Dwight Anthony
Financially Elite Blog dot Com

Everyone came up with different ideas

Some said they’ll write something and throw it outside

Others said they’ll burn the paper and send smoke signals

At the end the speaker asked us “what about moving around the room to measure the length and breath of the room?” and “what about eavesdropping near the wall to guess what’s going on outside”

See, the moment we were told that we had only 3 things our mind started revolving around those 3 things to come up with a solution.

“You give a child 2 choices that you can live with. Only two. “You can do/have/eat this or this.” That’s it. When a child is allowed to make their own choice from the two you have set up, they will pick one and be happy about it. Because you gave them the 2 choices you could live with, it is a win-win situation.

I have seen the same thing with Internet Marketing. If you give an adult just 2 choices, most of the time they will pick one. If you give them more than 2 choices, for some reason they get confused, can’t make a choice and end out selecting nothing. Limit the choices you offer a prospect to only two.

“Math sucks! I hate math” she exclaimed after she told me 13 minus 8 is 11.

I was holding a 6 inch thin flexible plastic ruler that she had been using as a bookmark. The next time she made a simple error like 16-7 = 22, I reached up and flipped her in the forehead with the ruler. She blinked and laughed, and asked why I did that. I told her every time she guesses or makes really silly math mistakes, I get to flip her in the forehead with the ruler. We continued. After a few, flips, she quit making mistakes. The entire year forehead flipping was “the game” for the rest of the year. Surprisingly, by the end of the school year, her grade was up from a B- to A-.

This year she has had A grades in math, and seldom needs help. She laughs now how math isnt as bad as she thought it was.

It rattles people when, after a couple of sentences, I remind people that we can’t prove that ghosts exist. We can prove that something odd is going on… but we can’t prove that a ghost caused it. Not in scientific terms, anyway.

Whether the person was there for affirmation of his or her belief in spirits, or if someone’s there to raise an eyebrow or even heckle me, most of them rethink the beliefs they arrived with.

Breaking free of what people believe (and expect) gets them thinking, and that may be the best thing you can do for anyone. Life is best lived with the mind fully engaged.

Several years ago I attended a technical school. I had around 5 classes per semester, but the class size was only around 10 to 12 people. We stayed together as a group in all 5 classes, which is to say most of us became well acquainted throughout the passing semesters. The age range in our group varied from around 25 to 42 years of age. I was 40 at the time, and I was privileged to have been thought of as somewhat of a class leader, which is to say I came to know most everyone pretty well. One of my classmates, Becky, was a woman around 30 years old. Anyway, she was talking to me one day about problems she was having with her marriage. She knew I was (and still am) a very devoted family man to my wonderful wife and children. She told me this made her feel comfortable confiding in me with her marital problems. The details themselves are not necessary to make my case in point here, but I’ll put it this way…she was surprisingly objective in describing the issues troubling her, meaning she admitted things she felt that she had been wrong about, as well as what she felt her husband, Mike, was doing wrong. Neither one was having an affair, nor was either of them considering anything of the sort, at least at that point and time. They both had good jobs but their schedules conflicted as far as being able to spend normal quality time with each other and their son. They both made pretty good money, so finances weren’t really an issue. Their troubles were basically putting distance between them and it was starting to affect their son due to his fear that they were going to split up. There was never any physical abuse or anything like that. She said Mike was becoming increasingly “closed off” as far as discussing matters with her.
I suggested that she not focus on the things that were troubling them, even as far as not mentioning any of the issues between them. Instead, I said that she concentrate on being the best wife that she knew how to be. Further, I told her that if he throws a sarcastic word to her, to not answer back with sarcasm, even if that meant not saying anything at all. The negativity was consuming them both and one of them needed to cut it off, or to not meet a negative “action” with a negative “reaction” because it becomes a constant cycle of negativity that will choke the life out of them both. She said she would do her very best to be her very best.
Well, about 10 days later, I injured my hand at work which left me unable to write for several weeks. This forced me to leave school permanently. I lost contact with Becky, as well as my other classmates. About 3 months went by, and one day my wife and I were in town shopping and running errands. We were coming out of one of the stores from shopping, and we ran into Becky and Mike in the parking lot. They were holding hands and you could tell they were happy. She and I introduced Mike and my wife to each other. Becky told me that she took my advice and it took about 3 weeks and Mike changed his outlook on their relationship and that that they had never been happier. They both thanked me and I got a hearty handshake and a big hug. I told them that it wasn’t me that they should thank. I said that they should thank each other, along with the Man upstairs. I said all I did was plant a seed, or a thought, to Becky when she had confided in me. But it was both of them that put it into motion. We talked for a few minutes and said our goodbyes. That was the last time I ever saw them.
The bottom line is this: Your focus controls your thoughts, your attitude, your decisions…your life! Whatever you plant in your mind is what grows inside you! And what grows inside you is magnified when it comes out of you because you have nurtured it the exact same way as if you were growing a garden vegetable or a flower. And it all begins with the seed…if you plant a seed of corn, you harvest corn. If you plant a flower seed, you get flowers. If you plant negativity in your mind, guess what! No matter how hard you try, you cannot plant oranges and expect to get apples! Keep your focus on the prize that your after as opposed to fear, doubt, negativity, or failure! Sure, you’re going to make a mistake every now and then, but so does everybody else! You treat your mistakes as a learning tool, learning not to do it again. So keep your focus in the right perspective and your eyes on your success!