Any fool can create profit.
It’s the smart ones that can create time.

So first to create time, you have to want to create time.
Yes, you have to want to create time.
Just moaning and groaning about how busy you are, isn’t going to create time.
You can moan and groan, but nothing’s going to change.

So you create time like you create a vacation
If you wish for a vacation in Japan, you don’t get a vacation in Japan.
You have to create it. You have to decide where you want to go.
Buy tickets. Change currency.
But most important of all, you have to make time for the vacation.

So we decided that we’d take 3 months off way back in the year 2004
We didn’t know how.
Or what we’d have to do.
But first the decision must be made.
And the action must be taken.
So we started with one day off on Sunday. No work on Sunday.
Then we took one more day off on Saturday.
We’d soon reclaimed the entire weekend.

This meant that we had to finish what we needed to do by Friday.
We had to. No choice. So when compression occurs, then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
And therefore you find things that make you inefficient.
Pretty soon, we were taking three days off.
Then we’d take three weeks off.
Then slowly but surely, we edged to one month. Then two. Then three.

And here’s the most interesting part of all
What’s interesting is that we made more profit in the years we were away, than the years we stayed home.
What’s interesting is that I got more work done in the years I made time, than in the years I just stayed home.
Compressing time forces you to be smart. Compressing time forces you to be efficient. Compressing time forces you to become more and more talented at what you do.

And suddenly you’re able to learn more about photography, badminton, cartoons, websites, writing, travel (and yes, I’m talking about myself and what I do with my time). And I’m adamant about the fact that putting away fixed time is more important to you, me, and every one. You can’t hope for time. You have to make it.

Most of you will shoot down this idea.
You’re too busy to create time, you’ll argue.
But this post isn’t for most of you. It’s for people who understand that once you create time, you create time.

But you also create greater profit.
You now have time to learn.
You now have time to become skilled in your art.
You now have time to think (when was the last time you did that for a day or more?)
You now have time to not-think. And think of nothing. And help your brain relax.

And from all of the above comes profit.
But I’m sure you have no time for profit.

And so you work harder than before.
You see you don’t need elves to help you out. You can be your own best elf.
If you can make time.

But can you?

The poster for the the movie “Elf”

Now I don’t want to boast, but this is what I do.
I run blogs at:
http://www.psychotactics.com/blog
http://www.brainaudit.com/blog
http://www.spidersecret.com/

Less frequently at:
http://www.cavechronicles.com
http://www.stickybusinessbooks.com

Write articles, per year:
http://www.5000bc.com (about 100-300 a year)
http://www.psychotactics.com (about 50 a year)

And monitor no less than four to five forums:
On the Psychotactics Courses forum, just this year, the tally is 4000 posts (This includes reviews of articles/websites/and detailed answers to questions which may take as long as twenty minutes per post to answer). On 5000bc, you can find 7000+ posts (we lost about 5000 of my earlier posts when 5000bc crashed in 2007).

I write two courses a year at the very least
Each course has about 200+ pages of notes/graphics (these take a lot of time–the graphics)
There’s audio.
I also present these courses live (which means the Keynote/Powerpoint slides have to be created as well).

I will often do mini courses or mini products.
e.g. The re-write of the Brain Audit book.

On top of this there’s assorted stuff like:
Full colour cartoons for the blog.
Audio files for the blog.
And other assorted requests like Vanishing Reports in 5000bc. etc.
And in the past I’ve created the entire website design, HTML, graphics etc.
I still do the graphics and website design for any new website or revamp (e.g. new Psychotactics and now 5000bc revamp in Dec 2008).

And then I respond to every email for every subscriber (yes, every subscriber).

The question is when do I sleep, let alone go on vacation or anything.
Just reading this list should make you tired.

But here’s what’s happening.
In about 25 minutes I’m off to play badminton.
I’ll be back in 3 hours.
Then have lunch.
Probably go to the cafe.
And that’s the end of the day.

How is this possible?
It is. And there are ways to do all of the above, because though it seems like there’s an army of elves doing all of the above, there’s just Renuka and I. And she likes the trips to the cafe as much. Plus she takes her parents out twice a week, so those days are half-days for her.

How does this all happen?
Where are the elves?

Aha, you didn’t think I’d give the answer so easily, did you?

My wife Renuka, sniffled.
She sniffled. She sneezed.
Achoo!
Achoo!
Achoo!

For thirteen years she sneezed.
Her eyes would get all red and puffy.
She tried all types of anti-allergy medication.
It would work for a while, then it was back to achoo!

Incredible as it seems, the problem was in her brain.
Your brain reacts to allergies with a code. And that code has a ‘virus.’ So when you run into dust or pollen the virus kicks in. It says: Execute command, and the virus starts rolling out.

How do we know it’s a virus? And not a program instead?
We know it because most of us don’t sneeze with pollen. Or dust. Or after drinking wine. But Renuka’s brain had accumulated a whole bunch of viruses. And to try and subdue these viruses, she’d take anti-allergy medication. But anti-allergy medication simply stops the virus from executing. It can’t erase the virus. And frankly, erasing the virus is a waste of time.

All we need is to re-wire the brain to stop running the program in the first instance. The brain needs to have a completely different code written to deal with dust. Then it stops sneezing.

Which is what Renuka did
She visited an anti-allergy clinic. Or should I say allergy-elimination. But were they able to prevent dust or pollen from entering her system? No they weren’t. But they were able to write a new program onto her brain. A program that ignored the dust, pollen, etc. A program that was fresh and didn’t have any viruses.

And so it is with talent and learning.
Trying to fix the problem with medication (more courses; more training) isn’t going to help at all. Instead all the brain does is replicate the anti-allergy syndrome and pretends to learn. But eventually the virus kicks in and you’re back to where you started. If you truly want to learn a new skill. If you truly want to develop a talent, you’re wasting time trying to eliminate the virus.

What you need to do is write fresh code.
Code with no viruses in the first place
And the achoo goes away forever!

Note: Renuka doesn’t sneeze. She can enjoy her wine, go out amongst the flowers in spring, and dust away to her heart’s content. And it was all done with no pills, no medication and simple re-writing of code. (It’s actually a simple system of re-wiring and no wires are involved–just in case you’re wondering). 

Read Part 1 of How To Bypass A Brain Virus

Most people can’t draw.
There’s a reason why.
They have a brain virus.

Here’s what happens when someone asks you to draw.
Your brain runs a program.
The program says: Execute program. Draw, you silly fool, draw!
And the program starts to execute. But even as it’s executing the lines of code, it runs into a virus.

The virus crashes the program.
And you can’t draw.

A client of mine (let’s call him Jon) was on an article writing course
And he did the entire course.
But he couldn’t get down to writing an article.
So here’s what he did.
He read more on the topic.
He even did another course.

But every time Jon sits down to write, the same problem occurs.
The ‘article writing program’ kicks in.
And then the ‘virus that’s linked to the article writing program‘ kicks in.
And his ‘article writing program’ crashes.
No matter how he tries to write articles, he’s going to fail. And fail forever. (No, I’m not kidding)!

So how do yo get rid of this brain virus?
Actually you can’t.
Your brain has thousands of viruses running around. And trying to get rid of them is a waste of time.
It’s easier to write a fresh program for your brain instead.

So how do you write a fresh program?
In Jon’s case, he has to stop writing articles.
He has to do a completely different activity.
e.g. Make a movie instead.
e.g. Describe how he met his wife.

When he does this activity, the virus can’t kick in.
Because the virus is embedded in his ‘article writing‘ inability.
So now Jon’s having fun. He’s talking about how he met his wife, and how he goofed up on the first date, and how they went to the cafe down the road. And Jon doesn’t know it yet, but he’s writing an article.

The next step is to put structure to Jon’s story
Step 1: How did you run into your wife to-be?
Step 2: Where did you go for your first date?
Step 3: What were you nervous about on your first date?

When Jon answers these questions his brain is relaxed.
He’s having fun.
And he’s not accessing the ‘article writing program’ of his brain.
As we put structure into his story, he recognises that the structure is from the ‘article writing system’, but because he’s not running the exact ‘article writing program‘, the virus doesn’t kick in at all.

This means that Jon is now able to get started on a whole new program.
A program that uses new code. Plus some borrowed code from the old program.
As he advances, he’s able to learn how to write articles, even though it was an impossible task before this very moment.

In effect, he’s bypassing the brain virus.
And that’s what you have to do to learn a skill.
If you’ve struggled to learn Spanish before, you have a virus embedded in the ‘Spanish learning program’.
If you sit down and try to learn it, you’ll fail, because the virus already exists.
But if you sing a song in Spanish like: ‘Ensalada, de fruta fresca’ and see ‘fresh fruit salad’, you’ll learn Spanish while having fun.
The fun part is important, but not critical (Essentially fun only allows you to relax. Relaxing the brain is critical).

The critical part is bypassing the virus.
Albert Einstein was reputed to have once said: “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”

What he means is:
Your existing program has a virus.
You have to bypass it.
Or you’ll never really learn no matter how many times you try!

I was sitting at my favourite cafe in Takapuna with Renuka’s niece, Marsha.
Marsha was only three and half years old at the time, and happily drinking her um, ‘coffee’, when she looked upwards (as most kids do), and noticed a black object on the glass.

“What’s that?” she asked.
“Fungus,” I said.

“Fungus,” she repeated about three-four times.
Then promptly she forgot. And asked again.
Of course I told her it was called fungus. And she nodded happily.

When she went back home to her mother, she ran through the door and said “Mama, I saw a bungus.”
Of course confusion reigned till I stepped in to clarify that it was a fungus.
And Marsha was delighted to correct herself and say the word correctly.

Most adults don’t act like Marsha
They’re defensive. Incredibly defensive.
They’re attacking. And it gets a bit scary how they fight back at times.

They don’t want to make a mistake.
They don’t want to appear in a bad light.
They are insecure. Because if they weren’t insecure, they would have no problem making mistakes. Or letting the world know about mistakes.

Most of us want to appear perfect.
We don’t want to make mistakes.
We don’t want others to learn that we’ve made a mistake.
In effect, we’re dolts.

Even a three and half year old knows better.
In fact the reason why kids have an enormous learning capacity is because they follow a very clear pattern of:
1) Learn
2) Talk
3) Implement
4) Make mistake.
5) Go back to start.

Most kids are smart because they’re professional mistake makers. They live in a world of ‘conscious incompetence’. Most adults are dolts.

They learn less not because they don’t have the time. Or because they have no talent.
They learn less because they can’t be like Marsha.

This isn’t a learner sign: It’s a ‘I’m going to make a mistake’ sign

Think of anything you’ve ever learned.
Anything.
Ever learned.

And the only way you’ll have learned it is by making a mistake.
Look at the act of learning the alphabet.
Speaking; walking; running; talking; dancing, and just about anything.
And you’ll never be able to point out even one instance in your entire life that was learned without making a mistake.

This idea of willfully making a mistake scares the heck out of most people.
It literally means that you have to make mistakes—and that if you don’t make mistakes you can’t learn. If you can’t learn, you can’t acquire a new talent. If you can’t acquire a new talent, you remain exactly where you are.

Are you scared?
You should be.
Because the younger you are, the less you’re afraid of making mistakes. The older you get, the more you tell your brain it’s bad to make a mistake. The older you get, the more you feel you have to learn something quickly, and correctly the first time.

Yet that’s not the way the brain learns at all.
The only way the brain learns is through actively making mistakes. The brain’s most powerful tool is to make the mistake, recognise the mistake, and then try to remember the mistake. This is so that it doesn’t make the mistake again, or doesn’t create mistakes of an equal intensity.

This process needs time and effort.
The smaller, and simpler the task, the quicker the brain is able to eliminate mistakes. The more complex the task, the more time and effort is required to make the mistake, recognise it, remember it and finally correct it.

And yet the correction factor is almost never 100%.
So let’s say you’re learning a new dance step for instance. The brain has to first goof up. Once it has goofed up, it has to recognise the goof up, or it won’t improve. Once recognition sets in, all your neurons have to fire in the right sequence to memorise this mistake.

The more you muck up the dance step, the more your brain has to work out what’s wrong. And with every mistake, it eliminates only a percentage of the error. It’s only when it eliminates 100% of the error, does it then get that dance step right.

What’s interesting is that you’re never learning one step at a time.
You’re learning several steps. And the brain has to go over this whole sequence of making the mistake, recognising it, memorising it and then fixing it.

And it has to do this entire sequence for every single mistake.

Luckily our brains have enormous computing power.
And they’re able to process these mistakes and make corrections in a matter of milliseconds—if we are willing to make the mistake, that is.

The biggest reason we don’t get talented is for a simple reason.
It’s because we can’t bear to make a mistake.
And as you can now tell, that’s the biggest mistake of all!

Note: During this lesson I had to go through this exact process, because I was trying to learn how to insert an ‘em-dash’. On my PC, I have to press Alt + 0151 on my keyboard to get an ‘em-dash.’ On a Mac, it’s different. I have to press  Shift+ Alt + – to get the same result. I learned how to create the ‘em-dash’, and then promptly goofed it up. I had to go back several times to learn it. And now I think I have it. Or do I?

This is a song by John Mayer.
It’s a love song.

Read the lyrics of the song (till you can stand it), and then scroll to the bottom.

Back to you. It always comes around. Back to you. I tried to forget you. I tried to stay away. But its too late.

Over you. I’m never over. Over you. Something about you. Its just the way you move. The way you move me.

I’m so good at forgetting. And I quit ever game I play. But forgive me, love. I cant turn and walk away. Back to you. It always comes around.  Back to you.  I walk with your shadow. I’m sleeping in my bed. With your silhouette.

Should have smiled in that picture. If it’s the last that I’ll see of you. It’s the least that you. Could not do. Leave the light on. I’ll never give up on you. Leave the light on. For me too.

Back to me. I know that it comes. Back to me. Doesn’t it scare you? Your will is not as strong. As it used to be.

This is our love song of failure.
Every time we fail, a similar song plays in our brain.
And we go back to the behaviour that causes us to fail. It always comes around. Back to you.

But it could also be a song of success.
The same lyrics that bring you down, take you to overcoming the silly hurdles.

It depends what you’re in love with.
Failure or success.
Making excuses or making things happen!

If you have a cancerous growth, how long would you wait to remove the growth?
If you had a cancerous thought, how long would you wait to remove the thought?

Most people let the thought cancer grow.
Then they say, ‘I’m not really talented’.
They say, ‘I wasn’t born talented.’
They say, ‘Talent is in-born, you can’t learn it.’

Ah, the cancer ‘groweth.’
Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow*

*(sung to the tune of  ‘let it snow, let it snow, let it snow’).

Do we come into this world as conservative thinkers?
Or are we born with a radical bent?

Not surprisingly, we aren’t born with a blank slate.
We come into this world with Version 1.0 embedded in our brains.
So if you look at the most isolated to the most populated places on the planet, you’ll find we’re born with the same core Version 1.0 software.

And yet the software gets a sort of ‘virus’.
Some of us turn extremely conservative. We detest radical thoughts.
And some of us turn extremely radical. We in turn detest conservative thinking and actions.

But showing contempt for the other side is crazy.
Because everything on the planet, including talent, is a matter of structure. Structure is conservative.

Talent is also a matter of art. Art is radical free-thinking.

Creativity and Talent do not exist in thin air. They need structure.
Structure is boring without creativity. It would make our lives drab and doom us to boredom.
Creativity without structure would lead to complete chaos.

Both must exist side by side.

Our iPhones, our cars, our houses, our computers: everything is based on someone’s ability to transcend their radical or conservative virus, and use both sides to create something new.

We can live with a virus that forces us to be ultra-conservative or ultra-radical.
Or we can understand that they’re like yin and yang.
That one cannot actually exist without the other.

The day you learn how to use the conservative as well as the radical part of your brain, that’s the day you’ll learn faster than ever before.

But can you do it?
Can you actually step over to the other side?

Try it. You’ll be amazed at what you find there!
(Watch this video by Jonathan Haidt as well: You may need to be online to watch it)

Catherine’s painting: Click to see big picture

Here’s an interesting story about ‘creativity’.
It’s so interesting that I’ll reproduce it verbatim.

What’s even better is that it’s about a painting.
And how the painting linked to article-writing?

You’re dying to know, huh? Well read on.
This note is from Catherine Marechal, who lives in Italy and whose first language is French.

Happy Birthday Sean!
I want to thank you and let you know of an unusual result of the article writing course.  I have been painting a lot with my left hand. I always had difficulty just finding the time to paint. Now I just do it almost every morning and have no problem finding the time…. and my painting is very different from my right hand work!

What is the link with article writing?
As you know I had problems with keeping only one idea in my article outline. After a conversation with Leah, when I told her I thought my problem was because I was mostly right brain. She asked me if I was left handed. I said no,  and that as a small kid I was ambidextrous but the French school system decided that I would be right handed. and I became right handed.

After talking with Leah, I decided to do my article outline handwriting with my left hand. In fact it worked, you said that you could not see any change to do in my article.

My friend Celeste Varley (the painter and teacher) who I have been encouraging to take your article writing course, suggested that I try to paint with my left hand rather than doing with both hands (but mostly my right hand was predominant) after I told her the story.

So here is my birthday gift, one of my left hand painting
Catherine

Incredible, huh?
That a mere shift of the hand not only made her article-writing a whole lot better, but that Catherine is now painting frequently, and with great confidence.  And that is indeed the power of the brain when it decides to achieve things, rather than just back away and pretend that about a lack of ‘talent’.

You don’t think of serial killers as creative, do you?

They go about killing people, while all the time following a very creative pattern.
And detectives are able to figure out the serial killer based on the killer’s creative pattern.
Once the detective works out the pattern, it’s not hard to track and throw the serial killer away forever.

Your brain has a serial killer too.
It’s called the ‘I can’t do that’ syndrome.
And like a serial killer, it sticks to the pattern, killing the chances of learning a new talent.
And there’s no detective to put that serial killer behind bars.

So your brain’s serial killer runs rampant.
And the older you get, the more you get set in your ways.
With every passing year, you decide that you’re beyond help.
You bolster yourself with silly lines like ‘You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks’.

And quite the opposite is true.
Your brain has a hundred billions neurons.
All waiting to be lit.
But instead they lie dead.
Killed by the serial killer.

The killer of talent.
It’s not some outsider.
It’s your own brain cells that are killing the other ones off.

If you want to stop the killer, you have to be more ‘creative.’
Take up activities like music, or dancing, or learning a new skill is crucial.
Even playing a game like Scrabble once a week will immediately boost your creative skills.

Turning on the lights in your brain.
And scaring the killer off for good!

Well, I don’t! But often they remind me of business owners with no focus at all.

Look at this spammer’s email.

He’s only after ‘men’ and ‘women’.
And through some wonderful typo, he also addresses all mothers as ‘ma.’

Enjoy and guffaw.
Then stop trying to appeal to everyone, when you market your business!

And do you have any examples of funny spam? Send it to me Or post the text here in the comments section.