One could think that to enter the paradigm of success is enough, but my experience with myself and clients has shown that until you start practicing the actions that come from the world-view of the new paradigm, only your "head" will live in the new zone, your body and your circumstances will lag behind.

It's Monday morning, and I have been working on a project for about 3 weeks. A project like this takes 4-5 hours, so why has it been taking so long, for me.

I did a challenge for one of my classes last Tuesday. I started at 9:30 pm, finished and 10:15 pm. There are people in that class that are still working on the same challenge.

I personally and actively helped one of them. As we were on Teamviewer, a client support software, free to use, I had to deal with three things:

1. the job in front of me, the actual doing,
2. the job of commentary, so she can turn around and do it herself
3. the constant chatter of the other student.

I took many hours to complete the task successfully. What was the difference between the 45-minute and the many-hour examples? It was one little thing: when I was doing it for myself, with the intent to win, I kept saying in my head: "Don't think, just follow instructions." It was a yes to doing and no to thinking, wandering, following links, doing unrelated tasks.

When I was doing it for the other student, her constant pull to unrelated questions and activities made the task a marathon instead of a sprint, and I had to stay up till 2 am... which is way past my bedtime.

So, can you guess what I have been doing this 4-hour project I have been attempting (trying) to complete for 3 weeks now? You guessed right: I have been doing everything else remotely connected to this task: logo design, logo redesign, searching for examples, searching for more examples, creating variations, and on and on and on.

Now, why would I do that? That's a real question... I'll give you the answer if you comment on this post. Guess why I've taken three weeks to "almost" complete a 4-hour task? If you guess correctly, I'll give you access to my membership site, www.faststartsecrets.com/members for a whole month for just 1 cent... it's worth hundreds.

OK, go and comment below.

I am training people to become Internet Marketers, and in the process I am becoming one myself.

Teaching something that you haven't accomplished is quite an excellent process, if you can stay in the inquiry, instead of pretending that you have it together. The latter would lead to misinformation, lying, fraud, and the whole nine yards.

Telling the truth that you have some tools, you have a commitment, and you don't know your a-ss from your elbow, is a better way to play this "game." This is how I play, and it's been working out for all parties. It's not smooth, but then, no learning is smooth: any learning worth a dime includes breaking out of tiny boxes, breaking out of the prison of what you already know, painful, and not smooth at all.

I am going to share some of my recent insights in this article: something I haven't even formulated in my head, so pray that it comes out right, ok?

I did a course 22 years ago that I learned to add "thank you" to every check I write, whether it is my rent check, or a commission check... all the same. I have been doing it for ever, and it has managed to change my relationship to money: money is a communication device to say thank you. I am not kidding you, money is little thank you notes.

Whenever a commission notice hits my inbox, I say "thank you."

I have become a grateful person. I even whisper inside "I don't deserve it" to avoid the transaction part, the deal part, the "I gave this to you, and I earned that money" thought, that degrades all of life into the low vibration of commerce. Machiavelli, and the like.

In my 20 years in Landmark I was working diligently to live for some possibility that is waaay beyond me... and I got poorer and poorer in the process.

Something was missing. From Kabbalah I learned that it was desire, it was being able to harness the ego, to use its energy, for something that is worth being, doing and having. Result? Trying. And you know what trying is? A code word for nothing. Not doing. Not succeeding.

Backtrack to May of this year: I was asked to coach a group of people who signed up to a course I had done. To the best of my knowledge, that course never produced anyone who made a penny with their efforts as a result of participating.

I decided (ego) to create the first group that does... and that was the very first time in my life that I started to travel on the back of ego, get energy from ego, but yet, act in the interest of many, including mine.

To be armed with more knowledge... hey, I know what I know and what I don't! I enrolled in a webinar series called "Product University" with Robert Plank and Lance Tamashiro. I lucked out. Their course was something different, not your usual information delivery system, it was actually a course with course work, challenges, the chance to win or lose.

I was so impressed that I took, concurrently, another class with these two guys, "Webinar Crusher".

My desire to want to achieve something started to be awakened. In their next course, "Video Sales Letters 2.0" I found myself wanting to win challenges, wanting to be the first: competitiveness, one of the most important characteristics of an entrepreneur, surfaced. By now, in their "Membership Cube" I am fiercely competitive, passionately ambitious, asking for help, setting hard to accomplish goals... and in front of you is a newly born, healthy human being who shredded all the self sacrifice, all the "I don't matter", all the b.s. some religions and some self-help programs teach, to the detriment of the participants.

It takes energy to accomplish anything. It takes spiritual energy. When you suppress it or leak it (by being a rescuer or helper) you are not helping anyone. You are helping the Dark Side, the part of life that is not affirming to Life.

I always cringed from people who preach "Love" or "Luv", but it takes one to know one. I don't cringe any more, I have nothing in common with them.

I am now of the firm belief that I need to become big, give all I got, become the best and most I can become, that is the way I can help the most people.

And I now trust that the newfound ambition and competitiveness will help me through all the stopping points, all the sticking points, all the "walls" I have been stopped by: you need a lot of energy to accomplish anything meaningful.

Giving up being a helper/rescuer is giving me enough energy for that.

In 1987, I was still working as an architect, I participated in a program called "More Time Workshop"

It was about 15 hours long. We learned very simple time and results management methods... so that wasn't what made the difference.

What made the difference, and I'll tell you in detail, in a minute, what the difference was... so what made the difference is that we had to promise to do everything we learned for 30 days, no days off...

It was simple: you had a short term, a middle range, and a long range goal. You needed to look at them every day and then create 5-7 actions for the day. Priorotize them, and then schedule them into your calendar.

At the end of the day go over your actions and see if you have done them or not. If not, move them to the next day, and schedule them.

Once a week look at a long list of "I always wanted to do this" items.

I found that after 30 days it was a no brainer. It did take an extra hour on my schedule to do this stuff, but

1. I slept better than ever
2. I had more energy and enthusiasm than ever before
3. Things got done.

What I invented for myself at the course was to become a magazine publisher. It was completely outside of my reach... By the end of 1988 I was a magazine publisher, and I published my publication for 11 years with great success, and I loved it. I got this result because I had a method to my life.

A 100-day challenge can do miracles, this is why I signed up to the 100-day challenge...

You can join me in it, if you want, you can do so till September 30. Here is the link: http://www.sophieslist.com/goals

If you sign up and email me, we could become a support group for each other... I can definitely help you!

Are you coming? Success is not waiting for anyone. http://www.sophieslist.com/goals

They are a great way for me to track how the methodologies and principles I use in my teaching work. I mean, how effective I am, how effective the methods are. They track my ability to make a difference in the world. (Someone please remind me to write about how I view my making a difference... OK?)

This note reads

Today was a huge success. I did not even recognize myself. I was attempting to have a conversation with my sister when she became extremely aggressive upon trying to control me and failing. She was in my face yelling and pacing around in circles. I remained calm and did not attempt to defend myself as the lies flew at me. I was able to stick to the subject and not accuse. At this point her husband jumped in and tried to intimidate me, pointing his finger in my face and yelling. They both looked like mad men ganging up on me. I did not raise my voice or get emotional. This is the first time in my life I had no fear in a confrontational situation and it felt GREAT! To be honest I think it frightened my sister & her husband. They did not know what to think of me, I have had many weaknesses in the past but now I am strong.

This person, let's call her Josephine (not her real name) was given up for adoption at an early age. A loving couple with two children over 10, adopted her.

The birth children never accepted her as a sibling.

In her mind, in her thinking, in her words, she was abandoned by her mother. She put together a strategy of being meek, never speaking up for herself, always seeking approval, taking care of everyone, etc. to prevent the "inevitable", being put out, cast out, not wanted...

She is a bright and sprightly 50 year old today, with children that disapprove of her, with a nasty divorce behind her, where the ex never paid a dime child support, etc.

She could have continued living this movie, except the soul has been banging, nudging her, so she decided to become her own person.

She got "thought shifted" by Pam Ragland and started to work with me.

We started with the automatic statement of "being abandoned by the mother" and changed it to "her mother loved her so much she wanted her a better life she herself could provide her".

We did not stop there (most methodologies do!) and started to build "legs" to this (this is the way I express that instead of something being just an idea, like possibility in Landmark, etc. we create actions and behaviors and attitudes consistent with that new being, so that it can become a sequel to one's movie, unlike the original script).

We went, and created new ways of being, new attitudes and new behaviors in different, specific to her, situations. Ways of being, attitudes, and behaviors that are "informed by" and based upon this new story, that she had a loving mother who wanted the best for her, and she was indeed lucky, her new parents loved her dearly.

We invented a new way to behave when her children chided her for her view of the world. Instead of choosing to be wrong, or making them wrong for thinking differently, she learned to say simply: "I understand you have a different point of view from mine. That does not make you wrong, or doesn't make you right. We just have a different point of view"

We invented a new way to behave with her siblings, especially her sister. Earlier this year their mother died and left a large inheritance equally distributed among the three children, natural or adopted. The natural daughter is refusing to release Josephine's inheritance. She is feverishly trying to spend the money to not have to give any money to the adopted one.

The note said it better than I could ever say: Josephine stood up to her sister and brother in law, and will do whatever she needs to do to get the money her parents left for her.

Inconsistent with the early story? You betcha! That is the point! Create a new personality and have your future be by your choosing.