All of us have seen people who are under-motivated, but can someone be over-motivated?
All throughout the latter chapters of Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maltz refers to the dangers, not only of being overly-inhibited in word and deed, but also the pitfalls of being overly-hyped.
Yes, enthusiasm, motivation, inspiration and desire are essential qualities on a successful journey, but too much of any single quality can become a weakness. You can be so motivated to accomplish a goal that you push yourself out of contention. You have trouble relaxing and being natural because you want it sooooo bad.
There’s a fine line between having sufficient enthusiasm to accomplish an objective, and so much that you over-shoot the target.
Here are a few visuals of over-motivation:
1. Picture someone throwing wild haymakers in a fight instead of using short, quick and powerful jabs, hooks and uppercuts. As the fighter rears back with his best John Wayne impression, he gets popped several times.
2. A pitcher in softball or baseball is so determined to throw strikes that he or she cannot find the plate. Even worse, the ball sails over the catcher’s head, all the way to the backstop.
3. In a job interview, the applicant wants to be hired so badly that there is zero calmness under pressure. All the wrong answers are given for simple questions that you could easily handle if you were relaxed and at ease.
Back in my early years of business, the same client, Jack, who recommended Psycho-Cybernetics to me, told me he thought I was over-motivated. Even though I had read the book a couple times by then, I had no recall of the term “over-motivation.” The same is true of almost everyone I meet today and begin coaching.
Where is the fine line that separates having enough motivation and having too much?
That’s something you’ll discover over time, as you zig-zag your way through life. When you succeed, chances are you weren’t over-motivated. When you fail, you may have been lacking in desire. Then again, you might have had too much.
Keep in mind that a burning candle remains lit without you checking on it 24 hours a day. And so it is with a burning desire.
Check in once or twice per day to make sure your inner candle flame is still going. If it is still going, leave it alone.
Most candles don’t last a month. Most need to be replaced within a day. And so it is with your body, mind and soul. They need to be reignited on a daily basis.
When a candle is finished burning, start a new one. This is the same as practicing Theatre of the Mind. You learn to navigate, listen and feel when the light is going out, when the candle needs to be replaced. When it does, get it going. But don’t sit and watch the rest of the day to make sure it stays lit. Once the flame is going, trust the process and move through your day with the Zero Resistance Living mindset.
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
P.S. Interested in being coached by me? Then go here
Being Natural
One afternoon, many years ago, I was watching a documentary about a world famous preacher, and how he was being schooled in the art of public speaking, or what some might call, “giving a sermon.”
After numerous failed attempts to speak effectively, the teacher asked the preacher, “Do you know what you’re doing wrong?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I’m not being natural.”
“Correct,” said the teacher.
And so it goes with virtually anything we want to learn. We can get instruction from someone in order to maximize our abilities, but that instruction serves us best only when it helps us rediscover a sense of natural-ese.
We were most natural when we were infants. At that time we breathed from our lower bellies without instruction. We also moved with a spirit of relaxation. We smiled and laughed frequently. And we quickly let go of our mistakes.
Then we got educated and life became several scoops and helpings of unnecessary tension.
Getting back to being natural is what you accomplish with Psycho-Cybernetics and the Theatre of the Mind process. You stop fighting yourself and allow yourself to grow back into who you were when you were at your best. And that WHO was the person who was being natural.
It’s the you who knowingly or unknowingly, pictured what was wanted and went after it with gusto.
Rewind your mind. Become natural again.
Matt Furey
P.S. Interested in being part of my Mind Power Monthly Coaching this year. If so, drop me an email and tell me more.
New Year’s Resolutions are for Losers
It’s that time again. It’s New Year’s Resolution Time.
Or is it?
You might be interested in what my resolutions are for the new year.
Would you be disappointed if I told you I have ZERO?
That’s correct. I don’t have a top seven list, or a top five. I don’t even have ONE.
Bluntly, I don’t believe in setting New Year’s Resolutions. What I believe in is the power of setting daily goals, most of which employ something I call the Law of Practice (LOP), which just may be the most important Law of them all.
Huh?
Isn’t the Law of Attraction (LOA) most important?
Well, you might think it is, but the LOA has almost no positive value unless you utilize the LOP.
Let me explain it to you this way:
Two people, let’s call them Rick and Rain, come to me to learn how to visualize. Both of them think they cannot visualize, that they don’t have the ability. I teach them how to get started. I start with the simplest of steps that only take five minutes of practice per day.
Rick practices the exercises the day I teach them to him. He remarks that visualization is far easier than he thought. On the days in between our next meeting, though, he doesn’t practice at all.
Rain, on the other hand, struggles during the first lesson. She doesn’t appear to make any progress, but this makes her even more determined to succeed. She follows my suggestions to the letter, practicing for a minimum of five minutes per day.
A month after our first session, Rick, is just as good as he was on day one. Rain, however, is doing great in comparison. The practice is still tough for her compared to Rick, but she is totally committed.
After three months, Rick, who only practices on the days that I meet with him, is still just as good as he was on day one. Rain, however, who practices daily, without fail, is now ahead of Rick.
A year after Rick and Rain started, Rick is the same as he was on day one. This upsets him so he buys yet another program on LOA.
Meanwhile Rain is crushing it. She can now visualize herself doing, being and having, and what she pictures comes to fruition. Her five minutes of practice per day turned into two sessions of five minutes each day. After a few months, she naturally wanted to practice more, and the twice-per-day sessions turned into 15 minutes each. Things she couldn’t see herself doing before are now a reality. Her biggest realization was that the Law of Practice works for the acquiring of any skill as well as the achievement of any objective.
It’s not having the big goal that matters as much as having the willingness to practice each and every day.
Show me someone with a big goal who doesn’t practice and I’ll show you a failure. Show me someone with a daily goal, who practices regularly, and I’ll show you someone who tramples on those who set big goals – or those who craft a list of New Year’s Resolutions.
Here endeth the lesson.
Matt Furey
P.S. If you’re looking for coaching from me in 2021, NOW is the time to drop me an email and let me hear what you have in mind.
P.P.S. Want to know how to crank out an email such as this, and do so in 10 minutes or less, then visit knockoutmarketing.com
When You’ve Got that Winning Feeling
I’m betting you’ve heard it said (and read), that belief is the key to living a successful life.
Supposedly, we have “limiting beliefs,” and they are holding us back.
Oh my, so many people think, what to do to change them?
Many people proceed to go on a rampage to get rid of or upgrade the limits in their lives. They write out various statements to change their old beliefs into new and empowering ones.
This approach misses the obvious. And the obvious is that beliefs are naturally upgraded, without effort, when you have that winning feeling, otherwise known as FAITH.
Below are a few lines that came to me recently:
Belief is skin deep; faith penetrates beyond the marrow of your bones.
Belief is easily shaken; faith conveys complete conviction.
Belief says I can do this; faith says I WILL do it.
Belief has a dimmer switch; faith shines eternal.
When you have faith, you don’t need to think a whole lot about what you believe.
With “that winning feeling” deep within your bones, you realize you have the Creator’s assistance, and the impossible is now the doable.
Matt Furey
Coach Gable Gets Medal of Freedom
An epic moment, it was.
Yesterday, President Trump became the only person in history to “pin” legendary wrestler, Dan Gable. And he accomplished the task without a struggle.
Gable, the 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist at 149.5 pounds, who won all six bouts without surrendering a single point, stood ramrod still in an emotional moment, as the President of the United States fastened The Medal of Freedom around Gable’s neck, then centered it on his chest.
It was a proud moment for Gable, for his family, and for all wrestlers who were coached by him (myself included). It was also a grand moment for anyone who has ever wrestled because Gable is the ONLY grappler to ever win the medal.
Over the years, I’ve written much about Dan Gable and the influence he had upon me. His influence began in my early teens and follows me to this day.
In high school, I read a biography, The Legend of Dan Gable – the Wrestler, by Russ L. Smith, over and over again. I followed the teachings that were spelled out in the book, as well as what intuitively came to me “through the lines.” I made up my mind that I was going to go to University of Iowa and wrestle for Gable. He was going to be my coach.
At the time I made this commitment, I was a lousy high school wrestler. Yet, each time I read the book, I improved dramatically.
Part way through my senior year in high school, after suffering a semifinal loss in a tournament I had won the year previous, I was emotionally devastated. My record was 8-4 afterward, which in most peoples’ minds, would have completely disqualified me from achieving any of my goals.
On the Monday morning after the tournament, I went to the school library and checked out the Gable biography again. Funny thing is I was the only wrestler at my school who read it, which I could clearly see on the card you signed in order to check it out.
I devoured the bio once again, eager to glean the wisdom I must have missed in previous readings. As I read, I felt something was telling me that “this reading” was going to be pivotal.
When I finished, I had my answer. Instead of three workouts per day, two of which were conditioning, I needed to be “on the mat” three times a day. I needed to practice my takedowns, throws, escapes and pinning holds until I could do them in my sleep. Yes, I still needed conditioning, but that would come AFTER practicing my techniques. They were primary.
For the last six weeks of the season, my brother, Tim, accompanied me to the local recreation center before school each morning, where I would drill and drill and drill. Immediately after school I would go to the team wrestling practice, and then around 7 PM, after having a couple steaks, I would go to the recreation center again to practice and drill the moves I wanted to master.
These moves were nothing new. They were the same moves I learned when I began in the sport at age eight. But when I committed to three workouts per day on the mat, I discovered something more within each of them. Day after day, each move became easier to execute. It became effortless. And details upon details upon details revealed themselves to me.
As a result of putting in three workouts each day “on the mat,” I won 15-straight matches, most of them by lopsided margins. As I cover in The Unbeatable Man, I qualified for the state tournament. In the quarterfinals, I got Gable’s attention when I squared off against a blue-chip recruit that he was in the audience to watch. The result of that match catapulted me from a lowly high school wrestling program to a bonafide member of the national champion University of Iowa wrestling team.
For years I swore to audiences that “three workouts per day, on the mat,” were the exact words I read in Gable’s biography.
A few weeks before Coach Gable spoke at one of my seminars, I ordered a copy of the biography so I could find the exact quote and tell him how much it helped me. I combed the book several times and could NOT find it.
The night before Gable spoke, we got together to discuss details of the seminar. I had the book with me and asked him to sign it. He did, but not before asking how much I paid for it. When I told him the price, he cringed, but didn’t say a word. The next day, in his speech, Gable brought the price tag for the book up as evidence that his work is not yet done yet.
As Gable spoke yesterday before receiving the Medal of Freedom, you could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that his work is not done yet.
Congratulations, Coach Gable.
You’re the BEST.
Matt Furey
Perfectionism and Procrastination
“Perfectionism and procrastination
are evil twins, giving you a million
excuses why nothing is ever good
enough…
YET.”
– Matt Furey
The Miracle of Momentum
Successful living requires that you get positive momentum going in your favor.
There is positive momentum – and there is negative momentum. And oddly enough, this momentum is usually unleashed in either direction by the “small stuff” you do or don’t do at the beginning and end of each day.
Which way you are going in life can be detected by answers to simple questions, such as: What’s the first thing you do after getting out of bed in the morning?
If your answer is that you get something to eat, check your phone or computer to see who texted, called, tweeted, emailed or “posted,” a golden opportunity to create positive momentum was overlooked.
Show me a person who has positive momentum, a person who is lit up, and I’ll show you someone who starts his or her day with activities such as visualization, prayer, meditation, reading, journaling and so on. I’ll show you a person who reviews his goals and/or the systems to be followed.
Reviewing your goals/systems is huge.
What you fail to review,
you fail to remember.
What you fail to remember,
you fail to achieve.
Why? Because memory, imagination and action are closely linked.
Every time you review a goal you are imagining it, you are visualizing it. This leads to you acting upon it. When you combine deliberate and intentional imagination with action, you are creating a result.
When you avoid the deliberate and intentional use of your imagination, you are visualizing by default. This means you are unconsciously imagining and visualizing what other people and/or forces, put in your mind.
Every act is preceded by the conscious or unconscious use of your imagination. You might think you “just do it” – but no one “just does” anything. We form a mental image of what we are going to do, and then we do it. You can pretend that your situation is different, but keep in mind that even a robot is programmed to do what it does.
Here endeth the lesson.
Matt Furey
P.S. Interested in the momentum-generating process I teach to members of my Mind Power Monthly Coaching? Send me an email if this is of interest to you.
Overwhelmed?
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with the setting of goals in EVERY area of your life, you’re not alone. Here’s a message I received yesterday:
Matt,
I, too, want to thank you for the email regarding massive action. That has been my downfall, all the talk about taking massive action. It led to me doing nothing due to overwhelm. Your email made me wake up peacefully this morning for the first time in a very long time. I set some small goals which I know I can do. Everything I’ve tried the last few years I have failed at due to the “massive action” talk.
Best,
Suzana
Suzana, I’m happy to see you rising peacefully again. Becoming successful is so much easier than the goo-roos make it out to be. Simplification is one of the biggest factors that leads to the results you want. With an easier, small-steps approach, you’ll be moving along for a good year or so, and then when you look back at how far you’ve traveled, it will appear to others as massive action, but yet, it isn’t. It was consistent, daily “get ‘er done” goals.
For more information on the process I teach, consider becoming a member of my Mind Power Monthly Coaching. I have three different levels of engagement, making it affordable for most, as well as giving you a goal to move up the ladder for even more instruction.
Send me an email if this is of interest to you.
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
So Much B.S. – So Little Time
Earlier today I received a message from Tom, who thanked me for my previous email, Exposing the Massive Action Myth.
Tom relayed how he bought everything in regard to changing your self-image. He bought every book, every audio program, every everything he could locate.
He set upon a course of MASSIVE ACTION and guess what happened? He overloaded his nervous system and ended up doing NOTHING for a couple months. Unintentionally, Tom became the proverbial rabbit in the tortoise and hare story.
If Tom would have known that the myth of massive action would run him into the ground, he would have chosen a different course of action. And now that he DOES get it, he is beginning again, this time, though, with a systemized approach of taking one step at a time so that you can be on your journey for your entire life instead of only for a couple weeks.
Previously, I covered the analogy of the 1,000-mile journey. If you walk as far as you can each day (massive action) and I walk five miles a day, at first glance it may appear that you will arrive first, but the reality is that you’ll do exactly what Tom did. You’ll push too hard, too soon, and you’ll be forced to rest because your nervous system is fried from the effort, and it is forcing you to shut down.
Meanwhile, I appear to be lazy. My goal is ONLY five miles per day.
Yes, I can go beyond five miles when I’m in a state of momentum, but I don’t have to. It’s up to me.
Everyday I begin again with the same old boring five-mile goal – and as a result, I kick butt.
In the end, my five-miles per day system removes the resistance from the equation, and I crush the massive action model, exposing it to be a myth, sham and outright lie.
Keep in mind, you only get one breath at a time. Even if you want to take five breaths at once, you cannot. This is all the proof you need that hurrying and scurrying cannot be the key to success.
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
P.S. I’m meeting with a client in a half-hour. He’s been with me for more than 15 years. He can do the unthinkable, so it seems. But I will stump him today. When he leaves he will want to take massive action to get better FAST – but, thank goodness, he is aware of this tendency and will over-ride it. Why? Because every time he’s taken massive action, it backfired. Now he eliminates the angst and the resistance and the feelings of overwhelm by doing what I teach.
Start small and you can have it all.
Start too big and you stumble on every twig.
Recommended resources:
Psycho-Cybernetics – Updated and Expanded
Zero Resistance Living – for advanced players only
Theatre of the Mind – for those who love my stories and enjoy the sound of my voice
The “Don’t Bet Against Me” Mindset
Let’s mentally pretend that the people of a certain town have a success rate of 99 percent whenever they face adversity of any kind.
These people conquer anything and everything that comes their way. They beat invading marauders, they overcome adverse weather conditions and they cure themselves of diseases.
But these facts are never reported to outsiders. All the outside world ever hears about these people is their failures.
Gradually, the thinking from the outside world reaches this town. Most in the area shake their heads and wonder what the outsiders are talking about.
But a few people within the town begin to lament the one percent failure rate, completing blocking out any mental imagery of the 99 percent success rate. They spread doom and gloom everywhere they go, and oddly enough, they attract many followers. Within a short period of time, the town with the 99 percent success rate begins to lose more and more often. And as the people begin to lose, more and more focus is placed upon the losses, and their success rate drops to one percent.
My friend, the above is what many people do to themselves on a daily basis. They block out and ignore their successes and focus solely on their mistakes and failures. And then they can’t figure out why they are in a slump, why things are never turning up rosy.
A basic key to acquiring mind power is realizing that you get more of what you focus on.
When you focus on your successful experiences, you get more of them. When you focus on your losses, you lose more often.
The good news is that no matter how far a person sinks, he or she can begin to rise again by recalling courageous, confident, victorious moments.
Instead of betting against yourself, you take on the mindset of the person who says, “Don’t bet against me.”
Or even better, be the person who when doubted by others, looks them in the eyes and says, “Oh yeah? Watch me!”
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
P.S. If you already own a copy of the classic, Psycho-Cybernetics, then look into upgrading your skills with the advanced courses, Zero Resistance Living and Theatre of the Mind. You’ll be ecstatic when you are holding these courses in your hands.
