The Scroll Marked VIII – Today I will Multiply My Value a Hundredfold

Scroll VIII reminds us that we have the power to choose what becomes of us. That man’s mind has created many wonderful things. If that is so, can we not also influence and create something better out ourselves.

In this scroll, Og Mandino compares us with a grain of wheat and that one of three things can happen to it.

• 1. It can be used as feed
  2. be ground into flour
  3. or planted in the ground to multiply

He points out that we are like a grain of wheat but for one difference. The difference is that we can choose what becomes of us. That we can become more than who or what we are today if we so desire. We are not at the whim of nature to water us or warm us. Nor at the whim of life.

Some may argue that we are stuck where we are due to circumstance. The thing is that we have a mind, and we can use it to get us where we desire to be. As Lovelace wrote from prison: “Four walls do not prison make! ” And as John Milton noted: “The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” What would you choose?

Me? I am choosing to become more than I was yesterday and more than today tomorrow and so on.

Our minds have been likened to a recorder of history. If that is so, would it not be great to rewrite our history? I know that I would and I am.

Reading these scrolls is changing me slowly. The thing is, the change is something that I am seeking, desiring and making happen. Sticking to reading them each day. Admittedly I am not managing the 3x a day, but I am reading and thinking about them every day.

As in the instance of this scroll, I am working to multiply my value. To those around me and at the job I get paid for. I am striving to be better each day. Is this easy? Hell no! Is it paying off? Yes. I’d like to think that I am becoming a better partner, father and grandfather. A better employee and coach and mentor.

As Napoleon Hill pointed out in one of his books, the more we feed and challenge our minds, the more that it unfolds. It continues to unfold and we gain new insights to previously read information. There is no end to the minds unfolding as we feed our minds with positive, challenging guides and knowledge.

The challenge is to turn the knowing into NOWing. To to the knowledge into action. As a species, we learning from doing. By putting into practice the things that we are learning. Improving by using deliberate practice.

A baby becomes a toddler then a child, then a teenager, then a young adult, then an adult. All the while, putting into practice the things that they are learning along life’s journey. Firstly developing their motor skills, then refining them. Then language skills and refining them and so on through life.

These scrolls allow us to develop new skills to become better people and along the way a better person who can sell better. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are all salespeople, we just don’t know it.

Until next time

metta

Garth

The Scroll Marked VII – I Will Laugh At The World

I am now more than 180 days into my 300 Day Challenge. The scroll I am about to finish studying is about laughing. Laughing out ourselves and at the world. Of bringing a smile to where we are, no matter what.

This scroll follows on from the one that asked me to master my emotions. But now I must learn to smile more and often.

More and often for my own health and the benefits that smiling brings me. We have heard that laughter is the best medicine. That smiling and laughing is good for our health. It strengthens our immune system, boosts our mood and reduces stress, to name just a few of the benefits.

But a smile is also shared. And a shared smile lightens the world and those around us that see our smile.

The scroll reminds us that happiness can’t be stored, put away for another day. Happiness is in the now, this moment and to be enjoyed now, in this moment.

I am smiling as I write these words, as it is true, happiness is in the now. I can’t save this smile for tomorrow. Tomorrows smile will be about something else. A memory of today’s reason to smile, or just for the shear joy that a smile brings to ones self.

A smile lightens ones mood. Do you recall times that someone has tried to make you smile when you have felt grumpy? I do. Many a time a partner or my children have broken a grumpy mood of mine and got me to smile and then laugh. With that smile and laughter, I lightened up. My mood quickly past, but not quickly enough sometimes as I clung on to the back mood for no good reason.

Once I cracked that little bit of a smile my mood started to lift. The smile spread and increased in size, and as it did, my bad mood vanished as if by magic. I was bought back to the now, to the moment and enjoyed life again.

I challenge you to smile today, not once or twice, but many times. Find things to smile about and smile, laugh at the world and yourself.

until next time

metta

Garth

How Changing Our Actions Control Our Thoughts

Scroll VI has this in it:

This scroll is about mastering ones emotions. I find this passage interesting in a number of different ways.

• It brings to mind Amy Cuddy’s TED talk about power poses
  • The story of The Prince and the Statue
  • A father stands up straighter after being reminded to do so

Amy Cuddy’s TED talk introduces us to the 2 minute Power Pose to build confidence. This is the body influencing the mind. It ultimately influences the brain and how it is wired.

The story of the Prince and the Statue is along a similar theme. The prince has a crooked back and instructs a sculptor to craft a statue of himself, but with a straight back. We looked at the perfect statue of himself three times a day. Ultimately his back became straight and he had a noble bearing.

Years ago I was told about the impact of reminding someone to stand up straight. The father had become hunched over with age. A friend of the family visited frequently and kept clapping his hand on the fathers back to get him to straighten. This kept happening over a number of months. Eventually the father stood sup straighter. So much so that he now banged his head on a light over the table that previously never bothered him.

In these examples we are seeing the impact of the body on the mind and the mind on the body.

It is showing us that we can influence our brain, emotions and behaviour if we take active action. That we can rewire our brains and the muscles of our bodies to reflect the outcome we are desiring.

Remember that we are just learning to change our habitual way of responding and being. To become friendlier and happier people to be around.

until next time

meta

Garth

We Always Take our Weather With Us

Scroll VI is about mastering our emotions. One of the elements of this scroll is that our moods (our weather) have an impact on those around us, that we are mostly unaware of.

This fact was bought home to me a couple of weeks ago by my partner. She mentioned how my attitude was impacting those around me. To put this into context, we have a family of five staying with us at the moment while they are in transition to a new home. It’s a bit of a challenge having a young family around when you have been used to being only two for a long time. Order and schedules aren’t quite the same.

At the same time as reading “The Greatest Salesman in the World”, I am listening to Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”. The other day I was listening to the chapter on The Mastermind. In this chapter Napoleon Hill mentions the impact of two or more minds coming together. And that each mind is both a transmitting and receiving station of thought.

This in turn reminded me of another analogy from Huna, that we fell what is happening around us. Have you ever walked into a room where there was a recent argument, and you felt the tension, that you could almost cut it with a knife? Equally, if there was laughter did you will feel the lightness?

This is like two A tuning forks that are close together. If one is stuck, the other will start to vibrate in sympathy. How is this relevant to humans? Well as it was explained to me many years ago, an emotion inside us will resonate with the emotion that we feel that is around us. We feel the emotions being radiated by those around us and will therefore react to them.

Conversely, people around us feel the emotions we radiate. As stated in Scroll VI, we create our own weather and that impacts those around us.

What is the weather that you want to share with those around you today? You get to choose, whether you know it or not (pardon the pun).

Anyway, after the conversation with my partner, as well as reading this scroll plus the other reminders that have come into my life, I am more aware of the weather I bring into a room. I am now more aware of the impact of my unspoken thought and posture has on those around me. Do I get it right all the time? Hell no! But I am working on being better and better each day.

Until next time

meta

Garth

We Are All Sales People – We Just Don’t Know It!

Have you ever said to yourself that you hate selling?

Years ago, a friend of mine, who was selling for the company we were both working for, said to me that we are all sales people, it’s just that we don’t know it!

He mentioned that when we have children, we are selling to them all the time. What clothes to wear, what food to eat, where to visit or movie to see. etc. We even sell to our partners! Where to go on holiday, where to go to dinner, what was just bought on special.

It’s just that sales people get paid for selling, the rest of us do it for free! The thing is that we have to get good at selling no matter what. The better we are at it, the easier is the road with our children or partner.

We even sell ourselves into new roles or jobs. Again, some are better at this than others! Have you ever wondered why someone has got a new job or pay rise and wondered how?

Mostly they are just better at selling themselves than the rest of us.

Recognising that we are selling things most days – to ourselves and to others, helps us to up our game. To learn to become better sales people. Learn to smile, bring confidence and love to the bargaining table.

Learn to be persistent. How well our children know persistence! What part about no don’t they get? Learn from them!

Develop confidence in your ability and abilities. We are all unique. No one is the same as you. Capitalise on your uniqueness and differences!

until next time

meta

Garth

Serendipity

As I am reading the Scroll Marked IV, themed Today I will Master My emotions I picked up another book “Concentration – The Road to Success”by Henry Harrison Brown.

In it is a paragraph that reflects my thoughts from an earlier post, but says it so much better! This 300 Day Challenge is about cultivating the right mental habits. ” I wish most in these first pages to emphasize the fact that it is a mental habit you are to cultivate. I am not giving you a treatise merely for your intellectual comprehension. It is a book of conduct, rather.”

How strange that I should get a reminder of what it is I am reading each day and why I am doing it.

He goes on to say: “Any book can help you only in so far as you put what you are told into practice.”

This is so true. Each day we are challenged to not slip back into the world of our past, but to continue to forge ahead into our new tomorrow. To develop and practice the new habits that reflect the new way of being that we are choosing to be.

This is the Act as If principle in action. Act today as you will be acting tomorrow. Being the new you today. For you can’t change who you are without changing who you are.

A lot came together for me the other day when reading the 6th scroll. Life and the book collided. The particular sentences related to the fact that we make our own weather and that we transport it with us. This is in reference to our moods.

Our moods are our weather and they felt and impact the people around us. Being aware of this, truly aware, helps us to create a brighter day, for we are in control of our moods.

We have the choice, to let our moods control us, or us control our moods, and therefore the people and circumstances around us.

Until next time

meta

Garth

Half Way Through the 300 Day Challenge

I’ve just finished the Scroll Marked V. I’m now half way through my 300 Day Challenge. Reading the scrolls in “The Greatest Salesman in the World” three times a day for 30 days.

Looking back over the past 150 days, I can honestly say that staying true to the first scroll, of reading each scroll 3 times a day for 30 days, hasn’t been easy. I have have been inconsistent in my reading. This has been, in the most part, life and its busyness. Another reason has been not sticking to a schedule or routine.

That said, I have stuck to reading the scrolls each day as often as I could. I have persevered through. I have not allowed the days I have slipped to think that I have failed and therefore to stop and quite my challenge. No, I have acknowledged that I have not been perfect, but that’s OK.

The main thing that I am taking away from this challenge, is that each scroll is causing me to pause and think about my life and how I act and react. Each scroll has a central theme and sub themes within it.

The Scroll Marked I – Become a new person

This scroll gives tips on developing new habits that will support a more successful life. It sets the foundation for the scrolls that follow.

The Scroll Marked II – Greet each day with love

This scroll This scroll asks that we look at life through the eyes of love. That love is a powerful weapon, not a sign of weakness. That it is also a strong shield.. The challenge here is to heed the message and take this to heart (pun intended). It is easy – hell no. Even today I struggle with this. But I continue to persist. Which leads onto

The Scroll Marked III – Persist until you succeed

This scroll extols us to keep on keeping on. To not stop, for success is around the corner. There are many stories of people giving up just as they are about to be successful. The if only I’d…To continue on despite the challenges. Life tests us. Are we up to the tests that life will throw our way?

The Scroll Marked IV – We are natures greatest miracle

This scroll reminds us that we are unique, that there is no one like us. To claim our uniqueness and use it to our advantage. The scroll also gets us to separate our private life from our business. That to give all of our attention to the environment we are in at the time. When at home, give our attention to the family, when at work to work. It also asks that we recognise challenges for what they are, opportunities in disguise.

The Scroll Marked V – Live today as if it is your last

This scroll get us to focus on the now. As many other teachers have said, Now is the moment of Power. Do not live in the past or the future, as this only dissipates your energy and distracts you from the success that you desire.

Each reading of the scrolls brings out deeper learning and understanding. I also notice areas of my life that the words pertain to and to investigate further. Each day I am reminded that this is not an exercise in reading, but rather study and application. Of reflection and reapplication in a more aware way.

until next time

metta

Garth

The Power of Repetition and Study

I was just lying down in front of the fire thinking about the Greatest Salesman book and the fact that I am getting to the end of each scroll, only to rewind and read it again, not just once, but 90 times.

Yes, you read that right. Following the 300 Day Challenge involves reading each scroll 90 times.

I got to thinking about how I read other Personal Improvement/Change books. Do you like me, get a new book and start reading it straight away? Caught up in the excitement of learning a new tool or idea, or deepening your knowledge on a particular topic?

When you find a topic or concept that you are unfamiliar with, you may read the sentence or paragraph a couple of times to understand what is being said, then move on. Reaching the end vowing to practice the ideas and concepts you have just read. You practice a couple of things for a few days or so, then life gets in the way again and you move on. The new practices a vague memory?

Or do you study it. Take each chapter apart, pause and go back over the material to make it more familar, more embedded in your daily life?

Anyway, back to lying in front of the fire. I got to thinking about a Dan Millman life reading cassette from way back when. In the cassette, Dan suggests to listen to it again, and each time you listen to it, you will hear something different, something new will come up. Concepts or ideas that you missed the first time that you listen to it.

Bob Proctor has said that he has read “Think and Grow Rich” countless times since he first picked it up 60 or so years ago.

It’s not just that. It is also that you have changed. Your brain and mind has changed from the first time that you have read a book or listened to a CD/MP3 (or a cassette).

You aren’t the same person that you were yesterday.

So where is all of this leading? Have we really learnt how to make the changes in our lives? Or are we playing at it?

Carrying out the 300 Day Challenge and the reading (and thinking about) the scrolls three times a day for 30 days is making me rethink how I read and study the topics of change that I am pursuing.

Until next time

metta

Garth

Update on 300 Day Challenge – Scroll Marked V

It’s been a little while since I have posted anything on my progress on my 300 Day Challenge,

Well I am up to The Scroll Marked V and day 22 of reading this scroll. The scroll is titled: “I will live this day as if it is my last”

I don’t know what it is, but over the last few days I have struggled to find the time to read this scroll.

I don’t feel that this scroll is resonating well with me for some reason. I get it, but some of the sentences and paragraphs don’t work for me. Where as others like, “I will avoid the killers of time. Procrastination I will destroy with action; doubt I will bury with faith; fear I will dismember with confidence.”

I will keep persevering and get up a little earlier to read.

At the same time as reading the scrolls, I have also been reading Christian Larson’s Thinking for Results. This is a good reminder that instilling the right thinking will move us to where we want to be. Thinking is not the only thing we must be doing, but taking the action that supports the thinking.

Part of the action is applying the principles of Deliberate Practice. That having a goal and measuring your progress (as I do in the image above) and then applying any corrective action to being you back on track. An essential action is to take the time to pause and evaluate your progress against your plan. Be honest with where you are at and commit to improving your performance.

until next time

metta

Garth

Living at Cause

We lift ourselves by our thought.

We climb upon our vision of ourselves.

If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself.

Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere.

Orison Swett Marden 1850-1924 – Inspirational Writer