This means, if you work around a system ineffective to your goals, you won’t get the results you want. Surprisingly, being friend- or enemy-centered is largely the same; in both contexts, your interactions with other people, their opinions of you, and their treatment of you determine your sense of self-worth. It's the same thing with heart surgeons if you want a different example. Their skills are rare and valuable, since not that many people know how to replace a heart valve, and they're literally saving people's lives. They fill a vast need, they are really good at it, and it's a big investment to train someone else to do it. Thus, they get paid a lot of money for their services.

Odds are, if you commit to a behavior change for the next 90 days and relentlessly carry out those actions every single day until the end, you won't have any difficulty whatsoever continuing the habit for even longer. You'll just be the kind of person who does those things, whether it's meditating, working out, or something else. Reading for pleasure is great, and I wholeheartedly support it. However, I am intensely practical when I'm reading for a particular purpose. I want a result. I want to take what I've learned and apply it to my one and only life to make it better! Book Notes: “The future must become the present in the imagination of the one who has wisely and consciously created circumstances.” Be Your Future Self Now, by Dr. Benjamin Hardy: “Assume the consciousness of being the one you want to be, and you will be saved from your present state." Every once in a while, however, we are reminded of the literally stunning beauty and wonder of life, and it shakes us out of our accustomed habits of seeing the world as a rather dull, dreary, miserable place.In the 7 Habits, you’ll learn that about Quadrant II activities as the most effective way to mange your time. Being able to trust yourself is so insanely valuable, and I can't possibly overstate the importance of never lying to yourself, and never letting yourself down. You have real - though limited - control over what enters your subconscious mind, and optimizing your inputs is literally a matter of life and death. It took me almost two and a half years, but I eventually found the solution I was looking for. It consists of just three core principles: truth, love, and power. Four secondary principles are directly derived from the first three: oneness, authority, courage, and intelligence. Oneness is truth plus love. Authority is truth plus power. Courage is love plus power. And intelligence is the total combination of truth, love, and power."

What this means is that every moment we're taking the kinds of actions that someone with our ideal paradigm would take. We're being the kind of person we're becoming. And, most importantly, we're doing these things - and thinking these thoughts - over and over and over again until that new paradigm becomes ours. Until it becomes our permanent waking state. Until we are that person, and we do play at that level, effortlessly. It's no longer something we're "trying on" anymore - it's who we are. All habits are learned as the result of practice and repetition, and you can learn any habit that you believe is either necessary or desirable. As Brian Tracy says, just as your good habits are responsible for most of your success and happiness today, your bad habits are responsible for most of your problems and frustrations. The key is to realize that you have learned your bad habits and that they can be unlearned as well.

How Do You Change Your Paradigm?

The subconscious mind is where everything happens. It’s what causes us to move into action. The conscious mind, though, can dictate what’s going into the subconscious. You’ve got to think, but most people don’t.” Why did they do very well? What was going on? Why did a few people win? They built their success in their minds. It has to come from the inside out, not from the outside in. We’re being controlled by our outside world because we’ve been trained that way; we’ve been programmed to let the outside world control us. Paradigms and Habits Being church-centered is distinct from being spiritually or religiously centered. Whereas being spiritually centered can guide you through inner examination and discovery, being church-centered emphasizes the appearance of being involved in the community, meeting social standards, and clearly displaying your membership in the group.