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Can a Single Word Change a Destiny? MKMMA continuation

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Early on in the MKMMA course of study we switched the use of just one word and replaced it with another which proved to be so much more powerful. Whilst the thing the two words described did not change at all the attitude towards it and therefore the effectiveness of it changed greatly. Let me explain in greater depth for clarity and to enable me to take the lesson learned to another level.

We had a 3×5 card on which we wrote a promise to do something new each week, nothing too difficult, it was ‘keeping’ the promise that was important for the exercise and not the size or nature of the promise itself: so it needed to be something we could definitely achieve in the timeframe. The idea was to convince the subconscious that “I always keep my promises” by actually keeping each weeks promise. So the promises started simple, like “I promise to tidy my office by Sunday the 4th” or I Promise to wash the car by Sunday the 11th” and they gradually got more challenging like  “I promise to contact 4 people about my opportunity by Sunday 18th” There was no significance about Sundays except thats when we met online to discuss our progress.

Early on we called this 3×5 card “The Chore Card”… and it was a chore that had to be done and indeed was done.  After a few weeks we renamed the card…from that day on it was to be called “The Service Card”.  Everything else about it was to remain the same but the change in name put the card and the promise into a completely different light. Instead of doing a chore we were now giving a service which made it much more pleasurable and felt like we were now making a contribution to ourselves and others instead of simply meeting an obligation. Same job…but done with more enthusiasm and with love.

That was to set the scene…we also have what we called the Law of Giving and Receiving and we wrote these out by hand on another card and read them aloud daily.  Obviously the aim was not just to say them but that reading them would influence behaviour from the inside out and cause us to do them. I will get to the Laws themselves in a second but first I wanted to apply the previous lesson to them…A few weeks ago I realised that they were not Laws at all and my calling them laws was putting me in the same mindset as the chore card had done earlier.

We are studying the Masterkey by Charles F Haanel. A Master key will open any lock but it occurred to me that these four sentences we were reading each day were actually not laws but keys each of which would open its own lock .

So where I used to say, “I promise to read the 4 laws of Giving and Receiving 3x daily I began to say…

“I promise to use my four keys to giving and receiving 3x daily…since words carry power the very act of speaking them was using them and then taking action in line with the words was further reinforcing the power of repeated use.

Can I recommend that you write them out for our yourself by hand and also begin to read them out loud each day… faith comes by hearing and there is nothing more powerful than hearing the repetition, with feeling, of our own voice.  The four actual laws/keys are in bold below. The additional writings around the bold letters are from other sources or are my interpretation and what I want my own subconscious mind, my inner man, to hear and believe.

so here is my new reading…

I promise to use these four keys of giving and receiving as a normal part of my life and I read them aloud three times each day…

The first is the key of Generosity…Wherever I go I bring a gift, I may bring a compliment, a prayer, a trinket, a flower, but I promise I will give something to every person I encounter.

The second is the Key of Gratitude  Because gratitude is a cause and not an effect…I promise to be a grateful receiver of the gifts that surround me, noticing nature, kindnesses, smiles and compliments, which I gladly receive with a ‘Thank you’.

Third is the Key of Encouragement…I promise to give the hope for Joy, Affluence, Kindness and Love consciously with every encounter regardless of the brevity.

Fourth is the Key of Faith…I promise to give without expectation of reciprocity from the channels I enrich because I know (I have faith) I am in the dynamic flow of giving and receiving and I know my God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

I always Keep my Promises

I have enjoyed many wonderful experiences these past months…I am not a hearer only but a doer…I have not succeeded on every encounter but I have on very many done exactly what I promise each day to do… I have received some amazed responses and occasionally have caused delight far above the effort I have invested. These keys unlock the treasuries of mens hearts. I bought a box of pens with a torch light on the end especially to give away and although they cost not much more than a pound each some people have responded as though I had given them a gold coin. As the Master Teacher said “It is more blessed to give than to receive”

Propagating our new knowledge for the benefit of others.

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As a consequence of six months study with the MKMMA  a big part of my DMP, the part which involves significant growth in the membership of the church where I am pastor, has become clear and the pathway to get there plain.

We are looking to develop leaders because we have a vision to greatly grow the church in numbers and in significance. It is evident that a strong church family is the body to support the home family unit and to lead a successful society.

So talking to the individuals who came to our first early Saturday morning session eager to lean and develop as individuals and leaders we introduced the session this way.

Before you can have you must do and before you can do you must be. But you can be anything you want to be provided it is in harmony with the will of God.

You can be what you will to be…meaning you can design the future you by thinking the thoughts, speaking the words and beginning to do the things that the person you want to be in your future would do.

You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. The scripture tells us that nothing shall be impossible to us if we trust in Christ and live right with God.

You can have anything in life you really want. You just have to help enough other people get what they want. Jesus said if any would be great among you he must first be a servant. Therefore the greatest among you will have served the most people the best way possible. The more you serve, the greater your reward and the closer you get to your own goals.

We then watched John Maxwells Lesson which will be reviewed separately.

And then looked at the first 5 chapters of John Maxwell’s book  “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth.” Because as well as watching the Developing leadership videos we are conscious that we must all grow individually into the position as leaders and have chosen this as our first text.

Chapter 1 The Law on Intentionality I choose to grow…and I take action every day to develop myself. Of course there is much more in the full chapter and these brief summaries are only to serve as a memory jogger. Please read the book one chapter a day.

Chapter 2 The Law of Awareness   I know myself…I know where I am now…where I want to be…I am working hard to find out what are the various ways to get there and especially what is the best way for me right now.

Chapter 3 The Law of the Mirror.  I see value in myself… I am a child of God… He thinks I am worth saving so I must believe I am worth the effort it will take to develop myself to reach my full potential.

I don’t see this as a chore…but as a service to the world around me. The more I develop myself the more I have to offer. If I add value to myself then I can add more value to the world. This is a virtuous circle since the more value I add the greater will be my rewards.

Chapter 4 The Law of Reflection. I must let the growth catch up. Spend time each day thinking, concentrating on the person I wish to become… allowing my spirit to bring my soul up to speed with what I have learned. The penny may take a few days to drop when I am leaning new things at a fast rate. Time spent in meditation and thought helps me to gain an understanding rather than simply storing facts by memory.

Chapter 5 The Law of Consistency

Success in any venture does not come by one massive effort though it may sometimes look like that’s what happened…but success is built over a long period, many small positive steps taken one day at a time.

Similarly failure does not come by one big error of judgement although it can be that one error that finally brings a man down. The character that finally brings about the error was built over a sustained period. Lots of small steps taken every day until they became habitual.

So whatever we have consistently thought and done in the past has produced the person we are now. Whether that is good or bad we can’t turn the clock back but we can make it better. We can develop, we can grow.  And over the next 16 weeks if we help each other we can all be better and we can all be on a track to life long improvement.

MASTER KEY THREE WEEKS IN…IT’S TAKING SHAPE ALREADY.

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Hey everybody… we are only three weeks in to the Master Key program and I am already noticing some strange behavioural changes affecting me in every area.

I am getting things done too soon… I am not sure if I can cope, I am finding myself with time to spare and nothing to do in it.

You see I am a deadline person, I have always thrived on the last minute rush… I began my working life in Newspapers and then did 13 more years in publishing at Yellow Pages either in front line sales or first line management. All that taught me the excitement of working to deadlines.

It pervades everything…Even after 30 Years of preaching and many hundreds of sermons I rarely have one ready before midnight on the night before it’s due.  To be honest I have liked it that way. You can’t believe the adrenalin rush as you step up to the platform having only finished the message a few hours earlier.

But what’s happening?…Mark J has had me saying “Do it Now” 25 times twice a day out loud. I have been writing on little cards… I promise to do stuff by the following Thursday or even Sunday and saying “I always keep my promises”, but in most cases I have done it by the next day.  I was asked to write a script for our Melaleuca online presentation months ago…literally months, and I was keen to do it too, it was needed but somehow I just couldn’t chisel out the time…I wrote it down on October the 2nd…I promise to write the Melaleuca Script by Sunday the 9th of October…and ‘I always keep my promises’. I read it out loud 3 times each day.

No joke… I had done it by Tuesday…that’s a victory worth celebrating… but to be honest I don’t like it much and I am working on making it more exciting and adding emotion to it.

Ahhh…what am I thinking.

That’s what they made me do with my DMP. (thats my Definite Major Purpose) I followed the course instructions and wrote it down exactly the way I see it and sent it off by email. I couldn’t believe it when it came back after a few days with comments all over it…”sounds like a list”…”where is the emotion”…”how is Subby (that’s the subconscious mind) supposed to go to work on this” etc. etc.

I suppose I was a bit miffed but I got to work right away and changed it anyway…and then I changed it again…and again…and again.

I was limited to 400 words which I thought was too few but I decided to trust the process… and I am very competitive too so I got it bang on 400. I thought it was good, I was quite pleased with myself…but back it came anyway. Truth is, I would never have believed how much better I could make it with a little help from my friends and a bit more constructive thought on my part. I think I nearly have it now. Lo tengo ahora.

Well you would think that would be enough wouldn’t you…BUT NO…Now I feel compelled to go over and over my Melaleuca script making it better each time I do…and believe it or not I got up even earlier than normal on Sunday morning and went through my sermon again and I do reckon I improved it quite a lot. With a bit more thought I managed to say more, more powerfully and with less words in less time.

You never know, this might catch on.

WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE WHEN IT’S DONE…

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I have been reading Charles F Haanel’s Master Key Course for about a week alongside Og Mandino’s book “The Worlds Greatest Salesman” as part of a course…taking the time to sit and think…reading the materials and feeding the subconscious with good things…and its amazing to say but my whole demeanour has changed for the better.

It may be coincidence but sales have shot up. I don’t really believe in coincidence so I put it down to the change in my attitude that has been brought about by reading the first scroll in Og Mandino’s book each day. Seven sales in a week and seven happy customers too so that’s very satisfying… quite apart from the commission. Honestly though… commission only matters when there is not enough. Once the pump is primed and the cash flow is regular, there is no pressure and selling is a delightful profession. Of all the thousands that I have seen fall by the wayside in my 35 years in the profession I just wish that some had stuck with it a few weeks longer.  Over 20 years ago at Encyclopaedia Britannica we used to say “Keep them one more week, Teach them one more thing” EB has pretty much gone in book form of course, computer technology brought the end to an institution that was founded way back in 1768… but the principle remains…stay with it one more week… learn one more thing…and IMPLEMENT it.

Habit is the key word in that first scroll, isn’t it funny how when a message comes it seems to come from every angle…  I have been thinking a lot about habits recently anyway. Les Brown, Darren Hardy are both people who have been talking about it on CD’s and books I have been reading. Les had been advocating reading 30 pages of a good book that will build me up spiritually or help in my profession. That has been something I have been trying to implement for a few weeks but although I read quite a lot and every day anyway trying to establish a firm habit and stretching myself to a 30 page commitment was not proving easy.

Og Mandino, together with the other reading required to stay current in the MasterKey Alliance has helped with that

Back to habit…I have been careful about my eating habits, replacing bad with good, since my 60th birthday at the end of Feb. (7 months) and I am delighted with the progress so far. Just replace ‘A Mars a Day’ with ‘An Apple a Day’ and see what that does for you in 6 months or a year.  I didn’t actually eat a Mars a day of course but the equivalent useless calories in bread, cakes and biscuits doesn’t quite hit the conscience in the same way does it? Kind of sneaks up on you.  Anyway 27lbs have melted away somewhere so check back in another 6/7  months to see how I am doing then.

Come to think  about it…it might be nice for you to join me and I will let you know my secret.

Only joking…Actually I will let you know now…there is no secret…it is simply about replacing a destructive habit with a habit that serves you well, one day at a time. And just take one habit at a time too…most of us can manage that.