Your Best You

Off Topic
41

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
Awesome posts from Cortes! Have you read Mastery by Robert Greene, by any chance?

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:
I make a genuine effort to stay in touch with good friends, family, and people who have positively affected my life.
[/quote]

This is a great one!

Capt, as far as apologizing/submitting/etc goes… Here’s how I think of it:

All of our actions are done because we want a desired outcome. If a particular outcome is desired, you have to think of the actions that are going to get you there. In Cortes’ customs agent situation, his actions led to him enjoying his honeymoon with his wife. Had be been stubborn, his actions would have landed them back on a plane for another days’ worth of traveling.

So your pride may be “hurt” by “submitting” to the customs agent, but then again, I know for a fact that my pride would be way worse off if I had to explain to my family and friends that my wife and I couldn’t enjoy our honeymoon because I lost my shit at the airport. [/quote]

Absolutely, I was slightly confused as to the context of use for this technique.

In the wife/customs situation. I definitely would have done anything to ameliorate the situation. Even apologize.

42

Sometimes its a matter of whether you want to be right or do you want to be happy?

43

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:

I’m never late. Ever. Lateness is lazy and disrespectful to friends and professional colleagues.

[/quote]

I get the feeling you’ve never spent a lot of time in the Deep South.

44

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:

I’m never late. Ever. Lateness is lazy and disrespectful to friends and professional colleagues.

[/quote]

I get the feeling you’ve never spent a lot of time in the Deep South.
[/quote]

Off topic, but that sounds like a hilariously witty euphemism for Hell.

45

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
Awesome posts from Cortes! Have you read Mastery by Robert Greene, by any chance?

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:
I make a genuine effort to stay in touch with good friends, family, and people who have positively affected my life.
[/quote]

This is a great one!

Capt, as far as apologizing/submitting/etc goes… Here’s how I think of it:

All of our actions are done because we want a desired outcome. If a particular outcome is desired, you have to think of the actions that are going to get you there. In Cortes’ customs agent situation, his actions led to him enjoying his honeymoon with his wife. Had be been stubborn, his actions would have landed them back on a plane for another days’ worth of traveling.

So your pride may be “hurt” by “submitting” to the customs agent, but then again, I know for a fact that my pride would be way worse off if I had to explain to my family and friends that my wife and I couldn’t enjoy our honeymoon because I lost my shit at the airport. [/quote]

100% correct. And this applies to any situation you can imagine, big or small.

Again, it is not about submitting. That Customs agent acted exactly as she always acted. The outcome of the sitation was determined by my actions. I was the one in control.

46

[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Sometimes its a matter of whether you want to be right or do you want to be happy?
[/quote]

Perfect explanation. It really is this simple, yet so many people live their entire lives without ever grasping it.

Oh, and lest anyone think I’m bragging, I do NOT always get this right. But just keeping it in mind forces us to keep others’ feelings and needs in mind, too. Which, finally, connects directly to my first post in this thread.

I’ll quote Zig Ziglar’s version of the same advice this time: You can have anything in life you want, if you just help enough other people get what they want.

47

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
Awesome posts from Cortes! Have you read Mastery by Robert Greene, by any chance?

[/quote]

I have not read it, and it looks very interesting, rrjc. It is getting added to my short list.

Thanks for the suggestion!

48

I think in the case of the customs agents there is an element of submission. They’re bullies. Some bullies you don’t fight because you can’t win. Manipulation is the best avenue to take with them…but I think it IS topping from the bottom.

Generally speaking, though, I see what Cortes recommends as being neither submissive nor dominating. Defensiveness is not strength. Humility is not weakness. Unwillingness to apologize is usually rooted in defensiveness - it’s often weak and fearful, in my opinion. I see someone willing to share credit and blame as being strong and confident; they don’t need to clap their hands over their ears to shut out the other person.

My best me is going out for a run right now. In addition to doing nice things to my body, it’s a good time to think.

49

Another bit of advice that many of the readers of this site who have managed to transform their bodies or lives will probably already know, intuitively, at least:

All lasting change starts at the finish.

Meaning: You need to know exactly what it is you want, down to the tiniest detail, before you can expect to have it. This is particularly true when attempting to circumvent our lumbering, evolutionarily programmed animal instincts and inclinations. So, for example, if you are obese, but you want to get down to single digit body fat, you MUST program your MIND to believe that you no longer look, feel, walk, move, talk, eat, drink, act, or think like an obese person, but like a healthy, good looking, confident, strong, organized, motivated, lean, driven bad-ass; with single-digit body fat being the necessary and inescapable result of being that person in the first place.

Every single failed endeavor fails due to faulty planning. Every one.

Want to be lean? You need to stop seeing yourself as a fat-ass. Will-power is dictated by self-talk and self-image. Strangely, once you start planning what you will look like, how you will get there, what you will feel like, what benefits you will enjoy from all of the positive changes you’ve made, and deeply, viscerally imagining this often enough that you override your present “fat-ass” programming, something magical occurs. Suddenly, the need for “will-power” all but disappears. As the programming you’ve done before hand takes over, you stop desiring what is detrimental to your goals, and start desiring, spontaneously and unconsciously, that which leads you to become that person.

Want to move up in your company? Same formula.

Want to get rich? Same formula.

Want to learn a new set of skills? Same formula.

So many of our endeavors end up failing not because we were too weak to stick with them, but because we simply did not have a clear, detailed, picture of the final result in our mind. We program ourselves to be exactly what we always have been, and then throw our hands up in the air when we get the same result we’ve always gotten.

So the next time you make a goal for yourself, before you ever start, remember:

All lasting change starts at the finish.

Oh. And if you can’t be bothered to form your goals on paper in as much detail as you have spent forming them in your mind, you probably don’t really want the thing that badly. You must, must write your goals down.

50

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:

I’m never late. Ever. Lateness is lazy and disrespectful to friends and professional colleagues.

[/quote]

I get the feeling you’ve never spent a lot of time in the Deep South.
[/quote]

I actually have, what states are you referring to?

51

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Another bit of advice that many of the readers of this site who have managed to transform their bodies or lives will probably already know, intuitively, at least:

All lasting change starts at the finish.

Meaning: You need to know exactly what it is you want, down to the tiniest detail, before you can expect to have it. This is particularly true when attempting to circumvent our lumbering, evolutionarily programmed animal instincts and inclinations. So, for example, if you are obese, but you want to get down to single digit body fat, you MUST program your MIND to believe that you no longer look, feel, walk, move, talk, eat, drink, act, or think like an obese person, but like a healthy, good looking, confident, strong, organized, motivated, lean, driven bad-ass; with single-digit body fat being the necessary and inescapable result of being that person in the first place.

Every single failed endeavor fails due to faulty planning. Every one.

Want to be lean? You need to stop seeing yourself as a fat-ass. Will-power is dictated by self-talk and self-image. Strangely, once you start planning what you will look like, how you will get there, what you will feel like, what benefits you will enjoy from all of the positive changes you’ve made, and deeply, viscerally imagining this often enough that you override your present “fat-ass” programming, something magical occurs. Suddenly, the need for “will-power” all but disappears. As the programming you’ve done before hand takes over, you stop desiring what is detrimental to your goals, and start desiring, spontaneously and unconsciously, that which leads you to become that person.

Want to move up in your company? Same formula.

Want to get rich? Same formula.

Want to learn a new set of skills? Same formula.

So many of our endeavors end up failing not because we were too weak to stick with them, but because we simply did not have a clear, detailed, picture of the final result in our mind. We program ourselves to be exactly what we always have been, and then throw our hands up in the air when we get the same result we’ve always gotten.

So the next time you make a goal for yourself, before you ever start, remember:

All lasting change starts at the finish.

Oh. And if you can’t be bothered to form your goals on paper in as much detail as you have spent forming them in your mind, you probably don’t really want the thing that badly. You must, must write your goals down.

[/quote]

I think we read a lot of the same types of books…have any suggestions?

53

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Another bit of advice that many of the readers of this site who have managed to transform their bodies or lives will probably already know, intuitively, at least:

All lasting change starts at the finish.

Meaning: You need to know exactly what it is you want, down to the tiniest detail, before you can expect to have it. This is particularly true when attempting to circumvent our lumbering, evolutionarily programmed animal instincts and inclinations. So, for example, if you are obese, but you want to get down to single digit body fat, you MUST program your MIND to believe that you no longer look, feel, walk, move, talk, eat, drink, act, or think like an obese person, but like a healthy, good looking, confident, strong, organized, motivated, lean, driven bad-ass; with single-digit body fat being the necessary and inescapable result of being that person in the first place.

Every single failed endeavor fails due to faulty planning. Every one.

Want to be lean? You need to stop seeing yourself as a fat-ass. Will-power is dictated by self-talk and self-image. Strangely, once you start planning what you will look like, how you will get there, what you will feel like, what benefits you will enjoy from all of the positive changes you’ve made, and deeply, viscerally imagining this often enough that you override your present “fat-ass” programming, something magical occurs. Suddenly, the need for “will-power” all but disappears. As the programming you’ve done before hand takes over, you stop desiring what is detrimental to your goals, and start desiring, spontaneously and unconsciously, that which leads you to become that person.

Want to move up in your company? Same formula.

Want to get rich? Same formula.

Want to learn a new set of skills? Same formula.

So many of our endeavors end up failing not because we were too weak to stick with them, but because we simply did not have a clear, detailed, picture of the final result in our mind. We program ourselves to be exactly what we always have been, and then throw our hands up in the air when we get the same result we’ve always gotten.

So the next time you make a goal for yourself, before you ever start, remember:

All lasting change starts at the finish.

Oh. And if you can’t be bothered to form your goals on paper in as much detail as you have spent forming them in your mind, you probably don’t really want the thing that badly. You must, must write your goals down.

[/quote]

I think we read a lot of the same types of books…have any suggestions?[/quote]

It depends upon your needs. I’m at Operating Thetan Level 3, performing Solo Audits upon myself in order to rid myself of effects of drugs taken in past lives. You?

(^_~)

Seriously, though, I wouldn’t know where to start without know where you’re at or what you’re looking for. What is your area of interest?

54

[quote]Chushin wrote:

Can you elaborate on the concrete steps to achieve reprogramming?

I have my own primitive and cumbersome way, and am looking for other methods.

BTW, thanks for reminding me about the importance of this stuff.[/quote]

My pleasure, Chushin!

Well, at its core, since everything we have and are today is the result of our programming, and since our programming is just the thoughts we think about ourselves and our environment every single day (that’s right, that means your past has no power over you that you don’t allow), Then it stands to reason that if we intend to achieve different results from what we have and are today, then we will need to think different thoughts about ourselves and our environment every single day.

I know you know this, but in case I’m not being clear, What I’m saying is our conscious thoughts about ourselves are messages to our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind has no capacity for judgment, right or wrong, good or bad. It’s just like a computer in that manner. What’s important to understand, though, is that the subconscious mind acts upon pictures and emotions, more than it does anything else. It also responds to verbal commands, but only positive ones. It does not understand the negative, only that which exists, so if you say, “I don’t want to be fat, I don’t be fat, I don’t want to be fat,” What are you doing is focusing on FAT, and that’s the result you’re going to end up with, because that’s the only thing that’s the only data it was given.

Data is the key. In this case, data means details, imagined as vividly as possible, using as many of the five sense as is possible. So, Let’s say I have a bodybuilding show three months from now. What I would do is I would take time out of every day to rest with my eyes closed and vividly, emotionally imagine walking onstage at 195lbs and 4% body fat. I Would feel the heat of the stage lights, I would feel the hardwood floor beneath my feet I would look at the crowd and see my section cheering for me here that I would hear the whole crowd yelling for me because I was the stage favorite, I would even feel the tightness of my dick and balls in my homoerotic bodybuilder briefs, and the plastic tag, smeared with Golden Tan, pinned on the side of them, the feel of the metal of the safety pin from the tag against my skin. I would look down and see my abs. with the little bumps in the muscle that are only visible at an extremely low BF, the vein running down my abdomen, striations in my glutes. Are you getting me.

The key is vivid, emotional imagination, and you just can’t get enough of it. The more of it you do the better effect you will get. Meditation or meditation techniques work great as a vehicle for these suggestions, because meditation techniques are often identical to hypnotism. Before my bodybuilding shows, I would use my tanning time as my meditation downtime. First I would pray the rosary, and then after I finished, I would imagine myself getting leaner in leaner and going through the scenarios like I related before. I would imagine the fat melting away from my body, and the skin sucking to the muscle, becoming as thin as onionskin, and veins bulging out from everywhere, and the muscles growing underneath pulsating, every striation and separation visible.

I even had a scenario where I would imagine myself growing bigger and bigger until I was as big as Godzilla, then bigger, and I was absorbing power from people I admired past and present, their knowledge and strength and abilities and attributes, and then sucking in more power, from the sun and planets and the stars in the universe, and all that flowing into me as I grew huger and larger ever leaner like some sort of mutant superhero behemoth Juggernaut God being. It was pretty motivating, to say the least.

Anyway before this gets any longer, I’ll just say that it’s very important to keep your brain focused on what you want all the time, and OFF what you don’t. It’s also very important to take special time out from your day each day. Quiet, alone, and planned. And to use this special time-out to both write down your goals, and to imagine them.

55

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
What do yo do to be the best version of yourself?
[/quote]

Incessant rapid manic masturbation.

56

This tread would not be approved by Machiavelli.

57

[quote]Edgy wrote:
This tread would not be approved by Machiavelli.[/quote]

I hear Machiavelli was a sucker for those Life Fitness treadmills.

58

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:

I’m never late. Ever. Lateness is lazy and disrespectful to friends and professional colleagues.

[/quote]

I get the feeling you’ve never spent a lot of time in the Deep South.
[/quote]

I actually have, what states are you referring to?
[/quote]

I just remember when I lived in Northern Louisiana it seemed like there would be quite a few people late for just about everything and no one got offended or anything. It was just a slower pace. Just the combination of small town and being in the South.

59

[quote]Big Kahuna wrote:

[quote]Edgy wrote:
This tread would not be approved by Machiavelli.[/quote]

I hear Machiavelli was a sucker for those Life Fitness treadmills.[/quote]

he does sound like one of those crossfit/paleo diet types, now that you mention it~