Life is about balance and equilibrium. One of the best ways to learn and grow is by emulating the Greats of this world. On the other hand, since each of us is basically different, we must at times be willing to leave the beaten path and forge ahead in uncharted lands. That’s when we need to start thinking outside the box.

Thinking outside the box is creativity at its finest. That’s how some of the greatest breakthroughs came about. While most people were thinking about reinventing the proverbial “better” mousetrap, someone said, “Hey, how could I make a million dollars using my computer?” The rest is history – hundreds of new billionaires.

While everyone was mailing resumes, someone said, “How could I create my own job?” Result, hundreds of new entrepreneurs making tons of money and having the time of the lives. Again, the magic of thinking outside of the box.

It is said that, “People do what people do because people do what people do.” What that saying does not say is that when people do what other people do, they also get what other people get. We don’t have to look around very long to find out that maybe we don’t want what others have. That’s not being cynical; it’s being factual.

Thinking outside the box is simply the pursuit of a seemingly outlandish or impossible dream. It is done by asking ourselves the simple question, “Why not?” It is done by exploring what may seem to be a fantasy at first sight, something that had never been done before. The simple fact that something has never been done before does not mean that it cannot be done or should not be done.

When we approach the autumn of our live, most of our regrets are not over things that we have done but about what we should have done and did not have the courage to do.

We don’t know what we are capable off until we try. We have personal resources that we don’t even suspect that we have. They just lay there waiting to be discovered and exploited. It is said that we only use a fraction of our god-given talents. A statement that has never been disputed.

Napoleon Hill said, “What ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” It takes courage and fortitude to believe and heed those words. They are powerful words and once integrated into a personal fundamental belief, they can unleash astonishing personal resources.

Thinking outside the box creates diversity. It opens new channels of expression and reveals new worlds. Often times it creates the channel to what was hitherto impossible, and in doing so, brings life to a new level. The story of man’s progress is the story of thinking outside the box.

Thinking outside the box is to think differently, unconventionally or from a new perspective. This is sometimes called a process of lateral thought. A technique that is especially useful when encountering a solid wall while pursuing an objective or developing a theory. When that happens, the only thing that can be done is lateral gravitating in search of the opening that will allow further progress.

Faith in the knowledge that, “where there’s a will, there’s a way” is the essential element to spur on and flame the process of thinking outside the box. A technique that could be called “life saving” for moribund concepts.

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A lot of people who are attracted to the art and science of self-improvement are motivated by the lure of money. They want to know better and more expedient ways of climbing the ladder of financial success. It’s no accident that the bible of the self-improvement world is called, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

That is really unfortunate because financial success is really only a relatively small part of what self-improvement should be about. First and foremost, self-improvement should be about finding ways of having a more successful life and money is only a part of that equation.

Until that is understood, all the personal work done in self-improvement is next to useless. Money may be essential to a happy life but it’s only an aspect of the whole picture. This has been clearly demonstrated in the stories of people who have achieved great levels of financial success and were left so disillusioned that they ended up committing suicide.

Self-improvement is mostly about acquiring the tools and the knowledge necessary to take control of our life in all of its aspects. It’s about learning how to control the internal Master System that directs all human behavior.

Man is without a doubt the most sophisticated and complex creation or invention on Planet Earth – yet it did not come with an Owner’s Manual. That is what the science of self-improvement is all about. It’s the next best thing to that Owner’s Manual.

The emphasis in self-development should be on Personal Control and not exclusively on financial success. This point cannot be stressed enough because it’s the number one reason that people get into any of the self-help disciplines and fail.

The science of making money is not all that complex. It could be summed up in a few sentences: 1) Be obsessed with money. 2) Keep on trying to find new ways of making money. 3) Work very hard and save. Anything added to that is superfluous. Nothing else is needed.

On the other hand, real self-improvement is a life-long process. It’s not about learning new tricks on how to influence people. It’s about understanding why we do what we do, about fundamental personality change and about character building.

The title says it all, self-improvement. It’s about improving who we are as humans. It’s about learning that our past does not equate our future. It’s about coming to grip with the fact that it is possible to change and finding out how those changes can be affected.

The time invested in self-improvement can yield amazing returns. It can open the door to great achievements, transform lives and turn a meaningless existence into a world of greatness. No one has ever achieved anything worthwhile without using the principles found in the science of self-improvement.

Like any other discipline, self-improvement requires going through the theory and practice parts of that science. Learning without doing is moot. It does require work, discipline and diligence. It is a lifelong process, nothing that can be done overnight. The results are proportional to the time and efforts invested.

In one word, self-improvement is about understanding what motivates us to do the thing that we do and about character building. Once that this is understood, we are ready to plunge into the wonderful world of self-improvement knowing that our expectations will be met.

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Being able to direct and create our own version of the way we see our world gives us almost god-like power. We can shape our reality in almost any way that we want and we can direct how we experience every day that is given us.

Movie directors know that different effects of a scene can be created simply by changing the angle of the camera that is recording the scene. They also know that by changing the opening of the camera’s lens they can determine what will or will not be seen on the film.

It’s a big world and an almost limitless Universe out there. It contains amazing beauty and there is ugliness. There are scenes of joy and there is suffering. We can also see great hope and some despair. We are the Director; we get to decide what we will focus on and choose how it will affect our reality.

This liberty to choose has been called the ultimate freedom. We are not stuck in a fixed reality; we get to choose it. We have the choice between literally millions of different settings to focus on. No one and no outside influence can restrict that choice. The ultimate choice is in our hands. We are the Director.

As Director, we get to choose the theme of our movie. It can be a film about adventure, it can be about saving the world, and it can be about small or huge accomplishments. It’s our film. Whatever we want to see in the film and whatever way we want it seen is available. It’s a big Universe out there and it’s all at our disposal.

There is such a thing as reality however it cannot be grasped by the human mind. The very best that we can do is to create a representation of what we perceive reality to be. We don’t know what others are thinking; we don’t really know what is in their heart and mind.

We don’t know what others believe and we don’t know how they perceive reality. We don’t know about the nature of God and we don’t even know why we do most of what we do – yet, we profess to know what reality is all about.

Even on the tangible plane, our eyes deceive us. Quantum physic says everything that we see is in actuality nothing but energy. Still, most of the time we are left unfazed; we believe that our perception of reality is real. It’s not. It’s just a perception.

It does take maturity and some soul searching to come to the evidence that we live in a world of our own making. In a world that is mostly the fruit of our imagination. Before we can accept this theory, a very wide bridge has to be crossed. We must be willing to think outside of the box and change some fundamental beliefs. Not always an easy task.

It’s not an easy task but it is one that is very liberating. Once we have come to accept that we live in a world or our own making, we also understand that we are not tied down to just one world or one reality. It is in our power to change whatever reality we are in for another one that is more pleasant and more empowering.

We are the Director who decides what we will ignore and what we will focus on. We can change the perspective from which we look at everything tangible and non-tangible. We can create our world; we can create our reality. We’ve been doing it all along; the difference is that we did not know that we had a choice. We do have that choice – so let’s make it a world of wonderment and happiness.

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Reading self-improvement books serves an essential purpose however that purpose is not what you may think it is. We read self-improvement books because they motivate and inspire. Not because they inform. We already know what we need to know to succeed. The problem is that we’re not using it.

We also read self-improvement books because, unconsciously, we’re hoping to find a way to succeed without having to go through the basics. Sorry, there is no such animal. The Masters in any discipline, and that includes the Art and Science of Success, will tell you that everything starts and ends with the basics. Even the virtuosos and grand masters constantly practice and use the basics.

The basics fundamentals are the cornerstones upon witch any discipline or area of expertise are based. To master the basics is to master the art and science of that discipline. Everything else is just fluff designed to make it more palatable and interesting.

The basics in the Art and Science of Success are quite simple. They are: 1) Specific purpose, 2) Desire, 3) Certainty, 4) Action and 5) Perseverance.

1. Specific Purpose. Before a dream can be turned into reality, that dream has to be well defined and quantified. Any journey has to have a specific destination, so does an objective or a life’s mission. Before anything else is done, it is absolutely necessary to know precisely what it is that we are after.

2. Desire. The scope of the desire has to be proportional to the size of the objective. Wishing to climb Mount Everest would not be enough but a burning desire would do it. The desire is the fuel that propels the energy and enthusiasm necessary to reach the objective. The farter and more distant the objective, the greater the desire has to be to reach it.

3. Certainty. Certainty has been called, “The Winner’s Edge.” With certainty well implanted and doubts out of the way, fear is removed and the entire focus is on the goal to be reached.

4. Action. This has to be the most important ingredient of any achievement. Other basics elements required to succeed may be neglected but action is essential. Without action, nothing happens. With enough and well directed actions, almost anything is possible.

The inability to take action is the number one cause of crushed hopes and failed lives. Taking action is what separates the dreamers from the doers and the winners from the could-have-been. If one ever hopes to succeed at anything, action is essential.

5. Perseverance. Nothing of any importance ever unfolds without some roadblocks and setbacks. Few wars are ever won without loosing some battles. Jim Rohn says, “How long should you try? Until.” That’s how long perseverance should last, until the objective is attained.

Those are the basics of the Art and Science of success. You don’t need anything else. You put these five elements to work for you and success is within reach. Before you go to another seminar or reach for another book and success and motivation, try these. If that does not do it for you, there is something that you failed to understand or to implement.

As we quoted in the beginning of this article, “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

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Self-improvement will give you more tools and more resources. It will provide options that you never had before. It will give you insight on the working of the mind; it will give you hope when you need it and support when the going gets rough.

There is one thing that self-improvement will never do for you and that’s taking action for you. That is the major problem of those who get into self-improvement and fail. I have been very active in the self-improvement world and I have seen people spending ninety percent of their time learning new material or reading inspirational books while only spending ten percent of their time applying what they have learned. Not a good ratio at all.

Reading motivational material, attending seminars and going to great rallies can become a drug of choice. People who spend inordinate amount of time fiddling with self-help material while never taking action actually have the feeling that they are constantly improving when the reality is that they are simply chasing their own tail.

Self-improvement should be seen like any sport. First the rudiments of the discipline has to be learned followed by constant practice and occasional training lessons to learn new techniques and correct any faulty habits that may have been acquired along the way.

And, like in our sport analogy, the emphasis in self-improvement should be on the “practicing” part. Learning without doing is moot. Reading ten books on goal setting and achieving is completely worthless if the student does not set goals and strive to achieve those goals.

Back to the question, “Is Life Easier for Self-improvement Aficionados?” The answer is a non-equivocal YES. That is if there is equilibrium between the learning and the doing. The problem is that the “doing” or “taking action” part is a lot harder than the learning section.

A person could spend ten years reading about swimming but if that person does not get in the water and actually swim, chances are that falling off a boat would result in drowning. It is the same with self-improvement. The actual practice must follow the theory learning part or no change will come out of it.

Whatever we may have achieved so far, either good, bad or in between, is the result of small distinctions and small decisions that we have taken along the way. The better equipped and the more references that we had to assist us in making those distinctions/decisions, the more effective our choices were.

That’s where self-improvement techniques and theories can truly assist us. Those techniques and theories are the ones that were used by successful people who came before us. They are like a map that leads to success and the good life. So, when time comes to make those decisions, they are not done randomly. They follow a road that has been traveled before and known to work.

Suppose for a minute that you decided to do a parachute jump. What is the first thing that you would do? Chances are that you would try to gather as much information about parachute jumping as you could.

Well, it’s the same thing in life. We don’t get a second chance. We have to get it right on the first try. So, if I could give you the best possible advice that I can think off, it would be, “Take your self-improvement work seriously.” You’re already well into life’s parachute jump and you certainly want to get it right before you hit the ground.

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We like to believe that we are creatures of reason, motivated by logic and common sense. We are not. As the saying goes, we are creatures of emotion, bristling with prejudice, and motivated with pride and vanity.

That may be a hard pill to swallow. But it’s the truth; and unless we are willing to swallow that pill, there won’t be much that we can do about it. Ignoring a problem won’t make it go away.

If we are to be honest about it, we must admit that a large part of the problems and hardships that we face are ego related. Ego and unchecked passion go hand in hand. Both can be formidable enemies. What adversely affects the ego will be leashed out through irrational emotions.

The ego is so sensitive and so fragile that we will go to almost any length to protect it; and it is so precious that we’ll even deny reality to boost it. That’s easy to understand when we consider that a bruised ego will hurt more and take a longer time to heal than a broken bone.

The other disturbing reality about the ego is the fact that it is almost never blamed for the hurts or deceptions that it causes. No one ever says, “I was hurt because my ego is too fragile.” So, once again, if we cannot lay blame on whatever is causing the problem, how can we fix it?

The ego, like a wild animal, is only a problem when it feels vulnerable or is not well fed. A strong and healthy ego needs to dwell in and feed off a healthy and confident self-image. When well taken care off, it can be our best friend; when neglected, it becomes our worst enemy.

We can fool ourselves but we cannot fool our ego. It knows our true worth. It knows if we are true to our values and if we have the courage of our convictions or if we are only the shadow of the person that we know we could be.

We are our own worst enemy when we play down what we expect of ourselves in a futile effort to fool our ego. Instinctively, we know what we should be and what we are capable off. We also know whether we are leading a courageous battle to fill our rightful place in the world or if we have abdicated for lack of courage.

Even if he lost the war and suffered a major setback, a valiant and courageous General will not feel belittled or humiliated if he gave his all. That man will not feel like a failure. He was true to himself, respected his commitment and that’s what matters most.

It is the same in our own life. We can be our best friend or worst enemy. By having the courage to do what’s right, do it with courage while using the best of our abilities, the ego will be taken care off, the self-image will shine brightly and we will feel good about ourselves.

One the other hand, if we are less than truthful, try to deceive ourselves, try to get by with as little effort as possible by using the easy way out, we are heading for disaster. We may be able to fool ourselves, but we cannot fool life. We may be creatures of emotions but life is not. It unfolds according to implacable laws.

Either we follow those laws or we pay the price. Either we live our life in a courageous and honorable fashion or we face our worst enemy, ourselves.

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Being positive does not mean shunning reality. It means expecting and knowing that there is a solution to your problems and that you’ll find it, work it and solve the problem or problems. It also means having faith and confidence in your resources, having faith in the future and not being stuck on dwelling about everything that is going wrong in the world.

The fact that you are positive does not mean that you cannot get angry once in a while. Sometimes the energy that anger provides is necessary. That is especially the case when you’ve reached the threshold of tolerance.

If you’re overweight and eating your way to an early grave, it’s OK to get angry and say, “That’s it. I’ve had it. This is not me; I’m smarter and more disciplined than that. From this day on, things are going to change.” Saying that and meaning it while angry is not being negative. You are simply using one more resource at your disposal to get things done.

There is no such thing as a bad emotion or a negative emotion. Emotions are negative only when used in a disempowering way. They all have their utility and they all can be empowering. Emotions are neutral. It’s the way that they are used that can either be positive and negative.

That being said, it’s now time to get into the nitty-gritty of what is meant by “being positive.” There is one element that is absolutely essential to be positive. That is the fact that action must follow reflection. Faith without work is dead and being positive without taking action is being delusional.

If you’re positive that you can make it to first base before the ball gets there and you stay at home-plate, you’re not positive. You’re being silly. It’s the same for everyday occurrences. If you are positive that a situation or a problem will be solved and you don’t actually take action to solve it, you’re worst than being negative. You’re kidding yourself.

To be truly positive, action has to follow thoughts. That’s the true test of a positive attitude. It’s also where talk about being positive can actually be truly negative. People who put faith in the positive attitude and do not include action in the process are not actually helping themselves. They are actually hurting themselves.

Simply being positive by itself has never helped anyone. We see them all the time, the eternal optimists who positively believe that some day, their ship will come home. The ship will not come home if you did not put one in the water in the first place.

The term, positive attitude, may be the greatest thing since sliced bread but it will not do much for anyone if it’s not fully understood and used the way that it should. Sliced bread will not be of much use if it stays in the bag and a positive attitude will not help if it’s not coupled with action.

A positive attitude can be a tremendous tool for achievement and for successful living. It can also be a way of hiding the head in the sand. It can be an explosive force so long as it has a detonating device. That device is called, action. With a positive attitude and some corresponding action, almost anything is possible. When we separate these two elements, life gets to be hard… real hard.

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Stress has been the subject of more than 20,000 scientific studies and according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stress accounts for two-thirds of family doctor visits and half the deaths to Americans under the age of 65.

So, if stress is such a health hazard, how can it best be avoided? Over three decades of clinical work have shown me that the best possible way of avoiding the effects of stress is to be passionately involved in something that we love to do.

A mind actively involved in pleasant and creative work has no place or time for stress. That is the reason that so many highly successful individuals are still hard at work when it’s way past retirement age. These people have understood that life is about growing and evolving.

So long as a man is happily involved in a self-growth process, there are very few chances that disease will strike. Pleasant work is never health threatening. The mind and the body require exercise. The adage that says, “What you don’t use, you loose” is true. It could be said that the body is more likely to rust-out than wear-out.

Our physiology (body chemistry) is directly affected, either advantageously or adversely, by the mood that we are in. This fact has been confirmed by studying people affected with Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder.) Patients with that condition may be diabetic under one personality and normal while under another one. Eye color changes along with extreme variations in blood pressure have also been know to occur as the personality changes from one to another.

Another classic that shows the powerful influence of a person’s mood on the healing process is Norman Cousin’s story. Mr. Cousin, a prominent political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate, was diagnosed with a form of arthritis then called Marie-Strumpell’s disease (ankylosing spondylitis.) and was told that he had little chance of surviving the condition.

Faced with that very gloomy prognostic, Mr. Cousin decided to leave the hospital and move to a beautiful hotel suite where some of his comedian friends could come and entertain him. To his amazement, he discovered that spending quality time with upbeat people had a very powerful therapeutic effect.

In a matter of months, he completely recovered from the illness and spent the remaining of his life-giving lecture advocating the healing power of laughter. His story was published in a book called, The Anatomy of an Illness and a movie based on the book was made.

Every expert agrees that our moods and feelings have a profound effect of our health and wellbeing. Many forms of arthritis, some cancer and other debilitating diseases are also known to be highly influenced by stress and other emotional disorders. The states of our mind and body are most intimately related. What affects one, affects the other.

The prescription for health is simple. Live your life in a fashion that it provides tons of pleasure and very little pain. It’s the secret for wellbeing and it’s also the description and definition of success.

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Now, maybe material success can make us feel good. If so, the question becomes, “What the best way of acquiring that material success?” There are a great many ways of acquiring the things that we want but there is one element that will make it easier, faster and more effective.

The element that can do all these things is, having pleasure at doing whatever it is that we are doing. When we do something that we like to do, we are more effective, we do it with enthusiasm, we have more energy and a few setbacks will not throw us off the track.

Ideally, we should be involved in a life’s work that we enjoy so much that we would still do it even if we were not paid to do it. The good news is that it’s always possible. In some cases, it may demand some creativity, but it’s always possible.

Here is a little story that will demonstrate what is meant by “some creativity.”

“This man was taking a leisure walk in a strange city when he came upon a huge excavation site. Having nothing else to do he walked over where three workers were and asked the first one, “What are you making here?”

The man replied, “I’m making $25.00 an hours.” Our visitor then asked the second worker the same question. The man replied, “We’re digging a big hole.” The same question was then asked to a young guy who seemed to be full of enthusiasm and energy.

The young man replied, “I’m building one of the most advanced and sophisticated hospital that will not only help children from all over the world but a place where researches will be done to find a cure for a great many diseases. This job is a dream come true. I always wanted to be involved in a project that will benefit all of humanity.”

These three workers were involved in the same line of work. Can you see who was getting the greatest satisfaction out of what he was doing? It’s not what you do that really matters. It’s how you define what you do that really counts.

One sign of maturity is having the power to decide what our reality means to us. There is no such thing as good or bad situations. We are the ones who get to decide on the quality of our own world and everything in it. If we cannot do that, we are no better than robots — being directed by outside influences.

I was fortunate enough to be placed in a situation where I could rub elbows with some very successful people. They all had one thing in common. They all enjoyed tremendously the work that they were doing.

Does that mean that everything was always rosy? Of course not. It’s a bit like playing in a contact sport that we like. There will be times when we get the wind knockoff out of ourselves. We don’t like those incidents but that does not mean that we don’t like the game.

To win in the game of life, we need to enjoy what we do. That’s when we are at our best. There will be times when the going gets rough. It comes with the territory. A good player will put those experiences behind him and keep going full blast. That’s how the game is won.

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There are two main forces controlling every action that we take and every decision that we make. The first is “the pain/pleasure instinct.” Everything you and I do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure.

The pain/pleasure principle does not mean that we are on a constant pursuit of pleasure. What is does mean is that when two or more options are opened, one of those option will seems to be more enjoyable (or less painful) than the others and that is the option that we will naturally choose.

There are also times when a more difficult option will be chosen because there are promises of greater pleasure in the future. That would be the case of a young man who would choose to save his money to buy a car later on. Not spending the money right away is not the most pleasurable option at the moment but that option is overridden by the expectation of a much greater pleasure in the future.

The other main driving force that directs our behavior is the need to conform to our identity. We all act consistently with our views of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not. The reason is that one of the strongest forces in the human organism is the need for consistency.

Dr. Maxwell Maltz of Psycho-cybernetic fame said, “The “self-image” is the key to human personality and human behavior.” We always perform as we perceive ourselves to be. Going against our perceived identity would be like going our fundamental beliefs. Something that can happen in very rare and special occasions but certainly not the usual norm.

Now that we know what forces direct out lives, we have a clue as to how we can improve our willpower and self-control. What we need to do to improve our performance on self-control is to work with the mechanisms that direct our behavior, the pain-pleasure mechanism and the self-image or perceived identity.

We have to attach so much pleasure to following our chosen course of action and so much pain to not doing it that it will become impossible for us not to accomplish what we set out to do. On top of that, if need be, we must actually change the way that we perceive ourselves to be.

As an example, let us take the case of someone who finds it very difficult to maintain his ideal weight. To maintain the resolution to stay at a certain weight the person needs to attach so much pain to any weight increase and so much pleasure to maintaining the ideal weight that it becomes almost impossible to break the resolve.

To strengthen the resolve even more, the person can include in his self-image that being thin and in shape is who he truly is and being at the mercy of overeating is something that he is not.

By using the mechanisms of the pain/pleasure instinct and the directing guide of the self-image, will power is practically no longer needed. We all know that willpower can be very effective for short term resolves but when it comes to long-term commitments, success is far from being certain.

The best way to increase the effectiveness of willpower and self-control is by directing our life in a way that they are only needed for short-term implications. For the long-term commitments, the pain/pleasure instinct and self-image mechanism will do a very effective job. Doing what we like and respecting the self-image is always easy to do. That should be a no-brainer.

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