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This is the second Master Key Coaching Teleseminar — the sophomore effort. Before I go any further, I have to admit something right up front: I goofed big time on this one.
Before the call began, I was chatting with an attendee. When the time hit 8:05, I started the teleseminar.
I forgot to do one very important thing, though.
I forgot to hit the record button to record my monologue. I only remembered to hit record when I began the questions and answers session.
As they say … My bad.
So, what you’re going to hear here is my second take. After the call ended, I read from my noted and tried as best I could to reproduce the original monologue. Luckily, I make notes.
Let this be a lesson to all of us: We all make mistakes, but usually there are ways to recover from those mistakes.
Tony’s Monologue
In my monologue this week, I hit four topics.
The first was to announce this very web site: tuneinunlockattain.com. I hope everybody is enjoying it. Please leave comments to continue the discussions.
The “meat” of my monologue was about one very important item that Haanel mentioned in his “Letter of Transmittal” for Week One.
“You need not acquire this power. You have it already.”
I wrote more about this in an article that has been circulating about the web entitled “The Master Key Is You.”
There is one point about The Master Key System that most people fail to grasp. That point is this:
When Haanel talks about a “master key,” he is not talking about something outside of you, something separate from you. He is talking about YOU.
The Master Key is YOU.
You have the power. You have the ability. You have the will.
It is your duty to use it.
You are the only one who can open the doors put before you.
Be proud, be fearless, and be bold–and take advantage of that.
After studying personal development for about twenty years and publishing The Master Key System for about ten years and coaching/consulting with people for quite a few years, I’ve got one main thing to say: There are no “silver bullets.” What I mean by that is that there is no one thing that will propel you from failure to success. What we must do is practice an entire philosophy rather than focus on one aspect or one small list of aspects. It’s easier to do than it sounds. Believe me.
I aver, though, and will continue to do so that that for which we are looking is not outside of us, it is not something “out there” granting wishes and bestowing gifts on us.
No. The key — the Master Key — is you.
The last part of my monologue dealt with the exercise in Week One.
Week One Exercise
44. Now make the application: Select a room where you can be alone and undisturbed. Sit erect, comfortably, but do not lounge. Let your thoughts roam where they will but be perfectly still for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Continue this for three or four days or for a week until you secure full control of your physical being.
45. Many will find this extremely difficult; others will conquer with ease, but it is absolutely essential to secure complete control of the body before you are ready to progress. Next week you will receive instructions for the next step. In the meantime, you must have mastered this one.
While many — if not all — of the exercises in The Master Key System were probably derived from some meditation practice or philosophy, they are not quite meditation training. The goal of the exercises as you practice them is not to become a Zen monk.
As I said last week, the goal of these exercises is to train your brain.
In this, the first exercise, it is vitally important to stay still. No, you cannot blink your eyes. No, you cannot scratch those itches that will arise. No, you cannot wipe your nose.
Yes, it’s OK if your chest or abdomen moves as you breath. We are all hopelessly addicted to oxygen after all.
One more thing: By far I’ve received the most emails asking about how to master the first exercise. I fewer and fewer as the book progresses. I cannot honestly say that I’ve received next to none about the last few Weeks of the book.
Why is that?
From my experience and from what I’ve heard from many people is that most people just do not make it that far. When they begin the book, they’re excited. They want to do everything correctly. As time passes, they either lose interest, get bored, or life interruptus comes into play.
I implore you to not let that happen to you. Haanel writes that if we are to undertake something, we should see it through to the end. It’s about commitment. It’s about finishing. It’s about completion.
If you are to see success, you must form the habit of completing that which you begin.
Begin with The Master Key System. Begin with these teleseminars. See them through to the end.
After that, the road is wide open.
Questions & Answer Session
Should a person read each chapter every day and write the questions and answers every day as they are studying for the week?
Is meditation the best way to attain a “brain change”?
How does one deal with “toxic” people? How about people who are just “downers”?
Don’t feel bad Tony. I have done that so many times, but you recovered well.
Your followers may be interested in the Master Key In Audio
Ii have kept it at $10.00
Scroll to bottom of page to Order, may have to submit twice
Hi Chuck!
Thanks. That’s what we’re talking about here after all: solving problems. I had one. I devised a solution. I made it happen. As long as one keeps the goal in mind and works toward it, then a solution is bound to make itself apparent.
Have fun … Tony.
Tony, just finished your second installment here and I wanted to chime in regarding your last caller’s question regarding negative, “toxic” people in your life and how to deal with them, because it really struck a chord with me. I had to laugh a little, and ruefully, because this was something that bothered the daylights out of me when I was younger and still living with my parents. Suffice it to say, certain folks in my family sound just like that old skit on Hee Haw: “Gloom, Despair, and Agony On Me!” I know full well where your caller was coming from.
After a while it really takes a toll, and when it’s your own family it’s not always easy to limit your exposure to them. One way of dealing with it is to give yourself a daily dose of comedy. No fooling. It really helps offset that whole constant drumbeat of negativity. “Debbie Downer” from Saturday Night Live was mentioned during your call and if you note, whenever that skit airs, the players can barely keep it together. There’s something very telling about that when you think of it!
In extreme cases, though, sometimes you really have to put your own mental health first and that might mean severely curtailing your interaction with profoundly, relentlessly negative people, or even cutting them out of your of your daily interaction altogether. I had a friend from college who I had to basically stop talking to entirely. God bless her, but after a while it dawned on me that I walked away from literally every conversation ready to stick my head in the oven and getting a phone call from here was like getting a visit from a vampire. And, more to the point, nothing ever, ever, ever changed for her. I felt like a habitual dumping ground for her relentless negativity, and when I finally realized how much it was impacting my life, I did what I had to do. I regret that I had to do it, but I’ll never regret having done it — it was necessary. Granted, that was a truly extreme case (and mental health issues played a part in it for her; she was clinically depressed, no doubt about it).
Besides the daily dose of comedy, regular interaction with other folks who are explicitly trying to remain positive is a really good idea. For example, a civic organization dedicated to giving back to the community (Rotary, the Masons, the Lions Club, etc).
Anyway, keep up the good work, Tony. This is all really good stuff.
Peace and prosperity,
Dan
Hi Dan!
Great to hear from you! I hope things are well your way.
The subject of “negative people” is a tough one. I agree that sometimes we have to curtail interactions with them. I know the feeling as well as anybody! 🙂
On the other hand, we have to be careful about what — and who — we term negative and in what fashion we term them negative.
In your example of the “friend” who brings you down, I have to question if that was really a friend, in the strict sense of the term. I knew a LOT of people in college and I would term very, very few as friends. The rest came and went. They were acquaintances and such. I would wager that that was the case here.
In the case of the caller in this teleseminar, he was discussing family. Again, I know that is a tough situation. We ALL go through it to one degree or another.
My main point with that is that we generally shouldn’t be quick to just push family from us and eliminate them from our lives. Rather, we should rise above such things. Is it difficult? It sure is! It is one of the costs, though, of being successful in the true sense of the word.
You see, it’s easy to be a monk on a mountain. You know what that phrase means, right? It means that it’s easy to be a holy man — a man free of temptations and apart from everyone else — when he is secluded from the temptations of the world. Get that monk into town with all the temptations and vices and seductions in play and we’ll see what he is truly worth.
It’s the same with all of us. We are quick to find any excuse — any crutch — we can use to explain why we aren’t successful. One of the main ones that I’ve seen in the personal development field is the “negative people in our lives.”
Thus, people start pushing family and friends from them in the quest to get the success they so desire in life.
In general, they don’t find it any easier.
Want to find some truly negative people? Write a business plan — a really good one that would take you days, weeks, months to research and write — and present it to a banker or a venture capitalist.
Want to find more negative people? Put a sales page on the Internet. Be sure to include your contact information.
Even more negative people? Start a blog and write some articles.
Better yet, build an email list and email them regularly.
You’ll find negative people who will make your family and friends and their daily “bitch and moan” sessions seem like an episode of “The Golden Girls.”
There’s “negativity” all around us in the world. We have to do our best to shield ourselves from some — perhaps most — of it.
More often than not, that begins at home; but shielding does not usually entail shirking or expelling.
I hope this makes sense to you and helps. Please let me know if I can be of service to you. All the BEST!
Have fun … Tony.
Tony and Dan…wonderful discourse on the Negativity Syndrome buzzing in our ears constantly.
At my age and also suffering from selective hearing, most of the noise is muted.
BUT… I did learn from the great Books, we have all read, to spend more time concentrating on solving Problem that immediately affect our Day and not be concerned about all the flutter of negativity that seems to abound in this Entitlement Society.
For what it is worth..
I declare MY belief and could care less about the acceptance by others. I don’t Convince or Cajole. State my point and be gone….funny thing there always seems to followers of Like Mind
Hi Chuck!
Thanks! It is a good discussion and one worth noting. While negativity is around us — and it always is to one degree or another — it’s important for us to steel our minds to it rather than cut-off people who may be close to us.
Talk soon!
T.
I disagree about “cutting off” people who are “negative” in our lives, but perhaps my “negative” people could be better described as “dangerous” (emotionally & have also been physically–in fact jailed for physical abuse of wife & children many years ago). I “cut off” my brother about 25 years ago after “rescuing” his wife & children numerous times when he abused them. He went through drug/alcohol treatment, parenting classes (all court-ordered), but he still scared & scares me.
I grew up w/my mother’s violence (she was mentally ill & committed suicide after many attempts & being in & out of institutions) & my father was a “functioning” alcoholic so he wasn’t much of a father & “deserted” us after our mother’s death–well, even before–he wasn’t much of a “father” as he didn’t protect us from her (but he was very busy w/work & his “lady friends”). But after her death he basically dropped us off at a boarding school & I didn’t see much of him after that; I married my high school sweet heart (still married 36 years later).
I, myself, have been diagnosed & treated for a mental illness (genetic predisposition inherited from my mother & continue therapy weekly & take medication as I want to continue to be a successful, loving wife & mother); however, I believe this brother displays symptoms similar to my mother & he does not receive any kind of mental health treatment (he practices violence & emotional abuse regularly & has very unhealthy “coping” skills) & I do not want to expose my children to this kind of dysfunction.
I have lived through this & my children do not deserve to witness this kind of “craziness” & instability & to have my attention drawn away from providing a good, wholesome home for them w/my loving husband. I have tried to “save” my brother, his wife & children so many times, yet they kept returning to the same dysfunction until finally the children were taken away permanently (they had lived w/us on & off several times, as well as his wife, when my brother was in jail) & finally, the children were put into a group home for teens w/emotional problems as the mother was also deemed unfit when it was discovered she was also using illegal drugs.
I am seriously afraid of this guy & have instructed my other brother to not disclose to this brother I fear where I live or what my phone # is or where my now-grown children live, etc. I don’t want him to be notified when I die. The brother I have contact with visited us & took photos & put them on his private web site & I was horrified & asked him to take all of them down that had any of me, my family or our home or gave any hint of where we live.
I realize my case is “extreme”, but it is not as rare as you may think.
Hi Lee!
Thank you for your comment. I think you illustrate my point, unfortunately, perfectly.
What you described is what I refer to as “abusive.” You did well in cutting them off and distancing yourself from them as best you could. I wish you continued success in that.
One thing I’d like to point out: Rarely can we — anybody — save somebody, especially someone who doesn’t want to be saved. We just end up losing in those “deals.” If someone asks for our help and we can give it reasonably, then help we should. If we see a person in trouble like you describe and attempt to do good by helping unasked, then … Well, you know how it goes.
I know what you describe is not rare, per se. It’s also not the norm. As I wrote in my article, the negative people to whom I was referring are not abusive nor are they sabotaging. They’re not ruining lives and taking advantage of the good will of others.
Sort of like your tale, there are many stories of people ruining good homes and families because they take the mantra of eliminating the negative too far. They use other people as a “crutch” and toss them aside thinking that doing that will make them successful.
Those stories are sort of the inverse of yours.
Be well. Please let me know if I can be of service to you. All the BEST!
Have fun … Tony.