Neuroplasticity



The power of thought is the power of creation.  Thoughts are not just airy vapors; they are packets of formative energy.  They exert direct effect upon your body, your behavior and even the external world around you.

Your internal environment has power over your external environment the moment you choose to exercise control.  You can alter circumstances and events at will by first creating a vision of what you want to have happen and then giving yourself permission to enact it.

Moment by moment, thought by thought, you author your own script.  You do it actively or passively.  Either way, you are ultimately the cause determining which effects occur. People are only victims of circumstance if they believe that they are and take a passive approach, letting their lives become subject to outside forces. Each one of us stands as a creative force of immense potency and potential.  Believing that truth is half the battle.

Noted cognitive psychologist, Dr. Albert Ellis, stated, “We humans have real self-awareness. We can, though we do not have to, observe and judge our own goals, desires, and purposes. We can examine, review, and change them. We can also see and reflect upon our changed ideas, emotions, and doings. And we can change them. And change them again—and again!”

An even more definitive medical study was published by Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley in The Mind and The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force.

Contrary to the notion that the brain has fully matured by the age of eight or twelve, with the truly crucial wiring complete as early as three, it turns out that the brain is an ongoing construction site. The hardware of the brain is far from fixed at birth. Instead, it is dynamic and malleable.

Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of neurons to forge new connections, to blaze new paths through the cortex, even to assume new roles. In shorthand, neuroplasticity means rewiring of the brain.

Conscious thoughts and volitions can, and do, play a powerful casual role in the world, including influencing the activity of the brain. Willed mental activity can clearly and systematically alter brain function. The exertion of willful effort generates physical force that has the power to change how the brain works and even its physical structure. The result is directed neuroplasticity.

Mental Creation



Every human accomplishment goes through two creations. There comes first a mental creation, the spawning and development of an idea. That idea becomes a blue print and a directive which the body follows to produce the second creation, the physical or behavioral creation.

People rise or fall, limp or leap, cower or conquer, dependent on the degree of their mind management.  The moment you start thinking differently, the world changes.  A new mental process precipitates a new physical and behavioral outcome.  The effects are often amazingly rapid.  People can make dramatic, stunning changes in short order by simply altering their thoughts.

The truly exciting part of their transformations lies in the astounding discoveries they make regarding their abilities and capacities.  They realize that the potential has been there all along, and so have the opportunities, but their own thoughts have been holding them back.  When they see that it has been only their thoughts which have been holding them back, panoramas of potential open up to them.  Suddenly they see—and seize—the opportunities which have been staring them in the face all along.

Discovering the Inner Game



Human behavior is the effect: Human thought is the cause. Whatever you do, you do first in your mind. Your mind, the ultimate source of all your actions and reactions, orchestrates every deed, performs every act, authors every word.

We think, and with those thoughts, we create. We create the world we live in. It goes beyond influencing, shaping or guiding. You and I, in very literal terms, determine what we experience and what we enact into the world. We establish our own happiness or misery, abundance or scarcity, bondage or freedom. We harvest in life, only and exactly, what we sow in our minds.

At this very instant, you are abiding the consequences of your own mental choices. You have been where your thoughts have led you, you now stand where your thoughts have brought you, and you will go as high and as far as your thoughts will take you.

All that you do and all that you will ever accomplish is a product of your mind. Once you see—really see—that thought is the sole cause of all your effects, and discover that you have total control over that exclusive causative force, you gain access to the grand key—the source and the solution to the full gamut of human potential.

“The consummate truth of life is that

we alter our destiny by altering our thoughts.

The mind is our most crucial resource, our crowning asset,

our ultimate arena of battle.

If we will master the power of our minds,

we may do or be whatsoever we will.”

When we fully comprehend how precisely everything from our character to our circumstances, corresponds to the thoughts and images we create in our minds, it stands among the most significant and empowering revelations a person can receive.

By mastering the principles of Mind Management, you attain a level of control over yourself and the world outside that at times will astound you.  As you grow in your appreciation for the power you gain by controlling your thoughts, you will wield that power more skillfully and judiciously than ever before. Greater success and deeper satisfaction will be yours as a result.

Reset Your Presets



 

Happy New Year!  What I want to share with you today is another KEY POINT in our teachings at Quma Learning—a point that I cover in more depth in my new Ownership Spirit – The One Grand Key That Changes Everything Else.

One of the big benefits the comes from higher awareness of our own thought processes is that we can learn to coach our own thinking.  And, one of of those coaching Key Points I call Resetting Our Presets.

What are our PRESETS?  Well, they’re our preconceived notions or pre-existing interpretations that we carry around with us all the time.  We all have a tendency to pre-hear what someone is saying based on our preset judgment about that person.  Without realizing, we make assumptions about their motives and intentions.  We make assessments about their experience and intelligence. And so on.  In other words, before they’ve said one word, we have a preset expectation as to whether or not we are going like or value what we are about to hear. 

Unless we Reset our Presets we close down our listening and create disconnection.  

The good news is that none of us need be victims of our presets. We can coach our-selves to set aside our preconceptions. For example, take your self-centered next door neighbor, the one that monopolizes every conversation. You could reset a preset by assuming the best in his motives–maybe he’s not the manipulator you think he is.  Even if he is, you could coach yourself to be more ‘open-minded’ and actually look for the “gold” in what he’s saying.  The results that can come from that Reset of your Presets may surprise you!  

Unless we Reset Our Presets, we might not really be listening at all. Our presets may be so dominant that our receptors are entirely blocked, and we wind up hearing only what we think we were going to hear all along.  

One more quick example.  A while ago my wife and I attended a conference at which a very successful couple spoke candidly about the secret to their successful marriage.  The woman said, “The biggest key was our decision to set aside our tendency to try to change one another and we decided to work at just getting along with one another.”  

I’ve used that idea in a number of ways since that conference.  I’ve used it in my marriage and I’ve used it in my business. Resetting My Preset from “finding ways to fix” to “finding ways to just get along,” has paid huge dividends for me over the years.

I trust this Key Point will do the same for you.  Once again, Happy New Year!

Fundamentals of Change



Enjoyed a meaningful experience today. As a faculty member of an outstanding learning and growth organization, iLearningGlobal, I was asked to present a 20-minute “nugget” to an audience of over 120 marketing representatives, most of whom had travelled to Phoenix for this event. I was not the only faculty member who spoke. In fact, I shared the podium with some very strong and well known authors, teachers, and corporate trainers.

Due to the recent death of a neighbor—a cordial, outgoing man with an abiding family commitment, with so much of life still ahead of him, I began my remarks by asking the audience, including myself, to consider the question, “To what degree am I living my life?” I am confident this was not the first time any of us in the room had done some introspection and self-evaluation triggered by some personal event that underscored the brevity and fragility of life. We have all done this before. Truthfully, we do not do this often enough, on our own, without some outside event evoking such a thoughtful pause.

An additional question I posed to them I now pose to you: “When we step back from our life to examine our trends and progress, do we do that with the cognizant awareness that what we are seeing is the print-out of our current mindset and thought trends?” And, if we see something that we would like to improve or change, what thoughts do we think at that moment—what is our governing point of view about how the change needs to come about?

My opinion is that most of us look at what things have to change and what people have to change, and what circumstances have to change, rather than what thoughts and perceptions—what mental habits—do I have to change.

People change from within or they change not at all.

Nothing will fundamentally change in our career, our business or our life unless and until we get to the root cause of our successes and our shortfalls.

Change your name and your image… upgrade your computer and your software… move to a new town or buy a new home… throw out all your old clothes and get a whole new wardrobe… do a make-over to whatever extreme you desire…

But if you fail to upgrade the very software of your mind—how you see yourself, your world, and the opportunities around you—how you connect with your loved ones, friends, and co-workers—how you respond to adversity, set-backs, and disappointments—at best, your improvements will be modest and temporary.

Your thoughts about my thoughts….

 

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