WINNERS FOCUS ON WHAT THEY DO WELL

 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNERS AND LOSERS?

 

What would you say is the main difference between winners and losers? I am sure you can make a mile long list of potential differences. I found that winners see failure and setbacks as temporary while losers view them as long-term or permanent disasters.

Go to any hospital and you will see how even a glimmer of hope can fuel optimism and faith in distraught family members and friends of a very sick patient. This might be a crude example, but explain why so many people can quickly recover from painful setbacks and failures while others fall apart when faced with even the slight discomfort.

The key here is that the winner’s focus on life and view setbacks as part of the game and temporary while the loser sees failure as a potentially permanent disaster. Our natural tendency is to become apathetic when we find ourselves in a real corner or when we are faced with a problem that appears un-defeatable. Once you slip into this apathetic mind-set you lose you fight and faith. Even the smallest setback or problem becomes gigantic in our minds and fill our hearts with doubt and fear. 

Winners work hard to avoid this mindset. They never see setbacks or failures as permanent. They know that nothing in life is permanent. I have seen how winners go bankrupt and rise up again to become financial giants a few years later. Why I say “winners” is because they did not allow the apparent disaster to floor them permanently. They learned from their mistakes and jumped back into the arena of life better prepared. If they saw their setback as permanent they would have become struggling beggars at the table of the affluent few. It is a known fact that most successful entrepreneurs boast with at least 3-4 serious failures before the finally hit the jackpot or find something that really works for them.

 

WINNERS FOCUS ON WHAT THEY DO WELL

 

Winners concentrate on what they know they can do well. If I am built like a beach ball and weigh as much as a small family car it will be extremely stupid if I develop a burning desire to become world one-hundred meter sprint champion. If I struggled with maths since the day I went to school it will be very stupid to enrol myself at university for a degree where maths is vital in the obtaining of my degree.

What some people fail to understand is that they build disappointment into their dreams if they do not become very realistic about their strengths and weaknesses. Most of us are good at certain things and not so good at others. Winners focus on things that they know that they can do well and save themselves a lot of time and frustration. They do not labor under the illusion that you must be a champion in everything you do. If they know they are not good at maths they do not contemplate suicide if they come last in a class of sixty-five. They accept that they are pretty good at certain things and less good in others. Stop setting yourself up for failure. It is a fallacy that you must be perfect in everything you do. You might be world champion material in specific fields or disciplines, why waste your time and energy on things that obviously do not suit you.

 

I suffered with the fallacy that I must be outstanding at everything I do. I tore myself apart when I failed or fell short of my own and others expectations. I finally came to terms with the indisputable fact that it make much more sense to focus on what I do well and to avoid setting myself up in no-win situations. Stop trying to be perfect in everything you do. You will like most of us mortals shine in certain areas and look quite clumsy in others. You might be a brilliant salesperson, but poor in administrative work. Rather appoint an administrative clerk to manage your office so you can spend even more time at what you are really good at. I wish I understood this principle many years ago. I would have saved myself years of frustration and doubt. You will never find a lion crying his eyes out because he cannot fly like an eagle or swim like a dolphin.

Rene

 

Pretty Women Make Men Stupid!

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The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or ‘cognitive resources’ trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.

Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he ‘temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources.’

To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

In a report on their findings the researchers said: ‘We conclude men’s cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.’

Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes.

‘When a man meets a pretty woman, he is what we call ‘re-productively focused’.

‘But a woman also looks for signs of other attributes, such as wealth, youth and kindness. Just the look of the man would be unlikely to have the same effect.’

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By Pat Hagan / Source: The Telegraph

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“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity.”

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“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” — Albert Einstein

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After a hard day of work, I was sitting on my couch with my eyes closed. I decided to meditate, even though I had no clue what would happen. After just fifteen minutes, my mind started to quiet and relax. It was an amazing feeling! I felt as if my heavy and tired body started to lose hold on gravity, and just like dandelion fluff had started to float above a sunlit meadow in a gentle summer breeze. And that was just the beginning.

After a few more minutes, I was absolutely free, relaxed, and the fierce, blazing fire of thoughts in my mind became a low simmer. My body disappeared, and with it the couch I sat on, my room, and my whole house. Everything vanished. Of course, I still knew that I was sitting in a real room – but my mind simply didn’t construct it that way anymore. My body was in bliss, and I enjoyed increased energy, because when the mind relaxes it stops many of the thought processes that otherwise burn through our energy. (95 percent of the time, our mind is just running in a hamster wheel of worries, with no purpose except to expend energy and make us exhausted.)

After I passed through just 20 devoted minutes of meditation, I felt like a new man. But I didn’t just feel that way – I was. Relaxed, calm, aware of the environment and myself, and ready to move mountains. My face was shaped by a sincere smile. My body embraced the effects of meditation, even though my mind, like a dull computer full of software, still couldn’t fully grasp what has just happened. I stood and went to do my work. The effects lasted all day – I felt enormously energetic and fresh-minded.

How did Albert Einstein do what he did?

Albert Einstein meditated a few times a day. As he famously said, it was the way to get answers even before you asked the questions.

Mozart meditated by walking in silence – that’s how the greatest melodies and symphonies came to his mind, music that is still adored by millions of people today.

The famous physicist Aage Bohr, while meditating, saw atom construction as a planetary system, and in 1975 got a Nobel Prize for it.

I am not trying to directly compare myself with these wonderful people, but it’s impossible not to notice that during the past few years, I have written hundreds of pages of business ideas and other concepts that flew into my mind while I was meditating.

How about you? Would you like to experience that?

It is now widely recognized that meditation, at the very least, boosts efficiency, creativity and communications skills. The benefits are obvious but the question could arise: isn’t it boring, and is it worth it?

It’s not boring, and it definitely is worth it! Because:

Meditation is a very simple and pleasant thing to do, with widespread benefits. There are simply no reasons not to do it. Countless successful people meditate, and as they say – it is meditation that shapes their successes and joys in life.

Meditation enhances your intellect so much that you get ten times more unique and creative ideas. Your thoughts are as deep as the oceans, and your mind is perfectly calm and euphoric.

That sounds great, doesn’t it? All the people who practice meditation say the same thing. But what specifically can sitting in silence do? How does it work?

Ancient Indian Vedas were full of knowledge, and explained that our consciousness is made from both mind and intellect (it’s worth noticing that nowadays scientists are making the same conclusions). The function of the mind is to desire and feel, and thus enable us to experience the outer world with our body, and to enjoy it. On the other hand, intellect is for creation, consideration, and perception.

When and if you let your mind act as it desires and when it desires, without the control of the intellect – then the intellect will be forgotten. It will be overshadowed by emotions and overthrown by thousands of thoughts. The mind in its essence is a very egoistical thing – it is always concentrated on fulfilling the desires it has, and thus you have perpetual thoughts that keep circling in your head, and dozens of various emotions at the same time. When we get tired of our minds and want to rest in silence, it won’t let us, and will resist by sending thousands of thoughts, and thus draining our nervous systems. The mind can be an amazing servant, but as a ruler, it is the worst you can have – tyrant.

The intellect is completely different. It is wide and infinite. It is the source of love and creation. Intellect is infinitely wise and moderate. Your intellect is calmly biding its time and confidently smiling – it already knows everything. That’s why you already are an amazing being, full of wisdom, goodness, and light. And to experience it you need just one thing – to calm your mind.

Can you feel and understand how strongly you are restricted by your desires, fears, and perpetual thoughts and worries? And even more so how the mind restricts your perception of the world to just five senses (hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching), hiding the true magnificence of the world?

Yogis call it personal illusion and collective illusion. It is worth considering.

We all, as humans, have pretty much the same minds – we are the same species, after all. And our minds model our world almost identically. This is called the collective illusion. We can all see the same blossom of a rose, the same red color, and the same shape. We can describe it in the same way. And is this reality? Of course. Yes. You, and I, and six billion people can agree on that. And thus it is an absolute fact. But is it really the truth?

Actually, it is not. It’s just how Homo sapiens’ brains are modeling the environment in order to survive. Other living beings may perceive a rose differently. In fact – the rose doesn’t exist. There is not red, sweetly-scented blossom. It is just a piece of the unimaginable complexity of the whole. A piece of the whole of indescribable beauty and intellect in which we dwell, of whose part we are.

And here comes the individual illusion. We create it unconsciously when we walk through life. Our mind creates millions of neuro-associations, which determine the difference in our perceptions of the same objects (neuro-associations are connections between objects and emotions in our mind, i.e. Sigur Ros music = pleasure; exam in university = trouble). This means that different people will perceive the same blossom of a rose differently. Not only the rose, but also the chocolate bar, Fujiyama Mountain, a brand new Ferrari, and everything else in the world.

The mind is a very complex computer in which the programs frequently fight each other. That is why our energy channels are leaking. Every day we lose energy over the chaos of our minds, and thus we can’t experience bright, strong, and even euphoric states – which are usually called enlightenment.

Meditation was invented to prevent these leaks of energy, and to win back our naturally inherited power and joy.

The great sitting on the couch secret

Meditation is calm sitting without any thoughts. It opens the dams of our energy rivers. It enables us to free our infinite intellects and to think as Einstein did. Or maybe even 10 times better.

The worldwide Transcendental Meditation Organization devoted whole decades to work with scientists, who adjusted their reliable methods and translated them into simple language for us to understand, in order to explain how meditation affects our bodies and minds. About two thousand official experiments were conducted, and numerous volumes were written about how meditation affects the metabolism, blood pressure, the brain, and other vital organs functions. Not only were the scientists shocked by these conclusions, but the whole of Western society was amazed as well. Because of these clearly positive results of meditation, more and more scientists, doctors, businesspeople, athletes, actors, and many others now practice meditation. More and more people understand that the simple act of meditation can lift one’s life to a whole new level.

This is how meditation reached me. In 2010, I began to practice transcendental meditation (I don’t practice it anymore). At first, I was amazed by my new experiences and new ways of perceiving the world. Later, I noticed that I can more easily control my emotions, and even in stressful and critical situations, I can bring myself to a state of total relaxation. The challenges of my business became easy to solve, and my daily worries are no longer as scary as they were. Ideas just flowed into my head, and I can’t even begin to describe the bunch of phenomenal emotions I have now experienced.

There are a lot of ways to meditate. All of the ways works in similar manners and will offer the same positive results (though experiences and timeframes differ). Meditation works like window cleaners for the window of the mind. It lets us see all the small details of the world around that were not recognizable before – the pebbles in the road, humans, nature, and events.

How do you do it?

All you need to do in order to strengthen your intellect is to sit calmly and to think about nothing, or to occupy your mind with one mantra (a special word or sentence). Thinking about nothing is not as easy as it seems, because the mind and all its chaotic thoughts are used to mastering the parade, but with time you’ll learn to harness your mind, and you’ll discover the creative side of yourself. On that day, you’ll see that your world has been turned upside down, and the secrets of it have been revealed. And then you’ll be amazed at how wonderful everything is, and how much you can accomplish.

Here are some briefs of meditations techniques that are popular in the West. Maybe you’ll be eager to try one of them.

1. Buddhist meditation. There are hundreds of different schools of Buddhism, and through thousands of years they have developed a variety of different meditation techniques. But in essence they are all very similar: you should sit in calm and silence, and concentrate all your attention into breathing, or into some other kind of object (i.e. the fire of a candle, or blossom of a rose). You can attract your attention to the surrounding environment with your eyes closed. This meditation is practiced every day. The length should be comfortable for you, but it is suggested that you practice 20 minutes in the morning, and in the evening.

Some famous Buddhist meditation practitioners are: Steve Jobs, Steven Seagal, Richard Gere, Tina Turner, the Dalai Lama, and more.

2. Transcendental meditation. This meditation was developed and spread by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917-2008). He started his spiritual movement in 1958. His meditation is derived from Vedas, and was given to him by his spiritual teacher and leader Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (1871-1953) when Maharishi lived in his ashram. The transcendental meditation (or TM) organization has oriented this technique the access of Western people, and thus it has a Western name.

During this meditation, you repeat a special mantra (a word or phrase in Sanskrit), which is given to you during your training. TM has no religion attached and is notable for its very scientific base. It is the most researched and commonly used meditation form in the world. No one can ignore TM after looking through thick books of research full of formulas and medical analysis.

TM is widely used in the world by such people as: Paul McCartney, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Lynch, Moby, and more.

3. Japa meditation. This is a purely Vedic form of meditation. It is also commonly known as sacred names repetition, because during the meditation you repeat mantras made from various sacred names in Sanskrit. This technique is safe and can be used independently because, like Buddhist meditation, it starts slowly and is strengthened according your own capabilities. Usually this technique is performed with counting beads (Japa chaplet) for keeping track of how many times you have repeated the mantra, a very practical and mathematical method that allows you to be more stable and consistent in your meditation. It is recommended to start with one Japa cycle a day, and to increase this number as time passes.

This meditation was introduced in the West by the well-known ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who arrived in New York from India in 1966 with a suitcase full of books. He astonished many by his perfect character, habits, and inner light.

Japa meditation practitioners are as famous as: Dr. Wayne Dyer, Julia Roberts, Elizabeth Gilbert, Timothy Leary, John Levy, George Harrison, and more.

Meditation is the only known way to most effectively and almost without any effort clean your mind from the dirt that has come to us through our environment, but through our dull and hamster-wheeled thinking. Meditation lets your intellect blossom, so you can live an authentic live: rejoicing everyday as naturally as kids, but hundreds of times stronger because we can accomplish even more.

Don’t believe what others say, and go your own way!

I really like the Vedic approach, which states that you don’t need to believe in anything blindly. If you read or hear something – just try it for yourself. If it works, then believe it and use it. Recommend it. Let’s be pragmatic.

What about the Ferrari? The brand new red Ferrari?

Strong intellect is the only way to create any kind of wellbeing. And thus if you want to create more, to organize more, to earn more, and to buy a symbol of power – meditation is the only known way to do it easily and quickly. Did you know that even millionaires recommend that you meditate?

But in the end, the Ferrari is just a symbol. Not everyone needs this fancy metal box. There are people who prefer to appreciate a perfectly trained and healthy body, and a developed consciousness with which they can travel across the globe radiating calm, love, and compassion.

That is what the real “Ferrari” is, to me. And it costs not $230,000, but infinite, undefinable amounts… or just some practice with meditation. The delight of traveling with your own conscious mind is immeasurable.

Are you ready to experience it?

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By Martynas Jocius / MindTrip Magazine