In today’s article, I’m going to give you three secrets of the universe. A couple you might already know and may have even attempted at some point but were perhaps unsuccessful. And there is only one reason for that failure. Rather than using your intuitive mindset to master these skills, as many Disruptors do, you instead deferred to your rational mind for empirical proof and confirmation. Unfortunately, this is a common practice many choose.
But let me share something with you. These days, as the development of Virtual Reality accelerates, and the experiences become more real, we are beginning to see real and vital applications and possibilities through VR.
In some cases, the experience is so vividly convincing, that your mind cannot distinguish between real and virtual. This is not so different from how people conjure real-world inventions and ideas from pure fantasy. Almost everything you use in your life was once just someone’s pure imaginative idea that became reality. And that took an intuitive perspective to make it so.
In VR you can create an entirely new persona for yourself, with complete control over how you look and sound to others. Fat or thin, ugly or beautiful, shy or adventurous. Your avatar can become anything you could imagine, another gender, be even taller, or you could have wild and crazy hairdos. Or you could cease being human altogether, and become an elf, ogre, alien, or any other creature from literature, movies, or mythology.
And VR is more than just gaming. It has applications for connection, cognitive enhancement, skills and learning development, and the potential to overcome disabilities like dementia or addiction. It can also provide support in areas of physical therapy and rehabilitation, and health education.
The point is that this all came from imagination. And imagination is part of the intuitive mind.
As William Arthur Ward said:
“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”
Intuition has always been a part of us, but because life demands so much from us, few are able to successfully shift from their rational mindset to their (seemingly ethereal) intuitive mindset, simply because if they can’t justify it, it may be nothing more than a waste of time. The intuitive and creative mindset is only seen as valuable by society if it results in making tons of money. Until then, they are still perceived as a silly, frivolous waste of time and energy.
And that’s where many get it wrong. Over five hundred known and unknown Disruptors have changed our world making it what it is today, simply by allowing their intuitive mindset to become their dominant style of thinking. They don’t forgo rational thought; it’s just not their dominant style.
And ironically, you marvel at these people, like Musk, Bezos, Jobs, Cuban, Doyle, John, Faraday, Curie, Darwin, Rowling, Child, Clarke, da Vinci, Einstein, Turing, and so many others. Yet you hesitate to think you can do the same.
And even more ironically, a highly paid, degreed person might desire to own a Banksy worth millions of dollars, even though Banksy (who was expelled from school, and even served time in prison for petty crime), never got a degree. The point is that there is room for people on both sides of the educational spectrum. And being artistic does not guarantee financial success, however, neither does having a certificate of education. One just “offers” more hope.
Genius is not IQ. Intelligence can be tested. Genius cannot be measured (yet). Genius does not come from rational thought. Genius comes from intuitive mastery. Period. Can you have both? Yes. But high intelligence is neither a prerequisite nor a necessity for one to be a genius.
According to Edward Dutton and Bruce Charlton, authors of the book, The Genius Famine, Genius is made possible when a person is internally motivated to pursue something which seems to come to him naturally; and does so in an ‘‘intuitive’’ manner that directs his deepest self. Innate ability, inner-motivation, and intuitive thinking are the essence of how we use the word ‘creative’ in everyday life. The ‘creative’ type is the ‘artistic’ type: the novelist, the poet, the writer, the designer, the musician, the builder, the explorer, even the athlete, and especially the artist; and by extension, also the truly original scientist and technologically radical inventor.
The only real fate guiding your life is your assumptions and your attitude toward yourself. And if you don’t break through that limiting glass bubble, you will never know what you are truly capable of.
All transformation is based upon an idea, a vision, a possibility. And this can only work when you lay yourself open to change and take action to pull at that thread of potential.
As the famous Lex Luther quote goes:
“Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it’s a simple adventure story.
Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe.”
The Three Keys
The real reason everyone isn’t automatically a genius Disruptor, is that these keys aren’t simply sitting around somewhere waiting for you to pick them up. For most people who can’t or won’t see what is right in front of them, they remain invisible. Or, to put it another way, the keys are at the center of a (self-imposed) maze that you must figure out in order to reach your desired outcome.
And I can’t just hand you these keys. That would mean nothing. Everyone desires the quick secret to unlocking fame, wealth, and true happiness, and the truth is that handing you the keys doesn’t mean you will instantly know how to use them.
But don’t worry, I will guide you to them. And hopefully, you can learn how to use them to unlock your own future.
The 1st Key: Changing Your Ideal Self
Abandon your idea of your present self. Who you are now has gotten you this far, but in order to successfully go through the hero’s journey, you are going to have to become something different. You are going to have to unlock a hidden you, shrouded in a thick layer of fears, doubts, anxiety, rational thought, and limiting beliefs.
Instead, you must assume the feelings of who you are becoming, until all your senses have the vividness of reality. You must believe in who you will become, not who you currently are.
To do this, you must imagine that you are already experiencing what you desire. This is the gift of highly successful people, imagining their future selves, now.
And this feeling or vision must crowd out of your consciousness all current images of yourself and who you are at present. This is where the adventure of life genuinely begins.
Simply said, to reach a higher level of being, you must assume a higher concept of yourself. If you don’t believe in who you want to be, then you will remain as you are.
Tony Robbins says he was just ‘Tony’ and decided to become who he is today. Oprah Winfrey created a higher concept of herself and became Oprah. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta transformed into Lady Gaga, and Reginald Kenneth Dwight reinvented himself into Elton John. It doesn’t require a name change, just a deep desire to evolve into who you are meant to be.
The 2nd Key: Changing the Percentages
Think of this next analogy like H2O. Water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen. But the percentages break down like this: water, by mass, is 11.19% hydrogen and 88.81% oxygen.
If you take rational thinking and intuitive thinking, the formula for successfully utilizing them both is not 50/50. Instead, like the formula for water, it should be more like this:
Intuitive Thinking: 70% – Rational Thinking: 30%
The reason someone might have a problem deferring to their intuitive mindset is that they are taught that problem-solving is their most valuable gift. So they defer primarily to their rational mind. The truth is that creating, inventing, exploring, discovering, connecting, philosophizing, and imagining, which are all part of the intuitive mindset, are more valuable to our happiness, growth, evolution, and even our prosperity.
We wouldn’t have spaceflight today without some highly radical thinking. Initially, rocket fuel was an intuitive idea of combining asphalt with potassium percolate. Asphalt/Perchlorate composite propellants were an intuitive invention of the early 1940s that opened the floodgates for rocket fuel advancement when the wildly creative American aerospace engineer, Jack Parsons, at Caltech in 1942 took a most unusual turn of imagination.
As for examples of prosperity using the intuitive mind, All of Stan Lee’s creations were just imaginative ideas. Today those ideas have created an industry worth billions. Harry Potter was just an imaginative story idea of a young woman, JK Rowling. Again, today the Harry Potter world is a billion-dollar industry. Airplanes, television, computers, and now AI, all once someone’s imaginative ideas, now worth billions.
Changing your thinking percentages will not rob you of anything. Instead, they’ll leave you with a more divergent and expansive style of thinking.
The 3rd Key: Doing it All Backwards
The idea for this is not new. It has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, but few know about it. And the truth is that I too had forgotten how powerful it is until that is, I was reminded of the concept when reading the Ernest Cline book, Ready Player One.
The James Halliday quote is:
“Why can’t we go backwards… for once? Backwards, really fast. Fast as we can. Heh heh. Really put the pedal to the metal, you know? Bill and Ted did it.”
Out of the mouths of (fictional) babes.
And here’s the kicker. It’s the hidden secret for expanding your imagination and the reason more people aren’t better at manifesting. In order for one to become a great manifester, one must envision themselves as if they are already where one wants to be (as stated earlier in the 1st key – see above).
The trick is that in order to master this, one must be able to experience every aspect of that future moment as if it were happening now. Every thought, feeling, conversation, and image, and most importantly, everything visceral; how your skin feels, what the weather is like, what sounds you hear, what sights are around you, what you can taste on your tongue from the air you’re breathing, and what smells invoke a deep memory for you.
You need to be as detailed as possible with your image of the future. That is how great manifesters manifest.
But how do you develop those skills? Ah… this is where the secret resides.
And the answer? Do it backward. This will strengthen your imagery and imagination because it forces you to pay attention. By noticing every detail, you enhance your ability to imagine. And when you get good at this you can then learn to imagine (and manifest) a future you desire because you will now be able to successfully fill in the details with ease.
I am now going to give you an exercise that few know but will improve your ability to manifest by a thousand-fold.
Many already know of Jim Kwik’s Limitless memory technique, but this is going to take you to a completely new level of consciousness.
This will take some consistent practice on your part, but like driving a car, eventually, you will master this with ease. But at first, you may pop the clutch a few times, and it will be a bit challenging and a little tricky to do. Keep at it and soon it will become second nature.
Exercise:
At the end of your day, find a quiet place to sit alone, undisturbed for about thirty minutes or so. Think of this as a kind of meditation. There must be no distractions. If you live alone, you can do this in bed before you go to sleep.
Close your eyes and start playing back your day, but backward. Starting with when you are lying down, go in reverse order through your entire day until you get to the part where you woke up that morning.
It will be challenging because we are used to zipping through our day in our mind, recalling specific moments, thoughts, or conversations in logical order. But this time it will take a few tries. Initially, you will definitely stumble along the way but stick with it.
Start with lying down. Before you got into bed did you pull back the covers or were they already pulled back? Did you sit down on the bed before lying down? Walking to your bed, did you end your last step on your left foot or your right? Did you brush your teeth first or plug in your cell phone? Did you put your clothes out for tomorrow?
Keep moving in reverse.
Before beginning your evening routine, which room did you come from? What did you do along the way? Did you notice any of the pictures in the hallway? Did you pay attention to how cold or warm the house was? Did you turn off any lights?
Before that, did you wash the dishes or place them in the dishwasher? Did you drain the pasta? Did you have dinner? Did you first have a glass of wine? Did you read your mail, watch TV, or play a video game?
When you walked into your apartment, do you remember putting the key in the door? Were there any noises in the hallway when you walked to your apartment? Could you find a parking space in front of your house? Which street did you turn from to get to your place? Did you notice anyone walking their dog, any children playing, or any sirens? Did you wait at the stoplight for a long time? Did anyone honk at you? Did you stop at the market first? Do you remember if you scratched an itch on your face, leg, or hand? How many times did you look at your smartphone?
When you left work, which way did you exit? Was anyone walking alongside of you, in front of you or behind you? What was your mood? Do you remember checking yourself out in the big shiny elevator doors?
Take as much time as needed to recall every event, every feeling, every action, and every thought as you can, until you end up back to your morning when you first woke up.
This will take some effort, practice, and some getting used to, but I promise that once you become good at this, then any manifesting of your future will have as many details as possible, which will, in turn, make it more real for you, and therefore create a more successful outcome.
Now you know the three hidden keys of mastery. I hope this was both enjoyable and enlightening for you.
I imagine right now you are debating whether it’s worth all the effort and trouble, and that, my friend, will be the real distinction between living the life you have now and creating the life of your dreams.
Again, the people you admire are all masters at this. Warren Buffett doesn’t sit back once he has accomplished his goals, he is already manifesting what the next future will look like for Berkshire Hathaway. Mark Cuban doesn’t stop once he’s reached his objective, he’s already envisioning where he wants to be next as if he is already there. They don’t just desire it; they conjure it like magic by manifesting the future they choose.
Keep your rational mindset, use it, but don’t let it replace or dominate your intuitive mind. Learning to incorporate the formula of Key #2 will give you increased awareness and enhanced mental powers.
I’ll leave you with one more quote from the fictional character of James Donavan Halliday:
“I’m a dreamer, I build worlds.”
And so do all successful Disruptors.