Day 19 "Unconscious Gratitude"

Unconscious gratitude is when being grateful becomes a part of your identity. This does take a few weeks to become a part of us. Going beyond being thankful for family, friends and possessions we should learn to be grateful for all the things we normally take for granted. Such as breathing, the air we breathe, the birds we hear, your ability to walk, your ability to speak, the people you dislike in life, the seats you sit on - all of the things we normally don't pay attention to.

If we practice this every day for several weeks and do it regularly throughout the day we will have a shift in consciousness.

Day 18 "My Reality is not your Reality"

What we think determines what we get out of life. By changing our perception of the world we can change our reality. Steve told the story of the potato, how Fredrick the Great wanted to feed it to his people, but the peasants didn't want to eat them. Freddy had a field of potatoes planted in the royal field and posted a guard. When the peasants saw they were guarded their perception changed and they thought the potatoes were worth stealing. The guard was intentionally weak and once the peasants started eating the potatoes their perception was forever changed.

Day 17 "The Myth That is Happiness"

Today Steven talked about the emotion of happiness and how it is not a very long lasting emotion. We get a new car, computer or bigger house and the feeling of happiness doesn't last and we are on something else to make us happy.

He suggested that we should shift our focus from trying to be happy to trying to be content. Contentment is a much more controlled and mellow emotion that can be sustained for long periods of time. Whereas the things that might make us happy (car, computer, house) the emotion is short lived, the things that make us content might be knowing the family is safe, having a job I'm passionate about, spending time with family, etc. the emotion will last much longer.

Our exercise today asked us to list outcomes that would make us content and then score the outcome from 1 to 10.

• Spend time with Lori and Cody doing something we like
• Have a job that I can be passionate about and look forward to going to
  
• Working on speeches for TM and jokes for Stand-up
• Completing pens
• Get the Z car finished

Day 16 "Emotional Homeostasis"

Emotional homeostasis is an emotional balance.

Stairway to Emotional Mastery:

1. Recognize - recognize that you have the emotion
   
2. Name your emotion - Put a specific name to the emotion e.g. anger.
   
3. Accept responsibility - Know that it is you that is feeling the emotion and only you, you should not pass blame of the emotion on to anyone else.
   
4. Find another meaning - Ask yourself why you are feeling a particular way and if it might be something you are feeling deep down.
   
5. Accepting your emotions - Whatever you are feeling is never wrong. The actions you take because of the emotions may be wrong, but the emotion itself is never wrong.
   
6. Does the emotion teach you - Are you learning from the emotion or feeling? Your mind it trying to get you to pay attention for a reason.
   
7. Change your emotion - Try and change the emotion by changing the state.
   

Day 15 "Ask the Right Questions"

An example of asking the right questions is: If I want to lose 30 pounds, don't ask "how can I lose 30 pounds". Instead ask "how can I lose 2 pounds". Do this 15 times and you've lost the 30.

We can't solve problems with the same questions we asked when the problem was first created. We often ask ourselves the same question over and over again. Ask 5 different end questions to a problem you might be stuck with and start answering them all.

• How can I free up more time for myself
• How can I work smarter
• How can this process be improved
• How can I become more organized

Outcome: Advance to a higher position in Bresnan - trainer/instructor

Can outcome be broken down:
learn my technical assistance job well
Improve my teaching skills
Let me intentions be known

5 Questions
What can I do to improve my technical skills?
What can I do to improve my customer relations skills?
What can I do to improve my teaching skills?
What can I do to show my supervisor that I could excel in that position?
What other positions would I need to have first?
Are there any online course I could take?
Would I really like that position?

Day 14 "Catch Up Day"

Did I catch up the way I was supposed to? No! I am catching up now which is actually day 16.

Day 13 "Clearing Your Mind"'

Today we learned about clearing our minds. When you think of something that needs to be done you should write it down so you don't forget and, also, so you don't have to keep thinking about it. If it's an item that only takes a minute or so to complete, you should just do it. For example, replying to or sending an email, then you won't have to think of it again.

I am a huge procrastinator and forget things that need to be done. When I have them on my calendar or to do list it helps me a lot. I'd like to get into the habit of going over that list before I go to bed and when I get up in the morning.

Day 12 "Letting go of Yourself"

In today's lesson we learned not to hold too tightly to our outcomes. We will continue to take steps toward the outcome, but let go of the outcome itself. The exercise had me write down a goal and then on one side of a sheet write down everything I can think of that would be amazing about the outcome. On the other side of the sheet list everything that would be bad about the outcome.

Outcome: Become a competent comedian

What would be amazing:

* I would be able to make people laugh and forget their problems for awhile
* It's such a wonderful feeling to be onstage and have a full house laughing at your jokes
* It's great to hear comments like, "that was awesome"
* To become a better public speaker you need stagetime, comedy give you that
* builds self confidence
* after you perform enough, people recognize you out in public


What would be bad:

* miss being home with Lori
* you can't miss a week or you go backwards
* takes a lot of time to prepare and practice every day
*

Day 11 "Guided Visualization"

In this lesson I listened to a recording of someone guiding me through a scene in my mind to facilitate change in thoughts. This is a relaxation exercise we are supposed to do every day.

Click here for the recording.

Day 10 "Relaxation"

Today we learned to relax, letting our minds and bodies 'chill out' for 10-15 minutes per day. Steven gave us a simple, 9 step, relaxation technique. I found the steps easy, but with ADHD it takes concentration to get my mind to quit thinking about things that just pop into it. In step 7 Steven does tell us that this can be tricky and with some practice I'm sure I'll get better.

There are other relaxation techniques and Steven tells us that whichever one we use we need to make it a daily thing.

1. Choose a quiet haven for you. Your bedroom, the bathroom, the garage, anywhere where you won’t be disturbed.

2. Do a few gentle stretching exercises to loosen up your muscles, so muscle tension won’t be a distraction for you.

3. Get comfortable in a chair, or lye down on a mat of some kind.

4. Start to slowly breath in, as you breath in let your lungs fill and push your stomach out, a la pregnant pose. When you exhale, do it slowly, and when you exhale pull your stomach in to try and get your stomach to the inside of your back, in other words pull your stomach in as far as you can. Do this 5 times.

5. Now gently tense, then relax, each part of your body starting from you feet and work your way upwards.

6. As you are tensing each area, think of a warm glow coming into that area, with a relaxed heaviness.

7. If any thoughts come to mind, just let them drift by without attaching to them. This can be tricky at first but with practice you will learn to let thoughts drift through your mind.

8. Once you have completed a round of tensing and relaxing your body. Take a few minutes to go to a place in your mind that you find extremely relaxing: A garden, a waterfall, the beach, anywhere that brings you a feeling of peace and serenity.

9. Stay like this for about 15 minutes. Now take some deep breathes in, pushing out your stomach, and exhale slowly pulling in your stomach. Lie for another few moments before getting up.

Day 9 "Changing Your Beliefs"

Today's lesson on Changing Your Beliefs started with an interesting story about 2 guys that were raised by an alcoholic father. One of them grew up and became an alcoholic and was frequently in trouble with the law. The other son grew up and became a very successful businessman.

When each were asked why they turned out the way they did, they had the same response, "how else could I have turned out with a father like mine".

Day 8 "Your Life's Theme Songs"

Day 8 of the Mind Alchemy course, we are supposed to choose 10 songs that get us motivated, either by getting the heart pumped up or with the words of the song which have special meaning and lift our spirits.

This may be a little more difficult for me than some of the other exercises. I never have listened to much music and find it hard to remember songs and especially song titles. Although over the years there have been many songs that I've heard that do get my heart pumped up.

Here is my list:

1. I Like to Boogie
2. Eye of the Tiger
3. Old Time Rock & Roll
4. Chantilly Lace
5. New York, New York
6. Shepherd Boy
7. God Bless the U.S.A.
8. The Fighting Side of Me
9. There is Power in the Blood
10. Big Bad John
    

Now, we think back to some events in our lives that have made us very excited and motivated. As we play the video of these memories in our minds we add the theme songs at the peak of excitement. Every day we do through playing the video in our minds with the them songs attached. Put the theme songs on my Ipod and listen to them when I need a boost of energy or excitement.

Day 7 "The Nature of Your Thoughts"

On day 7 of the 28 day Mind Alchemy course, we worked on changing our thoughts by replacing, stopping and redirecting them. For example, I have been unemployed for over a year now. Instead of thinking worrisome thoughts like, "I'm not going to be able to pay my bills" or "I'll never be able to retire." Instead redirect those negative thoughts with something like, "How can I find ways to make money?" Perhaps, I could start my own business rather than working for someone.

The exercise for today is called, unedited writing of our worries and thoughts. We are to take pen and paper or type a Word document and for 30 minutes write down every single thought we have and focus on what we are worried about. Don't think too much about what we are writing, but to just let if flow.

Since 30 minutes of thoughts and worries probably doesn't make good reading, I would be posting the results of the exercise today.

Day 6 " Your Perfect Day"

On the 6th day of the Mind Alchemy course, Steven is having us write a story that would be our perfect day. It should be in the most vivid detail possible. We were given a list of questions that should be answered in our story.

Here is what I came up with:

I wake up a 7 a.m. feeling great after a good night's rest. The bedroom is quite large with a king size bed, a sitting area, walk in closets and a master bath. The bathroom has a Jacuzzi bathtub and a shower with multiple shower heads. I put on my bathrobe and go out onto the deck that overlooks the beach (or lake, or mountain view) and enjoy a morning cup of coffee while I have my Bible study and devotion time.

Since this is a Saturday and my day off from workout in our well equipped home gym, I take a shower and then head to the kitchen to make breakfast. The large kitchen has a gas range and high end appliances and everything you need for a well stocked kitchen. Today is bacon, eggs, hash browns, whole wheat toast and jelly.

Our home is not huge, but it is large enough that I can get up and move around the house without bothering Lori, while she sleeps in until 9 a.m. The office is far from the bedrooms and has high end computers and other office stuff. After breakfast I head to the office where I will spend a half an hour writing stand-up comedy.

By this time my lovely bride, Lori should be getting up and we'll go into the large living room to read the morning paper. There is a big screen TV in the living room and we have a theater as well with high quality leather recliners.

I have a large woodworking shop in a detached building out back. I head out there to do some work. Maybe I'll build a pen or two, maybe I'll get some work done on the dresser I am building for the bedroom.

For lunch Lori and I will get into the Hummer and head down to one of the fine restaurants in the area. After lunch we stop by the house to pick up our Golden retriever, Cody, and head for a drive up to the mountains. There is a little diner that we always stop at for a piece of pie. Cody loves to walk with us up the mountain trails.

Since it is too late to cook dinner, we stop by Papa Murphy's on the way home and pick up a pepperoni delite pizza. Once the pizza is cooked we head to the theater room to watch TV, eat our pizza and drink a beer or two. Since there isn't much on Saturday nights that we like to watch, we are thankful to have DVR and watch shows that were recorded earlier in the week.

At about 10 p.m. Lori sends me to bed so she can watch shows that she likes. Cody and I head to the bedroom where I spend about an hour reading before climbing into bed and going to sleep.

Day 5 "Setting Your Outcomes"

This is the day that we write down the outcomes that we want. Steven suggests that being very specific when we set our outcomes, we go with being less specific and then focus on the underlying value or emotion will bring once the outcome has been realized.

Once we start thinking about the outcome we want, our mind will start working on how to bring it about. Once we focus our minds on these outcomes, other less important things will be forced out or our minds. This will allow the mind to be on the lookout for opportunities, people or books that may help us reach our outcomes.

This is the worksheet for today's lesson. We are to fill out one of these for each outcome.
Download PDF Mind Alchemy Day 5 Your outcomes for 2011

I decided to work on 6 outcomes at this time. I think I might have ADHD and if I try to do too much at once I may become overwhelmed and not complete any of them.

1. I Completed the Mind Alchemy course and blog my journey every day. 2/28/11
2. I completed updating my resume and am confident that prospective employers will be easily able to tell what it is that I can do for their company. 2/13/11
3. I have completed a month of daily devotions, Bible study and prayer. I am becoming spiritually healthy. 3/12/11
4. I have completed my P90 exercise program and am on my way to being healthy without any extra fat. 4/13/11
5. I have worked on writing comedy every day for at least 15 minutes. I have performed at The Carlin and/or Manny's at least twice a month. I performed in a contest.
   
6. I have completed my Toastmasters High Performance Leadership Program. We have at least 6 paid members, elected officers, and voted on name change to Jolly Jesters Humor Club. 3/30/11

I don't have a complete date for stand-up at this time. When I find out when the next contest is, that will be the date. If you want to see one of my stand-up performances, it is at youtube: Performance at Asian Nites Casino

Now, I will be looking at each of these outcome worksheets every day until the outcome is complete. I will spend time clearly seeing the outcome as being achieved and feeling the emotions, seeing the pictures clearly, hearing the sounds as clearly as possible and really immersing myself into the scene.

Day 4 "Vision Statements"

On day 4 of the Mind Alchemy course we are learning to write a personal vision statement. The personal vision statement is a statement of intent with regards to my outcomes or goals in life.

We are to write a concise statement, 2 or 3 sentences in length on what we will do to achieve the outcomes that we listed on day 2. This statement will help stimulate creativity and motivate us to to find what we need to do for the success of our outcomes.

My personal vision statements:

Outcome 1: A job/career that I will enjoy working in where I can help people with their service needs.
Vision Statement: I am a self motivated person of high integrity. My customer relations skills help me to keep customer satisfaction high.

Outcome 2: I will complete my P90 exercise program.
Vision Statement: I feel so much better when I exercise and have more energy. I will look better when I get rid of this fat waist. It will improve my health.

Outcome 3: Be a stand-up comedian.
Vision Statement: I have a good stage presence and the audience seems to enjoy my humor. It is a great feeling when they laugh and applaud what I say. I prefer clean humor and hope to find more people in Billings that can perform clean.

Outcome 4: I will complete my Toastmasters High Performance Leadership Program by successfully getting the Jolly Jesters Humor Club completely up and running.
Vision Statement: I use my leadership skills to bring together Toastmasters that are interested in learning to use humor in their speeches. With my guidance and suggestions the club members will teach each other how to use humor effectively.

Day 3 "Your Life Values"

As a member of Toastmasters, I am always looking for ideas for speeches. As I started reading today's lesson, the thought came to me that this would be a perfect topic for a speech.

Click here if you would like to join this free course.

This lesson has us look at our values whether they are weak or strong, plus values that we would like to have in our lives. To help us decide which values we would like, we were given a list of several hundred values. The exercise was to go through this list and check off all of the values that are important in all areas of our life.

Once all of the values are checked we were to go through the eight categories of life (from day 1) and list the values under each category. After they are listed we go through each category and rank them according to their importance to us.

I found this exercise to be somewhat difficult as I didn't even know the meaning of some of the words. I guess if I don't know the meaning the value isn't all that important to me.

Here are the values that I chose for each area, in no particular order.

Health Values:

• Discipline
• Endurance
• Energy
• Strength
• Fitness
• Flexibility
• Health
• Recreation

Money Values:

• Wealth
• Professionalism
• Prosperity
• Giving
• Generosity
• Financial Independence
• Commitment
• Success
• Stability
• Investing
• Abundance

Family Values:

• Devotion
• Enjoyment
• Family
• Loyalty
• Love
• Kindness
• Stability
• Happiness
• Fun
• Recreation

Personal Development Values:

• Accomplishment
• Celebrity
• Discipline
• Education
  
• Excellence
• Learning
• Skillfulness
• Success
• Concentration
• Perseverance
  

Career Values:

• Drive
• Integrity
• Leadership
• Motivation
• Service
• Skillfulness
• Success
• Dependability
• Reliability
• Trustworthiness
  

Recreational Values:

• Amusement
• Celebrity
• Endurance
• Entertainment
• Family
• Strength
• Fun
• Recreation
• Relaxation

Spirituality Values:

• Devotion
• Discipline
• Faith
• Joy
• Love
• Meekness
• Spirituality
• Charity
• Giving
• Holiness

Outcomes Values:

• Accomplishment
• Ambition
• Diligence
• Endurance
  
• Learning
• Motivation
  
• Optimism

Now to start living my values more effectively. I am supposed to work toward values that are weak or non existent. By doing this, those values will become more and more a part of my core values.

Day 2 "Motivation Direction"

Day 2 of the Mind Alchemy course to change your thinking is "Motivation Direction". Today's lesson explores the question, is our motivation direction moving use toward pleasure or away from pain. We were given a worksheet and asked so list 4 short term outcomes or goals and why we wanted each one. After listing each reason we were do decided the motivation direction.

1. Outcome: Get a job or new career
Why: for income to live on now and save for retirement.
Motivation Direction: toward

2. Outcome: Continue my P90 exercise program
Why: for better health and so slim down my waist so my pants will stay up.
Motivation Direction: toward

3. Outcome: Go back to doing stand-up comedy
Why: improve my presentation skills, learn how to work an audience, to make people laugh
Motivation Direction: toward

4. Outcome: To blog my journey through the Mind Alchemy course.
Why: It will help me to think about the lessons more clearly and help me to be able to remember and put in to practice what I learned.
Motivation Direction: toward.

Day 1 of Mind Alchemy "Wheel of Life"

Several months ago, while doing some Internet research on personal development, I came across Steven Aitchison's blog: Change your thoughts, Change your life. Steven has a lot of great information on his site as well as books he has written.

He is offering free 28 day course that started today called, Mind Alchemy. This is a course to help us transform the way we think and infuse our minds with thoughts that will move our lives forward, and help us to look at the world a little differently from what we are used to doing.

Day 1 is Wheel of Life. We were given 8 areas of life and were supposed to rate ourselves on a scale of 1 to 8. How I rated myself follows:

Health: We already eat pretty well, although I supposed some changes could be made. I started working out 3 weeks ago after living a pretty sedentary lifestyle for a number of years. So I rated myself a 5 in this area.

Money: Thanks to my wife we do have some money saved up and very little debt. I am currently unemployed so we have a long way to go as far as investments are concerned before we will be able to retire. Since we have little debt I rated myself a 5.

Family: I do spend a lot of time at home and with my wife. And talk to my folks once a week and try and stay in contact via email and Facebook with other relatives. It would be good if my wife and I would do more away from home together. Rated a 6.

Personal Development: I'm taking this course! I've been a Toastmaster since 2006 and serve as an officer in 2 clubs. I try and read books and listen to CDs that will help to improve myself. Rated a 5.

Career: I was very happy with my career before I got laid off. Right now I'm not 100% sure what I want to do next. Something with less travel for sure. Rated a 3.

Recreation: I spend a lot of time watching TV. Would like to spend more time doing something more constructive. Rated a 3.

Spirituality: I am a Christian and we attend church most weeks. I need to attend more regularly and spend more time reading the Bible and praying. Rated a 3.

Goals: I rated myself very low on this because while I have occasionally set some goals in the past, I've never really followed through with them. Rated a 2.

Here is what I have a long way to go and hopefully this course will put me on the right track and teach me some new positive habits.

Here is my wheel of life as of today: