Maximum Achievement

by Brian Tracy

  INVENTIONS

  The superconscious mind is responsible for new inventions and scientific breakthroughs. Edison regularly tapped his superconscious mind to find the solutions that led to his hundreds of successful inventions. Nikola Tesla, perhaps the greatest electrical genius of his age, was able to construct models of electric motors in his mind, disassemble them mentally, reassemble them, and repair them until they were perfect. He could then go into a workshop and build a totally new machine or motor that would work perfectly the very first time.

  INSPIRATION

  The superconscious mind is the source of all inspiration, all motivation, and the excitement that you feel when aroused by a new idea or possibility. It is the source of hunches, of intuition, and of flashes of insight—the “still small voice” within. Whenever you have been wrestling with a problem and have suddenly come up with a great idea that turned out to be the perfect solution, you were tapping your superconscious mind. Every time you experienced a new insight into a challenge you were facing, your superconscious mind was working.

  ACCESS TO ALL STORED INFORMATION

  When your superconscious mind computes on a problem or works on a goal, it has access to all the information stored in your subconscious mind. It can draw upon everything you have ever learned or experienced.

  It also has the ability to discriminate between what is true and what is false. Each person has stored in his or her memory an enormous amount of information that is simply not true. Some of it is unimportant, like the actual height of Mount Everest, or the number of pecks in a bushel. Some of it is very important, such as critical facts that affect your personal fortunes. But in all cases, the superconscious mind uses only stored information that is true. It thus brings you answers and solutions that are correct and appropriate to your situation.

  Sometimes you will get an idea that seems inconsistent with what you know to be true. It will then turn out that your knowledge was incomplete or based on erroneous information. Your seemingly contradictory idea or solution turns out to be the correct one. It is exactly the answer you need.

  ACCESS TO INFORMATION OUTSIDE YOUR BRAIN

  The superconscious mind also has access to knowledge and information from outside and beyond your personal knowledge and experience. It actually lies outside your brain, outside your conscious and subconscious minds.

  The Englishman Michael Faraday, who was not trained as a scientist, awoke once in the middle of the night with his mind teeming with scientific formulations. He sat down and wrote several pages of mathematical formulas and scientific calculations that seemed to flow through him like a river of energy. Once he had finished writing, he fell back asleep, exhausted.

  When he later took his notes to one of the most learned scientists in England, it was determined that he had produced knowledge that had never before existed. That work of Michael Faraday laid the foundation for the development of the vacuum tube by Lee De Forest, and for the entire electronic age in which we now live.

  THE UNIVERSAL MIND

  You are surrounded by a universal mind that contains all the intelligence, ideas and knowledge that has ever existed, or that will ever exist. Because of this, different people in different parts of the world will often tap this energy and come up with the same ideas at the same time.

  One of our seminar graduates had worked with a team at the Atomic Energy Research Council of Canada to develop what he called a Gamma Ray Backflash Measuring Device. It took them two years to perfect the device, but the key was an insight that he had while working on the project.

  Some months later, at an international symposium that included scientists from the Soviet Union, they found that a Soviet scientist had had exactly the same insight at almost exactly the same time, which led to the Soviets’ developing almost exactly the same device. Since both of these projects were top secret before being shared publicly, there was no way that the creative insights could have been exchanged through any medium except the superconscious mind.

  IDEAS BEYOND YOUR CURRENT EXPERIENCE

  Once you begin using your superconscious capabilities in a systematic way, you will get ideas from out of the blue. Almost everyone has had the experience of thinking of a good idea for a new product or service, dismissing it because it was in a field in which they had no experience, and then seeing some other company come out with the same product or service a couple of years later and make a fortune. This is an example of superconscious functioning.

  The difference between the person who had the idea and ignored it, and the person who came up with the idea and ran with it, was that the person who did something with the idea had a higher level of trust and confidence in himself and his ability to turn the idea into reality. Because of childhood conditioning, we tend to ignore our own ideas, assuming that they could not be worth very much, when, in fact, they could change our whole lives. When you begin accepting the value of your superconscious insights, you will be amazed at the kind of ideas that come to you, and the next time you have an idea, you’ll do something with it.

  CONTINUOUS FUNCTIONING

  Your superconscious mind functions on a nonconscious level twenty-four hours per day, 365 days per year. Once you have programmed a goal or problem into your subconscious mind, and then released it, it is transferred to your superconscious mind and your superconscious goes to work on it. You can then go about your daily life, with your conscious and subconscious energies focused on the work at hand, while your superconscious mind is busily working to bring you whatever you need to achieve your goal.

  Remember, the functions of the conscious mind are to identify, compare, analyze and decide. The subconscious mind stores and retrieves information and obeys the commands of the conscious mind. The superconscious mind functions outside and beyond both of them, but is accessed through them.

  GOAL-ORIENTED MOTIVATION

  Your superconscious mind is capable of goal-oriented motivation. It is the source of the enthusiasm and the excitement you feel when you begin setting goals and moving progressively toward their accomplishment. However, to generate this motivation, your superconscious mind requires clear, specific goals to which you are completely committed. It then releases ideas and energy for goal attainment.

  The superconscious mind is a source of “free energy.” This is a phenomenon you’ve experienced many times before. It is the mental and physical energy that surges through you during periods of great excitement, intense desire or even extreme danger. When you are working toward something that is important to you, you often experience a boundless flow of energy that enables you to work day and night with very little sleep. Usually this is called “nervous energy,” but of course, we know that nerves have no energy of their own.

  Have you ever had the experience of having to get up in the middle of the night because of an emergency? In no time, you find yourself wide awake, alert and functioning effectively, whereas a short while before you were tired and sound asleep. This is an example of tapping the “free energy” of your superconscious mind.

  Another example of this “free energy” is the phenomenon of men and women performing superhuman feats in life-threatening situations. In Florida a few years ago, a frail, sixty-eight-year-old grandmother, Mrs. Laura Schulz, was working in her kitchen while her forty-year-old son was working under a car in the driveway. Suddenly, the jack slipped and the car fell on his chest, crushing him and threatening to kill him.

  When he cried out in pain, his elderly mother rushed out of the house, saw what had happened and immediately acted. She rushed forward, grabbed the bumper, and lifted the two-thousand-pound automobile off her son’s chest, saving his life.

  Two neighbors saw her do it. But afterward, when she was interviewed by reporters, she denied that it had ever taken place. She completely blotted the experience out of her mind because it was so far beyond what she “knew” to be true about her own strength.

  When you become fully attuned to your superconscious mind, you will e
xperience a continuous stream of health, energy, and strength that will enable you to produce more in a few hours than the average person produces in a week. You will enter into the state of “flow,” where the world seems to slow down while your mind speeds up. During this time you seem to have an easy ability to produce large quantities of high-quality work. You have a wonderful sense of well-being. Your mind sparkles with a stream of ideas that flow to you exactly as you need them.

  CLEAR COMMANDS

  Your superconscious mind responds best to clear, authoritative commands, or what are called “positive affirmations.” Every time that you affirm a goal or a desire from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind, you activate your superconscious mind to release the ideas and energy that you need to bring your desire into reality.

  This is why decisiveness is such an important trait of successful men and women. Because they know exactly what they want, their superconscious powers are working for them continuously. You will also find that when you stop vacillating and make a firm, clear decision that you are going to do something, no matter what the cost, everything suddenly starts to work in your favor.

  When you affirm “I like myself,” or “I can do it,” or “I earn $XXX per year,” you are throwing the master switch on all your mental powers. You are “turning on” in the most powerful way possible.

  I mentioned earlier that the primary reason that people do not achieve their potential is that they are simply not serious. By “not serious,” I mean that they simply refuse to make the decisions that they must make if their lives are going to change for the better.

  You will be amazed at how much more effective you become when you make firm decisions and burn your mental bridges behind you. Cut off all thought of quitting or retreating, or doing something else. Make the decision that you are going to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal, and that nothing is going to stop you. At that point, even a person with average abilities becomes an extraordinary agent of accomplishment.

  THE SOLUTION TO EVERY PROBLEM

  Your superconscious mind automatically and continuously solves every problem on the way to your goal, as long as your goal is clear. If your goal is to make a lot of money and you are absolutely clear about the amount that you want to earn and keep, you must, you will eventually achieve it.

  The history of the human race is written in the stories of men and women who have set big exciting goals for themselves, and who have then persisted indomitably, sometimes for many years, before finally reaching them. Peter Drucker, the well-known management expert and author of The Effective Executive, says, “Whenever you find something getting done, anywhere, you will find a monomaniac with a mission.” Whenever you find great achievement, you find an individual who is absolutely clear about what he or she wants to do, and who is willing to do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to achieve it.

  Your main job is to keep your thoughts on your goal. Your superconscious mind will automatically and continuously solve each problem on the way to your goal as and when the problem arises. You can trust absolutely in this superconscious power to function for you as long as your goal is clear.

  THE PROPER MENTAL CLIMATE

  Your superconscious mind operates best in a mental climate of faith and acceptance. The attitude of confidently expecting that your problems will be solved, obstacles removed, and your goals achieved is the mental state that intensifies the rate of the vibration of thought and causes your superconscious mind to function at its best.

  Although it is difficult initially, it is only when you are completely relaxed about the outcome of any situation that the situation seems to resolve itself, sometimes in the most unexpected way. The outcome, however, will always be everything that you could ask, and sometimes much more. It seems that the harder you “don’t try,” the better your superconscious mind works in bringing you the things you want.

  All great men and women have been people of faith. They have been able to “take no thought.” They developed the almost childlike ability to entrust themselves to the goodness of the universe, with the simple faith that everything was unfolding as it should, in its own time. They have had an attitude of calmness and confidence and a belief that there was a power greater than themselves that was helping them.

  Any kind of negativity, anger, worry or impatience shuts down your superconscious mind. It diminishes your powers. It clouds your thinking. It confuses the messages you are sending from your conscious to your subconscious mind. Destructive emotions of any kind interfere with the calm, positive attitude your superconscious requires for optimal functioning.

  IT BRINGS YOU THE EXPERIENCES YOU NEED

  Your superconscious mind brings you the experiences you need to be successful. Because you can never permanently achieve anything on the outside that you are not fully prepared for on the inside, whenever you set a goal of any kind, you will have to grow and develop to the point that you are ready to achieve it. Your super-conscious mind will guide you through the experiences you need to teach you the lessons you have to learn, in order, so that when you finally arrive at your destination, it will almost seem like an anticlimax. You will by then have developed the mental equivalent of the corresponding outer reality that you desire.

  This is a very important point: If you achieve anything without having prepared yourself for it in your thinking, you will not be able to hold on to it. If you make a lot of money unexpectedly, and your self-concept is not equal to it, you will be subconsciously driven to engage in behavior to get rid of the money. That is why it is said, “easy come, easy go.”

  However, if you achieve your successes gradually, growing as a person on the inside as you increase in your productive capacity on the outside, when you finally reach the position in life that you desire, you will be ready to hold on to it indefinitely.

  If you look back over your life, you will find that almost everything worthwhile that you have accomplished was preceded by what appeared to be difficulties, disappointments and temporary failures. Often, you had to ride an emotional roller coaster of fear, anxiety and worry. However, in retrospect, you can see that every one of those difficult experiences was essential to your becoming the kind of person you are today, and to achieving your ultimate goal.

  This is a very important point. Your superconscious mind sets up a series of hurdles, or learning experiences, to train you in exactly what you need to learn. Your superconscious mind is also very patient. If you do not learn the lesson, whether it’s in relationships, in business, with money or with your health, your superconscious mind will send you back through the learning experiences over and over until you finally get it, until you learn what you are meant to learn. Then and only then will you be allowed to proceed to the next step in your development.

  Napoleon Hill found that almost every one of the wealthy men he interviewed had achieved their great successes one step beyond what appeared to be their greatest failure. It was when every outward indication suggested that it was time to quit and to give up that they were the very closest to breaking through to their goals.

  It is almost as if your superconscious mind gives you a final test just before you arrive at your destination. It is when you are going through your most difficult learning experiences that you must draw on your ability to control your mind and have faith that the difficulty you face is simply part of the process that will inevitably bring you through to your goal.

  A characteristic of successful men and women is that they never use the word “failure.” They look upon temporary defeats and setbacks as simply another way of learning how to succeed. They seek within every obstacle or disappointment the seed of an equal or greater benefit or opportunity. They learn from every experience. They refuse to get upset. They keep their minds calm, positive and focused on their goals. As a result, they keep their superconscious capabilities switched on.

  USE IT OR LOSE IT

  Your superconscious mind grows in capability as you use it and tru
st it. Men and women begin to achieve great things only when they begin trusting completely in this mysterious power or force surrounding them. The “Law of Use” states, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” It also states that whatever mental or physical capabilities you do use become stronger and more responsive to your demands. When you develop the habit of continually turning to your superconscious mind to guide and direct you, to inspire and illuminate you and to solve every problem on your path, it will work faster and more efficiently every day.

  IT GIVES YOU UNERRING GUIDANCE

  Your superconscious mind makes all of your words and actions, and their effects, fit a pattern consistent with your self-concept and your dominant goals. You will always be inspired to say and do exactly the right thing, in every situation, when you are tuned in to your superconscious.

  Sometimes words will seem to fall out of your mouth that will turn out later to have been exactly the right thing to say at the time. Sometimes, you will get an urge to buy a book or a tape, to telephone or visit someone, to write a letter or make a decision that later turns out to be exactly the thing for you to do at that moment. You will pick up a book or magazine or open it to the exact page that has the answer you need. And this will start happening repeatedly, the more you trust yourself to this great power.

  SYNCHRONICITY EXPLAINED

  Synchronicity is a common phenomenon that occurs when two seemingly unrelated events happen at the same time and, somehow, both these events help you to move toward one of your goals. For example, you could think about taking a vacation to Hawaii in the morning before you go to work, and later on that day, receive a special offer for a week in Hawaii at a cut-rate price. You might decide over the weekend that you need to be earning more money, and Monday your boss could offer you a promotion with greater responsibilities and higher pay. The only connecting link between these synchronous events is the meaning imposed upon the events by your thoughts and your goal. This is another example of super-conscious activity.