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Hades
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 Implementing Will
like magic but not
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| Quote: |
| If you want something, you will find a way to achieve it. If not, you will find an excuse! |
Introduction And Explanation:
Willpower is the simplest form of power--the one of which all others originate from. Following the quote above, if you truly desire something, you will find a way to get it through hard work and perseverance. This is a fact of life and a fact of science. Through this logic, we know that the more one believes in something, the truer that belief becomes. That may sound contradictory on a large scale, but when you factor in perception and the fact that each mind is a universe which personally bends to the eye of the beholder, it becomes clearer. Spells, rituals and ceremonies are merely elaborate methods used to implement our will so that a desired result will come about. The work you place in the desired outcome versus the amount of belief invested is what determines the end result. However, willpower is not an external force; it works inwardly.
When people hear that believing something makes it more possible or likely to occur, they assume that if they can convince themselves a car they are staring at does not exist, it will eventually disappear over time. This is not the case. Willpower is less a manner of trying to change traffic lights to green and more an application to your own body and life so that you will arrive at the most desired time when the lights turn in your favor. It is control over you and therefore the universe around you. If you tried to convince yourself a car didn’t exist, then you would likely stop seeing it as opposed to the object actually disappearing; the method of implication plays a huge part.
There is meaning in everything, and the will to control your life and destiny must be applied to you, not others, else you would be affecting the paths of other people which is much harder to do, if even possible. Having a strong will is the ability to believe in oneself and apply that to the life around them for improvement and advancement. No one can illustrate this idea better than international best-selling author, Andrew Matthews. I read his books as a young teen, and they not only educated me about how powerful the human mind is but also how subconscious patterns we form dictate our everyday lives. If the universe as a whole is a force, then willpower is your force which can influence the greater picture; it is your ability to move your personal universe and produce results in your favor.
How Willpower Is Applied:
I want to distinguish turning lights green from advancing your life. Humanity is a race focused on the little things and often misses the bigger picture. We are a very “in the moment” culture; while turning lights green so we won’t be late for class or work is favorable for us at the time, willpower is strongest when it is applied to an actual need. For instance, you’re not going to be as passionate about being on time as you are about saving a drowning friend. What defines this passion? Belief and desire, of course, which are one in the same. In most cases, one is going to care more about a friend in crisis than being on time. Outwardly, you want the lights to change, but on a subconscious level, it’s not a personal desire you would give tooth and nail to have. If your friend was drowning and being pulled out to sea by a strong current and you’re not a good swimmer, your desire to save your loved one is going to be more powerful than the outside factors of the current and your lack of swimming skill. That ability to overcome no matter the circumstance for a true desire is willpower. You can influence the change of the lights, but you can overcome your weaknesses to save a friend in need. That is the difference between everyday desires that amount to little versus true desires that are ingrained into your soul and define you as a person. The more you believe in yourself and eradicate doubt, the stronger you become.
This isn’t to suggest that you have no power over the everyday, only that you are more likely to gain strength, speed and wits to solve a dire problem as opposed to showboating for recognition. To elaborate, there is a radio show I love to listen to which I call into occasionally to talk on air with the host. I’m passionate about the show, love the host and enjoy talking with him, so when I call in with the thousands other callers, I always get through within the first few tries. What determines this accomplishment is my earnest desire to talk to a person I admire and contribute to his talk show. The point is, if you can make the end result personal to you and become passionate about it, the likelihood of success is going to increase dramatically. By this fact, it can be assumed that it would be harder to change the color of your friend’s hair than save him or her from drowning. Doubt will always be present and play its part, but if you can focus on a positive result that applies to you, the likelihood of success becomes greater. The purpose behind the effort is half of what determines the result.
Tips On Becoming A Strong-Willed Person:
It takes practice, time and discipline, and understanding your subconscious is the first step. Once again, I would recommend one of Andrew Matthew’s books for this stage. (He has several titles that can be found in almost any bookstore.) In order to understand your subconscious, you must realize the small desires in your everyday behavior and how they create patterns that dictate the flow of your life. I will cite some examples from Being Happy, one of Matthews’ books:
| Andrew Matthews wrote: |
When we find history repeating itself in our lives, it is [the subconscious] part of our mind that is responsible. Many of us have recurring patterns—the same old experience or behavior keeps cropping up.
Do you know somebody who is always late? I used to play tennis with a fellow who was always late. We would play tennis before work at the Hilton. I would say, “David, we are playing tennis tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.” He would say, “I will be there.” “Have you got that time?” “7:00 a.m. I will be there!”
Sure enough, at 7:15 next morning David would arrive. He had all the excuses. “My son had borrowed my racquet and put it under his bed.” Next week, the same thing would happen. At 7:16 David would arrive. The reason: “I could only find one tennis shoe!” The following week, he arrived at 7:15 sharp. “The goldfish was sick and the baby was crying.” And so on through the flat batteries, power failures, lost car keys and underwear that was left wet in the washing machine.
Finally, I said, “David, let’s make a deal. For every minute that you are late from now on, it will cost you a dollar.” He hurt his shoulder the next day and we have not played tennis since!
He thought that the world was doing it to him! He was not trying to be late consciously, but on his subconscious he had a program that said “you are always running behind” ...and that program was running his life. |
| Andrew Matthews wrote: |
| Some people have a talent for having accidents. They spend their lives falling off ladders, off bicycles, out of trees, getting electrocuted and having car accidents. I know an insurance agent in her early twenties who has owned five cars since her sixteenth birthday. She told me, “Every time I bought a new car, someone smashed into the back of me. After five of those accidents, I quit buying new cars for my own survival!” |
We see from these examples that our subconscious plays a huge role in our lives, and latent fear can even control our pleasures and happiness. For instance, the woman who kept wrecking her car wasn’t doing it on purpose. However, her subconscious was so worried about an accident since she was driving a brand new car that she inadvertently put herself in positions where those incidents would occur, despite that it appeared they were not her fault. The trick is to think positively and always focus your attitude forward. Relish in your joys and let go of fear. Be aware of dormant fears and desires; make attempts to notice the subconscious patterns you have formed over the years and open them up. Fix them if you find them debilitating.
Meditation, as anyone will tell you, always helps. To keep your attitude positive, it’s important to remind yourself of your strengths and what you’re thankful for. Reward accomplishments, and instead of dwelling on mistakes, focus on how you can set things right and avoid repeating them in the future. These are all basic tips to help you get a centered state of mind. Once you achieve a spiritual balance, you can move on to more fantastic methods of implementing your will.
Examples Of Willpower - Who, What, How:
We’ve heard the stories--monks, shamans, and holy men of all varieties who have spent years mentally and/or physically training themselves to achieve a Zen far greater than the average person. Monks and priestesses drying wet towels on their backs in blizzards, shamans going weeks without eating while remaining healthy, etc. On “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” I've seen an Asian man stick a large needle through the skin of his neck, tie it to a rope tied to an SUV, and pull the SUV solely with his neck over 100 feet. Afterward, he said he felt no pain and only bled a drop. Individuals such as these are greatly utilizing their willpower. This level is possible but difficult to attain. However, will is very easy to master on a basic level with practice and understanding.
Everyone has their own willpower, but as we’ve seen from the examples in Matthews' book, not everyone uses it positively. It is often applied to weaknesses and fears, and in order to advance, those must first be overcome.
Similarities And Differences To Chaos Magic:
The basis for Chaos Magic is very similar to willpower: belief is the power behind all magic. I personally don’t use the term magic. Since all effects are ultimately the result of oneself, what more fitting word is there than willpower? That’s my personal preference at least.
The main difference between Chaos Magic and willpower is in Chaos Magic, one enters a sort of trance to convince oneself that something is true in order to manipulate it. This technique I believe would work well on a small scale. However, since one’s subconscious would be aware that a subject may not be true despite the trance state, that doubt would effect the end result, making it difficult to influence things on a larger, more permanent scale. Once again, willpower is applied to oneself. The basis for Chaos Magic is similar in that you are convincing yourself you have the power to do something. However, it is more temporary as it is limited to a specific state of mind based on a belief you may not be truly convinced is true, whereas willpower is constant, progressive advancement that works on a greater scale both in time and magnitude.
References And Guides:
There’s a wealth of knowledge on the subject that I suggest looking into, many of them self-help books. However, I also recommend looking into physics and scientific texts as well, as they go hand and hand. The more I study physics, the more similarities I find between the power of the human mind and the universe.
Good starter books on physics are A Brief History Of Time and The Universe In A Nutshell by Stephen Hawking. I also recommend Warped Passages: Unraveling The Mysteries Of The Universe's Hidden Dimensions and looking into authors such Brian Greene, Julian Barbour and the works of Richard Feynman and Michio Kaku. Great books that tie willpower and physics together are The Physics Of Consciousness, The Quantum Mind, And The Meaning Of Life by Evan Harris Walker PhD and The Physical Nature of Consciousness, edited by Philip Van Loocke.
Dr. Brian Weiss MD has written a great many books about past life regression, but he begins to tie much of his knowledge into physics and patterns throughout our lives. He writes self-help books, and in that category, I also suggest Andrew Matthews obviously and David D. Burns. Other books include Leading With Soul, An Uncommon Journey Of Spirit by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal, the Creating Affluence collection by Deepak Chopra MD and Jack Canfield's Key To Living The Law Of Attraction by Jack Canfields and D.D. Watkins. Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale is a great financial resource in applying willpower to marketing and financial success.
Personal Advice:
All things in moderation. Willpower is a force that is ingrained in your personality, behavior and everyday life, and this essay is merely a sketch of its design. You shouldn’t focus too much on advancing to the point of ruminating or obsession. The best method is to outline a plan, set goals, educate yourself on the subject, and mature as life comes to you. It’s taken me years to advance as I have, and I’m still evolving. Take your path at the rate you are comfortable; don't feel obligated to rush your progression. Be happy; your strength will excel when you realize the desires that will help you achieve wholeness.
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 Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:22 pm
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Nanara
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Tsukikage
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*cheers along with Ara* Wow... that was outstanding! A well thought out post, this was, and extremely valuable. I think all our members can learn a great deal from this.
Also, thank you for citing so many resources like that. I will have to go read these books, that I will. =^_^=
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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:35 pm
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Hades
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Thank you very much for taking the read and give your reception. I hope you are right in that members will find the essay useful. I am hoping to add another section to this article regarding affirmations very soon.
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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:49 pm
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I will not die a second time. I will not pass away. I will not pass away.
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Eternity
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Very, very well written and quite informitive. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this, Hades =)
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Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:12 pm
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Hades
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Thank you very much for the sticky.
I wanted to add a new section and figured I would include it in a new post.
Affirmations
Affirmations are a common practice of willpower you'll often find referenced in self-help books. It is a visible application of willpower in which an individual either speaks or writes his or her desires daily. To do so, one only has to create a simple phrase such as, "I, [name], will achieve [goal]," and repeat the sentence multiple times a day. Some recommend writing it daily, creating the added effect of both envisioning the outcome and seeing your progress each day. Speaking the phrase daily provides similar effects. It has yet to be tested or confirmed if one method is more effective than the other, however both are optimal. The desired outcome is that the thing you want will come to pass.
To better elaborate, here is an example from Scott Adams' book, The Dilbert Future. You may know of Scott Adams as the popular cartoonist and creator of the Dilbert comic.
| Scott Adams wrote: |
If it's possible to control your environment through your thoughts or steer your perceptions (or soul if you prefer) through other universes, I'll bet the secret to doing that is a process called "affirmations."
[...]
The process as it was described to me involved visualizing what you want and writing it down fifteen times in a row, once a day, until you obtained the thing you visualized.
The suggested form would be something like this: "I, Scott Adams, will win a Pulitzer Prize."
[...] Even more interesting was the suggestion that this technique would influence your environment directly and not just make you focused on your goal. It was alleged that you would experience what seemed to be amazing coincidences when using the technique. These coincidences would be things seemingly beyond your control and totally independent of your efforts (at least from a visual view of reality).
The book also suggested picking up a goal that you knew wouldn't happen by your effort alone. The author said you would never know if the affirmations worked unless you chose a highly unlikely goal.
So I tried affirmations. I figured it didn't cost anything so I had nothing to lose. My friend said it worked for her, coincidences and all, so I had a testimonial that sounded credible. It wasn't proof, but it was better than no testimonial at all. I picked what was a very unlikely goal and went at it.
Within a week, coincidences started to happen to me, too. Amazing coincidences. Strings of them. I won't mention the specific goal I was working on, as it was a private matter, but within a few months the goal was accomplished exactly as I had written it.
I wasn't convinced the affirmations helped. Coincidences do happen on their own. And after all, maybe I had made some of my own luck. I considered the test inconclusive.
So I picked another goal--to get rich in the stock market. I wrote my affirmation down everyday and waited for an inspiration. One day it happened. At about 4:00 A.M., my eyes snapped open, I awoke from a sound sleep, sat bolt upright in bed, and discovered the words "buy Chrysler" repeating in my head. (This kind of thing happens to me occasionally--the part about waking up suddenly with a strange thought.)
At the time, it seemed like a very dumb thing to have in my head. It was during Chrysler's most bleak period. The company had only survived because of government loans. The stock was in a deep hole. [...]
Thinking that "buy Chrysler" was my inspiration, unlikely as it seemed, I quickly called a discount brokerage service to set up an account and buy some Chrysler stock. [...]
It took about two weeks to get the brokerage account established because of mail delays. During those two weeks, Chrysler's stock climbed substantially. I figured I missed the window for buying it and cursed myself for not having a brokerage account set up in advance. Then a funny thing happened. Chrysler's stock kept growing. The company paid off its government loans earlier than anyone expected and went on a rampage. That year, Chrysler was arguably the best stock you could have owned.
I don't know how many stocks there are in the world, but it seemed awfully odd that during the time I was doing my affirmations I woke up somehow knowing one of the best ones to buy. I wished I had followed my own advice. |
In the next few paragraphs, Scott Adams continues his affirmations with the stock market and picks ASK which unsurprisingly was one of the best stocks to own that year. He describes then using affirmations to reach the ninetieth percentile on the GMAT exam at the University of California at Berkeley in order to enter their MBA program. Inevitably, his affirmations lead him to becoming a successful cartoonist and best-selling author. Coincidence? The rate of success for Scott Adams was a bit higher than mere chance. I recommend picking up his book, if anything, to read Chapter Fourteen: A New View Of The Future in which he discusses physics, the universe and affirmations.
All of this is just another example to prove that you are in control of your own universe. Affirmations are a simple method anyone can do in order to implement his or her willpower. As Scott Adams said, it doesn't cost anything to try, so why not give it a shot? Perhaps affirmations will lead to even greater uses of your willpower.
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:34 pm
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Nanara
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FYI: This affirmations system is also known of as the Law of Attraction, and outlined in various forms in a great deal of books such as "The Celestine Prophecy" trilogy, and some "documentary-style" movies, such as "The Secret" and "What the Bleep?", very fun process to play with once you get the hang of it.
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 6:55 am
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Hades
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| Nanara wrote: |
| FYI: This affirmations system is also known of as the Law of Attraction, and outlined in various forms in a great deal of books such as "The Celestine Prophecy" trilogy, and some "documentary-style" movies, such as "The Secret" and "What the Bleep?", very fun process to play with once you get the hang of it. |
I haven't heard of The Celestine Prophecy, but I am familiar with What The Bleep Do We Know? and The Secret.
I believe willpower is a fundamental function of our existence as well as the universe, but some people who read books such as those simply can't commit to the idea, probably because they are afraid of having control over their own lives. It should be said as a contrast however that one cannot punish oneself and feel entirely responsible every time something plays out differently than expected or a mistake is made. Some take the principle too far which is why I always stress moderation. I don't believe completely diving into anything without insight is ever a good idea no matter the subject.
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:14 am
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I will not die a second time. I will not pass away. I will not pass away.
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Nanara
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