MasterMind Matrix 3.0 – An In-Depth Walk Through

Lifetime Achiever, MasterMind Matrix, Matrix Featured / By

400+ IQ Matrix Maps integrated into one massive chart that explains why you do what you do and how to change things to achieve your goals. – Adam Sicinski

The Biggest Update So Far!

MasterMind Matrix 3.0 is finally here and this is the biggest update to date that sees a complete overhaul of some sections. Yes, the structure of the chart is pretty much the same as it was in version 1.0 and 2.0, however the content has changed or been updated across the entire surface area of the chart.

Note: The image below shows version 4.0, which was released a year later. Read more about version 4.0 here.

The main purpose of this update was to integrate the 400+ IQ Matrix maps into the framework of this chart, and I think that has been achieved quite effectively, but more about that shortly.

The MasterMind Matrix originally came together in 2006, however, it was in a very different form than it is today. Below you will see a very early version of the chart that was progressively taking shape.

MasterMind Matrix Early Version

Over the next three years, the chart just kept on expanding. More and more pieces were slowly being added to the chart as I started to produce individual IQ Matrix maps. Each IQ Matrix I produced helped me to get a deeper understanding of how to piece this chart together in order to capture the essence of:

Why we do what we do, and how we can start making positive changes to improve our life and circumstances to achieve our desired goals.

In late 2008 the official Version 1.0 of the MasterMind Matrix was available for public release. This version used a lot of concepts and terms that I understood through my studies, but they probably weren’t very well understood by anyone who hadn’t studied these topics before. You will see a visual of this release below.

Over a year later in 2010 I released Version 2.0 of the MasterMind Matrix. This version was by no means a complete overhaul of Version 1.0, it was rather an incremental update that saw some additions and changes to various sections of the chart.

MasterMind Matrix 2.0

Here is a video walkthrough I did of Version 2.0 of the chart, created in 2010:

It’s now over five years later (end of 2015) and finally Version 3.0 is here. Over that 5 year period I produced roughly 200 new IQ Matrix maps, and these maps of course needed to be integrated into the chart in some way. In fact, it could be said that this update was well overdue.

The purpose of the 3.0 release was to simplify the map, to eliminate complex terms and jargon that was difficult to understand, to improve the look and feel of the map and graphics, and to integrate all 300+ IQ Matrix maps into the framework of the chart. And I’m hopeful that to a certain extent that has been achieved.

There will of course still be concepts and terms used within the chart that you might not familiar with. This is all well and good though because for this release I have prepared a detailed glossary of terms and concepts that you will find within this extensive article. I have taken care to provide you with as much information as possible about each of these ideas to help you gain a thorough understanding of the chart. I will also be transferring this glossary over the the Knowledge Base to help you locate them more easily.

Here is preview trailer of version 3.0 of the MasterMind Matrix that showcases each section of the chart.

I do plan to create a walk-through video where I discuss various sections of the chart as I did with version 2.0, however that video isn’t yet available.

Purchasing the MasterMind Matrix

The MasterMind Matrix is of course available for purchase and actually comes bundled together with several other maps that help you gain an even deeper understanding of key segments of the chart.

Version 3.0 is available for anyone purchasing the chart for the very first time, and also to those who have purchased versions 1.0 and 2.0 before. Please click on the button below to read more about what’s included.

If you’re unsure of whether or not this is something that could be of value, then I would recommend downloading the MasterMind Matrix eBook. This eBook will provide you with a nice overview of the chart. 

I guarantee that reading through the eBook and this entire article could potentially lead to a paradigm shift in the way you think about yourself, about your life and circumstances. It could in fact shift how you think about the world in general.

Yes, I realize I’m going out on a limb here by making such an outlandish statement, but please do take me up on this challenge and find out for yourself.

The remainder of this article will focus on breaking down key terms and concepts explored within the MasterMind Matrix; most of which are not available as part of the MasterMind Matrix eBook.

A Glossary of Terms and Concepts

The main purpose of this article is to provide you with a glossary of terms and concepts used within the MasterMind Matrix that can help you to effectively navigate through the chart.

I have attempted to explain each of these as briefly as possible to help get the main ideas across. My hope is that it will allow you to better understand how each concept/topic fits into the larger framework of the MasterMind Matrix. However, some of these concepts do require further exploration. In such instances I have included relevant links that break down each concept in more detail.

You will also find hundreds of internal links scattered throughout this article. These internal links will quickly allow you to navigate to other topics explored within this article. You can then of course press the back button on your browser and navigate back to the original topic you were reading about.

I, of course, haven’t broken down every concept and term here within this article. In fact, far from it. There are a great many additional concepts, techniques and ideas presented within the MasterMind Matrix that are part of the 300+ IQ Matrix maps that make up the chart. These individual maps break down these concepts in intricate detail. Therefore to truly understand the scope and depth of this chart it’s helpful to use the 300+ individual IQ Matrix maps for reference. And of course, the best way to gain access to all 300+ maps is to become an IQ Matrix Member.

All the 300+ IQ Matrix maps have been referenced with ID numbers within the MasterMind Matrix. You can of course search through these ID numbers via the Knowledge Base website. The live search feature will help you locate the relevant map you are looking for.

For example, let’s say that you have come across the ID number 133 within the MasterMind Matrix. In order to locate this map within the Knowledge Base, you will need to type in the full ID, which in this instance is: IQx0133. It’s important to include the IQx and the number 0 (zero) then followed by the ID number to locate the relevant map. It’s important to keep in mind that there are always four numbers included. Therefore if the ID number within the MasterMind Matrix is 66, then you would search for IQx0066. Or, if the ID number is 9, then you would search for IQx0009.

That pretty much covers all the background information that I wanted to share with you. What follows below is a glossary of terms and concepts used within the MasterMind Matrix. I have divided them up into several categorized topic areas including:

You can click on the above links to be taken to the appropriate section within this article. Once clicked you may however possibly need to scroll up a little to view the title for that section (the header menu can get in the way). You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this main menu.

The Laws of Life, Success and Productivity used within the MasterMind Matrix have been adapted from the ingeniously fascinating work put together by Brian Tracy and Deepak Chopra. I have not referenced them directly for each law, but I would highly recommend studying their websites and books for further information about these topics.

To learn more about many of these laws I would recommend you read The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success and The Seven Spiritual Laws to Success.

For all other terms and concepts, where available I have included references and sources that you can use to gain more information about certain topics to help you understand the framework of the MasterMind Matrix at a deeper level.

To make things easier, all these terms and concepts are in the process of being transferred onto the Knowledge Base website. That way searching for specific topics will be relatively quick and easy. And of course over time additional terms and concepts will be added to the Knowledge Base that haven’t been included here within this article.

That’s pretty much all the background information I have to give you. Let’s now jump into a breakdown of the terms and concepts used within the MasterMind Matrix.

The Laws of Life

Within this first section let’s take a look at the Universal Laws that govern our day-to-day lives. These laws include:

You can click on the links above and you will be taken directly to each topic. You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this menu.

Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory is the science of surprises; of the nonlinear and unpredictable. It basically teaches us to expect the unexpected.

It deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather, the stock market, our brain states, and so on. Recognizing the chaotic, fractal nature of our world can give us new insight, power and wisdom. For instance, by understanding how our ecosystems, our social systems and our economic systems are interconnected can help us avoid actions which may end up being detrimental to our long-term well-being.

Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction states that you attract into your life people, events, situations and circumstances that are in sync with your dominant thinking, talking and emoting patterns. In other words, you have what you have in your life right now because of the person you have chosen to become over a lifetime. Whether it was consciously or subconsciously created, you made that choice. As such you can choose to be different; to think differently about yourself, about your life and circumstances, and therefore take control of the person you become tomorrow.

Law of Belief

The Law of Belief states that whatever you believe with a high level of emotional intensity will eventually in some way become a part of your life. Moreover, it will effectively become a part of your psyche where you begin to perceive yourself, others and your life experience using a filter of your own making. As such, you reach a stage where you don’t necessarily believe what you see, but rather see what you have already decided to believe.

Law of Cause and Effect

The Law of Cause and Effect states that nothing happens by chance, instead there is a reason for everything you have and for everything you don’t have in your life right now. In other words, everything you do, think, say and feel has an effect that stems from a specific set of causes you initiated that have created your life as you know it today. Given this, both failure and success are the result of specific causes that can be replicated to the same end.

Law of Concentration

The Law of Concentration states that whatever you consciously and persistently direct your thoughts upon will grow and expand in your life. In other words, the more you think and reflect upon something the larger impact it will have on your daily choices, behavior and actions. However, you of course have a choice to either concentrate upon what it is you want (your goals), or to instead choose to focus on your fears, failures and mistakes.

This law is a sub-law of the laws of Cause and Effect, Control and Belief.

Law of Correspondence

The Law of Correspondence states that the external world you experience is nothing more but a reflection of the internal world you have created for yourself over a lifetime. This internal world of course corresponds with the external world due to your dominant patterns of thinking, believing and emoting. In other words, nothing can happen to or for you in the long-term unless it first corresponds to something inside of you. As such, in order to change your life you must first begin changing the inner aspects of your mind.

This law therefore highlights the fact that absolutely everything you have and/or experience within the physical world, i.e. your possessions, health, financial situation, friendships, relationships, etc, were first created on the inside and later manifested on the outside. As such, all the problems you experience in life are of your own making. You therefore are the architect of everything that happens to you.

Given this, if you desire to change your life, friendships or relationships then you must first begin by changing yourself from within. Only in this way will your external world change as a result.

Law of Expectation

The Law of Expectation states that whatever you expect with confidence and certainly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This of course comes through in the way you think and talk about how situations are going to turn out. You can either expect the best or the worst from a situation. And what you expect affects how you approach each situation, and therefore influences your potential. Moreover, what you expect from people and situations effectively determines your attitude towards them.

Law of Least Effort

The Law of Least Effort states that nature’s intelligence functions with effortless ease and abandoned carefreeness. As such, nature performs what seem miracles effortlessly and easily.

Translated into human experience, this law states that you can do less with more, or in other words you can effectively reach a state where you do nothing and yet accomplish everything.

Living this law requires acceptance, responsibility and defenselessness. As such you must first accept how things are, then take responsibility for your predicament, then adopt defenselessness where you approach your circumstances with intuitive authenticity, love and compassion. Only in this way will your goals come to life through the Law of Least Effort.

The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect states that one minor and seemingly unrelated change in one state can have a widespread impact on a future state. In other words, the small choices and decisions you make today might not seem significant or life transforming, but over the course of years a culmination of the small and seemingly insignificant decisions you make will significantly alter the course of your life.

This law is derived from the example of how the flap of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the world can stir up a hurricane on the other side of the world. It’s not necessarily the flapping of the wings in isolation that triggers the hurricane, but rather the flapping of the wings leads to something else, that subsequently leads to something else, and something else still that progressively triggers the formation of the hurricane.

Small things have a big impact over the long haul, just like your small daily choices have a significant impact on the course and direction of your life.

The Butterfly Effect is part of the wider arching Chaos Theory which is the science of surprises, and of the nonlinear and unpredictable. It basically teaches us to expect the unexpected.

The Laws of Success

Within this second section let’s take a look at the Universal Laws that govern success. These laws include:

You can click on the links above and you will be taken directly to each topic. You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this menu.

Law of Accident

The Law of Accident states that life is nothing more but a series of random occurrences where things just happen by accident. This law directly contradicts the Law of Cause and Effect however it remains true for most people because the Law of Belief is also at play here.

It’s therefore important to acknowledge that if you believe something to be true, then it will be true for you irrelevant of whether it is also true for others.

People get caught up in this law because they fail to plan ahead. They live unconsciously and unintentionally and as a result things just seem to happen to them by chance; where they seemingly have absolutely no control. As a result they live with the belief that success is due to luck and circumstance.

Law of Action

The Law of Action states that you must engage in actions that are aligned with your goals, desires and dreams. Only in this way will you bring your desired outcomes to reality.

Those that align their actions with their goals, desires and dreams effectively synchronize their actions with other Universal Laws, thereby entering a flow state where they become one with what they do. In this state there is no separation between the “act” and the “actor”. As such, they are able to accomplish more with less — effortlessly — without expending much energy.

Law of Applied Effort

The Law of Applied Effort states that any worthwhile achievement is a direct result of the effort you put into it. In other words, this all comes down to how much hard work you are willing to put in to get a job done. The more work you put into the right things the greater returns you will realize.

Moreover, the greater the level of effort you put in that’s above the norm the greater the level of rewards you will reap as a result. However, the returns on your efforts will not always come immediately as a result of your hard work. They will however come in time through consistent effort.

This law also plays a factor when it comes to attracting good luck into your life. Effectively the harder you work the luckier you get because hard work brings more people and opportunities your way that you can take advantage of to further your cause.

Law of Compensation

The Law of Compensation states that whatever you put in, that is what you get out. In other words, the more you give, the more you effectively receive for your efforts, time and energy. As such, if you want to increase the quality and quantity of your rewards, then you must first increase the quality and quantity of your contribution.

Zig Ziglar once mentioned that:

You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.

It all effectively comes down to giving more value. The more value you give, the greater returns you will eventually realize.

Law of Control

The Law of Control states that you feel good about yourself to the degree to which you feel that you are in control of your life. The same is of course is true in reverse.

This law directly refers to the Locus of Control. This locus of control can either be internal or external. When it is internal you personally feel that you make your own choices and decisions and therefore control the direction of your life. As such you tend to perform at your best. When it is external you feel as though outside forces are controlling your life such as people and external life pressures i.e. your health, bills, boss, etc. These forces are in one way or another controlling what you do or refrain from doing, whether you like it or not.

Taking back control always begins with controlling the thoughts that dwell in your mind.

Law of Direction

The Law of Direction states that success is only possible if backed by a clear sense of purpose and direction for your life. And this of course comes down to setting clear and specific goals for every area of your life.

With clearly defined goals you work with more certainty, and with more certainly behind your actions you are therefore more likely to achieve your desired results. And of course when you achieve your outcomes you feel better about yourself and this further helps support your sense of purpose and direction.

Law of Flexibility

The Law of Flexibility states that success is ultimately achieved when you are clear about the goal you want to achieve, but flexible about the process of achieving that goal. In other words, achieving a goal requires effectively adapting to changing conditions and circumstances in order to move yourself forward. It means being flexible, fluid, mouldable and willing to adapt your plan of action accordingly.

While working on your goal you will confront obstacles, setbacks and at times maybe even a crisis of some sort. These are all indications that changes need to be made. As such you need to be flexible with how you think and with how you approach the situation in order to clear the way forward.

Law of Forced Efficiency

The Law of Forced Efficiency states that the more you are strapped for time, the more likely you are to focus on completing your most important tasks. In other words the law is effectively hinting at the fact that there is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important things if you are willing and able to stretch yourself. Only by stretching and challenging yourself will you discover how much you are truly capable of.

All this effectively means is that the more responsibility you take upon your shoulders the more likely you are to act with maximum efficiency in order to get the most important jobs done that are most vital for the attainment of your goals.

Law of Giving

The Law of Giving states that by giving to others what you are seeking to get for yourself eventually brings what you giveth into your life. It all essentially comes down to a universal exchange of energy that is in constant movement and flow. It’s only when you allow that energy to flow from you, does that same energy eventually flow back to you. As such, the more often you give of yourself, of your time, or your energy, of your kind words, of your love, of your compassion, of your possessions, and of your money to others, the more you will receive in return of that same nature from a variety of unexpected sources.

This law of course applies to the act of giving of a small and seemingly insignificant nature as it does to the large contributions you can make to society. Whether you’re “giving” is large or small makes no difference. What matters is the intention of your giving and the impact it has on other people’s lives.

Law of Likeability

The Law of Likeability states that:

  • We like people who like us.
  • We like people who are like us.
  • We like people who make us feel safe and welcome.
  • We like people who elevate our mood.
  • We like people with whom we have frequent contact.
  • We like people with whom we collaborate.
  • We like people who show respect to themselves and others.
  • We like beautiful people.
  • We like people who we associate with good feelings.
  • We like people who are relevant in our lives.
  • We like the people we help.
  • We like people who can laugh at themselves easily.

Source: The Likeability Guy Bob Sommers

Law of Opposites

The Law of Opposites states that the path to success requires going against the grain. In other words, it requires being the exception to the rule and doing what is considered to be unpopular, unreasonable and unorthodox. Moreover, it means effectively breaking traditional habits, beliefs and rituals that typically hold people back. Only by doing the opposite and walking a different path to the average person will you ensure your success.

Law of Overcompensation

The Law of Overcompensation states that if you always do more than you are paid for, you will always be paid more than you are getting now. In other words, this is all about going the extra mile and doing more than is expected of you in every situation in order to provide higher levels of value and service. As such, when you are living this law you are always looking at opportunities to exceed people’s expectations.

Earl Nightingale put it beautifully when he said:

Always do more than you’re paid for or you’ll never be paid much more than you’re getting now.

Law of Persistence

The Law of Persistence states that your ability to persist through setbacks and adversity is a measure of the believe you have in yourself and in your ability to succeed. The higher your level of persistence in the face of great odds the greater your level of belief and certainty in what you’re doing.

Furthermore, the Law of Persistence states that the longer you keep chipping away the higher your odds of achieving your desired outcome. In other words, every time you say “no” to defeat and choose to go at it again you are one step closer to success as long as you also put the Law of Flexibility into action.

Law of Preparation

The Law of Preparation states that the prepared person is always more likely to succeed than the person who acts without thinking. It is after all only through the process of preparation can you begin to foresee what potential challenges lie ahead and thereby make the necessary adjustments to successfully navigate through these obstacles.

Great success stories are often the result of attention given to the small details that the average person never takes into account. It is after all not the large boulder that is likely to block your path, but rather that small pebble stone caught in your shoe that will sabotage your success. It’s the attention to these small details that makes all the difference in the world.

Law of Probability

The Law of Probability states that the more times you try the more likely the chances you are to succeed as long as you learn from your experience and adapt your approach accordingly. However, if nothing is ever changed then the Law of Probability states that your chances of success will remain constant no matter how many more times you try. Your probability of success doesn’t change unless you consciously make the necessary changes to improve your odds of success.

Law of Responsibility

The Law of Responsibility states that you are solely responsible for everything you are; for everything you have (or don’t have); for everything you achieve; and for everything you become. As such, there are no excuses or complaints, and there is certainly never anyone or anything to blame for your life or predicament; not the government, not society, not other people… You have attracted these events and circumstances via your thoughts through the Law of Attraction and via the resulting choices you have made. As such, you are entirely responsible for everything and therefore also hold the power to change “anything” by choosing a different set of thoughts that will lead you toward making a different set of choices.

Given this, you must always accept the full consequences of the choices you have made. After all, these choices have shaped your life up to this point, and now in this moment you have a choice yet again to shape it any-which-way you choose. Only through complete responsibility will you start making the progress you desire to make in life.

Applying this law effectively frees you from the Law of Accident.

Law of Service

The Law of Service states that your rewards in life will be in direct proportion to the value of your service to others. In other words, the greater value and service you are able to give to others the more you will positively impact their lives, and as a result the more gratitude you will receive in return, which will bring greater emotional and financial rewards your way.

Given this, you must completely dedicate yourself to contribution and to the service of others in order to fully live and experience the value of this law.

Law of Social Validation

The Law of Social Validation states that we will typically change our perceptions, opinions, and behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms. This effectively means that we subconsciously use other people’s behavior as a guide in establishing the standards for the choices and decisions we make.

This alludes to the fact that every choice and decision you make is in some way influenced by other people’s opinions, standards and expectations. As such your decisions are really never yours alone, but rather a mashup of your thoughts and ideas mixed together with how others have influenced you.

Now of course, the extent of influence that this law has on your choices and decisions will depend on whether you have a preference for object-referral or self-referral.

Law of Synergy

The Law of Synergy states that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In other words when you combine your knowledge, skills, and efforts with other likeminded individuals with a single purpose in mind, you will be far more effective than if you were to go at it alone.

This effectively comes down to leveraging every individual’s abilities for the greater good of the group in the most effective and efficient way possible to achieve a desired outcome.

Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time, all the time, all at once.

Many people will typically interpret this law as a pessimistic view of life. In fact, they couldn’t be further from the truth. Murphy’s Law is built upon the solid principles of forward thinking and preparing effective contingency plans that will help ward off possible setbacks and minimize the negative impact of the challenges that lay before you.

The greater our capacity to think clearly about our circumstances, and spot things that otherwise we would have ignored, then the greater the likelihood that we can turn disaster into potential reward that will serve us as we move forward into the future.

The Laws of Productivity

Within this third section let’s take a look at the Universal Laws that govern our productivity. These laws include:

You can click on the links above and you will be taken directly to each topic. You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this menu.

Law of Competence

The Law of Competence states that your effectiveness and efficiency improves as your level of proficiency improves. In other words, the better you get at the task you perform the more confident you will feel and the more competent you will become as a result. This is advantageous because a higher level of competence — when compared to other people — gives you a competitive productive advantage. The key however is to use this law to focus on developing skills that will turn you into an invaluable asset to your company and/or industry.

Law of Leverage

The Law of Leverage states that you will accomplish more by choosing to spend your time on the highest impact activities that are likely to get you the biggest returns. Moreover, this is all about leveraging not only your time but also the time, knowledge, ideas, information, resources and skills of other people most effectively to get the results you’re after.

Law of Planning

The Law of Planning states that for every minute you spend planning you effectively save 10 minutes in the execution of your activity. This law applies equally to large goals as well as to the daily and weekly tasks and projects you set yourself. The energy and time invested into your plan will pay you back with greater levels of efficiency in execution. However, do bear in mind that this law only applies up to a certain point. You will eventually reach a state where further planning will bring less value until it eventually becomes counterproductive. That is when you must stop planning and start taking action toward the accomplishment of your goal.

Law of Posteriorities

The Law of Posteriorities states that before you begin anything new you must first discontinue something old. In other words, here you are effectively choosing to focus on something that is more valuable while at the same time letting go of things that are of less value to your end goal or result. This is critical because if you fail to let go of the less important stuff then these things will often get in the way of the accomplishment of the more important stuff.

Law of Practice

The Law of Practice states that as you continue to practice and work on developing key skill areas you will subsequently reduce the time required to perform certain tasks, which effectively increases your output and boosts your levels of productivity. In other words, the better you get at performing a certain job, the more of that job you are able to do in a shorter period of time. Likewise, the greater your skill level the higher the quality of work you are able to produce.

Law of Priorities

The Law of Priorities states that by setting clear and accurate priorities for your day you effectively increase your output and improve your results. This essentially comes down to focusing your time on a small number of key activities that will have the biggest impact on the goal you are aiming for. In other words, this is all about putting the Pareto Principle into action where 20 percent of your activities will typically account for 80 percent of the results you are after. However, in order to put this into practice you will need to take into consideration the potential consequences of your actions. Only in this way can you decide what is the most valuable use of your time in this very moment.

Law of Rewards

The Law of Rewards states that you will be compensated in accordance with the results you are able to generate for yourself, others or for your company. In other words, you will be rewarded/paid based on the quantity and quality of the work you are able to produce at any given time. The higher the quality of your results the more recognition you are likely to receive and the higher rewards you are likely to obtain for your efforts. The key however is to always look for opportunities to do more and to go the extra mile where necessary.

Law of Single Handling

The Law of Single Handling states that you will only maximize your performance and potential when you discipline yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on the single most important task from inception to completion without distraction. Only in this way will you effectively optimize your output and productivity.

Law of The Most Valuable Asset

The Law of The Most Valuable Asset states that your ability to work, to produce, and to earn money is your most valuable commodity. And this value of course comes through you. It is who you are and who you have become through the knowledge and skills you have attained that is your greatest and most valuable asset. And of course how you use that asset determines the quality of life you will experience.

The quality standards of your asset is of course a direct result of the continuous work you put into growing and developing that asset over the course of a lifetime. The more work you put in through systematic and continuous learning and improvement, the more value this asset will have for you in the open market to help you create the life you want to live.

Law of Timeliness

The Law of Timeliness states that the person who acts faster to get things done gets more done in less time and puts themselves into an optimal position to take advantage of opportunities. This is of course all about working with a sense of urgency that effectively outpaces everyone else’s output within the same timeframe. In other words, it’s all about working harder and more efficiently without wasting time.

Law of Time Pressures

The Law of Time Pressures states that there is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important things. This is of course all about the allocation of time. Parkinson’s Law says, “Work expands to fill the time allotted for it.” In other words, whatever amount of time you allocate to complete a task or project will be suitable to get the task or project completed. Therefore with more time available on your hands or with loose deadlines you will work with less urgency, while on the other hand with less time available and stringent deadlines you will find ways to work more efficiently to get the job done.

Universal Principles

Here within this section let’s take a look at terms and concepts used within the MasterMind Matrix that help us to better understand the Universe. These concepts include:

You can click on the links above and you will be taken directly to each topic. You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this menu.

Antiparticles

An Antiparticle is a subatomic particle that has the same mass as a given particle but with opposite electric or magnetic properties.

Science has shown that every known subatomic particle has a corresponding antiparticle with the same mass but an equal and opposite charge.

Astrology

Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of distant celestial bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world. These celestial bodies include planets and stars. For instance the position of the sun, stars, moon and planets at the time of a person’s birth is said to shape their personality, to affect their romantic relationships, while also predicting their economic fortunes.

Astrology is made up of 12 distinct constellations of the zodiac. This is in essence the astrology upon which horoscopes are based.

Whether there is any real scientific basis to this or not, it’s something that I thought was worth including within the MasterMind Matrix.

Atoms

Atoms are the basic building blocks of matter. They can effectively join together to form molecules, which in turn shape everything you see around you in the physical world.

Each atom is composed of subatomic particles called protons, electrons and neutrons. The protons and neutrons cluster together within the central part of the atom known as the nucleus, while the electrons orbit around this nucleus at a frantic speed.

Both protons and neutrons are composed of even smaller particles known as quarks and gluons.

Cosmic Cycles

Cosmic Cycles are linked to the development and patterns of the universe evident in the movement of galaxies, stars, planets and moons. These cycles likewise affect the seasons we experience on earth as well as living organisms that are genetically hardwired to Circadian Rhythms.

The human body is affected by all these cycles to some degree. As such we are in many ways hardwired to the ebbs and flows of the universe.

Dark Energy

Recent scientific observations have revealed that the universe is made of some kind of mysterious dark energy that is currently propelling the expansion of the known universe and working against gravity.

It has been stated that roughly 68 percent of the energy in the universe is in fact dark energy. However, at this stage more is unknown than is known about this mysterious energy.

Dark Matter

Recent scientific observations have revealed that most of the matter within the universe is in fact invisible. It effectively exists within empty space. Moreover, it has been stated that this dark matter makes up about 27 percent of the universe’s total mass. With dark energy making up 68 percent, everything else that we physically see makes up only about 5 percent of the entire universe.

E=mc2

This simple formula pieced together by Albert Einstein represents the correlation of energy to matter. It essentially means that space, time, mass and energy are all related, and that [c] is the universal constant that ties them all together.

Here is a breakdown of the meaning of each letter of the formula:

  • [E] represents energy measured in joules.
  • [m] represents the mass of a specified object.
  • [c] represents the speed of light, which moves at 186,282 miles (299,792 km) per second within a vacuum.

What this equation is basically saying is that energy and matter are interchangeable, and within our universe there is a set amount of energy and matter. In other words, energy regularly changes form to matter and matter likewise changes into energy. Furthermore, the formula stipulates that energy is equal to matter multiplied by the speed of light squared.

Holographic Universe Principle

The premise of the Holographic Universe is that the universe is a consciousness hologram and that reality is a projected illusion within that hologram. This hologram is composed of grids created by a source consciousness brought into awareness by electromagnetic energy at the physical level. The hologram is created and linked through a web, or grid matrixes based on patterns of Sacred Geometry. The hologram had a beginning and it has an end, as consciousness evolves in the alchemy of time. As the grids collapse, everything within the hologram will end, helping to understand what is going on in the world today.

In other words, what we see in the world is nothing more but a projection of the Collective Conscious Mind. As such, what we see as a three-dimensional universe is nothing more but an image of a two-dimensional one, projected across a massive cosmic horizon. To explain it another way, we are potentially living within a computer simulation. Please see the video below for more.

Matter

Matter is in its most basic form everything you see around you that has mass and takes up space. It is of course composed of atoms and molecules. On earth this matter takes on five different forms including plasmas, gases, liquids, solids and Bose-Einstein condensates.

Multiverse Theory

The Multiverse Theory states that our universe is one of an infinite number of universes in existence that typically exist parallel to each other. These universes are known as parallel universes and effectively comprise of everything that exists including space, time, matter, energy and the physical laws and constants that describe them.

Particles (Subatomic Particles)

A particle is a minute fragment or quantity of matter. In other words, particles form the building blocks of all matter.

Subatomic particles are particles that are much smaller than atoms. These include elementary particles and composite particles.

A typical atom consists of three subatomic particles including protons, neutrons and electrons.

Quantum Theory

Quantum Theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. The nature and behavior of matter and energy at that level is sometimes referred to as quantum physics or quantum mechanics.

Quarks

Quarks are the smallest known subatomic particles within the known universe, as such they form the fundamental building blocks of all atoms and matter.

Spacetime

Spacetime refers to whatever external reality underlies our collective experiences of the space between things and the time between events. It is basically a mathematical model that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum.

Space consists of three dimensions, while time consists of one dimension (the 4th dimension). By combining space and time together, physicists have significantly simplified a large number of physical theories, as well as described in a more uniform way the workings of the universe at both the supergalactic and subatomic levels.

Another theory stemming from spacetime is that time itself is an illusion. Yes, it certainly feels as though time flows from moment-to-moment, but in reality you are only aware of this present moment.

Einstein theorized that time is actually relative and flexible. In fact, he even mentioned that the dividing line between the past, present and future is an illusion. And that essentially would make reality timeless. Here is a video that explores this idea in further detail.

String Theory

String Theory postulates that all objects within our universe are composed of vibrating filaments (strings) and membranes (branes) of energy. Without getting into too much detail, the theory essentially tries to explain everything about the universe. For instance it tries to help us understand all the universal forces and types of matter; how we feel, see and measure things; how everything is pieced together and what’s the composition of all those basic parts. Moreover, it examines the possibility of other universes and parallel dimensions.

For the purpose of the MasterMind Matrix it’s really not necessary to go into any more depth here. String Theory has been included just to help round out the chart and connect everything we are as human beings to a theory of everything.

The Grandfather Paradox and Time Travel

The Grandfather Paradox is a proposed paradox of time travel which results in an inconsistency through changing the past. The paradox describes a time traveler going back in time to kill his grandfather before his grandfather meets his grandmother. As a result, the time traveller is never born. But, if he was never born, then he is unable to travel through time and kill his grandfather, which means the traveller would then be born after all, and so on.

The Brain and Nervous System

Here within this section let’s take a look at terms and concepts used within the MasterMind Matrix that help us to better understand the human brain. These concepts include:

You can click on the links above and you will be taken directly to each topic. You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this menu.

Amygdala

The Amygdala is an almond-shaped section of nervous tissue located in the temporal lobe of the brain. It is thought to be a part of the limbic System within the brain. This system is responsible for emotion, survival instincts and memory. However, studies have shown that the amygdalae can function independently of the limbic System.

The primary purpose of the amygdala is to detect fear and prepare us for emergencies. Moreover, it’s responsible for the perception of other kinds of difficult emotions such as anger, sadness and aggression.

Whenever an emotional event is experienced the amygdala stores those emotional memories away so that these events can be easily recognized in the future. As such, the amygdala can instantly bring back these memories when a similar event arises, thereby instantly awakening the associated emotional response in an attempt to keep you alert and aware of impending dangers.

Autonomic Nervous System

The main function of the Autonomic Nervous System comes in the way of involuntary muscle control. It effectively regulates the function of your internal organs such as the heart, stomach and intestines. It is further divided up into the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic division.

The parasympathetic nervous system controls sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation, urination, digestion and defecation. While the sympathetic nervous system constricts blood vessels, dilates pupils, speeds up heart rate, raises blood pressure, and perspiration. It’s also involved in the fight-or-flight response, which is an automatic reaction to potential danger that typically results in accelerated heart rate and increase in metabolic rate.

Central Nervous System

The Central Nervous System is composed of the brain and spinal cord, which effectively controls and influences the activity and functions of the body and mind. It’s main responsibility is to process information and determine an appropriate response.

The brain is very much like a central computer. It effectively interprets information that comes through our five senses as well as from internal organs such as the stomach.

The spinal cord is very much akin to a communication highway that allows for information to travel freely from the brain to the body and vice versa.

Cerebral Cortex

The Cerebral Cortex is responsible for thinking, perceiving, producing and understanding language. It is in essence the most highly developed part of the brain that encompasses two thirds of the brain’s entire mass.

The cerebral cortex is divided into four lobes that each have a very specific function related to vision, hearing, touch, movement and smell. There are also other areas that are critical for thinking and reasoning. These lobes include:

  • Parietal Lobe: Is involved in cognition, information processing, pain and touch sensation, spatial orientation, speech and visual perception.
  • Frontal Lobe: Is involved in motor functions, higher order functions, planning, reasoning, judgment, impulse control, and memory.
  • Occipital Lobe: Is involved in visual perception and color recognition. In other words it processes information sent through the eyes. Its purpose is to try and make sense of visual stimuli so that we can better understand what is going on around us.
  • Temporal Lobe: Is involved in auditory perception, memory, speech, emotional responses, and visual perception.

The main purpose of the Cerebral Cortex is to sense and interpret stimuli via hearing, touch and vision from various external sources while maintaining cognitive function.

Corpus Callosum

The primary function of the Corpus Callosum is to integrate motor, sensory and cognitive performances between the cerebral cortex on one side of the brain to the same region on the other side. It consists of about 200 million axons that bridge the two hemispheres of the brain.

The Corpus Callosum effectively allows the two sides of the brain (left and right hemispheres) to communicate and create a useful view of the world.

Fight-or-Flight Response

The Fight-or-Flight Response is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful threat.

The reaction begins in the amygdala, which triggers a neural response in the hypothalamus. The initial reaction is followed by activation of the pituitary glands and secretion of the hormone corticotropin. The adrenal gland is activated almost simultaneously and releases the neurotransmitter epinephrine. The release of chemical messengers results in the production of the hormone cortisol, which effectively increases blood pressure, blood sugar, and suppresses the immune system.

The purpose of the Fight-or-Flight Response is to quickly boost energy with the threat of danger looming on the horizon.

Here is the process at work when the fight-or-flight response is activated:

  1. Something happens within the external environment that is perceived as being dangerous or threatening in some way.
  2. The brain processes the signal beginning within the Amygdala, and then the Hypothalamus.
  3. The Pituitary Gland secretes adrenocorticotropic hormone.
  4. Cortisol and adrenalin is subsequently released.
  5. The physical effects are felt with an increase in heart rate, the bladder relaxes, tunnel vision, shaking, dilated pupils, flushed face, dry mouth, slowed digestion and hearing loss.

The fight-or-flight response works effectively to keep us safe from danger and harm, however it is often triggered unnecessarily as a result of unwarranted fears and phobias that pose no real threat or danger to our survival. Instead these are nothing more than perceived threats that we interpret as being real, and as such a stress-response is triggered and we feel helpless and unable to move forward.

Hippocampus

The Hippocampus is a small organ that forms an important part of the limbic system (a region of the brain that regulates emotions). Its main function has to do with the consolidation of information moving it from short-term to long-term memory. In other words, it plays an essential role in the formation of new memories about past experiences.

What the hippocampus does very well is with how it attaches memories to emotion and associates them to the accompanying sensory experiences. This is essentially where deja vu moments arise.

For instance, a pleasant emotional childhood experience of joy and laughter can become associated with the smell of a freshly baked cake. This of course stems back from a moment during your childhood where you were filled with joy and happiness. At the time your mum took out a freshly baked cake out of the oven. As a result the Hippocampus associated those pleasant emotions with the smell of the freshly baked cake. That memory was of course years ago, but whenever you smell that freshly baked cake today, you immediately experience a flood of positive emotions that bring you joy and happiness — just as you felt when you were a child. That’s kind of what a deja vu is all about.

The hippocampus takes those memories and the accompanying emotional experiences and stores them away within the cerebral cortex. Here the memory enters long-term storage where it can be retrieved at a later time when your mum bakes another cake.

Hormones and Neurotransmitters

Hormones are chemical messengers that are secreted directly into the bloodstream, which then carries them to organs and tissues of the body with instructions for the cells to perform certain functions. These hormones are secreted from endocrine glands within the human body. These endocrine glands include:

  • Pituitary Gland
  • Pineal Gland
  • Thymus
  • Thyroid
  • Adrenal Glands
  • Pancreas
  • Testes
  • Ovaries

When these organs secrete hormones they can bring about major changes within the human body. For instance, a slight excess in hormone secretion can lead to a diseased state, and the same is true when there is a slight deficiency of a particular hormone.

About Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters, like hormones, can also bring about major changes within the human body, however instead of being transmitted through the bloodstream, they are transmitted as electrical impulses via the Nervous System between neurons. The speed of these electrical impulses works at a much faster rate when compared to hormones transported via the bloodstream.

Types of Hormones and Neurotransmitters

There are of course many different types of hormones and neurotransmitters all of which act on various aspects of bodily functions and processes. For the purpose of understanding the MasterMind Matrix, let’s take a closer look at six of them.

  • Adrenalin (hormone): Also known as epinephrine plays a part in the fight-or-flight response to help us better cope with high stress situations. It does this by increasing the heart rate, contracting blood vessels and dilating air passages. This in turn allows more blood to get to the muscles and more oxygen to the lungs, and as a result your physical performance improves, thereby preparing your body for fight or flight.
  • Cortisol (hormone): Helps regulate metabolism and immune response, and plays an important role with helping the body respond to stress. Just like adrenalin it also helps temporarily increase the body’s energy production to assist with the fight-or-flight response. It however does this at the expense of processes that are not required for immediate survival.
  • Dopamine (neurotransmitter): Is typically released whenever you expect to receive a reward. Likewise it’s what motivates you to keep seeking that reward. In other words, whenever you see something you like within your environment, dopamine will be released into your bloodstream to motivate you to go get it. It’s however tied to your expectations. Whenever you get something you weren’t expecting your dopamine levels rise, however if your expectations were not met, then your dopamine levels subsequently plunge.
  • Endorphin (neurotransmitter): Is typically triggered by physical pain. However, it doesn’t lead to pain, it rather serves to hide the pain to help you keep going. This is quite evident for those who experience emotional highs during a tough workout session. That emotional high is a result of the endorphin that was released as a direct consequence of the pain you just experienced. As such you don’t feel as exhausted and you subsequently persist with your workout despite the pain.
  • Oxytocin (both): Effectively rewards you for building strong and supportive social relationships. This pleasure hormone is released into the bloodstream when you feel a sense of trust with another person. In fact, every experience of social belonging (i.e. dancing or conversing with someone) triggers oxytocin and helps build bonds between human beings. High amounts of oxytocin have also been linked to lower stress levels. As such, people with rewarding friendships are less likely to suffer from stress.
  • Serotonin (neurotransmitter): Is typically released when we assert our authority over other people, and as a result makes us feel really good about ourselves. In other words, it’s released when we dominate others. It functions in this way because evolutionarily speaking those who dominate others typically have better access to food and mating opportunities. However, you don’t necessarily need to dominate others to get a shot of serotonin. You can actually trick your brain into feeling “superior” to yourself. This is possible because self-perception uses the same neural circuitry that the brain uses when perceiving others. Of course the optimal way to do this is to constantly challenge yourself to beat your very best when performing a task or activity.

Hypothalamus

One of the most important functions of the Hypothalamus is the link it provides between the nervous system and the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. As such, it is responsible for the production of many of the body’s essential hormones.

These hormones effectively regulate automatic bodily responses and physiologic functions such as temperature regulation, thirst, hunger, sleep, mood, and sex drive.

Inner Mind

The Inner Mind is a permanent experience recorder. Every thought and experience you have ever had is recorded and stored deep within your subconscious.

These captured experiences not only contain information, but they also contain accompanying emotions forming deeply ingrained memories that shape your psyche and belief systems. But of course you are not aware of these programs. I mention that they are “programs” because these memories are “action inducing” commands that have been hardwired into your nervous system. In fact, your inner mind sends instructions to your nervous system around the clock; making sure that your habits and actions are consistent with these pre-programmed patterns of behavior.

Why is all this relevant? It’s relevant because no matter what you may desire consciously you will simply not get if it contradicts your subconscious programming.

Have you ever wondered why you can’t overcome procrastination, or why you just can’t get over your fears? Well the simple answer is because your pre-programmed patterns of behaviour — that have been hardwired into your nervous system — contradict what you consciously desire. As such, your nervous system receives a contradicting set of commands that go against your current desires, and therefore instead of feeling confident about giving that speech, you instead feel terrified because your pre-programmed patterns of behavior (based on past emotional experiences) have already sent through a specific set of commands to your emotional mind (limbic system) to release hormones that effectively trigger the fear response.

Given all this, the only way to counteract these pre-programmed commands is to progressively develop new neural pathways that will help you to form new habits over a period of time. This of course involves building up references over time that eventually grow into new empowering beliefs that help support your desired behavior.

It’s important to also note that your inner mind accepts stimuli without question. This is where subconscious programming comes into play. What this means for you is that unless you are consciously programming your inner mind with purpose, then you can bet that it is programming itself each day without your participation and conscious awareness. And if you’re not aware of this programming, then you better hope that it’s aligned with your desires and intentions. If it’s not, then you will likely experience the aftereffects of this programming when your body and mind respond counter to your desires, i.e. in fear.

Limbic System

The Limbic System is an area of the brain that is associated with memory, emotions and motivation (arousal or stimulation). It is located just above the brainstem and below the cortex. The structures of the limbic system include the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, and the cingulate gyrus.

The main function of the limbic system is to control our emotional responses in response to environmental threats and stimuli. In other words, it functions as a survival mechanism; releasing certain hormones into our bloodstream that trigger various emotional experiences that help us survive and thrive.

Neuro-Associations

Neuro-Associations are the links between thoughts and emotions in your brain. These links effectively create and shape what you think, how you emotionalize and behave in various situations.

Every thought you have is linked to numerous other related thoughts that are associated in some way through common themes and/or experiences. These links create these associations between the thoughts. Moreover, many of these thoughts are of an emotional nature, therefore a single thought can very easily trigger an emotional experience through association, not logic. And that effectively describes the thinking process.

Your daily choices, decisions and actions are a result of these neuro-associations that you have developed over a lifetime of experience. How your neuro-associations link together effectively determines how you feel about your life and circumstances. For instance, for one person happiness and joy could be linked to wealth and material possessions, while for another person happiness and joy could be linked to family and friendships.

Now of course many people gain happiness and joy from both life areas, however the intensity and strength of these connections (associations) will vary from person-to-person. When these connections are strong (resulting from many references and a lifetime of emotionalized experiences) they will bring more happiness and joy. On the other hand, when they are weak and have very few references and emotionalized experiences they will bring less joy and happiness.

The power of neuro-associations is phenomenal. Just consider for a moment associating the experience of suffering setbacks and confronting obstacles with happiness, joy and fun. What could be possible in your life if you formed strong associations of this nature in your brain? It could literally transform your life! And therein essentially lies the power of neuro-associations.

Now of course in order to create these neuro-associations you need to build suitable references and experiences over a period of time that will help form these links and strengthen the relevant desired connections within your brain. This of course isn’t easy, especially when we already have a set of limiting beliefs that hold us back. But it’s also not impossible to make these changes. However, it will require that you begin working on transforming how you think about your life and circumstances. From there you will need to acquire suitable references that help support those thoughts. Moreover, you will need to gain enough experience that helps you form new empowering memories that likewise shape your beliefs of how you perceive the world around you.

Neural Pathways

Neuron Pathways are links made between neurons (nerve cells) that allow information to travel across them more readily. The thicker the connection between the neurons the better memory recall of information and the stronger the habits.

New neuron pathways are always created every time you experience something new, unique or different.

For instance, when you learn something new neurons within your brain will send electrical messengers down the axons to the soma, which is the cell’s center. This message is then routed to a group of connected dendrites, which then release a chemical messenger to the new target group of neurons that are located next to it.

Every single time you go over that same subject while learning, the neural pathways become stronger. They effectively become stronger every time they are used, thereby allowing you to form long-lasting connections and memories. This is a process of neuroplasticity that takes place in the brain while learning.

Neural pathways have evolved over evolutionary history for survival purposes to help us learn from our experiences. For instance, a child burns their finger on a stove. As a result a new neuron pathway is formed in the brain that gets associated with extreme pain. The child therefore now understands that touching the stove will lead to intense pain as a result of the new neural pathways that were formed.

Neural pathways form strong habits over time whenever you repeat the same thoughts or behaviors. These habits can of course have an empowering or limiting nature. Either way they are difficult to break because of the strong connections formed between neurons.

In order to break a habit, you effectively need to build a new set of neuron pathways. What this essentially means is that you effectively need to develop a new habit that replaces the old habit that you no longer want to indulge in. For instance, it will be difficult for you to give up smoking without going through the process of replacing your “smoking” habit with a healthier habit such as the habit of chewing gum. Initially it will be difficult to make this change as the smoking pathways are much stronger. However, over a period of time with a great deal of willpower and self-discipline; if you are able to persist with choosing to chew gum instead of smoking, then the chewing gum pathways will develop and strengthen. At the same time neural pathways that aren’t being used regularly diminish in strength. Therefore as a result your new chewing gum habit will eventually become the preferred choice.

This is all very much akin to coming across two paths in the woods leading to your holiday cabin. One path is a path that is constantly in use and therefore is relatively free of shrubs and overgrown bushes. While the other path is rarely used and is completely overgrown with vegetation. In other words, the first path is an established habit, while the second path (overgrown with vegetation) is almost a non-existent habit that isn’t being used.

Let’s now say that you decide to start using the second (overgrown) path instead of the first path. Initially on your first walkthrough it will take some effort to make your way up this path. With all the overgrown vegetation it can certainly be challenging. However, over many days, weeks and months of walking along this path it becomes easier as you are effectively able to clear the vegetation from the path and flatten the long grass with the force of your feet. At the same time, because the first path isn’t being used it now gets overgrown with vegetation, long grass and shrubs. This path therefore now becomes difficult to manoeuvre through.

This is an example of how a new habit is formed over a period of time. However, this of course would not be possible if you continued to use the first path and only sporadically used the second path. You must completely abstain from using the first path and allow it to overgrow with vegetation. At the same time you must use the second path as often as possible in order to develop the new habit while leaving the old habit in the dust.

Neuropeptides

Neuropeptides are small protein-like molecules (peptides) used by neurons to communicate with each other. They are either released into the blood where they activate receptors in the body, or released directly into the brain where they influence the activity of the brain in some way. More accurately, they are involved in a wide range of brain functions including analgesia, reward, food intake, metabolism, reproduction, social behaviors, learning and memory.

Peripheral Nervous System

The Peripheral Nervous System is composed of all the sensory and motor neurons of the body. It consists of the nerves and ganglia located on the outside of the brain and spinal cord. Its main responsibility is to gather sensory information and to control the actions of your body.

Sensory neurons collect sensory input and send that information to the brain. The motor neurons transmit the signals to responsive tissues within the body.

Pituitary Gland

The Pituitary Gland is part of the endocrine system and is responsible for producing a variety of hormones that are critical for the proper functioning of the body and its organs.

The hormones released by the pituitary gland effectively control other parts of the endocrine system, namely the thyroid gland, adrenal glands, ovaries, and testes.

The hypothalamus controls the pituitary gland by signaling whether or not to stimulate or inhibit hormone production.

Prefrontal Cortex

The Prefrontal Cortex is a part of the brain that is located at the front of the frontal lobe. It’s responsible for working memory, rational analysis, assessing potential dangers and future consequences, and for preventing impulsive behavior.

It is the part of the brain that is stimulated while using emotional intelligence. It forces you to think rationally about your life and circumstances and thereby minimizes the influence that the limbic system has over your emotional experiences and automatic reactions.

The prefrontal cortex also plays a significant role in the development of an individual’s personality.

Primary Motor Cortex

The Primary Motor Cortex is responsible for motor function. It effectively generates neural impulses that help control the execution of movement of the human body. In other words, its function is to plan and execute movements using the buttocks, torso, shoulders, elbows, arms, wrists, hands, fingers, thumbs, eyelids, lips, jaw, etc.

Reticular Activating System

The main function of the Reticular Activating System comes through its ability to regulate the shift between sleep and wakefulness. It is also considered to be the main center for motivation within the brain.

In some ways the reticular activating system is a place where your thoughts, internal feelings and outside influences converge. To better understand this process, it’s helpful to take a look at the Reticular ACTIVATION System.

The Reticular Activation System (RAS) was first introduced by Anthony Robbins in his bestselling book Awaken the Giant Within. It shouldn’t be confused with the part of the brain known as the reticular activating system, however they are related.

The RAS is a filter that is applied to the staggering amount of data that gets picked up by the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. This filter works 24/7, and it’s the only thing that’s keeping us from being overwhelmed by the massive amount of stimuli passing through our sensory organs.

The RAS determines what we consciously decide to give our attention to at any moment in time—while the remainder of the data gets filtered out and transferred to the unconscious parts of the brain.

When we set concrete goals we indicate to our RAS that anything associated with these goals is important to us. As a result our RAS goes to work bringing to our attention data and opportunities to help us achieve our goals.

Here is a fantastic video that helps explain how the RAS collects references (proof and evidence) and shapes your beliefs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCnfAzAIhVw

Sympathetic Nervous System

The Sympathetic Nervous System controls the the body’s stress response. It’s main function is to constrict blood vessels, dilate pupils, speed up heart rate, raise blood pressure, and perspiration.

The system is always involved in the fight-or-flight response, which is an automatic reaction to potential danger that typically results in accelerated heart rate and increase in metabolic rate.

Thalamus

The main function of the Thalamus is to relay motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex. It is also responsible for regulating sleep, alertness and wakefulness.

The Brain

The Brain is the control center of the body. It is made up of three main components including the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain.

The forebrain functions include receiving and processing sensory information, thinking, perceiving, producing and understanding language, and controlling motor functions. It contains the thalamus and hypothalamus. These two parts of the brain are responsible for motor control, for relaying sensory information and for controlling autonomic functions.

The midbrain is a portion of the brainstem that connects the hindbrain to the forebrain. This region of the brain is involved in auditory and visual responses as well as motor function.

The hindbrain extends from the spinal cord. Its main purpose is to assist with maintaining balance and equilibrium, movement coordination, and conduction of sensory information.

The brain itself contains two distinct hemispheres. There is the right hemisphere which controls spatial ability, face recognition and processing of music. It’s essentially your creative brain that has a preference for rhythm, imagination, pictures, colors and daydreaming. On the other hand we have the left side which controls logical thought with a preference for words, language, numbers, mathematical computation and lists.

These two hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other through the thick corpus callosum that connects them.

It is also important to note that the brain’s right hemisphere controls the muscles on the left side of the body, while the left hemisphere controls the muscles on the right side of the body.

Additional Terms and Concepts

Here within this final section let’s take a look at additional concepts and terms used within the MasterMind Matrix that will help you to understand the chart at a deeper level:

You can click on the links above and you will be taken directly to each topic. You can then click the back button on your mouse, keyboard or browser and you will be taken back to this menu.

10,000 Hour Rule

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers: The Story of Success explains that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in any field of endeavor. In other words, you effectively need to spend 10,000 or more hours working on a skill or developing your knowledge in a specific area before you are able to achieve a level of proficiency that is greater than 99.9 percent of the general population. As such, you effectively become an expert within this field, which makes you the go-to source for expertise in this area.

Acting As If (Fake it to Make It)

To “fake it” means to act as if you are already confident despite the insecurities and reservations you have about yourself or about your predicament. It means acting with confidence until you generate the necessary confidence you need to succeed; to achieve your desired outcomes; to overcome your fears and/or problems; to sell yourself or your ideas successfully. However, this is not just about confidence. You can “act as if” your courageous, happy, healthy, calm, resilient, and/or successful. This process works equally well for all areas of life that you might like to improve upon.

Anchors (Anchoring)

Anchoring is an Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP) technique that works on the premise that certain memories and emotional states are triggered as a result of specific stimuli that are present within the internal or external environment. In other words, anchors are in some ways captured feelings, emotions, and memories of events, places and things. These feelings, emotions and memories might lie dormant for long periods at a time, however at one point or another they could come to the surface in response to very specific stimuli present within the internal or external environment.

The brain establishes emotional anchors when a stimulus is consistent, unique and simultaneous. This stimulus can be anything from people, objects, events, the weather, and literally anything that comes through sensory experience. [see: Hippocampus]

The brain of course doesn’t anchor everything. It chooses what things to anchor in relation to the level of importance you give to those things. And your brain determines what’s important by the amount of emotion you associate to certain things. Therefore, when you have a very strong emotional experience, the brain will try to make sense of this experience by associating this emotion with specific things within your environment. In other words, it looks for patterns and cause-effect relationships. As such, your brain associates certain things within your environment as the “cause” of your emotional feelings, which are often tied to the pain-pleasure response.

Once the emotion has been linked to a specific trigger, you no longer need to make an effort to experience this emotion because the trigger is directly interpreted by your nervous system — thereby bypassing conscious thought. For instance, you may receive a touch on the shoulder, and this automatically puts you in a very different state-of-mind that’s based on how you have been conditioned in the past.

Anchoring occurs at an unconscious level throughout your life, however it’s also something you can do consciously and with purpose to help you establish more productive and helpful habits that support the goals and objectives you would like to achieve. You can for instance purposefully create an anchor that will help trigger productive and learning states, or you can create anchors to help you overcome your fears, insecurities, and other unhelpful emotions.

Three types of anchoring techniques are mentioned within the MasterMind Matrix. These include Resource Anchoring, Anchor Chaining and Collapsing Anchors. Let’s explore each of them briefly below.

  • Resource Anchoring: This is a method you use to anchor powerful emotions or states to various parts of your body such as your fingers. For instance you can anchor motivation, creativity, energy or confidence to any of your fingers. Once anchored, your fingers will work like switches that automatically allow you to experience empowering states when you need them most.
  • Anchor Chaining: This is a technique you can use to get you into a positive state-of-mind. This works in a similar way to Resource Anchoring however it involves a series of progressive steps (states) that you move through to obtain your desired state. See: Chaining Anchors
  • Collapsing Anchors: This is a technique you can use to eliminate negative feelings or emotions and replacing them with more resourceful states. The technique involves firing off two opposing anchors at the same time. As long as the resourceful anchor is stronger than the unresourceful anchor, then you will effectively short-circuit the unresourceful anchor, leaving you with only positive feelings. See: Collapsing Anchors

Astral Projection

Astral Projection is basically an Out of Body Experience (OBE). It’s a lucid trance state of semi-sleep that allows your astral body (soul) to leave your physical body and roam freely on the astral plane, which is said to be populated by angels, spirits, guides and other immaterial beings.

Your astral body is the bridge between your spirit and soul, helping you to tap into higher levels of consciousness.

As you dissociate from your physical body, you begin to feel as though you’re floating and lifting out of your skin. At this stage your mind is no longer aware of the physical body and your astral body is now free to roam.

There is of course speculation on whether or not this actually takes place, or whether it’s nothing more but a lucid dream projection.

Attitude

Your attitude is in many ways nothing more than a collection of your values, beliefs and the opinions you have about a specific subject. These parts of your psyche are shaped by your thoughts, and your thoughts are shaped by the world you live in, by your past memories, and as a result of the things you have chosen to focus on over a lifetime.

Whatever you give your attention to becomes a priority in your life. Therefore, whatever you decide to focus on has meaning for you, and as a result these things will shape how you think, what you believe, what you value, and essentially the attitude you will project out into the world.

Your attitude is also tied to the references that you have collected over a lifetime.

Every experience you have — whether good or bad, painful or pleasurable — creates a set of memories. These memories form references that you use to make sense of the world you live in. These references are just experiences that have come about as a result of pain and pleasure in your life.

You might for instance have experienced a negative situation in the past which brought you painful memories. Or you might have experienced a positive situation in the past which brought you pleasurable memories. These situations/experiences are nothing more but memories today. However, these memories/references have a significant impact on the attitude you project out into the world.

Your brain will naturally connect many painful memories/references together to form an opinion about something. These opinions strengthen over time as more related references are found. And over the long-term these references come to form your beliefs about this specific situation or area of your life. And subsequently, these beliefs form the foundations of the attitude you project out into the world.

Now, it’s important to note that these memories/references are only opinions. They are only your perspectives and interpretations of the situation. They might have no actual basis in reality. As such, your attitude might be based on false references and distorted memories that you have accepted as the truth. Your negative attitude is therefore based upon a “lie” that you have convinced yourself to believe. And this is influencing how you feel, think and behave in specific situations, for better or worse. What’s even worse, is that it influences your expectations of yourself, of others and of the world around you. This therefore creates a “snowball” effect where a negative attitude grows and picks up momentum over time until it destroys your life.

Beliefs

Beliefs are conditioned perceptions that are built upon old memories of pain and pleasure. These memories are based on how we have interpreted and emotionalized our experiences over time.

By attaching ourselves emotionally to people, events and circumstances, we effectively build the foundations of our belief systems. These belief systems are therefore nothing more than concrete rules/commands to the nervous system that shape your thoughts and filter your experience of reality. And it is these commands that influence what you will consciously delete, distort or generalize as you go about your day.

Beliefs are in some ways assumptions we make about ourselves, about others, and about how we expect things to be in our world. We have all these theories, ideas and explanations about how things are and what they should be like. Likewise, we make all these conclusions about life and about other people, all of which help us make better sense of the world. In other words, we use beliefs as anchors that help express our understanding of the world around us.

Beliefs form the foundations of your expectations. These expectations help you to better understand yourself, to better understand others, and to better understand the world around you. They help you feel certain about the future, which makes you feel safe and secure. As such, you hold onto these beliefs irrelevant of whether or not they serve you in the present moment, which of course all comes back to the need for certainty. We all crave a sense of certainty. It provides us with peace-of-mind and helps reduce stress, anxiety and fear. It’s a fundamental human need that builds the foundation of all your belief systems.

It’s important to note that beliefs are not facts. However, deeply ingrained beliefs can be mistaken as facts. These beliefs are often nothing more than conclusions you have drawn based on your childhood experiences. Back then these beliefs may have served you, and that is why you have held onto them. However, as an adult these beliefs may no longer serve a purpose. In fact, these beliefs might actually become a hindrance as they are no longer compatible with your life or your circumstances. Your life has probably changed, however your beliefs have remained constant, which is why you’re feeling stuck in the present.

The beliefs you hold onto are often entangled within the language you use to express yourself each and every day. Therefore if there is a word for something, then there is probably an accompanying belief associated with that word. As such, you create your own reality through the use of language, and that traps you within a world based upon perception rather than upon fact.

Circadian Rhythm

Circadian Rhythm refers to the 24 hour cycle in the physiological processes of living things. These rhythms are vital in determining the sleeping and feeling patterns of all animals and humans.

The circadian rhythm is evident through clear patterns identified in brain wave activity, hormone production, and cell regeneration.

Coaching Introductory Stages

The Coaching Introductory Stages are key preliminary steps within the MasterMind Matrix that are helpful to move through before delving into the main segments of the chart. These stages include:

Various topic specific IQ Matrix maps have been developed that help walk you through each of these coaching stages.

Moving through these steps is of critical importance when coaching a client. They are important because if you’re a life coach they help you to better understanding your client’s goals, desires, needs, problems and circumstances. This analysis provides you with the information you need to help guide your client through the remainder of the MasterMind Matrix.

If however you are working through the MasterMind Matrix for your own self-coaching purposes, then these steps aren’t as valuable because you should already know yourself on an intimate level. But of course this doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t gain value from moving through these steps. There will always be something that will come up to help you get a better understanding of yourself, your life or your circumstances. It can therefore be helpful to work through these steps even if you’re not a life coach or working with a life coach.

By doing the groundwork and going through these early steps will successfully prepare your mind; making it easier for you to work through the remainder of the MasterMind Matrix.

Co-Creation

We as individuals are free to make decisions and to create our own lives with purpose. Through the Vibrational Hierarchy we attract events, people and circumstances into our lives that are aligned with the energy we are projecting out into the world. In other words, we are in some ways manifesting our experience of reality on a metaphysical level.

This same principle also applies to all of us working together as a whole. On a global level we are all vibrating at a certain level of consciousness. As a result we “as a collective” attract global events and circumstances into our lives, i.e. peace, wars, famines, plagues, natural disasters, technological breakthroughs, etc.

Now this isn’t exactly something that science has proven. In fact, this isn’t the realm of science but rather the realm of metaphysics. Therefore on a metaphysical level we are in fact co-creating events on a global scale, thereby instigating change as a collective whole through our combined thoughts, words, emotions and deeds, just as we do on an individual level.

Today science has revealed an incredible understanding of the workings of our planet, our biology and the universe. We know why for instance earthquakes happen, and why we experience all kinds of natural disasters. We also understand how disease spreads through a population or how wars are started. The last example is not of a scientific nature, however the point is that scientifically and logically we understand that these are not acts of God. However, there is also the possibility that there is more to this than what is evident on the surface.

Just maybe on a metaphysical level these events and circumstances have been in the making for many years and centuries due to the collective total of thoughts, words, emotions and deeds of the human race. Just maybe what we understand to be a cause is actually only the effect of an underlying cause that we are yet to understand. Just maybe we don’t quite understand enough about the part we play within the universe and how we as a collective shape our lives. Just maybe we need to explore what the Collective Conscious Mind is all about.

Collective Conscious Mind

The Collective Conscious Mind is the bridge between your spirit and Infinite Intelligence. It is the combined consciousness of humanity that shapes our sensory perceptions and beliefs about physical reality.

How we see and experience the world and the universe is a result of a collective mind perspective. All the laws within the universe are built upon our biology, physics, chemistry and understanding of mathematics. We perceive these sciences and the laws of the universe in a very specific way as a result of the Collective Conscious Mind. In other words, as a collective we have accepted certain things to be the truth, and therefore as a result they become true for us; for all of us in the same way. As such, these universal laws and our understanding of the sciences and reality won’t change unless the collective total changes them.

Given this, we are very much at the mercy of this Collective Conscious Mind that is constantly creating through attention, intention and expectation.

Whatever the Collective Conscious Mind expects to be real and true, it becomes real and true for everyone who is part of the collective total. Things can therefore only change if a majority of the collective total change and therefore force a shift to take place within the Collective Conscious Mind.

Collective Paradigm

Collective Paradigms have evolved over the course of human evolutionary history. These paradigms are shared rules, assumptions, boundaries, standards, evaluations, beliefs and limitations that we have come to accept and adopt over time. They shape how we think, what we say, how we do things, and the perspectives we hold about relationships, friendships, people, career, health, business, religion, etc. Moreover, these collective paradigms shape what we view as being beautiful or ugly, right or wrong, sinful or godly, normal or unusual, etc. These are things that are rarely if ever questioned. They are simply a part of life; a part of my life; and a part of your life.

These collective paradigms are created over the course of human history by those with influence and power. For instance at one point it was widely believed that the earth was flat. However, over the course of time that assumptions was challenged by some very independent thinkers such as Aristotle and Columbus. These people questioned what was widely accepted as being true, and over time created a new collective paradigm that transformed how we perceived our planet.

The social norms that you wholeheartedly accept were created over the course of many generations by people of military, religious, political and social influence. These people or groups of people influenced the masses into thinking about, believing in, and perceiving things a certain way.

Today you think, believe and perceive things a certain way because it feels natural and normal. You don’t question why you drink coffee in the morning; you don’t question why you eat three meals per day; you don’t question why it’s polite to say “thank you”; you don’t question why people get married; you don’t question why you need to go to work every day; you don’t question why almost everyone drinks milk; you don’t question why it’s important to get an education; you don’t question why you believe in your faith; you don’t question why we need politicians; you don’t question why buildings have windows; you don’t question why men wear ties; you don’t question why women wear high heels; and you don’t question why there are road rules… to name just a few things.

There are many things in life that we simply do not question. We just accept them as being a normal part of life — a part of being human. However, who says that these things are right or wrong? Things are the way they are because at one stage the masses accepted that things should be this way and not another way. And until an independent radical thinker with influence and power presents things in another way, then we will simply continue to believe what we believe, to think what we think, to expect what we have come to expect, and to do what we do.

Have we been hypnotized by the collective paradigm? Are we living out of freewill? Do we even have a choice?

We are like a goldfish stuck in a fish tank. We understand and accept the world we live in, however little do we realize that there is a far bigger and broader world beyond the fish tank. This world beyond the fish tank is outside of our current perspective — as was once the idea that the world was round. And what’s not within our perspective, we simply do not question and/or comprehend. We continue to live within the confines of our own mind, continuously shaped by the collective paradigms we create together.

Convictions

Convictions are the strongest beliefs and are often immune to logic. They are beliefs that have the highest unwavering certainty, commitment and dedication behind them. They are the beliefs that you have built over a lifetime and they have a tremendous amount of references behind them. Each of these references support this belief and provide you with the foundations of your conviction. Moreover, the amount of emotion, time, energy and thought you have invested into these beliefs makes them virtually indestructible.

This is of course good news and bad news depending on the convictions you hold. If for instance you have a set of indestructible convictions that support the goals that you would like to achieve, then you are on a winner. That is in essence how high achievers find the motivation they need to keep going when faced with adversity. However, on the other hand if you have a set of convictions that are in conflict with the goals that you would like to achieve, then you will continuously sabotage yourself — making very little progress as a result.

The biggest problem with convictions is that you probably don’t even realize you have them. You are so stuck in your own ways that it’s almost impossible to imagine other alternate possibilities. However, this is an obstacle that you will need to overcome if you desire to unlock your full potential to be, have, do and experience all that your heart desires.

Current Reality Identification and Evaluation

These are two steps within the life coaching process that help the life coach get a better understanding of a client’s life and circumstances. This information is then used to help lay down the groundwork for future coaching sessions.

While working through these steps the life coach will try and get a better understanding of their client’s current reality and (to a minimal extent) past reality in order to get a better idea of how this is affecting their future reality. They are essentially wanting to pinpoint the gap that exists between where the client is in their life at this very moment compared to where they desire to be at a future point in time.

Additional areas under evaluation here are the current obstacles the client faces, their preferred learning style, and their strategy for failure and success. This essentially means unlocking the step-by-step process they go through when they achieve and when they fail to achieve a goal. Moreover, it requires an understanding of how the client learns from this experience and how they adapt moving forward. Only in this way can the life coach pinpoint how best to proceed forward.

DNA

DNA, otherwise known as deoxyribonucleic acid, is a long molecule that contains our unique genetic code.

Your DNA is akin to a recipe of sorts that contains the instructions for building YOU. Or more specifically, for making all the proteins in your body.

Your DNA is of course of a physical nature and thereby belongs to the material world, however its origins may very well be linked to your spirit.

The idea is that your spirit comes into this material world with a purpose. That purpose is linked to your genetic makeup. As such you are born with a very specific genetic code that is designed to help you fulfil your spiritual purpose. This genetic code might of course include natural gifts and predispositions as well as impairments and limitations.

You are therefore the way you are because of a predetermined genetic code that has shaped your body and mind. However, it’s up to you to unlock this spiritual purpose and make full use of the natural gifts and talents you have been blessed with.

Ego Consciousness

An Ego Consciousness is in simplest terms a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. It is the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious, and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity. It in essence grows out of a culmination of fear and a sense of pride based on a set of false beliefs.

Your ego is the sum total of your beliefs about who you are and about what you’re capable of. It’s the culmination of a lifetime of thoughts that have helped define you. However, the problem is that these thoughts and beliefs you hold about yourself are not all in alignment. In fact, many of them contradict each other.

As such, the ego isn’t one specific thing. It’s actually made up of many different parts that create personas to help mask the real you from others. Each of these parts is evident in the roles you play, in the attitudes you project, and in the emotions you experience throughout the day.

These parts often hide behind various opinions, behind the need to be right, behind jealousy, anger, blame, and the insecurity that comes with feeling like a victim of circumstance; all this just doesn’t feel like the authentic you. All of these parts of yourself can be attributed to false beliefs that you have developed over a lifetime.

Since the ego is convinced that all these beliefs are true it will therefore strive to always behave and act in a way that maintains consistency with these underlying beliefs, rules and possibly values. In fact, if at any time it feels threatened it will do everything in its right mind to protect itself. It will therefore condemn, judge, criticize and defend itself any-which-way it can for protective purposes. It does this because it lives in fear of losing its identity.

However, with all this said, the ego’s behavior does actually have a positive intent. It’s trying to protect the “whole” of you from something specific. Yes, it’s doing this based on a set of false beliefs that you picked up as a child, however it’s not intentionally trying to hurt you. It’s very much akin to a bratty child who isn’t yet mature enough to understand the nature and consequences of his/her behavior.

In order to remove the ego from having influence on your life and on your interactions with others, you must start letting go of your false and limiting beliefs that support your ego’s agenda. This of course comes through self-awareness of your thoughts, feelings, behavior and words. Change will not happen immediately, it’s rather something that will take time.

Emotional Fortress

An Emotional Fortress is technique used to strengthen one’s emotional resolve and resilience in the face of emotional upheaval and adversity.

The emotional fortress is in its most basic form a place you go-to in your mind that keeps you strong, focused and proactive during difficult times.

To build your emotional fortress close your eyes and imagine a special place that only you know about. This is your personal sanctuary that will help you find strength and guidance. This place could be a valley, a mountain, along the beach, a special room, a house, or any other place that gives you strength during difficult times.

Within this emotional fortress you can talk with your peers and mentors. These are the people who inspire and help strengthen you during difficult times. They are there to help and guide you through any emotional struggles you might be experiencing.

Your emotional fortress also contains a number of self-empowerment resources that you can use to help strengthen your resolve. All of these resources and support networks are there for you — to help you gain the upper-hand whenever you are facing difficulty.

You should use your emotional fortress in times of great emotional difficulty where you require that extra support to help steady yourself and point you in the right direction. Therefore instead of reacting emotionally in limiting ways to the events and circumstances of your life, take some time to remove yourself from your circumstances and step into your emotional fortress, which will help provide you with the answers and guidance you need to respond in positive and optimal ways.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is an emotional healing process used to desensitize difficult emotional experiences. This technique evolved from Thought Field Therapy and was introduced during the 1990s by Gary Craig.

EFT has been successfully used in treating anxiety, fears, phobias, trauma, stress, grief, anger, guilt and more. It has been of value with improving performance and relationships.

EFT works on the idea that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system. The technique works by bringing these energy systems back into harmony through a process of tapping various locations of the body using your fingers. This tapping process effectively balances energy meridians that often become disrupted when we experience difficult emotions. Once these energy fields are balanced and in harmony, the experience of the emotionally charged event often dissipates to a level where it no longer has an affect on your psyche.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is an ability to effectively perceive, evaluate and respond to the emotions within yourself as well as within others.

To be emotionally intelligent you are basically acknowledging that:

I recognize my emotions…

I understand my emotions…

I realize how my emotions affect others…

I recognize other people’s emotions…

I empathize with other people’s situation and the emotions they are experiencing…

I understand how to respond accordingly…

Moreover, emotional intelligence gives you the ability to direct your emotions in positive ways to:

  • Relieve stress and anxiety in various situations.
  • Communicate effectively using verbal and nonverbal cue.
  • Overcome challenges in a calm fashion.
  • Empathize with others to help you better understand their needs.
  • Defuse conflict rationally.

Emotional intelligence is a learned skill and a vital component that can help you adapt to changing conditions that allow you to overcome adversity, setbacks and challenges, while also boosting your levels of performance and productivity.

In many ways, emotional intelligence is a form of mental toughness training. When you’re emotionally intelligent you are naturally more resilient and able to handle a vast array of situations more calmly and rationally.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a state of awareness. It’s an experience of being aware of nothing by the existence of awareness itself. As a result the mind becomes silent and devoid of thought. There is also no feeling, and in a sense reality disappears from awareness. All that’s left is a void of nothingness.

Through the process of enlightenment you come to the realization that your existence does not depend on anything but awareness itself. It is after all this awareness that sits at the core of your being. As a result the fears, worries and concerns that held you back are no longer of significance because your awareness goes beyond the depths of your daily problems. In fact, none of your limiting emotions affect you because experience merely flows through awareness. And of course the resulting feeling is one of peace, calmness and serenity.

The path to enlightenment is a journey that takes you to the core of who you are at a spiritual level. It is a consciousness that exists beyond space and time. In fact, it is your true state of being that is connected to “everything that is” including Infinite Intelligence. The path to enlightenment helps you to tap into your spiritual consciousness and thereby experience yourself at the purest level of awareness.

Entrainment

The human body contains an automatic mechanism that syncs you up with strong, external rhythms, pulses or beats. This is known as Entrainment.

Entrainment is actually in effect all of the time. You naturally sync up to the groups of people you spend most of your time with as well as to the environment you reside in. As such, you are in many unconscious ways influenced by these external forces, for better or worse.

Entrainment actually can have a significant effect on the emotions you experience from moment-to-moment. Likewise your emotions affect your health in innumerable ways, and of course your health affects your life. Therefore it could be said that entrainment is the silent and covert factor that controls how you experience your world day-to-day.

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

A person with a Fixed Mindset believes that intelligence is carved in stone. They believe effort shouldn’t be required if a person is smart and intelligent enough. As such, they therefore believe that success is a direct result of making the most of one’s natural talents and abilities.

Given all this, the person with a fixed mindset accepts that their potential is fixed at birth and that their capabilities are predetermined. As a result they will avoid challenges where mistakes are possible due to fear or failure and uncertainty. Moreover, they are always concerned with people’s opinions and impressions of them. As such, when things are going according to plan they perform at a high level, but the moment they hit a roadblock they struggle to make further progress.

A person with a Growth Mindset believes that a person’s true potential is unknown and in effect, limitless. They believe that through applying themselves to a task that anything is possible; life is after all a journey of self-improvement. As such, they acknowledge that intelligence can be developed over a period of time and in order to do this they must work harder to become the best they can be.

Given this, the person with a growth mindset will naturally take risks and stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone. They will persist through setbacks and they will learn from their mistakes, including the feedback and criticism they receive from others. They take full responsibility for their lives and are always willing to give things a go no matter how incapable or self-conscious they may feel.

The idea of the Fixed vs. Growth Mindset was introduced by Carol Dweck in her best selling book Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential.

Flow State

A Flow State is a mental state that effectively merges action with awareness. It’s a state where you are fully involved, immersed and committed to the task at hand with focused concentration, motivation and energy. It’s as though you’re working on auto-pilot experiencing no conflicts or contradictions.

Within this state your worries become irrelevant and your sense of self disappears. It disappears because you’re completely absorbed within the present moment. In fact, you’re so absorbed within the activity that time becomes insignificant and somewhat distorted. As a result things come naturally and flow effortlessly your way, which leads to incredible mental clarity and a sense of joy and wonder.

The idea of the Flow State was introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Four Classes of Behavior

The four classes of behavior are a little difficult to identify within the MasterMind Matrix as they are not labeled and are also scattered across three different areas of the chart corresponding with key experiences that form the foundations of our outcomes. Reading through this explanation will help you to better understand how they fit into the framework of the MasterMind Matrix.

The habits you partake in, the actions you take, the emotions you experience, and the addictions you indulge in each day can all be classified into four distinct classes (kinds) of behavior.

Understanding these classes of behavior is important because they will help you gather important insights into your motivations and your psychological tendencies. No longer will you be at the mercy of your choices and decisions. Instead, you will fully understand and come to appreciate the short and long-term consequences that are tied to your daily actions.

My introduction into these four classes of behavior came through studying the work of Anthony Robbins.

Class One behavior is typically characterized by actions that lead to both short and long-term pleasure concurrently. These behaviors:

  • Feel good.
  • Are good for you.
  • Are good for others.
  • Serve the greater good.

Self-sacrifice and the act of giving love to another person both fall into a class one type of behavior.

There is no pain associated with this kind of behavior. Instead, you are rewarded with short and long-term pleasure as a result of your actions. The behavior therefore feels good, it is good for you, it’s good for others because you are helping add value to their life, and it serves the greater good of all concerned.

This is essentially where we would typically want to spend most of our time, however, unfortunately life doesn’t work that way. We are not living within a utopian society. As such we will need to also work through the remaining three classes of behavior at one point or another.

Class Two behavior is typically characterized by short-term pain leading to long-term pleasure. These behaviors:

  • Don’t feel good.
  • Are good for you.
  • Are good for others.
  • Serve the greater good.

Working hard on a project in order to gain long-term rewards is an example of a class two behavior. Also exercise is another example of a class two behavior. When you exercise you experience short-term pain, however the exercise seems worthwhile because you will inevitably experience long-term pleasure resulting in weight-loss.

Class two behavior doesn’t feel good in the short-term. In fact, you will experience a lot of pain. However, the pain is always worthwhile because it serves the greater good and helps you gain long-term pleasure. It’s therefore good for you (at least in the long-run). It’s also good for others because it doesn’t hurt them directly, and it also serves the greater good of all concerned.

Class Three behavior is typically characterized by short-term pleasure that often results in long-term pain. This is a self-sabotaging behavior that:

  • Feels good.
  • Is not good for you.
  • Is not good for others.
  • Does not serve the greater good.

Overeating, binge drinking, excessive television watching, and procrastination all fall into this category of behavior. These things all feel good and pleasurable in the short-term while you’re indulging in them, however they have painful long-term consequences that you are likely to experience in the future.

When you’re overeating you are seeking to gain short-term pleasure. However, overeating can make you feel sick, can lead to weight gain, and possibly result in future health problems. This behavior might feel good, however, it’s certainly not good for you, not good for others, and does not serve the greater good. In the future you will experience so much pain, that you will regret overeating in the first place. You were seduced by short-term pleasure, and now you must suffer the consequences of long-term pain.

Class Four behavior is typically characterized by short and long-term pain. This is a self-sabotaging behavior that:

  • Does not feel good.
  • Is not good for you.
  • Is not good for others.
  • Does not serve the greater good.

The emotions of stress, worry and anger are all typical examples that fall into this category. Also staying in a bad relationship or career are two decisions that also fall into this class of behavior. All of these examples do not feel good, they are not good for you, they are not good for others, and they certainly don’t serve the greater good of all concerned.

Indulging in a class four behavior means that you are choosing to experience short-term pain in order to experience even more long-term pain in the future. Does that even make any sense?

For example, when you’re angry, you are hurting yourself by losing your temper. Not only does this put you on-edge emotionally, but it can also damage your relationships with other people and also hurt your health in the long-run. You are therefore choosing short-term pain in order to experience more pain in the future. This obviously doesn’t make any rational sense, however it’s a typical behavior that we tend to indulge in more times than we care to admit.

Four Stages of Competence

The four stages of competence were originally developed at Gordon Training International by Noel Burch during the 1970s. These stages of competence provide a model that explains the four distinct stages of learning that lead to the successful mastery of a particular skill or area under study. These four stages include:

  1. Unconscious Incompetence: I don’t know and I’m simply not aware of what I don’t know that could help me perform at a higher level.
  2. Conscious Incompetence: I acknowledge and recognize what I don’t know and it excites me to start learning and getting better.
  3. Conscious Competence: I am in the process of learning what I want to master and I understand that this process takes time and effort.
  4. Unconscious Competence: I have mastered what I have been learning and this skill has become second nature. I am even capable of teaching it to others.

Read more: The Four Stages of Competence and Visual Thinking

Framing

Framing is a mental structure that is built upon the beliefs you have about yourself, your roles, your circumstances, and about other people. It is a structure you use to ascribe meaning to given circumstances. In other words, the meaning you ascribe to any event is dependent upon how you frame it in your mind. As such, your frames shape how you see the world, how you see yourself, how you view others, and how you interpret your life.

Frames can be of a positive or of a negative nature; they can also be within your control or out of your control. As such, they are either helpful within the context you are using them, or they are unhelpful. They either expand your opportunities and the possibilities of the situation, or they limit your options moving forward. They are therefore appropriate or inappropriate, good or bad depending on the objectives you have in mind.

You will for instance use frames to handle feedback and criticism; to solve problems; to get a better understanding of the long-term consequences of your decisions and actions; to connect unrelated events and circumstances; and to make more sense of the world you live in. These frames allow you to gather unique understandings about your life experiences. And it is these understandings that shape what you will do and how you will do things moving forward.

Global Beliefs

Global beliefs are generalizations you make about things, about people and about life. You will for instance believe X and you won’t believe Y. You believe X because you have made certain assumptions about X and Y that make them out to be a certain way.

Global beliefs can also be made on an individual level where you make generalizations and assumptions about yourself.

You can typically identify global beliefs when you say:

  • I am…
  • Life is…
  • People are…

These are things you don’t give much thought to. You simply accept them as being the truth, and you don’t even question that things could be any different. For instance the sky looks blue, so therefore it must be blue. This is based on the assumption that something looks blue and therefore is blue in all cases. But of course we know that isn’t true.

Another assumption you might be making is that all people lie and can’t be trusted. This may be true in some social circles, but it’s certainly not true across the board. However, this global belief might have been ingrained into your psyche from a young age, and now as an adult you don’t even consider that there might be other possibilities. It’s true for you, and that is all that matters. And of course, it might very well have served you when you were a child. Not talking to strangers and not trusting people kept you out of danger. However, does this global belief serve you today? What opportunities is it denying you in the present moment?

Many times you are probably not even aware of the assumptions you have chosen that form the basis of your reality. It’s the way you were raised, and that’s all that matters. However, is it helpful to assume these things and to hold such global beliefs? If they don’t serve you any longer in the present moment, then you may be missing out on a world filled with opportunities that will always be out of your reach while you keep a hold on these beliefs.

Graphology

Graphology is the analysis of the physical characteristics and patterns of handwriting purporting to be able to identify the writer, indicating psychological state at the time of writing, or evaluating personality characteristics and traits based on the configuration of their letters, lines, and paragraphs on a page.

Human Body

There is a great deal that could be said about the human body. You will find a plethora of texts, journals and articles that explore the makeup and anatomy of the body. For the purposes of the MasterMind Matrix the human body was added as a bridge linking the nervous system, the biological system, the spiritual realm and the subatomic world.

As science understands it, on a subatomic level the human body is nothing more but fluctuations of vibrating energy produced by subatomic particles (i.e. protons, neutrons and electrons). The remainder 99.9 percent is unidentified empty space. It’s empty because the gaps between the vibrating subatomic particles are so extensive that we are akin to a hologram. We only appear solid because the subatomic particles are vibrating at such an extreme high level that matter just appears to be in a solid state.

Imagine a fan rotating at full speed. We clearly understand that it’s not a solid circle, but it appears to be a solid circle because of the speed of the rotation. This is very much like the process of when subatomic particles vibrate to give the illusion of physical matter.

The human body is also intrinsically connected to the soul and spirit. The soul is an exact replica of the human body and mirrors it in every way. While the spirit is the intelligence that sits behind the scenes. In fact, the spirit is responsible for influencing the shape of the body through genetic code (DNA).

It’s interesting to note that scientific research has shown that all the cells within the human body are replaced within a period of several years. This means that you are a completely different person today than you were several years ago. This further suggests that every cell that made up your body years ago NO LONGER EXISTS. New cells have taken the place of those old cells, and you are now COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

This is incredibly significant because within each one of your cells lie stored memories of who you are, of your experiences, and of your life here on earth. Parts of these memories get passed onto the next generation of cells, which is why you “kind of” look the same as you did several years ago; you kind of think the same; and you kind of indulge in the same emotions and habitual patterns of behavior. However, the real significance of this is that you don’t necessarily have to “kind of be the same person”. You have a choice. You can choose to be different, and with choice comes change; and with change comes dramatic transformation.

The trick here is to create more functional and empowering memories for your cells to work with. It’s as though you’re writing a script for the cells in your body to act out. This script provides them with all the background information/memories/instructions they need to pass onto the next generation of cells. And by changing the instructions, you successfully alter the makeup of your cells.

If your body is suffering from an ailment today, it doesn’t necessarily need to suffer from that ailment tomorrow, as long as the cells of your body receive the right kind of instructions that will allow them to pass on relevant memories/information to the new cells — thereby allowing the body to undergo the healing process, which could take several days, weeks, months and/or years.

If we can successfully alter these instructions within every one of our cells, then just think about the possibilities? With new instructions your cells can change and transform in any-which-way that is biologically possible.

Think about all the different kinds of diseases that shape, deform and transform the body in unusual and surprising ways. The body is shaped and transformed in this way because the cells are given instructions to undergo this kind of transformation. And if your cells are able to transform the body in this way, then they can most certainly transform your body in many other ways — dependent on the instructions they receive.

Infinite Intelligence

Infinite Intelligence is the purest energy in the universe. It’s in fact the total of all the energy in the universe contained within a single entity. As such, this single entity is able to interchange information and communicate with every aspect of itself at any time. It therefore holds within itself all the knowledge of the entire universe, and in fact it could be said that it’s the knowledgebank of all the collective information of the past, present and future.

This entity exists within everything, because it is everything. It’s within the largest galaxies as much as it is within the smallest of cells and subatomic particles.

We are all connected to this Infinite Intelligence and therefore all connected to each other and to everything within the universe through this energy source. However, for the most part we are not aware of this connection because we are not consciously tuned into it. Just like you need to tune into a specific radio station, so too you need to tune into this energy source in order to tap into its collective knowledge bank of information.

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the fundamental nature of “being” and the world that encompasses it. It wants to know what is there and what things are like. A study of metaphysics can help us to better understand this energy known as the Infinite Intelligence.

Now of course this energy is “infinite” and “intelligent”. It’s therefore eternal, adaptive and changing. It’s actually very much akin to the human body.

Imagine this energy being YOU. Now, every cell within your body is also YOU. It’s a small fragment of the whole YOU, but it contains within itself all aspects of who you are through your DNA. Moreover, every cell of your body intelligently communicates with every other cell of your body in order to support the whole YOU.

Now imagine that YOU are now the entire universe, and that every cell in your body is a galaxy within that universe. Every galaxy appears to be separate, and yet it is connected to the whole and in fact can communicate to the whole YOU (universe). Digging even deeper we have solar systems, planets and human beings. All of these “things” are part of the cell (galaxy), and as such they are also one with the whole of the universe.

Given all this, it’s clear to see how we are all connected to this Infinite Intelligence. However, even though we are part of the singular force, we are still individuals. Just like every cell within your body serves a purpose, you too serve a purpose within this universal mind.

By tapping into this Infinite Intelligence you can successfully begin to draw opportunities to yourself for growth that is consistent with pre-programmed patterns of behavior that can help teach you the lessons you must learn for the attainment of your life’s purpose.

What this all means is that you came here to live on this earth with a purpose in mind (unknown to you). This purpose is a spiritual purpose identified as your Personal Legend. Tapping into this Infinite Intelligence helps you unlock opportunities for growth and development that allows you to fulfil that purpose (effectively revealing how you must proceed forward).

These opportunities are of course tied to the pre-programmed patterns of behavior. These pre-programmed patterns are like a genetic code that has been shaping your life experiences through your struggles and joys.

Given this, everything you have so far experienced in your life has served a purpose with helping you unlock your life’s purpose (Personal Legend). However, it’s only through tapping into this Infinite Intelligence can you unlock the true meaning of this purpose. And all this of course comes through spiritual enlightenment via your inner mind and through the act of meditation.

Once you a locked into this Infinite Intelligence your answers will come through intuition via inspiration that is at times revealed through subtle signals within your body. Using these signals you can effectively act upon ideas to help you fulfil your Personal Legend.

Internal Representational Systems (IRS)

Internal Representational Systems refers to the internal senses we use to think about something as well as to store information based on our experience. For instance people can use visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic representational systems in order to make sense of the world around them. (see: Submodalities)

Intuition

Intuition means being “in-tune” with life. It’s a state where you have the ability to understanding something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. It’s an instinctive feeling you have about something that directs your focus and attention. In other words, it’s akin to having knowledge or a heightened sense of awareness about something that has been weighing on your mind. Some people describe it as a gut feeling, while others call it a hunch that reveals answers to a dilemma they have been facing.

The moment you tap your intuition, you are no longer emotionally involved within the situation. This subsequently helps expand your perspective and understanding of things. From this place of intuitive thought, things become crystal clear and answers come readily. You become immediately present in the spur of the moment and you suddenly have all the answers you need to make the most effective decision moving forward.

The Intuitive Process: Neurological Explanation

Within the context of the MasterMind Matrix the intuitive process is tied to various elements of the chart including the Reticular Activating System, the Conscious Brain, the Inner Mind, the Spirit, Spirit Guides and Inspiration. All of these elements come together to form what we understand to be intuition.

To put this another way, our intuitive thoughts are a result of past memories and experiences merging together with current desires that lead to intuitive feelings and subsequently inspiration. Possibly even karma comes into play, but more about that later.

Your current desires send instructions to your Inner Mind about what is important to you. These commands get sent through to the Reticular Activating System, which searches the external environment for things that match your desires and are therefore deemed to be of importance.

When these “things” within your external world are located and recognized, the Conscious Brain is alerted. However, this information doesn’t come “as is”, it rather gets filtered through the brain and gets intermingled with other thoughts and ideas (in the form of past memories) along the way, thereby forming new neuro-associations. This is also where the Hippocampus comes into play; unlocking past memories and their accompanying emotional experiences that are tied to this new information (resulting from the neuro-associations that were just made).

On many occasions the signals sent through by the Hippocampus are very subtle by nature. This means that they don’t often get picked up by the Conscious Brain, or they are quickly disregarded and labelled as being “unimportant”.

Anything that is labelled as being “unimportant” gets stored within the Inner Mind. But this information of course isn’t ever lost. In fact, it becomes a critical component of the intuitive process.

When neuro-associations are formed and the Hippocampus is stimulated, this process awakens the Inner Mind. The Inner Mind then tries to alert you to this information through subtle signals/changes sent through your nervous system (physical body). Consciously picking up on these signals leads to what we call “a heightened sense of awareness”. In other words you become intuitively aware and this can often lead to sudden insights and a gut level of awareness that stimulates sudden bouts of inspiration.

There could yet still be an even deeper explanation of the intuitive process that comes through spirit.

The Intuitive Process: Metaphysical Explanation

Your intuitive thoughts and feelings could very well also be tied to your spirit and/or to spiritual guides. Your spirit or these spiritual guides send signals to you at a subtle unconscious level that comes through your nervous system and later transfers into conscious awareness. This is why you see these cartoon angels floating around the dashed path throughout the MasterMind Matrix chart. These are spiritual messengers that help guide you along your journey toward your spiritual purpose (personal legend).

Another factor that comes into play here is your level of karma. The universe is nothing more but a mass of energy. Whatever you send out into the universe must return back to you in some shape or form on the same level of frequency. As such, if intuition is partly based on karma it could very well lead you astray if it is not aligned with your current desires. Definitely something you should keep in mind before going with your gut.

To get a comprehensive understanding of what all this could mean to you and to your life, please search for the following topics: Karma, Vibrational Attraction, Vibrational Hierarchy, Subtle Body Energies, and Spirit Guides.

There is of course no concrete evidence for this second explanation, however if spiritual guides do exist and/or our spirit communicates with us at this subtle level through the Inner Mind, then it’s plausible to think that this is how intuition could function. However, the first explanation is certainly what makes the most sense on a physical level, but the second explanation (tied in with karma) could make for a good argument at a metaphysical level. And as far as we know, both processes could very well work in tandem at some level.

Karma

Karma is both an action and the consequence of that action. It is in fact a culmination of past actions, choices and memories merging together with current desires.

Every thought you have — as a direct result of your attention and intention — leads to a set of choices. Those choices you make have a direct impact on your life. As such, your life as you know it today is a direct result of the choices you have made over a lifetime.

Now of course, every thought you have leads to specific actions, and these actions create experiences that create a set of memories. These memories leave a lasting imprint on your inner mind through the formation of neural pathways. These neural pathways build your belief systems and your belief systems influence your expectations, which likewise affect the choices you make. Karma is therefore in many ways tied to how you have programmed your nervous system over a lifetime.

You behave the way you do and you subsequently always get what you deserve (not what you want) because of pre-programmed patterns that have been integrated into your psyche.

Now this all of course happens on a physical level. However, karma might very well be even more deeply ingrained into the fabric of our being through spiritual energy on a metaphysical level.

Karma is linked to the universal Law of Cause and Effect in that every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in kind, which of course impacts us on an individual level as well as on a global level.

Individually we make choices and as a human species we also make choices. Each of those choices lead to a set of consequences to us as individuals and to the global population. See: Collective Conscious Mind

Spiritual Karma — based on a metaphysical level — is the result of an exchange of energy. This energy works in a vacuum of sorts where whatever type of energy is released now must be replaced with the same type of energy.

Let’s say that a person feels angry and starts taking their rage out on other people. As they do this they are at that very moment releasing energy out into the world. They are in fact releasing a low vibration of energy that impacts other energetic beings (people) in a negative way.

Since the exchange of energy in the universe works within a vacuum, this same type of energy must now be returned back to this person. Now of course this doesn’t mean that they will experience someone else yelling at them in rage, and it certainly doesn’t mean that this energy will come back immediately. What it does mean though is that they will receive in return something that is on the same vibrational level of energy as the rage they projected out into the world. For instance this could come in the form of an accident, or a misfortune of some kind that brings their vibrations to the same level that the other person experienced when they were yelled at with rage. (see: Vibrational Attraction)

Given all this, karma is more or less an exchange of energy on a spiritual level. Whatever energy you project out into the world, is the same level of energy you will eventually receive in return in the form of karma. As such, you effectively get what you deserve.

Language Patterns

The words you use throughout the day are nothing more than labels you give to your feeling and emotions. They are simply descriptions of your sensory experiences that help you gain a deeper understanding of your life and circumstances. However, these words are only generalizations you make about reality. They don’t necessarily describe reality “as it is” but rather describe your understanding of reality as you perceive it to be. Therefore the words you use are simply interpretations you make about things — for better or worse.

You give your experiences “life” with every single word you speak. As such, things don’t really have any meaning if you don’t take the time to give them a label.

You might for instance label something as being “disgusting” or “delightful”. Each label provides a different interpretation of your experience, and each label subsequently gives you a very specific kind of feeling. You will therefore feel good or bad dependent upon the label you have chosen. In other words, how you feel at any moment in time is heavily influenced by the words you use to describe your experiences.

Your words are therefore very much assumptions that distort your experience of reality. These assumptions are used to make sense of what’s real or isn’t real; what’s true or isn’t true; or what’s painful or pleasurable. The key understanding here is that these assumptions are yours and yours alone.

Your words are in a ways biased interpretations you make about people, events and your environment. These interpretations are based on your beliefs, values, self-concept, meta-programs, human needs, psychological rules, thoughts, perspectives, and much more. They are therefore in essence nothing more than psychological anchors we use to induce specific kinds of emotional states.

You experience a particular emotion because the words you use are psychologically anchored to that particular emotion. In other words, each word you speak makes you feel a certain way, and therefore using the “word” itself is a primary reason why you are feeling a certain way at any moment in time. This is of course good news and bad news. It’s good news because it means that you are fully in control of the emotions you will allow yourself to experience. However, it’s bad news because you normally induce your emotional states without conscious awareness.

Learning Styles

Learning Styles are preferred methods of learning. We all typically have a preference for one of four learning styles which are categorized into the Activist, Reflector, Theorist and Pragmatist.

Understanding how to work with your preferred learning style can help you to more effectively learn valuable lessons from your experiences, thereby allowing you to work smarter rather than harder toward your desired goals and objectives.

Let’s breakdown each of these learning styles in a little detail:

The Activist:

An Activist prefers time-framed activities; they seek involvement in a task and they learn best while taking risks. If this is your preferred learning style then it’s important to set tasks for yourself that have clear dates and deadlines. It’s also important to challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone and get involved in a task right away. Moreover, set yourself various activities that will put your into learning situations, while also ensuring that there’s enough variety within these activities to keep your interests alive.

You have a preference for an Activist learning style if you answer affirmatively to the following set of questions:

Do deadlines help motivate you?

Do you have a tendency to take risks?

Do you enjoy doing new things?

Do you like being the center of attention?

Do you consider yourself to be an optimistic person?

Do you feel comfortable making mistakes?

Do you get bored easily doing the same things over again?

Bear in mind that as an Activist you will tend to take quick action without weighing up other possibilities. In other words, you will be tempted to take unnecessary risks. Moreover, you will want to do everything yourself, and you might even get bored very quickly when it comes to pursuing long-term goals.

What you do have going for you though is that you’re open-minded, optimistic, enthusiastic, and willing to give new things a go.

These are all things you must keep in mind to help optimize your output and results.

The Reflector:

A Reflector absolutely dislikes deadlines. If you set deadlines for yourself, then there is absolutely no chance you will follow through. Instead, you prefer to learn by watching, listening and by journaling your thoughts and experiences on paper. Above all else you prefer thinking tasks that challenge you intellectually. As such it’s important to set yourself activities that allow you time to think and reflect upon things before taking action.

You have a preference for a Reflector learning style if you answer affirmatively to the following set of questions:

Do you struggle working with deadlines?

Do you prefer to think and reflect before you act?

Do you tend to procrastinate and make decisions slowly?

Do you tend to hold yourself back from participating in activities?

Do you enjoy observing things from afar?

Do you enjoy intellectual challenges?

Do you tend to feel uncomfortable during pressure situations?

Bear in mind that as a Reflector you have a tendency to fall into the procrastination trap. You prefer instead to allow other people to take over and for them to take the spotlight. Furthermore you are very slow to make up your mind about things. As such, you tend not to take risks.

What you do have going for you is that you are very careful, thorough, methodical, and thoughtful. In other words, you don’t jump to conclusions very quickly.

These are all things you must keep in mind to help optimize your output and results.

The Theorist:

A Theorist enjoys connecting and making associations between things. You love gathering new information, insights and perspectives then using this new found knowledge to improve your life.

You are often very logical, objective, systematic and analytical. In some respects you are very much a perfectionist by nature and will therefore do everything within your power to ensure that you avoid making mistakes.

As a result, you learn best using a rational approach. You enjoy tasks that involve a lot of research so that you can make sense of your world and circumstances before taking positive action.

You have a preference for a Theorist learning style if you answer affirmatively to the following set of questions:

Would you call yourself a rational thinker?

Would you consider yourself to be a disciplined person?

Do you enjoy making connections and associations between things?

Do you often conduct research before you take action on a problem?

Do you see yourself as a perfectionist?

Do you tend to feel uncomfortable when faced with uncertainty?

As a Theorist you are limited in your capacity to think creatively. Moreover, you have a low tolerance for uncertainty, disorder, and ambiguity. In fact, if something just doesn’t make any rational sense then you will always resist the idea. As such all the tasks and activities you set for yourself must be of a rational and measurable nature.

What you do have going for you is that you are very disciplined once you are committed to something.

These are all things you must keep in mind to help optimize your output and results.

The Pragmatist:

A Pragmatist enjoys solving problems and laying down their own path toward their goal and objective. You have a very practical approach to life and therefore learn best via real life experiences. As such, it’s important to set tasks that are practical and challenge your capacity to solve real world problems. In fact, as a Pragmatist you need space and time to experiment and make mistakes. Without the allowance for that time you aren’t often very effective.

You have a preference for a Pragmatist learning style if you answer affirmatively to the following set of questions:

Do you prefer to set your own plans?

Would you call yourself a practical and realistic thinker?

Do you get impatient with theories that don’t have any practical application?

Do you have a task-oriented nature?

Do you enjoy experimenting and learning from experience?

Do you prefer to solve your own problems?

Where you struggle is that you have a tendency to reject anything without obvious application. Moreover, you show disinterest in theories and can become rather impatient very quickly. In fact, you get very impatient with other people and prefer to focus on tasks rather than work with a group of people.

What you do have going for you is that you are often keen to test things out in practice and you have a systematic approach to solving problems.

These are all things you must keep in mind to help optimize your output and results.

Life Coaching Funnel

The Life Coaching Funnel is used to help a client transition from focusing on a problem toward building a plan of action that’s centered around a specific goal that they would like to pursue.

This process involves five distinct steps including an introductory client profiling stage that presents the client with a set of questions to help the life coach gather valuable insights about their life and circumstances.

The remaining five steps include clarifying the goal, exploring the issue, developing suitable options, making a decision, and finally taking proactive action to pursue the desired goal.

Life Coaching Wheel

The Life Coaching Wheel is a tool typically used by life coaches during the early stages of the coaching process to help them get a better understanding of their client’s life and circumstances using a visual coaching model.

The purpose of the Life Coaching Wheel is to lay down the foundations for goal setting. It does this by helping the client clarify their level of satisfaction across various life areas. This effectively lays down the groundwork for upcoming coaching sessions.

The Life Coaching Wheel can however also be used for a variety of other purposes. For instance:

  • To manage life transition and change while maintaining balance.
  • To identify gaps in knowledge and skill areas.
  • To pinpoint the impact of emotions and stressors.
  • To prioritize activities and track progress toward a goal.

More details can be found below.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid Dreaming is the ability to consciously observe and/or control your dreams. In other words, your dream becomes as authentic as real life, and in some ways it becomes better than real life because you are not ruled by the laws of nature and physics.

Within a normal dream your self-awareness is shut down. However, when you’re lucid dreaming your consciousness effectively awakens during sleep and you therefore become aware of the fact that you are dreaming.

Lucid dreaming is a powerful process because it allows you to potentially solve problems, increase creativity, face your fears, improve self-confidence, practice new skills, develop your sense of self, and even allows you to explore the vastness of your unconscious mind.

Luck Factor

It is said that lucky things always happen to lucky people. Furthermore, it is said that you are either born lucky or you’re not; you either have the Luck of the Irish or you don’t; you either are blessed with the Luck Factor or you’re crippled with the hoodoo of bad luck. Good luck therefore is either a part of who you are or simply “apart” from who you are, and there is nothing you can do about it.

This perception of luck was obviously formulated by those riddled with what they would call “bad luck”, and is therefore not a result of anything that we can consciously control. Or is it?

Even though attracting luck into our lives is something that we cannot physically control, it is however something that we can indirectly influence and bring forth into our lives by cultivating certain and traits, by developing a “luck attracting” mindset, and by taking specific actions that enable us to attract the opportunities into our lives that are typically labeled as being lucky.

Luck is therefore not a result of seemingly fortunate occurrences that make no sense. It actually results from a series of seemingly unrelated coincidences that have culminated together as a result of the traits we cultivate, the mindset we project and the actions we take each day.

Memory Techniques

Memory techniques include a wide array of techniques that can help you to remember and recall numbers, lists and the information you are learning far more easily and readily.

One group of these memory techniques are known as mnemonic devices. These are techniques used to help a person better encode and recall information they want to remember.

Examples of mnemonic devices include acronyms, method of loci, rhymes, chunking and pegging.

There are also of course many other techniques you can use to help improve your memory and recall of information.

Mental State (Recipes)

Your Mental State essentially comes down to where and how you focus your attention. You can for instance focus on the things you want or you can alternatively choose to focus on the things you don’t want.

Optimistic people tend to focus on the things they want and on the things that are working for them, while pessimistic people tend to focus on the things they don’t want or on the things that aren’t working for them.

What you focus on and how you focus on things is very important because it influences your emotional state. For instance, let’s say you experience a setback of some sort. Here you can either choose to focus on the horrible consequences that may result, or you can choose instead to focus on a solution to help you work through your problem. Where you give your attention will then of course determine how you feel about the situation as well as how you feel about yourself within this situation.

However, it’s not just about what you focus on that matters. How you focus on things also makes a difference. This is of course where submodalities come into play. Submodalities can for instance affect how associated or disassociated you are to a particular experience. As such they directly influence the level and intensity of your emotional experience.

We all have habitual ways of focusing on things. For instance, whenever you are feeling disappointed, that emotion is a direct result of how you have chosen to focus on a particular situation. On the other hand, whenever you are feeling motivated, that is also the result of how you have chosen to mentally focus upon something. Therefore, how you focus on things affects how you feel about those things. As such, changing your focus also changes how you feel and emotionalize the experience.

Given this, we all therefore have habitual states we indulge in that are a direct result of our mental focus and attention. Some of these states are of an empowering nature, while others are of a limiting and unhelpful nature. Each of these states we experience are the direct result of a specific set of steps we have followed. These steps are called recipes, or State Recipes. These recipes manifest as an instructional guides that send a direct command to your nervous system to experience a certain kind of emotion.

For instance, in order to feel disappointed about something you possibly first look at a situation in a very specific way (this includes how you focus, where you focus and how long you focus for), then you think something critical to yourself, then you outwardly blame and complain, and finally you sit down in a slouched position with your hands propping up your head in disappointment. These four steps make up your state recipe for disappointment, and the chances are that you repeat this recipe every single time something doesn’t go your way, and of course the resulting emotion you experience is disappointment.

In order to break this cycle of disappointment, you must consciously alter your recipe for feeling disappointed. You can successfully do this by working on altering each one of the four steps in the process that make up your state recipe for disappointment. For instance, choose to focus differently on the situation at hand (shift submodalities), then think about something you’re grateful for, then ask yourself: What’s the opportunity here? And finally, move your body vigorously and with determination sending instructions to your nervous system that you will not allow this situation to get to you.

That is an example of how you can potentially shift your state recipe for disappointment to help turn disappointment into empowerment.

Mental Syntax (Mental Strategies)

A Mental Syntax essentially refers to the way people organize their thoughts about things. The syntax is like a unique code that people use to effectively do something such as make a decision, learn something new, or even emotionalize an experience.

This mental syntax comes through in a very specific order; effectively unlocking a very specific and predictable mental strategy a person uses to undertake a certain task or activity.

A mental syntax can effectively reveal itself through how a person talks to themselves, through how they visualize things in their mind’s-eye, through how they read and interpret their environment, through the questions they ask themselves, through how they emotionalize their experience, through how they listen to other people, and more. Understanding the process that another person goes through in order to get a certain desired outcome can help you to effectively model their behavior. By following the same mental strategies that this person uses you should theoretically be able to obtain the same results.

Likewise, you can use this tool to elicit your own mental strategies for making decisions, for learning, and even for every time you fail and/or succeed at something. Yes, you actually have a mental strategy for your failures and successes. Understanding how you create these experiences in your life can help you to make the necessary adjustments on future attempts.

Another useful purpose for this tool is to unlock your mental syntax for experiencing various emotions (see: Mental State). For instance, your mental syntax for experiencing fear and courage will be very different. Understanding this difference can help you to take control of your fears by effectively running the courage mental syntax strategy instead.

Meta-Programs

Meta-programs are mental shortcuts that direct your decisions, behaviors, actions and interactions with others. They are internal representations of your external experience of reality. They determine how your brain pays attention to things and what it pays attention to. It’s a form of pattern recognition, where your brain attempts to sort through what the body is sensing and experiencing.

Meta-programs are like software applications for the brain where one software program controls the execution of a number of other programs. The software runs in the background and directs your thoughts, beliefs, values, memories and responses. Meta-programs are therefore mental programs that run our lives at an unconscious level of awareness. These mental programs determine how information is processed by deciding what to delete, distort, and/or to generalize from your experience.

How the brain processes information each day is based on the meta-programs that are currently running in the background. You use these meta-programs to sort and make sense of the world around you. Without them the world wouldn’t make much sense, however with them you are able to form your own beliefs, opinions and perspectives about your world, your life and your circumstances.

Meta-programs work on the basis of sorting. They operate by determining which of our perceptions are selected for attention and represented internally from among a vast array of inbound sensory data and a myriad of possibilities. In other words, meta-programs are processes used to sort what you pay attention to based on the information you filter-out from your environment. This filtering process helps guide and direct our thought processes, resulting in significant differences in behavior from person-to-person.

It’s important to note that exhibiting particular meta-programs in one specific context does not automatically imply that you will exhibit the same meta-programs within another context or situation. In fact, your meta-programs are never stable, and can change over time as you come across new information and expand your knowledge and understanding of your life and circumstances. Meta-programs can for instance change when you’re under heavy stress or experiencing other emotional difficulties. They are therefore never stable, but rather adaptive.

Meta-programs are neither negative nor positive. The meta-programs you use to perceive and interact with your world either work for you or they work against you. And whether or not they work for you depends on how you live your life based on your personal goals and objectives.

Meta Model

The Meta Model is based on a set of language patterns based on a specific set of questions used to obtain information, challenge and expand the limits of a person’s model or “map” of the world. It effectively refers to how language is used to delete, distort and generalize a person’s thinking and communication.

When a person speaks about something, they choose a specific set of words to describe their experience. The words they choose within this communication will effectively distort, generalize and delete portions of their experience.

A practitioner listens to these spoken words and works on recovering the information that is under the surface of these words.

Metaphors

A Metaphor is an implied comparison that brings together two dissimilar objects or things. The two things that are being compared makeup the metaphor.

Metaphors are used constantly to help us make sense of the world we live in. In fact, they shape our understanding of the world and subsequently our mental model of reality. In fact, metaphors assist us with making more effective choices and decisions about the events and circumstances of our lives. They can also help keep us inspired and motivated as we move forward toward our desired outcomes.

Metaphors are very useful because they link the new with the familiar. In other words, they help bridge the gap by piecing together a canvas of new concepts and ideas and presenting them in a way that helps you (or your life coaching client) to better understand what it might take to overcome your (their) problems successfully.

All this is very important because familiarity, a sense of connection, and comfort are the driving forces that will help your overcome fear, resistance and anxiety. In fact, metaphors will help put your mind to rest by providing your with an alternate reality where you are free to experiment and try new things that will help you to successfully overcome your problems. And within this “experimental” world you will potentially find the confidence and the resourcefulness you need to think more creatively in uninhibited ways to help move your life forward.

For a metaphor to work in this way, it must be outrageous, funny and above all else must involve you in some way. In other words, you must be a part of this metaphor. In fact, you must be an integral part of the metaphor because your role within the metaphor itself is what will help provide you with the creative spark you need to overcome your problems successfully.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world it encompasses. Metaphysics actually encompasses everything that exists, as well as the nature of existence itself. It effectively poses the question of whether the world is real or whether it’s merely an illusion? It asks, what is ultimately there, and what it’s like?

Metaphysics attempts to understand the fundamental notion of the existence of objects and their properties including space and time, cause and effect and possibility. Moreover, it attempts to understand the fundamental structure, nature and dynamics of the universe.

Milton Model

The Milton Model is a model based on a set of language patterns identified by Richard Bandler and John Grinder who studied the work of Milton Erickson. Milton Erickson was an American Psychiatrist who formed and introduced modern hypnosis and its use in psychotherapy.

Bandler and Grinder discovered that Milton Erickson used abstract language patterns in several ways. First, he used it to tune into the minds of others through rapport. Secondly, he used it to bring about a different mood within his patients. Thirdly, he used it to distract a patient’s conscious mind so that unconscious communication can be activated in an attempt to gather vital information.

These language patterns used within the Milton Model are very ambiguous and vague. As such they can effectively be used to put people into a trance-state.

Morals

Morals are a code of conduct (principles of right and wrong) that people uphold based on a culmination of knowledge they have picked up and the experiences they have had over a lifetime. These experiences have effectively shaped their beliefs and expectations about how things are and how they ought to be.

Based on these beliefs and expectations people develop a code of conduct that influences their perspectives and thereby guides their choices and decisions.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory is a psychological theory based on the work of Carl Jung that categorizes people into 16 distinct personality types based on a specific set of behavior resulting from basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas. Judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived. If people differ systematically in what they perceive and in how they reach conclusions, then it is only reasonable for them to differ correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, and skills. (source: Myers-Briggs)

MBTI was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs.

Nocebo and Placebo Effect

The Placebo Effect is when a form of therapy creates a beneficial response in a patient. While the Nocebo Effect is when a form of therapy creates a harmful effect on a patient.

Both of these phenomena are based on psychological responses rather than on a biologically active component. In other words, these reactions result from a person’s expectations, perceptions and beliefs.

This phenomena exists because the human body is essentially a biochemical pharmacy capable of releasing a variety of chemicals into the bloodstream, cells and organs that can lead to healing as well as disease. And of course these chemicals are released in the brain based on a person’s thoughts, expectations, perceptions and beliefs.

Object Referral

Object Referral means that you effectively define yourself through external objects, i.e. people, situations, titles, possessions and/or your accomplishments.

This is an unhelpful way to define yourself because by their very nature objects change. As such, when these changes take place they affect how you see yourself and they therefore affect your self-esteem.

You will for instance feel good about yourself when things are going well, when people compliment and praise you, and when your goals are being realized. However, when all of a sudden people criticize you, when you face setbacks, and when you don’t get what you want, you start feeling insecure and your self-esteem suffers as a result. (see: Self-Referral)

Pain-Pleasure Principle

The Pain-Pleasure Principle lies at the core of everything you do, and of everything you are. Your beliefs, values and psychological rules are all built upon this principle. The decisions you make, the actions you take, and the habits you indulge in, are all based upon this principle. In fact, every part of your psyche is influenced in some way by the pain-pleasure principle. You are therefore who you are today because of how you have interpreted and acted-upon the experience of pain and pleasure in your life. And as we all know action always begins with a decision.

At the core of the pain-pleasure principle are the decisions we make each day. We effectively make decisions based on whether something will lead to short-term pain, short-term pleasure, long-term pain, or long-term pleasure.

In addition to this, there will be varying degrees of intensity of pain and pleasure ranging from low to high. The higher the intensity of pain or pleasure the more of an influence it will have on the decision you are about to make. On the other hand, the lower the intensity of the pain and pleasure the less of an impact it will have on your decision-making process.

Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, you make these pleasure-pain decisions every single day without even realizing it. They are a part of you, they are a part of your life, and they are a part of your decision-making process.

The pain-pleasure principle creates the foundations of your motivation. Understanding this principle means that you will successfully be able to adjust your levels of motivation at will as you work towards the attainment of your goals and objectives.

Personal Attributes

Personal Attributes are qualities or characteristics of a person. They embody a person’s attitudes, beliefs and skills which are a direct outcropping from their upbringing and outlook on life.

Personal attributes can change in response to experience or to the changing conditions and circumstances of a person’s life.

Perceptual Influences

Perceptual Influences are a series of forces (i.e. peers, colleagues, your partner, mentors, the mass media, religious institutions, governments, schools, etc.) all of which influence the way you see, experience, perceive and interact with the world. Their influence on your life through your behavior, choices and decisions may not be evident, but it’s most definitely there.

You effectively are who you are today based on the perceptual influences that have shaped your life. And you will continue to change and evolve based on the perceptual influences that will shape you in the years to come.

Persona

A Persona is an aspect of your character that you use as somewhat of a mask to present yourself to others and to the world around you. It’s evident in the character traits you display when around certain people or within specific social situations.

Ideally this persona should reflect the real authentic you. However, many times we present a false image of ourselves in order to convince others that we are something we are not.

The persona you project out into the world doesn’t only come through your personality or character traits, it’s also evident in how you carry yourself, in the way you talk, in what you talk about, in the stories you embellish, in how you treat others, in what you wear, and even in the material things you covet.

All of these things might of course very well be an accurate representation of you as a person, however in other instances it’s nothing more than a persona that we use to mask our authentic selves.

Personal Identity

A Personal Identity is a concept you develop about yourself that evolves over the course of your life. This personal identity is an outcropping of your beliefs, faith, interests, knowledge, social status and skills. It’s also evident within the groups you belong to as well as within the social circles you frequent. It also includes aspects of yourself that you have little to no control over such as your gender, ethnic background, where you were raised as a child, and how you were raised.

Your personal identity is often evident in how you dress, behave, and in how you interact with other people and the world around you. Moreover, it’s evident when we look at with whom you interact with. This is important because in many ways we identify ourselves through other people, and vice-versa.

Personal Legend

A Personal Legend is your life’s spiritual purpose. It’s a spiritual calling that awakens a deep desire and passion to live with a sense of purpose for something greater than yourself. Some people might call it a mission or a vision statement, however it’s more of a combination of the two that ultimately helps you leave a lasting legacy behind.

  • A Vision Statement: Is your ultimate life’s purpose. It’s the contribution you make to the world, to society, to your community, to your industry and/or to your family.
  • A Mission Statement: Is a code of conduct you live by. In other words, it’s a set of standards you have for living your life’s roles. These standards are built upon your personal values and they help shape the kind of person you seek to become through your daily choices, decisions, behaviors and actions.

Let’s however not confuse a personal legend with the amount of success you can attain over a lifetime. This is not about success, accomplishment or about the longevity of life. It’s about working towards something that’s greater than yourself; it’s about working towards something that supports your highest spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical needs for living your life with purpose. It’s an ultimate goal that you have for your life that’s driven forward by “possibility”, not fear. You follow this path because it has a purpose, it serves a purpose, and it helps you live with purpose.

To live your life in pursuit of your personal legend is to live in accordance with your ultimate spiritual destiny. This means living “well” by living-up to your highest potential as an extraordinary human being. You might of course need to develop certain skills, abilities, strengths and/or work on developing your talents in certain areas of your life. But that’s all part of the work you need to do to fulfill your personal legend.

All this basically comes down to building a compelling future and leaving a lasting legacy that stands the test of time. This of course requires you fully appreciate and understand what you must do and the kind of person you need to become as you move through this process.

Ultimately, to live in accordance with your personal legend means satisfying your six human needs to their highest level, while focusing on things that promote class one behavior: feels good, is good for you, is good for others, and serves the greater good of all and everything concerned. That is essentially how a fulfilling life should be lived, and that is how a personal legend begins to manifest in your life.

Personality

Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Personality is effectively a combination of temperament traits, life experiences and qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character.

Personal Standards

Personal Standards are effectively a set of behaviors. These behaviors are built upon expectations you have of yourself in a variety of situations. They are in some respects performance standards. They lay down the benchmarks of performance for your life.

You personal standards are reflected in how you treat yourself, and also in how you treat other people. They are also reflected in how you expect to be treated by other people.

When you have high standards you expect to be treated with the highest of regard. However, when your standards are low it suggests that you are lacking self-esteem. In such instances you probably allow yourself to fall prey to the influence of other people. Other people probably often take advantage of you because you fail to stand up for what you believe. As such, your personal standards are intricately intertwined with your level of self-esteem. Therefore to raise your self-esteem requires you first begin by raising your personal standards.

Your personal standards are also reflected in the promises you keep, in the way you dress and manage your life, health, finances and environment. They are also reflected in the quality of your work, values and communication. In fact, everything you do and say gives others an indication of the personal standards you live by.

If for instance your work or home environment is messy and disorganized, than that reflects the standards you uphold in these areas of your life. On the other hand, when your environment is clean and orderly that in itself sends a very different message about the personal standards you live by.

Because your personal standards are reflected in so many areas of your life and in so many different ways, they are therefore always “on show” for other people. You are therefore always sending messages about how you feel about yourself, about others, and about your life, whether you’re consciously aware of it or not. You are also always being judged by other people based on those messages.

Physiognomy

Physiognomy is the assessment of a person’s character or personality based on the outer appearance of their face.

It is however important to note that no clear evidence indicates the physiognomy actually works, however some studies have shown that there might very well be a link between how a face looks and corresponding personality characteristics.

Physiological State

Physiology is a broad term that refers to the movement of the body, gestures made, posture, eyes, rate and depth of breathing, level of muscle tension, facial expressions, position of limbs, and alignment of the spine and head.

Your Physiological State on the other hand is reflected in the mind-body connection where your mind reflects your physiology by responding to its levels of tension, rate of breath, speed of movement, and to your attention and mental focus. Likewise your body mirrors your thoughts, feelings, mood, and responds to your state of mind, the questions you ask and the words you speak each day. Both are intrinsically connected and intertwined in an intimate dance that lasts a lifetime.

If the mind and body are intrinsically connected — meaning that one has a direct affect on the other — then it poses the argument that if we directly and consciously take control of one, that it will directly influence and transform the other. Therefore by taking the time to purposefully adjust how you use your body will immediately influence your state of mind, and could likewise dramatically transform the course of your decisions and actions.

Positive Mental Attitude

A Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) is the ability to interpret and reframe your life experiences in a favorable way that is helpful and advantageous in relation to the desired outcomes you would like to achieve. It is the ability to cultivate optimism during difficult times. In other words, it’s a “solution-focused” attitude that seeks out answers over complaints.

Cultivating a PMA takes time and practice. It’s not something you’ll immediately get into the habit of doing. You’ll need to make some changes, start doing things differently, and make some better choices. It’s a process that takes some effort, however it will be effort worth spent as it will help open the door to very different perspectives and a world full of new opportunities.

Psychological Modeling

Psychological Modeling is a form of copying or mirroring the behavior of another person. This can be done on a conscious level of awareness, however we often tend to do this at an unconscious level of awareness during our day-to-day interactions with others.

There’s a theory which states that you will only be as successful as the sum-total average of your five closest friends. There is actually an ounce of truth to this theory if we take into account the process of psychological modeling. Let me explain.

The people you hang around with most are often the people you admire and respect above all others. These are your friends and your confidants who provide you with an emotional bedrock you can use for support during times of need. Now, whether you realize it or not, you are in fact mirroring in some respects how these people talk, how they move, how they dress, the decisions they make, the actions they take, etc. At the same time these people are also mirroring your decisions, actions and behaviors without even consciously realizing it.

All this is significant because as you mirror others, you begin to think as they do, and as you begin to think as they do you also start adopting their beliefs, their values, their perspectives and their approach to life. You in essence become somewhat like them, and this inevitably influences your day-to-day behavior and decisions.

Given this, you are therefore modeling other people whether you’re consciously aware of it or not. So why not start modeling inspiring people that can help you become a better version of yourself? How about Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, Oprah Winfrey, or Walt Disney? But to do this, you will need to understand what a Mental Syntax is.

A mental syntax is a form of strategy elicitation. Here you are taking what you have observed externally about the person, and the insights you have gathered about their submodalities and meta-programs, and putting them together to form a mental syntax or strategy of how they do and think-through things in very specific ways. This is relevant for modeling because once you gain insight into the specific steps that a person takes internally and externally to get a certain outcome, that is when you can effectively begin modeling their process and thereby obtaining similar outcomes in your own life.

Say for instance you might want to gain insight into how this person makes specific kinds of decisions. Once you understand their mental syntax and the process for making these decisions, you can then model their decision-making process in your own life, and hopefully attain the same or similar outcomes.

References

References are fragments and snippets of information your brain collects as you interact with the world around you. Typically these references are external coming from your daily experiences, and from your exposure to people’s beliefs and opinions as well as through new information from your environment. However, references can also be internal coming from your imagination and through the process of visualization.

References are very much akin to the proof and evidence you collect over a period of time that indicates to you that something about a specific subject is believable and true.

The more logical and emotional these references the more believable they become. Subsequently with enough references about a certain topic or subject area you begin to form ideas in your mind about these things. These ideas then quickly start to form opinions, and eventually those opinions (with enough references behind them) can form beliefs and convictions.

Faith can also effectively build references. As such, with enough faith you can develop suitable references (proof and evidence) that will eventually shape your opinions and thereby form new empowering beliefs in the process.

Reframing

Reframing is a linguistic tool used to consciously change your limiting frames to help support your desired goals, beliefs and behaviors. Reframing does this by interrupting your old unhelpful thought patterns with new interpretations and perspectives of reality that are more helpful and supportive of your desired objectives. In other words, reframing helps you put events and circumstances into a different context that is more favorable.

Reframing is very much akin to changing the meaning of an event or experience in order to put yourself into a more positive and resourceful state-of-mind. Therefore instead of sabotaging yourself, you are adopting more useful ways of thinking and doing things that will help you to potentially overcome your personal limitations, boundaries, phobias, fears and even trauma.

Reframing is very much like changing a picture in a picture frame. The frame hasn’t changed, however the picture within the frame is now different. In other words, the situation hasn’t changed, however your view of the situation is now different than what it was before. You are therefore not changing the situation, but rather changing your view of the situation in a more helpful and optimal way.

Resourcefulness

Being resourceful means achieving your goals by doing more with less. It means going beyond your natural skills and making the most of the resources you currently have at your disposal. In other words, it’s your ability to make use of novel and creative methods of thinking to make the most of the resources you have in order to solve the problem at hand.

It is however possible that you won’t always have access to the resources you need to solve a problem. In such instances, being resourceful means acquiring the relevant tools and knowledge to help you solve the problem successfully. However, to do this you will need to be open to seeing things from a different perspective, while also being willing to try new approaches that might help you get the results you are after.

Being resourceful also means reaching out to others by leveraging your network of contacts (friends, colleagues and associates) to help you enhance your ingenuity and make the most from your circumstances. This is of course a critical area that all resourceful individuals make full use of. They understand that other people have strengths, abilities, knowledge, tools and resources at their disposal that they simply do not have access to. As such, they make full use of these connections to help them achieve their goals and/or solve their personal/professional problems.

Rituals

Rituals can be described as the consistent daily actions you take that help you build habits over a period of weeks, months and years. Those habits then of course effectively help shape your thoughts, beliefs and emotions.

All these rituals you partake in effectively power your day. In fact, these rituals shape every decision you make and action you take. Moreover, they actually go a long way toward shaping your life and destiny — for better or worse. I say “for better or worse” because you no doubt have some rituals that provide you with long-term value, and others that will eventually make you feel miserable about yourself.

The key is to develop a set of empowering rituals that will help you stay focused, motivated and on track toward achieving your goals.

Rules (Psychological)

Psychological Rules are unique laws that govern your choices, decisions, and actions. They are guidelines that help you function in the world. They influence how you perceive yourself, how you perceive others, and how you perceive and interpret the world around you. They are the guiding principles for your behaviors, and the fundamental coping mechanisms you use throughout life. What’s most significant is that your psychological rules support your core belief systems.

Psychological rules form the foundations of each of your beliefs. You believe something because you have a certain set of rules that tell you that this “something” makes sense and is true. Therefore if the rule makes sense, then it only makes sense to believe that what you’re seeing and experiencing is the truth.

Psychological rules often stem from the pain-pleasure response. Let’s say for instance you come across a specific situation. Your brain will ask whether making a certain decision or taking a specific action will mean pain or pleasure. You then either decide to take action that helps you avoid pain, or to gain pleasure. Whatever you decide to do provides you with insight into the underlying hidden belief that is at the core of that particular psychological rule.

It’s important to understand that we all need rules. Rules help you to make sense of your world, allowing you to cope with everyday life. In fact, you have rules that are built upon your personal habits, beliefs, emotional experiences, upon procrastination and perfectionism, and even upon your levels of self-esteem. What this ironically means is that making some adjustments to your psychological rules can effectively help you to manage your emotions more effectively, to eradicate limiting beliefs, to transform unhelpful habits, and to boost your self-esteem. All this is possible if you’re ready and willing to explore this area of your psyche.

Given this, rules aren’t necessarily bad, it’s rather how useful (helpful) or how hurtful (unhelpful) they are in your particular situation.

Self-Concept

A Self-Concept is an understanding you have of yourself that’s based on your personal experiences, body image, the thoughts you have about yourself, and how you tend to label yourself in different situations.

A self-concept can also be defined as an all encompassing awareness you had of yourself in the past; the awareness you have of yourself in the present; and the expectations you have of yourself at a future time.

Your self-concept is built upon perception — how you perceive yourself based on the knowledge you have gained over a lifetime of experience. This perception you have of yourself is based on the information you have gathered about your values, life roles, goals, skills, abilities and much more.

Your self-concept is more or less a collection of beliefs you have about your own nature, qualities and behavior. It’s all about how you think and evaluate yourself at any given moment in time. It is a perception of your image, abilities, and in some ways a perception of your own individual uniqueness.

A self-concept is essentially made up of four components including self-image, self-ideal, self-worth and self-esteem.

Self-Esteem

Self-Esteem is the measure of how you feel about yourself based on your results, actions, behavior as well as on people’s opinion of you. More specifically, it’s a measure of your impressions of how you see yourself, how others see you and how you see others seeing you.

Self-esteem is predominantly built upon sources outside of yourself that you essentially have no personal control over. Yes it is based on the thoughts and feelings you have related to your results, behavior and performance. In fact, self-esteem is built upon the value derived from doing the things that get you your desired outcomes. But it’s more than just “doing”, it’s rather how you feel about yourself at every moment based on your actions. And how you feel about yourself is heavily influenced by how you feel you’re faring compared to others. In other words, your self-esteem is derived from what you think others “think” of you based on your results and actions.

When you have a negative view of yourself you are seen as having low self-esteem. This often manifests in pessimism and a lack of confidence. On the other hand, when you have a positive view of yourself you are seen as having high self-esteem. This often manifests in a confident disposition, self-acceptance and optimism.

Given all this, it’s quite clear that self-esteem is not something that comes from within, but rather something that comes from outside of ourselves that influences how we feel at any given moment in time. And yet this has nothing to do with reality, but rather it’s purely based on one’s perspective and interpretation of reality. Therefore self-esteem is fickle and can shift with the changing winds. However, this isn’t true for those people who have a high level of self-worth. A high level of self-worth naturally enhances your levels of self-esteem providing you with the confidence you need to follow through with your chosen decisions and actions.

Self-Ideal

A Self-Ideal is essentially an ideal future version of “you” that encompasses your personality, beliefs, values, and behavior under various conditions. It is who you are ideally seeking to become and how you intend to behave under various conditions. In other words, it’s the best version of yourself in every situation.

The “ideal you” is therefore “you”, however it is not the person you are today, but rather the person you are striving to become tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and so forth. And yet this ideal self is not a state of perfection; it is not a fixed destination or a finished product. In fact, it’s far from it. This ideal self is constantly evolving and changing, and as such it has somewhat of an elusive nature.

Your self-ideal also encompasses the many roles you play. For instance you might be a mother, a father, a sister or brother. Or you might be a parent, teacher, coach, leader, employee or employer. Within every one of these roles there exists an “ideal you” that tries to live up to a specific set of standards. You might for instance be striving to become a better father. As a result you are working towards this ideal version of the father that you would like to one day become, and this helps keep you growing and developing yourself in the role of a father. And the same is true for any other role you play.

Your growth and development in each role is the fuel that keeps pushing you forward through every decision you make and action you take. And as long as these ideal versions of you are somewhat out of reach, you will keep striving and pushing forward. Therefore this ideal version of you is what effectively fuels your motivation.

Self-Image

A Self-Image is in its most basic form an internalized mental picture/idea you have of yourself. It’s how you think and feel about yourself based on your appearance, performance and relationships that consistently impacts your outlook on life as well as your level of happiness and fulfillment.

It’s an impression you have of yourself that has formed over a lifetime that forms a collecting representation of your beliefs, assets, liabilities, and labels describing your personal attributes and characteristics. For instance you might say:

I am intelligent… therefore I can…

I am a loser… therefore I believe I can’t…

I am outgoing… therefore I am able to…

I am shy… therefore I am unable to…

These are just some of the examples of the many labels you potentially give yourself and the inevitable conclusions you may reach. And it is these conclusions you make about yourself that either form the foundations of a healthy self-image or an unhealthy self-image.

It’s important to note that your self-image is not something that is based on reality; in fact, far from it. In actuality your self-image is built upon your perception of reality and that is influenced by how you believe you’re being viewed by society and other people. For example, a person with anorexia may have a self-image that makes them believe they are obese, however in reality that is far from the truth.

Your self-image is something that gradually develops over a lifetime of experience, thought, learning and societal influences. It is however something that is constantly changing over time as you gain more life experience, as you think and reflect, as you learn, and as you interact with other people.

Self-Referral

Self-Referral means that you effectively define yourself using an inward focus. In other words, you identify with your inner-self that is constant and unchanging. As such, your self-esteem doesn’t fluctuate as a result of external circumstances. In fact, no matter what happens outside of you, the inside remains steady and constant.

When you live through self-referral nothing ever phases you. Setbacks, problems, criticism, rejection, mistakes, failure, loss, etc. None of these things phase you because you do not define yourself through external objects. As such, your fears are no longer enough to hold you back; you don’t have a need for approval from others; there is no compulsion to control external events, people or circumstances, and instead you can just be your authentic self. (see: Object Referral).

Self-Worth

Self-Worth is an internal state of being that comes from self-understanding, self-love and self-acceptance. It is a state that is somewhat timeless and unchanging because it is a measure of how you value and regard yourself despite what others may say and/or despite unfavorable circumstances. It is therefore something that doesn’t quickly or easily change when external factors change. It is steady and unflinching, and there lies the power and value of building your self-worth.

To have a high level of self-worth means having a favorable opinion or estimate of yourself. It means having unshakable faith in yourself and in your ability to follow through and get things done. It means feeling worthy of good things; feeling deserving of happiness, health, wealth, success and love no matter what difficulties you might face, disappointments you may experience, or what other people might or might not say to you. It is unflinching.

To have a high level of self-worth means accepting yourself wholeheartedly at all times despite your flaws, weaknesses and limitations. It is all about accepting the true value of who you are right here right now in this very moment.

To have high levels of self-worth means never allowing yourself to be defined by outside forces or people’s opinions. It means never allowing specific outcomes to shake your confidence, faith or resolve. In other words, no matter what happens you are steadfast. Nothing outside of you influences how you feel about yourself. Your influence alone is the only thing that matters. You alone are the biggest factor in how you feel about yourself, your life and about your circumstances.

Serendipity

Serendipity is an occurrence and development of unexpected, unlikely, but fortunate and desirable chain of events that work to your favor.

Serendipity is allowing yourself to experience flow by synchronizing yourself with the natural rhythm and flow of life. In this way you might be chasing something you think you want (a specific goal) but in the end you actually end up getting something else that you never realized would make you happy. As such serendipity effectively becomes the moment of clarity when you discover that you’re actually where you need to be. It’s as though you have been guided by a higher power to this unexpected and unfathomable place in time.

Many times we chase things that we think will make us happy, but in reality happiness is far easier to achieve if we just go with the flow of life and allow synchronicity and serendipity to take over.

With all this in mind we must make an effort to search for contentment wherever we are. And contentment of course comes from a place of gratitude and appreciation for what we have here in this moment. Only in this way will serendipitous events take over.

Seven Planes of Existence

This is a topic I personally haven’t studied to any great length. It’s therefore not something that I know a great deal about. However, it’s something I wanted to include within the MasterMind Matrix as it helps provide a 360 degree view of our place within the universe.

The idea here is that there are Seven Planes (or Realms) of Existence in which All-That-IS, in its limitless expression as Creation, just IS. It is important to understand these Planes in order to clarify why and where our beliefs, programs, contracts, commitments, initiations and healings originate. We operate physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually as part of and connected to all the Planes. Every Plane is working in our body in complete harmony to create life at all times. Every Plane operates within this Third Plane, where we, as humans, reside.

Six Human Needs

Every day you make certain decisions and take specific actions that come about as a result of how you think, feel and the habits you tend to indulge in. Most of the time you probably don’t give these decisions or actions a second thought. You probably don’t even contemplate why you did what you did. And that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. We naturally tend to filter out these details in order to focus on the most important things in our lives. However, there are certain advantages to knowing — to understanding what in particular motivated you to take that action or make that decision. And this is where the Six Human Needs come into the picture.

The Six Human Needs are not desires or wants. They are psychological “needs” that we constantly work to satisfy on a mostly unconscious level of awareness. These Six Human Needs are the factors that influence your deepest motivations and effectively determine how you go about prioritizing your decisions and actions throughout your life. In fact, every single day of your life you are unconsciously striving to meet these “needs” with varied success.

The Six Human Needs include:

  • Certainty: Here you are striving to experience comfort and gain certainty in your life in order to minimize the stress of uncertainty.
  • Uncertainty: Here you are striving for a little variety and uncertainty in your life in order to relieve boredom, predictability and stagnation.
  • Significance: Here you are striving to gain a sense of significance and importance in the eyes of others. Your objective is to create a sense of identity.
  • Connection: Here you are striving to make deep connections with people. You have a need to love and be loved by others. You also have a need to belong.
  • Growth: Here you are striving to learn, experience and grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually in a variety of ways throughout your life.
  • Contribution: Here you are striving to contribute to something greater than yourself. This is all about adding value to other people’s lives.

When these needs are met at a high level, you experience a great deal of happiness and fulfillment. On the other hand, when these needs are not met at a high level, you will tend to feel unfulfilled and dissatisfied. However, because all this happens on an unconscious level of awareness, you probably don’t even realize why you’re feeling this way. Your life seems okay on the surface, however something is just not right. Nothing you do seems to make you happy, and life in general just seems as though it’s missing important elements that you can’t seem to identify.

Sleight of Mouth

Sleight of Mouth are reframing patterns used as persuasive tools to help strengthen beliefs as well as to change them. Moreover, it’s a tool you can effectively use to help you respond to people in more effective ways.

There are 18 known patterns that are sub divided into four basic types including:

  1. Change Meaning
  2. Change Cause
  3. Comparisons
  4. Change Logical Level

Read more: Understanding Sleight of Mouth

Here is an example of how to use Sleight of Mouth when your boss calls you into his/her office to scold you for being late once again (provided by Doug O’Brien):

You’re being late shows that you don’t care about the job.

Using Sleight of Mouth techniques you can respond in the following ways:

  • Reality strategy: How do you know lateness and caring are the same thing?
  • Model of the world: Some people believe caring is shown by quality of the job done and the results obtained.
  • Counter example: We all know people who are always on time and yet are goof-offs once they get here.
  • Intent: My intention is not to be late or uncaring but to give you the best quality time and highest productivity while I’m here
  • Redefine: I wasn’t late, I was delayed in traffic
  • Chunking up: Are you saying the most important aspect of my job is showing up on time?
  • Chunking down: How specifically are lateness and not caring the same thing?
  • Metaphor or analogy: If a surgeon is late for dinner because he is saving a life, does that mean he doesn’t care about his wife’s cooking?
  • Another outcome: The real question isn’t whether I’m late or I’m caring. The real question is how much I’m producing for the company.
  • Consequence: If I wasn’t late I wouldn’t have been able to close the sale while I was at a breakfast meeting.
  • Hierarchy of Criteria: Isn’t it more important to focus on how much the person gives while on the job rather than punctuality?
  • Apply to self: Gosh, I wish you’d cared enough about me to tell me this sooner.
  • Changing frame size: Over time, you’ll see I brought in more business in a timely fashion for the company than all of the people who showed up to work on time.
  • Meta frame: Lots of progressive companies are working with flex time for their high producers. I thought you were a forward thinking manager.

As you can see, the Sleight of Mouth technique gives you a wide variety of options when it comes to stating your case and persuading the other person that being late to work is actually not such a big deal.

Sleep (Stages)

As you go to sleep at night your body is resting, however your brain is constantly at work manufacturing various molecules in the form of proteins, steroids, cholesterol, lipid rafts, human growth hormone and more.

The reason why we sleep is because it gives the brain the opportunity make sense of your experiences and consolidate memories, and in some ways reset itself in preparation for the next day. As such, sleep plays a critical role in the brain’s development.

Sleep is also important for restorative purposes. It provides an opportunity for the body to repair and rejuvenate itself. Studies have actually shown that when we’re deprived of sleep it weakens the immune system and therefore makes the body more susceptible to disease. Moreover, many of the major restorative functions within the body such as muscle growth and tissue repair occur mostly during stages of sleep.

There are five recognized stages of sleep. Here is a quick summary of each stage:

  • Stage 1: Is the realm of alpha waves where we enter a daydream-like state. You are not yet asleep but rather in a deep state of relaxation or trance state.
  • Stage 2: Is the realm of theta waves. This stage of sleep lasts about 20 minutes as body temperature begins to drop and heart rate starts to slow down.
  • Stage 3: Is the beginning of the delta wave phase of sleep. This stage is a transition period between light and a deep sleep.
  • Stage 4: Delta waves dominate this stage of sleep. This is a deep state that lasts about 30 minutes. This is where your immune system is strengthened and your body begins to undergo repair.
  • Stage 5: Is the realm of REM sleep. This stage of the sleep is characterized by rapid eye movement, increased respiration and brain activity. It is the stage of sleep where you dream. Interestingly though your muscles relax and your body enters a state of paralysis. This is designed as a protective mechanism to prevent you from hurting yourself. REM sleep is actually also a restorative part of the sleep cycle. Some studies have even suggested that REM sleep helps your brain to process the day’s experiences.

Read more: Getting a Better Night’s Sleep

Spirit Guides

Spirit Guides are spiritual entities that are assigned to you before birth to help guide and nudge you through life. Their purpose is to help you fulfil your spiritual purpose within the physical world.

These entities guide you by arranging synchronicities and serendipitous events that help alert you to things you need to see and know to move your life forward toward your higher purpose. However, their subtle signals can also come through intuitive gut feelings, and also through the people that come into your life.

Every person that comes into our lives is there to help us learn more about ourselves and about our place in this world.

Submodalities

Submodalities are the fine distinctions we make within each Representational System. They effectively help us to remember what we have seen, heard, felt, smelt and tasted both externally and internally through our imaginations.

These submodalities are essentially the smallest building blocks of each and every one of your thoughts. They can of course be visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory in nature.

Working with your submodalities can effectively help you to take control over your internal experience. In other words, it can help you to control how you interpret the world around you and therefore how you feel about these external experiences. As such, you can train yourself how to consciously influence the emotions you experience within at any given moment in time.

For instance, submodalities can be adjusted using brightness, distance, location, color, size, association and disassociation. Adjusting these submodalities as you think and reflect upon a particular experience will help you to effectively strengthen or weaken the emotions associated with that experience. As such, you are effectively able to control how you process and respond to your environment.

Subtle Body Energies

Subtle Body Energies are akin to layers of an onion that wrap around the physical body. Combined they create what we call the aura.

There are three physical plane bodies and three spiritual plane bodies, and you also have the astral body which effectively functions as a bridge between the lower and higher bodies.

The three lower bodies process energies dealing with the physical plane. The upper three bodies process energies from the spiritual plane.

Here is a quick breakdown of the seven subtle bodies:

  • The Etheric Body: Is the closest body to the physical body and it has quite a dense nature. In many ways it replicates the physical body and its organs on an energetic level.
  • The Emotional Body: Is associated with feelings. It does not mirror or duplicate the physical body. It rather projects a vast array of colors that represent human emotional experiences.
  • The Mental Body: Is associated with thought and mental processing. It radiates energy around the head and shoulders when a person is in deep thought, concentration or self-reflection.
  • The Astral Body: Is a bridge to the spiritual plane. It is in fact a link to the astral plane where you begin to experience higher vibrational frequencies of energy that are not associated with the material world.
  • The Etheric Template Body: Is akin to a template body that comes into existence before the physical body is formed. The physical body therefore comes to existence based on this template. It co-exists with the physical body but on another dimensional plane (a different vibrational frequency).
  • The Celestial Body: Is the spiritual emotional plane that taps into bliss and spiritual ecstasy. Divine love and interconnectedness achieved through deep states of meditation can help you to tap into this plane of existence.
  • The Causal Body: Is the mental equivalent of the Mental Body existing on the spiritual plane. It contains within itself all other lower level bodies and can extend up to 3.5 feet from the physical body and vibrates at a very high frequency. The Causal Body is what helps you tap into Infinite Intelligence.

Read more: Understanding the Seven Subtle Bodies

Swish Pattern

The Swish Pattern is an NLP technique used to help you better manage limiting emotions while also giving you the freedom to develop new empowering habits. It can effectively help you to optimize how you perform under various conditions where your emotions aren’t getting the better of you. As such, it’s an effective method that can be used to help boost your levels of self-confidence in any situation.

The Swish Pattern works on the idea of embedding a new automatic and positive response into your subconscious that counteracts the negative and limiting response you previously indulged in. In other words, it effectively helps you to reprogram preexisting patterns of behavior that have been ingrained into your nervous system over a lifetime of experience.

Temperaments

A temperament is a cluster of inborn traits that influence what you do and help form and shape your personality.

Each of these traits has a unique and distinct manner of behavior. In fact, these behavioral tendencies manifest in natural preferences, weaknesses and strengths. In many ways they actually drive you to act in a certain way.

A temperament can also be described as a person’s animal nature. It’s essentially how people are at the core of their being that effectively determines how a person reacts to situations, responds to events and relates to others.

These core behaviors need to be satisfied in order to enhance self-worth and sense of value.

You can of course resist these natural tendencies and try to behave in a way that works against your temperament, however this won’t last long as you will tend to always come back to your natural authentic state.

When you embrace your temperament you feel most natural and alive. Things just feel comfortable because it allows you to express yourself most effectively and naturally. In fact, when you express your natural temperament it allows you to have the greatest positive impact on others.

There are four primary temperament categories that we all fall into. These include the Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, and the Melancholy temperaments. Each of these temperaments is further subdivided into various temperament blends.

To find out more about temperaments and the influence they have on our lives, please view the work of John T. Cocoris.

Time Line Therapy

Time Line Therapy is a powerful therapeutic process that has evolved from hypnosis and NLP, developed by Tad James, Ph.D. during the 1980s. It’s a collection of techniques that effectively allow you to gain emotional control over your life. These techniques in combination can help you produce long-lasting change that frees you up to achieve your goals and objectives.

The techniques effectively use an individual’s internal “time line” to help them work through the process of healing emotional trauma, eliminating unwanted thoughts as well as behaviors.

Unhelpful Thinking Styles

Whenever you experience any kind of emotion, this emotion is always accompanied by a set of thoughts. These thoughts are constructed of words and statements that often manifest in the form of questions. You ask these questions in order to make sense of your emotions and your circumstances. If you ask the right kinds of questions, you will get the right kinds of answers that will help you move forward in a positive way. However, if you ask the wrong questions, then you will often end up creating additional problems for yourself.

This is in a ways a very simplified explanation of our thought-process. This is how we think and how we respond to circumstances. When we choose to think in optimal ways, we can often get the best out of our abilities. However, when we think in limiting ways we often end up making the situation far worse than it should be. You therefore have both helpful and unhelpful thoughts that direct your behaviors, decisions and actions throughout the day.

There are 10 common unhelpful thinking styles that we tend to use:

  1. Mental Filter: Here you tend to filter things in and out of your conscious awareness. This is a form of “tunnel vision” where you only tend to focus on a part of something and you ignore the rest.
  2. Jumping to Conclusions: Here you tend to jump to unjustified conclusions. You make quick assumptions about how things are and what they’re going to be like in the future (predictive thinking), or you will assume that you know what someone else is thinking (mind reading).
  3. Personalization: Here you tend to blame yourself for your problems and for everything that goes wrong in your life. You might for instance continuously blame yourself for your misfortunes and bad luck.
  4. Black and White Thinking: Here you tend to only see the extremes of a situation. You either see one extreme or another and this is why it’s called black and white thinking.
  5. Catastrophising: Here you tend to completely blow things out of proportion and make them out to be a lot worse than they should be.
  6. Overgeneralization: Here you tend to reference your past in order to make assumptions about the present.
  7. Shoulding and Musting: Here you tend to put unreasonable demands and pressure on yourself and on other people to do certain things. You tend to say, “I must… I should… You must… You should…”.
  8. Labeling: Here you tend to label yourself or other people in certain ways based on behavior in very specific situations.
  9. Magnification and Minimization: Here you tend to magnify the positives attributes of another person, while at the same time minimizing your own positive attributes.
  10. Emotional Reasoning: Here you tend to base your view of a particular situation in accordance with how you’re feeling. Therefore your feelings dictate how you perceive a situation despite evidence to the contrary.

These unhelpful thinking styles are built upon automatic habitual patterns that you pick-up over a lifetime. These thinking styles become rather problematic when you consider the fact that they direct your behavior at an unconscious level of awareness. Therefore if you’re in the habit of using some of these unhelpful thinking styles on a consistent basis, then you can be assured that you are not living up to your full potential.

Values

Values are a set of standards you have for life. They are the things you believe are most important to you and to the way you live, work and play. Some people would even say that values are priorities that show you how to spend your time most effectively.

Values can also be described as labels that you give to specific words to help represent your emotional experiences; originating from states of pain and pleasure. These emotional experiences are often organized into a hierarchy of sorts that helps outline your priorities for life, and for living that life.

Values are the measures you use to figure out whether or not your life is turning out the way you had imagined. Therefore values act like a compass that helps you stay on track and focused on the most important things in your life.

All this is very important, because when “what you do” and “how you behave” is consistent with your values, then life feels good, you feel good, and everything seems perfect with the world. However, when what you do and how you behave is not aligned with your highest values (priorities for life) then that is when things begin feeling somewhat uncomfortable and painful. You feel unfulfilled, dissatisfied and maybe just downright miserable, and you probably don’t even realize why you’re feeling this way.

Your values determine what you focus on, how you perceive reality, how you evaluate things, and what you will or won’t do; which essentially comes down to your behavior and the actions you take each day. Therefore if your values are not in sync with your daily decisions, choices and actions, then you will tend to feel miserable, unfulfilled and unsatisfied with your life.

There are two types of values that are worth exploring. Both of these types influence your daily choices and decisions. The first set of values are known as moving-toward values, and the second set of values are known as moving-away values.

  • Moving-Toward Values: These are pleasure-inducing values. They are values/states that you find pleasurable and want to move towards. In fact, you want to experience these values all of the time. For instance you might pursue love, passion, health, comfort, adventure, security, freedom, success, etc. These values make you feel good, however they are not equal. And you will therefore pursue some of them at the expense of others, especially if value conflicts exist.
  • Moving-Away Values: These are pain-inducing values. They are values/states that you will do almost anything to avoid experiencing. For instance you might avoid loneliness, humiliation, guilt, depression, frustration, anger, rejection, criticism, etc. All of these are intense states, and in many cases they will provide you with a stronger “motivating force” than most of your moving-toward values. And this is of particular significance when it comes to finding the right balance in life.

All of your moving-toward and moving-away values are constructed into a hierarchy of sorts that dictates the choices and decisions you will make each day. You therefore have on one side of the spectrum a hierarchy for your moving-toward values. These are the things that bring you pleasure. And on the opposite end of the spectrum you have a hierarchy for your moving-away values. These are the things that bring you pain. Now of course you might not be consciously aware of this hierarchy of values, however it’s certainly there. It’s evident in the decisions you make and the actions you take.

Values can also be subdivided into means and ends values. Means values are tangible values such as family and money. While ends values are emotional values such as love and security.

Means values are things that you may “want to have”. Ends values are the resulting emotional states you desire to experience. So for instance you might value family, however what you really want is love. In another example you might value money, however what you really want is security or freedom. Your family gives you the love you desire, and the money you earn gives you the security and freedom you want.

Both values are legitimate values, however it’s important that you always look for the ends-values while exploring your value hierarchy. Your ends-values are the things you really want as a result of acquiring the tangible things that you think you want.

Vibrational Attraction

Vibrational Attraction is a form of energy exchange that occurs on a spiritual level.

Everything we do, think and emotionalize sends out energy into the world. For instance when we are happy we send out a higher level energy, and when we are sad we send out a lower level energy.

The universe works in a vacuum of sorts. This effectively means that whatever level energy you send out and project into the world, that is exactly the level of energy that is returned back to you. This happens because in a vacuum whenever energy is released it is automatically replaced. And you of course are part of that vacuum.

Let’s say that you’re absolutely petrified and afraid to take a certain kind of action that will move you toward your goal. Your fears have projected a very low vibrational level of energy out into the world. As such, this energy now needs to be filled within this vacuum with the same kind of energy.

On the vibrational hierarchy fear is a low level energy. Projecting this energy out into the world will now attract into your life events, people and circumstances that effectively match that level of energy vibration. For you that could come in the form of criticism, rejection, or possibly a misfortune of some sort will occur. You experience this criticism, rejection or misfortune because of the vacuum effect where the energy you project out into world is now mirrored back to you. This energy can of course come in other forms as well such as in the form of setbacks, problems, illness, people, accidents and or in any other form that matches the level of vibration you initially projected out into the world. This process could even be described as a form of karma.

This in essence is what vibrational attraction is all about. As such, we must be very careful to take care that we are always projecting high vibrational frequencies. Only in this way are we likely to attract favorable people, events and circumstances that impact us in positive and helpful ways.

Vibrational Hierarchy

The Vibrational Hierarchy is built upon the work of David R. Hawkins who explored these vibrations within his bestselling book, Power vs. Force. However, his work has somewhat been adapted to fit within the framework and context of the MasterMind Matrix.

Within his book David R. Hawkins attempts to analyze the basic nature of human thought and consciousness through a fusion of the mystical and the scientific. Moreover, he explores kinesiology and its connection with the new physics and ancient Eastern philosophy using theoretical concepts from particle physics, nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory to support his study of human behavior.

Within the context of the MasterMind Matrix the vibrational hierarchy exists as a guide that helps us understand the connection between various emotional experiences and the vibrational energies we project out into the world.

The vibrational hierarchy displays 17 emotional states organized from the lowest vibrational forces to the highest. Shame is on the bottom of the list while enlightenment is on the top. In between we have various other emotional experiences that progressively allow us to vibrate at a higher level as we move up the scale toward enlightenment.

Each emotion we experience has a certain spiritual vibration associated with it. This vibrational frequency progressively rises as we move up the hierarchy.

At the lower end of this hierarchy we have shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, and anger. Experiencing any of these emotions means that we are vibrating at a very low frequency. These vibrations subsequently attract very low frequency events, people and circumstances into our lives that match these vibrations (see: vibrational attraction and karma). As a result we experience the lows and misfortunes of life.

A person cannot for instance experience a high level of fortune and fulfilment in life for an extended period of time if they persistently allow themselves to vibrate at the lower end of this spectrum. It’s just not possible; the universe will not have it as it goes against its laws.

In order to improve your life and achieve your desired goals you must progressively move up the hierarchy; out of the red and into the orange and blue sections. However, this takes time and effort.

Your life will only improve and you will only attract the right people, events and circumstances into your life to achieve your goals when you vibrate at a higher level. And the only way to vibrate at a higher level is to progressively move up the hierarchy where you begin to identify yourself through each emotional experience separately.

You cannot for instance live with a fear-based identity while wanting to act courageously. Instead, you must progressively move from Fear to Desire to Anger (i.e. feeling fed up with your life and therefore being determined to change) to Pride and then to Courage. There is no skipping steps here. You can only move up this scale progressively over time as you work on yourself and on developing your mind.

Emotional Intelligence is of course a big factor that can help you work your way up this hierarchy.

You will notice within the MasterMind Matrix that only when you’re within the “blue” do your goals begin to come to fruition. If you’re existing within the orange section it shows that you’re making positive changes that will eventually allow you to achieve your goals. However, if you’re persistently existing within the “red” then the honest truth is that your life will always suck. It will suck because the level at which you’re vibrating is not going to attract into your life the people, events and/or circumstances that will help you achieve your goals and objectives.

Yes, it’s very possible your desires might come to fruition temporarily, but it won’t last. Sooner or later your vibrations will attract some kind of setback or misfortune (that’s aligned with your energy levels) that will end up taking everything away from you. That’s the reality of life; these are the laws of the universe.

So as you work your way through the MasterMind Matrix, keep in mind that this vibrational hierarchy influences absolutely everything you do and everything you are and become. It is always present in your life and it’s up to you to progressively move yourself up this scale.

Worldview (Experience Filter)

A person’s worldview is formed as a direct result of experience. It’s a perspective that we have about the things around us. In other words, it’s what we believe to be true, or more specifically, what we believe is possible.

Over a lifetime a person interacts with the world around them. As a consequence of these interactions they form a worldview or opinion about themselves, others and about the world in general. This worldview is based on their values, biases and assumptions, however all these psychological factors are influenced by a person’s parents, peers, the school they went to, the places they lived and other environments they have been in. Also on a larger scale, our worldview is influenced by governments, science and religion.

Over a lifetime every person forms a different worldview about various aspects of their life. For instance a person who has experienced being in a loving relationship for many years will have a very different worldview of what it means to be in a relationship than someone who has had their heart broken and cheated on a half dozen times.

This is just one example of the hundreds of thousands of worldviews we build around our personal experiences. And it’s these worldviews that affect the choices and decisions we make when confronted with the circumstances of life. In fact, a worldview is what encourages someone to make a risky decision that another person avoids at all costs. Both these people have had two very different past experiences when it comes to taking risks, and this has affected their worldview and as such consistently influences the daily choices and decisions they make.

Your diet is the way it is today because of the worldview you developed over a lifetime. For instance your parents and guardians shaped your diet during your early years, and your peers and the media might have shaped it in the preceding years.

You either trust or don’t trust people based on your worldview, which of course is a direct result of the experiences you have had over a lifetime that have taught you who should be trusted and when.

People who have had similar backgrounds and/or experiences would also have very similar worldviews and will therefore make similar decisions when faced with specific choices or dilemmas.

A person’s worldview can of course change as their experiences change. With more experiences and references that go against their current worldview, the more likely they are to formulate contradictory ideas and opinions that eventually influence what they believe to be true.

Identifying Your Worldview

One way to better understand your worldview is to ask yourself a series of questions. These questions will effectively help you to unlock the belief systems that are currently shaping your worldview.

Questions that you could ask yourself include:

Who am I?

Do I have a body or does my consciousness arise from the combination of cells that is my body?

Do “I” survive the death of my physical body?

Should I believe what seems popular or strategic to believe, or can I truly think for myself and trust my direct experience?

Am I part of a larger power or intelligence than me?

If so, how do I relate to or communicate with it?

Is it separate from me?

What gives meaning to my existence?

What is my purpose and the purpose of life?

What is the nature of my connection with others?

What does it mean to love and be loved?

What do I need to be fulfilled?

What are basic human rights?

What is freedom?

Should others be able to tell me what I can exchange, ingest, or do…or should I be able to decide these things for myself.

Which is more primary in finding our way, the rights of the individual or the opinion of the majority about what’s “good for the group?”

Is our reality bounded or open?

Is the universe basically trustworthy or not?

Is there such a thing as good and evil?

What is integrity, and does it matter to the quality of life?

Source: Foster Gamble: What is a Worldview and Why is it Important

Below is an interesting video that actually goes into various theories and models that help us formulate our worldview. The various perspectives mentioned do however go much deeper into this area than what is currently presented within the MasterMind Matrix.

Further Explorations into the MasterMind Matrix

This article has no doubt explored a great many topics that can help you to better understand the MasterMind Matrix. But of course there are still many more topics that haven’t been explored here. You will however find an explanation of those topics within the 300+ IQ Matrix maps and also within the accompanying articles that can be found on the IQ Matrix blog.

Over time, everything you might ever want to know about the MasterMind Matrix will be transferred over onto the Knowledge Base website. There you can easily search through the various topics to find the relevant information you are after.

Now, of course, to truly gain the most value from this content comes through working with the MasterMind Matrix chart. This chart is available to all IQ Matrix Members, however it can also be purchased separately bundled with other maps that help you to better understand various concepts and segments of the chart. To read more about purchasing the chart, please click on the button below.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of using mind maps for self-improvement then I would like to invite you to become an IQ Matrix Member.

If you’re new to mind mapping or just want to check things out, then register for the Free 12 Month Membership Program. There you will gain access to over 90 mind maps, visual tools, and resources valued at over $500. 

If, on the other hand, you want access to an ever-growing library of 100s of visual tools and resources, then check out our Premium Membership Packages. These packages provide you with the ultimate visual reference library for all your personal development needs.

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top