About Steven AitchisonHave you ever been stuck with a question about life, about your business, about your spirituality? I want to share with you a technique I have used to great effect over the last few years.
As an example I would like to use growing my blog as an example. I often ask ‘How can I make the blog better and grow it.’ Well, I have lunch with the five smartest people on the planet when it comes to marketing, online promotion, and growing a business.
Five mentors to lunch with
In my mind I gather five people: Eben Pagan, Frank Kern, Brendon Burchard, Tim Ferriss, and Danielle LaPorte.
I have a list of 3 questions such as:
- What would you do to grow the blog?
- How can I offer better value to the readers?
- What should I write about?
So for 10 minutes I close my eyes and picture each one of them talking and interacting with me and each other and just ask the 3 questions.
Now, you might think that’s just mental, how on earth can you get answers from someone who’s not really there, and really the answers are coming from yourself. The thing is I have watched so much of their videos, bought their work or read their stuff that I feel I know them. When someone makes a video or writes a book, they are pouring their personality and energy into it and that comes across very clearly. In effect you are getting into their minds, it’s like a back door to their thinking. This is why this technique works so well, if you know your mentors and have watched their videos and read their work.
Choosing your mentors
There are different areas of your life that you may want some mentors to help you. When you choose your mentors it’s no good choosing mentors who you don’t really know and have not had much dealings with their work. For example if you would like Ghandi as a spiritual mentor and you have not read his work and don’t really know him, then this technique will not work as well as it could.
I have 2 areas of my life I feel I need more help on: Business, and spiritual. The other areas of my life I have a high score on so don’t need help in many other areas. So, what I do is gather together mentors whose work I know and trust. As I said in Business I have Eben Pagan, Frank Kern, Brendon Burchard, Danielle LaPorte and Tim Ferriss. In my Spiritual team I have: Robin Easton, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, David Hawkins and Rhonda Byrne.
Getting Mind Replies
The answers to your questions come in the form of a mind reply. So in your mind you will ask the questions, one at a time, as you go round the table and get replies back from your mentors the answers may seem a bit vague at first so you can ask more questions on that topic.
Accessing the subconscious mind
What you are really doing here is accessing your subconscious mind for the answers, however you are also accessing the subconscious minds of your mentors – hows that?
Whenever someone communicates with you in any way you are not necessarily just listening to their words, in fact subconsciously, you are only paying attention to around 7-10% of what they say, the rest of their communication is done using body language and tonality, so your subconscious mind is also picking up clues about their personalities, communication styles and what they are saying between the lines. In essence we are really connecting with their minds.
This is why all top business people recommend having a mastermind group, only in this case your mastermind group are people who you have not had contact with in real life, you’ve only had virtual contact with them, but contact nonetheless. With a master mind group you raise your level of thinking, just like a tennis player is only able to raise their game when they play someone who is much better than them, so it is with your thinking, you raise your thinking to another level when you come into contact with people who are on a different level from you.
Accessing the mind of your mentors
The way to gather your lunch guests is to look for people you connect with, either authors or online business people. Once you have identified 5 people from an area of your life you are interested in bettering yourself such as; business, spiritual, relationships, science etc start buying their product and reading and listening to their material. I spend a lot of time in my car going to visit clients, driving to work, visiting clinics and training days etc so I buy a t of audio books from Audible.com ( not so subtle affiliate link there ) or strip the audio from videos using a free program called Audio Extractor And listen to it in my car. I don’t have time to read a lot these days except when I go to the loo, so audiobooks work great for me.
Who would you choose as your mentors?
Who are your mentors? It would be good to get a conversation going about the different mentors you might like to have in your life.
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Hi Steven,
This is a very fascinating and intriguing approach! I don’t doubt for a moment that it works. At the present time, my blogging mentors are Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch. Thanks very much for this idea. It’s a very appealing one to me.
Sandra Lee recently posted..Is Attachment Destroying Your Happiness
Hey Sandra, you have picked two great mentors and I’ve certainly benefited from both Leo and Mary’s wisdom over the last few years.
Great post steven, I was always fascinated by this concept but never consciously made an effort to incorporate it into my daily mental exercises. I remember reading about Napoleon Hill consistently using this technique to gain insights into his own personal philosophy, to great benefit i might add. This is the second time i have heard about it and i think its time to try it out for myself.
It is truly amazing how our subconscious mind expands on ideas without seemingly having all the information it requires for the answers.
Every day without fail i have been repeatedly impressing certain thought patterns into my subconscious and have been awe struck on many occasions with the insights i have experienced. Many people have reported of having full and complete concepts just pop into their minds out of nowhere which have led them to create masterpieces of work.
It just strengthens my belief that we are all connected and our minds are somehow intertwined in a cosmic flux of creative genius. The answers are inside, we own them already, we just have to have faith in our own ability to manifest our desires.
I am not sure who my mentors in my mastermind group will be at this point but i will sit down and contemplate the areas of my life that could use some guidance.
Thank-you for the article, have a wonderful day.
Declan O Flaherty recently posted..Honest Vulnerability
Hi Declan. I am of the same opinion that we are all connected in some way and that our energies do indeed touch the world in some way, even after death. The concept of a universal mind that we can tap into is something I am working on more and more.
I also agree, I also find it amazing how very connected we are. The more I learn about our connectedness, the more I know we are. I love watching animals and seeing there interaction, and the knowing. The energy from tress,earth, the sea, I enjoy them so very much and love to hug a tree. I have intuited back many years when I was hugging a tree, one of most wonderful experiences. I love to learn and the more I learn the more I want to learn. Thank you Steven as I learn with you.
Steven –
Good stuff, man!
Mentorship, and those we choose to associate with has more to do with our success than any other factor. We all “rise to the level of our superiors and fall to the level of our inferiors.” This is why my friends who are good golfers refuse to play with me!
The genesis of my personal turnaround began when I discovered the audio cassette tape (remember those?), where I was able to learn from all those wonderful teachers and brilliant teachers you spoke of. See: http://www.contrarianism.net/?page_id=156
Keep up the awesome work!
Contrarian recently posted..Antogonizing the Dunces of the Confederacy
Love the quote here Conatrarian “rise to the level of our superiors and fall to the level of our inferiors.”
The audio cassette
that takes me back a bit.
Checked out your blog and love your story.
Thanks for your comments
Hi Steven,
Interesting concept, Napoleon Hill mentions this in “Think and Grow Rich.” He mentions “an imaginary council meeting with…my Invisible Counsellors” these included Darwin, Napoleon, Edison, Ford and of course Carnegie amongst others. In relation to this though he held the view that Infinite Intelligence is contained within every molecule of matter, and that this power can be induced to transmute desires into reality. He asks the Question “What reason do we have to believe that this same energy does not connect every human brain with Infinite Intelligence?”
Thought provoking stuff. It would be interesting to know how many people subscribe to this view.
Hi Gordon, Think and grow Rich is one of my all time favourites and I do believe that we can tap into the minds of others around us, sort of like cloud of consciousness that we can tap into with the right frame of mind.
Hi Steven,
Yes, interesting indeed. This is something I have never tried personally so I won’t knock it. However, I am starting to get a little into visualization techniques and picturing myself doing something before I actually do it. I find it does work to some degree.
For business my mentors would include Gene Simmons, Yaro Starak, Willie Crawford and Jim Daniels. I find myself often reading or listening to their material. To me it is about leverage. I can learn something in 5 minutes that is took someone else 5 years to learn.
Randy
Randy McLean | Self Development Tips recently posted..How to Get What You Really Want in Life
Hi Randy. You have picked some great mentors to have on your team. I’d also agree that there’s no point in trying to re-invent the wheel, follow the success of others and then strike out on your own.
This is a great technique, Steven. It reminds me of what they teach in the Silva Method–which is to have your wise teachers in the room you go into in your mind for answers. I haven’t done that in a long time, for some reason, so I very much appreciate the reminder of how powerful this process is. Love the mentors you’ve chosen. You’ve inspired me to come up with my own team.
Ande Waggener recently posted..The Power Of The Point Of No Return
Hey Ande, it seems a lot of self improvement programs teach this.
Would be interesting to hear who your mentors are, when you have chosen them.
Hi Steve. So happy to share this post and thereby automatically reconnect with your spirit. You have been one of my mentors in this wild world of blogging (and living) for quite some time and of course always will be.
My first mentor without a doubt was Walt Whitman. I bought Leaves of Grass when I was a young fellow of 21 and I would say that over the next two years I did a pretty good job of getting into his soul, so to speak: the longing in me for freedom needed a bit of support and direction — he gave it to me even tho as you say he wasn’t present in physical form with me. Love to share your spirit Steve.
Christopher Foster recently posted..Getting rid of the ache in our lives
Hey Christopher, great to hear from you and thank you for your kind words. Your spirit is one that shines on the net, it’s always great speaking with you.
Talk about timing! I was just commenting on Everyday Bright that I need some mentors. One area is spiritual. Your suggestions are perfect. For example, I have read just about everything Pema Chodron has written and listened to audio talks. She would be one of my mentors for sure. I didn’t think about mentors as people who were accessible through books and talks. This has helped me very much. Thank you!
I’m also realizing that there is such a treasure trove of wisdom available through the Life Lessons site, which is how I found your blog. I’ve been browsing around the blogs of the participating bloggers. There is a whole banquet of mentors!!
I guess it is true. Ask and ye shall receive indeed.
Galen Pearl recently posted..Wake Up- Grow Up- Show Up
Hey Galen, the best lessons we learn is when we ask for them, either mentally or verbally. I am so glad you found CYT and enjoyed the article. Thanks for your comments, I really appreciate them.
Steven,
This is a grand idea! I think we can even learn a lot about you by who you choose as your mentors! I’ve not heard of those to resources you give before and will check them out. And I’ll let you know how this works for me. Great idea!
Tess The Bold Life recently posted..How to Live a Shimmering and Soul-Satisfying Life
Hi Tess. I think you’ve made a good point about learning a lot about people from the mentors they choose in life. Hope this works out for you.
nice one! I like the idea, should try this one.
question: what about if your mentor isn’t you knew or you partly knew the person, how can you overcome this? thanks!
Judy Wright recently posted..Hello world!
Hi Judy. It definitely works better if you know the person through their works, but if you don’t you kind of have an idea of what they are like in your head and you can still ask them questions and get great results. Otherwise get to know about the mentors you choose.
We do in some way present ourselves through what we create, so for example a book tells something about the author. When you read a book you get to know (at least a part of) the author and get a relationship to him or her. If we read or listen to much of the same author or whatever a person has created we get to know this person better. Thus we can get an understanding of how the person thinks and use this knowledge to talk to the person. Just as you explain Steven.
Tom Sörhannus recently posted..The Cultivation Of Renunciation Tantra part 5
Hi Tom. I really do believe we get to know the person from their books. Even better if you can watch videos of them or listen to audio it adds another level to the relationship.
Hi Steven, great post and I subscribe absolutely to your well made point on the Power of the Subconscious. I am an advocate of the Law of Attraction and the work of Napoleon Hill and Wallace Wattles (The Science of Getting Rich). My top choice mentors are Echart Tolle, Lynda Dyer and Bob Proctor. I read, listen to and follow their work constantly.
Stephen recently posted..Your responsibility is to become wealthy
I Steven, I’ve never done this but I’ve run across the idea before and it sounded interesting. I think having a conversation with somebody you respect works mainly because it just gets you out of your perspective and into another’s.
Stephen – Rat Race Trap recently posted..How to Make Great Decisions
Reading this, another way to use the question, “What would my ideal mentors say” popped into my head. Once you have taken your first whack at coming up with their advice, print the questions out and put them up on the wall. Then for the next couple weeks see what comes out of it.
Putting the unanswered questions up where you see them all the time does two things. First, it focuses your attention on them so you are more likely to notice relevant insights and information. And second, it creates an empty space (figuratively speaking) for your mind to fill.
As you work, as you talk to people, as you read articles, blogs or books, keep those questions in the back of your mind. Write down all the additional answers that come up. Sometimes it’s surprising how much more insight a little empty space can create.
Curt Rosengren recently posted..Your career passion possibilities are practically endless