Burning Bridges

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Burning Bridges

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These are some notes and ideas from the books of Napoleon Hill.

Burn Your Ships

Napoleon Hill spends a lot of time explaining this in his book “Think and Grow Rich.”  When a man has a goal and a plan in his mind, and he sets himself up in pursuit of this goal and blocks all his paths to retreat to the point where he must succeed or fail, this calls upon all resources of creativity, persistence, and efficiency to win.  It is the winning mentality.  Winners set themselves up in a win-lose situation to the point where their hand is forced to win.  

Decide Quickly

This is somewhat related to “Burn your ships.”  Deciding quickly and moving forward contains the secret.  This is because the decision is not as important as movement and action.  We can usually follow a bad decision with a better decision - and that is the point.  Decide quickly, move, and make adjustments when needed.  But, movement and action are necessary - and necessary as soon as possible.  

Making the “right” decision is not the correct approach!

Root of Fear

Hill’s point is that Fear has a root, and to get rid of fear, one must strike at the root of Fear.  Indecision produces Doubt.  Doubt produces Fear.  Thus: Indecision -> Doubt -> Fear.  Strike out indecision, and Fear goes away.  

Think about this the next time you are feeling even a little bit of fear.  Ask yourself, “What have I not decided that is producing this Fear response?”  Identify the Indecisiveness, make a decision, and the Fear will vanish.  Sometimes we are unaware of the things that are producing fear.  With this formula, you may backtrack to identify where you are being indecisive.  It is a simple procedure.

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Stay tuned for the next essay discussing Napoleon Hill’s “The Mystery of Sex Transmutation” chapter from the same book.

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Freddy Martini  

Random Notes 20150321

Random Notes 20150321

Friday, March 20, 2015

Body-Mind

Life coaches such as Tony Robbins have posited that the Mind and Body are closely linked.  To change your mental state, begin moving your body differently.  When you speak over the phone, the other person will hear and sense on a subconscious level your facial expressions and your body movement even though they cannot see you - you cannot fake this.

If you are depressed, you body is turning inward and drooping.  Change your body and you can snap out of it (assuming no underlying medical condition).  

To get in Peak State every morning I do a variation from the following menu:

• Shadow box each fist until the count total gets to 20
• Resistance tubes 5 times on bicep, forearm and squat
• Do 80 jumping jacks
• Push fists upward, then pull into chest violently and shout “Yah!!”
• Make a foot fist with each foot alternating with each step and count to 20 then stop.
• 20 sets of Breath Walking (look it up on youTube)
• 5 very deep breaths imagining that water is pouring over you and in and out your lungs.

In summary, the body and mind are linked tightly.  Change your movement and you can change your emotional and spiritual state.

Napoleon Hill

Hill claims that the secret to wealth will reveal itself only when one is ready for it.  This is true for many things.  The clarity of seeing large areas of the Earth from a plane comes from being high above the ground.  In the same manner, age brings us, in a way, to a higher view of things that we did not see when younger.  I recall at the age of 16 when my brain suddenly expanded to the point where I understood things at an astonishing rate that I had not gotten before.  The same experience happened when I began the practice of focused meditation around the age of 32.  Now, at the age of 40, I am more “ready” for some ideas that five years ago I would have considered absurd or silly.  What are some of these things?  

• Peak State is not a luxury, but a necessary practice to get exponentially better results.  Being in Peak State is a hell of a lot of work, but well worth it.
• Spirituality is necessary for higher quality strategic thinking.
• Drama is Truth for some people - for these people scientific reductionism has no meaning at all.  And, they are correct in more ways than one.
• Decisions are made on an emotional level.  We merely use logic to justify what we have already decided to “get the story straight.”
• All human endeavors involve Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit.  We can also say, in other words, Material, Mental, Emotional, and Meaningful.  Neglect of any of these will lead to the destruction and poverty of the souls participating.

East versus West

After years of studying philosophy, history, theology, the split between the East and the West comes down to Plato versus Aristotle.  Plato’s world is that of an imperfect physical world as an opaque reflection of the perfect realm of Ideas, or heaven; Christianity is Augustine’s “City of God.”  Aristotle’s world is that of Four Causes: Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final causes.  The Protestant and Catholic West is Aristotelian, interpreted through Thomas Aquinas.  The Eastern Orthodox is Platonic, as interpreted through the Fathers.  The West takes argumentation very seriously.  The East takes the City of God concept very seriously.   

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Freddy Martini