The Imaginary Master Mind

 

As the weeks continue to roll on, I know I have many things to improve in my life still, but am also learning and growing each day. I urge any reading this to ask, “Am I learning and growing each day, or am I staying the same? Am I focusing on the negative aspects of life, or looking towards things which are of benefit?”

 

I discovered a very cool thing from the book, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill last week. This is in relation to the ‘Master Mind’ principal. The summary of this is that having a group of experts in various fields of life to work with, dramatically increases the chances for success in anything one seeks to accomplish. For me, having experts in marketing, psychology, accounting, health, and any other area I discover are crucial.

 

Napoleon Hill formed a group called his “Invisible Counselor’s”. This was a group made up of some of the most influential people in the world, both past and present, and included Henry Ford and Abraham Lincoln. The concept of a Master Mind which consists of people who are dead or are unaware of one’s presence on the earth may seem a bit absurd. But I’ve nearly finished reading “Think and Grow Rich” now and it sounds like something I am going to try.

 

So some of you may be thinking I’m crazy and should check myself in a mental hospital. I agree that the idea of invisible counselor’s seems a little absurd. But then again, I have to ask myself, if I do what everyone else is doing, what is the chance of my success? And what a way to get a list of top individuals to draw from! Besides, this sounds like a fun thing to try.

 

My List

 

Without further adieu, here is the list of people, most unaware of my existence (save Lisa Irby, who knows me from a brief chat about my drjerm.com website), that I shall begin having meetings with:

 

• Anthony Robbins (Self help guru, takes a more practical approach)
• Wayne Dyer (Self help guru, takes a more spiritual approach)
• Lisa Irby (Internet marketing genius, probably the least well known of all my counselors, but no less valuable)
• Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” (Charismatic, successful actor)
• Larry Bird (Basketball Legend)
• Oprah Winfrey (One of the most recognizable women in the world, has her own TV show)
• Dr. Phil (Successful mental and health expert, has his own TV show)
• J.K. Rowling (Author of Harry Potter – extremely accomplished author)
• Stephanie Meyer (Author of Twilight – another accomplished author)

 

What a list eh? I sit and just think of how cool it would be to have all of these people in a room to talk to at will. And if you don’t know who any of them are, just go to a search engine and type their name in.

 

Guess what? I have this feeling inside of me that the meetings I have in my head with these people are not going to be much different than if I actually had them physically in a room to talk to. And I will likely add to this list as I discover those who are of note. And some of you might say, “You need to get their permission.” No I don’t, my mind is my own, and I can do with it as I see fit.

 

As an experiment, I am going to keep logs of the meetings I have with these people. I have to admit, I don’t know what to expect. But I do expect that by being proactive and seeking out the best from those who have achieved so much in the world, I will gain many wonderful insights. The notes on these meetings will be forthcoming!

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Leap Frogging From Ordinary To Extraordinary

I am going to share my thoughts about what separates the extraordinary from the ordinary. First off, there has been plenty said about what stops people from being extraordinary. Some of these are fear of failure, fear of criticizm, and fear of the unknown. But I do not wish to dwell on the negative aspects. I wish to share what I’ve seen in extraordinary people that sets them apart from others. And perhaps you will find the courage to be extraordinary.

 

The questions you may ask are why should I listen to you and why should I care? Those are two very excellent questions. The answer to the first is simply read and listen to what I have to say. If you don’t find any use for it, I wish you the best. The answer to the second one is a hidden life of great reward and fulfillment.

I believe that a special animal is needed to really illustrate this article - and that animal is the loveable frog! One of the coolest features of a frog is its ability to leap. And my how they leap – some frogs can leap over 50 times their body length, while the ‘average’ frog only leaps about 20 times its body length. If you were to take a six foot tall human, that’s 300 feet at a peak jump! Now that is the equivalent of one of us homosapiens nearly hurdling over the Statue of Liberty!

 

I really hope these links last a long time, but they are my reference for my information about frogs:
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/amphibians/frog-info.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty

 

Think of success, in this case, as the level to which one completes the ideas in his/her mind. Each level requires more and more of a jump to get to. To illustrate, let’s start first with the level of success in where you exist on this earth. I think everyone alive has achieved this level of success, and so we will create the first circle. And look at that, it’s one big party in there and everyone is invited. Congratulations, you have achieved the first level of success. And that is to exist here on this earth. No small feat by any means, this life is meant to challenge us, and just the fact you are here is impressive. But still, everyone else has done it as well.

 

 

Often times people talk about ideas for stuff they would like to do. Whether it’s starting a business, going on a trip, or changing a bad habit, most people have done this. But not everyone. It is a requirement to be able to communicate with others in order to do this. Still, this next circle is full of people, albeit somewhat less than the first. These are people who have simply spoken about something they would like to do and nothing more.

 

 

The next circle consists of those who go a leap further than simply talking about what they would like to do. Perhaps they write down some of what they would like to do, and begin to create a plan for putting it into motion. The beginning of creating the idea is the group of people in this circle and there is a smaller amount of people here than the previous one. These people have actually started to put their ideas into motion for a short time.

 

 

Further still is the next circle and even smaller is the amount of people in it. The next group of people have spent some time trying to put their ideas into motion. But obstacles, challenges, burn out, or other problems have discouraged them from continuing. After a few months, they have given up, but gave a good short burst to try their idea. These are the people who tried for a little while but just didn’t have it in them to keep going.

 

 

The disparity between this circle and the others before it is frightening. The leap to this circle is made by a small amount of people in the world. These are the people who get past the challenges and obstacles in their way to keep fighting to make their ideas a reality. This group of people are creating their ideas no matter what. The amount of people aware of their ideas may be relatively small however, but still, these people see their ideas through to completion.

 

 

The last circle here has a microscopic amount of people compared to the very first. In it are people who have ideas and see them to fruition. Not only that, they are able to get people around the world to be aware that their ideas exist. They capitalize by having their ideas purchased or adopted and make up some of the wealthiest and/or enriched people in the world today. These are the people whose burning desire, planning, and persistence far exceed the averge person. These are the leaders of the world today.

 

 

Do you have what it takes to make the leap to the final circle? It is a journey not many have completed. Most stop well before getting there. But if you have the courage, persistence, dedication, and intelligence to do it, the reward is well worth it. I am taking the leap to this final circle. I am far from getting there, but I am continuing my efforts each day.

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Sun. 8/17/2009 (8:59 PM MST) 

 

I am ecstatic. My wife and daughter Ellie are back from a trip along the Oregon coast with extended family. It is sure great to have them back. I feel an extra burst of energy and desire to accomplish when my wife is around. It makes me think of what Napoleon Hill talks about in “Think and Grow Rich” where many of the successful men in the world throughout history have had a wonderful woman behind them when they were succeeding.

 

I watched one of my favorite movies two days ago, “The Shawshank Redemption”.  If you have not seen the movie before, I recommend it highly – there are a few vulgar parts in it, so pick up an edited version if you are offended by such things. Also, skip the next two paragraphs if you do not wish to be spoiled by the movie’s plot.

 

*** Begin Spoiler ***

 

In short, in 1947, Andy Dufresne, an honest hard working banker, is charged with the murder of his wife and her secret golf pro lover. Sentenced to a life sentence, he is taken to Shawshank, a fictional prison in Maine. There he faces countless hardship, including being beaten, raped, and solitarily confined for months at a time. Through it all, he finds friends, hope, and an amazing persistence which allows him to tunnel, with a small rock hammer, out of the prison and escape just shy of being there 20 years. He makes off with $360,000 of the warden’s money and exposes Shawshank for murder and corruption and ends up meeting ‘Red’, his best friend from prison down in Mexico.

 

This movie illustrates two very powerful things – persistence and vision. The persistence of a man to keep focusing on his goal for nearly 20 years, regardless of the trials and hardships happening. The vision he created of escaping prison with just a simple rock hammer. He created this vision while carving his name in the wall and seeing some of the rock fall off the wall.  Simple point for anyone reading – persistence and vision are two powerful things.

 

*** End Spoiler ***

 

Some of you reading may think, “Oh that’s nice” and be on your merry way without a second thought. But maybe there are a few who will read and have the spark to keep the dream alive with persistence and vision. Do not give up, no matter your circumstance. You can do it!

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Sun. 8/6/2009 (11:12 AM MST)

 

Writing a novel continues to be a fun and fulfilling experience. There’s much I’ve learned and still have to learn about writing and making sure everything falls into place correctly. To get all this right is a time consuming process. But it is definitely worth it! I will only accept a polished and stellar novel before I get it published and printed, and not anytime sooner will this happen. Anyways, my wife Heidi has been helping edit my first draft and it is good to see there is much I need to improve. Getting into the habit of writing and working on this book did not happen over-night. I actually had the idea for writing a book about 9 years ago.

 

At that time, I wrote a few pages – pretty elementary stuff and very raw. Guess what happened after that? Nothing. The idea of writing a book simply gathered dust for the next 7 years. While this is unfortunate, I now know the reason for this, and it was simply my habits and expectations of myself and the life I was living. Writing a book and having it be known the world over simply did not enter my mind. Let me share with you my mindset for the first 7 or so years of my marriage (about Dec. 2000 – Feb. 2008).

 

I gave no thought to my career except I knew I could do something related to computers. The bar was set at simply getting a job doing computer stuff somehow. But let me backtrack even further. After graduating high school in June 1996, I moved to Utah with my brother Paul. I was content to work doing data entry at $7.50 an hour – and I thought this was great! Now there’s nothing wrong with a healthy attitude, but my state of mind was seriously flawed for a long time. And by that I mean that I had very low expectations for myself.

 

Now fast forward to February 2008. At this time, I was working with Media Learner, a company I helped start, which grew from theShipper.com, a website I helped start with another guy. I also played the online game ‘World of Warcraft’ at this time. I met many people online playing WoW (World of Warcraft), and saw that most of them had low expectations for themselves and generally struggled in many different areas of life. Mind you, these were for the most part, good, honest people, but I saw something common in most of them, as well as people I interacted with at work. I was beginning to notice more about people than I ever had before in my life. A stirring in me began and it started to pull me in a different direction, similar to a water skier on a boat that changes direction.

 

I created www.drjerm.com – basically a mind dump of the information I had collected to that point about life and what might help one find fulfillment and meaning. This took a few hundred hours, but the site is now there for anyone to read. And it all started with a thought! A thought to create something that would benefit others. A few months later, I began to slowly work on my book again and by the end of 2008, I was writing nearly regularly. Now I am at the point the first edited draft is complete and I am now working on it with my wife editing it and will soon have another solid editor helping me (thanks Wendy!)

 

What changed? Well, I’ve given up WoW for good, that was one thing. I left Media Learner and the chaos there. I seek to surround myself with people who seek to make a difference in life. I treat my time as something very precious – even mowing the lawn for a half hour wrenches me because I know there is something more I could be doing with my talents (not that lawn mowing is bad). I experienced the start of s shift that is changing the way I view myself, my time, and my life. This does not mean I have achieved perfection or complete fulfillment. And it does not mean I don’t make mistakes – I make plenty. It just means I have found a better path to take towards achieving what I want in life.

 

So how do I achieve all of this? Simple, form the moment I wake up to the moment I retire, I reiterate my focus and goals. I recite to myself the important things throughout the day. I pay careful attention to my state of mind and physical posture. If I feel my posture slouching and my thoughts drifting negatively, I correct it immediately. And beyond that, I proactively keep myself in an uplifted and confident state. This takes practice, but over time it will become a habit. It is amazing the change that happens in life just by focusing on your state.

 

This does not mean by doing this you’ll become a multi-millionaire celebrity. It does mean that you will have control over your life and the direction it goes, and your happiness and fulfillment will be dictated not by your environment, but by your state of mind.

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