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
https://brainaudit.com
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).Â
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.
