How to Create the Next
Generation of Chinese Heroes
Bill Bodri
All Parents Want Their Children to be …
Rich, Successful, Healthy, Smart, Happy, Virtuous - A Better Life
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Have the tools for success and happiness in life
Smart, know how to learn, cultured, adaptive and open-minded
Won’t be destroyed by the fast pace of a money-oriented society
Think critically and independently, can accept the best of the East and
West, Versatile and ready/willing to experiment and accept things (risk
takers)
Honest, virtuous, Get along with, deal with people (can manage others)
Are self-aware, know how to police themselves, can change their own
habits and behavior, practice self-improvement
Can convince and argue persuasively (can market/sell/promote)
Know how to set priorities and get things done (can set and achieve
personal goals)
Can create a personal life purpose - spiritually mature - self-actualized
Outline of Topics
• Western Brain Research, Neurons, Synapse Growth and Aging
• How to Change Habits and Behavior
• The Learning Environment and Learning Cycles
• Musical Skills - Mathematical Learning
• Linguistic Learning - The Recitation Program
• Structure of Western Education (the Trivium)
• Special Movements that Speed Learning
• Exercises that Teach Virtue and Character
• Views on Modern Schooling vs. The Recitation program
Western Brain Research,
Neuron Pathways and the
Implications for Learning
The Brain, Neurons and Synapses
• Brain cells - called neurons - are hard-wired to other cells before
birth. Other connections develop because of stimulation and the
repetition of experience. The brain triples in size from baby to
adulthood.
• One neuron can connect with 15,000 other cells (synapses). These
synapses form the brain’s physical “maps” that allow learning to
take place. During critical brain growth periods these long thin
fibers grow inside the brain, creating pathways that carry electrical
impulses from cell to cell. All studies find that Age 0-10 is the
time when there occurs peak production of synapses.
• At age 3, the brain is twice as active as that of a college student.
That’s when the brain is most flexible and prepared to learn by
building new connections and casting off others that aren’t used.
Ages 3-10
• Researchers universally agree that personality, attitudes, concepts of self, language,
coping skills and learning patterns are in place by age 3.
• By age 3 there are up to15,000 connections per neuron. This is too many. The child
needs to make sense of it all. So during the next 10 years the brain refines and
focuses those connections. The stronger ones become stronger with use and the
weaker ones become weaker.
• By the time the child is a teenager, the number of connections has decreased in half.
“Roads with the most traffic get widened while those with little traffic fall into
disrepair.” If the child has a rich emotional life, those neuron highways are large. If
taught to get angry easily, those highways get large. (At age 21 the nerves in frontal
lobe have a growth spurt and we realize our parents are smarter than we thought.)
• The carving of these pathways is the individual’s character. The mental (neuron)
pathways are the individual’s filter. They produce the recurring pattern of behavior
that makes them unique. They tell them what stimuli to ignore and which ones to
respond to. They define where the child will excel and where they will struggle.
Beyond the mid-teenage years, there is a limit as to how much the character will
easily change.
Which Brain Connections Does Your Brain
Keep or Discard?
• In the early years, the brain forms twice as many synapses as it will
need. Which connections does your brain keep?
• In learning, new brain synapses form or old ones are strengthened by
repetition. If they are not used often enough or used repeatedly, the
brain connections are eliminated.
• Through REPETITION the connections become permanent. When
they are not used and not reinforced, the neural connections fade
away. So you keep the “brain highways” that you keep using.
• This tells us to form good habits early through reinforcement,
because later it’s hard to form new neural pathways.
• This tells us that learning should use the principle of repetition.
A Mini Lesson for Adults on Change
• CHANGING people and OURSELVES is difficult. You go to the
same story every week, order the same food in a restaurant, drink
the same liquids, talk to people in the same way, etc. You want to
change but it’s hard. Why?
• Because your brain is wired through all your previous behavior (past
repetition) to do EXACTLY what it has done in the past. The wiring
doesn’t change except by lack of use.
• New highways come about through the repetition of new thoughts,
new behaviors. It takes 5 days to create a new habit; 400 repetitions
for competency; 1000 hours for mastery of some skill.
• A new habit does NOT erase an old habit, so you always have to use
your willpower to choose between actions. This requires awareness
(meditation) and individual energy to go against habit (fate). Luckily
there are some mind technologies to help you create life changes.
Mini Lesson on Change ...
• People easily shift back to old behaviors because those neural
pathways have been traveled a lot in the past. So it’s hard to quit
smoking, start eating better, or change any behavior regardless
of the technique you use to motivate yourself (NLP, hypnosis,
motivational speech) unless it is consciously and intentionally
repeated time after time, day after day for months until that
circuitry in the brain becomes the pathway more likely for the
brain to follow.
• That’s why the status quo stays the same. People follow the
path of least resistance. The brain reacts strongly with “NO!”
except for familiar requests or behaviors.
• It takes enormous initial effort to change because you must
literally forge new highways in the brain. Once formed the
highways must be strengthened through usage and maintained
through further usage.
Therefore … You Should Form Good
Habits from the Start (and use Scientific
Methods to Help Change Your Behavior)
• ARISTOTLE said that Virtue is the control of the appetites by
reason. Virtue is a habit, so here are the keys to life success and
happiness:
– Learn what is good for you
– Develop good habits to practice it (like athletes practicing
their sport)
– Learn to like what is good for you
• What behaviors do you need to be in better control of your
destiny?
Create an Environment Conducive to
Learning and Neuron Pathways by
Encouraging the Healthy Growth and
Usage of the Brain
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Provide lots of rich experiences
Emotional love and warmth
Nutrition
Make use of special learning cycles
How To Increase the Number of Brain
Neurons in Children to Increase Learning
and Intelligence ...
• You should expose young children to many experiences so that
neurons form because in adulthood the brain isn’t plastic enough to
be easily rewired for new experiences. Experiences, rather than
what you are born with (genes), determine the wiring of the brain.
• At age 10, the same experience will NOT have the same impact as
for a 2-year old child, so early experiences are crucial. Expose
children to lots of sensory stimuli (colors, music, language, touch,
smell, taste) so that they will have the most flexible brain power for
learning. Provide an ENRICHED environment without undue
academic stress. The number of brain connections increases when a
child grows up in an enriched environment, especially a rich
language environment with a wide vocabulary.
Your Environment (Training) is More
Important than Genes or Nutrition
• Studies on malnourished rats show that a rich, stimulating environment can
make up for poor nutrition. Children suffering from malnutrition catch up when
placed in a stimulating environment as well.
• John Cairnes - “On the Origin of Mutants” 1988 - genes change according to
the environment (experiment with lactose eating bacteria)
• Harris - “Recombination in Adaptive Mutation” 1994 - bacteria contain genetic
engineering genes (organisms can create new proteins whose functions allow
them to survive better in new environments)
• David Thaler - “The Evolution of Genetic Intelligence” 1994 - biological
expression is defined by the individual’s perception of their life experiences
• Forget Darwin: Primacy of DNA --> Primacy of the Environment
What you teach children can overcome the
influences of genetics, poor nutrition and so forth.
Spiritual cultivation says the very same thing!
• Therefore,
GENES and BEHAVIOR
• A signal from the environment activates gene expression. In other words, a gene
cannot turn itself ON or OFF but is dependent upon a signal from its environment
to control its expression. So genes do not determine our character.
• The ENVIRONMENT shapes biological expression - genes are not the source of
control for regulating cell behavior (HUMAN BEHAVIOR). Expression
(behavior) is not under the control of genes.
• In response to life experiences, an organism may actively alter “innate” gene
programs as a means to adapt to the perceived environment - so the “educated”
brain may alter the “innate” programming by selecting inappropriate gene programs
that cause disease, or good programs that propel you forward.
• There are two types of gene programs: GROWTH and PROTECTION
programs.Our survival is dependent on both these program types.
• GROWTH programs: attraction, love - move toward life sustaining environment
• PROTECTION programs: repulsion, fear - move away from life threatening
things
• Whether you activate GROWTH or PROTECTION programs is based on how you
perceive the environment. Therefore create a learning environment with love
(emotional support) and without fear to encourage risk taking and growth.
Emotional Bonds - Tender Loving Care
• Early emotional and social experiences are the seeds of human
intelligence. Children with a nurturing environment have a
higher IQ and adjust better to school.
• The brain is wired to forge close emotional ties. If children don’t
get TLC they lack the proper wiring to form close relationships.
• Emotions cause a release of chemicals that help the brain
remember feelings and events related to those feelings; children
form a memory easier if the event has an emotional component
to it.
• Your relationship with your child affects their brain in many
ways. The way you interact with children will have a big impact
on their emotional development, learning abilities and ability to
function in later life.
• Therefore provide a RICH environment without academic stress.
Nutritional Rules for Children
• Story of Asanga and Vasubandhu - their mother wanted to create
heroes, so she sacrificed to feed them brain nutrient foods
• DHA to make the brain grow, cod liver oil, deep water fish
• Daily multivitamin/multimineral supplement
• Low sugar intake (avoid sweets, soda, candy, …)
• Avoid milk, hormones, pesticides
• Clean water
• Avoid air conditioning
• Low intake of grains (high glycemic foods)
• Good fats (olive oil, coconut, butter) and bad fats (corn oil,
soybean oil, margarine)
• Fresh vegetables and fruit (use the “many colors” rule)
Brain Development Research
Conception-15 months: Reptilian brain
Basic survival needs, then hearing, touch, smell, taste, seeing, motor development
15 months - 4.5 years: Limbic system / Relationship
Understanding of self and others, emotions, language. Language
exploration/communication, imagination, memory development
4.5-7 years: Gestalt hemisphere Elaboration
Whole picture processing/cognition, image, movement, rhythm, intuition, outer
speech, integrative thought
7-9 years: Logic Hemisphere Elaboration
Detail and linear processing/cognition, refinement of language elements, reading
and writing skills, technique development (music, art, sports, dance,manual
training), linear math processing
8 years: Frontal Lobe development
Fine motor skills, inner speech, control of social behavior, eye tracking
9-12 years: Increased Corpus Callosum Elaboration (a bundle of fibers connecting
the 2 hemispheres) and Mylenation
Whole Brain Processing
Research Has Discovered Optimal
Windows of Opportunity for Teaching
Window
for
Optimal
Window
Next Best
Opportunity
Second
Language
5-10 years
Further
Rewiring
Possible
Any age
Music
0-36 months 3-10 years
Any age
Thinking
skills
0-48 months 4-10 years
Any age
Research Has Also Discovered Mind
and Body Cycles for Maximum
Learning
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Short Term memory - best in morning (15% more efficient)
Long term memory - best in afternoon
Slow Time - 2:00 - 4:00 pm (schedule active activities)
Intellectual Performance - Best in late afternoon/early evening
Use 5:00-7:00 to enhance relationships (dinner)
• Comprehension - Increases as day progresses
• Reading Speed - Decreases as day progresses
Research Suggests the Following about
Repetition and Long Term Memory
• You need to take a 5-10 minute break after each 40-60
minute study period, or your memory retention goes down
a lot
• After 24 hours you tend to forget 80% of what you learned
• To remember forever, “overlearn” by rehearsing regularly.
Repeat learning after 5-10 minutes, the next day, 2 days
later, 1 week later, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year
later
There are Many Ways to be Smart There are Multiple Intelligences
Besides Linguistics
Howard Gardner (Frames of Mind, 1983) says intelligence is
the ability to see patterns and draw relationships:
• Linguistic (word smart) - left temporal & frontal brain lobe
• Logical mathematical (logic smart)
• Spatial (picture smart) - posterior right hemisphere
• Bodily kinesthetic (body smart)
• Musical (music smart) - right brain hemisphere
• Interpersonal (people smart)
• Intrapersonal (self smart)
• Naturalist (nature smart)
Music Skills
Music
• Before a child can process language, they can process music
• Exposure to music affects spatial-temporal reasoning (the ability to
see a disassembled picture and mentally piece it back together).
• This reasoning is good for strengthening the brain circuits used for
mathematics, engineering, … complex reasoning.
• Music optimizes brain development, enhances multiple
intelligences, and facilitates bonding between adult and child. It
integrates different skills simultaneously, therefore developing
multiple brain connections. Musical experiences are vital to speech,
motor development and sensory integration.
• The earlier children are introduced to music, the more potential they
have for learning and enjoying music when they get older.
• The more adults sing or play music to children, the more their brain
generates neural circuits and patterns.
Music and the Brain
• All sounds - music, words, rhymes - help shape the brain
• Many studies show listening to music can boost memory, attention,
motivation and learning
• Jean Houston - music “raises the molecular structure of the body” it resonates with our body rhythms and has a powerful influence on
our alertness and ability to learn
• Scarletti - music is a mood enhancer - songs boost endorphins
(hormones) and endorphins boost attention and memory
• Clynes - the body’s pulse responds to classical music, not rock
• Graziano - piano lessons help spatial temporal reasoning (4 year
olds who took 6 months of piano lessons scored 30% higher than
their peers who received singing or computer lessons)
• Mozart effect - brain activity had similarities to the written score of
Mozart pieces; the patterns in Mozart’s music parallel the patterns
the brain uses as it connect synapses
The “Mozart Effect”
• 1996 Study College Entrance Exam - if students sing or play an
instrument they score 51 points higher on Verbal and 39 points higher
in Math
• University of CA study - if you listen to Mozart for 10 minutes
before the SAT exam you get a higher SAT score
• Shell, IBM, Dupont, universities use music to cut learning time in half
• University of WA study - listening to light classical music for 90
minutes, students catch 21% more copywriting errors
• Baltimore hospital study - heart patients get as much benefit from 30
minutes of classical music and 10 mg of Valium
• CA State University study - migraine sufferers were trained to use
imagery, music and relaxation techniques to reduce the frequency,
intensity and duration of their headaches
Music and Learning
• Lozanov and Novakov - listening to Baroque music lets you learn as
quickly as sleep learners - phrase in a foreign language are fed to
people in 4 second intervals against the background of a 60-beats per
minute Baroque music
• Iowa State University: Memory retention +26% and speed of
learning  +24% using 60-beats per minute Baroque music
• Dr. Alfred Tomatis (French Academy of Sciences) - when the
electrical potential of brain cells starts to fade we experience dullness
and fatigue. If you listen to high frequency sounds (5,000-8,000 hertz)
the vibration of Corti cells in the ears acts as a brain generator.
Mozart has the highest number of high frequency sounds, rock music
has little (and kills plants) and Baroque music and Gregorian chant
also recharge the brain. In short, high frequency sounds energize the
brain. Sonic Bloom for plants, too.
Linguistic Skills and the
Recitation Program
The Importance of Reading and
Talking to Children
• The plasticity of the brain and its ability to rewrite itself makes it
easy to learn language.
• Reading to children will help “grow” their brain and help them
associate books with what they love most -- your voice and
closeness.
• Reading and talking to them increases the number of words they’ll
recognize (sing to them).
• Reading books to them stimulates their imagination, expands their
understanding of the world, helps them develop language and
listening skills, prepares them to understand written word.
• People deprived of language as children rarely master it as adults,
not matter how smart or how intensively trained. Children learn
language by hearing words over and over.
• An adult’s vocabulary is largely determined by speech heard in the
first 3 years. At 20 months, children of talkative mothers have 131
words more than others and at 2 years, they have 259 words more
than non-talkers.
• The size of a child’s vocabulary is directly related to how much a
parent or caregiver talks to the child. Talking to a child is the best
way to develop their language skills. The more words a child hears,
the more connections their brain makes and the faster they learn a
language. The sound of words creates the neural circuitry required
to develop language skills.
• When they hear the sounds of a language, neural links are formed
that help them build a vocabulary. Children learn language by
hearing words over and over, so the earlier you start talking to them
the better.
The 3-Part Classical
Western Education uses
the Recitation Technique
The Classical Western Education
TRIVIUM (Verbal arts)
QUADRIVIUM (Math arts)
• Grammar
• Arithmetic
• Logic
• Music
• Rhetoric
• Geometry
• Astronomy
The Classical Western Education
• All educational systems in the West used this approach from
Medieval times until the early 1900’s
• This approach teaches people HOW TO LEARN
• The TRIVIUM teaches the proper use of the TOOLS OF
LEARNING before applying it to subjects of knowledge
– 1st - learn LANGUAGE (grammar)
– 2nd - learn how to use a language to make statements and arguments (logic)
– 3rd - how to express oneself in language (rhetoric)
The Grammar Stage
• Children can memorize quickly and easily (math, poems, shapes,
dates, appearances, rhymes, names, properties, anything)
• Children can learn a foreign language without effort
• Reasoning is difficult and not liked
• As long as it is FUN and they have INTERACTION, they will learn
and “PARROT BACK” to you whatever you give them
– Pleasure leads to repetition; repetition leads to mastery
• OBSERVATION and MEMORY are the master (most lively)
faculties
• YOUR JOB: cultivate their passion for learning, make it fun, DO
NOT rush them to the next stage of logic and explanations
==> This is the RECITATION PROGRAM
Your Job as Teachers - Grammar Stage
• At this stage, anything and everything that can be memorized should
be memorized even if the children don’t understand it
• Start learning a foreign language now before the facial and mental
muscles rebel, memory fades, and neurons die off
• Learn the math tables now, otherwise they will never be learned
with pleasure (don’t do complicated math processes)
• You can have them memorize Dates
• This is the time for teaching THEOLOGY and VIRTUE and
ETHICS (Tao, Bible, Ten Commandments, myths, legends, etc.).
Put this into their mind now. Virtue and character = Destiny
• Don’t think of these activities as school “subjects” but as the
gathering together of material for use in the next part of the
TRIVIUM - you are laying the groundwork for higher learning
The Logic (Dialectic) Stage
• Students want more than facts, they want to UNDERSTAND
• Students ask lots of QUESTIONS, CHALLENGE YOU,
ANSWER BACK … this is not disrespectful but natural; they
just want to go DEEPER
• They want to learn who, how, what, why, what supports an issue
and what is relevant to making a correct decision
• They need to learn How to Learn and that their present ideas
and experience are not enough, but need more education
• The master faculty is DISCURSIVE REASON (LOGIC and
DISPUTATION)
• As Teachers, introduce LOGIC to them - how to separate
TRUTH from FICTION and FACT from THEORY
• Start teaching risk-taking and consequences
The Rhetoric Stage
• This is the most exciting stage when we can see a glimpse of our
educational efforts
• Students can express themselves in polished, well thought out,
grammatically correct verse; they show creative thinking and
problem solving capabilities
• Students start specializing in subject matters of their own interest
(medicine, engineering/inventing, business/leadership, hobbies …)
• This is the “POET” Stage or “difficult” age where the student is
self-centered, wants to express himself, is misunderstood, is
restless, wants independence
• A good teacher at this stage helps challenge their activeness and
helps them synthesize what they know
• Do not prolong intellectual childhood at this stage or postpone
acceptance of responsibility - mentors, trades, apprenticeship
Physical Movements that
Will Speed Learning
Body Movements and Learning
• Doing arm and leg movements that cross from one side of
the body to the other has a dramatic effect on learning. The
left side of the brain controls the right side and visa versa,
so the movements forces the two sides of the brain to
communicate with one another.
• Every 90 minutes the normal hormone levels of our body
peak. This peak causes the brain to get stuck on the left or
right side. The use of the cross lateral movement is an easy
way to “unstick” the brain. You need to engage both sides
of the brain to learn effectively.
Movement Research and Development - ADD
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Paul and Gail Dennison - Lateral Repatterning, remedial education
Dr. Samuel T. Orton - neurology (perceptual motor training)
Dr. Constance Amsden - Malabar Reading project
Dr. Doman and Delacato - speech and reading problems
Dr. Louis Jacques. O.D. - vision training pioneer
D. Samuel Herr, O.D. - vision training
Dr. G.N. Getman - optometrist
Richard Tyler - chiropractor
Bud Gibbs - sports kinesiologist
Touch for Health
Brain Gym - Educational Kinesiology
(“Edu K”)
• Specific Body movements help people to learn (26 movements).
• These movements produce rapid and dramatic improvements in
concentration, memory, reading, writing, organizing, listening,
physical coordination, … This is enhanced learning through
movement.
• These movements lead to increased self esteem, the ability to
harness motivation, skills to identify and avoid stress, increased
awareness of oneself, tools for team building and cooperation.
Movement: “Brain Buttons”
• Place one hand over the navel and the other hand
stimulates points between the ribs (rub the indentations
between the 1st and 2nd ribs under the collar bone to the
left and right of the sternum)
• This will really wake you up and get you ready to learn
• Navel Hand - brings attention to center of gravity, body
balance, alerts the RAS to wake up the brain for sensory
input
• Rubbing Hand - stimulates blood flow to the brain from
carotid arteries (first arteries out of the heart with oxygen)
Movement: “Cross Crawl”
• Cross lateral walking in place
• Touch the right elbow to the left knee and left elbow to the right
knee - Perform the movements very slowly
• Both hemispheres of the brain will be activated simultaneously;
over time more nerve networks form and communication
between the two halves of the brain become faster and more
integrated for higher reasoning
• This activates full brain functioning
• Good for writer’s block, improves mental performance in 50-60
year old people and inactive people, great to do before physical
activities like sports or dance
Movement: “Hook-Ups”
• Stand, (1) First cross one ankle over the other. (2) Cross the hands,
clasp and invert them. (Stretch your arms out in front of you, back of
hands together and thumbs down. Lift one hand over the other, palms
facing and interlock the fingers. Roll the locked hands straight down
and in toward the body so they rest with the elbows down.) (3) Rest
your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind the teeth.
• Result is like the cross crawl exercise. Tongue position brings
attention to mid brain. This posture connects emotions in limbic
system with frontal lobes of the cerebrum, giving an integrative
perspective from which to learn and respond more effectively.
• If students are disruptive in the class, or after a fight, make them do
Hook-ups for 2 minutes before talking. This decreases adrenalin
production and allows them to see others’ points of view more clearly.
• People should use this when their STRESS levels rise, and students to
control their behavior so they don’t get into trouble. If you are
stressed, do this for 2-5 minutes.
EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique
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For Disciplinary problems
For Fear and Phobias
For Procrastination
For Eating Problems
For Changing Behavior
etc.
Movement: “The Thinking Cap”
• How to do: Just unroll the outer ears from top to bottom
• This wakes up the whole hearing mechanism and assists
memory - there’s a link between hearing in the temporal lobe
and memory in the limbic system - there are 148 acupuncture
points in the ear
• Example: Close your eyes and listen for a few minutes. Are you
hearing things equally on both sides? Does one ear work better?
Now unroll your ears 3 times on each side and close your eyes.
Notice the difference?
• University of Hawaii found this exercise useful when trying to
recall some technical information for an essay or exam
• This is great for trying to remember a name
Movement: “The Energy Yawn”
• Massage the muscles around the TMJ (temporal-mandibular
joint). 5 major cranial nerves run across this joint (eyes,
tongue, face,…)
• When children have difficulty reading, sometimes the eyes
aren’t working well together. They may not be hearing well due
to stress.
• Why this works? The jaw tightens when we are stressed and so
nerve function across this area decreases. The Energy Yawn
releases the area so sensory intake happens again. It facilitates
better verbalization and communication. By relaxing the
muscles, you facilitate full nerve function across the joint for
the eyes, facial muscles and mouth.
Movement: “The Energizer”
• Place your hands on the desk in front of you. Lower your chin to
your chest,feeling the stretch in the back of your neck and the
relaxed shoulders. Take a deep breath, scoop forward bringing the
head up and back, allow the back to arch slightly and open the rib
cage. Exhale, curve the back and bring the chin back to rest on the
chest.
• Take the Energizer break after a short learning session to
reactivate focus. This is great when you sit at the computer.
• Why it works? The body moves in a way that activates the
vestibular system, wakes up the brain, relaxes the shoulders
which improves hearing, and brings in more oxygen to assist in
nervous system functioning.
Exercises for Teaching
Virtue, Character, and
Good Behavior
Lesson: “I Want My Character to Be as
Pure as Clear Water”
• TEACHES: HONESTY
• MATERIALS: 3 glasses, water, chlorine bleach, food coloring
• Fill 2 glasses with water (and secretly) 1 glass with bleach
• Say: There are 2 friends, one obeys his parents, goes to school and
never gets into trouble; the other gets into trouble, talks back, tells
lies. … Every time you say person #2 does something wrong, put
one drop of food coloring into the glass so the water becomes
darker. The glass becomes darker and cloudier -- stain fills his
whole body and mind. Now no one wants to be with him. He
decided to become good. Pour some bleach into the glass. He
decided to stop telling lies … pour some more bleach.
Lesson: “All Tied Up by Lies”
• TEACHES: HONESTY
• MATERIALS: ball of yarn or string, chair
• Have someone sit in a chair (who you secretly told to lie). Start
talking about honesty. Ask the children if they can think of a time
when they made the decision to be honest even when lying was
easier. Ask the person in the chair a question … they lie and wrap
them once with the string … ask another question … they lie and
wrap them again …
• Ask the children if they can see what telling lies does to someone.
• Ask them what happens to someone who always tells the truth.
• Ask them to tell a time when someone was caught in a lie.
• Ask why it’s important to always tell the truth.
Lesson: “Repeating Gossip is Like
Letting Go a Bag of Feathers”
• TEACHES: GOSSIP
• MATERIALS: paper bag, feathers (or rice), chopsticks, a bedsheet
• Go outside and sit in an open area. Talk about the importance of
good manners and respecting others. Put the feathers in a bag and
hand it to a child. Tell them to toss the feathers everywhere. As they
do it, “instruct” the feathers not to fly away but to stay where they
are. Discuss how the feathers are like GOSSIP or talking behind
someone’s back -- the feathers will blow from place to place even if
you tell them not to; it’s easy to says things about other people and
spread rumors. Now tell them to collect the feathers; gossip is easy
to do but hard to take back. (You can use rice and ask them to use
chopsticks to pick it up).
Lesson: “Please Pass the Toothpick”
• TEACHES: TABLE MANNERS
• MATERIALS: Toothpicks
• Sit down to dinner. Place 10 toothpicks at each person’s place. Tell
people you’re going to see if they have table manners. Every time
someone notices another person NOT using table manners, they can
ask that person for one of their toothpicks. He must give it up
CHEERFULLY. When you finish eating,t he person with the most
toothpicks is the winner and gets a treat.
• Example: No elbows on the table, wipe your mouth with your
napkin and not hands, chew food with your mouth closed, say
“please,” don’t talk with your mouth full, etc.
Lesson: “See the Other Side (Golden Rule)”
• TEACHES: RESPECT - SEE THE OTHER SIDE
• MATERIALS: 2 pictures of the same type of object cut from a
magazine, poster board, tape or glue
• Cut 2 pictures of the same type of object from a magazine (a baby,
house, car, fish, boat, etc.) shown two different ways. For example,
one picture might be of a Christmas tree, and another picture of a tree
branch covered with insects. Tape the pictures on 2 sides of the poster
board. Put the board between two people, tell them you have a picture
of the same item on each side of the board. Ask each person to take
turns describing one feature of the object without telling what it is (it
has bricks, it has brown eyes, it’s circular, …). When they realize the
picture is different, ask them how to resolve the disagreement (1) tell
the other they are wrong (2) argue and insist your description is
correct (3) go around to the other side and try to see the picture from
the other person’s point of view.
See the Other Side ...
• Why is it important to see things from the other person’s
point of view?
• Why do people often argue about something without trying
to see the other side?
• Who benefits from seeing the other person’s side?
• What is the Golden Rule and what does it teach us to do?
• Does obeying the Golden rule help us avoid arguments?
• What does it mean to “walk in someone else’s shoes”?
• Can you think of a time when you were right about
something and someone disagreed with you? How did you
solve it?
Lesson: “Is the Pot Full? What thing
do I do First?”
• TEACHES: Do the IMPORTANT things first, There’s always
room for more
• MATERIALS: Pot, rocks, gravel, sand, water
• Have the students fill a pot with large rocks. Ask, “Is it full?”
When they say yes, fill in the spaces with gravel. Ask, “Is it
full?” When they say yes, fill in the spaces with sand so there is
no more space. Ask, “Is it full?” When they say yes this time, fill
it with water.
• This teaches to put the BIG rocks in first. Do the important
things first, otherwise you will never be able to fit them in.
The Birth of Reason
• 6 years olds - all the pieces of individual cognition come together
• Test for 4-8 year olds. Fill 2 short, squat glasses with equal amounts of water and
ask, “Do the two glasses contain the same amount of water, or does one have
more?”Pour all the water from one glass into a tall, narrow glass and ask the child
the same question.
• 4-year olds: the tall glass has more water in it (the difference in the water level is
too great for them to believe it’s the same amount even if you pour it back into the
small cup)
• 8-year olds: they know the amount hasn’t changed and can tell you why
• The difference between the two is the birth of reason. This is the emergence of
operational thinking when they start applying logic to solve problems. Most 4- and
5- year olds can’t make the conceptual connections, so RECITATION
PROGRAM - TRIVIUM - MEMORIZE during early years
• 3- and 4-year olds: Ask them if they want one marshmallow now or 2 after a 20minute delay and they rarely resist the immediate treat whereas 5- and 6-years
olds can resist for the double reward. So children have more discipline and mental
control by age 6.
Lesson: “Is My Life in Balance?”
• TEACHES: How to balance life
• MATERIALS: 2 small Ziploc bags, wire hanger, 30-50 pennies,
masking tape, pen, hook or nail
• Label 2 ziploc wags with tape: “life’s pleasures” and “life’s
stresses.” Put them on opposite sides of a hangar. Suspend the
hanger on a hook or nail so that it hangs freely.Put a small piece
of tape on each penny. Write an abbreviation on one penny for
each child activity (swimming, video games, watching TV,
soccer,..), commitment (visiting family, service activities,
scouts) and daily responsibility (school, chores, homework). As
the child picks up a penny, ask them whether it brings
PLEASURE or PRESSURE. Place it in the bag. After all the
“weights” have been placed, it’ll be obvious whether life is in
balance or not.
• Ask what they should do to restore equilibrium?
Lesson: “One at a Time Goals”
• TEACHES: GOALS, do things one at a time
• MATERIALS: a handful of pennies (coins)
• Tell the child you’ll play a game. Show her a handful of pennies
and tell her these are special pennies called “goalies” (little goals).
Stand a few feet away and ask them to see if they can catch the
“goalies” when you toss them. Then toss 7 or 8 or a whole handful
at once. The child will probably catch only 1 or 2.
• Now do it just 1 at a time. After you have done all the coins, count
how many they caught.
• Explain the reason the pennies are called “goalies” is they are like
goals. When we try to do too many goals at the same time, it is
difficult and most won’t be done. When we do 1 at a time with
planning, we’ll have more success. So a BIG GOAL needs to be
made into several little goals taken 1 at a time.
Lesson: “Domino Goals”
• TEACHES: GOALS
• MATERIALS: a set of dominos (mahjong tiles)
• Line up 30 dominos in 3 rows of 10 each so that knocking down
the 1st one will cause the whole row to fall.
• The first row should have a small gap so that the whole row won’t
fall down.
• The second row should have one domino off center so the chain
reaction cannot be completed.
• The third row should be straight so they all fall successfully
• Explain how goals can help you in life (getting good grades,
learning how to play the piano, doing chores,…). Explain in order to
achieve a long range goal we need several well placed smaller goals
that stay on course. Have them knock down the 1st row with the gap
and explain that if we skip a vital step in our progression, we won’t
succeed. (ex. You want to buy a bike, so you do chores for money
all summer and then spend it on candy)
• Have them knock down the 2nd row. Again the reaction will stop in
the middle. Discuss that if we don’t stay on course with our goals
we won’t achieve the desired result. Example: we join the band to
learn to play the flute, but then play with a friend’s guitar and forget
the flute, being sidetracked we never learn either.
• Have them knock down the 3rd row. Talk about how small, well
planned goals lead to success.
• Illustrate this with a real goal the child is working on. Tell them to
write down their goals. If we don’t succeed at the goal, should we
keep trying? Is learning from mistakes helpful? Would life be more
fun if we never tried to get better at anything?
MODERN SCHOOLING
Modern Schooling Wrongly Assumes
• Government schooling is the essential force for social cohesion. It
cannot happen any other way. A bureaucratized public order is our
defense against chaos and anarchy. (culture)
• Socialization of children in groups monitored by state agents is
essential otherwise children won’t learn how to get along with
others. (Sudbury Valley School)
• Children from different backgrounds and beliefs must be mixed
together (wise but not necessary)
• Teachers, because they are certified, are smarter and wiser than
parents and better educational experts. The state must protect
people from uncertified teachers. (many great leaders selfschooled)
• Forcing children to assemble in mandated groups for mandated
intervals with mandated texts and overseers does not interfere with
academic learning.
• The world is full of crazy parents who will ruin their children so
we must protect children from bad parenting (home schooling)
• It’s not right for a family to concern itself over the education of its
own child, but it’s okay to worry about the general education of
everyone.
• The state has the predominant responsibility for training morals
and beliefs. (historically it’s been parents, community, society)
-- John Taylor Gatto
The Modern School System
• Trains bad habits and attitudes (like indifference and not caring about anything too
much since there’s the immediate turning on/off like a light switch - when the bell
rings then leave the topic)
• Since people drive purchases, trains consumerism for the economy. Bored people
are the best consumers and childish people are easiest to convince, so schools are
boring, extend childhood into adulthood, and teach dumbness
• Schools were reformed to meet the needs of business since business wants
standardized (predictable) customers and employees. Since certain employment
requires specialization, demand that employees specialize their training and thereby
become incomplete - spiritually dangerous
• Competition makes children abandon trust in their peers and not be responsible
• An atmosphere of low-level stress and danger means that relief only available from
appeal to authority - an arena of meaningless pressure - teaches how to be frightened
• Emotional dependency and conformity - wait for teacher smiles, checks, prizes intellectual dependency - “good students” wait for the teacher to tell them what to do
• Teaches confusion - nothing is linked together
• Provisional self-esteem - tests/grades/report cards/SATS, children taught to measure
themselves based on the casual judgement of strangers
Famous Home Schooled, Self-Taught
People in America
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Inventors: Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, ...
Generals: George Patton, MacArthur, Robert Lee, ...
Artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, …
Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Adams,Lincoln, Roosevelt,
Wilson, …
Scientists: Albert Einstein, Curie, Pascal, ...
Statesmen: Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Konrad Adenauer, …
Composers: Mozart, Mendelssohn, Irving Berlin, ...
Writers: Mark Twain, Dickens, Hans Christian Anderson, …
Children schooled at home are brighter and more impressively human than institutionalized kids!
The 3 Historic Purposes of Education
• 1. Training to be a good person - the “religious purpose” - to
make good people who acted out of principle and were fit to live
next to - people with an inner life and values transcending the
material
• 2. Training to be a good citizen - the “public purpose” - to make a
citizen class who love the country and knew how to argue and
work for the civic/public good and improve it
• 3. Training to enable one to live the life one chooses - the “private
purpose” - to make self-directing individuals who knew their own
strengths and weaknesses, and help them develop their personal
power, to find some particular talents to develop to the maximum
The Fourth Purpose of Public School - Prussia
• Prussia realized what centralized schooling (Volksschule - 92% of
the children) could offer (not intellectual development but
socialization in obedience and subordination):
– obedient soldiers for the army (All Quiet on the Western Front - a product of good schooling)
– obedient workers for the mines
– well subordinated civil servants for the government
– well subordinated clerks to industry
– citizens who thought alike about major issues
– an artificial national consensus on matters worked out in advance by leading German families
and institutions
Real Schulen (8% of children) taught real thinking and
intellectual development
• 4. School exists to serve the corporate economy and managerial
functions of government (as in Prussia, a servant of corporate and
political management) so isolate the children from the real world
Harvard List: What Must an Educated
Person Know … The Ability to
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Define problems without a guide
Ask hard questions which challenge prevailing assumptions
Work in teams without guidance
Work absolutely alone
Persuade others that your course is the right one
Discuss issues and techniques in public with an eye to reaching
decisions about policy
Conceptualize and reorganize information into new patterns
Pull what you need quickly from masses of irrelevant data
Think inductively, deductively, and dialectically
Attack problems heuristically
Investigate these Models
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Amish system in Lancaster Pennsylvania
Mondragon cooperative in Basque, Spain
Harmony School in Bloomington, Indiana
Rudolf Steiner Waldorf system
Montessori
Homeschooling (John Holt)
Escalante,Collins and Gatto
Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential
Ben Franklin’s Autobiography
Herbert Spencer’s Education
How to Create the Next
Generation of Chinese Heroes
Bill Bodri
Review of Last Time
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The Brain, Neurons and Change
The Trivium (Grammar stage - Recitation)
Movements
Teaching Virtue
The Failings of Public Schooling
Must Reading for Young Adults
These few books can change someone’s life because they teach Success principles,
discipline, self-control, getting along with others, merit making, life purpose,
cultivation, self-improvement
• Liao Fan’s Four Lessons
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Lao Tzu’s Treatise on the Response of the Tao
• Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill), As A Man Thinketh (Allen)
• Nan Huai-Chin’s Book on the Confucian Analects
• How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie)
• The Platform Sutra of Hui-Neng
• Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Romans
Topics - The Young Adult
PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT
• Setting Goals
• Creating Plans, “To Do” Lists, Time Management and Setting Priorities
• How to Create the Future You Want
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE
• How to Model Superstars for Personal Excellence and Success
• Special Mental States You Can Cultivate
SPECIFIC SPECIAL SKILLS
• Creativity - Problem Solving
• Academic Study Skills
• Money Skills
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR FORTUNE AND DESTINY TO
CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT
How to Set Goals
Why Do We Need Goals?
• When impoverished rats are put into cages with toys and
learning experiences, their brain cortex grows really big
• In teenage rats, a “boring” environment has a bigger thinning
effect on neurons and the brain than an “enriching”
environment has on growing the brain and thickening the
cortex
• Therefore, rats lose mental ground when not challenged
• People need to be challenged with goals as well!
Why Goals?
• Princeton University Study - only 10% of
people are natural learners, and the rest
have to be pushed
• Harvard University Study - the 3% who
write down their goals make more money,
have more free time, and accomplish more
than the 97% who do not
Goals Workshop
Here’s what people ordinarily teach ...
• Get a record book and redo this every year
• Write down 5-8 lifetime goals
• Write down 5-8 annual goals for this/next year
• Write down 5-8 things to do each month to improve
your life
• Write down 2-3 autosuggestions to program into your
subconscious (“I’m good at solving problems,” “I’m
patient with other people,” etc.)
Brain Tracy Method for Setting Goals
Your ability to select your most important tasks at each moment, and then to
start on the task and get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more
of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop
1. Decide exactly what you want
2. Write it down
3. Set a deadline
4. Make a list of everything you can think of that you are going
to have to do to achieve your goal
5. Organize this list into a plan
6. Take action on your plan immediately - review constantly
7. Resolve to do something every single day that moves you
toward your major goal (like Liao Fan and Ben Franklin)
Life Goals Exercise
• Write on a piece of paper “Life goals” or “Things to do before I die”
• Make a list of everything you want to do. Everything. Write books,
make money, travel, learn to dance, … write till you are done.
• Let it sit for awhile. Then narrow the list to your top 10 choices.
Then rest. Then cut it down again to your 4 top goals.
• Pick the goal that is number one, and put it on top.
• If you haven’t done these things yet and you’re over 30, there’s a
80% chance you won’t finish them unless you do this exercise.
• Convert those goals into 5 year objectives. Create one year lists,
then monthly lists and from that weekly lists and from that daily
lists.
• These are YOUR PRIORITIES, and you will have to sacrifice
lesser interests to achieve them, but they’re YOURS. Now you’ll
have a much better chance to achieve any of them, especially #1.
Important Points for Creating the
Life You Want (Life Goals)
• Write it down in complete detail - a complete picture visualized with
all five senses for your subconscious mind to work on
• Write it down in the positive because the subconscious mind cannot
distinguish between negative and positive
• Be specific, measurable and realistic - establish reward milestones
• Don’t set goals too high or low, vague, conflicting, miracles
• Think it through - work it backwards to see how to get there
• (Model yourself on someone who already achieved what you want)
• Feedback - Measure Yourself - Am I on track, is it working, if I’m
not progressing what isn’t working? (if you continue doing the same
thing you’ll continue getting the same results)
• Review your goals daily - judge decisions by “Does this take me
closer to my goals that matter or not?”
A Review - Setting Goals
• What are your dreams in life for
– Career, finances, business, income, home, family, health, physical,
mental, educational, intellectual life, experiences, possessions, travel,
fun, social, cultural, relationships, spiritual
• Write down WHY you want it, if not move on
(if you
can’t find a reason for it, why?)
• Write down the time frame 1-2-5-10-20 years out
• What obstacles can come between me and my
dreams? What skills, abilities, attitudes, action
steps, objectives do I need to do? Break them
down into steps with deadlines
Kevin Hogan Method for Setting Goals
• Make a sheet with four squares - 4 DREAMS:
(1) Business/Career
(2) Health
(3) Intellectual Life
(4) Social/Family/Home
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REASONS why you must have it
The Pain you will feel if you don’t achieve it (future pacing)
The Pleasure you will feel if you do achieve it (future pacing)
The ACTION STEPS you must do every day to get there
You need to put this in a book for every year and review
constantly. Yearly goals and monthly goals.
Thinking About Goals
• What are the top 10 places you want to visit before you die?
• What 10 events would you really like to experience first hand (they’d be
so awesome that you’d talk about them for the rest of your life)
• What 10 skills would you most want to acquire? (what do you want to
become excellent at?)
• What does your dream home look like? (number of rooms, flooring,
square footage, color of the kitchen, neighborhood, …)
• How much money would you like to earn per year?
• What would your family like to experience over the next 5 years?
• What 10 toys would you most like to own?
• What 5 things would give the greatest sense of accomplishment in your
business life?
• What 10 things would give you the greatest sense of accomplishment in
your personal life?
Bodri Method for Setting Goals
• Know your outcome. Fix in your mind exactly what you want. Write it
down. Be specific.
• Then take massive intelligent action toward the goal. Consistent
disciplined action. (Model a winner and do what they did)
• Measure and track your results to see if you are getting them.
• If you are not getting the results you want, change your approach!
• Change ... Change … Change … until you get your desired outcome.
Perseverance and discipline to stay working at it. Don’t dream, work!
• Secret Formula: GOAL + DISCIPLINED ACTION +
AWARENESS (meditation) and MEASUREMENT for correction +
MERIT and VIRTUE = RESULT.
– Liao Fan
– Benjamin Franklin
GOSPA
• GOALS - a place you want to end up at the end of a certain
period (a certain sales level or profitability level)
• OBJECTIVES - sub-goals you must accomplish in order to
achieve your goals (in the areas of sales, distribution, staff development,
technology installation, cost control, manufacturing, …)
• STRATEGY - the method you’ll use to accomplish your
objectives on the way to the goal (ex. build an internal sales force,
outsource selling to an external organization, …)
• PRIORITIES - the things you’ll have to do first and second,
what’s more and less important
• ACTIVITIES - the specific day functions delegated to specific
individuals with deadlines and standards of performance
Creating Plans and
“To Do” Lists to Achieve
Your Goals and “Stay on
Track”
Daily “To Do” List
• Start with your WEEKLY to do list
• Takes 5 minutes per day, but requires discipline all day
• Write down 25 things to do (assignments, errands, appointments), select the top 6
most important things (you cannot do 15-25 significant things in a day)
• Those 6 things will yield the biggest impact on your life and results. Don’t focus
on the urgent or easy things. Do the 20% that makes the 80% difference. Those 6
things MUST get done. You will fail to do them unless you make them a priority.
• Compute the time for those 6 tasks, add it up
• Schedule those activities (structure them so none takes longer than 1 hour) - now
your day is organized according to what you want from yourself
• Keep focusing on the 6 important things throughout the day (so you get closer to
your long term goals each and every day)
• Do the most important thing first that moves you ahead
• Do this the night before or each morning
• Check off items to give yourself a sense of completion
“To Do” Lists
• Hint - do one of the top priority highlighted tasks that makes you
feel good first
• Create STOP DOING lists, too
• Success is what happens to you a little when you do a little more
each day over and over
• Success can come in a windfall but usually comes bit by bit
(1) You’ll get more done with this method
(2) You’ll have fewer unnecessary crises
(3) You’ll spend a bigger percentage of you time doing things that
move you along to the goals you desire
• Business people: use two accordion folders, one with a pocket for
each month (12) and another for each day (31). Put follow up
materials in the slot that’s appropriate.
The Famous $25,000 “To Do” List Story
Human beings will avoid doing what needs to be done. We put lots of energy into
avoiding the hard, unpleasant, realities of life. It’s not that we don’t know what to
do. It’s that we don’t do it.
In one story, steel magnate Charles Schwab told his management consultant Ivy Lee
that “What we need around here is not more knowing, but more doing. If you’ll pep
us up to do the things we already know we ought to do, I’ll gladly pay you anything
you ask.” Lee took him up on the proposition. “In 20 minutes,” he told Schwab,
“I’ll show you how to get your organization doing at least 50 percent more.” He
started by having Schwab write down his six most important tasks to complete in the
next business day, according to their importance. The consultant encouraged Schwab
to share this approach with his executives, judge its value, and, “send me a check for
whatever you think it’s worth.”
Two weeks later, Lee received a check for $25,000 – a king’s ransom in those days.
In an accompanying note, Schwab said it was the most profitable lesson he’d ever
learned. The lesson, of course, was the power of focus. The person or organization
that understands – and acts upon – its Top 5 and Top 1 of 5 will succeed.
John Adams, 2nd U.S. President, Master
List-Maker
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Wrote first draft of the Declaration of Independence
Recommended George Washington to lead the war
Went to France and convinced them to send their navy
Convinced the Dutch to lend us the money to fund the war
Our first ambassador to Great Britain after the war
1st Vice-President and set-up all the initial protocols
2nd President
His February 1776 list from his diary:
 “An alliance to be formed with France and Spain”
 “Government to be assumed by every colony”
 “Powder mills to be built in every colony and fresh
efforts to make saltpeter (for the making of
gunpowder)”
 “Declaration of Independency”
Other Lists to Make
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Yearly Goals Lists
Stop Doing Lists
What Could Go Wrong Lists
Principles I’ve Learned to Guide Myself
(from Failures of Mistakes)
Creating the Future You
Want
Napoleon Hill’s Method to Create
the Future You Want
• First - fix in your mind EXACTLY what you desire. Don’t just
say it. Be specific.
• Second - determine what you will have to give in return for this
• Third - establish a definite date by which you will achieve this
• Fourth - create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and
begin at once, whether you are ready or not
• Fifth - write out a clear, concise statement of what you want to
achieve/acquire, the time limit, what you intend to give in return,
describe the plan for achievement
• Sixth - read your plan aloud, twice daily, morning and night and
imagine yourself in possession of that accomplishment
Attracting Things to You - How to Help Manifest
the Future You Want
The Secret principle of the Visualized Focusing is samadhi and one-pointedness
• The Attraction Principle:
– Intention + Action = Manifestation
– Imaging * Action = Result
• Close your eyes, calm your breathing, picture in your mind what you desire.
When you have this picture in your mind, raise your right finger.
• Describe, in great detail, a situation where you have this person/place/thing in
mind … in the very near future. Now in great detail tell me another place where
this thing is in your life … in the very near future.
• Now tell me all the specific steps and sequences of steps required to fulfill this
manifestation in your life. Describe the actual process. (after X, what happens
next? And then what? …)
• Describe why you must allow this to come into your life beginning now.
• Now bring the picture of this accomplishment/person/place/thing into your
mind so that it is enticing and makes you energized and excited.
• Pay attention to your breathing and come back to normal 321
Manifesting the Future You Want ...
• To create in reality, you must first create it in your mind. To achieve you must
first conceive.
• There’s a bridge between manifestation and action. Taking action does not
guarantee a result. We have control over our actions, but not the results of our
actions. (So we need outside help and need to accumulate merit)
• You cannot just “dream it and it will come” -- it requires changes in you - you
must make a wise plan and work it and change your habits that prevent success
• Do not trust in talent but in commitment … every day work toward it
• You must leave your comfort zone - always improve, learn the things that keep
you from being successful, practice the things that bring you closer to success.
Do the difficult things you don’t want to do.
• Struggle means you are changing your fate; friction = progress
• The most flexible action plan will succeed in manifesting your desire
• Samadhi is staying one-focused on your goal and working toward it despite
obstacles. You need to cultivate awareness (measure your progress) and
flexibility … this is Zen training and Confucian cultivation
Problems in Manifesting the Future You Want ...
• Problem: Procrastination - you sabotage yourself, you fear success and don’t
believe you deserve the rewards you are seeking so just start working your plan
and get a mentor/coach
• Problem: Internal dialogue - the sum of all the talking that goes on in your
mind is usually negative, not productive, so reprogram your subconscious
through autosuggestion and use mantra and meditation
• Problem: Positive thinking doesn’t work - you keep thinking positively but
there’s no outcome because thought alone is useless, you need realistic action.
If you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, this is insanity.
• Problem: Bad habits stand in the way - so resolve any self-defeating
unconscious habit patterns and clear the unconscious of whatever prevents you
Problems in Manifesting the Future You Want ...
• “Parts Problem” - if it isn’t working it’s usually because
there’s some internal business or issue we have to take care of first.
This is a “parts problem” that’s easy to solve if you have courage. Part
of you says X and part of you says Y; the two don’t agree with
each other.
• Solution: The goal of internal dialogue is to resolve the paradox:
– Will the part of me that doesn’t want to stop ___ tell me why?
– What positive intention does this allow me to accomplish?
– Thank you.
Would it be okay for me to get that ___ and still stop?
– Thanks, and let me know in the future if I’m letting you down
Reframing the Resistance ...
1. What is the behavior you want to change? Identify it.
2. Establish communication with the part of yourself that is responsible
for the behavior. Ask, “Are you willing to communicate with me?”
3. Separate the positive intention of the PART from the problem
behavior. Go inside and ask “What are you trying to positively do for
me with this behavior?” (If the answer seems negative, ask what is its
positive purpose)
4. Go to the creative part of yourself and find 3 other choices that
satisfy the positive intention of the PART but do not have the
negative impact of the problematic behavior
5. Go inside and have the PART that creates the problem behavior agree
to implement the new choices. Ask, “Do you agree to accept these
choices?” If not, then go back to step 4 to modify them.
6. Find out if any other PARTS object to the new choices. If yes, step 2.
Learn from Your Failures
1. List your failures - large and small
– they are your richest learning experience so look at them
– don’t evaluate them, just write them down
2. Find 3 lessons for each failure (never buy high and sell low,
don’t listen to time pressure, …)
– they’re your experiences and your lessons
– there are no wrong answers, just meaningful lessons
3. List how you’ll use those lessons
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know how you’ll use them in the future
write out scenarios: if XX happens again I will …
a salesman gets an objections, goes home, writes out an answer and practices it
to manage your mind properly, you don’t want that same situation to find you
unprepared again
Learn from Your Failures ...
4. Go use some of those lessons
– go out and duplicate the problem (the same sales situation, teaching a student,
trimming a tree) and check how good your solution is
– testing it is the only way to see how good it is, get over fear, make life a game and
improve yourself
5. Record your results
– write out the results of what happened when you tried it
– evaluate it from 1-10 (so-so = 5, great =9 or 10) and be honest
6. Sharpen and polish your lessons
– if it didn’t work, try to improve it
– make it play - life is an experiment until you get the results you want
– Edison worked at creating a light bulb from failures
It’s easy to review your successes, but reviewing your failures
and learning from them is gold. This is true cultivation and selfdevelopment. Ex. All successful traders do this.
Write it Down!
• Catherine Cox (1920’s) studied 300 geniuses from history (Newton,
Jefferson, Bach)
• They always wrote things down starting from an early age … whether they
were generals, statesmen, scientists
• Einstein - Autobiographical Notes
• Leonardo da Vinci - Notebooks
• Thomas Edison - 3 million pages of notes
• Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography
• Faraday - notebooks (he never went to school and preserved the gift of
thinking freely)
Also, a study of 200 overachievers (Bill Gates, artists, inventors, people from all
fields) investigating 187 variables found only one thing in common. There was a
blindly encouraging parent, almost always of the opposite sex (who you look to
for self-esteem) that always told their child they can do whatever they want. Never
crush their dream. They are only 5 years old! Be 100+% supportive!
How to Model A
Superstar for the Same
Personal Excellence
A Review: Old Habits Inhibit Success
It takes 5 days to form a new habit that is repeated daily
 the desire to change is not enough
 you must consciously program in new behavior to create new brain pathways that are
likely to be followed
 the brain says “NO” in order to prefer old pathways
 The only way a neural pathway changes is from lack of use –the pathways will then
atrophy and decay when not used
 you need lots of positive replacement and an enormous amount of road construction to
create a new neural highway system
 repetition of new behavior in a new environment will create new pathways, along with
multisensoral thinking (a 2nd best choice)
 you have to create a system of accountability to make change long term
•
Freedom of Choice – we like to have choices but we hate the internal stress of
choosing: even though we create a new highway, we don’t default into using it, but must
use CHOICE to reinforce it. Question: what new habit do we choose?
•
The Path of Least resistance – it’s familiar, comfortable, status quo, and we’re used to
doing it; It takes an enormous initial effort to change because you need to forge new
highways in the brain, they must be strengthened through regular usage and maintained
through regular use. Question: what new habit do we choose? MODEL SOMEONE!
Modeling Another Person to Become
the Best (Personal Excellence)
• Know what outcome you want - what do you want to do?
• Find someone (a model of excellence) who is extremely successful at what you
want, and then start to model their performance. Discover their
– physiology (breathing, posture)
– filter patterns (why they’re doing what they are doing, their beliefs and values and
decisions and language patterns and metaprograms)
– strategies (how the person does what they are doing internally - their internal
representations, internal dialogue, and their sequence in order to get the same result they
get)
• Install the physiology, strategies and filters in another person or yourself to see if
they work. You need to be conscious about this or have a coach, otherwise you may
think you are doing all the same internal processes but are only partially modeling
the internal map of the other person and still partially using your own old map.
• Based on the results you get, refine the process until it works. Successful modelers
use (1) visual rehearsal and (2) positive (or no) internal dialogue
Dealing with the Problem of
Internal Dialogue (Modeling)
• 90% of self-talk is negative
• You can:
– Jam it (--> use a mantra)
– Change its modality (turn down the volume, move the source of
the sound behind you, change its voice to someone else …)
– Substitute positive internal dialogue for negative internal
dialogue (which is the purpose of affirmations)
– Give the internal dialogue something to do (go over a checklist)
– Stop the internal dialogue altogether (--> meditation), which is the
most effective way (Zen masters are the most flexible and skillful
and accomplished of all classes of people)
Modeling Another Person for Excellence
• Look for patterns of belief and action powering their actions, attitudes and
experiences - the key driving principles behind their skill
• Isolate the specific action steps that brought them to where they are. Focus
on the mindset, strategic thought processes, linear/nonlinear means they used
to get there. Find out EXACTLY what made them successful and
distinguished them from their peers - they didn’t become successful
randomly, but because they repeated some specific successful action or
pattern you want to model/copy/duplicate
• REPEAT and DUPLICATE their work (their skills, attitudes, thought
processes, breathing patterns, posture). Regularly use the skills in practice.
• Integrate the skills into your behavior
• Feedback - monitor your progress on an ongoing basis (measure, record,
write down)
Cultivating Special
States of Mind
Your mind is your most powerful tool. It can either work for you or
against you. Success and happiness in life depends on whether or not
you learn how to properly use your mind. Thoughts are things and
create the reality you want, but cultivating emptiness is even better and
the bedrock of Chinese culture. Unfortunately, no one teaches you this
So we’ll teach you very specific proven techniques of manipulating
thought that help you create your life in a way that brings happiness
and success, and meditation methods that bring ultimate happiness.
* Meditation - The Quiet Game
* Breathing - Calm the Mind
Why are these two important? Because chi and thought
(consciousness) are linked. Spiritual cultivation
teaches you how to master these two. This is real
Chinese culture and the key to success, health,
longevity, spirituality, happiness and accomplishment.
Right Brain - Left Brain
• Left Brain - logical, rational, language oriented, sequential, analyzes, objective,
looks at parts, cautious, conservative, rule maker, planner
• Right Brain - emotional, holistic, visual, intuitive, synthesizes, imagery,
adventurous, dreamer, liberal, spontaneous, rule breaker, instinctual
• Left brainers are logical. They work best with related stimuli. They take
unexpected ideas and add discipline
• Right brainers are radical. They work best with unrelated stimuli. They take
relevant ideas and add unexpectedness.
• Our left brain attacks any change and our Right brain emotions are our prior
programming (that has an emotional attachment)
• So, use this strategy to effect change in your life: Keep the bad guys busy
(confuse the critical mind) while making an end run around it. Use positive
thinking and also write it down. “I want to be successful” - critical mind rebels,
so write it down (handwriting goes to the right brain) and becomes a new
metaprogram. Write it down at night - the most receptive period for change.
Reticular Activating System (RAS)
• Located in the Spinal cord to midbrain
• It’s the attitude programmer of the mind
 Controls your learning, self-control/inhibitions, motivation (the center of
motivation)
 Lets you stay focused and moves you toward your goals. Zeroes in on
all areas of focus whether positive or negative. (it lets you hear your
name in an airport, notice a car you want to buy on the street, focus on
a conversation in a restaurant, picks up news on things interesting to
you, will focus on goals if you let them)
 Does not judge anything but simply obeys commands
• Puts the subconscious to work on fulfilling the requests of your
consciousness, whether positive or negative (it cannot distinguish)
 It accepts all you feed it as reality (it cannot make judgements about
the thoughts you give it)
 It cannot distinguish between a real perception or imagination
• Answers all self talk and dis-empowering questions
Your Big Challenge Because of the RAS
• Research shows 90% of self-talk is negative. Your RAS will focus
on what you think about … your belief will become your reality.
Self-talk focuses on problems, worries and things not working in our
lives (complaints). Your brain even seeks out negative things
because as children we’re criticized rather than praised.
• Most people are unfocused in life (a “wandering generality”) so
don’t get what they want out of life. The RAS does not distinguish
between what you want and don’t want. All it knows is that
something is being focused on and tries to bring it into being. So if
you don’t have defined goals, you won’t get them!
• When a group of people are in trouble (ex. A company), they focus
on negative thoughts so the situation gets worse. You have to turn
the emotions around (sports teams, Roman & Chinese military
history). This is a skill that everyone admires. Zen does this.
How to Use the RAS to Your Advantage
• Any statement you make to your self starts in your subconscious, so program your
subconscious … with repetition a thread becomes a string, then a rope and then a
cable
• If you don’t work on feeding positive goals and attitudes into your mind (or find
ways to create them), then negativity will have a big impact on your life. Negative
thought will hold you back. Therefore, feed yourself, program yourself with positive
self-talk.
• Positive self-talk makes a huge difference in your attitude. Your RAS will focus on
whatever you give your attention to, positive or negative, so tune out what makes
you fail and tune in to what makes you succeed
• Successful people focus on only what they want and ignore other stuff. Goals focus
your attention but be flexible so as to create space for even better things to happen.
• Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious (alpha brain waves are
more susceptible to suggestion). Then your RAS will keep working on things when
you are not aware of it.
Visualization and Meditation for
the Mental Edge
Rehearsing over and over again in your mind helps create new neurological
patterns in the brain that help an individual move toward something new
• Arnold Schwarzenegger - imagined his muscles as big
• Olympic athletes use it, golfers uses, businessmen use it, …
• Basketball: Team A practiced shooting basketballs 4 hours per
day. Team B practiced for 3 hours and visualized 1 hour. B scored
26% more than A.
• Field Hockey: 1991 study of 121 players. Those who used
relaxation/imagery improved their goal shooting by 160% (versus
70% for those who just did physical practice)
• Harvard University Sports Training Center - using meditation
cuts response time by 14.41 milliseconds (tennis would improve)
Visualization and Meditation ...
• Olympic Training Center in Colorado - 32 golfers practiced
putting every day for week. Group 1 visualized the ball going
into the hole (all their physical motions and the ball trajectory),
Group 2 visualized the ball veering away, Group 3 just practiced
putting without visualization. Results … Group 1 +30% ,
Group 3 +11% , Group 2 -21% .
• Soviet 1980 Winter Olympic Games: One group did just
physical training, another group spent 75% of the time physical
training and 25% mental training, third group did 50-50%,
fourth group did 25% physical training and 75% mental
training. … Those who spent more time on mental training
improved the most (samadhi cultivation), and the least
progress was made by those who spent all their time on
physical training.
Getting Rid of a Headache or Pain
1. Rate the headache or pain from 0 to 10 points (10 is worst)
2. Make a picture that represents the headache or pain. Project
it onto a screen in front of you.
3. Change the color of it until the pain reduces by 2 or 3 points.
4. Each time you change colors, shrink the picture slowly until
it’s the size of a small balloon.
5. Release the balloon, watching it drift up into the sky getting
smaller as it goes until it finally disappears and only the
ghost of the memory remains.
The Hot Air Balloon for
Getting Rid of Worries
• Close your eyes and count backwards from 10 to 0,
relaxing.
• Imagine a giant blue hot air balloon.
• Picture yourself placing all your worries inside the basket.
• When the compartment is loaded, imagine the hot air
balloon being released and floating away into the sky
where it disappears. There is nothing you have to do as the
baggage floats into the distance.
• Give all your worries over to Buddha.
The Splish/Switch Technique
To eliminate unwanted, bad behaviors like biting your nails, overeating, getting angry
easily, shyness … this is an incredibly powerful technique
Step 1: Visualize in the middle of your visual screen, with a red background and
frame around it, the behavior you want to change.
Step 2: In the lower right hand corner of your mind, see your entire self in the image,
as you want to be instead with rewards. (use a smaller image & green background)
Step 3: In one second or less, SWISH the smaller picture until it explodes, dissolves
or pushes the larger image out of the picture. This must be done rapidly in order to
be effective (<1 second). It helps to say “swish” or “woosh” as you do this.
Step 4: Open your eyes, reform the old pattern and place the new pattern in the lower
right corner again of your mind’s theater.
Step 5: Close your eyes, reform the old pattern and place the new pattern in the lower
right corner again of your mind’s theater.
Step 6: Do the swish pattern another 5-7 times as quickly as you can, opening your
eyes for a few moments after each trial. Do 40 times in 1 hour!
Step 7: You will know you have succeeded when you close your eyes and have
difficulty forming the old, undesirable image. It is at that time your brain has been
programmed and your behavior will follow suit.
Why the Swish Works
The reason the “Swish” pattern works so well is that it gives the brain
a direction in which to go. You are creating a new response to a
stimuli. This is like self-hypnosis.
The brain responds to electrical impulses. Visual patterns are the
programs which run the brain computer!
Changing the visual pattern is like reprogramming the brain, and thus
altering the (habitual) behavior.
The SWISH pattern creates new neural links between specific old
patterns of behavior and new patterns of behavior .
The Anchoring Pattern
Learn how to summon any mental state at will
Step 1: Decide what state you want to “anchor” (motivation, confidence,
creativity, courage or bravery, …)
Step 2: Think back to a time you found yourself in that state. If you can’t think
of a certain time, imagine how it would be if you were in that state
Step 3: Place yourself in the physiology such a state would require (remember
that physiology produces the state). Your posture (stance, breathing, head
and shoulder pattern) should come as close to that state as possible
Step 4: Visualize the event and feel the emotions you felt at that time
Step 5: At the height of the emotional impact, apply the anchor you selected.
Your anchor might be a snap of your fingers as you say the words “yeah”
with a lot of emotion. It might be a subtle placement of your thumb on your
index finger knuckle. Whatever you choose, it is up to you. However, timing
is critical. Apply the anchor at the peak of the response or it won’t have the
appropriate impact.
The Anchoring Pattern ...
Step 6: Perform the same anchoring technique 5-7 times, but think of different
moments that produced the same emotional response.
Step 7: “Stack anchors” by summoning multiple feelings at the same time. Apply
the anchor 10+ times.The more anchors you stack this way, the more powerful
it is.
Step 8: Once the anchor has been applied, it will stay with you. So whenever you
find yourself in an undesirable state, trigger the anchor of your choice and
produce the desired state instantly.
Anchoring is a powerful tool based on Pavlov’s conditioning research into
stimulus and response. It allows you to link (anchor) a particular state (a
strong emotion) with a particular stimulus (a sound, a touch, smell, …). So
you can learn how to summon any state (emotion) at will by providing the
stimulus in the exact manner you rehearsed. Pavlov found 2 ways to create
associations: (1) repetition and (2) connecting an intense internal state to a
particular stimulus (the richness and intensity of the experience).
Anchoring a Resource State
Step 1: Choose a resource state you would like to experience more often (selfconfidence). Identify a time when you experienced that state FULLY.
Step 2: Relive the experience in your mind vividly. See thru your eyes, hear thru your
ears, feel the sensations of our body. Make an inventory of the sounds, smells, tastes
associated with the state. Shake it off and stop thinking about it.
Step 3: Select a unique anchor - a place on your upper body easy to touch but not
usually touched. Ex. Ear lobe, knuckle of your finger, the gap between fingers.
Step 4: Begin to reaccess the resource experience. As you feel that state is about to
reach maximum intensity, touch or squeeze that part of your body you’ve chosen as
your anchor. Adjust the touch pressure to match the feeling intensity.
Step 5: Repeat step 4 several times, each time amplifying the color, movement,
brightness (submodalities) associated with the state including all representational
modalities (sight, feeling, movement, smells, tastes).
Step 6: Test your anchor by clearing your mind and simply touching your anchor
location. The associated experience should arise without any conscious effort.
Step 7: Identify some situations where you would like more of your state. Imagine
being in each situation and touch yourself to create an automatic association.
The Circle of Excellence (self anchoring)
This exercise does not create competence but assumes ability in its place. When the ability is not
enough and a dose of confidence is required, this exercise works a small miracle. This is building a
powerful resource state. For example, use it to get rid of the fear of speaking or win at sports.
1. Imagine an invisible circle on the floor. Make it 3 feet in diameter and 2 feet in front
of you. You can draw chalk on the floor if you like when training.
2. Go inside the circle and imagine a time you were wonderful. Everything went
smoothly, you were bright, funny, happy, and a great success. You were balanced,
creative, powerful or any other resource state where you were balanced and
centered. If you don’t have this personal history, just pretend you have this
personal history. You can use a movie hero, a living legend, or anyone you admire
to get into the state. Your brain cannot tell the difference between a REAL
history and an IMAGINED history or the history of others. An observer should
see changes in your breathing and posture otherwise your resource state is either
poorly accessed or low quality.
3. Develop a full visual, auditory, kinesthetic representation of the state. See yourself in
the circle being wonderful. Feel the greatness and calm. When you have added
enough resources, you step automatically into a powerful state within the circle.
4. Move into the circle of excellence. Step into the picture of yourself. Anchor this as a
resource state so that you can bring it up at any time you require it.
Your Internal “Board of Directors”
Step 1: select 3-5 business (sports, etc.) leaders, living or dead, whom you admire
Step 2: Get photographs of your board and pin them to the wall where you can
always see them. They will remind you of the talents at your disposal.
Step 3: Research your heroes. Read everything about them and their stories.
Step 4: Take notes on your favorite or most interesting passages. Pay attention to
how they solved problems, what made them stand out, what made them
extraordinary, etc.
Step 5: When you have a challenge, consult the members of your board and ask
them how they would solve it.
Napoleon Hill, 1937 (Think and Grow Rich) created a “mastermind group” or personal cabinet in
his mind before falling asleep. He had 9 great heroes (Emerson, Thomas Paine, Edison,
Darwin,Lincoln, Napoleon, Ford, Carnegie, Burbank). He wanted to rebuild his character to have
the best components of his heroes (Napoleon to inspire men, Lincoln’s sense of justice…). He
studied their lives and after many months they became real with their own character.
Children’s Sports Stories
• One little league baseball coach (Carmine Baffa) taught the “Circle of
Excellence” to his players. Each boy created an imaginary circle in the grass in
front of them and placed a vivid life sized image of an imaginary player making a
certain play. Each boy learned how to leave their world behind as they stepped
into the moving image of that imaginary player (like golf). Each boy was then
taught how to update all past memories of having played ball to include the new
skills and abilities learned from the circle exercise. The team became undefeated
locally and then nationally. He had to make sure the boys followed his
instructions to the letter, that he had rapport with each of them, and that they
could leave their old self behind and then return to normal later. He had them
fully become that player in the circle with amnesia for who they were, and then a
safe return to the present.
• Carla Hannaford worked with a soccer team (ages 14-16) who wanted to win the
state championship but had a tendency to “lose their cool.” Taught them Cross
Crawls, Brain Buttons and Hook-ups and won the State Championship finals.
• Win Wenger taught a poor baseball batter to imagine a tiny flyspeck on the
baseball and aim his bat at the flyspeck instead of the baseball. He batted .800
(instead of .250-.300 for ten games). This was taught in 1 hour to become a
baseball genius and became the Most Valuable Player. You can teach genius!
The New Pattern Generator
Through a mental “dress rehearsal,” generate imaginary
scenarios and bring them to concrete actions (move from dreams
and visions to action) by connecting the images to feelings and
kinesthetic representations. In other words, form a mental image
of the desired behavior, kinesthetically associate with it on a
feeling level, and verbal any missing elements to create change.
WHY?
• People learn new behaviors by creating new mental maps in their brains
• The more complete you make your mental image (maps), the more likely you
will be able to achieve the behavior you want
• Focusing on your goal is the quickest way to achieve new behaviors
• People already have the mental resources they need to achieve new behaviors.
Success is a function of accessing and organizing what is there already
Steps for the New Pattern Generator
• Ask yourself, “If I could already achieve my new goal, what would it
look like?” (while imagining, put eyes down and left)
• Picture yourself achieving the goal (look up and to your right)
• To help you visualize, try these tricks:
– remember a similar successful achievement
– model someone else
– picture yourself first achieving a smaller part of the goal (move your eyes up and
to the left)
• Step into the picture so you feel yourself doing what you just pictured
doing (put your eyes and head down and to the right as you get into that feeling)
• Compare those feelings to feelings from a similar past success (keep
eyes and head turned down and to the right)
• If the feelings aren’t the same, name what you need and add it to the
goal and then repeat the process with your expanded goal (move your
eyes and head down and to the left)
The New Pattern Generator
1. Pick a person you want to model. This is someone who has the skills you want. (it
can even be someone from history); pick a skill and then someone with the skill.
2. Watch a movie of your model doing the things you want to do. Develop a full
representation, in all senses, of the model doing that and notice all the nuances.
3. See your model’s aura, or life force. Notice the color, vibration, sound. Notice how
it gives them that special something. Know that the more you give this away the
more you have.
4. Now watch the movie replacing the model with yourself, as if you were watching
yourself on stage or in a movie. (Do everything your model did to keep their aura
around you.)
5. Replay the situation. Watch yourself again, noticing the nuances and see how
comfortable you are. (Mimic their chi.)
6. Step into the movie. See, feel and hear everything as you do to replay the scene.
7. Make it uniquely yours. Imagine you are going into the situation in a future time
and run through a trigger that will emerge it. Give yourself a cue for in the future
when you want to have these talents and abilities emerge.
Dreaming
• Elias Howe and the first sewing machine - he dreamt of cannibals chasing him
with spear tips that had holes in them like sewing needles
• Niehls Bohr dreamed of the model of the atom
• Mendelev dreamed of the arrangement of the elements
• Samuel Coleridge dreamt of “Kubla Khan,” Robert Louis Stevenson - his novels
• Much of scientific method is based on the dream journals of Rene Descartes
• Kekule - benzene molecule
• Sleep research shows we have 6 dreams a night but forget most of them. History
shows many people wake up in the middle of the night with dream solutions to
problems
• Lucid dreaming - how to do it
• Always go to sleep with a request to your subconscious (show me how to solve
my problem, come up with a way to help me achieve what I want). You focus on
a subject, define the structure and let go. The problem incubates in your
subconscious until your right brain intuition tells your logical left brain an
answer. That’s a Breakthrough or Illumination! Write down the answer.
Creativity and Decision
Making
• Special Mind exercises for creativity
• Mind mapping
• Brain Storming
• Visualization methods
• Pro Con Statements
• Schauberger Water meditation, Tesla imagery of equipment working,
Edison ball bearings, Archimedes meditation, Feymann colors, Nan Huai
Chin 4-element meditations
• Problem solving skills
• Inventing (TRIZ from Russia)
Special Study Skills
to Master Academic
Material
Money Skills
An entire lesson plan on money skills, savings,
debt, money prudence, evaluation, investing and
having one million remingbi by college age
How to Change Your Fortune and
Destiny to Create the Life You Want
•
•
•
•
•
Shao K’ang Chieh - Sung dynasty
“Tieh Pan Shen Shu” Fate Prediction
The Story of Liao Fan (Yuan Huang) - Ming dynasty
Benjamin Franklin’s method of self-improvement
Top businesses and companies continue cycling through
each department to emphasize consistent change and
improvement. Olympic athletes and salesmen train the
same way.
How to Stay on Track in Life
• Step back “3 feet” once per week (Sunday) and ask yourself “Is my
life on purpose?” If not, design/start creating a new life
• Ask yourself the right questions:
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
What is important to me?
What do I want my life to be about?
What is the purpose of my career/business?
What is my end outcome right now?
Am I living my core values?
Am I living with integrity?
Wealth: Is it net increasing every year?
Family and friends: Do they love me? Do I have positive relationships?
Health: Balanced eating, exercise, enough rest, vitamins, water, ...
Spiritual: Am I cultivating virtue, working on quiet spiritual development?
Attitudes and Emotions: A great attitude is a great life
• Get a journal - write things down - record things (ex. Goals,
thoughts and events)
• Think positive thoughts - use autosuggestion or mantra or
meditation to get over fear and procrastination (positive thoughts
are better than negative thoughts and emptiness is better than
positive)
• Don’t wait for someone to help you design your goals. It’s up to
you to decide the direction of your life. Do it now.
• Set up a plan for continuous learning and self-improvement
• Take responsibility for how you feel - the world does not determine
how you feel, you do
• Take responsibility for what you have - you have created your own
fortune and destiny, no one else. To change things, stop avoiding
what needs to be done. Successful people are successful because
they do what unsuccessful ones are unwilling to do. Take risks to
grow, learn from failure and mistakes.
What Did We Learn?
• Have a clearly visualized goal - write it down
• You need a plan of daily disciplined effort. You need massive
intelligent action every day along an effective modeled
strategy that produces excellence. You must practice consistent,
resilient action. You need flexibility and adaptiveness like a
torpedo, but keep your target in sight.
• Meditation and Awareness - you need to watch what’s going
on, measure your progress and deviations to keep on track
(record keeping, ledger of merit and demerit)
• Ask for assistance from higher powers - mantra, prayer,
confession
• Do lots of Merit, Charity and Good Deeds
The Future College
• Harvard costs $50,000 per year
• 1 year of courses = 450 lectures x 45 minutes (10 courses, 15 weeks, 3
lectures/week)
• 1 year of courses fits on a $2.50 CD DVD disk
BOOK: $45.00
CD: Teacher gets $5/royalty, School gets $1
No printing cost, no inventory
• Regular vs. Distance learning
Tuition
$10,000
Room, Board, etc. $5,000
Total
$15,000
Teacher paid $24,000 for
teaching 8 courses
Tuition $2,500 (pay faculty $2,000 of this)
$2,000 for 10 courses = $200/course
A Teacher teaching 8 classes (24 semester units)
of 35 students could earn $56,000. Why?
280 students (35x8)x2 hours = 560 hours of work
Make $100/hour = $56,000/year.
•
•
•
•
Students stay at home
They keep jobs - apprenticeship
They learn 80% of the major topics
Why pay $50,000-100,000 per year?
• A smart entrepreneur will assemble the most famous
professors, record their lessons on videos, get their reading
lists, and hire lots of PhD teaching assistants at $15 per hour
• You can get the best professors in the world and charge
$7,000 per year. The price of a university education will fall.