Self Improvement-My Quest to Become Better

The idea of self-improvement, self-help, whatever you want to call it is to make oneself better.  How so?  Well,  self-improvement can be anything that either improves one's skills, one's life, one's attitudes or makes one's wallet fatter.  So that means that any class, course or almost anything you learn is some kind of self-improvement.  There're some exceptions however, if you learn how to sell crack to children, you're not improving nor empowering anything for anyone, so its gotta be positive in some way.  There's truly a world behind the world that most of us can't see which is filled with unlimited potential and reward, if only we can channel that energy into our own lives, so I'll share what has and what hasn't worked for me :)

Results2000: My Discovery of a New World

My first experience with self-help in particular, or what I would call global strategies for success, came about in 1999.  I call it global not because it is around the world, but they are strategies, techniques and ideas one can use for almost any facet in one's life, not just one thing.

Anyway, I was twenty years old and just got a pretty good job working for a company called Results2000.  If you've ever heard of it, you know it was started by, and revolved around, Tony Robbins.  I had no idea who he was at the time, but he was doing a number of different seminars and what we called "mega events" with 10's of thousands of people.  The Results2000 tour was pretty nifty, I'll admit.  Tony Robbins was effectively the MC at the events with many other personalities and celebraties of the same time: Norman Schwartzkopf, Les Brown, Brian Tracy and many others.  I had the good chance to attend one of the events through my work at the company and had a really great time.  I was also fortunate enough to meet Tony Robbins in person (he is the biggest person I've ever met, the guy's a giant.  It was fun while it lasted, but my interest, and the job ended rather unexpectedly when the Results2000 tour finished.

About a year later, I met a friend who gave me Tony Robbins' book, Awaken the Giant Within.  I read it and to me it screamed "POSSIBLITY!"  The possiblity that I might have a chance to change my bad habits, to create new good ones, and that I'm not really lazy or bored or depressed or whatever, I was just CONDITIONED that way.

Well, after I left the book on the train, that train of thought (pardon the pun) took a ride (sorry).  I had all kinds of other things to deal with, getting a car, getting another job, getting myself in shape and so on.  So I forgot about this 'other' world.  For a few years, anyway.

Pyschic Vampires and Falling in Love

No, they're not really connected, at least not in the way you think.  In the year of ..oh.. say 2002, I was living with a friend of mine at his apartment.  The reasons were because a-I was living in weekly motels which were pretty expensive, and b-my 'friend' was having a very difficult time adjusting to his life without his girlfriend.  I thought I might be able to help straighten him out and straighten out my finances at the same time... how wrong I was... but that's another story.

Anyway, one day we went to the bookstore and picked up a book each.  He chose Psychic Vampires, which was very fascinating (dealing with the tendency of some people to 'suck' energy from others because they don't have their own.  You probably know a few.)  I'm not going to go into that here, because its off-topic but you can check it out on google or whatever.  I picked out How to Make Anyone Fall in Love With You.  Please don't ask me why I picked it up, I just thought it would be 'interesting', you know.  So, I started reading the book and it was amazing!  Truly!  It showed me some very interesting tips on how to snag a lover but, not how to keep them. Hmmm.  But I digress, this relates to self-improvement because it illustrated to me clearly the unbelievable connection between the mind and body, which I will go over in more detail later on.  For example, one 'trick' is to subtly mimic your prey's movements (pretty basic) to subconsiously communicate similarity between you two.  Another big one was eye-contact with dialated eyes, or "lover's gaze" . I got it down to a science.  It was a terrific read, but I never thought before I did some of those tricks whether or not I should.  When you start learning advanced techniques others might call "magic" or some other silliness, you have to be careful you are doing it for the right reasons, otherwise it might blow up in your face, like it did to me.  So, I got some clear examples of thoughts turning to actions, and then those actions manifesting themselves into thoughts, mine and my prey's.  This is one thing that was so dangerous about it... sure you could make someone fall in love with you, but at the same time, you are also making yourself fall in love with that person, which is something you might not want to do.  This is an important distinction because:  Your thoughts turn to actions, and actions turn to thoughts.  For example, if you start breathing hard and quickly, your mind becomes excited, engaged.  If your mind becomes excited, your breathing starts to become quicker.  I know this doesn't sound like much, but its very important and I'll tell you why:  It gives us the ability to control our thoughts by physical action.  Let's say you have a date tonight but you are feeling tired and depressed from your long day at work and after the boss was yelling at you.  To be honest, you really just want to go home and reschedule the date.  But if you do that, you know that date will never come again, its a one-time deal.  So how do you pick yourself up?  Sure, drink some coffee, drink some screwdrivers, or consume some drug, but then you're not really controlling yourself, the drug is controlling you.  So here's what you do:  you can either do some exercises to get your endorphins going, you can start looking at jokes, or start telling them, or behave in a way that you behaved when you are happy.  Here's the key:  Your mind and body are so connected, that if your body starts getting excited and 'happy' your mind will follow.  On the other hand, that's why when you feel down in the dumps your body is more likely to fall for disease.  If you think about this deeply for a moment, you realize this gives us an amazing power for manifesting different things in our minds and bodies.  Good luck!