing board, reading and studying everything I could find about what must be the missing piece of the puzzle. Clearly, I had experienced success on many occasions, both personally and professionally, so what was wrong now? What was I not doing? What did I need to change? The obvious question was, “If I’d had success a few times, surely I had the success mindset, no?”
Big Secret: A success mindset is an “inside job” that you must work on moment to moment, thought by thought. To have a success mindset for life is a lifetime commitment. Consider your mind your “mental gym,” and just like a physical gym you attend to work out your muscles, it requires your attendance on a regular basis for consistent and increased results. When I’d quit working on my “inner thoughts,” the success vanished and was replaced by a series of struggles and losses.
So how do you develop and sustain the mindset for success? Allow me to share some stories with you and then some information and techniques I have found to help you create the mindset that will create the life you desire.
But first, I have a gift for you. This gift was given to me many years ago by a friend, Marie Barcus. Marie was the widow of a Duke University Paranormal Researcher, and she was a fascinating woman I’d met at a local spa. We were having dinner and I guess my tone was negative about something. Marie interrupted me and told me this story.
Marie herself was in her home and was complaining about something she’d seen on the news to her husband Len. Len stopped her and said: “Marie, if someone came to the front door of our home and walked into the living room and dumped a bucket of dirt on the floor, would that be OK with you?”
Marie replied, “Of course not.”
“Well, then,” Len responded, “Why do you let someone put dirt into hour mind? Marie, I’m going to give you a gift. I’m going to give you a Porter to stand at the door of your mind. I want you to imagine your Porter standing there, and whenever a negative thought tries to enter, just see your Porter putting his hand up and forbidding that thought entrance into your mind. “
Marie smiled as she told me the story. She said that for years afterward, whenever a negative thought would try to enter her conversation with her husband Len, he would simply look at her and softly remind her: “Marie, stand Porter at your door.”
I consider that experience one of the greatest lessons of my life. I had no idea then just how powerful our thoughts were, nor did I even know that I could actively monitor them, but now more than 25 years later, with the advent of quantum physics, and the knowledge we have from science and spirituality, clearly our thoughts and emotions are part of how we create our reality and the big key is: We Are In Control.
So what are the best ways to build and sustain a “success mindset?” Here are some
techniques and behaviors that will help you.
1. First, start by listening to your thoughts and words. To build a success mindset, you need to know what must be upgraded in your mental library. The biggest obstacle to a success mindset has everything to do with consciousness, beliefs, and even subconscious programming that you aren’t aware of.
2. Become aware of the beliefs that may be driving you. Here is one technique. On a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle. On the left side, write out an affirmation such as “I am very rich now.” On the right side of the line, immediately without censoring what you write, write your responses.
They might look something like this:
- I’ll never be rich, who am I kidding?
- I can’t be rich and spiritual. I choose spiritual.
- Some people are destined to be rich; I’m not one of them.
- Rich people are superficial – I don’t want to be like that.
- I just don’t have what it takes to be wealthy.
- I’m not smart, educated, motivated, intelligent enough.
3. After identifying your limiting beliefs, work on them one by one to reprogram more desirable beliefs. Each time you catch yourself thinking one of these limiting thoughts, challenge it head on and replace it.
Example: I’ll never be rich, who am I kidding?
Replacement: There is no reason I cannot be wealthy. People from all walks of life have become very wealthy. There is no Universal Rule that says I cannot be one of them. Of course, I can be wealthy. I just need to start researching the best ways to do that.
“Poverty is not an absence of money and things-it is a mindset. Prosperity is not an abundance of money and things-it’s also a mindset.” Randy Gage
4. How do you reprogram effectively? As I studied the ones I deemed successful, I noticed that many of them had re-programmed themselves by using psycho-cybernetics techniques. Dan Kennedy, one of the world’s most powerful marketers and trainers, used to stutter and was held back by it. He took psycho-cybernetics, and as he says “re-engineered my self esteem.” Now he is a multi-millionaire that helps others become multi-millionaires. He also has a rich personal life, a love of race horses, and travels the world to speak in front of hundreds of thousands.
Psycho-cybernetics helps you reprogram your thoughts for success – both from the conscious level of mind and the deeper, subconscious levels of mind. As you will read below, when you program from the deeper levels of mind, your results are faster and far more effective.
5. Learn to meditate. It is estimated that programming from the deep levels of mind that you reach in deep meditation or hypnosis, can be as much as 100 times more powerful than programming from the conscious level of mind. Learn to meditate and then learn to program your new beliefs and desires from those deeper, more serene levels of mind.
6. Program your conscious and subconscious minds with visuals: 3X5 cards, vision boards, positive images. Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame is now a multi-multi-millionaire (that’s right – two multi’s.) He still uses visuals to program his mind on a regular basis. What’s good enough for him is good enough for me!
A personal story. How 3X5 cards took his business from $300,000 to $18 million. My friend Dennis is a Realtor in Denver. I met him 30 years ago when he was a new Realtor and I was new loan officer. Average home prices back then were $18,000 (now that dates me doesn’t it?) At any rate, the first day I met Dennis, I noticed a 3X5 card under the glass top on his desk with this written on it: $300,000. I asked him what that was for, and he said, “That’s how much real estate I want to sell my first year.” (Of course, based on prices then, that would equate to approximately 17 houses or 1 ½ homes a month.)
Now Dennis does not believe in anything mystical, so all he did was place the card there so his subconscious mind could see it and then go to work on making that reality happen.
Last year, almost 30 years later, I went into Dennis’s office and his 3X5 card under the glass top on his desk had this amount on it $18 million. And he exceeded that! The power of programming your subconscious mind daily with visuals is very powerful!
7. BIG ONE. Get into the company of folks that are higher up the food chain than you are. Listen to how they think, get into their energy, watch their responses to circumstances. Now you might not understand the concept of “energy,” but we now know from science that this is a Universe of vibrations.
When you are in the vibrational fields of successful people, you are in sympathetic resonance with them, and your vibrations will escalate. That is why so many successful people have regular master mind groups – so they help each other continue to grow.
In Itzhak Bentov’s book, “Stalking the Wild Pendulum,” he describes an experiment with grandfather clocks. Two clocks are placed in the same room, their pendulums out of sync. Within a couple of days, their pendulums are swinging in perfect harmony! More exciting, as each new grandfather clock is brought into the room, the pendulums all synchronize in hours, not days!
It is said that you will become the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with. Look around. Is that enough? If not, upgrade your acquaintances.
And that includes your work environment. If you are in a toxic work environment, find a new job! Get out of there! The longer you stay in a negative environment, the more your vibrations diminish. More importantly, the LESS able you are to believe you can create something better, or even envision it.
Toxic office environments not only steal your creativity, they steal your spirit.
8. Here is another powerful technique for upgrading your consciousness and your mindset. Every time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, ask yourself this: “Is this what I want to create?” If it is not, immediately change the thought and replace it with one that will create what you desire!
It is a similar technique to “stand porter at your door,” and very effective because you immediately choose a NEW thought.
9. What if you have issues of believing you are not worthy of your desires? Here is my answer to that. It is your Divine Right to live a Divine Life Experience. More, you were given special gifts and talents that no other human on this planet has, and it is YOUR DUTY to develop those gifts and share them! It is not about worth, it is about your DUTY to do all that you can with what was given you.
So, the next time you have questions of worthiness, ask yourself this question: “Did the Creator of this vast Universe decide I was any less worthy than any other Divine Human? Do the messages from parents, bosses or peers who criticized me reflect the Divine Truth of who I am?”
In a recent meditation, I heard the phrase, “Don’t steal from God.” I realized that my inner self was telling me to get to work, release my gifts, shut off the TV, and honor the wonderful gifts I have been given by giving back. Recognize your spiritual source, and live from that. Be all that you can be, and you will be surprised one day to find out how much that really is!
10. Take care of your physical health, eat healthy foods that are high vibrational foods, avoid toxic foods, drinks, thoughts and behaviors. Send the message to your inner self that you are taking care of you and that you deserve optimum health. Your subconscious mind will get the message and continue to help you upgrade the outer part of your life.
BONUS TIP: Get away from the TV and the news! The majority of programs are negative, decrease your creativity, and ultimately, you have given away all that time that you could have been using to create a better life.
Let me ask you a question: How old are you? Let’s say you’re 40. That means you have been alive 350,400 hours! Now, if you watch even 2 hours of TV daily since you were let’s say 8 years old, that is 23,360 hours! That equals 11 years of a full time 40 hour a week job!
You could have used that time to do some of the following:
- Get another degree
- Learn a new language
- Learn to play an instrument
- Learn to scuba dive or sail
- Learn to fly
- Write that book that is inside of you
- Volunteer to help others less fortunate
- Climb that mountain that’s calling out to you
- Create a passive income stream so you can travel to those exotic islands
- Add so much more to your memory book!
Life is a journey of choices. You are the chooser. Choose to Live the life that is your Divine Birthright!
