In this week’s Pep Talk video the Comeback Coach, inspired by cleaning the clutter from his teenage daughter’s room, encourage others to have their actions speak far louder than their words.

In this week’s Pep Talk the Comeback Coach, inspired by the “balloon hoax” couple’s ill-advised actions, encourages you to avoid deception and exploitation and seek, instead, truth and responsibility

In this week’s Pep Talk video the Comeback Coach, inspired by the words of a motivational speaking icon, encourages you to eliminate the word “impossible” from your dictionary.

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By Richard B. Brooke

One of the biggest challenges I face in teaching people the Art of Self Motivation is leading them to understand how you and I learn to believe.

By the Mach II definition, a vision is not a vision unless you have some belief that it is inevitable. Otherwise, it is nothing more than a wish, at worst, and a goal, at best. Neither a wish nor a goal compare in power to a vision. Once we write some affirmations or a storyboarded vision, the big challenge comes in “being with it.” Every time we visualize it we may feel like a fraud. We may “know” it is not true, and so reading it every day becomes a chore and soon we may lose interest. So how do we learn to believe?

Here are the first two commonly accepted ways people learn to believe:

First, if you have actually experienced something, then you will believe it. This is because you hold that an actual experience is the truth and you automatically believe what you hold as true.

Next, there is input from authority figures, whether it is your parents, teachers, bosses or the media. If an authority figure says it is true, you often automatically believe it is true.

Imagine how easy it would be to “expect success” if you had been successful at the same venture before. Imagine how naturally you would make things happen if everyone important in your life – from your parents, to your clergy, to your spouse, to all your friends – insisted that you had the magic touch. It is easy to believe these first two ways. Unfortunately we don’t all have this going for us on every new venture we choose to tackle.

There is a third nearly lost art of believing that anyone can use, which is to “learn to believe” in anything. And it works like this:

There are two parts of you that make things happen. First is your conscious mind. Its job in life is to discern things like right and wrong, hot and cold, danger and safety, pleasure and pain. It draws on an infinite storehouse of experiences to match up what it is sensing with what it has sensed before. Out of all that, it draws conclusions in the form of opinions (“facts” if they are your own opinions and just opinions if they belong to others). You may call it judgment, or knowledge, or experience.

The conscious mind, in comparison to the other parts of you, is small and weak. It may have as many limiting judgments and opinions as it has empowering ones. It usually keeps you playing small and safe. It competes with others; it makes others less than you. It is the part of you that sits in a movie and “knows” that what you are viewing is all contrived. It knows that the movie is not real and that nothing really has happened to any of the people, regardless of what the film script dictates.

The other parts of you that makes things happen is comprised of your subconscious mind, your emotions and, if you will, your spiritual self. These parts, in combination, are the power within you that makes huge things happen and attracts good fortune to you. For most people, these parts are left to idle away in life, barely being utilized for anything truly desired.

These parts, in combination, create your intuition, your enthusiasm, your courage, your persistence and even extraordinary physical power, if needed. Anything that has ever been created or accomplished that is extraordinary in human history has been accomplished by placing these powers in play.

These are also the parts of you that do not – in fact cannot – distinguish the fact from the fiction in a movie. They are not influenced by the facts; they are only influenced by the story. They cannot tell the difference between a real event and one that has been vividly imagined. They cannot, will not, do not. If it is clearly imagined, it is to these powers as though it actually happened. And they respond accordingly. That is why, regardless of the facts, we cry in sad movies and we fear for the life of an actor in danger.

Our power to move mountains lies in our sadness, our fear, our joy and our anger. We can do anything and attract anything to us when we are moved to do so.

Herein lies the opportunity to believe in your visions. When you visualize something you want, and you do so according to Mach II, you will visualize it not as something you want, but as something you already have. That will trigger two things: One is the chatter of your conscious mind, which may have lots of opinions about your vision. Some may be empowering, others not so.

The other thing that happens – though not obvious at all – is that your spiritual self experiences the visualization of this “movie” as though it is actually happening. To your spiritual self, it is actually happening; it is a real experience; it is true. When you watch it once you get what we call an imprint. Watch it twice, you get two imprints; fifty times, fifty imprints. Each time it is to your spiritual self as though it has happened to you in real life. It starts to become part of your truth about you. You are now learning to believe.

This is the subtle behind-the-scenes way we believe, and given the chance, it will sneak up on you and start to influence your actions and attractions. For as you learn to believe in your visualizations, they become textbook visions. And the result is always the motivation to act and attract them into fruition.

The real challenge in mastering the Art of Self Motivation is to believe that you can, and will, learn to believe this way and then to act on it. You can trust in this process; it does work. It is working now for you … whether you choose the outcomes or not.

Related posts:

1. Program Your Own Success
2. You’ll See It When You Believe It
3. Being The Best You Can Be

By Richard B. Brooke

Have you ever seen the little children in undeveloped, impoverished countries on the news? Notice how happy they seem, unless they are starving or sick (which many of them are). Have you ever wondered how that can be? How can children with so little – and with so little future – seem so happy, carefree and full of joy?

Do you remember what you were like as a small child … say from the age of 3 to about age 10 or 12? Do you remember what you daydreamed about? What you loved doing or playing or learning? Do you remember anything about what you dreamed you would do someday when you grew up? Do you remember what was important to you? Was it Play … Winning … Friendship … Family … Nature … Adventure … Cooking … Creating … Caretaking?

The most authentic and, dare I say, personally evolved people on the planet are children.

When we were children anything was not only possible, but expected. Anything we wanted, we believed we could have – and have right now. Anything we wanted to do, we believed we could do right now, without any interference or negotiating. The world was our oyster. It could be no other way – not because we were insecure, selfish clods, but because our very existence made the world our candy store, in which we had unlimited credit.

From that perfect cocoon we developed a natural and permanent set of preferences about how we want to experience life. Some of us want adventure, others safety. Some creativity, others caretaking. These are what are often referred to in today’s psychology as our core values - those values that define our happiness, our peace and our power. As long as we get to do these things and embrace these preferences, we are in our groove and life is good – whether we are 7 or 67.

But just as we began to get into our groove – not long after we learn to communicate, discover our options, and gain some life experience – a powerful force (times two, in most cases) started to take shape in our lives. These two very powerful, very large forces were the key to our very existence, for they provided the home in which we got our most basic needs met: shelter and food. These two giants that permeated every second of our existence were, of course, our PARENTS.

Parents almost always have good intentions and almost always are a great contribution in our lives, beyond just keeping us alive. But for all of the good they are, parents are often the biggest challenge to our growing up to live out our dreams with that very early, very core set of very personal preferences … our core values.

You see, most parents missed Parenting 101, Childhood Psychology 102 and Authenticity 103 in school. They missed them because they do not exist. Parenting in our society usually follows the model of nature. It is expected to just be instinctive.

One instinct, which is certainly admirable, is wanting our children to be the best they can be … to be smart, strong and successful. More insidious is our desire for our children to be “right.” And what better way for them to be “right” than for them to be just like us. So early on, parents set out to make sure their children become just like them – with the right beliefs, the right habits, the right ethics, the right skills, hobbies, careers, religions; and even the right sports teams.

You may remember the relentless insistence that as a child you were expected by your parents to do things this way or that, see things this way or that, say things this way or that. Some of those lessons are so deeply ingrained they sing to us even today, like some old nursery rhymes. These are called imposed values.

Parents, with their inherent power and the barter of food and shelter are no match for young children with nothing but naturally developed preferences. This creates an unavoidable conflict between imposed versus core values.

And so the process of becoming inauthentic begins. It began with the very first “should.” You should do this (in other words, you better do this, or else!). We learned to push our core values deeper inside of us … hiding them away for a safer day to play. We kept putting on the clothes laid out for us every morning and every night … the clothes we should wear. The clothes we must wear, or else. Layer after layer of who we should be – to be right, and to be acceptable, and to be loved. Each layer stole more and more of our spiritual self, our natural free-flowing essence … our power.

Sadly even after our parents have passed, many of us live in fear of disappointing them. Can you see how insidious and powerful that internal programming is?

So how do you start to take off the layers of your parents’ hand-me-down clothes? The path of personal development is a path of authenticity. Authenticity is simply rediscovering and liberating our core values. Sometimes they are the same as some of our parents’. And always there are suppressed core values dying to be freed.

The more you and I live our lives to the tune of our own drummer, the more authentic and the more peaceful and powerful we are.

To support you in rediscovering your core values, I ask that you honestly answer the following questions:

Who would you choose to be and what would you love to do if there was no one (not any one … not your parents, grandparents, respected teachers, colleagues, friends, etc.) to stand in judgment?

What would you wear? What would your hobbies be? How would you spend your time and money?

In other words, who would you be if you had the full permission of everyone who loved you? Almost always we would be someone different than who we are.

Now, quietly and alone, begin to sculpt your authentic self – not from who you are now, but from who you are at the core. Peel off the layers. Let the Magnificent You shine through. Describe the Magnificent You in detail; write it down.

How do you look?

How do you feel?

What do you love to do and how do you do it?

What is truly important to you?

What sets you free?

What makes you feel your very best?

What lets you love freely?

What inspires and sets you on your path to greatness?

Write it all in the present tense, creating positive images with your words. Affirm it. Read it daily. Gather pictures, and music, and quotes to support it. Study it like you did your nursery rhymes as a kid … the songs and poems you learned by heart.

Think about what “by heart” means. It becomes part of who we are, existing in every cell of our body, laced throughout our spirit.

This process does work to peel off the layers of “others’ visions for you” and expose the true essence of you. It works because the process of visualizing the new you – regardless of your mindless chatter about it – over time trains your emotional, spiritual and unconscious self to believe and accept it.

It works because it is merely training the powerful part of you to shine again. It is already in there, always has been, covered up by a thousand wet blankets.

My greatest mentor told me in the late 70s that all personal power comes from self-honesty. I see authenticity as the same thing. Allowing ourselves to be the “real deal” lets our personal power run wild. It is an extraordinary process of rebirthing, if you will. This is one you can try at home.

Related posts:

1. Leadership That Inspires
2. Being The Best You Can Be
3. Program Your Own Success

By Richard B. Brooke

Think of a time when you really wanted something badly. When your need to have or achieve it consumed your thoughts, yet your mind convinced you it was out of reach or unattainable.

One of the greatest mysteries that surround the elusive nature of success, happiness and peace of mind is revealed when we understand one simple truth: Desire – in and of itself – means little and moves nothing.

The truth is, what you and I want matters little in this life. Everyone wants health, wealth, happiness and wisdom. Not everyone has these qualities, nor will they achieve them. Occasionally we do manage to enjoy one, or even all of them, for a time. It is this accidental bumping into success that has led us to believe that if we want something badly enough – and if we work hard enough for it – we are assured of getting it.

Good intentions are not, however, enough for us to rally the forces of nature to provide its abundance for us. There are other laws of nature with which we are less familiar and less skilled at employing. These laws are so available and powerful that merely practicing them produces enormous and rapid abundance.

What matters is what we expect of ourselves; what we believe is inevitable for us. What matters is our mindset about who we are and what we deserve.

It is not enough to want, wish or hope. It is not enough to set goals or work hard. We must affirm over and over again in our mind’s eye and in our heart that what we want is inevitable. We must see it, hear it, taste it and feel it happening right now. And we must do this regardless of any and all evidence to the contrary. We must establish faith (defined as belief without evidence) in our quest. We must act as though, pray as though, and move through our world as though what we want … ALREADY IS.

As human beings, we have the distinct advantage of having the extraordinary inability to distinguish between the real and the very well-imagined. A crystal-clear vision that is well rehearsed over and over becomes real, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. This is how you and I can turn our desires into our realities.

Pick a Number

Money is often seen as a villain in our lives, when actually it is merely an amplifier of our intentions. It can make bad intentions worse, as well as good intentions better. Our lives can be enhanced tremendously with financial freedom. Freedom to make our avocation our occupation. Freedom to give our time and money. Freedom to pursue our childhood dreams – and our adult fascinations.

You don’t necessarily have to be rich monetarily to enjoy these freedoms. What would you do differently in your life if you could just maintain your current income without going to work?

Now take a minute to dream a little. Pick a number … any income that would really alter your life, yet is still believable. Can you see yourself earning an extra thousand a month? What would you do with it? How would you make your life more fulfilling, more secure, and more adventuresome? How would you maximize your education, your personal and spiritual development?

Now write a vision of your life and the freedom you have just imagined. Describe it in detail, with as much passion, emotion and enthusiasm as possible. The key to having your subconscious mind access and believe in your vision is to make it vivid, clear and full of every detail, including the most important detail: how you feel.

Whether it’s in the area of your wealth, relationships, health, achievements, or all of the above – take charge of your future. Have the courage to direct its course. Be responsible for creating your life of choice. Our world will amaze you with its generosity. It is not without a price, yet if you chose a course dear to your heart, it is a price you will love to pay.

THINK ABOUT IT …

Which one area of your life do you most desire improvement?

• Wealth
• Personal Relationships
• Health
• Occupation
• Education
• Avocations
• Time
• Philanthropy & Community Service
• Personal Development
• Spiritual Development
• Peace of Mind

Do you have a written, crystal-clear vision that supports your desire?

Do you read it daily to affirm its inevitability?

Related posts:

1. Program Your Own Success
2. Leadership That Inspires
3. The Power of Personal Authenticity

By Richard B. Brooke

World history is full of powerful leaders; men and women who changed the direction of societies, business and culture. Nothing is more valuable to our society’s health. Yet today, leadership often feels like a missing link in business, politics, religion, education and even the family.

Sure, leadership exists. But it is seldom the kind of long-term guidance that inspires us to move powerfully in a direction that we would not necessarily move on our own initiative. And often, it lacks energy and deliberate, purposeful action.
A Vision That Contributes

More than anything, a leader has a crystal-clear Vision that is compelling enough, and contributes enough, to inspire us to pursue it. Not only do leaders have a clear Vision, they are a clear Vision to those they endeavor to lead. And they communicate in such a way that the Vision stays on the forefront of our hearts and minds.

A Vision is a living-color picture of a goal – one you can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel – held as a powerful, inevitable expectation. Visions are goals for which we are on a collision course to blow right through, and our motivation is sourced in them.

A leader listens in such a way that we feel heard; not necessarily agreed with, but at least heard and honored. They also ask us to do things that, if left to our own thinking, we would consider unreasonable, impossible or outrageous. Not things that violate our values – on the contrary, things that actually honor our values.

As a result of who they are, and how they speak and act, leaders cause us to feel stronger, happier, more “on fire” about our future. And this motivation prompts us to be powerful in our pursuits.

Character That Withstands Scrutiny

Leaders act with the ethics, morals, character and principles that are expected by their followers. A leader’s actions are consistent with his or her promises. We can count on a leader to have the integrity to be who they say they are, and to share themselves wholly and authentically – their fears, their weaknesses, their strengths and their power.

A leader stays on the path of personal and character development, knowing that none of us ever arrive. They understand that as soon as we act as if we have no room to grow, we lose our power to lead.

Just Do It … Anyway

All great endeavors are fraught with risk and adversity. Leaders are powerfully motivated by their Visions to stay on course to their goals, regardless of the obstacles. They are eternally enthusiastic. They have the courage to face their fears and go where others are afraid to go.

Leaders generate the physical wellness and energy to do the work. They possess the persistence to immediately regroup and relaunch when needed. They unleash their innate creativity to solve problems and adopt positive interpretations of all circumstances. Their journey is not dependent on what anyone thinks or whether anyone follows. They just do it … anyway!

I believe that leadership is the greatest profession of the 21^st century. Nowhere will it be more richly rewarded than in the people enrichment business. That’s our business, and I challenge you to step out and take it on. You’ll love the adventure.

THINK ABOUT IT …

Throughout history, who do you feel is (or was) the kind of leader described above?

Examine your own leadership qualities. Where do you shine and where do you need improvement?

Do you invest your time and resources in developing your leadership skills?

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1. No Hill For a Climber
2. Program Your Own Success
3. You’ll See It When You Believe It

By Richard B. Brooke

I often marvel at the innovative men and women responsible for the advancement of modern technology. Somehow these brilliant minds refuse to believe there are limits to what they can create and accomplish.

When you think about it, our minds are the most intricate and powerful “computers” imaginable. They are worth literally billions in what they can accomplish, just ask Bill Gates.

The problem with our “computer” is that we tend to let anyone and everyone program it. And the more respected and admired the source, the more quickly we adopt that programming as truth.

Even when we input the code ourselves, most of us don’t know the first thing about writing functional programs – much less the sophisticated ones that motivate us to breakthrough barriers and lead us to succeed.
Purge the Old Programming

Some of our most common programming leads to the belief that desire, hard work, being a good person and getting a good education will lead to our success. Many of our parents, grandparents and teachers hammer these concepts into our minds. Unfortunately, this old programming has very little to do with whether or not we actually achieve what we desire. The good news is we can purge the old and input new code that shifts the way we – and those we influence – go about creating a powerful life.

Get Very Clear About What You Want to Achieve

What does it look like exactly? What does it sound like? Smell like? Feel like?

This is called a Vision, or a mindset, or an expectation. Goals are merely things we want and hold in our minds and hearts as though we do not have them. The important distinction is that Visions express that we do have them … now.

The part of us that is powerful and can do anything – face any fear, climb any mountain, build any business, solve any problem – is our spiritual self. It includes our mind, our body, our emotions, our psyche and our intuition. These combined synergistic forces can and will achieve anything it is programmed to accomplish … even if you do not want it to.

Learn to Believe That It Is Inevitable

It is belief – the positive expectancy of holding your Vision as inevitable -that throws gas on the fire. When you know it will happen, expect it to happen, and see it happening in your mind, then it will happen.

When you want it to happen, work hard for it but believe it might not or should not happen (that maybe you are not even worth it or good enough to pull it off) then guess what? It won’t happen.

Program your own beliefs. One common way we learn to believe is for someone we trust implicitly to tell us something is so. This is how our minds were programmed to believe most of what we believe – through our parents and teachers during our developmental years. We rarely challenge those beliefs, even if they do not support us in living a fulfilling life as an adult.

Another way we learn to believe is by studying evidence. When we see something with our own eyes or experience it, we tend to believe it is so. We even have a name for it: Truth. Truth is something we have experienced and know to be so.

The third, less-common way we learn to believe is one that you and I can reprogram to change any aspect of our lives for the better, if we choose:

Our spiritual self cannot tell the difference between a real experience (truth) and one that we have vividly imagined (Vision).

Remember, our spiritual self is the powerful part of us that can and does do anything we want. Our mind can tell the difference between a real event and one vividly imagined, but our mind is not the part of us that is powerful or gets big things done.

Our mind has an opinion about everything. It is often a mess and the primary culprit in keeping our spiritual self from unleashing its power. Now you may say that your mind is brilliant, well-organized and knows lots of stuff about lots of stuff. And you may be right. But just ask your mind to allow you to do something you are afraid to do, and watch how much it knows about creative avoidance.

The fact that our spiritual self cannot tell the difference between the truth and truth imagined is the secret to programming any new belief. All we have to do is imagine over and over and over again this certain truth we have chosen (our Vision), and it is as though it is actually happening to us, for us and with us. We experience our Vision as the truth and in time, it becomes so.

Let It Happen

Letting it happen is different from making it happen. When we are motivated, we let things happen for us. There is a world of abundance out there; an abundance of money, love, health, fun and adventure. All we have to do is program our mind to believe in ourselves, and in our own value and dreams.

Between the ages of one and five, we were very good at all of that … it came naturally. We expressed our spirituality in our play, in our dreams and in our unconditional love. Then one day, we were asked to grow up. Lie down would be a better description of it.

It’s time to let your big dogs run. Those dreams and aspirations that keep nudging at your intuition may not bark, but you can tell they still want out. Listen to the big dogs. Therein lies the rest of your life.

You may have heard that bumblebees cannot fly … at least not according to aerodynamics. They are too big and heavy for their wingspan. No known science supports the idea that they can fly, yet they do. Perhaps they just don’t read.

THINK ABOUT IT …

Do you currently have a written personal Vision?

Does it move you when you read and visualize it?

Have you experienced “miracles” from your written Visions?

Related posts:

1. You’ll See It When You Believe It
2. The Truth About Believing
3. The Four Greatest Lies of Success