Welcome to Week Eleven of The Master Key System! Also, welcome to episode 15 of these Teleseminars. Who would have “thunk” that we’d make it to fifteen episodes?

We did. A big part of that has to do with what Haanel wrote in Week Four.

12. Unless you do this, you had better not start at all, because modern Psychology tells us that when we start something and do not complete it, or make a resolution and do not keep it, we are forming the habit of failure—absolute, ignominious failure. If you do not intend to do a thing, do not start. If you do start, see it through even if the heavens fall; if you make up your mind to do something, do it; let nothing, no one interfere; the “I” in you has determined, the thing is settled; the die is cast, there is no longer any argument.

‘Nuff said.

On to Week Eleven — “Inductive Reasoning and the Objective Mind.”

At first glance, this seems like a strange week. The ideas seem “out there.” There is no real exercise as we’ve become accustomed to them at the end of he chapter. Haanel seems to go on tangents.

That being said, there is a lot going on here this week, the main thrust of which can be summed in a story I related in The Master Key Workbook.

When President Kennedy decided in 1960 that the United States would put a man on the moon in ten years, most of the technology to accomplish the task was not yet available. The decision to set the goal—the belief in its possibility and the belief that it could be achieved—produced the necessary scientific and technological breakthroughs to make it possible, and the resulting spin-offs of these new technologies altered our lives for the better.

Or as Haanel instructed us so perfunctorily yet eloquently –

We are first to believe that our desire has already been fulfilled. Its accomplishment will then follow.

One question that I get asked a lot, both through www.masterkeycoaching.com and from my private clients, is, What is this inductive reasoning?

In the first three points, Haanel defines inductive reasoning.

* Inductive reasoning is the process of the objective mind by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all.

* Induction proceeds by comparison of facts. It is this method of studying nature which has resulted in the discovery of a reign of law which has marked an epoch in human progress.

* It is the dividing line between superstition and intelligence. It has eliminated the elements of uncertainty and caprice from men’s lives and substituted law, reason, and certitude.

We all do this naturally to one degree or another. It’s what we do as human beings with our intelligence, our consciousness, our gift of reason. We look at the things around us and as we “figure them out,” we draw conclusions to tie things together, to make observations that will serve us in future endeavours.

Let’s look at the examples Haanel used.

8. It is our privilege to become conscious of the principle and act in accordance with it. Cuvier sees a tooth belonging to an extinct race of animals. This tooth wants a body for the performance of its function and it defines the peculiar body it stands in need of with such precision that Cuv...

Before we discuss Week Ten of The Master Key System — “A Certain Definite Cause” — let’s return for a few moments to Week Nine and have a closer look at affirmations.

If you’ve been into self-help and personal development for a while — and perhaps even if this is your first foray — you probably know what affirmations are. Not only are they a staple of personal development, they are something that even the most casual person will do once in a while.

Whatever the case, let’s define what an affirmation is.

An affirmation is a form of self-talk in which you use your conscience mind to influence and change your subconscious mind. We can look at this as a way of “re-programming” ourselves by changing our negative or debilitating subconscious thoughts.

A classic example of an affirmation is the one Haanel provides for us.

I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.

The person who wrote this used it to overcome what could have been a most debilitating ailment.

22. But at last the victory came, and I have grown from a little, crooked, twisted, cripple, going about on my hands and knees, to a strong, straight, well formed male.

23. Now, I know you want the formula, and I will give it to you as briefly and quickly as I can.

24.  I built up an affirmation for myself, taking the qualities I most needed, and affirming for myself over and over again, “I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious, and happy.” I kept up this affirmation, always the same, never varying, till I could wake up in the night and find myself repeating, “I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, lov- ing, harmonious, and happy.” It was the last thing on my lips at night and the first thing in the morning.

25. Not only did I affirm it for myself, but for others that I knew needed it. I want to emphasize this point. Whatever you desire for yourself, affirm it for others and it will help you both. We reap what we sow. If we send out thoughts of love and health, they return to us like bread cast upon the waters; but if we send out thoughts of fear, worry, jealousy, anger, hate, etc., we will reap the results in our own lives.

By repeating the affirmation in a mantra-like fashion, this man, Frederick Elias Andrews, overcame his sickness.

So, this begs the question, do affirmations work?

Depending on what you mean by “work,” I would say that yes they can. At the very least, they won’t hurt and they can help.

Let’s be clear, one will not have a million dollars appear from nowhere simply through the repetition to oneself of an affirmation. Affirmations are there to correct “bad habits” and unproductive — what I would call “anti-working” — thoughts. They can soothe and relax a person and if done properly, they can impregnate a person with enough spirit and force of will so that he can overcome sickness.

They are not magic spells, though. Let’s just be clear about that.

The best way to utilize affirmations is to use them when one is relaxed and when one is open to “suggestion.” When one begins “chanting” an affirmation from a point of fear in a reactionary manner, one runs the risk of reinforcing the bad habit or thought rather than vanquishing it. That’s why the very first exercises in The Master Key System were geared toward helping you top relax. This is very important!

When you’re using your affirmation, first relax, clear your mind, cast away your thoughts of fear. Then proceed to recite your affirmation to yourself.

You’ll notice I wrote when you’re using “your affirmation....

This is the thirteenth episode of the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars (Happy Halloween, anyone?) and with it comes an exploration into Week Nine of The Master Key System. You may have noticed something different about this week’s update: it appeared online a little later than usual. Is there a reason for that?

I’m glad you asked because yes, there is. In order to encourage participation in the live call — which occurs every Monday evening beginning at 8:05 pm EST — I decided to delay uploading the audio of the call for one week. hence, the people who listen and participate live are rewarded and those who don’t … Well, I can’t say that they’re being punished, because they — or possible you — are not. I don’t want anyone to think or feel that way. I understand that many have busy schedules or live in different time zones. We all have to make commitments, though, and we all have to sometimes “do what we gotta do.” The live call is important not only because it provides the source for this podcast/recording, but because it allows people to interact and ask questions or make comments. As I’ve said quite a few times, that is the really fun part of the call and more often than not provides the greater food for thought.

Additionally, the time delay allows me time to write these summaries without the feeling of being rushed.

Make sense?

Now, let’s get into this week’s call.

I often receive emails about what I say on the calls. Mostly good; sometimes not so good. Generally, it never fails that when I say something that I think is controversial and that I think I’ll receive massive emails about, the emails never come. On the other hand, when I say something that I think is innocuous, I become deluged with emails — some calling for my head on a platter! That’s what happened after last week’s call.

I made the comment about someone making toilets for a living and made the comment asking if anyone really thinks someone could be “passionate” about producing “porcelain potentates.” I thought it was funny and said that merely to show a point about how by merely following one’s passion, the money doesn’t always follow; sometimes we don’t necessarily follow our passions to earn money. It helps, sometimes; and if we can arrange so that our source of income is tightly tied with something we love doing, then we are very fortunate. It doesn’t always work that way, though. I posted a video at www.masterkeycoaching.com in which Mike Rowe, the “Dirty Jobs” guy, delivered a speech on just this topic. Have a look at it, if you will. It contains much food for thought.

That being said, the person who emailed me wrote asking how did I know that the person who manufactured toilets wasn’t passionate about them? Maybe they were! Just because I think it’s silly — or dirty or whatever — doesn’t mean everyone feels the same way.

Well, you know what? The person who emailed me is absolutely correct! I don’t know how that person thinks or feels. As I wrote, though, I was merely illustrating a point. All of our passions are different — and they are all focused on different things. While the person manufacturing toilets may not be passionate about toilets, he may be passionate about making money or building a business or … Any of a thousand possible reasons.

Week Eight is my favorite part of The Master Key System. Specifically, it’s the exercise for Week Eight that is my favorite. I hope that when I explain it and its place in the sequence of exercises that Haanel has outlined for us that this will also become one of your favorites as well. I am highly confident that I will show you that it is not only powerful within the “System,” but it is a powerful exercise to practice in and of itself.

Before we get into the exercise, let’s review some of the point that Haanel put forth this week. We are now one-third of the way through the book and things are really beginning to “heat up.” Many of Haanel‘s points are coming together and by now you should have a clear idea of what Haanel is instructing.

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but I think by now it should be obvious that the items I averred in the first episode of this Teleseminar series — focus, thinking correctly, solving problems, seeing things as they really are — to be the real points of The Master Key System rather than it being a manual or how-to primer on the Law of Attraction. Frankly, if you had any doubts about my views, what is contained in this week — both the points Haanel makes and the exercise — should put them to rest.

In Week Eight, Haanel continues to work with cultivating our imagination. In doing so, Haanel explained the difference between using one’s imagination and day dreaming. He wrote

Day dreaming is a form of mental dissipation, while imagination is a form of constructive thought that must precede every constructive action.

In building our mental images — visualization or using the “constructive imagination” — we are seeing the things we want: how we want our business to look, the end result toward which we are working, the solution to a problem, the effect we ultimately want.

Day dreaming entails none of that. It is entering a fantasy world that, for all practical purposes, cannot be. While sometimes the difference between the two are slight, they are differences based on the facts that one will eventually provide a blueprint for its attainment whilst the other will not.

That being said, I made a point during the call about day dreaming that I’d like to impart to you. To one degree or another, Haanel implied that day dreaming is bad: it’s wasteful, indulgent, and not a good thing to do.

I agree, but not totally. While working with some Master Key Coaching clients, I have found that a little daydreaming can be an effective way for a person to discover what it is they want to do as well as to put them in a “state” that encourages them to pursue a course of action (or stay on a course of action).

Regarding the latter, day dreaming, as we all well know, is relaxing and sometimes uplifting.

Welcome to Week Seven of The Master Key System and welcome to an extended and super-sized episode of the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars! We had to go longer with this call because Week Seven is where things really begin to get interesting. There is a lot in this section of the book: the Law of Attraction, visualization, faith, and how things are tied together.

In reading this section, you’ll also notice that this is the section that served as the source material for many of the movies about the Law of Attraction that have been released over the past few years. As you listen to this episode, you’ll also see how they completely missed the point.

While I like to keep my monologues short, I couldn’t help but going a little over time. Even with all of that, we still had time for a most enlightening Question & Answer session.

In this section of The Master Key System, Haanel outlines the method we use for visualization. As I’ve stated countless times over the course of these calls, this is one of the main points that one should learn from reading and studying this book.

How does Haanel define visualization?

Visualization is the process of making mental images.

Simple.

There are three steps to making (and using) these mental images.

1. Idealization

This is where you picture in your mind exactly what you want. It must be complete and unwavering, like a blueprint, which is an example that Haanel uses a couple of times in this section. I use the example of a business plan, which is an idealized plan for how a business will use the money it is requesting and the outline for its growth.

2. Visualization

Here you will see your picture completely. As you use your creative imagination to create your image, these thoughts will lead to actions and those actions will lead to results.

3. Materialization

In this step, you get what you want. It may take time, depending on the size and scope of the goal to which you’re aspiring. With persistence, daring, and work, it will happen.

In point #4, Haanel wrote

Work is necessary — labor, hard mental labor, the kind of effort which so few are willing to put forth.

Is Haanel stating that work is necessary and that things will not magically manifest for us?

In a word, yes!

In point #7, Haanel expands on the process he delineated fills in the blanks (that the movies, infomercials, and books left empty).

Thought will lead to action, action will develop methods, methods will develop friends, and friends will bring about circumstances, and finally, the third step, or Materialization, will have been accomplished.

Not only is this the process of visualization and attainment of our goals, it is also how faith is developed.

As we build our ideals and think on them, as we build our mental pictures and take actions to gather the means to attain our goals, we will experience our faith growing stronger. As our mental pictures become clearer and as we build and process the means for actualizing them, we experience a swelling of seeing how things are possible because we begin to understand more and more about how the world — and the process — works.

This is faith growing. It continues to grow as we take action and experience victories and successes.

This brings us to what has become the biggest topic in personal development — and the most misunderstood. It’s a concept that has been bastardized in so many ways that it’s become a quasi-religious concept to some.

It is, of course,

It’s the tenth Master Key Coaching Teleseminar and this week we explored Week Six of The Master Key System. The main point we discussed this time was the power of concentration. As Haanel wrote

The power of concentration is the very highest personal accomplishment that can be acquired. It is the distinguishing characteristic of every successful man or woman.

We know this to be true from personal experience.

How do we refer to those people we know (or knew) in life who were what we would call “unsuccessful”? We often referred to them as “flighty” or “ditzy” because we were noting their inability to concentrate or clear their minds for even the shortest amount of tie. We noted how they flittered from one thing to the next in reckless ways.

Contrast that with how we often refer to those people we consider “successful.” We call them “single-minded.” We note how they are “focused” and “bright.” They know how to form a plan and stick to it. They know how to follow through.

In Master Key Arcana, Haanel wrote

Man has accomplished the seemingly impossible because he has refused to consider it impossible. By concentration, men have made the connection between the finite and the Infinite, the limited and the Unlimited, the visible and the Invisible, the personal and the Impersonal.

When faced with a tough problem, the successful don’t give up and flitter to the next thing. They stay on task. They concentrate on the solution to the problem at hand and stay with it until they find a solution. Sometimes, the solutions come easily; other times, it takes years or decades until any advance is made.

What else did Haanel write about this power of concentration?

21. So with the power of thought: Let power be dissipated by scattering the thought from one object to another, and no result is apparent; but focus this power through attention or concentration on any single purpose for any length of time and noth- ing becomes impossible.

22. A very simple remedy for a very complex situation, some will say. All right, try it, you who have had no experience in concentrating the thought on a definite purpose or object. Choose any single object and concentrate your attention on it for a definite purpose for even ten minutes. You cannot do it—the mind will wander a dozen times and it will be necessary to bring it back to the original purpose, and each time the effect will have been lost and at the end of the ten minutes nothing will have been gained, because you have not been able to hold your thought steadily to the purpose.

If you take a magnifying glass and focus the rays of the sun, then you can start a fire. When the sunlight is scattered, nothing will happen. Focus those rays and watch out! The same goes for the mind. If you allow power to be dissipated by jumping from one thought to the next, no result will be apparent; but if you focus and concentrate on a single purpose for a length of time, then nothing is impossible.

The exercises in The Master Key System are helping us to become thinking and focusing dynamos! Keep in mind, though,  that these are just exercises and not the real thing. They are essential to do and master, though! While in and of themselves they do have practical merit (such as the exercise we are about to study here), the real use will come when we begin to solve our own problems.

Look at it this way: these exercises are akin to the exercises one does when studying a musical instrument.

This is our ninth (Ninth!) episode of the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars — and I think it was one of the best ones yet. I think it was so great because of the Question & Answer session in which a regular listener and participant, “John in Orlando,” posed a most excellent question regarding what is commonly referred to as the “attitude of gratitude.” It’s toward the end of the episode, so please listen all the way through as I think you’ll get a lot from it.

We completed Week Five of Charles F. Haanel‘s The Master Key System this week after beginning it last week. There was quite a bit to cover, but it was well worth it. You see, in this Week, Haanel in just one sentence summarized the entire philosophy and how it should — and will! — work.

Yes, there is a lot in this section of the book, but by listening to this episode and carefully reading (and re-reading, if needed) this Week, you’ll come to a very clear understanding of how you’re “made” and how things — such as “life, the universe, and everything” — work.

When all is said and done, Week Five and Haanel’s entire philosophy can be summarized by point 28.

28. All possession is the result of the accumulative attitude of mind, or the money consciousness; this is the magic wand which will enable you to receive the idea and it will formulate plans for you to execute, and you will find as much pleasure in the execution as in the satisfaction of attainment and achievement.

Read that. Learn it. Understand it. That single sentence is the reason why this wonderful book is not, as far too many people say, about the “Law of Attraction” and “manifesting.” This sentence makes clear that this book is about what we’ve been discussing from Day One of these teleseminars: brain change and learning to think correctly.

The “money consciousness” to which Haanel refers is the way we look at the world. You can substitute here just about anything depending on your goal. If you’re main goal deals with health, then you’d want to cultivate your “health consciousness”; if love, then you’d want to work on your “relationship consciousness.” You get the idea.

This consciousness refers to a mental shift that you’ll undergo, just as we’ve been discussing. You’ll “see” things differently. After that, you’ll approach things differently. And, if you continue, you’ll achieve different — better — results.

In this sentence, Haanel also described the process thought which these changes will happen. Is it the “Ask-Believe-Recieve” line we’ve all been sold? No, it is not; rather, it is that we will get new ideas, we will formulate plans, we will take action, we will work hard, and eventually we will attain our goals.

It’s powerful stuff — and it all begins with thinking. Thinking properly and clearly.

Th exercise for Week Five is where things begin to get very interesting.

Welcome to Week Five of The Master Key System! We’re one-sixth of the way through this wonderful book and on this teleseminar I made a point to go through the Letter of Transmittal that Mr. Haanel wrote.

Before we get into Haanel‘s Letter of Transmittal for Week Five, please take note that these teleseminars are available on iTunes. If you click that link, you’ll be able to add them to your podcasts and they’ll update automatically every week. Also, if you can do me a solid, please leave a review (hopefully a good one!) and give it as many stars as you think it deserves. Thank you in advance. I appreciate it.

Now, Haanel‘s Week Five Letter of Transmittal.

Enclosed herewith you will find Week Five. After studying this part carefully, you will see that every conceivable force or object or fact is the result of mind in action.

Mind in action is thought, and thought is creative. Men are thinking now as they never thought before. Therefore, this is a creative age, and the world is awarding its richest prizes to the thinkers.

Matter is powerless, passive, inert. Mind is force, energy, power. Mind shapes and controls matter. Every form which matter takes is but the expression of some preexisting thought.

But thought works no magic transformations; it obeys natural laws; it sets in motion natural forces; it releases natural energies; it manifests in your conduct and actions, and these in turn react upon your friends and acquaintances, and eventually upon the whole of your environment.

You can originate thought and, since thoughts are creative, you can create for yourself the things you desire.

If you’re like me — and because you’re listening to and participating in these Master Key Coaching Teleseminars you probably are! — then the first thing that strikes you is in the first paragraph: “the world is awarding its richest prizes to the thinkers.”

One needs to only scan the financial news for a few seconds to realize that that is true. The people who think — the people who solve problems or entertain or inform — in a creative fashion are the ones who reap the greatest rewards. In an article that I wrote, I quoted an advertisement that Apple made: “Here’s to the crazy ones.” That jibes perfectly with what we see here. Because you see things differently, you may be considered a little bit crazy — for a little while. As time passes and you are proved correct, then what was once crazy will be the norm — commonplace.

If someone told you a few years ago you would be connecting with “friends” on a web site called Facebook, would you have believed them or would you have thought them nuts?

How about “micro-blogging” on a tool called “Twitter“?

People created those things for various and sundry reasons at the base of which was their desire to solve a problem.

That’s what we’re learning here and by reading

Week Four of Charles F. Haanel‘s The Master Key System is when things really begin getting good. By that I mean that we really start to delve into how this “stuff” works — what is expected of us, how do we put what we’ve done into practice, why the exercises we’ve been doing are important.

That being said, this chapter and what Haanel wrote is the most often confused and bastardized of the book — all because of one phrase. That phrase is

“We get what we give.”

Haanel wrote that in relation to what he termed “the secret of Power.” (The capitalization of the word “Power” is Haanel‘s in the original.) What is this secret to Power? According to Haanel it is “service.”

That means that in order to increase our power — our ability to influence the world around us — we must be of service. To be of service, we must first give and in return we will receive.

In The Master Key Workbook, I wrote:

In order to be able to do things, we must have power. Being spiritual or attaining mastery does not mean to go without things or to become self- denying, as an ascetic. How can one help others if one is not sufficiently powerful? Only a person with wealth can donate to a charity; only a person with strength can defend the little man; only a person with knowledge can give advice to the unexperienced.

The way we get this power is to be of service. The more we give, the more we get. For example, suppose two people invested in a stock and the stock over time doubled in value. The first person invested $1,000, thus he increased his wealth to $2,000, a profit of $1,000. The second person invested $10,000. His wealth increased to $20,000 and he profited $10,000!

The same holds true for all aspects of life: relationships, learning, work, and play. If one wishes to learn mathematics, the person who does more exercises or practice problems (gives more) will be the one who learns more. The person who invests more of himself at work will be the person who is promoted more often. A musician cannot play at Carnegie Hall unless he “practices, practices, practices” (gives, gives, gives).

The only time this will fail is if we pursue selfish ends that hurt others or bring deficits to others. It is not wrong to profit, but it is wrong to profit unjustly by cheating or deceiving others. When you allow the Universal to work through you, then you will be able to attain all that you desire; when you are busy with your own selfish plans and schemes, you will fail.

Do you see how that works? Our “giving” is an investment of sorts. A person who attends school until he earns a doctorate has “given” more (more time, energy, work) than another who merely graduates from high school. Thus, the person who earned the doctorate will more than likely earn more and be of more value (in an economic sense) than the person who does not pursue a college or advanced degree.

Unfortunately, many people (“gurus” and “teachers”) have taken this concept that makes sense and turned it into something it is not. Instead of giving in the sense as it is explained here, they use it to mean that one should give in the charitable sense. “Give and grow rich!” they exclaim. And give some people do, expecting that they will be rewarded for giving by th...

Fears, doubts, concerns, nervousness. We all have them. In our discussion this week, I revisit the topic of fear because I have received lots of emails about my views on fear and how we can best assuage them.

Many people believe that the goal for one should be to eliminate all fear. I believe this to be incorrect. Not only do I view it as something impossible to do, but I think it to be, for the most part, undesirable.

In The Master Key System, Haanel repeatedly wrote about fear. In Week Three we find

14. Nonresistant thought expands the Solar Plexus; resistant thought contracts it. Pleasant thought expands it; unpleasant thought contracts it. Thoughts of cour- age, power, confidence, and hope all produce a corresponding state, but the one arch enemy of the Solar Plexus which must be absolutely destroyed before there is any possibility of letting any light shine is fear. This enemy must be completely destroyed; he must be eliminated; he must be expelled forever; he is the cloud which hides the sun which causes a perpetual gloom.

15. It is this personal devil which makes men fear the past, the present, and the future; fear themselves, their friends, and their enemies; fear everything and everybody. When fear is effectually and completely destroyed, your light will shine, the clouds will disperse, and you will have found the source of power, energy, and life.

It is my contention that there are two types of fear: irrational and rational. (This differentiation also applies to all of the emotions that we feel from happiness to sadness, confidence to doubt.)

Irrational fear is the kind of fear about which Haanel writes. It is the deep-seated, unthinking, non-reflective fear that takes hold of us, that tries to dissuade us from our goals and plans, that paralyzes us. In the extreme form they are often referred to as phobias. In the forms in which we are most familiar, they manifest as nagging, unconscious doubts that keep us in a place of inaction.

These are the fears that Haanel implores us to “destroy.”

More often than not, these fears can be assuaged just by doing the activity or facing the thing that we fear. Sometimes, other methods are necessary, especially in the case if the fear has developed into a phobia.

Rational fears are those fears that we face every day and they are, in most cases, perfectly fine and normal. Sometimes they are an alert or warning mechanism, as in when we sense that something isn’t right, either with a person or a place. Other times they are useful if we are making plans for something: the fear of things going awry will impel us to check and double-check, to rehearse, to practice, to pay attention.

As we used to say when I was in Toastmasters before giving a speech, the goal isn’t to get rid of the butterflies in one’s stomach, it is to make them fly in formation!

There is a very good reason why I make this important differentiation regarding fear. I have found with myself and with my Master Key Coaching clients that far too often, we use not only the fear, but the quest to eliminate all fear as a crutch, which stalls us from taking the action necessary to attain our goals. They want to wait until they are comfortable before they begin taking action, not knowing that chances are very likely that they will only feel comfortable once they ...