Definition of Persistence: The fact of continuing firmly or obstinately in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.
I have found this week of the MKE the most challenging to date! I have been fighting a viral type cold for over a week now which has not helped matters. It certainly feels like the one step forward two steps backward that Haanel talked about in week 12 of the Master Key.
It all started on Sunday night while watching the live webinar – usually at the end of the webinars – I feel energised and pumped for the week ahead but this one was different for me. We had a wonderful presentation from Luc Griffet who used the metaphor of his mountain climb to inspire us to keep on going and be persistent.
BUT THEN came the shocker Mark went on to describe a technique called NARC – Neurological Associative Reactive Conditioning.
Mark explained that since the time of the Greeks and beyond there have been two basic feelings that rules peoples lives. These feelings are pain and pleasure. Pleasure feels good, and we move towards it – pain feels bad and we instinctively move away from it!
We are the only species on the planet who have the choice to determine what is painful and what is pleasurable e.g. we can attach feelings of pleasure to eating or to not eating.
Neurological Associative Reactive Conditioning (NARC) is a technique that enables us to leverage our subconscious minds by making choices as to what we associate pain and pleasure with.
Humans are not designed to seek out or tolerate pain and we prefer to repeat things that bring us pleasure. We often avoid the “traction point” or “main thing” that would drive our lives, relationships and businesses forward because we associate pain with them. We may avoid things such as reaching out to others seeking help or sharing our ideas.
So when Mark had finished describing the NARC technique and how we were to make ourselves feel bad and that we had let everyone down in particular ourselves – I was crying and could genuinely feel this sense of failure.
When Mark went on to describe how to make ourselves feel great again after having completed the process – I just couldn’t think of anything to bring myself back up to the feeling good about myself state. I went to bed in the feeling bad state and had nightmares where I cried a lot!
My husband and I had been doing an early morning meditation for the previous 2 weeks and I forced myself to sit up and turn on the recording as usual – At the end of the meditation I felt a huge sense of gratitude to my parents and my family of origin for the wonderful “Presents” and “Presences” of Christmas’s past. At the end of the meditation I realised that the meditation was my “traction point” and that I could only generate the good feelings when I had completed what I needed to do.
I am continuing to use the NARC process starting today and am looking forward to great results because by having demonstrated persistence in doing the MKE required tasks I have set myself up for success using NARC.
The Mental diet continued to be challenging for the rest of the week – but I am grateful for the great support which I garnered from the new resources introduced this week.
I am grateful for my Mastermind Marianna’s prompting to find the recording of “The Strangest Secret” by Earl Nightingale – I love his voice – I am sure subby finds it soothing and entrancing – I have made the card as he directed and listened to the recording everyday this week!
I also discovered a great MKE song in the MKMMA members area performed by Danny Linkert which I listened to a few times each day also using it with the Mind Gym technique – Thank you Danny – Its great!
I watched one of the recommended films “Rudy” which also helped me with that persistence and to look for and use the help available to me!
“Rudy” is a film based on the true life story of “Rudy Ruettiger”
Rudy has a dream to play football at the University of Notre Dame even though he has been told he is too small to be a footballer and he is not a particularly gifted player and he has neither the money for tuition nor the grades to qualify for a scholarship. Despite being ridiculed by the family and co-workers at the local steel mill – Rudy decides to really go after his dream when is best friend and greatest supporter gets killed.
In this film Rudy clearly demonstrates the 4 habits of success that Mark has emphasised during every MKE session:
Definite Major Purpose – To Play Football for Notre Dame and by extension of that to be educated at Notre Dame
Positive Mental Attitude – Rudy demonstrates this in Spades – even loosing his Fiancee to one of his older brothers doesn’t deter him and getting three letters of rejection when trying to gain entry to Notre Dame only strengthens his resolve.
Plan of Action – He plays football whenever he can – eventually gaining access to the training squad.
A Master Mind Alliance – Rudy develops many alliances and friendships along the way starting with his best buddy and then a Priest and a Teaching Assistant and the Groundsman in Notre Dame.
It is the groundsman in Notre Dame who delivers my favourite line from the movie – when Rudy has eventually quit as it becomes obvious he is not going to get onto the pitch when he reminds Rudy that he has nothing to prove to anyone but himself and that he will always regret quitting. Rudy returns to the training and the rest as they say is History.
“The Coach finally lets Rudy play on the Notre Dame kickoff to Georgia Tech. Rudy stays in for the final play and sacks the Georgia Tech quarterback, and is carried on his teammates’ shoulders to cheers from the stadium.”
An epilogue states that after 1975, no other player for Notre Dame had been carried off the field to the time of the film’s release in 1993. Rudy graduated in 1976 and all his younger brothers went on to earn college degrees.
I really enjoyed watching this film with my family and grateful for Persistence!
Thank you for reading and wishing you all a wonderful 2020.
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