As we continue to explore The Master Key System and as we gain understanding in it, we see that the notion that we first posited is true: The key point of Haanel‘s work is to learn how to think, to solve problems, and to effect the brain change necessary to accomplish those goals.

In the “Letter of Transmittal” for Week Three, Haanel wrote that “there can be no failure in the accomplishment of any proper object in life if you but understand your power and persist in your object, because the mind forces are ever ready to lend themselves to a purposeful will in the effort to crystallize thought and desire into actions, events, and conditions.”

Our thoughts on the solution to a problem will lead to actions, to events, and to conditions in which we can solve the problem. And, as we’ve discussed in the previous teleseminars, a problem is nothing more than a goal.

As we practice this, we will see life differently — in a new way. Whereas once we focused on the problem, we will now focus on the solution, merely referencing the problem in order to make necessary adjustments to our plans or to see if we actually solved the problem.

This course of thought and action will become second nature to us. As Haanel wrote,

Whereas in the beginning each function of life and each action is the result of conscious thought, the habitual actions become automatic and the thought that controls them passes into the realm of the subconscious; yet it is just as intelligent as before. It is necessary that it become automatic, or subconscious, in order that the subconscious mind may attend to other things. The new actions will, however, in their turn, become habitual, then automatic, then subconscious in order that the mind again may be freed from this detail and advanced to still other activities.

For now, it will take our full conscious attention. Once we master this way of thinking, it will become automatic, or subconscious.

It takes time, though, not to mention practice.

The exercise in Week Three will assist us in mastering this. This is a great exercise and can be done where ever and whenever one has the time and opportunity. Sitting in a waiting room? Have at it! During a lunch break? You bet! Have a lull in your work day? Spend a few moments doing this exercise.

For your exercise this week, I will ask you to go one step further. I want you to not only be perfectly still and inhibit all thought as far as possible, but relax. Let go. Let the muscles take their normal condition; this will remove all pressure from the nerves and eliminate that tension which so frequently produces physical exhaustion.

What Haanel is asking you to do is take the exercise from Week Two one step further and add to it the element of relaxing — letting go.

You’ll find this practice invaluable to you not only from a Master Key System perspective, but in the application to just about any endeavor you are about to undertake. I use it when I sit to write and I find myself with a case of “writer’s block.” You can use it before you give a speech, work out, make a sales call, or any of a million things that we undertake on a daily basis.

This is an exercise that will get us in what many call “the zone.”

This exercise will help to let what’s in you “flow” in a natural and easy way.

Please enjoy listening to this week’s episode.

The real highlight of this week’s Master Key Coaching Teleseminar was the Question & Answer session. As I’ve written — and said — when I began doing these calls, that part of the call is the “meat and potatoes.” This session was a particularly good one as we delved a little deeper into Week Two of The Master Key System.

Before I began my monologue, I mentioned that I was interviewed by Deborah Hill on her Internet radio show. You can find the interview at www.blogtalkradio.com/intuitivecoach. It was a fun and interesting interview. I hope that you enjoy it as well.

At this early stage in our exploration of The Master Key System, we can already see how things are being tied together. It is about thinking — thinking properly!

From Haanel‘s Letter of Transmittal for Week Two we find

The keener the sensibilities, the more acute the judgment, the more delicate the taste, the more refined the moral feelings, the more subtle the intelligence, the loftier the aspiration—the purer and more intense are the gratifications which existence yields. Hence, it is that the study of the best that has been thought in the world gives supreme pleasure.

Thinking is not merely visualizing. It is not taking what someone else says as gospel. It is not merely “allowing” things to happen.

Thinking — true, vigorous thinking — is that “missing link” between visualizing what we want and actually receiving it. It is the making of plans, it is the compilation of data, it is the learning of knowledge. As we study, as we grow, as we experience, we have a greater pool from which to form and collect ideas.

In the words of Haanel, this is the “hard work.”

It is also the reason those who cultivate the ability to think make the “big bucks.”

A doctor will study for ten plus years, do low-paying residencies, and accumulate mountains of school debt. When all is said and done, though, he will be able to veritably write his own pay check.

The same holds true for anyone who accumulates rarified knowledge or cultivates a unique talent in a field: lawyers, engineers, scientists, athletes, investors, writers. Need I continue?

Think of the people to whom you pay money on a regular basis. In general, you will find that they are the people who perform a task or have a skill that you need. It is a task or skill in which the person became educated.

In other words, the person truly learned how to think.

They then saw a problem and created a solution for it.

You can do this, too.

Please enjoy this episode of the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars. Pay special attention to the Question & Answer session. The questions were great.

How do we train the subconscious mind to overcome fear?

How do we use our feelings to help us make decisions?

Why didn’t Haanel mention the usefulness or importance of dreams and dreaming in Week Two?

Is one’s ego the same as his conscious mind?

Until next week, I wish you all the best!

Tony’s Monologue

In the first Week of The Master Key System, Haanel describes what he calls the “world within” and the “world without.” What did Haanel mean by these terms?

Of course, we don’t have Haanel here as a reference. We can take the message of the book as a whole as clues to what he meant exactly, though.

The world within is one’s mind. It’s one’s thoughts. It’s one’s feelings. As Haanel wrote, it’s forces are mighty — mightier than we think.

The world without, on the other hand, Haanel described as a “reflection of the world within.”

I would make a slight change to that. I would say that the world without is or can be jaded or slanted or skewed by the world within.

The difference is small, but it is significant as we progress in our studies of this philosophy.

The world within can — and often does — alter the world without. Actually, it happens all the time. It’s part of the interplay that happens betwixt the two. It’s what I like to call the “Dance.”

There are many examples of the Dance all about us. Sociologists have been investigating it for quite some time, an example being Phillip Zimbardo‘s Stanford Prison Experiment.

Investor George Soros used Karl Popper‘s theory of “Reflexivity” to make more than a billion dollars trading currency. Popper’s reflexivity is an example of the Dance — the world within influencing the world without and vice versa.

The influence of the world without and the world within (and vice versa) is possible because, as Haanel wrote, we “live in a fathomless sea of plastic mind substance.”

I want to state here that this “plastic mind substance” is not and is not anything related to quantum theory, subatomic particles, or man’s mental influence on said particles as has been portrayed in various movies and books. Personal Development (the attainment of goals within our society) and quantum physics go together much like fish and bicycles. They don’t.

That being said, everything that we see and have and that moves us and influences us are ideas.

This world of ideas — this world in which we swim and which in turn moves us — is what Haanel meant when he wrote “plastic mind substance.” Think how often the world is changed by an idea — an idea that is brought to fruition by one’s actions and daring.

The car, the light bulb, the indoor toilet, the computer, the cellular phone: All ideas that in turn changed us and changed the world in which we “swim.”

Let’s get on to how you can change the world with your idea by delving into the exercise Haanel gave us in Week Two: to quell our thoughts. I don’t believe that Haanel meant for us to actually try to — or achieve — mental “blankness” for any great period of time. Rather, Haanel meant to show us how easily and often thoughts unrelated to what we’re doing can slip into our mind unbidden. The point of this exercise is to notice this happening and to stop it. That’s all.

So, if you’ve ever felt frustrated by this exercise, fret no longer.

This is the second Master Key Coaching Teleseminar — the sophomore effort. Before I go any further, I have to admit something right up front: I goofed big time on this one.

Before the call began, I was chatting with an attendee. When the time hit 8:05, I started the teleseminar.

I forgot to do one very important thing, though.

I forgot to hit the record button to record my monologue. I only remembered to hit record when I began the questions and answers session.

As they say … My bad.

So, what you’re going to hear here is my second take. After the call ended, I read from my noted and tried as best I could to reproduce the original monologue. Luckily, I make notes.

Let this be a lesson to all of us: We all make mistakes, but usually there are ways to recover from those mistakes.

Tony’s Monologue

In my monologue this week, I hit four topics.

The first was to announce this very web site: tuneinunlockattain.com. I hope everybody is enjoying it. Please leave comments to continue the discussions.

The “meat” of my monologue was about one very important item that Haanel mentioned in his “Letter of Transmittal” for Week One.

“You need not acquire this power. You have it already.”

I wrote more about this in an article that has been circulating about the web entitled “The Master Key Is You.”

There is one point about The Master Key System that most people fail to grasp. That point is this:

When Haanel talks about a “master key,” he is not talking about something outside of you, something separate from you. He is talking about YOU.

The Master Key is YOU.

You have the power. You have the ability. You have the will.

It is your duty to use it.

You are the only one who can open the doors put before you.

Be proud, be fearless, and be bold–and take advantage of that.

After studying personal development for about twenty years and publishing The Master Key System for about ten years and coaching/consulting with people for quite a few years, I’ve got one main thing to say: There are no “silver bullets.” What I mean by that is that there is no one thing that will propel you from failure to success. What we must do is practice an entire philosophy rather than focus on one aspect or one small list of aspects. It’s easier to do than it sounds. Believe me.

I aver, though, and will continue to do so that that for which we are looking is not outside of us, it is not something “out there” granting wishes and bestowing gifts on us.

No. The key — the Master Key — is you.

The last part of my monologue dealt with the exercise in Week One.

Week One Exercise

44. Now make the application: Select a room where you can be alone and undisturbed. Sit erect, comfortably, but do not lounge. Let your thoughts roam where they will but be perfectly still for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Continue this for three or four days or for a week until you secure full control of your physical being.

45. Many will find this extremely difficult; others will conquer with ease, but it is absolutely essential to secure complete control of the body before you are ready to progress. Next week you will receive instructions for the next step. In the meantime, you must have mastered this one.

While many — if not all — of the exercises in

This is it. The very first Master Key Coaching Teleseminar! Join us every week as we discuss Charles F. Haanel‘s The Master Key System.

Tony’s Monologue

My monologue for this first Master Key Coaching Teleseminar was in two parts. The first part dealt with introducing myself and going over how these calls will be run; in the second part, I described the five main things one should get from reading and studying The Master Key System.

To learn who I am, please visit my blog and click on “Tony Michalski.”

During these calls, you can expect a few things.

* I tend to stay away from what I call “trite tropes,” those superficial sayings that are common in personal development but upon closer examination really mean nothing. You’ll get the real deal with me. I won’t cut corners nor will I rely on the common notions that have been “sold” to you far too much.

* These calls will not be spiritually based. What I deliver will generally be practical and based on my observations and experiences. I won’t wax on idea that cannot be proven.

* There will be plenty of times where you will disagree with me. That’s fine! That’s why there’s a “Questions & Answer” portion of the call as well as the comments section on this blog. Let’s talk!

* These calls will be rated “PG-13.” We’re all adults. We’ve all heard the “dirty words.” Every so often, no other word will fit. I’m not saying this will be a cuss-fest, but don’t be shocked if you should hear an expletive now and then.

Why these calls now?

Since I’ve been publishing The Master Key System and the Complete Master Key Course, I’ve received (and answered!) literally thousands of calls and emails about Haanel‘s philosophy of success. From speaking with so many people, I noticed that the vast majority completely miss the point of The Master Key System, thus they’re not getting results.

Most of the observations I make on these calls come from the work I’ve done with my Master Key Coaching clients.

What Should You Be Learning As You Study the Master Key System?

Since 2000, when I began publishing The Master Key System, I’ve observed how other people, coaches, and publishers advertise or talk about the book. The most common description is that it is the “handbook about the Law of Attraction.”

Surprisingly, I think just the opposite. While the law of attraction is discussed in The Master Key System, it’s not the book’s (or, I dare say, Haanel‘s) main talking point.

From my years of study and coaching,