“A goal you can accomplish and repeat on a daily basis, with such great consistency that you rarely, if ever, miss, is a goal that can move mountains, carve tunnels or build bridges to a brighter future.”
– Matt Furey
How NOT to Begin Your Day
Earlier today I was a coaching a young man who is having a banner year. In spite of all the shutdowns, lockdowns and quarantines, he’s crushing it.
We went over his daily routine, starting with the first thing he does when his feet hit the floor. And whaddya know, he doesn’t instantly check his dumb phone to see who texted or emailed. He doesn’t look at Twitter, FB or Insta.
Instead he begins with Theatre of the Mind. Then he does the Dao Zou workout he learned from me.
In the past, this man used to push himself to fatigue and failure. Now he pushes himself – but never too much. Instead he stops when he’s still within his comfort zone – and once he finds his comfort zone, the CZ expands spontaneously, without effort.
It’s not about push, push, push… harder, harder, harder.
Reminds me of someone who went from straight F’s to straight A’s. This wasn’t accomplished by telling him to “get out of your comfort zone.” It happened because we helped the young man become comfortable, so comfortable that he WANTED to LEARN.
I realize there are a lot of people preaching this “get out of your comfort zone” mentality. The truth is they only give you part of the story. No one puts himself or herself into an uncomfortable situation unless and until the person is comfortable.. INTERNALLY.
Remember how a few years ago, the ice bucket challenge became a thing? Get a 5-gallon bucket, fill it with ice water and have someone filming you as you dump it over your head.
It’s a simple task. Once the bucket is filled, all you have to do is lift it over your head and turn it over. Only takes a couple seconds… and you’re done.
If you saw people accepting this challenge, but you declined, ask yourself why. Why didn’t you do it?
I’m willing to bet that that you refused because you were “uncomfortable” with being cold, or have a fear of getting sick from ice cold water.
The people who accepted the challenge put themselves into a situation where they were probably going to be physically uncomfortable. So why did they do it? Because they were internally comfortable with the ideas of being physically uncomfortable.
I’ve played around with cold water dousing enough to recognize what I’m saying is true. I’ve gone from barely getting my feet wet to full submersion in cold water. I’ve gone from bailing within 30 seconds to hanging out for 15 minutes, and enjoying it. The secret to hanging in there is finding the comfort zone within.
One of my favorite ways to help people change their results is the daily practice of Dao Zou. It not only helps rewind your mind, it also helps you reverse the flow of negativity in your life.
If you’re getting straight F’s, that can be reversed with a change in how you think and move. If you’re terrified of the cold, or the heat, you can reverse this thinking by reversing the way you picture things in your mind.
If you’re afraid of being broke, or you’re afraid of being prosperous, understand that both of these realities begin as ideas, as images in your mind.
The same goes with anything else. Walking is nothing more than walking until you change one tiny detail of how you walk. If it’s snowing or raining or the temperature is below freezing, maybe you’re less comfortable doing it.
Imagine, though, a way of walking that was so therapeutic that it rewound your mind and made you feel fabulous, without effort; it put you into an internal comfort zone so you could effortlessly expand into realms that were only a figment of your imagination before.
Yes, I believe there is a way of walking that changes your thinking and your life, helping you transcend circumstances.
It’s called Dao Zou. And it may be the answer you’ve been searching for without even realizing it.
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
Why Changing Your Beliefs is Unnatural
Here’s how a lot of self-development people tell you to change your beliefs.
First, you figure out what your negative self-talk is on any number of subjects. Perhaps you think you’re not good at math. Or you tell yourself you can’t write, draw or make money.
Second, you set out to change what you think of yourself. Gotta get rid of those negative beliefs.
Third, you record your negative thoughts/beliefs on paper, analyze them and figure out the opposite, which you then record as your NEW beliefs.
“I can’t play the piano” is changed to “I can play the piano.”
“I weigh 390 pounds” is changed to “I am now at my ideal weight.”
“I’m broke” is changed to “I am a millionaire.”
Tell me the truth when I ask, “How’s that working out for you?”
Chances are excellent that all the “work” you’re doing to change your beliefs isn’t bearing fruit. And there are plenty of reasons. The biggest of all is that words are not mental images.
The reason positive thinking doesn’t work is because you are only dealing with words. If your words do not match the mental images you have in your mind, positive changes will not take place.
The same goes with prayer. If you pray in a state of fear, your imagery doesn’t match your request. But if you pray in a state of confidence and faith, the power is out of this world.
Positive affirmations, for many people, are band-aids. They cover up the wound, the scar, the infection, but they do not fix anything.
The same goes for all those attempts to change your beliefs. If the image you have in your mind doesn’t shift to something much more appetizing, your beliefs will remain the same.
This is why I teach you to make no conscious effort to change your beliefs. Most of your beliefs took hold in your mind unconsciously and effortlessly, therefore, attempts to upgrade them should also be effortless and spontaneous, not forced or rehearsed.
This is where Dao Zou comes in. This program is designed to be used without effort or will power. This means it puts you into a “feel good” state without “trying.” And it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe this feel good state will happen. It just does.
Effortless effort is the idea you want to allow into your mind. Stop trying so hard to make changes in your life. Start with small stuff and build momentum; build a sense of flow. Once you have momentum, anything becomes not only possible, but doable.
Feeling good is much easier to accomplish when you engage your physical body along with your mind. The practice of Dao Zou grabs hold of your brain and nervous system and reorganizes your emotions to be much more positive and productive, naturally, without pressure or angst.
Dao Zou accelerates the practices of Psycho-Cybernetics and Theatre of the Mind substantially. That’s why I recommend it to you so often.
See it. Feel it. Become it.
Matt Furey
The Biggest Self-Help Lies
One of the four biggest lies of the self-development industry is the idea that you… must get out of your comfort zone.
In stark contrast, the book, Psycho-Cybernetics, teaches you how to GET INTO the comfort zone – not out of it.
Yesterday I spoke with a man who received poor grades in school. He had a bad experience early on that made him uncomfortable, and this experience haunted him for years.
The man was a C-student as a youth, yet when you look at what he’s accomplished since then, you’ll see that he’s a different person today.
What happened that led to his shift?
Well, in short, he FOUND his comfort zone. He studied what he wanted to learn, not what was forced upon him. Also, being he was no longer surrounded by other students and teachers that reminded him of being a C-student, he was free to grow.
Years later, in his first attempt to pass a professional exam that most people fail more than once, he aced it. A-students failed while he succeeded.
Think about it this way: Whenever you attempt to study a subject while under psychological stress, you’ll find it isn’t so easy. But if the stress is turned into comfort, the speed at which you can learn is staggering.
Children naturally and easily can learn three or more languages, simultaneously, when they grow up in a comfortable environment where more than one language is spoken.
I saw this take place in our own home. When my son was only three years of age, he could hold court in the living room, going from person to person, telling a story in English, Mandarin, Shanghainese and Sichuanese (three Chinese dialects that are only called dialects because the written characters match – even though what comes out of your mouth sounds like a different language).
Our minds are sponges. We can absorb information and learn with ease, when we are comfortable. Learning is stymied or stifled when unnecessary stress is applied.
This is why every visualization/meditation technique I teach is designed to PUT YOU INTO YOUR COMFORT ZONE.
Once you get into your comfort zone, the limits on what you can accomplish are shattered.
Yes, you can deliberately push yourself into an uncomfortable situation, but ONLY if you are INTERNALLY comfortable with the idea.
That’s how it works, my friends.
Why are some people willing to pour a five-gallon bucket of ice water over their heads while others are not willing to do so?
Why do some people travel the world while others won’t leave their hometown?
Why do some people stay up late at night, working on creating a new career, while others sleep?
The answer isn’t that they’re pushing themselves OUT of their comfort zones.
The answer is that they are comfortable with the idea of doing what others refuse to do.
This is one of many reasons I tell people to practice Dao Zou, a moving visualization/meditation that eliminates all the emotional stresses of the day, puts you into your comfort zone, and allows you to create the life you wish to live.
If you visualize when you’re NOT in your comfort zone, don’t expect anything good to come from it.
On the contrary, when you visualize while INSIDE your comfort zone, big, BIG, BIIIIIG changes take place in your life – for the better.
Dao Zou puts you into the zone, the comfort zone, without even trying. Just follow my instructions and you’ll be amazed.
See it. Feel it. Do it.
Matt Furey
Fastest Way to End Overwhelm
It’s almost too simple to be believed, yet it’s true.
Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed or anxious, you are mentally picturing the wrong thing.
Most of the time, the “thing” you are picturing is yourself and the corresponding erroneous notions of not being good enough, smart enough, talented enough, and so on.
In short, you don’t believe in yourself – and you think you should.
Why?
Because that’s what everyone has told you.
“You need to believe in yourself. If you would just believe in yourself, you could do so much better.”
Today, I’m here to tell you that there’s a way out of the maze. And it’s not sitting around working on your personal beliefs.
This is a realization I arrived at one day when I watched my son and daughter accomplish feats that neither of them believed they could accomplish, beforehand. Yet, both of them did.
My son batted .506 his junior year in high school with a 24-game hitting streak. Did he believe he was going to do this ahead of time? Absolutely not.
My daughter’s involvement in ballet grew to the point where she wanted to learn pointe toe and eventually showcase her skills in The Nutcracker, even though she doesn’t have your typical ballet body.
How did the two of them accomplish these objectives if they didn’t believe they were going to?
It’s simple: They suspended their personal beliefs on the matter. They did not focus on whether or not they could or could not do it. Instead, they put their focus on the mental pictures that lead to the finish line. In short, they visualized and imagined being where they wanted to be.
I’m sure that if my son and daughter sat around thinking about their personal beliefs about their goals, they would have felt a sense of overwhelm.
Why do I say this? I say it because of all the people I have seen who are focused on themselves instead of the objective. And guess what happens to them? They get overwhelmed with negative emotions.
Their focus is on whether they are good enough, likable enough, credible enough, tall enough, fit enough, well-dressed enough, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
Meanwhile, someone who never thinks about any of the above, someone who is far less talented, good looking, etc. focuses on the objective and nails it.
Funny, eh?
Well then, what’s the way out of this mess?
It begins by reversing the erroneous notions you were taught. And the way to begin reversing them is by practicing Dao Zou – a moving meditation technique I learned over 15 years ago that I use to eliminate negative emotions of every kind.
Why do I recommend this program? I recommend it because it combines movement with visualization and deep breathing.
In short, you’re practicing what I wrote about in Theatre of the Mind, while you’re on the go. This means you’re nailing two objectives with one arrow.
One of my coaching members has been practicing Dao Zou for nearly ninety straight days, without a miss. To say his life has been transformed would be underplaying the reality of the situation.
As you move, suspend your beliefs about can or cannot, about believe or believe not. Just follow the program and you will make your own discoveries.
See it. Feel it. Live it.
Matt Furey
Psycho-Cybernetics.com
P.S. Looking for coaching on how to succeed without worrying or belly-aching over your limiting beliefs? Drop me a line and I’ll get back with you.
The Flow Zone
One of the signature practices I spoke about in Theatre of the Mind, is a meditative style of walking called Dao Zou. It puts you in “the Zone” fast.
Dao Zou means to train in reverse – to go backward. Slowly.
But it leads to a quick turnaround in how you think and feel. It helps you gain a feeling of control over your mind and your life.
Incorporated in this seemingly shamanic practice are specific breathing patterns, visualizations and arm movements. When your body, breath and mind are tied together in a seamless way, you place yourself upon a path that transcends ordinary angst, fear and worry.
On numerous occasions, while teaching Dao Zou in person, the transformation from a single session is evident upon the face (and in the eyes) of the practitioner.
I began teaching Dao Zou over 15 years ago, and I have yet to find a single person who wasn’t blown away after a single session. It’s a game changer.
If you’re looking for a psycho-physical practice that will put you in “the Zone,” a practice that will put you into a state of “flow,” on command, then Dao Zou is the way to go.
Find the bliss of the comfort zone, and allow yourself to expand naturally and spontaneously, without force.
Latch onto Dao Zou today and feel an almost instantaneous change in how you feel.
See it. Feel it. Do it. Be it.
Matt Furey
P.S. Interested in applying the power of visualization to your life in a bigger way? Then click here for more information on our coaching programs.
Give Up Fear
One early morning last month, as I was moving from dreamland to a waking state, I received an answer to a question that had been ruminating in my noggin for several days.
The answer came to me in three words.
Give up X.
In my particular case, the X was “coffee.”
Off and on, for years, I toyed with the idea of giving up coffee, but always chose to come back to it, for a number of reasons, one of which is the purported health benefits.
For the most part, I didn’t drink coffee for the caffeine kick. I drank it out of habit. It was part of my daily ritual.
Get up. Make coffee. Sip coffee while reading or preparing for a workout.
Nothing wrong with having coffee – except, maybe it was becoming wrong for me.
So I gave it up that morning, cold turkey. I did so by crafting a different mental picture of myself in relation to the drink, and what I would tell myself each day to stay away from it.
I went 24 hours without a sip of coffee.
Could I go another day without it?
Turns out, yes.
And another?
Yes.
Now here I am, some 40+ days later, free from the black bean.
As I think about it, the process I followed was incredibly simple. I wondered if the method I used would be effective in eliminating negative emotions, such as fear, worry, anger, doubt, and so on.
Turns out it works on emotions, too.
In order for it to work, though, you must either have “the desire” to give something up, or want to have the desire.
Yes, you can have a desire to have more desire. Interesting, eh?
I thought so, too.
See it. Feel it. Be IT.
Matt Furey
By the way: Increasing desire is something my Mind Power Monthly Coaching Members are learning in illustrious detail. If you want to increase your desire, too, send me an email about your situation and what you want to accomplish.
Also: Here’s the link to order the CLASSIC international best-seller, Psycho-Cybernetics.
What’s Hanging on Your Wall?
In Theatre of the Mind I wrote about the importance of having inspiring slogans and motivators strategically placed upon your walls.
The reason is simple. We become what we visualize ourselves to be, and we tend to visualize that which we see most often.
When I was a teenager, I inherently understood the psychological importance of having the good, the powerful and the positive upon my bedroom walls. I tacked up the ribbons and medals that I had won in athletic competition, as well as images of the people I wanted to emulate.
When I was playing baseball, my hero was Vida Blue of the Oakland A’s.
Later on, when I became enthralled with wrestling, I put up posters of Olympic champions in the sport, along with motivational slogans.
Today, many years removed from being a teenager, I still use posters upon my walls. Whether I’m conscious of it or not, every time I walk past a poster hanging upon my walls, the message is going into my mind and creating a new reality.
Recently, I put together a Theatre of the Mind Poster that is loaded with more than 21 different word slogans I use throughout the day to stay focused, tuned in and turned on.
This poster is so powerful it stops you in your tracks.
As you look at it you unconsciously begin to choose the slogan you’re going to live today.
One of my favorites is, “Act as if it were impossible to fail.”
It’s a mighty admonition – and who can look at it and not find a pulse?
We form our mighty mental images from the words we use. So let yourself be purposeful and passionate with what you say or think when you talk to yourself.
Grab yourself a Theatre of the Mind Poster, put it upon your wall and watch as you remove more and more of the resistance from your life.
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
Bad, Bad Goals
Over the past two days, while working with coaching clients, the tall-tales of the self-development industry came up over and over.
“But don’t you need to set goals that scare you?” one client asked.
“How’s that approach working out for you so far?” I replied.
“Uh, not so good.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Setting goals that scare you” is one of the four pill-errors (not pillars) that the goo-roos teach. And it’s wronger than wrong. It may be the wrongest advice of them all.
If you set goals that scare you, you’ll never get off the ground. You’ll be stymied and stuck. You’ll be so frozen, a hot morning coffee won’t even wake you up.
Think of how ludicrous it is to teach people to set goals that invoke fear, when fear is the great paralyzer.
Instead of setting goals that scare you, consider setting goals that inspire you. Set goals that generate momentum and spontaneous action, goals that don’t cause you to resist yourself.
When you are doing well, you are no longer resisting yourself. You’re taking out the garbage on a daily basis. And with the garbage put away, you are free to accomplish more because you’re now in a natural state of flow.
Almost all goal setters remain nothing more than that: goal setters. Same as those who make a list of New Year’s Resolutions, none of which get accomplished.
The trick to goals is creating and following a system where you are winning the game of life all the time. You win so often that you make other people jealous, without trying to do so.
When you set goals that scare you, you’re beginning way behind the starting line.
When you set goals that rev up your engine and catapult you into action, you are free to swing for the fences. You are free to follow the advice of Dorothea Brande, who wrote, “act as if it were impossible to fail.”
You cannot act as if it is impossible to fail when you set big, hairy, audacious goals that scare you.
But you CAN when you set goals that create zero internal resistance within you.
Just as we resist others who bark orders at us and tell us what to do, we also resist the “self” that imposes goals and demands that are not in alignment with the natural flow of our own energy.
If you’ve been setting goals that scare you and you feel as though you’re getting nowhere, understand you’re a member of a big club. You’re not alone. You’re not the only one who believed the nonsense.
But there is a way out of the mess – and acquiring the attributes contained within Zero Resistance Living is one of the keys. Isn’t it odd that there’s nowhere in the course that tells you to set goals that scare you.
Matt Furey
Note: If you’re interested in my Mind Power Monthly coaching program, drop me a line and I’ll get back to you with the information.
The Visualization Blueprint
There’s a saying, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
One of my teachers used to say it this way: “A rose by any other name still smells like a rose.”
In English, we have this substance known as “water.” You can also refer to it as aqua, 水, पानी, вода, νερό or wasser.
In chemistry water is written as H20.
What you call the substance doesn’t change the substance because the word “water” is not water.
And so it is with the word visualization. The words “imagine and feel” resonate with me in a deep way, yet these words don’t change the fact that when I’m picturing something in any way, shape or form, or with any method, I am visualizing.
Call it mental imagery, imagination, mental pictures, a blueprint, a mind map or a meditation, we are still referring to visualization.
Many years ago, I was reading a book written by Michael Masterson. In this book he talked about how he had four main goals and how focusing on his number one goal, financial abundance, would help him achieve all four.
Masterson also wrote about how he would get a pencil and paper each night and recalculate his net worth.
Whether he was aware of it or not, Masterson’s practice of writing out his goals and calculating where he was each night in relation to his goal, is visualization/imagination in action. In fact, with a pen or pencil in your hand, as you look at your numbers and compare them to where you want to be (imagining your visual goal), you are activating the brain in a major way.
Just because your eyes are open and a tool is in your hands doesn’t mean you are NOT visualizing or imagining. You are definitely doing so. In essence, it’s the same as a basketball player at the free-throw line, picturing the ball going “swish” before he shoots it.
Over the weekend a client asked me about “blueprints.”
I told him that a blueprint is a visual aid that you create through the practice of visualization.
You can craft your blueprint with your eyes open or closed. Makes no difference. Why? Because ultimately, you put what you pictured in your mind’s eye on paper. At the beginning of each day, when you hold the blueprint in your hands and look at it, you are imagining yourself either living on the successful end of the blueprint, or you are picturing what you need to do next to bring the blueprint into reality.
Whether you call your process looking, imagining, picturing, meditating upon, drawing up, calculating or measuring, you are using visualization.
So why is it that some people claim they are practicing something other than visualization, when they are definitely using it?
There are a number of reasons. Here are some:
1. The person is positioning a product in the marketplace and wants you to think it’s something he or she invented or “pioneered.” Not likely.
2. The person is emotionally resistant to the obvious. In fact, this person has trouble comprehending that the word water is NOT water.
3. The person has trouble visualizing with eyes closed, and therefore concludes, erroneously, that he or she doesn’t visualize at all.
4. The person is unable to realize that you cannot set goals or plan the actions you are going to take unless you are picturing those goals and those specific actions in your mind’s eye.
The purpose of writing out your goals are making plans is simple: The written goals and plans serve as a mental reminder of the mental imagery you selected from a plethora of possible choices.
Every time you look at these goals and these actions, whether you are willing to admit it or not, you are picturing them in your mind’s eye.
When you think of having a drink of water, you don’t picture the letters W A T E R.
You picture the thing you see in your brain… water.
You probably even get super specific on what type of W A T E R you will drink. Consider what images flood your mind when you see the following: Evian, Fiji, Saratoga, Artesian, Sparkling, Coors, Fresca.
Yes, two of those words are not WATER – but they have water. Nonetheless, how would you distinguish the difference? Though the process of mentally picturing, at a staggering speed.
So I find it amusing and entertaining the lengths some people will go to when they claim they don’t visualize. I guess the next thing you know, one of these “pioneers” and “thought leaders” will claim he doesn’t breathe.
No, I don’t practice breathing. I practice the… let me see, uh, …. the, the, the, … the blueprint for uh… for… respiration. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Respiration.
Meanwhile: “A rose by any other name still smells like a rose.”
See it. Feel it. Be it.
Matt Furey
P.S. Interested in Mind Power Monthly, my coaching program on Psycho-Cybernetics and the art of visualization? We are beginning this week. Send me an email if you are interested.
