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#TL10E: THE POWER OF DOING THINGS RIGHT

by Frederick Mann
Copyright © 2003 Build Freedom Holdings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Contents

TO DO THINGS RIGHT YOU HAVE TO THINK RIGHT!

Introduction

PART 1

PART 2


TO DO THINGS RIGHT YOU HAVE TO THINK RIGHT!

For a long time I've looked for some hidden reasons why people succeed or fail. I've found the answer! ELEVEN CORE THOUGHT PATTERNS! If you don't "fix" these 11 core thought patterns, no matter what else you try to do to succeed, these 11 HIDDEN core thought patterns will sabotage your success. FIX THEM OR FAIL!!! See: Think Right Now!

"Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."
-- Frank Outlaw


MULTIPLY YOUR ABILITY TO DO THINGS RIGHT BY A FACTOR OF 10!

DEEP in your MIND is a SECRET POWER. Unlock it with the 10X KEY. Jack Welch of General Electric found the 10X KEY. In 1985 it was taught to GE managers. By 1988 they had grown GE from a $30 billion company into a $300 billion company!

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Introduction

Some people make little progress in their lives generally, because they have little or no concept of DOING THINGS RIGHT. Sometimes people who are generally intelligent and competent make little or no progress in a particular area because they haven't learned to do things right in that area.

"Doing things right" can be a touchy topic. Firstly, I'm fallible like all the rest of us. From time to time, I make my share of dumb mistakes. Fortunately, I try to learn from my mistakes and do better next time.

Secondly, if you find yourself getting offended by parts of this report, some self-examination may be in order. Notice if you get offended and ask yourself whether "getting offended" might point to areas in your life where you may be able to improve your ability to do things right.

On first reading this report, it may have a negative impact on you. This may be because you regard yourself as a reasonably competent person who generally does things right. Well, I have "bad news" for you: If in some areas of your life (e.g., making money on the Internet) you're not highly successful, it's most likely due to lack of knowledge or incompetence. The really "bad news" is that the less competent you are in some area, the more likely you are to overestimate your competence in that area. You may not like it if this report suggests that you're not nearly as competent as you think you are. As indicated below, the least competent people tend to dramatically overestimate their competence. But this is really good news, because once you confront your disadvantages (and the "denial of personal disadvantage"), you open the door to the success that may have eluded you in the past.

Thousands of "success books" have been written. Some of them claim to have identified the "one and only ultimate success secret." How many of them have identified "doing things right" as important? How many readers of "success books" become successful?

"In 1982, I found 196 books on how to become wealthy. Today there are 976 offered by one online bookseller alone. Two decades ago, I found 497 titles on the subject of success. Today I find over 4,000 ...[Y]ou are soon overwhelmed by the plethora of resources available to help you succeed." -- Mike Hernacki ('The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want')

Could it be that there are so many "success books" because after reading one "success book," the typical reader soon feels the urge to get "the next success book" because the previous one didn't work?

What if "doing things right" is really the ultimate success secret?

Playing chess against good players demonstrates the power of doing things right very well. If you make one major mistake, or a few minor mistakes, against a good player, you get crushed. If you make just one minor mistake against a very good player, you often get crushed. Playing chess and studying the game at expert level may be a good way to improve your ability to do things right, generally. (Though there have been several chess masters and grandmasters who were notoriously bad at doing things right in other areas of their lives!)

This may or may not apply to you. It's as if some people have a "negativity cloud" hanging over them. Such negativity may prevent them from reading a report such as this and gaining value from it. If this applies to you, the best way to proceed may be to go direct to Killer Negativity. Once you've started working on your negativity, you'll be able to gain much more from this report.

I have a little book called 'Permission to Succeed: Stop Starving Yourself of the Success You Deserve' by Noah St. John. He coined the term "success anorexia." This may be a condition many suffer from. It's also possible that some people suffer from success anorexia to the extent that if they don't handle that first, they may be unable to read this report and benefit from it. To find out if you suffer from success anorexia, take the Quiz: "Are You Pushing Your Own Success Away?" If you do suffer from success anorexia, go direct to Success Anorexia.

The concept of "Higher-Order Booster Principles" covered in Part 2 is most important!

PART 1

Preparation

A few years ago I played six games against the world correspondence chess champion -- a professional chess master, earning his living as a chess teacher. A few months before I met him, I had started playing several games a week over the Internet. I also bought some books on the latest chess opening developments. I selected a few lesser-known openings, studied, and practiced them.

The point is that I recognized that in general I was at a substantial disadvantage compared to the champion. So I took action to overcome my disdavantage and to gain some advantages that would at least give me a "fighting chance." I preparared thoroughly. The outcome of the six games was: two wins, two losses, two draws! (Now, I don't deceive myself that I was in the champion's class. Had he challenged me to play for money I would have declined respectfully!)

About 16 years ago, a friend and I often played friendly chess over lunch. Generally I played in a carefree manner, and my friend won a few games. One day he said that he thought he was at least as good as I was. I said, OK, let's play 10 serious games. If I win all 10 games, you give me 100 francs. If you draw or win just one game, I'll give you 1,000 francs. In other words the score had to be 10-0 for me to win the bet. Any other outcome, and he wins the bet. He accepted the challenge, probably thinking I was crazy to make such a "one-sided" bet. I proceeded to win all 10 games. (After that, we continued to play friendly, carefree games, and he won a few.)

Denial of Disadvantage

What this illustrates is that my friend had no idea that he was at a huge disadvantage when playing chess against me. He denied his disadvantage. He also never did anything to become a better player. Some psychological research has been done to indicate that disadvantaged people consistently underestimate their disadvantages -- do a Google search for "denial of personal disadvantage."

In general, not doing things right puts you at a huge disadvantage. And if you're someone who hasn't learned the importance of doing things right, the chances are that you're unaware of the disadvantages you're suffering from. Like my chess friend, you deny to yourself that you're at a huge disadvantage.

When I first saw the phrase "denial of personal disadvantage" it hit me like a ton of bricks! People in general are not aware of their disadvantages. Maybe it's too threatening to their brittle self-esteem to admit their disadvantages. So they deny them and do nothing about them. They stick their heads under the sand, like proverbial ostriches. I found two interesting references on the Internet:

Part of the phenomenon of denial is that many people -- maybe more than 90% -- when reading the above, say to themselves, "This applies to most other people, but not to me!" Well, dear reader, I have news for you. The chances may be above 90% that it applies to you, maybe at least in some areas of your life. For more on denial, see #TL03E: The Many Forms of Denial.

Several psychological studies have indicated that the less competent people are in some area of life, the more likely they are to overestimate their level of competence in that area. This is another way of saying, the more disadvantaged you are in some area of life, the more likely you are to deny your disadvantage in that area.

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin (1871)

In Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments, Justin Kruger and David Dunning, Department of Psychology, Cornell University wrote:

...People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.

...It is one of the essential features of such incompetence that the person so afflicted is incapable of knowing that he is incompetent. To have such knowledge would already be to remedy a good portion of the offense.

...We argue that when people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.

...If one skims through the psychological literature, one will find some evidence that the incompetent are less able than their more skilled peers to gauge their own level of competence.

...Unskilled readers are less able to assess their text comprehension than are more skilled readers.

...Students doing poorly on tests less accurately predict which questions they will get right than do students doing well

Drivers involved in accidents or flunking a driving exam predict their performance on a reaction test less accurately than do more accomplished and experienced drivers.

...Prediction 1. Incompetent individuals, compared with their more competent peers, will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.

Prediction 2. Incompetent individuals will suffer from deficient metacognitive skills, in that they will be less able than their more competent peers to recognize competence when they see it - be it their own or anyone else's.

Prediction 3. Incompetent individuals will be less able than their more competent peers to gain insight into their true level of performance by means of social comparison information. In particular, because of their difficulty recognizing competence in others, incompetent individuals will be unable to use information about the choices and performances of others to form more accurate impressions of their own ability.

Prediction 4. The incompetent can gain insight about their shortcomings, but this comes (paradoxically) by making them more competent, thus providing them the metacognitive skills necessary to be able to realize that they have performed poorly.

...Incompetence and the Failure of Feedback

One puzzling aspect of our results is how the incompetent fail, through life experience, to learn that they are unskilled.

...Although our analysis suggests that incompetent individuals are unable to spot their poor performances themselves, one would have thought negative feedback would have been inevitable at some point in their academic career. So why had they not learned?

One reason is that people seldom receive negative feedback about their skills and abilities from others in everyday life. [emphasis added]

...Even young children are familiar with the notion that "if you do not have something nice to say, don't say anything at all."

...[S]ome tasks and settings preclude people from receiving self-correcting information that would reveal the suboptimal nature of their decisions.

...[E]ven if people receive negative feedback, they still must come to an accurate understanding of why that failure has occurred. The problem with failure is that it is subject to more attributional ambiguity than success. For success to occur, many things must go right: The person must be skilled, apply effort, and perhaps be a bit lucky. For failure to occur, the lack of any one of these components is sufficient. Because of this, even if people receive feedback that points to a lack of skill, they may attribute it to some other factor.

...[I]ncompetent individuals may be unable to take full advantage of one particular kind of feedback: social comparison. One of the ways people gain insight into their own competence is by watching the behavior of others.

...In a perfect world, everyone could see the judgments and decisions that other people reach, accurately assess how competent those decisions are, and then revise their view of their own competence by comparison. However, ...incompetent individuals are unable to take full advantage of such opportunities. Compared with their more expert peers, they were less able to spot competence when they saw it, and as a consequence, were less able to learn that their ability estimates were incorrect.

Handling Feedback

One of the purposes of this report is to provide you with useful feedback you can apply to become more competent and successful. The above article, from which I've quoted extensively, indicates that in general people don't get enough negative feedback and that the incompetent also tend to be incompetent when it comes to utilizing feedback to learn and improve.

Let me also suggest to you that if you feel offended by having been directed to this report, or feel offended by any part of this report, it may suggest an area of your life where you may want to improve your competence, i.e., your ability to do things right.

My experiences with people trying to make money on the Internet indicate that around 99% of them lack the competence (ability to do things right) necessary for success. Rather than being offended by having been directed to this report, or being offended by any part of it, I suggest you utilize it as potentially useful feedback you can utilize to determine the areas of your life where it may be most worthwhile to improve your competence.

Real Secrets of Success

In the ebook "Real 'Secrets' of Success," Dale Armin Miller of Success Arsenal! emphasizes the importance of doing things right. He indicates that his successful Affiliates take care to write emails that contain all the necessary details and are designed to work and produce desired results; while his Affiliates who fail typically send him careless and dumb emails.

People who don't know about doing things right also tend to have problems with completing online forms for joining programs, making online payments, etc. They may also have difficulty reading and following instructions. They may not be very good at paying attention to detail.

I just received an email:

"E-GOLD IS A VERY DIFFICULT SITE TO CREATE ANYTHING... I'VE BEEN AT IT NOW FOR 30 MINUTES TRYING TO ENTER A PASSWORD, USERNAME, PASSPHRASE, ALTERNATE, deny, deny, deny, IS ALL I GET. IF E-GOLD IS THE ONLY WAY IN I'VE LOST MY DESIRE TO LOG IN ON THEIR SITE..."

If you read and follow the instructions, you can open an e-gold account in 3-5 minutes.

When I first started writing about doing things right, I estimated that about 10-15% of the people I have contact with seemed to have little or no concept of doing things right; no concept of designing actions to produce the results they want.

On thinking it over, however, I've now come to the conclusion that very few humans -- maybe only about 1% -- have a deep understanding of the importance of doing things right. Many people do certain things right most of the time, because there's "external pressure" on them. Otherwise they lose their jobs, crash their cars, get arrested, etc. But they do some things right more or less like zombies. In the areas where there's no or little "external pressure" on them to do things right, they smoke, eat and drink inappropriately (at least some of the time), and engage in all kinds of other ineffective and self-destructive behaviors. (Ironically, the author of "Real 'Secrets' of Success" smoked and died of cancer at a relatively young age!)

Company executives cook the books, politicians and bureaucrats "stretch" the constitution (to put it mildly!), priests abuse their flocks, etc. The de facto law of the land: ANYTHING GOES... THAT WE THINK WE CAN GET AWAY WITH!.

So, for many people, the best place to get on the road to success may be to start with learning to do things right. They need to learn to do simple things right. If you can't do things right, no matter what else you do, you're likely to fail. You need to arrive at a deep realization of the importance of doing things right.

(Of course, depending on how you define "doing things right," it can be a doubled-edged sword. Crooked executives, politicians, bureaucrats, priests, etc. can be so good at "doing deception, theft, abuse, etc. right," that they never get caught and get away with it!)

THE GREATEST POWER PROBABLY COMES FROM DOING THE RIGHT THINGS RIGHT.

Profound Implications

This report is addressed mainly to people trying to make money on the Internet. Nevertheless, the ideas and principles have wide application.

You can either do things right out of your own volition, or you can be forced to do things right by "external pressures," including "coercive external control systems" commonly called "government."

To the extent that people, in general, don't volitionally do things right, there's a demand for more government to force them to do right. Libertarians and other freedom activists campaign for more freedom and less government. But what if their gallant efforts are hampered by the multitudes who don't volitionally do things right and demand more government?

Maybe libertarians and other freedom activists would become more effective if they spent more time on personally doing more things right (and doing them better) and teaching others to do the same. Maybe this would create a "general climate" in which freedom can expand.

If people generally did things right, what branches of government would still be necessary? To what extent do government jobs depend on people doing things wrong? Is it in the interest of certain bureaucrats that there be as many people as possible doing certain things wrong? ...creating "problems only government can solve?" What would happen to prison systems if people did things right?

What would happen to doctors and drug companies if large numbers of people were to do things right in respect of healthy lifestyles? What would be the effect on the incidence of degenerative diseases like arthritis, diabetes, heart and circulatory problems, cancer, etc? Is it in the interest of doctors and drug companies that many people do "health things" wrong?

When you get a job you are typically told what to do and how to do it. You probably report to a manager who supervises you to ensure that you do things right. There's "external pressure" on you to do things right. If you don't do things "right enough," you get fired.

When you try to make money on the Internet, you're on your own. You have to learn to volitionally do things right. That's a lot tougher than "obeying the boss."

The Double Dumb Problem

Hardly a day goes by that I don't receive several "dumb emails" from people who have little or no concept of doing things right. A recent example:
Subject: unverified funds?
I sent cash via Western Union ($200). What needs to be done to verify?
JFB

For a while, I experimented with a "generic response" to such dumb emails. However, I typically never heard again from the authors, so I stopped using the generic response. Example of another dumb email:

Subject: hello
I joined 2 days ago and have yet to receive payment. Is there a problem?

Now, I simply respond with something like:

Following is the last version of my generic response (which I no longer use):

This is a generic response sent to a number of different kinds of emails I receive. The purpose isn't to hurt your feelings or "ding" you -- see #TL12A: Dinging and Dedinging -- Subtle Suppression -- Self-Sabotage.

THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL EMAIL, SO DON'T TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Think of it as a response from an autoresponder.

Parts of this email most likely don't apply to you and/or your situation. Please take note of what might apply to you and just ignore the rest. If none of it applies to you, then just ignore this generic response altogether.

Also, don't let ARROGANCE get in your way. After one person sent me a "dumb email," I sent him an earlier version of this generic response. He replied arrogantly, "You keep saying the same thing to which I do take offense. I am 64 years old and have a degree in journalism and one of the courses is Creative Writing."

It may be worthwhile to study #TL10: How to Achieve and Increase Personal Power, with particular emphasis on "Power Messages."

Before you send an email, it's a good idea to think about why you want to send it and what you want to achieve by sending it.

In some cases what you need to do is reread the information that has already been provided to you.

It's also a good idea to think about who you should send your email to.

It's more productive for certain questions and issues to be handled on one of our lists. That way everyone on the list can benefit from the interaction. For descriptions of our various lists, see BuildFreedom Lists.

Then, it's a good idea to think about ALL the information you need to include in your email. You need to realize that the recipient can't read your mind, and may not know anything about your situation other than what you say in your email.

If you're writing about some specific program, it's a good idea to say what program you're writing about. And before sending an email about that program, check the program's website and FAQ to see if your question has already been answered. Sometimes the answer to your question is in the Member Area.

Note that certain programs have built-in procedures for "help requests." They provide specific procedures to follow. For example, see BigBooster7Million.

If you did something on your computer and it didn't work the way you expected, realize that the recipient wasn't sitting next to you and doesn't know what you did.

Then you need to think about how to design your email so it's most likely to achieve the result you want.

You need to think about the fact that the recipient's time might be valuable to him or her. So don't send emails that are a waste of time.

You can choose to feel offended by this generic response. Or you can use it -- particularly the information at the links below -- to examine what you did, and why it didn't work the way you expected. You may learn some very important things about designing your actions so they're more likely to work.

See Failure Scripts and Where The Rocks Are and Upgrade Your Brain and Life!.

I suspect that the dumber the email, the more likely the author is to get offended if the dumbness is indicated to him or her. This is the "double dumb problem" -- perfectly illustrated by the above "journalist with a degree in Creative Writing." The less attention a person gives to doing things right, the greater his or her resistance to recognizing the need to do things right.

After directing a correspondent to this report, he replied: "I've made some bad decisions in my life but I didn't survive over 30 years as a Pan Am captain by making dumb ones." I had offered to forward an email to solve a "$1,000 problem" to a certain program administrator. He sent me an email with attachments that practically all program administrators would delete without opening the email. I replied to him why his email was dumb and why it would be dumb for me to forward it. I never heard from him again. I suppose he would rather lose $1,000 than swallow his pride! (As a pilot, there's "external pressure" to do things right... or the plane crashes and you die! When writing an email there's no such pressure.)

High Failure Rate

I don't know for sure what percentage of people trying to make money on the Internet succeed. I doubt if it's much higher than 1%. That would mean about 99% meet with little or no success. I suspect that a major factor behind the high failure rate is that most don't know about doing things right.

Many people lack the most elementary skills necessary for success. They're like a baseball player who steps up to the plate, but never lifts his bat. When the pitcher pitches, they just watch the ball go by without even attempting to swing... and then they wonder why the ball didn't carry into the stands for a home run!

Some people do swing the bat, but they either swing before the ball gets to them, or after it has gone by. It never dawns on them that by learning to improve their swing and timing they can improve their performance.

They join a Yahoo group, but fail to read the rules. So they spam the list and get banned. They throw 25% or more of their capital into a particular program (without really knowing anything about it, without contacting anyone involved, without considering that it may just be a scam, etc.) and then complain if they lose... without learning from the experience. They don't study the guidelines on the Programs page and its links (especially to not risk anymore than you can afford to lose).

When they fail they blame others or factors outside themselves.

Simplicity of Success

To make money on the Internet, you basically need only a few "tools" and "vehicles" and you need to do more things right than wrong.

Email is one of the most powerful Internet marketing methods. To market effectively via email, you need to create your own growing opt-in lists you can market to over and over again.

BB7M has over 80,000 members. Many have never even logged into their accounts! They're like the baseball player who steps up to the plate, but never lifts his bat... doesn't know that he has to try to hit the ball!

BB7M is a powerful tool for email marketing. So is 123Clicks. Another powerful tool is the autoresponder -- see InfoGeneratorPRO.

Other kinds of "tools" are used to send visitors to your website(s). For an example, see TrafficSwarm.

By "vehicle" I refer to a money-making program.

In order to make money on the Internet, you use "tools" to send visitors to "vehicles." Basically it's really that simple! However, you may have to contact 10,000 potential visitors, in order to persuade 10 to visit your "vehicle," in order for one to "buy." You can improve such ratios by doing things "righter."

Another way to make money on the Internet is with programs that don't require you to sell or sponsor. Similar to stock market investors you risk your capital in order to turn a profit. To succeed, here you have to do things right when it comes to program selection, diversification, and money and risk management.

When joining programs you need to do certain things right:

Many of the dumb emails I receive are simply the result of the author not having done one or more of the above.

The Big Learning Obstacle

A huge obstacle is that some people seem to have a reduced ability to learn and apply. See #TL03C: How to Wake Up Your Desire to Learn, Grow & Succeed. Before being able to do things right, you may have to learn HOW TO LEARN!

I suspect that for some people who "study" something like the 10X training (BECOME A 10X PERFORMING PERSON!), the "teaching" simply goes in one ear and out the other, leaving little or no trace of having passed through!

Each lesson includes a feedback question. I suspect that some students ignore the feedback question. Doing things right includes completing the feedback exercise. If you don't do this, you may deprive yourself of more than 50% of the learning opportunity available to you.

You may want to do (or repeat) the 10X training with the additional feedback question: How can I apply this information to improve my ability to do things right by a factor of 10?

The "11 hidden core thought patterns" may be a big obstacle to learning.

Success Anorexia

If you suffer from the condition of "success anorexia" identified by Noah St. John, then this may be the first thing for you to handle. To find out if you suffer from success anorexia, take the Quiz: "Are You Pushing Your Own Success Away?"

It may be that most sufferers, when the the phenomenon of success anorexia is pointed out to them, will deny that they suffer from it -- another example of the "denial of personal disadvantage!"

In any case, whatever your current level of success (or your current general ability to do things right), chances are you'll benefit from Noah St. John's books:

You can get them from The Success Clinic."

By the way, "afformations" is not a spelling error. The "o" is correct. Afformations may be much more powerful than affirmations. In 'Permission to Succeed' Noah St. John describes an afformation as "an empowering question that creates a corresponding result in your life." I describe an afformation as "Any question you ask yourself to engage your brain positively, creatively, and/or productively?"

I used the afformation, "What's missing here?" to realize that the success anorexia information needed to be added to this report.

In 'Permission to Succeed' Noah St. John also provides a powerful "meta-afformation": "What would be a great question to ask myself right now?" Whenever you seem "stuck" or you're not making the kind of progress you would like, you could ask yourself: "What would be a great question to ask myself right now?"

Copying Your Way to Success

A friend from New Zealand emailed me:

"We had an old family friend who fought through World War II in the African desert and up Italy with the Kiwi troops, and I once asked him how he survived so long. His answer was that he had a friend in his troop who was a natural born soldier and he (our friend) simply copied whatever he [the natural born soldier] did. Both survived and went on to do very well in later life.

There's an important lesson in the above about doing things right. We can safely assume that the "natural born soldier" had a knack for doing things right in the area of fighting a war. His friend was perceptive enough to recognize this. And he was wise enough to copy what the natural born soldier did. So both survived.

So find someone who's already successful in the area in which you want to be successful and copy him or her.

Finding out Where You Are

Internet Marketing For Beginners & Professionals contains a scale that could be adapted as follows:

  1. IBB - Internet Business Baby - The equivalent of a baby who can lie on its back, cry, smile, wave its hands, and wiggle its toes, but cannot yet crawl.
  2. IBC - Internet Business Crawler - The equivalent of a baby who has started crawling.
  3. IBW - Internet Business Walker - The equivalent of a two-year old who has learnt to walk, but cannot yet run confidently.
  4. IBR - Internet Business Runner - The equivalent of a 12-year old who can run confidently and seldom falls.
  5. IBP - Internet Business Professional - The equivalent of a 20-year old athlete who can successfully compete with the best athletes of similar age.
  6. IBG - Internet Business Guru - The equivalent of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Lance Armstrong.

What separates the Michael Jordans from the rest of us is that, in their specialties, they do things "righter" than we do.

So, where do you place yourself on the above scale in the area of making money on the Internet? What things do you need to learn to do right in order to move up the scale? You may need to improve basic computer and Internet skills. Following are some resources:

To make money on the Internet you need at least the following skills:

Taking some of the following actions will make you money:

Daily Training

Learning to do all the above things right may take you a few days to a few months, depending on what you can already do right and what you still need to learn. Set aside 30 minutes or more each day (or most days) to learn to do the above things right. Remember that Rome wasn't built in one day! Get into the habit of regular daily training to move yourself up the proficiency scale.

The sheer volume of things to study may seem overwhelming. The longest journey starts with one step. If you take a few steps every day (doing more things right), you'll eventually arrive at your destination (doing many things right).

Attention to Detail

Do you remember where "attention to detail" was mentioned earlier in this report? If not, use "Ctrl-F" to find the place. If the fellow trying to open his e-gold account had paid attention to detail, he would have had no problems in opening his account. He would have read the requirements for each field before attempting to enter it.

In improving your ability to do things right it also helps to pay attention to yourself as you do things. This is called self-observation. Observe what you do that works and what doesn't work.

Asking Questions

A while back, I received the following email (edited):

After more than two years of searching, studying, researching, and promoting a variety of programs on the Net I have to admit I haven't had much success. I have even invested thousands of dollars that have not produced "good" results.

I tell you this not to gain your sympathy, but to just let you know that I appear to have a very steep learning curve. Despite this I am very stubborn and determined to succeed.

In the last couple of weeks I have begun to really read through your sites and have discovered some great information and resources. Thank you!

I know that promoting is the key. No, good promotions to the right people is the key.

The reason I am writing to you today, other than to introduce myself, is to ask for your advice on how and where to get prospects looking for Program X and SuccessArsenal? Even using BB7M, I still have to generate traffic to that site. This is the area in which I have failed despite buying lists, joining safelists, and spending hundreds of hours promoting on free sites...

BC

Persistence is one of the secrets of success! However, persisting with things that don't work, won't get you anywhere. Seeing that his success depends on marketing, I suggest that BC ask himself:

Anyone with sufficient learning power can read the materials on our websites, implement what they find relevant to their talents, strengths, situation, and interests, and within maybe 6-24 months earn enough to live on.

"Now, in only two months, with only $3,000 invested, I have created $1,000 per month cash flow. With more learning and a little more time, I will be financially independent." -- RM

But how do you develop your learning power?

While reading, you may want to ask questions like:

I'm in regular contact with thousands of people trying to make money on the Internet. I suspect that most are having far less success than they desire. It's surprising to me how few ask questions on the Financial Independence List and the Bigboostergroup Forum. If you don't know, ASK!

See also BREAKTHROUGH QUESTIONS and Secondary Questions.

Blind Gambler Syndrome

After reports of some people consistently losing their investments, I've formulated the "blind gambler syndrome." People who suffer from this affliction manifest some or all of the following characteristics:

If, despite the warnings, you've decided that you still want to pursue this path, then for any "program"/business (especially the "passive investment" type): critically analyze their business-model; if and how/where they generate an actual profit (from which to pay their members/affiliates); is there a genuine product or service; ignore the hype - investigate beyond what they advertise; might it really be just another ponzi-scheme/variant? Always be on the lookout for suspicious claims/promises, reports from existing members of problems, and especially potentially fake positive reports, fake "reviews", etc. People often lack the necessary experience, so to save themselves a lot of easily avoidable grief, they should first seek competent independent unbiased advice.

If you watch the news and keep track of "financial debacles," you may be surprised by the frequent stories of thousands of people losing their life savings by putting most of their capital into some company or institution that later becomes or turns out to be a scam. Maybe only a small percentage of humans know very much about doing things right in the area of money.

Emotional Control and Bicameral Stage 2

Lack of emotional control can be a major obstacle to doing things right -- see #TL12: How to Achieve Emotional Control. Being stuck in "bicameral stage 2" can be a debilitating and devastating obstacle -- see #TL10: How to Achieve and Increase Personal Power.

Internet Marketing Principles

Marketing Activities that may be a Waste of Time:

Core Knowledge/Fundamental Principles

In some subjects there is a well-defined body of core knowledge and fundamental principles. For example, in arithmetic there are numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. These numbers can be used to indicate quantity, sequence, or size (order of magnitude). There's a set of rules (fundamental principles) for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. All this is generally agreed upon by people who have learned arithmetic.

In each branch of science there is a well-defined body of core knowledge and fundamental principles.

Can the same be said for the humanities?

"Regarding golf, in no other sport on the face of the earth is there so much difference of opinion as there is in golf, each no doubt thinking their style not only more correct but by far the superior way." -- 'The Golfer's Manual' (1857) -- quoted from 'Golf Swing Secrets... and Lies' by Michael Hebron
"The cover story of the 1998 August issue of 'Senior Golfer' was, "Why aren't we getting any better?" This well-written article by Nick Mastroni started with, "Something is wrong! Despite all the new technology for balls and clubs; 24 hour golf on television, more instruction videos; more books; more golf schools; more lessons, and in many cases, more practice: handicaps are not any lower than they were 17 years ago." The USGA director of handicaps Kevin O'Connor says, "The average handicap of 16.2 for men, and 26.5 for women, has been the same for 17 years"." -- quoted from 'Golf Swing Secrets... and Lies' by Michael Hebron

When it comes to success, what is the core knowledge? What are the fundamental principles? Why are there so many thousands of success books, all saying different things?

In this report I attempt to identify some core knowledge and fundamental principles, with the emphasis on doing things right! -- a fundamental principle missed by most.

Mike Brescia of ThinkRightNow! has identified "11 hidden core thought patterns" that constitute some of the most important "core knowledge of success."

Flexible Goals and Objectives

Your life purpose is something you're passinate about. It's the answer to: "What do I want to achieve with my life?" With your life purpose in mind, you can set goals and objectives for yourself. You want to steer your ship in a definite and determined course toward a specific destination. However, you need to be flexible. You don't know at any given time with certainty whether you will encounter tailwinds that speed up your passage, or headwinds that slow you down. Setting objectives such as "earning $10,000 a month by the end of this year" may be unrealistic. Given where you now are, the status of your current advantages, and how your advantages might change between now and the end of the year, a specific objective could be too optimistic or too pessimistic.

Your goals should be about what you passionately want for yourself; not what your family, friends, or anyone else wants for you.

You can also think in terms of short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Be willing to change your goals from time to time.

The book 'The Power of Focus' by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt provides a "Top-10 Goals Checklist":

"1. Your most important goals must be yours.
2. Your goals must be meaningful.
3. Your goals must be specific and measurable.
4. Your goals must be flexible.
5. Your goals must be challenging and exciting.
6. Your goals must be in alignment with your values.
7. Your goals must be well balanced.
8. Your goals must be realistic.
9. Your goals must include contribution.
10. Your goals must be supported."

The authors also suggest that you create a Master Plan for achieving your goals.

See also Setting & Achieving Goals Now!

PART 2

Brian Tracy's 21 Success Secrets

Brian Tracy is the author of '21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires':

  1. Dream Big Dreams - How to visualize, imagine and create an exciting picture of personal wealth and prosperity;
  2. Develop a Clear Sense of Direction - Learn a powerful, proven goal-setting exercise that can change your life;
  3. See Yourself As Self-Employed - How to take complete control of your career and your financial life;
  4. Do What You Love To Do - Identify the ideal work for you and then get paid well for doing it;
  5. Commit to Excellence - How to move into the top 10 percent in your field and be paid more than ever before;
  6. Work Longer and Harder - How to organize your time so you get more done and contribute more value;
  7. Dedicate Yourself to Lifelong Learning - How to continually upgrade your talents and abilities to earn more money;
  8. Pay Yourself First - The most powerful process of wealth accumulation ever discovered and how you can use it;
  9. Learn Every Detail of the Business - How to become an expert in your chosen field and double your income;
  10. Dedicate Yourself to Serving Others - The starting point of all personal fortunes and how to begin;
  11. Be Absolutely Honest With Yourself and Others - How and why personal integrity goes hand in hand with financial success;
  12. Set Priorities and Concentrate Single-mindedly - The importance of focusing on your most important tasks all day long;
  13. Develop a Reputation for Speed and Dependability - How to give yourself the winning edge in everything you do;
  14. Be Prepared to Climb From Peak to Peak - Learn how to recognize the cycles and trends that can make you rich;
  15. Practice Self-Discipline In All Things - Develop the most important quality for financial success;
  16. Unlock Your Inborn Creativity - Learn how to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, achieve any goal;
  17. Get Around The Right People - The importance of surrounding yourself with winners at each stage of your career;
  18. Take Excellent Care of Your Physical Health - How to develop and maintain high levels of energy and fitness;
  19. Be Decisive and Action Oriented - How to identify the most important action steps you can take immediately;
  20. Never Allow Failure To Be An Option - How to overcome the fears that hold most people back;
  21. Pass the "Persistence Test" - Learn how to bounce back from defeat and never, never give up.

Here's a similar formulation of Brian Tracy's success principles:

  1. DREAM BIG DREAMS - Visualize your success and be a visionary. Be success conscious. Wealthy people think about wealth and success constantly. Poor people think about the lack of "money" constantly.

  2. DO WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO - Commit to excellence in a specific field. The opposite of excellence is an acceptance of mediocrity. Once you decide to become the best in your field you will never again worry about money.

  3. FOCUS ON YOUR UNIQUE STRENGTHS - We all have an ability which makes us unique. Discover yours and build upon it.

  4. ACCEPT TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN LIFE - Be the President of your own company. If you work for someone, act like you own the company. You ARE the President of your own corporation. You are ALWAYS self-employed.

  5. NEVER CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY OF FAILURE - "Failure" is not in the vocabulary of a winner. A "setback" or a "glitch" is a learning experience. You cannot fail unless you accept failure as your reality. Keep on keeping on and you will be successful.

  6. HAVE A WELL-DEFINED SET OF GOALS - Decide exactly what you want, determine the price you will have to pay to get it and resolve to pay that price. The ability to set goals and to make plans for their accomplishment is the master skill of success.

  7. DEVELOP A WORKAHOLIC MENTALITY - Your results are directly proportionate to your effort. Be willing to work hard. Success is doing things effectively and efficiently - hundreds of times.

  8. ASSOCIATE WITH POSITIVE, SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE - Step away from the masses and do not associate with unmotivated people. Their common goal is to keep you at their level. Misery loves company.

  9. BE TEACHABLE - Do not fall into the "intelligence trap." Ask you way to success. Always be "green and growing."

  10. BE PREPARED TO CLIMB FROM PEAK TO PEAK - Understand ebb and flow. It never stops! There are always ups and downs, peaks and valleys.

  11. DEVELOP RESILIENCE - No matter how hard you get hit you can always bounce back and continue forward.

  12. UNLOCK YOUR INBORN CREATIVITY - Duplicate yourself and demand more of yourself.

  13. FOCUS ON PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - Become an expert on success, time management, goal setting and problem solving. Personal development is the key to great accomplishment.

  14. DEVELOP A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE - Successful people maintain an attitude of confident expectation. If you expect to be successful you must avoid negativity at all costs.

  15. DEDICATE YOURSELF TO SERVING OTHER PEOPLE - Your rewards in life will always be equal to the value of your service to others.

  16. DEVELOP A REPUTATION FOR SPEED AND DEPENDABILITY - Do you have a sense of urgency? Do what is most important and do it fast. Get the job done and move on to the next task in your success plan. Do not major in minors.

  17. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF AND WITH OTHERS - Never expect to be successful without first paying the price. Always deliver on your commitments. You will reap as you sow.

  18. CONCENTRATE SINGLEMINDEDLY ON ONE THING AT A TIME - Overcome the natural tendency to do what is easy and fun rather than what is necessary, important and urgent. Ask yourself, what is the most valuable use of my time right now? Do it now. Do not procrastinate!

  19. BE DECISIVE - There are no wrong decisions. Our inability to make any decisions is known as procrastination.

  20. BACK YOUR PLANS AND GOALS WITH PERSISTENCE AND DETERMINATION - Persistence is your measure of your belief in yourself. The more you persist, the more you believe in yourself.

  21. BE SELF-DISCIPLINED - Do what you know you must do - when you should do it - whether you like it or not. Without this quality everything mentioned above becomes insignificant.

Higher-Order Booster Principles

The sentence, "Without this quality everything mentioned above becomes insignificant" is most important. If you don't do things right, all the other success principles count for naught! In other words, there are certain principles, that if you don't apply them, they nullify all the other principles. Another way to look at it is that there are "special principles" you can use to boost the power of all the other principles. I call them Higher-Order Booster Principles and the most important one is doing things right!

The main reason why most "success books" don't work for most people is that they don't include one or more vital Higher-Order Booster Principles. The authors may be very successful because, in addition to what they say in their books, they unconsciously apply a number of vital Higher-Order Booster Principles not mentioned in their books.

Doing Things Right: Health

Of what use is anything you do to succeed, if at the same time you do (dumb?) things that sabotage your health? For many people, the best place to start their journey to success is to learn to do more things right concerning their health. The first thing to do about your health may be to read the book 'Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Rebalance Your Emotional Chemistry and Rediscover Your Natural Sense of Well-Being' by Julia Ross, M.A. See About the Mood Cure. The on-line Four Part Mood-Type Questionnaire may reveal some important things to you. (See also The Diet Cure and the Quick Symptom Questionnaire.)

For more health information, see:

Doing Things Right: Making Great Decisions

Making good decisions is obviously an important part of doing things right -- see #TL03G: How to Make Great Decisions

Doing Things Right: Preponderance of Means over Ends

Hans Vaihinger formulated the principle of the "Preponderance of Means over Ends." There is a tendency to lose sight of the goals (ends) and for the means (actions) to become more important than the ends. This is most noticeable in government programs that produce the opposite of the intended or stated objectives, for example, schools that, while they undoubtedly provide some useful learning, also have stupefying effects on their victims -- see Are Our Schools Concentration Campuses for Mind Destruction? and #TL03C: How to Wake Up Your Desire to Learn, Grow & Succeed. Systems can get so bad that anyone within them trying to do things right will be fired! See also Preponderance of Means over Ends in #TL15: How to Achieve Ultimate Success.

What you do needs to be constantly monitored to ensure that your actions are the most effective contributions to achieving your objectives. See also How to Disagree and Question Everything.

Doing Things Right: Solutions vs. Nonsolutions

A lot of time and money can be wasted on courses of action that have little or no chance of success. Few have asked, "What are the criteria for a solution?"; "What characteristics does a solution have?" See What Constitutes a Solution?

Consider Potential Consequences

If you drink a glass of pasteurized milk, eat a slice of bread, or smoke a cigarette, you don't necessarily immediately get athritis, become obese, get lung cancer, or drop dead from heart failure. The point is that some consequences manifest only long after not doing certain things right. Also the causative connections between certain actions and their potential consequences are difficult to determine. What makes it even more difficult is that the individual metabolisms of people differ. What's right for one person may not be right for another. Nevertheless, some core knowledge and fundamental principles of nutrition can and have been determined with a reasonable degree of reliability. (Though "registered/certified nutritionists" may not always be as well educated as they could be!)

Actions can be evaluated in terms of whether they were based on great or poor decisions, involved the preponderance of means over ends, or were solutions/nonsolutions. Consider the following "story" [edited] from a program I'm trying to make money with:

It is with disbelief and frustration that I write this update.

A little while ago we had a Member who made the minimum investment and then started to cross refer himself into the program using multiple accounts. At the time we let it go because we could not find any concrete proof that he was doing this, although we queried and investigated it, and decided that we would monitor the activity on the accounts and watch for the withdrawal requests to ensure that this Member was not only bucking the system as far as the program was concerned, but also trying to make money at the expense of others.

You guessed it, shortly after earning a lot of money on referrals and earnings, this Member made withdrawal requests on ALL accounts for the total amounts held in them and thought we wouldn't notice. After carrying out more research on this person and tracking the IP address, which turned out to be identical on all accounts, we decided that this person WAS breaking the rules of our program to the extent that we didn't think he could break them any further. Therefore, we decided that we would make sure the Member received his full principal returned but not a cent more. We proceeded to pay him the total of his spends minus any referral fees and earnings. Also, we have information from a few reliable sources that this particular member piggy backs funds from his contacts, tells them that he knows a Trader, places the funds in a program and takes a slice off the top and doesn't disclose how much he is really earning to his contacts. It is now obvious that he was placing piggy backed funds with us as well.

We knew we would receive some comments from this Member and we were right. He repeatedly called us thieves and scam artists and even tried to contact other Members in an attempt to rally support and bring us down. In several emails he stated that he would bring us down by going to the many authorities and reporting us for theft and any other offenses he could think of. We did point out that he had received his full capital returned and there was no reason for any authority to look at us. At this stage we would like to thank those members who passed on his emails to us, including their responses, and for their support for telling this person where to get off and informing him how much they trusted us. Following the rebuttal from others, this person then attempted another tack by being extra nice and using the term 'mate' all the time in his communications. I hasten to add that I have known this Member for a couple of years, plus some, and he has always stated how much trust he has in me, and now [my program]. Strange how he attempts to make more money than he is due to receive by breaking rules. Naturally, we refused his pleas and stated that the rules, as laid out to him, had been broken and the discussion was ended.

All was quiet for a while and you know what they say, the quiet before the storm. Well, I returned from a business trip last week to find that our trading accounts had been suspended and that access to them had been denied. Therefore, no trading could take place and no funds accessed for distribution. At first I didn't know why and thought there had been some terrible mistake, but after contacting my brokerage firm I discovered that the authorities had instructed them to suspend all activity until they had the opportunity to carry out some investigations. As usual, it's guilty until proven innocent.

The main point here is that we have been put on suspension until they can find some answers and we don't know how long it will be. We have all the evidence to prove that we have done nothing wrong and that the Member in question has received his capital in full. However, after speaking to various people involved, no-one seems to want us to provide this proof until they are ready to accept it, if at all.

Please know that we are doing everything in our power to overcome this difficult time and we are not going anywhere. We will see this through until we achieve the result we all want to achieve and that is to release the accounts and start paying again. We have nothing to hide. We have been investigated before and came out of it fine and dandy. It will happen again this time and we will be exonerated and if the Member in question, who has been removed from the program, reads this update at some point in the future please remember that it is not just me and R... you are hurting, but the many members who have joined and spent their funds. Now there will be quite a few that will encounter difficult times due to your thoughtless actions...

One more thing, many of you may become angry, upset, frustrated, annoyed, hurt and feel many other emotions. We ask that you do not vent your emotions on the person who instigated this, if you believe you know who it is, and we ask that you try and hold back your venting from us. We have a lot on our plate at the moment and it will simply add to the stress. We know that some of you will want to express yourselves and blame us. If this is the case, then so be it, but please try and keep it clean and free from obscenities.

Thank you for your support and understanding...

What happened here is that a Member ostensibly "broke the rules" (didn't do things right). The Program Manager decided to "punish" the Member by withholding all his earnings. The Member decided to "get his revenge" by squealing to "authorities," who ordered the suspension of trading accounts. The consequences are negative to all concerned. The situation raises some issues:

One option for the Program Manager was to simply ignore what the Member was doing. Another option was, as soon as something "wrong" was suspected, to tactfully indicate to the Member that he might be doing something contrary to the rules or spirit of the program and offer to "work things out."

Removing Blocks

See Emotional Control and Bicameral Stage 2 and Our Legacy of Bad Programs. Your emotional state (chronic or acute) may prevent you from doing things right. Idenics is the most powerful and effective technique I know of for removing psychological and emotional blocks -- see WBM#182: Idenics: The Most Powerful Reprogramming for Success!

See also Freedom From Depression Now! and Dissolving Panic & Anxiety Now!

Killer Negativity

A few years ago, at a meeting, I noticed one person saying only negative things. Practically every time someone made a positive proposal, she responded with something ranging from mildly negative to extremely negative. I don't recall her saying anything positive during the meeting. It seemed to me that negativity pervaded her entire being and she was determined to "kill" every positive proposal. This was "killer negativity" in its strongest form!

I suspect that many people trying to make money on the Internet, after repeated "failures," become negative. This negativity may "feed on itself," resembling a kind of snowball effect. It could become quite debilitating, preventing any chance of success. To the point that some people start thinking, "Nothing works!"

See #TL12A: Dinging and Dedinging -- Subtle Suppression -- Self-Sabotage

You may not even notice how often you think negatively or put yourself down during the span of just a few minutes. "This will never work!" "I've failed with every program I've tried!" "I'll never be able to sponsor 2 people!"

See "automatic thoughts" in #TL12: How to Achieve Emotional Control.

An experiment may be worthwhile. Carry a notepad with you for a day or two. Record every negative thought you have throughout the day. Examples:

Just noticing every such thought and writing it down could have major positive effects on you!

Killer negativity (mild or extreme) is a form of "Self 1 interference."

Any combination of the "11 Core Thought Patterns" can act like that a "cloud of killer negativity" that sabotages your success.

Waking Up Your Powerful Real Self

"Deep within humans dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish them, that they never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize their lives if aroused and put into action." -- Orison Marden
"The problem is that most people do not know what they are capable of until forced to survive in extreme conditions." -- Al Siebert, Ph.D. ('The Survivor Personality: Why Some People Are Stronger, Smarter, and More Skillful at Handling Life's Difficulties... and How You Can Be, Too')
"It seems clear that the breakthroughs of the next age must come in the form of advances in our individual and collective abilities to tap existing human capabilities and to overcome the negative internal forces that interfere with their expression." -- W. Timothy Gallwey ('The Inner Game of Golf')
"There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him. For without this knowledge, he will have no focal point in his search. Socrates' words "Know thyself" remain for all those who seek true knowledge and being." -- G. I. Gurdjieff ('Views from the Real World')
"Humans are the only species on earth with the ability to interfere with their own performance. Self-interference is a learned skill; we are not born with it." -- Michael Hebron ('Golf Swing Secrets... and Lies')

In his "Inner Game" books, W. Timothy Gallwey makes a distinction between "Self 1" and "Self 2." Self 1 is an invented or alien self. Self 2 is your natural self.

This is similar to Gurdjieff's distinction between "personality" and "essence."

"Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one's own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken. We must realize that we are very complicated machines, and so this process of breaking is bound to be a long and difficult task. Before real growth becomes possible, our personality must die." -- G. I. Gurdjieff ('Views from the Real World')

You may have noticed some conversation or chattering going on inside your head. For example, while having a conversation with someone, all kinds of judgmental thoughts go through your mind about what the other person is saying. While listening, you may also be rehearsing what you're going to say next. This is your Self 1 in action.

In tennis there is a typical "Self 1 downward spiral." You hit a poor backhand into the net. Your Self 1 comments in your head, "That was a terrible shot!" After a few more weak backhands, your Self 1 says, "My backhand is terrible!" Not too long after that, the comment becomes, "I'll never be able to play good tennis!" -- or some similar putdown.

The "Self 1 downward spiral" may not stop there. It might be followed with, "I'm too clumsy to be good at any sport." And even, "I'm a worthless person."

Your Self 1 may also be constantly telling you what to do and what not to do. The essence of Self 1 is that it INTERFERES with the powerful abilities of your natural Self 2.

Gallwey has come up with the formula: Performance = Potential minus Interference.

In any area of your life you can improve your performance by reducing interference from your Self 1.

Your Self 2 is your Powerful Real Self or essence. To wake up your Self 2, you may have to "kill" aspects of your Self 1. By "kill" I mean become aware of and UNLEARN a host of more or less unconscious thinking habits designed to keep your Self 1 in control and suppress your Self 2.

Your Self 2 has powerful, natural learning abilities. Your Self 1 may interfere with your natural learning. Much of "formal education" is styled after Self 1 interference and is more of a hindrance than an aid to natural learning. Most humans have largely lost their natural learning abilities -- a big disadvantage! Fortunately, by reducing Self 1 interference, you can recover your natural learning abilities.

If you're trying to make money on the Internet, you may experience interference from your Self 1 in the form of negative comments circulating in your mind. Your Self 1 may be sabotaging you in other ways -- like steering you into making bad decisions.

In all kinds of activities ranging from sports to ordinary communication and to making money on the Internet, there is an Inner Game and an Outer Game. The Outer Game has to do with hitting the ball. The Inner Game has to do with what goes on in your mind.

By becoming better at the Inner Game, you can greatly improve your Outer Game. If you're not as successful as you would like to be with your Outer Game of making money on the Internet (or anything else), you may want to work on improving your Inner Game.

During the past four decades I've done a great of work on my personal self-improvement. I've read hundreds of books, attended numerous seminars and workshops, and done several kinds of counseling. In my opinion, Gallwey's Inner Game formulation is one of the most important breakthroughs in understanding and improving human behavior.

Whether or not you're interested in tennis or golf, ALL THREE of the following books are "must reading!" Each contains some important and profound information not included in the others. (It's OK to skip some of the material on technical aspects of tennis and golf.)

The Negativity Breaker

The first step in overcoming negativity (Self 1 interference) is to become more aware of it. Write down all the negative thoughts that come up for you over a period of several days.

For some people, their negativity is so strong that it's similar to a ship trapped in ice. In the same way that an icebreaker is necessary to rescue a ship stranded in ice, you may need a "negativity breaker" to rescue you. Applying the negativity breaker is the second step. It works like this: Make the decision to be consciously and deliberately as negative as you can be for a period of your choice. Embrace and enjoy your negativity! Revel in it like a masochist! Think as many negative thoughts as you can. Make your thoughts as strongly negative as you can. Call on your Self 1 for assistance. Thank him or her for every negative thought. With this step, you gain control over your negativity.

Realize that your negativity may be partly the result of poor diet, lack of exercise, and hormonal imbalances. It may be worthwhile for you to read the book 'Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Rebalance Your Emotional Chemistry and Rediscover Your Natural Sense of Well-Being' by Julia Ross, M.A. See "About the Mood Cure" for a desciption of the book. The on-line "Four Part Mood-Type Questionnaire" may reveal some important things to you. (See also The Diet Cure and the "Quick Symptom Questionnaire.")

For some, the best place to start might be to tackle Success Anorexia.

Check out the "11 Core Thought Patterns," Freedom From Depression Now! and Dissolving Panic & Anxiety Now!

Next, read Coping.org's page on "Pessimism and Negativity" and complete all the excercises.

If you're stuck in a "negative identity" (a negative way of being you adopted at an early age), then the best negativity breaker for you may be Idenics -- see WBM#182: Idenics: The Most Powerful Reprogramming for Success!.

Hernacki's Ultimate Success Principle: Commitment

"In order to accomplish something, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it." -- Mike Hernacki ('The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want')

Hernacki's "Ultimate Secret" is an important Higher-Order Booster Principle. The key is being "willing to do whatever it takes." I highly recommend his book.

While I recommend his book, I also need to point out what I consider his errors (quotes from The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want; 2001 paperback edition):

Nevertheless, his "ultimate secret" is valid, and profound, and an important Higher-Order Booster Principle:

"In order to accomplish something, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it."

Hernacki's principle can also be called commitment:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

See also Attitude is Everything and Responsibility.

Become the Creative Force of Your Life

One of the single most empowering books I've ever read is 'The Path of Least Resistance' by Robert Fritz -- and I've read thousands of books. Fritz makes a distinction between the "reactive-responsive orientation" and the "creative orientation." We could also call them the "reactive-responsive context" and the "creative context."

The reactive-responsive context is essentially a passive orientation toward life characterized by the belief that you are basically a victim of circumstances or fate. If you live out of this context, you tend to get so used to things happening to you that you forget that you can control your own life. You are like a weak reed blown every which way by the wind.

Self 1 could be regarded as the "architect" of the reactive-responsive context.

The creative context is an active orientation toward life characterized by the belief that you are basically in control. To a considerable extent, you can make choices independent of the circumstances of your life. You are like a powerful bamboo with a will of its own. You can lean over in the direction of even a strong wind.

Self 2 could be regarded as the "architect" of the creative context.

See also my article "The Path of Least Resistance."

One of the reasons "how-to" books don't work very well for most people is that practically all of them are written at the "reactive-responsive level." Very few are written at the "creative level." Rather than providing you with the means (guidance, stimulation, and inspiration) to make a breakout shift in your fundamental orientation to life, they provide you with lots of low-level details to respond or react to.

Success Context and Attitudes

In my opinion, all the dictionary definitions of success that I've seen are unsatisfactory. In 'Real 'Secrets' of Success' by Dale Armin Miller of Success Arsenal! he indicates that success is a state of mind or attitude. (He also points out that, "in a recent year in the United States, 87 millionaires committed suicide!")

If you think that you first have to accomplish things in order to become successful, you have it backwards! It's much more powerful to create a "context of success" and to then live out of that context. You first become a success in your mind. The actions and results then follow from that Success Context.

Note how Dr. Foster assists you in creating a Success Context:

"Whatever you're trying to decide, you have everything you need inside you right now to be one of those people who easily, quickly, and comfortably make great decisions." -- Charles Foster, Ph.D., M.B.A. ('What Do I Do Now? Dr. Foster's 30 Laws of Great Decision Making')
"Early in my new writing career, I resolved to make a success of it." -- Mike Hernacki ('The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want')

The above decision is an example of creating a Success Context.

Another way to see this is to look at "be," "do, and "have." Many people think in terms of:

  1. If I have such and such; then
  2. I'll be able to do such and such; and then
  3. I'll be successful.

Several philosophers have indicated that the above is a "backwards context." It's much more powerful and creative to think in terms of:

  1. I am a success; therefore
  2. I can do whatever it takes; and therefore
  3. I can pretty well have anything that's humanly possible to have!

"We are free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it." -- William Faulkner
"Freedom means self-control; no more, no less." -- Rose Wilder Lane

The "Freedom Context" version would look something like this:

  1. We are free by nature;
  2. We control the energy that animates our minds and bodies, i.e., we control ourselves;
  3. Therefore we practice freedom.

We can make a distinction between context and content. Mr. Hernacki's "Early in my new writing career, I resolved to make a success of it" is at the level of Context. If he were to provide a list of all the things he did to become a successful writer, the list would be at the level of Content. Practically all "how-to" information is at the level of Content.

If you're operating out of an unworkable Context (such as "It's very difficult to succeed as a writer, Internet marketer, etc."), then it's unlikely that any Content you study will make a significant difference to your level of success. Though it's always possible that some "how-to" Content will trigger you to make a breakout shift in Context.

Robert Fritz's Creative Orientation is at the level of Context. His Reactive-Responsive Orientation is at the level of Content.

Your Attitudes are at the level of Context. One of the most important Attitudes is Commitment.

Another most important attitude is to have an Open and Receprive Mind as exemplified by Leonardo da Vinci.

See:

Discover and Wake Up Your Conquering Force

"I found a book that gave the possible mental origins of various physical problems. Turning to the section on lung diseases, I read: "Maladies of the lungs and difficulty in breathing are a sign of unfulfilled passions, unrealized dreams."
Naturally, I asked myself if I did indeed have any unfulfilled passions, or dreams that as yet were unrealized... aha!
At that moment, my entire problem -- and its solution -- immediately became clear to me. I was sick in my lungs because all of my adult life, my secret ambition had been to become a professional writer. Yet, for many reasons, I had never allowed myself to pursue that ambition." -- Mike Hernacki ('The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want')

Before becoming a professional writer, Hernacki didn't succeed as a teacher, advertising man, lawyer, and stockbroker. But when he discovered what he was really passionate about, he suddenly started succeeding.

This suggests that the real secret of Hernacki's success might have been his discovery of what he was really passionate about. What he calls his "ultimate secret" may have been a secondary factor. Had he applied his "ultimate secret" in his earlier professions, it may not have helped him succeed at all!

So I'm suggesting that discovering what you're really passionate about may be more important for some people than Hernacki's "ultimate secret." This may also fit into the pattern of most authors of success books not being very good at identifying all the most important reasons for their own success!

When you discover what you're really passionate about, it unleashes a Conquering Force in you. That's what happened to Hernacki. With his unleashed Conquering Force he quickly cleared up his lung problem and became a successful writer.

Have You Been Living as an Owner or a Victim?

"Most of us today live in cocoons.
...We could tear open the cocoon if we wanted to. We could push out and see the light of the world. We could learn to fly. The cocoon is known by the name of personality.

Most people live trapped inside their personalities for their entire lives, never knowing that they can leave. They are victims of their own invented "selves."

...As you look back on your life so far, you will see that you have two basic ways of being. At any given time, you were either one way, or you were the other; you were either an owner of the human spirit, or you were a victim of circumstances. One way (owner) reinvents you as you go. It reinvents you outward, in an ever-expanding circle of capability, skills, and personal power. The other way (victim) shrinks you down. Just as your muscles shrink when they are not moving, so do you." -- Steve Chandler ('Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be.')

Living as an Owner or a Victim is an orientation at the level of Context. If you live as an Owner, you're basically a winner and the Owner Orientation pervades all or most of your life. If you live as a Victim, you're basically a loser and the Victim Orientation pervades all or most of your life. It's possible to live as an Owner in some respects and as a Victim in others.

In order to experience success, it's necessary to live as an Owner. Making the contextual shift from Victim to Owner may require massive effort.

"The biggest lie humankind has told itself in the past 50 years is that happiness is available without effort. That effort is painful. That effort is not valuable, and indeed, is to be avoided whenever possible. That a retirement of ease and comfort is something "you owe yourself" and that only a thoughtless fool exerts any real energy in the course of a given day." -- Steve Chandler ('Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be.')

Owners use different language compared to Victims -- see Chapter 25 of 'Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be' by Steve Chandler.

"I was a true lowlife...
...[T]he lower you are now, the more fun you are going to have if you take reinvention as a personal project... You can redesign yourself completely. And not because there's necessarily anything wrong with you, but just for the sheer joy of reinvention. There is no joy like it.

The way I got started back to the spirit was this: I began to allow myself to think.

It sounds almost too simple, but I found that true victims don't do it. They don't think. They brood and ruminate and worry. And then they feel depressed. And then they feel angry. And the deadly beat goes on. It circles back on itself. As a woman in a workshop once told me, self-pity is like a snake that gets in your brain and lays its eggs there." -- Steve Chandler ('Reinventing Yourself: How to Become the Person You've Always Wanted to Be.')

There may be a great deal in this report and its links for you to think about.

Distinguish between What You Can and Can't Control

"Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can't control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible... Trying to control or change what we can't only results in torment." ('The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness' -- A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell.)

See #TL10B: Escape from Helplessness and Move up to Power.

Doing Things Right: Focus

"Laserlike focus is perhaps the most common trademark of the supersuccessful... If you aspire to play in the big leagues, you must be prepared to play every point as though it were match point. In other words, you have to be consistently focused. Dabblers are rarely, if ever, successful. It's when you focus totally, intensely, and consistently on one project -- a project that has the potential to yield a worthwhile payoff -- that you have the greatest chance of success." -- Robert J. Ringer ('Million Dollar Habits')

See Focus and Concentration.

Accumulating Advantages

"The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance." -- Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"The most successful people in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. It is the one who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider -- progressively able to grasp any theme or situation -- persevering in what he knows to be practical, and concentrating his thoughts upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree." -- Alexander Graham Bell

We live in a competitive world. All around us there are people doing things to improve themselves to gain advantages. If you stay the same, you may be getting further behind -- finding it more difficult to compete with those who move ahead steadily, as described by Alexander Graham Bell. This report may provide you with many potential advantages to gain. It's up to you to decide where to start and what to do next...

Daily Training and Improvement

The best way to gain advantages is through daily training. One of the best investments of your time you can make is to set aside 20-30 minutes or more every day, or most days, for personal training. To appreciate the power of daily training send a blank email to [defunct]
to receive a most important email lesson from Dr. Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, Principal, School of Thinking, Melbourne, Australia - http://www.sot.com.au - http://www.X10thinkers.com

Increasing Your Intelligence and Becoming More Rational

Nobody is born a great thinker. We can always further develop and improve our thinking skills. In general, animals automatically achieve their full potential. We humans are different. We need to make deliberate and conscious efforts to work on ourselves in order to advance toward our full potential. A good place to start: BECOME A 10X PERFORMING PERSON! See also #TL11: How to Increase Your Intelligence.

Doing Things Right: Applying Winning Formulas

FreeStoreClub recently sent out the following email:

FSC introduces: Boot Camp Training!
Learn how simple it is to navigate your store, earn retail profits, and master the EMM system. All from the front page of your store site. Your address is always: http://bigbooster.freestoreclub.com

The link on your front page is Boot Camp Training.

How does Boot Camp Training fit into your overall Formula for Success?

Boot camp training educates you, and the members of your group, so everyone understands the power of FSC and EMM. Now let's look at the Formula for Success, and clarify its meaning. FTUA is the acronym that describes the formula. FTUA stands for Free, Train, Upgrade, and Advertise.

Here is how it works. Free sign-ups, who go through Training, then Upgrade, and begin to Advertise. Through Exact Method Marketing, FSC has created a process for earning that anyone, of any skill level, can master.

In the FTUA formula, you set the example by training, upgrading and starting the advertising process. EMM takes it from there and trains your new free members to do what you did. As they begin the advertising process, EMM takes over for them, and your business has the potential to grow worldwide.

As you continue to advertise, your group is stimulated and your business grows even stronger. The formula for success is an automated money-making machine. Have you started the machine yet? If not, why not?

If you want a simple way to get started, why not check out http://www.emmleads.com This is a way to add 50 to 200 signups GUARANTEED! Click the link to check it out. There are literally thousands of people joining each day from this lead source. It's that simple. Get your share!

Remember, EMMLeads is a third party provider, not owned or operated by FreeStoreClub but many of our members report great results in using EMMLeads to help grow their business quickly and easily.

He or she who advertises the most earns the most! How consistent are you?

In my 15 months with FreeStoreClub, the $50 that I invested has grown to over $20,000. I'm not telling you this to boast, but to indicate the power of doing a few things right.

For more on formulas, see:

Discipline, Thought, then Control

Quoted from Integrated Thinking: The Essence of Power and Wealth:

"Harvey Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, stated, "There is no limit to the extent a person will go to avoid hard thinking. In business, a person will attempt to fill his schedule with details in order to avoid hard thinking." What Firestone implied by "hard thinking" is integrated thinking. Integrated thinking is required for all money-making actions.

Integrated thinking requires DTC (Discipline, Thought, and Control). The DTC method was first developed by Frank R. Wallace in his book 'The Advanced Concepts of Poker.' To perform actions that increase the bottom line, an intense focusing of one's brain is required. Money-making essence actions by their nature are self-initiated actions. Thus, such actions can only be orchestrated by an individual's own thinking. No one else can tell that individual what to do. One must break out of a following mode and think on his own. Yet, most employees have been in a following mode all their working lives. They report to work and do what they are told. They perform pre-set responsibilities. They do not create new, money-making work for themselves.

For most people, the inherently independent and creative nature of integrated thinking is a difficult, new way of thinking. The integrated thinking necessary to enact money-making actions requires constantly reviewing and integrating situations throughout the day and into the night as new pieces of information become available, as feedback is obtained through a constant testing of ideas. Unlike most business activities, there is no pre-set format or routine to follow with integrated thinking. Correct, brain-sweating thought must constantly be exerted by that individual alone."

The "DTC Technique" ("Discipline, Thought, then Control") is probably the single most important Neo-Tech concept. Discipline and focus are required in order to do intense thinking -- which leads to increased control. DTC can be applied to:

'Poker: A Guaranteed Income for Life by Using the Advanced Concepts of Poker' by Frank R. Wallace includes the following table:

Discipline Practiced Self-Control Developed
Consume no food or beverage Awareness
Do not swear or display feelings Emotional control
Maintain good posture -- sit straight and keep both feet flat on the floor Alertness
Memorize important hands played and the performance of each opponent Concentration
Mentally review and criticize each play Objectivity

For any project or activity you can make a table that includes:

  1. What disciplines do I need to practice?
  2. What do I need to think about?
  3. What forms of self-control and external control are necessary, desirable, and possible -- and how can I achieve them?

Conclusion to 'Advanced Concepts of Poker':

"The good poker player functions rationally. He views all situations realistically. With objective thinking, he directs his actions toward winning maximum money. He pits the full use of his mind against the unwillingness of his opponents to think. ...The good player cannot lose.

Poker is a game of money and deception; poker exposes man's character, and the consequences are always deserving. The rewards go to the strong, and the penalties to the weak. The loser dissipates his time and money. The winner earns money and satisfaction. ...But what is the net result of poker? Is it merely time consumed and money exchanged with nothing positive produced? Is the net result a negative activity? ...Poker is a character catalyst that forces players to reality. Those willing to work and use their minds are rewarded; those who evade thinking and act on whims cannot escape the penalties. The results are clear and true; the lazy evader fails and can never fake success; the thinking performer is always rewarded.

In poker, man is on his own; he must act as an individual. No one will help him. Success depends on the rational use of his mind; success depends on exercising his positive qualities and overcoming his negative qualities; success depends on him alone. In poker, man can function entirely for his own sake. The results are his own. The winner has made himself a winner; the loser has made himself a loser.

Poker is sheer justice."

The distinction between following mode and thinking for yourself is most important.

Jon Rappoport, commenting on "Lucas Helder, the boy accused of placing pipe bombs in five states." wrote:

"One of the best ways to demoralize large numbers of people who devote their lives to being normal and to having friends who are completely normal is: Show them one of their own who, suddenly and inexplicably, against all odds, goes off the rails and turns into a loon.

Such an OP [operation] drives the normal ones into utter confusion and fear and passivity, ready for even deeper Dronehood and ready to accept new strictures on liberty to ensure the continuance of "normalcy."

This is how one crime spree becomes widespread mind control."

"Following mode" can also be described as "dronehood." Breaking out from dronehood can provide you with great advantages.

Willpower

"Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power." -- Seneca
"Sedentary philosophers fail to notice the importance of the will because thinking uses so little of it." -- Colin Wison ('New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the Post-Freudian Revolution')

You can think of your Real Self or Self 2 as waking up and developing in stages. You can think of willpower as the degree to which your Real Self has woken up and DEVELOPED.

DTC can be applied to develop your willpower. As you shift from "automatic follow mode" to "think for yourself mode," you develop your willpower.

"[W]hile we are living technically in the Atomic Age, the majority of men -- including most of those who are in power -- still live emotionally in the Stone Age; ... while our mathematics, astronomy, and the natural sciences are of the twentieth century, most of our ideas about politics, the state, and society lag far behind the age of science. If mankind commits suicide it will be because people will obey those who command them to push the deadly buttons; because they will obey the archaic passions of fear, hate, and greed; because they will obey obsolete clichés of State sovereignty and national honor." -- Erich Fromm ('On Disobedience and Other Essays')

See also #TL10D: Willpower and Psychosynthesis.

The 10X Mindset

Imagine what would happen if all kinds of things about you and what you do could be improved by a factor of 10! What if you could become 10 times more effective at making money on the Internet? Well, by doing the 10X Training (BECOME A 10X PERFORMING PERSON!), you can acquire a mindset that enables you to upgrade all kinds of things about yourself 10 times. It's called "tenpower." It's yours for the taking! To get it, all you need to do is to invest some time during the next month or so. What better investment can you make, than achieving tenpower?

How to Implement this Information

It's most important that you start with something, e.g., the 10X training or a ThinkRightNow! tape. (One of the great advantages of these tapes is that you can listen to them while you sleep. So you don't have to spend a lot of extra time to reprogram your mind for success!) Then you need to continue working on yourself on a daily basis.

You may want to write up one or more action plans for improving each of the following areas:

You may be programmed for failure in important respects. If so, it might be vital that you start with one or more ThinkRightNow! tapes . You may have to switch one or more of the 11 ThinkRightNow! basic thought patterns from failure to success before you can make progress in other areas.

It may be worthwhile to reread this report (and some of the reports linked to) from time to time to identify other areas of your life to work on.

I wish you a pleasant journey of ever-increasing success!

Further Reading


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