I’m listening to the new Steve Jobs biography. It’s a great modeling project and I’ll share insights here as I work through the 25 hours.

History will look back on Jobs as being the man who really gave us the personal computer. As important as Henry Ford and the automobile, Carnegie and steel, or any of the great American inventors that really made America great.

In the first hour, I’ve already heard some core beliefs that are truly empowering and describe Jobs:

1. I’m special. – Though some said his birth parents ‘”abandoned” him he, with the help of his adoptive parents, turned the story into “I’m special.” It’s all just a story.
2. I can build anything. – He played with electronics as a kid and started out with Heathkits. They were electronics kits many of us asked our parents for. Many kids enjoyed building things instead of veg out on Facebook or Xbox. After building his first kit he built more complicated ones and formed this belief.
3. I know the real value of things. – His father would take him to car auctions and taught him he could learn what parts were really worth and buy them much cheaper because other people didn’t know the value. he loved selling things because he knew what they were really worth.

Put these beliefs together and you can see how Jobs led his field, constantly pushed to build more amazing products, and was able to not only charge a premium for them but also negotiate great deals so the profits we high.

We just described Apple Inc. in the last decade under Jobs. They went from a laughable company in the nineties, under the leadership of a Coca Cola exec focused only on profits to the most valuable company on earth.

You can learn a lot by listening for people’s beliefs. Our beliefs create our destiny. Destiny is not written on some magic tablet in the sky. Beliefs make the difference between feeling abandoned and unloved OR feeling special with a contribution to give the world. It’s all just made up beliefs.

Post on the blog what you discover from his biography and we’ll compare notes.

The study found the participants had real symptoms, but they were not actually caused by dairy products. When dairy was removed, they still got the symptoms. The symptoms were actually traced back to stress. This is becoming more frequent as advertisers “educate” the public on symptoms and suggest what the problem may be (so they will buy their solution).

Back pain is another example of a somatoform disorder. This is why people will have chronic back pain, get surgery, which alleviates the pain for a short time, often to return even worse. Doctors keep doing their procedures because that’s what they were trained in. Everyone is looking for back dysfunction since none are trained in the mind or stress identification and reduction.

If your mind can actually can create illness and real symptoms in the body, just how powerful is your mind then? Maybe it’s worth understanding your mind a little more? It’s really tragic to me that we humans are taught almost nothing about the most important element of our happiness: the mind. Part of the reason is that very few actually understand the mind or HOW TO CHANGE IT!

A great takeaway here is that our mind too quickly associates two things together that don’t go together, like milk and intestinal symptoms. It’s called “anchoring” in NLP. Advertisers know this mind habit and constantly get you to anchor together things like beer and babes or diamond rings and happiness. This happens to couples where they anchor feeling bad (which is inside them) to their spouse (which is outside), get a divorce, but still feel the same about themselves. We anchor things in the outside world when it’s the inside world we need to address.

Here’s the study review: USATODAY.com http://usat.ly/mICLIf

Oprah shares her Core Question here: “How can I be used for something greater than my self?” NLP revealed that each of us is driven by internal questions and we have a Core Question that guides our life. Notice too how quest and question are similar. Life is a quest, a hero’s journey, and our question drives us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfZwVjRMMow&feature=related

Some people have a question like, “Why does this always happen to me?” or “Why is life only about paying bills?” Why questions get us stuck because there is NO answer. In the extreme, why questions lead to depression.

How questions are empowering. Imagine living with, “How can I love more?” or “How can I help make this a wonderful world?” Oprah’s question is the highest order, it’s about service and spirit. What your core question? The one that drives you every day. The first question in your mind in the morning. Test this tomorrow and ask your self “What would be the most empowering question?”

A new TV series is launching in January called Breakthrough with Tony Robbins. The best known NLP Coach will be taking people from ruin to renewal in 30-days. For over 30 years Tony has has brought the message “live with passion” to millions around the world. Many peoples’ lives have literally been saved by his drive to help people understand themselves and the world.

I had the great fortune to be at the live taping of the finale sixth episode this month. We watched spellbound for six hours as Tony went over the journey of growth for each hero in the making. At the end, someone asked Tony an awesome modeling question: “Why have you worked so hard to help people all these years? Why do you do what you do?”

Tony’s answer, “Because I hate to see people suffering!” This was his simple one sentence answer. It brought up a lot of emotion in him. He knows what drives him. He knows from where his passion gets life. It is our “whys” that drive us; our values.

The word “passion” literally means “suffering”. Many people complain that they want passion, but they don’t want any suffering. That’s why they don’t have passion. Passion is noticing what we hate in the world, noticing our own suffering and the suffering of others, and turning that suffering into art, a gift to the world. This process is what gives us true freedom, the kind of freedom we see in champions. But, most seek comfort and live an entire life of suffering. The few suffer a little so they can live free and we celebrate them.

Now that you have your mission & vision it’s important to really anchor them into your system. Your Mind is the only thing that is between you and your vision. People that are really driven are pulled forward constantly by their passionate vision. That feeling overcomes the doubts which are bound to arise. They “see” that their vision is going to happen, it’s just a matter of taking the steps. They are compelled forward. Wouldn’t you like to feel drawn forward to your vision?

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It was developed in the mid-70s by a computer science major at UC Santa Cruz (thus the interesting name). Richard Bandler worked for a publisher while going to school and applied the mind of a programmer to discover what were the key ingredients that support massive change by three of the greatest therapist who’ve ever lived. NLP can be thought of as a model of a programming language for the mind. We realize the way we look at things in our inner mind effect our feelings and thus our outcomes. NLP discovers the structure of thinking of successful people so anyone can have the same thinking.

I use NLP and Coaching to empower my clients to stay in the game and have fun playing. I created this download for you so you can anchor into your inner mind AND body your mission and vision, just a highly successful people do. Too often, after a taking a course, the old conditioned Mind takes over and wipes out the vision. You can listen and do this process regularly to continually strengthen your vision.

As we taught at Life Directions, your mission and vision are a constantly evolving process. Trust that your current statements are a great starting point! Anchor them in and allow your passion to build and refine your mission throughout your life.

Now, let’s get started. Download by clicking the link below. You must register before accessing the audio. As we teach at Peak Potentials: “When you know it, you live it!” Enjoy living from your mission and contact me to tell me how this process works for you.

Play the audio:

Instructions for the process:

The guided process consists of two parts. First, we do a centering exercise that you can do while sitting to connect with your Higher Self. Next, we do a process that is best while standing and walking between three perspectives on your life: your present self today, your future potential self, and being the witness of your life as you continially grow. The graphic below gives the overview of each of these perspectives so you can make up three cards and put them on the floor in preparation for the process.