Unlimited Power

The truth is that even in the information age, information is not enough. If all we needed were ideas and positive thinking, then we all would have had ponies when we were kids and we would all be living our “dream life” now. Action is what unites every great success. Action is what produces results. Knowledge is only potential power until it comes into the hands of someone who knows how to get himself to take effective action. In fact, the literal definition of the word “power” is “the ability to act.”If you look at successful people, you’ll find they followed these steps. They started with a target, because you can’t hit one if you don’t have one. They took action, because just knowing isn’t enough. They had the ability to read others, to know what response they were getting. And they kept adapting, kept adjusting, kept changing their behavior until they found what worked.He said that success is simple. First, you decide what you want specifically; and second, you decide you’re willing to pay the price to make it happen—and then pay that price. If you don’t take that second step, you’ll never have what you want in the long term. I like to call the people who know what they want and are willing to pay the price to get it “the few who do” versus “the many who talk.” I challenge you to play with this material, to read it all, to share what you learn, and to enjoy it.So I suggest you start realizing right now that there’s no such thing as failure. There are only results. You always produce a result. If it’s not the one you desire, you can just change your actions and you’ll produce new results. Cross out the word “failure,” circle the word “outcome” in this book, and commit yourself to learning from every experience.You can spend all your time studying the roots, or you can learn to pick the fruit. Successful people aren’t necessarily the ones with the most information, the most knowledge. There were probably plenty of scientists and engineers at Stanford and Cal Tech who knew more about computer circuitry than Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak, but they were some of the most effective at using what they had. They were the ones who got results.If you look at successful people in any field, you’ll find they’re not necessarily the best and the brightest, the fastest and the strongest. You’ll find they’re the ones with the most commitment. The great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova once said, “To follow, without halt, one aim: there’s the secret of success.” It’s just another way of stating our Ultimate Success Formula—know your outcome, model what works, take action,develop the sensory acuity to know what you’re getting, and keep refining it until you get what you want.When human beings want to change something, they usually want to change one or both of two things: how they feel—that is, their state—and/or how they behave. For example, a smoker often wants to change how he physically and emotionally feels (state) and also his behavioral pattern of reaching for cigarette after cigarette.Remember, we’ve learned that all human behavior is the result of the state we’re in, and that our states are created by our internal representations—the things we picture, say to ourselves, and so on. Just as a movie director can change the effect his movie has on an audience, you can change the effect any experience in life has upon yourself. A director can change the camera angle, the volume and type of music, the speed and amount of movement, the color and quality of the image, and thus create any state he wants in his audience. You can direct your brain in the same way to generate any state or behavior that supports your highest goals or needs.They teach us how to use the most effective strategies for producing most quickly and easily the results we want.What are values? Simply, they are your own private, personal, and individual beliefs about what is most important to you. Your values are your belief systems about right, wrong, good, and bad. Maslow talks about artists, but the point is universal. Our values are the things we all fundamentally need to move toward. If we don’t, we won’t feel whole and fulfilled. That feeling of congruity, or personal wholeness and unity, comes from the sense that we are fulfilling our values by our present behavior. They even determine what you will move away from.Let me share with you the most effective way to breathe in order to cleanse your system. You should breathe in this ratio: inhale one count, hold four counts, exhale two counts. If you inhaled for four seconds, you would hold for sixteen and exhale for eight. Why exhale for twice as long as you inhale? That’s when you eliminate toxins via your lymphatic system. Why hold four times as long? That’s how you can fully oxygenate the blood and activate your lymphatic system. When you breathe, you should start from deep in your abdomen,like a vacuum cleaner that’s getting rid
Jim Rohn, my first personal-development teacher, always taught me that if you have enough reasons, you can do anything. Reasons are the difference between being interested versus being committed to accomplishing something. There are many things in life we say we want, but really we’re only interested in them for a time. We must be totally committed to whatever it takes to achieve. If, for example, you just say you want to be rich, well, that’s a goal, but it doesn’t tell your brain much. If you understand why you want to be rich, what being wealthy would mean to you, you’ll be much more motivated to get there. Why to do something is much more important than how to do it. If you get a big-enough why, you can always figure out the how. If you have enough reasons, you can do virtually anything in this world.The third set of metaprograms involves sorting by self or sorting by others. Some people look at human interactions primarily in terms of what’s in it for them personally, some in terms of what they can do for themselves and others. Of course, people don’t always fall into one extreme or the other. If you sort only by self, you become a self-absorbed egotist. If you sort only by others, you become a martyr.The metaprogram-sorting principles we’ve dealt with so far are important and powerful. However, the crucial thing to remember is that the number of metaprograms you’re aware of is limited only by your sensitivity, awareness, and imagination. One of the keys to success in anything is the ability to make new distinctions. Metaprograms give you the tools to make crucial distinctions in deciding how to deal with people.