Have you ever had the experience that you know what to do but for whatever reason you still didn’t do it?

Have you ever started projects, even gotten them to 80% complete and then got distracted and not finished them?

I know I have, recently I have found myself staring at the computer screen doing everything I can from doing actual productive work.

Have you ever felt like this before? I know this is not the first time for me and probably won’t be the last, however at least I now I have (and so do you) a solution or a different strategy to help get back on track to the fulfilment of your desires.

After thinking about this for a while, (yes more procrastination) I realized it is really a focus issue, I was more focused on the actions I needed to take rather than the results I am looking to achieve from taking the action.

I was too focused on the task at hand which as enjoyable as it may be, the action is never as exciting as the end result. After all you don’t really want to rank videos in the search engines; you want the affiliate sales that will come from getting your video ranked in the search engines. (For example)

So my question to you is what are you focused on? The action you need to take or the results you desire?

This is just a small shift however a very powerful one.

What I also like about this distinction is that is in alignment with the teachings of law of attraction. By focusing on the end result and not so much the action you are taking you are in a mind state of positively expectation and not hung up or emotional attached to a specific action which may or may not bring you the goals you desire.

I don’t want to get all spiritual and quantum mechanics on you, and there are many ways to address this issue I described at the start of this post however to just keep it simple and break it down to what it really is, which is – what are you focused? Your actions or results?

The results you get are based on what you focus on and the meaning you attach to it in any given moment

If you are focused on actions the meaning you will associate is different and not as empowering I would imagine as if you focus on the end results you desire and the reason why you are taking that action in the first place.

To help me, I have this saying stuck on my mirror.

By being focused on why you are doing a certain action – the result you are looking to achieve you will be more motivated and driven to follow through with that action and live experience the results you dream of.

If you want to make long term change in your life and are not prepared for what might come up and how to handle it. You may find you self right back where you begin sooner that you might think.

Recently I have been making some relatively big changes in my life and I have noticed a couple of patterns that have showed up where I could have easier fallen back to where I started, if I wasn’t prepared.

In this post I thought I would share with you some of these patterns so we can both be more prepared for what shows up and to help push though to make that long term change that we are looking for.

One of my first mentors was my first sales manager Mr Dean R and he used to say that “A Leopard doesn’t changes its spots”

He would say this when a sales rep would leave his team in a hast blaming everything else except themselves only to come crawling back months later with their tail between their legs vowing that they had changed only to make the same mistake as last time and leave the company.

Now after years of observing myself and others what I think Dean was really referring to back then was the self image.

The self image is that image we hold of ourselves deep within our subconscious, the image we hold based on what we believe and value about ourselves to be true and it will determine what we think we are capable of and ultimately dictate the results you get in your life.

How is your self image?

I first learned about the concept of the self image after reading one of my favorite books by Dr Maxwell Maltz called Psycho Cybernetics.

Dr Maltz was a leading plastic surgeon in America  in the 1940’s, 50’s and 1960’s and after observing that so many patients’ unhappiness and insecurities were not cured, as they and he had believed would occur when he gave them the perfect new faces they desired.

Dr. Maltz suggested that many people “see themselves” inaccurately, their perceptions distorted by unchallenged and often erroneous beliefs embedded in the subconscious mind. – The self image.

The classic example and one of the best metaphors to explain what and how the self image works is the demonstration of a thermostat in a room.

If you set a thermostat in a room at 26 degrees Celsius and the room temperature reaches 28 degrees the thermostat will stop and weight for the temperature to drop or cool down to 26 degrees or below.

As soon as the room temperature drops below 26 degrees the thermostat will kick in again and start heating the room up until it gets back to 26 degrees.

Your self image works very much the same way, if you earn lets say $5000 a month and you suddenly start to earn $7000 a month and your self image hasn’t adjusted to except the new found fortune, just like the thermostat your self image will kick in a find a way for you to either spend the extra money, give it away or go back to earning $5000 a month.

I noticed this happen when I was in sales, whenever I had a really big month of sales and earned well above what I would normally earned my self image would kick in and very subtly start to sabotage my thoughts and behaviors.

For example I might have slacked off more the following month or have thoughts like “hey I did really well last month, I can afford to take it easy, I earned it” or I would spend money more impulsively.

The opposite was also true, if I had a slow month and dropped below what I was use to and comfortable with earning I would become extremely focused, stop going out on weekends, stop spending on an impulse and work harder with my clients to get the sale.

You can see the self image at work almost everywhere, you see it when people attempt to lose weight, they tend to progress really well for a few weeks or a month and start to lose some weight and then a month later, lose the momentum only to return to old eating habits and back to where they began.

It is also like the lottery winners who end up broke within a few years, their self image didn’t have time to adjust to their new found fortune and as a result they end up losing the money only to be back where they started or worse off a few short years later.

The self image works in very subtle ways and it can often be hard to identify what is happening until it has already happened.

I find the evolution of change has stages and choices, if you choose badly you will end up stuck isolating where you are or back to where you started, if you choose well and coach your self image to move along with you as you progress, your self image will then maintain and propel you towards the new change for long term results.

To help demonstrate this look at the picture below:

Don't get stuck on the setbacks, learn from them and break though

Let’s say you are moving towards a worthy goal as you go along you will hit challenges , however if you don’t allow yourself to get caught up in them you can break though and you will then coast along often quite easily to the next challenge or setback.

As opposed to the opposite of not breaking though and you just end up get stuck and eventually heading back to where you began, because you didn’t coach your self image along with you.

One of the major traps I have witnessed from the self image is what I call the reward trap or the “I’m doing really good” trap.

If you have ever attempted to make lasting change I am sure you will be able to relate to what I am about to say.

Let’s say you are trying to change your diet, you start out great, you stick to your new diet for a few weeks/months and then you may notice a voice in your head that says “hey, you are doing really well you can afford to have some junk food”

This is yourself image showing its head, now it is fine to treat yourself and reward yourself in fact it helps you stay motivated and on track and if it is only that once then it won’t make a big impact on your long term health or goal.

However if you are not careful and if you don’t nip this in the butt quickly before you know it you can easily be back to where you started, which is not ultimately where you want to be, right?

Getting stuck in patterns from the old self image

What helped me push though these moments is to think about the reason WHY you what to make these changes in the first place.  By following though and committing to these changes what is it going to give me, what pleasures will I gain?

The self image works very subtly, you may only be slipping up a very small amount each day, but these soon compound and before you know it you are stuck where you began.

On the other hand once you have your self image on your side it works in ways to propel you towards your desires, almost effortlessly.

Another strategy I use is visualization, there have been countless studies done on power of visualization and many top athletes and even astronauts use visualization techniques.

Visualization is also one of the techniques Dr Maxwell Maltz talks about in Psycho Cybernetics as a great way to re train your self image.

However the point of this post is to understand what the self image is and to be prepared for it, whenever you make changes in your life there will be setbacks, after all the habits and behaviors you are replacing, changing or improving did serve you at one stage and it only makes sense that your self image doesn’t want to let them go so easily.

If you want to make long term changes you must be prepared for it and learn how to retrain your self image to work for you instead of against you.

Whenever you are faced with a decision to move towards what you desire or to move in the other direction this quote always provides me with the power to choose right.

To get a much more in-depth understanding of how the self image governs your life and how you can reprogram it for success I can’t recommended Dr Maltz Psycho-Cybernetics more highly, it is one of the most impactful books I have ever read.

I recently watch the documentary film Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days, if you are not familiar with the film they take 6 people who have type 1 & 2 diabetes and cure them of diabetes in 30 days by doing nothing else except changing their diet.

There were doctors on hand 24 hours and doing regular blood tests and a variety of other tests to ensure it all went safe.

I don’t have diabetes however my Grandfather, yet more out of interest and curiosity I brought the DVD.

After watching the film and seeing remarkable results like 80% of the participants not needing to inject themselves with insolent with in the first week simply by eating a raw food diet and then 4 out of the 6 completely being cured of type 2 diabetes 1 cured of type 1 which is considered incurable by many doctors and the other type 1 participant reducing his insulin intake considerably by the end of the 30 days I was amazed, yet in some ways not overly surprised.

You are what you eat and the human body is designed to heal itself if you feel it right and live a balanced diet. When you look at our modern day western diet’s consisting of so many processed dead foods it is sad yet not to surprising that in Australia 2 in 3 people by 65 will have cancer and 1 in 3 have heart disease.

So after watching the film I thought I would give it a try too. After all it was only 30 days and what’s the worse can happen. If I didn’t see any improvements or didn’t enjoy it I could easily go back to my usual eating habits which I considered fairly healthy anyway.

Well it has been almost 7 weeks now since I started making shifts towards a raw vegan diet and I have to say I am loving it. I have more energy and focus than ever before, I actually feel energised after meals and not sleepy or tired – what a concept!

My skin is amazing, my finger nails are stronger and I am healing quicker than before too. (I practise Tong Long Kung Fu where we hit each other quite often).

When I started I didn’t go completely raw and vegan 100% to start with as I don’t think I could have handled it, instead  I eased myself into it and kept improving every couple of days, adding things and taking out others.

I was already vegetarian so the change for me was not that drastic as it could be for others and cutting out dairy completely has been one of the last changes I made however after seeing the results I wish I had of cut dairy out weeks ago.

Here Are My Top 9 Benefits And Reasons For Going To Raw Food Diet

1. More Energy – I feel energized after eating each meal, I never feel bloated, tired or lethargic. What a concept lol
2. Improved Skin – My skin has cleared up, not that I had a major skin problem to begin with I would get the odd pimple but nothing major, I noticed the biggest improvement to my skin as soon as I cut out dairy, it only took 3 days before I started seeing great results. I have noticed my skin is  more youthful, it has a glow to it is… well clear.
3. Heal Faster – I am healing faster. I practise Tong Long Kung Fu and we tend to hit each other quiet often getting many bruises, etc I notice I am healing faster than before and faster than many of my colleagues.
4. More Focus, Less Stress – I have more focus, concentration and feel more in alignment or congruent with who I want to be – if that makes sense. This means I am more productive but less stressed even when there is pressure to meet deadlines
5. Environmental – I have less trash in my bin at the end of the week/month most of the waste is biodegradable, less plastic packaging, etc so it is better for the environment and your garden if you have one.
6. Easy To Prepare Meals – It take less time to prepare food and 90% of the time I only require a knife, a chopping board and a bowl or plate, this also means less cleaning up to do J
7. Less Binging – I tend to only eat to feed my body and not to fulfil a sugar craving or as an escape mechanism, my binging on junk food has pretty much just fallen away.
8. Weight Loss – I have lost weight, which I have never had a weight problem but I have noticed I have lost the small bit of flab I had on my stomach, my body is more lean and muscular now.
9. Over All Wellbeing - It feel healthier, a healthy body equals and healthy mind and sprite, which means I am firing on all cylinders so to speak. It is funny we almost all make sure our cars are in great working order but often neglect our body which will get you a lot more joy or pain depending on how you treat it than your car ever will

I understand eating a raw food diet is not for everyone and I never want to tell someone else what they should do, as i believe as soon as I do that they can start telling me what to do. But I would suggest try it out for 30 days and see how you feel, after all what’s the worse can happen, you don’t like it and you go back to where you are now.

The food industry is massive and when it comes to food and our diets we are sold so much rubbish about what is so called ‘good’ for us.

If you would like to learn more about the movies above and the food you eat and what it really does to your body check out this documentaries Food, Inc and FoodMatters
and and Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days

I would love to hear you thoughts, experiences and/or questions so make sure to talk back to me in the comments

If you want an Automatic Lifestyle you need to have automatic income.

And just like anything else to create an automatic income there are more than one way to skin the cat  (btw I love cats, please don’t send me hate mail )

My primary focus on automating my income has been though internet marketing. Now if you have read anything about making money online no doubt you have heard the saying ‘The money is in the list’ and it is so true.
If you have a list of people and have a good relationship with then you are ultimately in control of your business and income, it doesn’t matter is Google suddenly buries your website to page 43 because they make a new algorithm shift.

In July 2010 I discovered a cool plugin that literally doubled the amount of subscribers I was getting from the same amount of traffic from one of my niche websites. Check out the screen shots below

Aweber Stats Dec 2009 - Dec 2010 (List Name Crossed Out To Protect My Niche)

Google Analytics - As you can see traffic dropped during the year Subscribers went up

I have some great news for you but you have to act fast.

The guy who developed this amazingly powerful subscriber sucking plugin is giving away 4 of his most powerful and popular products for the price of just 1, but you have to hurry as he is only offering this for the next 4 days.

Now because I know first hand how powerful these plugins are and truly want you to create an automatic income I am going to give anyone who buys though my link here FULL access to Write Your Own Paycheck Course and Traffic Intrusive Bookcamp a $167 value for FREE.

Write Your Own Paycheck Course is a 12-Module Formula that walks you though step-by-step to everything you need to do to make a full time income. Traffic Intensive Bootcamp has over 12 Hours of Innovative Video Training a complete one-of-a-kind Traffic and SEO program where you get in depth live over-my-shoulder examples.
All you have to do is send me your recept to admin@automaticlifestyle
Hurry go now check out these amazingly powerful plugins and software. The sale end 23rd May.

For as long as I can remember I have been a seeker for knowledge, exploring, reading books, going though courses, etc.

I really just like to know how things work and how people get certain results. Heck when I was around 5 years old or so I took apart my pram and put it back together, just to see how it all worked. (Should have seen the look on my mum’s face when she saw the pram all in pieces )

One question that I have been determined to unlock like many other people is the combination to financial success and fulfilling happiness.

Unlocking Success

As I started reading personal development books and studying successful people I have noticed some commonalities such as: Success is not held only for a select group or a certain type of person, basically anyone can become successful in any area they desire when they direct their focus on the right things and do these things in a certain way.

Almost every success book or successful person I have read or studied all talk about mind set and how you think and another commonality or distinction is that successful people do little things over and over again until the compound effect kicks in.

They have a bunch of success habits that they do on a consistent and persistent basis that are usually very subtle but make a massive difference in their lives.

Many of these success habits are easy to do, yet they are just as easy not to do which is often why many people don’t do them or simply dismiss how powerful these little actions can be.

Successful Habits

It doesn’t matter if you want to improve your health, lose weight, earn more money, have better relationships, get more traffic to your website, or anything else you desire if you study the people who are successful in these areas or already have the result you desire you will find that they all do certain yet often very subtle actions on a consistent basis.

These actions and habits are very subtle because these habits won’t make your successful over night, just the same by not doing them won’t make your a failure over night. This is why many people simply over look them or dismisses them.

Think for a moment that there are two people, one doing the small success actions perhaps like reading 10 pages of the good book every day, or meditating for 30 minutes every day, or visualising their ideal end results for 15 minutes every day, which are all easy to do.

For a while it may seem like there no differences between these two people, and it would be easy to say or think that it is not making any difference, so why take the consistent action or make it easy to dismiss it and say that it doesn’t work.

Yet over time the difference between these two people in 1, 5, 10, 20 years time their lives would be on completely different paths.

It is the little things that make the big difference

This is the same when it comes to the Law of Attraction, I heard that millions of people all over the world have seen the movie The Secret and been exposed to the law of attraction.

Almost every teacher of the law of attraction talk about writing down what you are grateful for every day, visualise on your end results every day and write down your goals or ideal day every day, amongst other things.

Most people get excited and start out doing this and then after a week or a month or so they stop, they go back to their old habits that have gotten them the results they are getting and say that this law of attraction stuff doesn’t work, really? I hope you see the clues here.

Again success and failure rarely if ever happen overnight it takes time.

Here is a great audio track from Jeff Olson author of the Slight Edge about the power of success habits and the subtle actions that lead to success.

Make sure to leave a comment and tell me what success habits you are going to commit to or have been doing that have brought you great results in your life.