WAKE UP AMERICA! CHAPTER SIX

HOW TO MASTER POWER, MONEY, AND LOVE

THE POWER OF THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE

This section is largely based on the book The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz. Its theme can be summarized as:

How to orient your life so the path of least resistance automatically leads you towards producing the results you desire in life.

Its fundamental principles (with my own insights added) can be summarized:

• Energy flows along the path of least resistance.
• "... [T]here is a direct connection between what occurs in your consciousness and what occurs in your external life... if you initiate change internally a corresponding change will happen externally."
• Humans are like rivers and tend to automatically follow the path of least resistance.
• The path of least resistance is determined by fundamental underlying structures. These structures could be described as programs in the brain - special programs with a pervasive influence. They can also be called paradigms or worldviews.
• We can change the fundamental underlying structures of our lives. The ability we apply to do this is Power of Choice - the most powerful human ability.
• Two radically different life-orientations can be distinguished:
  (a) The reactive-responsive orientation, characterized by reacting and responding to events and external conditions;
  (b) The creative orientation, characterized by you being the predominant creative power in your life.

  One of the essential differences is that in the creative orientation you initiate any desired change by changing the contents of your brain, while in the reactive-responsive orientation you attempt to change conditions outside yourself, without changing the contents of your brain.

  One of the most important aspects of the reactive-responsive orientation can be called "overcoming resistance" or "changing the system." You attempt to apply a stronger force to overcome an opposing force. You attempt to launch into battle a better system to overpower a weaker system. Imagine two opposing fists. If one fist pushes harder, the opposing fist tends to react by strengthening its own resisting push... the stuff wars are made of!

  In the reactive-responsive orientation you experience yourself being at the effect (or mercy) of external circumstances, that is, more or less helpless. In the creative orientation you experience yourself at cause over (or in control of) external circumstances, that is, powerful.

  In the reactive-responsive orientation your feelings and emotions may be the predominant factors that determine your actions. In the creative orientation your choices are the predominant power and you do what you choose, sometimes in spite of how you feel. Though you still regard your feelings as important messengers.

  In the creative orientation you focus on the result; the process for achieving the result is secondary; "what" precedes "how."

• The basic manner in which you reorient your life is to make fundamental choices. According to Fritz, "a fundamental choice is a choice in which you commit yourself to a basic life-orientation or a basic state of being." Here are some of the fundamental choices I have personally made:
  (a) I choose to be the predominant creative power in my life.
  (b) I choose to create and enjoy an exceptional degree of freedom.
  (c) I choose to increase my power and express it creatively and effectively.
  (d) I choose to be healthy, fit, loving, and wealthy.
  (e) I choose to be true to myself and to develop and achieve my full potential.
  (f) I choose my positive, creative, and powerful frame of mind.
  (g) I choose to create the abundant energy that empowers my actions.
  (h) I choose the powerful actions that produce the results I want.
  (i) I choose to devote my life to personal freedom and power, and the solution of world problems.
  (j) I choose to link up with like-minded free, creative, and powerful individuals.

Interestingly, after reading The Path of Least Resistance, I realized that nearly seven years ago, when in very poor health (including severe heart disease and mild cancer), I did make the fundamental choice to be healthy. I completely reoriented my life in respect of health and changed my diet and lifestyle drastically. Today I'm superhealthy and moderately fit. I have no heart problems or signs of cancer. I have not spent any time being ill in bed. When I get a cold I usually recover completely within 10-15 minutes. From flu I usually recover in about 3-4 hours. A few months ago I ran up Camelback mountain in Phoenix in a time in minutes which is less than half my age in years. I doubt if there are a hundred people in Phoenix who can do that.

At the time when I made the fundamental choice to be healthy, I also had to make certain primary choices concerning diet and lifestyle. At the time it seemed completely impossible to me that I could live up to these choices, so much so, that I often experienced despair. Nevertheless, I was able to remain true to my choices - and produced results way beyond what I had thought possible. The choices I had made changed underlying structures so the path of least resistance automatically led me to do what was necessary to achieve superhealth and fitness.

This demonstrates one of Fritz's dictums: what you choose does not depend on what you think is possible.

• In addition to fundamental choice, Fritz identifies two other kinds of choices: primary choice and secondary choice. A primary choice is a choice about a major result, an end in itself, for example, "I want to live in a $250,000 house. A secondary choice is one that supports a primary choice, for example, "I will save $25,000 for a down payment on my house."
• The difference or gap between current reality and your choices establishes structural tension. Structural tension seeks resolution and generates creative energy...

The Pivotal Power Formula
Fritz describes a "pivotal technique" you can apply when circumstances are not to your liking. I have renamed it "the pivotal power formula":

1. Describe current reality.
2. Describe the results you want.
3. Formally choose the results you want ("I choose ....").
4. Move on; change the focus of your attention; shift gears; do something else. The structural tension generated by steps 1-3 will automatically lead you along the path of least resistance to processes that will enable you to generate the results you have chosen.

The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz is by far the most valuable book in my collection of over 5,000. I know of no book I can recommend more highly.

The Action Shift Power Formula
I have developed a formula you can apply at the action level. It will help you become more aware of when you sink into the reactive-responsive orientation. It may increase your power and creativity phenomenally.

1. Write down an intended action.
2. If practical, wait before taking the action.
3. Ask, "Would this action be reactive-responsive or creative?"
4. Ask, "What would be a more creative action?"
5. Sleep on it.
6. Formulate a more creative action (or list of actions) when you wake up.
7. Ask, "Will the action(s) produce the results I want?"

Often you will be amazed by the difference between the quality of the action from step 1 and the quality of the action(s) generated during your sleep. The power of the path of least resistance at work!

MASTERING MONEY

The way to achieve money-mastery is to apply the above formulas. Write down your choices. Be specific. Specify what you want. The following ideas may also help:

• For a business to succeed it is essential that the principals who own and operate the business have healthy attitudes about money.
• Prosperity and poverty are states of mind - not states of pocket.
• Many of us suffer from "poverty-consciousness." The opposite of poverty-consciousness is "prosperity-consciousness." The basic difference between the two is that the poverty-conscious person is a psychological slave of money while the prosperity-conscious person is a psychological master of money.
• Money is a human tool. It is something we invented to make the exchange of goods and services more convenient.
• Money also serves as a unit of value - we use it to measure the value of something in comparison to other things.
• Money is further used as a store of value - it can move value created in the present into the future.
• Money is used as a mover of value from one place to another.
• If a Martian (with no earthly preconceptions) came to earth to examine this strange tool "money" she would be surprised and puzzled about the extent to which so many of us have become slaves of it - that we worry about it, fight over it, and kill for it. She might conclude that when it comes to money most humans are quite crazy.
• Sometimes we measure the value of a person in terms of money: "He is worth a million dollars."
• We can think of poverty-prosperity as a scale. At the one extreme is the state of mind of absolute destitution. At the other extreme is the state of mind: "I have or will get whatever I need with minimal effort." The latter needs to be a realistic attitude, rather than wishful euphoria.

The Three-Dollar Exercise
Here is an exercise that will help you move on the poverty-prosperity scale, from wherever you are closer to prosperity:

1. Consider giving away three one dollar bills to three different strangers. The recipients need to be people who don't expect to be given money by strangers - not children, not beggars, not the homeless, not waiters who get tipped.
2. Write down all the thoughts automatically generated by your mind, for example, "This is crazy," "It is pointless," "They will refuse to take it," "They will be suspicious," "They will laugh at me," "I will feel embarrassed," "I'm too shy to do it." etc.
3. Notice your reluctance, if any, to do it. Notice if you feel any fear about doing it. Write down whatever you notice.
4. Decide to go ahead with the exercise. Write down the "preparations" that you think you must make before giving away the money, for example, "What will I say to them?", "What will I tell them if they ask me why I want to give them money?", "What will I do if they refuse to take the money?"
5. Go to a place like a shopping mall where there are lots of potential recipients. If you have fears about what might happen if many people saw you handing out money, notice this. You could also go to the convenience store on the corner, where there are not too many people, and you may be able to give away a dollar to someone without anyone else noticing. (Isn't it crazy what considerations we have about so simple an act as giving away a dollar to a stranger?)
6. Give away your three dollars.
7. Write down how you did it and how the recipients reacted. Notice your thoughts and feelings and write them down. What did you learn from the experience?
8. Write down what you learned about yourself and your relationship to money. Did you notice any habitual negativity?
9. Can you change your habitual thoughts and feelings about money?

We can think of humans behaving according to programs in their minds. To the extent that these programs produce desirable or worthwhile results, we can call them "human success programs." To the degree that they produce negative results, we might call them "human failure programs."

Prosperity-consciousness is a human success program. Poverty-consciousness is a human failure program. The purpose of the "three-dollar exercise" is to raise your awareness of any failure programs you have about money and to begin replacing them with success programs.

Affirmations
This is a systematic method for replacing human failure programs with human success programs. It is a method for reprogramming your mind, developed by Leonard Orr, founder of "Rebirthing":

AFFIRMATION               RESPONSE
-----------               --------
I am a master of money    But I don't have any
I am a master of money    Why am I doing this?
I am a master of money    You're kidding
I am a master of money    This is a waste of time
I am a master of money    I'm always broke
I am a master of money    I will never make it
I am a master of money    I always lose my money
I am a master of money    Money is evil
I am a master of money    Money is ugly and filthy
I am a master of money    I really hate money
I am a master of money    Rich people are evil
I am a master of money    Etc.

• Write down the affirmation which is a human success program in one column. In a second column write down whatever response your mind generates. The purpose of the response column is to bring your automatic, habitual failure programs into awareness, and to eventually replace them with success programs.
• An extension of the method is to successively write the affirmation in the first, second, and third person:
  1. "I, Jack Jones, am a master of money."
  2. "You, Jack Jones, are a master of money."
  3. "He, Jack Jones, is a master of money."
• A further extension is to say the affirmation aloud as you write it.
• You can also take some of the responses and use their opposites as affirmations, for example: "To me money is beautiful," "I love money," "To be rich is good for me," etc.

The Treasure Map
A Treasure Map is a visual tool for building the inner experience of a desired result in its completed form in order to facilitate its manifestation. It is a pictorial representation of your goals. It is similar to the blueprint of the architect used by the builder to manifest the building.

Your Treasure Map can contain drawings, pictures cut from magazines, and photos. It may contain a photo of yourself having achieved the desired result. It can be any size you like.

It could also contain your fundamental, primary, and secondary choices. Your Treasure Map could be colorful - the more colors the better.

You may want to look at your Treasure Map when you wake up in the morning and just before you go to sleep in the evening.

Your Treasure Map helps create the "structural tension" Robert Fritz talks about.

Books on Mastering Money
The following books may be useful (see Annotated Bibliography):

• Cosmic Profit: How to Make Money Without Doing Time by Raymond Mungo.
• Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar.
• Money Is My Friend by Phil Laut.
• Moneylove: How to Get the Money You Deserve for Whatever You Want by Jerry Gillies.
• Money Making Secrets of the Millionaires by Hal D. Steward.
• The Seven Laws of Money by Michael Phillips.
• You Can Have It All: The Art of Winning the Money Game and Living a Life of Joy by Arnold M. Patent.

MASTERING LOVE

The basic procedure for achieving the love relationship you want is to choose it:

• Make a fundamental choice like "I choose to be loving and to be loved."
• Make primary and secondary choices.
• Include a photo, picture, or drawing of the love you want to achieve in your Treasure Map.
• If you have not yet found your ideal partner, make a detailed list of the qualities you want that person to have.
• Describe your current love situation.
• Apply the pivotal power formula and the action shift power formula, if necessary.
• Shift from the reactive-responsive orientation to the creative orientation.

Observe your behavior for bicameral stage two make-wrong - see Chapter Five. Eliminate all blame and make-wrong. Increase your awareness to the consciousness stage.

It worked for me! - despite the fact that my list of required qualities was extremely exacting - I doubt if even one in a million women would meet my requirements. Using the above procedure, I found the "perfect woman of my dreams." We have an idyllic love relationship.

Books on Mastering Love

• Actualizations: You Don't Have to Rehearse to Be Yourself by Stewart Emery.
• The Brothers System for Liberated Love and Marriage by Dr. Joyce Brothers.
• ESO*: How You and Your Lover Can Give Each Other Hours of *Extended Sexual Orgasm by Alan P. Brauer, M.D., and Donna Brauer.
• Friends, For Life: The Psychology of Close Relationships by Steve Duck.
• Friends: The Power and Potential of the Company You Keep by Jerry Gillies.
• The Incompatibility of Men and Women: And How to Overcome It by Julius Fast.
• Love by Leo Buscaglia.
• Love and Addiction by Stanton Peele.
• Love is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D.
• Lovestyles: How to Pick the Perfect Partner by John Alan Lee.
• Male & Female Realities: Understanding the Opposite Sex by Joe Tannenbaum.
• Please Understand Me: Character & Temperement Types by David Keirsy & Marilyn Bates.
• Sexual Chemistry: What it is, How to use it by Julius Fast and Meredith Bernstein.
• Straight Talk: A New Way to Get Closer to Others by Saying What You Really Mean by Sherod Miller, Ph.D., Daniel Wackman, Ph.D., Elam Nunnally, Ph.D., and Carol Saline.
• Teach Only Love by Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D.

THE POWER OF HUMAN CHOICE

We may need a technique for making a choice "stick." It involves repetition of the choice. The reason for this is that we may have made deep-seated, unconscious, contrary choices. The new choice has to replace the old choices. This is the technique:

• Cut a piece of string about a foot long.
• Tie twenty more or less equidistant knots in the string.
• Every morning just after waking and every evening just before going to sleep, close your eyes and repeat your choice forty times, using the knots in the string so you don't have to count.
• Continue the procedure for three weeks. That is how long it takes to change a choice that has been a life-long, unconscious habit.

We can regard ourselves as "result-producing systems" that contain these elements:

1. Choices - fundamental, primary, and secondary.
2. Paradigms (mind structures, or mental models).
3. Thoughts.
4. Feelings.
5. Actions.
6. Consequences or results.
7. Observations.
8. Questions.

Our primary power comes from our ability to make choices. Our secondary power comes from our actions. Choice is applied freedom. Action is applied knowledge. Our paradigms, thoughts, and feelings stand between our choices and our actions. They may help or hinder our actions. They are also cognitive and emotional connections between actions and results.

We gain power by observing the results we produce, asking questions, and improving our choices and paradigms.

There is a problem in that many of our actions have consequences that manifest in the distant future or out of our sight where we cannot see them. In The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization Peter M. Senge tells us how to solve this problem.