Below is a mini-book I wrote over 4 years ago, I think it’s a good read, some of the information was digested from various books I’ve read and some of the quotes at the end don’t have authors. Read it and let me know what you think.

THE WORLD CAN AND SHOULD BE YOURS

Written by: Lawrence Jackson

He who knows and knows not he knows is a child teach him. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is asleep…awaken him. He who knows and knows he knows is wise follow him, and he who knows not and knows he knows not is a fool shun him.

There is nothing we can say or do to change another person. People will change only when they are ready. The only people we have the power to change are ourselves. When we change ourselves, however we often find that the change we desired in others happens as well.

The true mission of religion is to help people manifest the power within themselves to overcome their difficulties and be happy.

We can try many ways to get rid of the darkness, but none is as effective as simply increasing the light.

Throughout these pages I challenge YOU, not only to think deeper about the WHY’S and WHAT’S of your life but to bypass the outer existence the physical you and think deeper about YOU. The YOU that you hear when your trying to make decisions, or work through problems, the you that guides your life. That YOU is the IT that controls the way the universe speaks to you how you move through this world. In other words, thoughts promote actions, actions promote habits and habits begin to control our mere existence. Creating beneficial habits are critical. A habit of winning…but what is winning? A habit of being a champion…but what is a champion? A habit of accepting defeat…but what is defeat? A habit of starting the race when you already lost?

What is a champion?

A champion loves to win but not just a regular victory; a champion always wins because real winning is a state of mind. A state in which you give everything you have and are content with your performance. You walk away saying I gave my best. If you gave your honest best and it’s not good enough, guess what? You go back to the drawing board. Champions aren’t always victorious nor are they discouraged by a loss because losing doesn’t make you a loser. A loss can act like a blueprint to success and a guiding force to everlasting domination. Some examples of great champions that we all know: Ali, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Notice what all these guys have in common; an uncommon confidence. How do you get that confidence? An easy answer would be to truly understand who you are. But that’s easy yet very complex. It’s a process in which you start by training your mind to have a powerful mindset. Qualities like optimism, mental strength, power, self-control and the will to overcome, positive self-talk and to sum it up the attitude that the glass is always half full. The next thing is to train your body to keep up with the mind. Not physical exercise but qualities that control you physical existence, whatever is holding you back. Take your weakness and turn it into your strength. Whether you have a hard time telling people no, difficulties making up your mind among other weaknesses. This way you are completely sure of your abilities and will not question if you CAN do something, instead the question becomes HOW are you going to get it done because you have complete confidence in yourself. Complete confidence in YOU is the key to becoming a champion.

What is defeat?

Defeat is also a state of mind. NOBODY should be able to defeat you, you allow yourself to be defeated. Anybody can lose but not anyone can be defeated. A loss is when somebody performed better than you did. This doesn’t mean there are better than you. Defeat is when you accept losing. If you’re fighting an angry gorilla you don’t quit when your tired, you quit when the gorilla gives up.

There’s always a reason behind a loss. Its cause and effect. If you make a mistake and someone capitalizes on it than you lose, if they don’t you get lucky. In life its like war, the more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war. This will always put a loss into perspective. A loss in the sense of failing to complete a goal, a project, a task not a victory in a game but the game of life. In this war we fight everyday and the battlefield we live on its important to prepare for victory with the mindset of a champion. Proper preperation prevents poor performance, handling the little stuff will almost always take care of the bigger things. But prepare yourself completely and take care of the little things so when you’re faced with a loss you’re not defeated. In this world only the strong will survive.

How can you run a race in which you lost before you started?

Science has proven the power of visualization, which is coupled with mind power for the sake of conversation. If you visualize your self running a race the muscles required during that activity fires signals to the brain.( The muscles will actually activate even if you are not running.)So it’s like running the race over and over in your head and your body already knows what to expect. On the flipside, if you tell yourself you CAN’T do something you WON’T t do it because your mind and body have already accepted defeat. Apply this to life and understand that the race we are running and the victory we are chasing is happiness for our self. Your mind can create anything you believe it can achieve. It will accept defeat if you visualize it. If you want to do something make your mind up make a decision and go for it. Don’t hesitate, that uncertainty in the mind creates uncertainty in your results. Just do it and accept the consequences of the responsible decision that you have made. Making a decision can be hard if you don’t know who you are. You usually can find out who you are when you are laying in bed and it’s just you, your heart and your mind. You experience this quiet intimate conversation when there is no pressure from anybody and no influences clouding your head dictating what you do and when you do it. Trying to be impressive to others, but what is impressive to you? A decision is hard to make in a state of self-uncertainty. Why? What you do when you make a decision is powerful; decision is the opposite of incision. When you make an incision you cut into, when you make a decision you cut out of your life. You take your plan as if you cut out a square and put it into your pocket and ran with it. If you fear what you might lose when you decide maybe you shouldn’t be doing what you are deciding on because an uncertain decision is no decision at all. You wont be fully committed to it because there is still doubt deep within your self. And you can’t go full steam ahead if you are straddling the fence or playing both fields.

Commit-Do-React to you choice and eventually you’ll learn how to do you and listen to your heart.

The YOU that controls this is the not an invisible flow of words or thoughts its YOU. Not the physical form the body is more complex that that, its that mind spirit connection. But can this spiritual form be just as real? Think of a coin and all the similarities we have, yes a coin like a quarter, a dime even a penny. Crazy? Weird? No, real very real understand western ideologies and the blocks that it creates for our consciousness. Have you ever heard the phrase “We don’t use all of our brain?” We don’t, we put it in jail by our ideologies and our beliefs. But back to the coin. A coin has two parts usually heads and tails, they are completely different like the spirit and the body but they’re inherently connected so though they are two they are one and paying attention to the both of them equally can prove to be powerful.

The physical form relies on reasoning and logic because that’s how we are trained and what we need to believe. Reason is dangerous, that’s why animals don’t rely on it the way we do. If you reason in the animal kingdom you might not see tomorrow. Thus they have instincts and we have our hearts. Reasoning cuts of our heart, which is connected to the universe in everything we think and believe. When our connection is cut off (the heart which is key in imagination) we lose our internal power. When we accept our situation and not strive for small change we accept the end of growth and we create our own demise.

We need to get into a natural state of being, of being present, of being aware of the here and now. How? Deep breathing which entails focusing solely on your breath as it goes down into your body and fills your lungs, as you breathe out breathe all the way out from your gut. But don’t think about it just do it. When you think you aren’t freeing your mind with the breathing, let the breathing become your thoughts. Thinking is the point in which we stop believing.

Of course you say how can I do this and achieve inner peace? Can I do this? Can I do that? Take that thought process out of it and know you can do whatever you want. If YOU can see it and you can believe it you can achieve it. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Classic Example is from the movie Hook with yes Peter Pan. When he goes back to never never land he can’t fly he can’t imagine because he started to reason. They said he grew up and he’s not peter. When we grow up we lose touch with imagination and we create limits for ourselves. Imagination allows for constant and endless possibilities. Please nobody try to fly and if they say they saw Tinkerbelle someone call the DR.

The common misconception is that the mind is the brain. In fact, the mind is the brain but not the brain of your physical body but of your soul/spiritual you. The mind is connected to your heart, which can be your eyes in seeing what’s right for you. ONLY… if you are willing to understand and believe in the mind body relationship in reference to the coin that we spoke about earlier.

If you are finding this hard to believe that’s fine, I understand that. But please unlock your mind and let it escape from the prison that we put it in relying on reason and logic to make decisions and find answers. This is westernism, which finds concrete answers to everything, if it cannot be proven through scientific fact it must not be real this is what is holding us in our mental prison. We are not programmed to really challenge the norms of our society, we wait until someone says that something is ok to do or wait to see someone else do it who you look up to or admire. We are trained to reason, we are trained to believe in right and wrong, black and white. But at the point when you can see the gray area you are ready to unlock your brain and it is as this point that anything is possible.

There is a quote that says the more enlightening a teaching, the harder it is to believe and even more difficult to practice. Think about something that is subjective and relative but very real to most of us. Something as real as Christianity and Jesus. Did people believe that Jesus was the Messiah and that he was the one that would be sent from the almighty father? Could this average man be Jesus, there was only a small group of people who believed what he was teaching. Think how hard it must have been for those people to listen to this man and the stuff he spoke about. They must’ve of thought him crazy. But the question, If our eternal lives were saved by a man who came down in a simple form and was nothing special and was laughed at and mocked. Think about all the other things on a lesser note, not to be compared to the power of Jesus, but things like listening to your heart and trusting your gut, some people laugh at it. Some people will miss out on the blessings because they laughed at it just like people laughed at the message of eternal life.

The truth is we are made up of billions of working parts, which are made up of energy. Just like the energy that made the universe. A collection of atoms and energy. The hearts energy field can be detected at more than 15 feet away. We all know sayings as such, “this doesn’t feel right” or “I’m not going to let his negative energy get to me”. You have an understanding of what energy feels like; it is all around you all you have to do is pay attention to it. For westerners Yoga is the accepted way of connecting the mind and the body creating peace of mind. Imagine living that state of peace of mind. It’s possible only through understanding and having an open mind and you can achieve anything you’ve dreamed of.

Success:

Success should not be confused with a victory; success does not equal a win. Often times we lose track of the game we are playing. It’s not a game of work or play; it’s the game of life. In the life we live we get dealt cards that we have to play. “Life is not about getting and playing good cards it’s about accepting bad cards and playing them well”. But with all the uncertainties of life what is success. Success depends on YOU and what YOUR abilities are, no one else but YOU. If you can only run 1 mile in 5 minutes and that’s your absolute best well that is success, reaching your potential. But that doesn’t mean you can’t attempt to run faster or accept what you did. Once you know your limits you need to push them and strive to cover uncharted territory. It is true that your best may not be good enough for something’s, and in those instances you have to find a way to get the job done without all the tools. When you do get it done that is a success. But deeper than surface success is real success, which is the happiness in your heart through achieving what you set out for and knowing that whatever you did today or yesterday and have planned for tomorrow you gave your best. Success isn’t well it should not be defined by money, cars, stocks and bonds because that’s what society defines as success. Real success is about playing your cards well. Don’t think because you may not be happy that you are not a success, you just needed to be aware of the cards you’re playing and how well you can play them. So, what is success to you?

Remember if you are trying to lift something and it is too heavy, it may actually be you that is too weak.

Some quotes to think about.

Change

To change our lives, we must first change our minds.

Mindset

You can make the place you are in now your paradise.

Societal Influences

People have been deluded into believing that the key to happiness lies in reforming the exterior. In fact, it is one’s interior (heart) that holds the key.

Actions

All the answers to your questions exist in your actions.

Misfortune

Misfortune comes from ones mouth and ruins him, but fortune comes from one’s mind and makes him worthy of respect.

Trust/ Honesty (with yourself)

Of all strategies, to know when to quit may be the best.

Wisdom

He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.

Dreams

Strive to achieve whatever you think you cannot, for it is on the path toward your impossible dream that you will find what you truly seek.

Positive Attitude

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come.

Who Am I?

I am a free-thinker.

I am an independent force in this universe.

I have my own values.

I live by these values.

I believe in myself.

I understand I’m not perfect nor am,

I always right.

I can admit if I am wrong.

I had a dream.

I had a vision.

I had a plan.

I understood that a straight path only leads to its destination.

I gave all I had to achieve my goal.

I didn’t care what others thought.

I knew they wouldn’t matter in the long run.

I wanted to be happy.

I didn’t want to have anyone to blame for my life but me.

I was brave.

I was confident.

I was blessed.

I listened to my heart.

I told you my dreams.

I let my actions speak louder than my words.

I am telling you NOW that I want more.

I won’t be denied.