Archives for December 2014

I am just back from the Titan Summit in Toronto. Four days surrounded by billionaires, deca-millionaires and fearless entrepreneurs. All of these success-heroes brought together in one room by the legendary Robin Sharma in an effort to make success a habit and elevate their game. Each with a story to tell; fraught with mistakes, failures, obstacles and setbacks. But in no single story will you find the narrative of a quitter. No, these individuals all possess an outlook that can only be described as positive certainty; moving forward, inch by inch, day by day, towards success. All great men and women who are true heroes because they pursue big goals, life dreams or their main purpose with a passion and enthusiasm that burns away the doubts, fears and uncertainty like an acid.

The Titan Summit of 2014 is over. While the rest of humanity suffocates itself in negativity, turmoil and human politics, these like-minded individuals will continue their mission: to pursue success and improve the lives of millions. They are the world’s great achievers. They persist, where most fail because “IF” does not exist in their vocabulary. “IF” is only for quitters. And none of them are quitters.

When successful people describe flow, it almost sounds like they are describing an experience typically associated with drugs or a sexual encounter. In a state of flow, we are in a state of unforced focus; the most powerful type of focus. This is a state in which humans are able to accomplish tasks efficiently and effectively. Creativity explodes during the state of flow. Inventions, breakthroughs, insight, seeing opportunities we didn’t see before, all occur during flow. In order to understand flow, however, we need to understand brain cycles, because flow happens during two of those cycles: beta and alpha.

Our brain has 4 brain cycles:

1. Beta – We are in beta when we are driving, talking, working, reading, exercising etc. It represents the brain’s highest state of alertness. In beta, our brain cycle is the highest, 20 cycles per second or more.
2. Alpha – This is the period of time just prior to sleep. We’ve left beta and we’re about to fall asleep. When we meditate, we are generally in alpha. In alpha, our brain cycle is between 7-14 cycles per second.
3. Theta – We’ve left Alpha and are now sleeping or in deep meditation. In theta, our brain cycle is between 4-7 cycles per second. This is also when REM (Rapid Eye Movement) occurs during sleep.
4. Delta – We are in deep sleep. When we are in delta our brain is at it’s slowest.

When we are in flow, our brain is cycling somewhere between beta and alpha. It is where we want to be because when we are in flow, we are taping into our genius. How do you get into flow? 5 to 10 minutes of light meditation, followed immediately by action, will put you in a state of flow. How long it lasts depends on how motivated or passionate you are about the activity. If the activity is something you love and are passionate about, flow could last for hours. If it is a boring task, flow could last for minutes. Ideally, you want to put yourself into flow when you are pursuing a big goal, dream or engaged in your main purpose. Big goals or following your dream or purpose in life keeps you in a state of flow. Passion, keeps you in a state of flow. Great achievements are the byproduct of being in a state of flow. E=MC squared, the lightbulb, the automobile, T.V., the iPod, Google, Facebook, the paper clip, post-it pads and many other inventions were born in a state of flow. So go out there and get your flow on. It’s where genius happens.

When I was growing up, despite the fact that we were poor, my Dad instilled in all eight of his kids the notion that we could be successful in life. He was a hard core beliver in the American Dream and American exceptionalism. He earned it by helping to save western civilization in WW II. My Dad believed in America, so we believed in America. America was the land of opportunity. We looked at wealthy, successful people as the embodiment of the American Dream come true. They were American heroes. To get there, my Dad believed we would all need a college education. That was drummed into all of us from an early age. But college costs money, so we all began working at an early age and this continued throughout our college years. That income helped pay for our college education. We were taught that society does not hand you anything for free. You have to work for the things you need and want. Like college. We were taught not to rely on anyone but ourselves. We were indoctrinated into believing that individual success was within our control. You just had to want it bad enough and work for it hard enough. We are adults now. Most of us are doing well in life. That American Dream parenting helped lift us up from poverty to the middle-class or higher.

Things have certainly changed in the last fifty years, as I found out in my five-year study of the rich and poor ( Rich Habits Study – Background on Methodology http://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-on-methodology/).  [Read more…]

Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite movies of all time. I watch it several times in December as Christmas approaches. In my latest viewing I uncovered 5 poverty lessons from one of my favorite characters, Cousin Eddie. I thought I’d share them with you: [Read more…]