2018 SUPER IDEAS FOR SUCCESS - MAKE YOUR RESOLUTION TODAY

“Belief is the energy that animates the wings of the soul.” -- GM

 In this short little essay, we will discuss several top gurus in self-help, spirituality, success, and prosperity, and we will illuminate a few of their best ideas so we can remember how to manifest our DESTINY.

1.    LESSONS: There are lessons in every mistake. If you read Dr. Napoleon Hill’s or Oprah Winfrey’s work, you will understand that there may be the seed of success in every failure. The great news with any failure or mistake is that you NEVER need to repeat it. You can move on to new heights.

2.    The Magic of WORDS: Write your goals down. There is magic in writing them down. If you read the great ideas of top management consultants like Bryan Tracy, you’ll see that there are scientific advantages in writing out your objectives. Write down your ideas and your chief goals. Write down places you want to see, things you want to do, skills you want to learn. If you do two or three things a day, then by the end of the year, you’ll have over a thousand things done. It is amazing how the mind works to allow the subconscious mind to assist us even while we are sleeping or resting. When you put an idea in your mind, the deeper consciousness actually begins to work on the ideas and seek solutions around the clock.

3.    Purpose and What You DON’T WANT: Great writers of history have often talked about cultivating a chief purpose or determining a labor of love. Generally, narrowing our focus and directing our energies can make us very powerful and boost our momentum, but there is a flip side. We all need to know what we want to do and go after our desires and ideas with all of our effort, but we also need to know what we DON'T want in life and the types of activities that we need to avoid or get rid of. There are the various types of actions or omissions that we need to avoid so that you can be successful. Some success gurus such as Stuart Wilde have claimed that “half of life’s success” is avoiding crazy people or toxic situations. Moreover, the great Tony Robins has also taught that you need to know what you DON’T want, and then TARGET what you DO WANT and go after it with extreme fervor and enthusiasm.

4.    Start Early and Be on Time: Whether you’re talking about Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Oz, or the "tortoise and the hare", it’s always best just to get started and get moving, and sooner or later you’ll cross that finish line with great success. Even Abe Lincoln said if you gave him a few hours to chop down a tree, he would spend most of his time sharpening the axe… If you just get started, you could take the tree out quicker, faster, and better without stress or haste. Some great lessons there, whether it’s Abraham Lincoln or Dr. Oz, great lessons.

5.    Authenticity: To stay true to yourself, be authentic and maintain a warrior like humility. One of the definitions of humility is remaining teachable. Thus, if you have your ears and your eyes open and stay aware, no matter how smart you are, no matter how many degrees you have behind your name, you will learn things, and you might gather information that is priceless. Even Clint Eastwood, in one of his famous Westerns, said, “A man's life in these parts often depends on a mere scrap of information.” Whether you read Socrates, Buddha, or Shakespeare, Know Thyself and Maintain Humility and Awareness.

6.    HEALTH: Put your mental, spiritual, and physical health first. Whether you’re taking a class from a self help guru like the great Suze Orman or you’re learning a lesson from another great teacher, you’re putting your mental spiritual and physical health first, and that means you’re investing in yourself. Taking care of yourself, developing self-love, developing self-regard, all of these characteristics are invaluable. If you treat yourself well, you’ll invariably be able to treat other people well also. Keep showing up for the mental, physical and spiritual gymnasium to be your best.

7.    The ZONE: Every year, many self-help books are released with a general theme and focus. One of the biggest themes in the last few years has been how to get out of your comfort zone—encouraging people to go and do something different, learn to do something new, take a new path. It is solid advice to have healthy routines, to do things well and right and not deviate from what works for you. However, there’s also something to be said for taking calculated risks and getting out of your comfort zone. People like the great T. Harv Eker, an excellent author and an excellent speaker, have talked at length about this. Pick up the phone and call somebody you want to meet or speak with. Call somebody and ask for help as a mentor; say, “Look, I know you’ve done this type of business before. You’re great at it. Can you help me? Can you teach me what I need to know to maybe be good in this business, too?” Therefore, reaching out, trying something new, engaging in new activities makes you feel alive. This overall theme in many books is a very powerful message.

8.    Manage Your Mind: The next idea is to “Mind your business and manage your mind.” If you read great books or listen to great speeches by sales experts like Zig Ziglar, you’ll understand that we all need to “prime our pumps” to get our mind moving. We should focus on building our mind power every day. A lot of the great self-help authors talk about buying self-help tapes or reading books, having “learning CDs” in your car, or downloading audiobooks. In today’s world, managing your mind has a much greater meaning: We need to keep our mind clear and running smoothly, like getting the oil changed in a vehicle, having a computer run a virus check, or deleting junk out of the cache or the temporary files of a computer so it can operate more quickly and be more responsive. That’s what we’re talking about when we say managing your mind.

It’s one thing to mind your own business—that means to focus on what you need to do for yourself and not what other people need to do. It’s another thing to talk about the effective and efficient management of your own mind.

9.    PEACE OF MIND: The next principle is to become a conscious observer of your mind and your ego. Famous writers on the subject of consciousness such as Eckhart Tolle or Thich Nhat Hanh talk a lot about learning to meditate or to quiet the mind, allowing you to observe your thoughts and sharpen your mental activity. But the next level beyond these teachings is learning to discern the difference between your spiritual consciousness and your ego consciousness. This is the ability to know what is good, constructive, and beneficial for YOU—to determine which are harmonious actions and which thoughts are just destructive and selfish, aren’t going to get you anywhere, and waste your time and mental energy. Mental energy is precious, and if you get bogged down in just one resentment or one angry thought, you can lose half of your day or your whole day. Some people are capable of spending weeks or years being angry and upset, and they’ve basically wasted their time and their lives when they could have been a more productive member of society or spent more time with their children or family.

10.                       ROUTINES: The next thought is about healthy routines and why you should have them. It doesn’t matter who you are or what age you are, whether you’re 14 or 92. We all need to eat right, sleep right, and have healthy fellowship with other human beings so we can continue to cultivate friendships and relationships and be able to express ourselves with others. You also need to get the type of exercise that you need. Now, exercise can be broken down into several areas. There’s physical exercise, there’s mental exercise, and then there’s the spiritual gymnasium. It’s important to have a nice blend of all of these things. If you pick up a book on anxiety or depression—even ADHD, bipolar disorder, addiction, or any type of debilitating situation that an individual may have—there’s going to be a couple of sections in the book about letting go of destructive habits and picking up constructive and beneficial habits. Not addictions, but constructive and beneficial activities. Activities that make you feel alive, that give you joy and benefit your life and those you love. That’s the key to this step is maintaining healthy routines. There is a retired admiral who made millions of dollars by giving speeches who wrote a book describing getting up and making your bed in the morning. I believe the message is that we can learn to “Do one thing right when you wake up and the rest of the day will continue to follow that expression of good will.” Therefore, healthy routines of fellowship/social interaction, REM-quality sleep, exercise, and diet/nutrition are all very important. The acronym for Fellowship, REM, Exercise, and Diet would be FRED. The scientific value of FRED is that all of these elements stimulate proper well-being and production of serotonin and dopamine; they create a healthier body on a physical level.

11.                       RESPONSIBILITY: The next step is really about how to practice effective and rapid response—how we can learn to do things well. I’ve known top surgeons in my life, and some can do an operation in 30 minutes and others might take three or four hours. Both surgeons are safe and not being negligent, not going too fast. An on-schedule and quick surgery reduces risk of infection and complications. As for surgeons, some people are more comfortable doing things really well at a certain speed, and I think it takes practice, practice, practice to achieve new levels of skill. Recently, I heard a speech by Mike Singletary, the famous linebacker, and he said he practiced eye–mind awareness skills and rapid response using techniques that I had read that were used by “secret spiritual factions” hundreds of years ago. Singletary said he would stand up and take his two fingers and hold them out on each side and try to spread his awareness and depth perception by being able to see things in the corners of his vision to try to understand movements better. The great linebacker used these exercises to be able to see, or READ, the other team’s offensive line much better than any other linebacker in our lifetime most probably.

This is about practicing rapid response—not reaction, but conscious responsiveness. If you watched Tom Cruise in his famous movie, “The Last Samurai,” his character was subject to the same interplay: Cruise’s character was told to use “no mind,” to keep practicing and keep developing his skills. By the end of a season, he was able to respond with his sword lightning fast, with utmost skill. I believe that the great time management consultant Tim Ferris talks a good bit about being able to do things really well, and he uses an example of trying to respond to as many emails effectively as you can within a certain amount of time and getting that part of your day behind you. As a lawyer, I say be careful with emails and hasty responses, but for non-legal communications, it sounds like a great exercise.

12.                        You Are What You SEEK: The next step is to regulate what you take in, both physically and mentally, on a conscious level. If you read books by the great Dr. Deepak Chopra or many other great spiritual and self-help writers, they talk about the types of negative information that you choose to take in and whether that is healthy for you. The types of people, places, and things that you encounter, or allow yourself to encounter, are also important to determine whether these interactions are healthy for you. But then, really, the next level beyond that is the concept of "you are what you eat." In this day and age, in the new science of the 21st century, if you're not feeling well or you're not feeling right, you need to find out what types of foods and what types of liquids and water quality you consume. Mental fitness is one issue, but physical and dietary issues can affect the mind. We must make sure that our bodies are at the optimum level.

Today, the talk out of Silicon Valley and pro sports is about brain hacking and peak performance. I have not read Tom Brady’s new book, but I can presume many of these issues address this topic directly. All of these young performers are taking various vitamins and minerals and nutrition, eating certain things and taking certain proteins and herbs. Some of the vitamins are even synthetic forms of vitamins that may maximize mental and physical condition. We're not talking about steroids, and we're NOT talking about SPEED either. Whether it's Ritalin, Adderall, or steroids, this topic is NOT about the use of doctor-prescribed drugs.

In sum, there's a whole new Generation X out there, and they’re monitoring and maximizing their mental, physical, and spiritual health through the use of testing, computers, diet, herbs, proteins, minerals, and vitamins, along with exercise, hiring coaches, and everything else. It could be called a buckshot approach that people are using, where they are trying to turbo-charge themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. So, be discerning about what you eat and what you consume so you can maximize yourself each day, whether it be during the day or at night while you sleep. There are even things to do to improve your sleep, as well. Sleep is important because a good, quality REM sleep is what allows your mind to function at its best the following day. Some people have specific foods, meditations, exercise, or supplements they do before sleep to make sure they have a great sleep pattern.

13.                       BE YOU AND BE ALIVE: The next step is really to find out what makes you feel alive. Make a list out. Write down things that you enjoy doing, or maybe you don't enjoy doing, or write down things you MAY enjoy doing. Go try them out if you can, or find somebody who is good at a particular activity you want to try out and talk to them. Say, "Hey, I know that you ski at the mountain every year. Would you take me with you and teach me?" There's lots of great hobbies in life. It's not just getting out of your comfort zone; this is really about learning new skills and being alive. Unless you experience or try certain things, sometimes it's difficult to know what really makes you feel good. Sometimes people fall into a certain type of job or labor of love when they didn't even know they enjoyed it, they just happened to experience it or go try it out. A lot of authors have talked about this. Sometimes you have to just go work at the donut shop to find out whether or not you enjoy dealing with pastries and customers every day. What makes you feel alive? What makes you feel wonderful? What gives you energy? What animates you in life? If you read great authors like Martha Beck or T. Harv Ekar, they talk a lot about this. Even Dr. Chopra talks about the word “Dharma” and your purpose in life and what animates you. In sum, this is about getting into your groove and finding where you can best operate, maximize your potential and serve humanity.

14.                       Your Environment: The next step is, who do you associate with? The famous Kim Blanchard and other authors talk about how attitudes rub off on us. Basically, they've analyzed various types of people, whether it's in the United States or other places, and the income, happiness, and success rate of the average person is about equal to the people they associate with, generally speaking. So, if you can, associate with people who are smarter than you, faster than you, better than you, people maybe you can learn something from. Maybe it will rub off. Maybe it will allow you to strive to beat those goals and to do better and better and better. Surround yourself with people who can help you grow. Remember, there is something called “vibration.” If you put two tuning forks next to each other and ring one of the forks, the other fork will begin to vibrate at the same level. 

15.                       What Is Your Energy Type: The last principle is to know your matrix. Really, this idea is about understanding and knowing thyself. Whether you go back to Shakespeare, or to Buddha, or to Jesus Christ, or any of the great philosophers, teachers, and masters of time or history, they're going to say to know yourself, particularly if you want peace of mind. Know who you are. Know your authentic self and connect with that authentic self. If you read Ralph Waldo Emerson or Thoreau, don't be a “cow in the herd” just following the rest of the herd. You can be unique, march to the beat of your own drum, and be the best you can be. Maybe you can do something unique, different, and wonderful. Be who you're supposed to be. Remember, the unique cornerstone is always necessary at the end of the day to make the architecture of the traditional blocks form a complete building. Thus, “Beat to your own Drum, Stand Tall, and BE PROUD.

About the Author

Prof. Dr. Jur. George S. Mentz JD MBA - is the CEO of the Global Academy which has over 100 thousand members in 150+ countries. Dr. Mentz is an IBA 2016 Self Help Book International Award Winner, and the first person in the United States to be multi credentialed as a Lawyer, MBA, Doctor of Jurisprudence/JD, Qualified Financial Planner, Chartered Management Consultant, Certified Financial Consultant. Mentz is an award winning speaker/professor and has been a published author for top literary houses including: National Underwriter ALM, O-Books, John Hunt Publishing United Kingdom, Dice.com, ThinkAdvisor.com, eFinancialCareers.com, and has served a Brain Trust member. Mentz is available to speak at conference on inspiration, productivity and wealth management sales techniques. www.GMentz.com

Mentz is the author the new Bestselling success book Quantum Bliss.

Quantum Bliss: The Quantum Mechanics of Happiness, Abundance, and Health by George S. Mentz Link: https://amzn.com/1785352032

Disclaimer: COPYRIGHT 2017 George Mentz, Esq., - All readers are advised to find a licensed professional before making any important medical, legal, health, tax or financial decision. Always seek the advice of a competent counsel or physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical issue. Advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each person and case, and laws and advice are constantly changing. No legal, health or medical advice is intended to be given in this book. The advice in this book are generalized suggestions where many have benefited from implementing various ideas herein.