Nine to Five Escape Plan

by Craig Beck

  Let’s take Wayne Rooney for example, last season he made one thousand eight hundred and ninety nine shots at goal in the UK Premiership division. Of those eight hundred and ninety eight shots got nowhere near the goal! The total number of balls that came off his soccer boot and went into the back of the net was two hundred and eighty four! This means that eighty five percent of the shots Wayne Rooney makes miss the target – and yet we are certain in our belief that he is a confident soccer player. I don’t know what you do for a living but I am willing to bet your success rate is much greater than fifteen percent.

  What I want you to do is stop believing that you lack confidence or that failure isn’t an option. Wayne Rooney never stops shooting at the goal. Every opportunity to score he gets, he takes. Without the hundreds and hundreds of misses he would not be able to achieve the hits and ‘earn’ his eighteen million dollars a year. Just in case you were wondering what that works out at per goal, it’s sixty four thousand dollars for each one – no wonder he never stops shooting!

  When you get out there and do the thing that scares you, whether that is making a presentation at work or approaching the hot girl in the supermarket – sometimes you are going to get a different outcome than you wanted. But be okay with that; understand that without those moments you can’t be the person you want to be. It’s okay to be okay and failure is a victory in its own right! Once you can start living this new mindset what you will find is that the old programs in your head that were not serving you in a positive way get deleted and replaced. On confidence bootcamp I sometimes challenge to go on a rejection mission. This is where you go out with the sole purpose of failing; I actually don’t want you to succeed at this task. You might go up to the super hot, catwalk model and get blown out, that’s great! I might ask you to interrupt a group of people chatting over lunch and tell them a joke that fails to make them laugh – perfect, I love it! Get comfortable with failing, it’s no big deal and what you will discover is nobody really cares. Once you get detached from the outcome then you are going to become more confident than you ever thought possible.

  One more story to emphasize this important lesson and then I am going to give you two tricks to accelerate the process. A few months ago I was asked to consult for a telecoms company. They had a team of in house sales execs who each evening had to make random calls and cold sell the product to the person on the end of the line. I am sure you can imagine what a tough job this is and just how much abuse these guys take each day at work. As any salesman will tell you cold calling really sucks and no ambitious seller wants to do it a moment longer than they need to. For this reason this telecoms company had a very high turn over as staff. Literally as soon as the newbie salesman or saleswoman had cut their teeth on the cold calling they were applying for better sales jobs. On top of that a lot of the new recruits simply quit because they just couldn’t handle the rejection of being told ‘no’ or worse hundreds of times a day. They asked me to advise on how these guys could be better motivated to deal with the negative responses they got from strangers on the end of the phone.

  We worked out that it took on average seventeen rejections to get a sale. Obviously it didn’t always work out like that and some salesmen performed better than others but roughly speaking they were selling a product every eighteen calls. So, we simply changed the way the new salesmen would be paid. Instead of getting a bonus when they sold a product we started paying them a small commission for every rejection they got and a bigger bonus for making the sale. What happened was amazing, the new salesmen actually started smiling when they got a ‘no’ or a slammed phone – because that previously negative event meant they just earned another dollar. My challenge to you right here and now is how do you think you can turn a current negative into a positive?

  Of course it is a little easier to see the problem in other people than it is to see what is going wrong in yourself, but that doesn’t mean you can fix your own problems. If your problem is pushing yourself forward for promotion for example then I want you to be aware of what happens to make you procrastinate and ultimately fail to take the action required to get the promotion. Ask yourself, ‘how do I know its time to procrastinate’? Obviously I don’t know exactly what goes on in your head but lets use Graham as an example. Graham Roberts came to see me several years ago, he is a very talented architect but he was desperately unhappy at work. He was nudging fifty years old and still in a relatively junior position in his company. He felt he was punching well under his weight and was thoroughly depressed at the amount of money he was earning. I of course asked him why he kept getting overlooked for promotion and he said he thought it was because he never applied for any better jobs. Yeah that will do it, I said!

  He explained that when he was fresh into the company, straight out of university he had been a bit cheeky and applied for a senior position even though he had only just landed the opening gig. He went through the interview process with the intention of demonstrating how ambitious he was. Unfortunately the department manager had taken it as an act of insolence and disrespect from the cocky new recruit. The interview went terrible and the manager ripped shreds off Graham, but worse than that for months afterwards he made sure Graham only got the work that nobody wanted to do. His fellow new starters were occasionally given bigger projects to work on and given the opportunity to shine while Graham kept being given the menial work that even a high school student wouldn’t find a challenge. A few years later that manager left the company but Graham still kept his head down and did his best to avoid the attention of the department head. He said that over the years senior positions came up and he thought about applying but always chickened out at the last minute.

  The first thing I asked Graham was ‘how do you know it’s time to chicken out’? He said, normally it is just after he fills out the paperwork and then knows that he has to take it down the corridor to the HR office. He said he has got right up to the door in the past before ripping it up and sometimes it is in the garbage before he even had chance to stand up from his desk. What Graham had created was a pattern, a series of events in his subconscious mind that are linked together like a line of dominos waiting to be pushed over. Filling out that application is anchored to a painful event and the ego responds to the triggering of that memory by trying to move him away from the source of the pain.

  To break a pattern you have to first recognize that you have one and then consciously do something dramatically different to what the pattern wants to do. In Graham’s case I asked him what he could do different and he came up with five or six alternatives including asking the intern to take the application form straight down the corridor, having his friend stand over him and take the application off him he even suggested he could give his friend a hundred dollar bill and say ‘if you don’t see me take this application into the human resources office today – you have my permission to keep the $100’. I don’t know which pattern interrupt he eventually used, but I do know that today he is several pay grades higher than he has ever been at before.

  Think about your own life and see if you can spot any recurring events that you believe are holding you back or preventing you enjoying life to the full. As soon as the pattern starts to play out do something unexpected to break the state. This can be anything at all but it is better to make it something dramatically different. If you always start to feel panicky as soon as it is time to get on an aeroplane then instead of doing what you would normally do, sing happy birthday to yourself or wave your arms in the arm, make a sound like a chicken – do anything that breaks the pattern. Okay so you look crazy and you might not be able to do it for more than a few seconds because you are laughing so much, I don’t care – you are breaking the pattern. It’s like getting a steak knife and dragging it across a CD – eventually that CD will not play any more and eventually your pattern won’t play like it did before.

  You can also use this technique with other people who are operating in a state that isn’t positive. Sometimes I meet
people and no sooner have we shook hands do they start with a pity party about how terrible their life is and how low their confidence is. They are used to their friends and family responding with kinds words and effectively joining the pity party. I never do this but I may jump up and down a bit or ask them if they can smell popcorn… I loved the confused expression on their face that says ‘my old state is broken’. I don’t want them to keep rerunning the broken patterns and so I don’t let them – every time I get a sense that they are playing that old erroneous program I do something that they don’t expect or just down right confuses them.

  Parents… you can even use this technique on your children. I am sure you have experienced one of those embarrassing moments when your child has a tantrum (often they do it in a public place to make matters worse). They start kicking and screaming because they want something or don’t want to go school. Ask yourself what happens next in the pattern, do you get angry and start shouting or do you have to hang your head and leave the place where it is happening? Whatever it is, do something different! Ask them how superman can fly, sing happy birthday, join in the protest or pull funny faces. Most times they will look at you with a beautifully confused expression, they are thinking ‘what the hell are you doing mommy’ but that’s great because what they are not doing anymore is running the tantrum pattern.

  The more tools you have in the box the more options will ultimately be open to you. Most people who come to see me know what they want but are trapped in a routine that they can’t seem to break. They have these patterns and programs running that reduce their options down to only one or two possible outcomes. Ask yourself what else could you do and then set about installing the state you would need to get there. Another great tool for doing this is using meditation or hypnosis (which is really just a guided meditation). Hypnosis downloads are great for addresses very specific problems because we can use the subliminal commands like a laser guided missile to directly attack the incorrect beliefs hidden in your subconscious mind.

  When you join my online coaching club you get access to a complete library of subliminal reprograming mp3’s. However, before you download and listen to any of these powerful tracks it is important that we ensure that you fully understand what hypnosis is, or more importantly what it is not. Hypnosis is not black magic, a party trick nor a piece of theatre. It is a naturally occurring process of the brain that has unfortunately attracted some seriously bad press over recent years; some might say even OJ Simpson has had better press than hypnosis! Thankfully, for over two thousand years it was documented and practiced with a great deal of respect. How bizarre that this long studied and amazing action of the human mind was essentially defamed by a man in a bar trying to convince girls to remove their clothes.

  The traditional stage hypnotist is considered by most right thinking hypnotherapists and psychologists as a blundering incompetent dabbling in something they don't truly understand. If they did understand the amazing process they are playing with, I would suggest they would find something more productive to do with it than make a person believe they are a little fluffy duck called Roger!

  A common misconception about hypnosis is that it is sleep. Although a hypnotized person appears to be sleeping, they are actually quite alert. Hypnosis is very difficult to describe, as nobody actually knows what is going on inside the mind of a subject. What we do know is that while in the trance state, the subject becomes very suggestible. A subject's attention, while they are going into trance, is narrowed down gradually.

  Many areas of normal communication are removed one by one. Starting with sight, a person is asked to close his eyes and concentrate. Other senses are then removed from the equation; some people even lose complete feeling of their body. That may sound frightening, but it is accomplished in a slow, pleasant way, rather than suddenly turning off of a switch.

  You enter a world of hyper relaxation and at the same time hyper awareness. As you might expect, as you remove certain senses the remaining ones become more acute to compensate. Often people who have been under hypnosis will come around and claim “it did not work”. When you enquire as to why they believe hypnosis did not occur, they make statements such as “I could hear everything”, “I could even hear the cars going past the window!” This is all part of the misconception that hypnosis is sleep, and that during trance you are unconscious, when in actual fact you are hyper conscious.

  I am telling you about hypnosis not because I want you to take to the stage, but because I want you to understand the truly amazing power of the subconscious mind. A person in hypnosis is highly suggestible. The hypnotist has direct access to the person's subconscious without having to go through the conscious mind. This is how they can convince a six foot tall, 250lb man he is a light gentle ballet dancer and have him pirouetting his way around the stage.

  Hypnosis is so natural, that you do it dozens of times a day without even realizing it. Have you ever driven home at the end of your working day and arrived home with no memory of the journey? Hypnosis just paid you a visit, your brain was using the opportunity of this familiar and fairly simple task to filter and file information in your brain.

  You may notice yourself at work blankly staring at the computer screen in a deep peaceful daydream. This happens due to the vast amount of information constantly entering your brain, every few hours your mind must pause a little to filter and file all the information you have learned. Placing it in the correct storage area of the brain.

  Many people find it helpful to pick one specific area to work on at a time. For example if public speaking is your biggest problem then download a hypnosis track that deals with this area and listen everyday exclusively to this track and do it for at least twenty one days before you move onto a new area of your personal development. During these powerful tracks I talk directly to your subconscious mind. I do this because I know that the conscious mind is a guard dog. The sort of animal the mail man must first distract before he opens the gate and creeps up the path to post the mail through the letterbox, after doing so he sneaks back out, hopefully without being noticed. During this book I have been directly talking to your guard dog, you can choose to accept what I am saying, or dismiss it. During hypnosis you do not have that problem; all suggestions are accepted without judgment because the words are directed to the subconscious.

  A word of warning… Don’t lie there waiting for something magical to happen, don’t expect or demand anything, you will also need to be prepared to catch your ego trying to pull you out of the moment. It’s fine when it does, if you find your mind wandering just notice what has happened, smile and refocus on the now. Relax and let the music and my words drift over you. There is nothing that you can do wrong, free yourself of that concern and let go of all expectation.

  Action Point: Find a hypnosis range that you enjoy listening to and that addresses your specific problem. I have my own range available at my website but it really doesn’t have to be one of my downloads, use the product you like the best.

  Inspirational Reading – David Schwartz – ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’:

  A perfect addition to the bookshelf of those plagued by self-doubt and negativity. Schwartz has capitalized on the power of positive thinking, providing a comprehensive set of mental tools for harnessing in on your own potential. In a ‘dearest friend’ tone of voice, The Magic of Thinking Big provides a gentle but effective push for readers wishing to drastically improve their lives for the better. Expect to work, earn, manage, love, and live big.

  Escaping The Rat Race

  “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step”, Lao Tzu

  People living lives outside the rat race are proactive by nature and this is perhaps one of the most striking differences you can notice between the entrepreneurs of the world and the 9 to 5 drones. Most people are simply reacting to the hand that they are dealt, mainly because they believe this is the
only option available. Living a reactionary life like this means a person is essentially a boat in the ocean without a rudder. Even if they spot dangerous rocks on the horizon they feel powerless to do anything but sit and hope they get lucky. However, for the most part they are completely unaware of the rocks until they hit them and then they feel hard done to and wonder why they are being punished by life.

  Most people are sheep not wolves and they default to the comfort zone setting of living a reactive life. This is understandable because our brains are hardwired to protect us from dangerous situations. This is a throw back to our hunter-gatherer days when danger and life threatening events were around each and every corner. Civilization has progressed in the western world but evolution has not kept up pace. The risk assessment areas of our brain are a little over zealous for the new environment in which we live. Being afraid to approach a sleeping lion is a perfect example of where fear is being generated to serve a valuable purpose. However, feeling that exact same sense of dread about following your dreams is an inappropriate sensation and does not serve us in any positive way. Actually, many people would rather approach a snoozing lion and flick it hard on the nose than step out of the comfort of their daily routine.