You might be wondering, why doesn’t he just focus on one: meditation or the sleep schedule? Well, the problem is that they rely on one another. The sleep schedule makes the meditation possible and vice-versa. On top of all of this, I have a volunteer project that I’m abominably overdue on. That’s an energy sap, but I refuse to cave on that one.

A thought comes to mind of one of the greatest real-life examples of the “re-route power” analogy: The Apollo 13 mission. If you haven’t seen the movie Apollo 13, you really should. It’s a masterpiece and pretty accurate, as well.

Having cut power to everything, they barely survived until it was time to start-up everything for the last part of their journey. But there was a problem: If they started up everything, then they wouldn’t have enough juice. No matter how they arranged it, no matter what permutations they used, it just wasn’t enough.

I found myself in the same situation. I needed enough willpower to get my meditation and sleep schedules started, but I’m starting from a point of exhaustion. Today, after artfully letting an emotional gut-punch at work roll off me, I decided that I was going to deliberately relax. My focus is getting back on balance. For the rest, I’m going to be gentle with myself. Yes, I’m going to continue to eat healthy. Yes, I’m still going to a job wherein people scream demands for the impossible. And yet, having made the determination to be good to myself, I find the situation already changed. I’m meditating tonight, and I’ve cooked up a couple of ways to make sure that I’m up when I need to be. The rest will take care of itself.

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As I mentioned yesterday, I recently had a minor catastrophe. Me, Mr. Monitor Eyes, had my computer finally give up. This was actually a good time for it to happen. Why? Simply because I’d been pushing the envelope and had the week’s worth of posts (but not the podcast) ready to go.

I try to avoid meta-blogging, but a few details may be needed here: Most blogging platforms will let you queue up posts to be published when you decide. For most of the life of this blog, I had been writing and publishing “just in time”. Recently I got feedback that more regularity and coherence was desired, so I put forth the effort and blogged two weeks into the future. I knew that this big jump was necessary because I would be unable to blog the first week, so I figured I should “flex the muscles” so to speak.

Needless to say, I did it, but I had pushed farther than was good for me. That started a chain reaction which ended up with me utterly exhausted and now trying to fight off the early stages of the local flu.

The Red Line.

Remember the red line on a tachometer? Your engine is designed to peak there, not stay there. I’d been running at the red line so long that I’d forgotten the cost that comes with it. You tend to wear things out. Now I’m paying the price.

Would I go back and change it? Absolutely not. Firstly, I managed to keep the blog (more or less) running like clockwork for you while chaos reigned. No small accomplishment if I do say so myself. More than that, I have gained a priceless lesson. Calibrating the “sweet spot” for the biggest payoff for effort takes all kinds of data, and most of it will be either lackluster results or feeling kinda like your brain has been deep-fried. The real challenge comes in picking up and moving on. Like I said yesterday, it’s really good to be back.

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How often have you seen a maintenance program go unused? When I go to my grandmother’s house, I’m always having to update and run the anti-virus and antispyware software. I can tell by the timestamps that the last time this was done was….the last time I was there.

We deal with much the same thing when it comes to defragging our minds. We tend to collect all these tricks, tips, tools, and techniques . . . . and then not use them. This, ironically enough, is usually due to an aversion to the process or results of defragging. You’ll be thinking that you won’t like what you find, or “it’s a big hassle” or “I just don’t have the time” and so on. Like all such aversions, it’s lying to you. Time can be found, in any schedule. The Sedona Method can be used on-the fly. With a little practice, it can be used in real-time, so that’s not the real problem.

The real problem is that everyone I’ve ever met or read has come back to the same thing: They’re afraid of themselves in one way or another. A very powerful quote sums this up very well:

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.

We ask ourselves,

Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some, it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson

You may be faced with some unexpected difficulty in your defragging process. It may seem like too much work or too much hassle to continue. My question becomes this: Do you truly want to stop the process, or are you allowing yourself to be manipulated into stopping. I cannot tell you where it is wise to proceed and where it is wise to stop. Once again, trust your instincts. If you truly wish to keep going, but are feeling fear, a crippling and unexplainable boredom, or some other form of resistance, take heart that you may be on to something big. At the end of your efforts, you may find newfound strength, joy, or clarity which will serve you for years and decades to come. Be good to yourself – do the work.

If you would like to read more about how to find a way to forge ahead when the resistance is against you, please subscribe to the RSS feed.

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While I’ve presented many tools to get you where you want to go in your defragging process and beyond, I find that no tool is effective without knowing what exactly is going on. It’s all well and good to take time out of your day, and be grateful for all the things in your life, or to remember to let go of your attachments and your aversions when you feel them clawing at you, but unless you can get some data, you’re really just sitting in the captain’s chair of your life, pushing buttons at random.

Now, don’t get me wrong; pushing buttons at random can be fun and is almost always a learning experience. But, if you’re already dragging yourself around and know that you need to clear your mind, using the shotgun approach and hoping you hit the right button is a gamble I wouldn’t want to take.

Get the Data.

Here is where journaling comes in handy. It doesn’t have to be much. Joesgoals.com has a function where you can put in micro-notes about that day. Just rate on a scale of 0-10 or a scale of 0-100 or whatever method works for you. Don’t rely on what other people are doing or saying, as they aren’t in your position. Only you can really tell whether or not it’s working. Are you more productive? How is your stress level? How’s your blood pressure, migranes, or stomach?

If you can get some hard data, you can benchmark what does work and what doesn’t. You may well find that many of the techniques and tricks I write about don’t work for you. That’s great! You’re on the right track. Now that you have eliminated some techniques, you can try another type of technique or find something else entirely.

Once you’ve hit upon something that seems to be working, don’t forget to keep tracking the data. If you hit a plateau, ask yourself honsestly if this is as far as this technique will take you, or if this is just a normal plateau in growth. Trust your instincts. Depending on your inclination, you will want to either re-focus on your current practice, or pick up a new one.

The Other Benefit of Getting the Data.

One of the many bosses I’ve had over the years used to say “inspect what you expect”, meaning that he would follow-up on what he expected to have completed. He was not an unkind person, but he knew what he wanted done, and he expected the best from his people. They didn’t disappoint.

We are the same ourselves. If we make a habit of monitoring what we want, our automatic (behind the scenes) mental functions will kick in and start moving us in the direction that we want to go.

Remember to be as aware as possible of your situation from beginning to end. You’re wasting your time and possibly doing yourself a greater disservice if you don’t pay attention to whether or not you are actually going where you want to go.

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There are indirect tools to help you reach your goals while letting you use your own technique. One thing that I found a while back, and keep coming back to, is binaural tones, also known as binaural beats, hemisync, holosync, and many other names. They all basically do the same thing, as I outlined earlier in the series.

Using Binaural Beats.

There seems to be a right way and a wrong way to use them. It’s clear that the wrong way to use them would be to rely on them solely and not use any other technique. The main problem with this is that it will backfire, as you will find that you will become resistant to it as your regular, alert consciousness will learn to fight it off.

The right way would be to use it in conjunction with an existing technique that you already use, as a booster of some kind, or to use it as “training wheels”. Many guided meditations, (Like the Paraliminals and other such meditations I mentioned in the last post) use binaural beats to enhance their effectiveness. There aren’t many professionally made programs out there who actually use the binaural tones as training wheels (which I would prefer), but there are a couple that I have found: The aforementioned Higher Balance, and Mastering Astral Projection by Robert Bruce and Brian Mercer.

As I mentioned back in May of last year, there are a lot of free programs out there, but if I had to pick one tone generator program, it would be the Brainwave Generator. Not only does it have the ability to work with a light-strobe machine (I have no experience with that but it is supposed to enhance the effect), it also has an active community of users and fans who are constantly trying to find new and better uses and methods for using the program for maximum effect. Not all of them are great, but this is pioneering work in a relatively new field.

There is a saying that goes “I am the weaker for every ally that rallies to my banner.” This holds true here, in that if you get used to the binaural tones doing the work for you, you’ll find that you are faced with a steep learning curve trying to work without it. If you’re going to use binaural tones, my suggestion is to do so in moderation, as a temporary boost for an existing system, and not as a stand-alone.

If you have any experiences with binaural tones or other external aids to share, please do so in the comments

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In today’s podcast, I go back to the concept of the dialog box in computers. From there, I branch out to some topics from Wednesday.

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For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been focusing quite a bit on learning your filters and getting around them. The reason for this is that as tempting as it may be to go and make changes in the world around you, I would suggest making changes inside first.

The magic word: Leverage.

An important word in the business world and no less important in day-to-day life. Leverage is all about making the maximum effect with the available resources. closing a door is easiest if you’re doing it at the doorknob and hardest if you’re pushing near the hinges.

Likewise, our experience in the world is shaped not only by the physical factors (near the hinges) but also by our inner world (near the doorknob). We can work on both, but I’d rather work where I can make the greatest amount of change.

As I go through the process of refining and enhancing my inner world, I notice things moving faster and faster. This is where I reign supreme, so I can make full use of my abilities. As my inner world moves, so does the physical world.

For example: I am now in greater health and mood than I have been in years. Not high school football trim (that’s still down the road a bit) but I have rather effortlessly given up coffee/caffeine in the last two weeks. My only reaction has been mild amusement that it was so hard to do before. This makes giving up soda look hard, and that wasn’t terribly taxing. Now my biggest beverage problem is finding something tasty that has neither caffeine nor copious amounts of sugar. Rather difficult to do while out-and-about, but that’s a problem I’m enjoying having

Don’t use your bare hands when you have a crowbar handy.

I’m not saying that we should abandon the physical realm. Far from it. It’s rather fun here. However, whatever methods you’re using in the physical realm will be greatly enhanced if the person at the controls (you) is someone you can look up to.

One of the small advantages I’ve had in learning emotional release methods is that I have had much greater success at work. I am not particularly “working harder”, but I am infinitely harder to put off balance. That centered state of being comes across to my co-workers and to the customers that I help. No amount of attempting to control the outer world could have possibly brought this result.

My point is this: If you find that you are having a hard time controlling the situation, stop trying to exert control over outside factors. You may meet with some limited success, but it’s not likely and never efficient. The real edge comes in learning to be your own best ally. If you can become that which you wish to be inside, the rest will flow from there.

If you would like to read more about making your world a paradise from the inside out, please subscribe to the RSS feed.

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In today’s podcast, I describe my own experience in maintaining your hardware for maximum results.

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If you would like to hear or read more about getting to the next level in your life, please subscribe to the podcast or the full RSS feed.

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You’ll hear me say over and over again the words “does it work for you”. This is to carry the importance of getting your own data. We live in a society where we are conditioned to be handed our answers on a silver platter, whether they are right or not.

Only by getting, interpreting and using your own data will you get the results that you really want. Asking yourself this question helps to remind us that our techniques are still experimental and that we’re still expanding.

But, does the fact that it works mean that it’s good?

It’s an important question. One that Armand (Thanks!) brought up recently. This question is as old as time itself: Does the fact that we can mean that we should?

I confess that I had unwittingly side-stepped this question. When I looked, I saw that I could very easily use methods which are underhanded, which are unethical, which just plain aren’t nice.

But, they wouldn’t truly work for me. Let me explain.

I have spent a lot of time getting to know myself. As such, I find I can tell what would exact too high a price. Sometimes the steep price is that it would drain too much energy. Sometimes (but less often) the steep price is that I wouldn’t do or have an object or situation that I desire. On occasion, the steep price is that I couldn’t live with myself if I were to do it. I couldn’t face the man in the mirror.

Steve Pavlina posted an excellent poem he found on that very topic (the article can be found here). An excellent poem, and I got a rush when I read it. It is very clear, and speaks to the heart. It served to crystallize something that I had been using for some time: I look to who I am and why I am here first, and then work from there.

Recently, in discussion on another blog (see here), I articulated this in a simple cost-vs-reward fashion. I suggest following the link and reading the whole thing, but I will summarize: A choice is given to either take a key and walk away penniless or to push a button that will kill someone at random. If the button is pushed, you get $10 million. I chose the key. I had and have sentimental reasons for this, as well as pragmatic ones. Here is the pragmatic reason I left:

I had looked at both sides of the equation, but in the end, if I pressed a button, I would be directly responsible for the untimely death of someone, and that would ride me the rest of my life. Could I have helped people with the money? Probably. Could I have restored a life taken? No. The irreversable act of killing another would have weighed heavily on me and would have skewed anything I would later on in my life. Moreover, the guilt of the action taken to get the money would probably cause most people to blow it in a subconscious effort to “balance the books”….they need to get rid of the blood money.

No. Even for all the good that money could offer, the cost would be way too high for me.

Who are you planning for?

Remember: Only you are capable of making decisions for you. When you ask yourself the question “Does it work for me”, remember to think of the whole question. Remember the “me” part. If you can gain wealth by cheating your neighbor, and you know that would kill your spirit, then you know right from the start that it won’t work for you. You may see some cash come in, but the destruction caused by it would far outweigh the income.

Here’s a modern example: Many people like to modify their Xbox consoles. (I’m talking about the classic xbox here). They do this for any number of reasons. Some just like to monkey with things. Some like to set it up to stream media and such. Some like to play backup discs. Some, of course, are plain and simple pirates. Why they do it is a discussion for another time and place however.

For those of you who don’t know, the Xbox is designed to connect to an online service that allows for multiplayer across the internet. However, if Microsoft finds out that you have done anything to the Xbox, they will ban you from this service. Is that too high a price to pay? Maybe. Then again, maybe not. If you aren’t interested in using the service anyway, then it really doesn’t matter, does it?

The same can be said for the choices we make in our lives. What may not be comfortable, or seemly, or even right for one may be perfectly fine for someone else. The important thing is to find/remember who you are, and plan for that person. Once you know who that is, you’ll have a better idea what to use.

If you would like to read more about how to move forward and accelerate your life, please subscribe to the RSS feed.

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The e-book “The System For You” is now available for download. This book lays out, in a step-by-step way, the systematic approach to learning, using and (sometimes) discarding self-development techniques that I use to find what works for me. This is the first e-book published on Technology for Living and I am very happy to be sharing it with you.

(If you need a PDF Reader, I suggest Foxit reader. It’s fast and free.)

If you are interested in how to find and use your vast inner resources, please subscribe to the RSS feed.

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