You ARE The Placebo!

YOU ARE THE PLACEBO

making your mind matter

By Dr. Joe Dispenza

A Book Review by Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 18, 2019

Reader Note:  Words appearing in BLUE mean they are links to web sites

I watched and listened intently to an Internet Documentary Series titled Broken Brain 2.  Why was that important?  It explains how this book by Dr. Dispenza came to be in my possession.  There was a physician featured on the presentation and unfortunately I did not write her name down to give her credit, who said, “I will not see a new patient until the patient reads You Are the Placebo.”  Think about that for just a moment.  Doctors earn a living by seeing a patient and then being paid by the patient and/or the patient’s health insurance company.  What better motivation to read a book for me who will probably never be a patient of the doctor making the recommendation, especially since I can’t remember her name.

I purchased the book with some reservations.  Whenever I have read a book written by a medical doctor I am usually overwhelmed with all the medical terms used and then followed by an in depth discussion as to what the terms mean, etc.  I bought the book anyway as should you.

It would be my estimate that about 5% of the book contains medical terms I cannot pronounce nor that I will ever remember;  nor do I have need to.  But for the remaining 95% of the book, all I can say is WOW! 

First a disclaimer.  To some the contents of this book will be beyond what they have come to believe and frankly that is what part of the book describes.  For others like me, I have always felt that the brain was more than capable of self-healing the body but until now, I do not know if anyone was sure as to how to tap into the ability.  I was fascinated by Dr. Dispenza’s personal story about his bike and SUV accident and how he recovered.  To put it into perspective and hopefully without getting too personal, I am experiencing severe pain in my left hip and thigh and the pain suddenly and magically appeared immediately following major back surgery; the pain is not near where the actual back repair was performed.  The surgeon performing the surgery doesn’t seem to know what to do to relieve the pain.  So I began researching pain that involved taking A Great Course (company name) course on Pain Management as well as reading several books and articles on pain and pain management.  I felt I need to “manage” the pain because a cure didn’t seem like it was going to appear in my life.  Would the contents of this book apply to me and relieve me of the pain I was experiencing?  Still even more important to me, would this book validate my belief that the brain could actually heal the body if someone were to show me how to tap into that ability?

Only time will tell if my personal physical pain is relieved because I happened to read this book.  If it does I will certainly revised my comments regarding the book.

As you read Dispenza’s book you quickly learn of stories of people who have used the power described in the book both consciously and subconsciously to change what the brain and the body has heretofore been trained to believe.  Once you believe something to be true, it takes a great will power and attitude change to redefine that belief or like in my case it takes the need to find relief for my personal pain to find an alternative to what doctors have been unsuccessfully doing to relieve my pain.  In my judgment I felt, “heck what have I got to lose by trying it?”  I do feel, however, that I would have a “leg up” on others that read the book because of this review, but who do not as yet believe as I do that the brain can heal the body.  Being able to open the brain to a new thought is critical as Dr. Dispenza points out before someone can actually believe in something new to the old ways of thinking.  By “old ways of thinking” I mean yours and my old ways of thinking, not old ways meaning something old because of passing time.

There would be no point in telling you what is in the book because I could never do it justice.  What I can tell you is that I truly believe that everyone could benefit from reading it and I do mean everyone.  Why do I say this?  Because as I read it, I envisioned real estate agents who were stuck in a place and who didn’t seem capable of making the changes they need to make to make a difference.  So just about everyone could benefit whether they have a chronic illness or not. Still, if you are extremely skeptical, I doubt the book would be of much value even in the face of facts, logic and common sense.

After I was about half way through the book, I purchased a downloadable MP3 file created by Dr. Dispenza.  Again, WOW!  Not sure I have ever paid such close attention to any MP3 or CD like his Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself Book Meditations.  Best $6.00 I have spent in some time if ever!

Who should read the book?  Everyone!

Would I read it again?  Sections of the book, absolutely!

Would I refer the books to my friends and family?  Absolutely, already have

Would I buy the book as a gift?  Probably but not if I thought the receiver of the book had a closed mind to such knowledge as it would then serve no purpose.

How Long Does It Take To Break or Make A Habit?

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE

TO BREAK OR MAKE A HABIT?

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 12, 2019

Whoops, the power just went out; not again.  So you walk into a dark room what is the first thing you do?  You reach for the light switch; don’t we all?  If you say NO, you just might lie about other things as well.  Reaching for the light switch even during a power outage is the result of building a habit a simple one as it may be but nonetheless a habit.  You can build both good habits and bad habits.  Hopefully you build only good ones.  If you are in sales, building good sales habits is essential to being successful.  Here is another example of a habit I was not even aware I was building.

I was given a new Samsung 32 inch curved computer monitor for Christmas.  It took me a while to get it working because there were no connections on the back of my computer CPU unit that fit the connecting cables to the monitor.  I then discovered I must have a graphics card installed into the computer to make it work.  I purchased one, installed it and it worked perfectly and I love it!

Does the new curved monitor take some time to get use to?  It really didn’t. The videos that you can watch look even better on the new monitor.  So why am I mentioning the new monitor and the title of this Nugget, “How Long Does It Take To Break A Habit?”   Oh, so glad you asked, you did ask didn’t you?

The new monitor did not fit in the space where I had been using a smaller 27 inch conventional monitor.  I have a U shaped desk and had the old monitor placed in the corner the desk shape created.  This new monitor was simply too high.  I rearranged the items on top of my desk and put the new monitor about 3 feet away from the old monitor’s position.

Have you ever been mentally and visually confused at what you suddenly see and feel because you realize not everything is the same as it once was?  This is what happened to me with the new monitor location.  I typically get up very early, that is a habit unto itself.  But I get a lot done in the wee hours of daylight.  That is when I typically check emails from the day before and more importantly, I love to write so this is when I write like this Nugget.  It is also when I find it more creative for me and that helps me to write.

Back to the habit.  I get so involved in my writing that I am oftentimes totally unaware of what is happening around me.  The sun has not as yet risen so except for one light and my computer monitor there is no light in my office space.  Given the darkness and my familiarity with the PREVIOUS location of all the items on my desk it is not a problem for me.  That is until I installed my new monitor in a different location on my desk.  Now everything is in a different place.  Now imagine that your mind is deep in thought and you are putting those thoughts down on paper or in this case on your computer monitor.  You reach for something that you have reached for many times before and it is NOT there.  It takes a second or two to realize that you had to move everything and now the item you seek is located behind you instead of to your right.  For those few seconds you realize you are not in the same position that you have been for years.  You have created a habit. If you just set up your desk, you know this would NOT be a problem but you set up this desk up years ago and you have gotten into a routine and it worked perfectly for you, right?  Until now that is.

I am beginning to understand that we individually wire our brains much like setting up our desks.  We do so in order to think in a certain way, to respond in a certain way and to a great extent we feel comfortable in our environment.  No problem right?  We are totally comfortable.  Then you introduce a new larger computer monitor into your life and place it on your desk in a different location and at times we become confused, we become uncomfortable, things are different.  Is that a bad thing?  Some may think so but for me, I like the new monitor, it is easy to use and view.  It gives me a better perspective on what I am writing I can see the words of my writing on the screen better (getting old usually means your eyesight is not as it once was when you were younger, trust me on this one).  I like everything about the new monitor and my new mentally created habits?

Here’s the lesson.  If you continue to do everything the way you have always done them for years and years, you will continue to get similar if not the same results whether that was your intention or not.  Want proof? If you drive, your brain, especially your subconscious brain, literally drives your car for you.  You don’t think about unlocking your car and getting in.  You don’t think about inserting your key into the ignition and turning on the engine.  You probably don’t even have to change the radio station you are about to listen to because you ALWAYS listen to the same station.  Why?  Because you have trained or wired your brain to think like that.  But it continues, you know there is rarely ever anything directly behind your car so you are fortunate if one of the habits you created is that you actually look behind your car BEFORE you put it into reverse and back up.  But if that is NOT a routine habit, God help you and whoever you it.  Your entire driving experience is done mostly by rote.  If you grew up in my era you may understand the word, rote, but if you haven’t, it may be new to you.  So….

Definition of rote:

• A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension.  Learn by rote
• Mechanical routine

Does that not describe how you drive your car? Most do so by routine or repetition often without full attention or comprehension?  You know it is.  That is why when you first learn to drive you rarely take your eyes off the road or your hands off the steering wheel.  But as you become more proficient at driving, most if not all of your actions are done subconsciously or as the definition indicates, by routine or repetition without thinking about what you are doing.  What you are doing or already have done is create habits, good and bad, When it comes to driving a car, the habits we create and practice are usually bad habits.  Smoking or eating while driving.  Carrying on in depth conversations while we are driving which usually means often turning your head and eyes away from the road in front of you.  Dropping whatever it is you are eating in your lap.  The list is endless.  So why are you surprised when you are involved in an accident?  You simply were NOT paying attention because that is the way you taught your brain to function.  You created habits.  Now it is even worse when people use their cell phones for ANY reason while they are driving.  Yesterday I saw a woman of my age (at least she appeared to be in her late 60s or early 70s).  She had both hands on the steering wheel driving at least 70 mph on the Interstate in the speed lane and in her left hand was her cell phone and while the right had WAS on the wheel, she was using it to type out a text message.  Does anyone really believe that you can do TWO or MORE things at the same time AND do all of them equally as well as you could do just one?  Come on, that is just impossible.  Multi-tasking is a myth.  She was driving erratically otherwise I would not have noticed her in the first place.

The habits/training we do to our brains is usually done to our brains with our consent.  This may not be true when you are but a small youngster and your parents are training you to live your life as safely as possible.  They want you to be safe so they teach you, as an example, not to touch anything that is hot.  You and they are creating a habit that is beneficial to you.  But what if they, like so many parents around the world, teach the young mind, hopefully not you, to hate?  You know this is happening but most people think it is happening elsewhere around the world.  It is happening right here in America.  Do you think that the adults you see committing violent crimes, robbing people, murdering people, etc, suddenly decided they would do this on their own?  Hell no, they were taught at some point in their lives to hate and disrespect the life and property of others – it just doesn’t matter to them otherwise they would NOT be doing it.  They either learned behavior like this in their homes, their schools and/or their friendships if you can call someone that would encourage you to commit a crime a friend.

These are all habits people plant in their minds and worse feed these seeds they planted with thoughts to justify their actions.  It has been said that our brains are like computers.  If that is so, a computer and our brain cannot work at all without an operating system and programs.  We have all been given a brain which has its own operating system but it’s the programs that determine how we use the remarkable abilities that our brains provide.  The phrase garbage in – garbage out applies more to our brains that it ever has to any computer on your desk.  What you did 10 years ago, 5 years ago, this past year or even yesterday or today is a direct result of how you programmed your brain to think and respond.  If you truly want different results or outcomes, you have to begin to retrain your brain to think in more creative ways.  That will NOT happen if you continue to do what you have always done and expect different results.  Einstein said that is the definition of insanity and it is.

Dr. John Maxwell said that “hope is not an effective strategy,” and it is not.  Hoping something  will change simply won’t as long as the wiring we have implanted in our brains remain unchanged.  If you want your “hopes” to become realities, you MUST change the internal wiring of your brain to make it happen.  For example, I know these things to be absolutely true, without exception, but just knowing it to be true serves no one, NONE!  The only way the knowledge I have acquired over the years best serves anyone is to first be in a position to teach them and if that does not happen, then write this Nugget and post it for everyone to see.  Am I saddened if few if any ever see it or read it? Originally I was but I also realized that it doesn’t matter as long as I post it and that at least one person reads it and take the information to help them become better at what they do and to do it better (future) than they had been doing it (past).  Since you’ve read this far, that one person may be you.

You must feed and nourish your brain with thoughts and ideas that cause you to think in different ways.  At least in ways that cause you to make a decision if the material your brain has taken in is in your best interest to make a change in the way you think or behave.  We have all seen and read what the HABIT of smoking and what it does to a person’s brain and body.  There are no good things that come from smoking other than providing an income to tobacco farmers.  Several  things are at work when someone continually smokes.  (1) They BELIEVE no harm will come to THEM, they will be one of the very few lucky ones who does not get sick or even die from smoking; it will be someone else. Is that true? (2) They KNOW that they have become addicted and therefore they no longer have a choice.  Is that true?  (3) They have TAUGHT or WIRED their brain to WANT to smoke and that smoking is not a bad thing to do.  Is that true?  (4) They believe that smoking ONLY harms THEM if they choose to smoke and therefore it is a victimless habit and it is their choice to smoke or live a healthy life because no one else will be harmed.  Is that true?

We all know the answers to the above questions are all FALSE.  So knowing they are false why do people continue to smoke?  Because they always have and they are addicted!  PERIOD!  I did this exercise several years ago and here would be a great place to revisit the calculations.  The following paragraph is taken from the Internet In 2019:

Prices of Cigarettes By State. Cigarettes have an average cost of $5.51 a pack with the price in most states being between six and eight dollars. This number is taken from the combined prices of all of the states but the actual numbers varying greatly with the most expensive cigarettes costing on average $12.85 (New York) Mar 25, 2019

Let’s just assume that smoking is NOT in anyone’s best interest.  If you smoke one pack of cigarettes a day and let’s use the lowest average cost of $5.51; that equates to $38.57 a week or $2,005.64 a year.  If you divide that number by 12 (months) you get your monthly average for cigarettes which is $167.14 a month.  If you smoke more than one pack a day, such as two packs, that is $77.14 a week and $4,011.28 or $334.27 a month.  You could buy a new car for $334.27 a month to put that all into perspective. 

So why do you smoke, tell me again?  Is smoking in your best health’s interest?  Is smoking in your best financial interest?  If you answer NO to either question, why do you smoke?  Because like it or not, you have formed a habit; in this example, a bad habit.  In fact it could be a very bad habit resulting in death.  You have wired your brain to believe what you are doing is acceptable.  To stop you have to rewire your brain to make it believe just the opposite is true.  You MUST FORM NEW HABITS!  If you want to learn how, read Dr. Joe Pistanza’s book You Are the Placebo!  It is a great read and could change how you think and how you can change your habits that you should want to change.

It doesn’t matter if we are talking about smoking, losing weight, becoming a better doctor, a better salesperson, a better anything. 

If you continue to do what you have always done

you will continue to get what you have always gotten!  PERIOD!

And your brain will be thrilled!

To answer the question posed in the title to this Nugget, How Long Does It Take To Break or Make A Habit?  That’s entirely up to you but I have seen it written in many places that it takes at least 21 consecutive days where you make the change every day for 21 days BEFORE a new habit is formed.  Just 21 days!  There you have it; you decide what is best for you and your brain from this point forward.  Even more importantly you must always be learning based, learning new things to feed your brain or otherwise you will have changed nothing and you again will get what you have always gotten.  If that is acceptable, good for you but you are a rare bird indeed if that is true.  Therefore my advice would be to read, watch documentaries, attend seminars but try to make the subject matter apply to what you want your changes to become.  Then once you rewire your brain to accept what you have learned, you must always remain vigilant for new learning opportunities and subjects – that is being learning based for the rest of your life.  It IS the lesson of this Nugget!

Crossing The River of Change

CROSSING THE RIVER OF CHANGE

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 8, 2019

Based on an excerpt from You Are The Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza

“Crossing the river of change requires that you leave the same familiar predictable self-connected to the same thoughts, same choices, same behaviors, and same feelings-and step into a void or the unknown.  The gap between the old self and the new self is the biological death of your old personality.  If the old self must die, then you have to create a new self with new thoughts, new choices, new behaviors, and new emotions.  Entering this river is stepping toward a new unpredictable, unfamiliar self.  The unknown is the only place where you can crate-you cannot create anything new from the known,” from You Are The Placebo

To demonstrate this principle, consider the man who marries a young woman.  The woman prepares a meal consisting of a baked ham.  The young man watches as his wife cuts off one end of the ham and then puts it into the oven.  Over time he watches this same procedure whereby his wife’s mother cuts off the end of the ham before putting it into the oven.  When the husband asks why she does this, she replies that is how her mother taught her as being the best way to cook a ham.  When he gets the opportunity he asks his wife’s grandmother why she does it and she explains that is what HER mother did.  At the large Christmas family gathering, his wife, her mother, and her mother and her mother were all in attendance.  That is when the young man asked his wife’s great grandmother why she cut the end off the ham before cooking it.  That is when she resolved the issue when she said, “Oh, that is the only way I could get it to fit into the pan.”

There are two lessons in this story, probably more than just two but here are the two that stands out to me.  If you never think outside the box, you will always get what you have always gotten.  Secondly, if you NEVER question why you do things the way you do, nothing will ever change.

That is what Dr. Joe Dispenza means in the excerpt from his book above when he writes:  “Crossing the river of change requires that you leave the same familiar predictable self-connected to the same thoughts, same choices, same behaviors, and same feelings-and step into a void or the unknown.”

I highly recommend reading You Are The Placebo by Dr. Dispenza.  It is an amazing read. 

I spent over 33 years in the real estate business first as a licensed sales person, then as an office manager, then as a Director of Broker Services for a mid-size region of franchised real estate offices, then as a co-broker/owner of a franchise office and finally as the Broker/Team Leader/Trainer of a Keller Williams Realty Office.  Why do I explain this?  Because during those several positions I have had the opportunity to meet and more importantly train hundreds of real estate agents.  I cannot speak for people in other businesses but I would be shocked if some of the same attitudes did NOT exist in whatever business you choose. 

In all those years, I was shocked to discover that very few of those hundreds of agents ever attended a course on real estate OTHER THAN the annual courses REQUIRED to maintain a real estate license with the state.  Oftentimes a course from a noted speaker would be given in the town in which their office is located and they still did not think the course was important enough to possibly increase their real estate sales and ultimately their income from their real estate sales.  I was also shocked to learn and this was reinforced by a study which I unfortunately cannot reference because I no longer have it, where less than 5% of people in sales EVER read a book on sales.  Think about that and think about that one sentence by Dr. Dispenza again, “Crossing the river of change requires that you leave the same familiar predictable self-connected to the same thoughts, same choices, same behaviors, and same feelings-and step into a void or the unknown.”

As my agent’s real estate broker and in-house trainer I felt an obligation to always be at the top of my game when it came to all matters relating to sales and legal real estate issues.  My goal was to provide my agents with the best training I could give them while at the same time give the training and information that would hopefully keep them out legal trouble with the Real Estate Commission.  How did I do that?  It could not be any more simple:

1.      I read books and articles relating to sales and real estate legal issues

2.      I attended courses either in person or on line involving sales and real estate issues

3.      I then incorporated what I had learned into the classes that I taught in-house

The problem?  Agents did not always attend the courses being offered.  Why? Same old reason, “I don’t have the time.”  What I took away from the lack of attendance was NOT that my courses were not beneficial but instead that most agents felt that they already knew all the information that they needed to be successful in real estate.  To me this attitude and this belief described agents that in the words of General Russel L. Honoré of Hurricane Katrina fame, they were “stuck on stupid!”  There is no other way to describe this behavior.  Why would you NOT want to advance what you already know to heights as yet to be achieved?  It made no sense to me even to this day some 40 years later.

Look around at the employees and ownership in the office/business you work at.  How many have a plan to develop their own personal skills to be the best they can possibly be?  How do you know?  Have you asked them what they are doing to improve their skills?  It is widely accepted that if you want to play better golf, you play golf with golfers better than you.  Keeps you sharp and keeps you mentally in a learning based environment.  Failure to remain learning based usually means that not only are you NOT advancing your career and your business, you are not even standing still.  You are falling by the wayside and you have not paid sufficient attention to realize that you are falling behind.  Then one day you have an awakening to realize what could have been if only…..

I can assure you that relying on “if only I….” is not an effective plan for future success.  I hate to continually repeat the message of Dr. Dispenza but…“Crossing the river of change requires that you leave the same familiar predictable self-connected to the same thoughts, same choices, same behaviors, and same feelings-and step into a void or the unknown.”

My advice to everyone regardless of what business you are in would be:

TO READ, AND READ OFTEN, READ MORE THAN YOU EVER HAVE

But read books that will improve your skills.  Do not read just for the sake of reading, have a plan.  What skills are you deficient in now?  Making Bifracated Twidgets!  Read how to become better at making Bifracated Twidgets (in case you know who might be reading this, there is no such thing as Bifracted Twidgets, it is just an example).

Make a list of what you do now.  Grade yourself.  Have a discussion with your immediate supervisor and have your supervisor grade you.  You might be surprised that there is a disconnect between what you think are your best and worse skills and what your supervisor thinks are your best and worst skills.  Oftentimes we really don’t know ourselves.  If that is the case, you may choose to work on the wrong skill at the wrong time.

If you really want to become better at what you do, form a small group of no more than 5 people to work together as a mastermind group.  They do not have to be in the same business and in fact it might be better if they are not.  Meet for about an hour on a weekly basis for coffee.  Let nothing deter you from making this meeting.  Then at each meeting you review what you said you were going to do the previous week, explain why you didn’t do what you might have said you were going to do, and then define what you are going to do the next week.  Let everyone in the Mastermind Group do the same thing.  That is why it is important to form a small group where you can meet for an hour over coffee.  You put it on your calendar and you let nothing stop you from attending – nothing except for maybe your own death.  It is that important.  You will see if you just try it.  Tell your group where you feel you need to improve and what you are doing to improve.  Also tell them what may have stopped you from making those improvements.  Keep in mind, if you truly want to “cross the river of change”, you MUST make some changes otherwise you will get what you have always gotten.  Is that what you want?

If I Were Your Teacher!

IF I WERE YOUR TEACHER!

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, April 8, 2019

We are approaching the graduation season and each year we hear one graduation speaker after another give their take on the futures of the students graduating.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our schools were created not only to teach English, Math and Science, but as equally important subjects that would actually help a student succeed in today’s world. 

As a personal example, I attended 14 years of formal education before I was drafted during the Vietnam era.  Sadly I never did finish my college education, still in all honesty, when I was attending college I always felt like a square peg in a round hole; I just didn’t fit.  I have learned a great deal through my own self-education and personal experiences that include a 20 year Coast Guard Career and a 33 year Real Estate Salesman/Broker/Owner/Team Leader/Trainer career.  Add the reading of well over 1000 books and I feel I have a very good education but I am still reading and I am still learning.

Today I saw a post on LinkedIn where the person making the post suggested that it would be nice if our schools actually taught the 10 listed items in our schools to our students.  I read them with interest but it was so obvious, at least to me, some major subjects were left off the list.  I don’t know if they were considered and left off or just not considered and therefore not included on the list. 

You read them and you decide if I am wrong; certainly won’t be the first time.

The list as per the LinkedIn post

• Conflict Resolution
• How to Manage Money
• Entrepreneurship
• Public Speaking
• How to look after your health
• Creativity (not sure how you teach creativity but you can certainly encourage it)
• People Management
• Mental Health
• How to manage time
• Dealing with FAILURE

To these 10 items I would suggest that you add:

• Dealing with SUCCESS (a lot of people cannot)
• What MUST I do and how MUST I act at my place of employment
• Personal Relationships,
• The value of compound interest,
• How to speak and write with clarity
• How do identify what you want to do with the rest of your life
• The value of goal setting and how to do it
• Creating daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals
• Determining what will your life look like when it is finished and what must you do between now and then to make it happen.  

Maybe the most important of all:

• Developing your Life’s Mission Statement (or call it a Goal or Objective, either works)
• Learning how and why you MUST be learning based
• Creating a personal development plan
• Working from a Daily To Do List to achieve your Life’s Mission Statement (Goal or Objective)

In my mind the most important item on the list is insuring that each student becomes learning based.  By that I don’t mean just learning what is being taught in our schools.  I have sadly discovered that a great many people in the sales business, of which I was active for over 33 years, never read a book on sales; NEVER!  Does that even make sense?

Compare that to a heart surgeon.  Would you seriously want to have your heart operated on by a surgeon who hasn’t read a book on the subject since he or she graduated from Medical School?  If you answered NO, then why would you select a person in the sales business that has stopped learning the sales business?  Neither one makes sense but the Doctor metaphor more makes more sense than the Sales metaphor.  Failure to select the right sales person could cost you money.  Failure to select a knowledgeable doctor could cost you your life.  Think about that for a minute. So when was the last time you visited a Doctor?  Did you interview the Doctor for his or her credentials or did you just accept the fact that he or she is a doctor and therefore must be at the top of their game?

The second most important item on the list and it did not make the LinkedIn top ten is creating a Life’s Mission Statement or you could substitute the word Goal or Objective instead of Mission it doesn’t matter; whatever you feel most comfortable using.  The best way to describe why this is important would be to use myself as an example.  Thanks to my personal mentor, teacher and friend Joe Tye, I created a Personal Life’s Mission Statement decades ago.  What did I create?

My Life’s Mission Statement is to help people to do whatever it they do to do it better!

You can tell that my LMS (Life’s Mission Statement) best describes not only a teacher but someone who wants to help the people around me to enjoy whatever degree of success they desire by doing their job better than ever imagined.

For example I write Nuggets for the Noggin with the intent and hope that someone, someone like you, will read them and then take away a message that would help them “to do whatever is they do to do it better.”  Then again, thanks to Joe Tye, I use his Direction-Deflection-Question (DDQ) whereby I constantly ask myself a question relating to my LMS:

Is what I am about to say or do consistent with my Life’s Mission Statement?

If YES, say or do it, if NO, DON’T!  It is that simple.

If you don’t know where you want your life to take you, any road will take you there.  I think Zig Ziglar may have said that.  That is a potent thought.  If you don’t know what your life will look like when it is finished, there is no way you could possibly know what you should and should not be doing at this very moment in time to create the life you eventually want to have.  Or, what will your life look like when it is finished?  But if you DO know with some certainty, then your Life’s Mission Statement and use of the DDQ may be the best tools at your disposal. 

Let’s for training purpose say you want to (1) retire with a sufficient wealth portfolio to support the life style you desire.  (2) you want to live in a home on a body of water or near a body of water (what will that home look like – create a mental imagine down to its colors)  (3) you want to have had children and have created enough wealth to send them to their school of choice or help them with their career of choice.  (4) you may want to own a boat, three cars, an airplane or whatever.  This is YOUR goal/objective not mine although it sounds pretty good.

Then using Joe Tye’s DDQ, just ask yourself the potent question:

Is what I am about to say or do leading towards my goals and/or objectives or is it leading me away from them; there is no in between!

Here is the sad part of this Nugget.  These things to the best of my knowledge are NOT being taught in our schools.  Why not?  I have no idea.  They are either NOT being taught or they are not being learned; either way it is not a good situation.  Therefore, you the student MUST create a self-development plan and then stick to your plan.  Be learning based otherwise your plan will be useless.  Always look for opportunities to learn by reading books, attending lectures, attending specialized education programs, etc.  But…JUST DO IT! (As the Nike slogan suggests).

And as just about every commencement speaker says, “And in conclusion…”  I would add to all of this that George Washington’s Rules of Civility should be taught.  He created and lived by over 100 such rules.  Yes they need to be updated, some removed and more importantly a great many “could” be added in regards to social media and cell phone use.  I lot of problems fester and develop between two or more people when they feel they are being disrespected by someone.  We see it occurring almost every night on our local nightly news.  We could all learn from George Washington.  Check them out for yourself.

http://www.foundationsmag.com/civility.html

So there you have it, this would be my commencement address if I were the one giving it.  Since I am not, you can read it.  What you take away from it is entirely up to you.