Have you ever said – or heard someone say – “It is what it is”?
I’ve been hearing it a lot, too.
Every time I do, I cringe.
Something about the statement just doesn’t feel right.
I couldn’t put my finger on it at first.
Then it hit me.
“It is what it is” is a statement of victim-hood.
It comes from a mind prepared to roll over and accept the circumstances they are in as final.
It’s a statement of powerlessness.
I was still considering the implications of the wimpy “It is what it is” line when I stumbled across a Facebook video by John Spencer Ellis.
I know John from years ago, when he put me in his movie, The Compass.
John articulated what I hadn’t yet realized: the line “It is what it is” is a declaration of surrender.
John urged you and I to stop saying it.
Now that I have more clarity around the line, I totally agree.
It is one of the wimpiest statements of all time.
Instead of saying “It is what it is,” say “It is what it is for the moment and I am doing something about it!” and then speak what you want, not what you are giving in to, and act to make your new intention a new reality.
Surrendering is a high spiritual act when you are surrendering to your highest ideals; it’s a poor act of victim mentality when you surrender to circumstances you honestly don’t like.
I’ll repeat that:
Surrendering is a high spiritual act when you are surrendering to your highest ideals; it’s a poor act of victim mentality when you surrender to circumstances you honestly don’t like.
So many of us deceive ourselves with statements that at first glance look innocent — like “It is what it is” — instead of looking deeper to find what hides behind the statement.
I’m not suggesting that you deny reality or the facts you may be facing, but I am suggesting that accepting facts as the final verdict is a poor move.
Think of the movie The Untouchables.
When actor Sean Connery turns to Kevin Costner and says, “And what are you prepared to do now?”
In that movie, Connery’s character is suggesting they bend the rules in order to get the bad guy.
I’m not suggesting you do anything illegal or unethical, but I am urging you to “bend the rules” or find a way around the rules so you can achieve the outcome you want.
You have this choice in every moment.
The moment could be one where you accept the consequences already in play as final, and you shrug and say “It is what it is” or it could be one where you are aware of the moment but declare, “I am doing something about this to change it!”
You can choose to give up to the flow in place.
Or you can choose to redirect the flow.
It’s important to understand the difference between self-awareness and self-deception.
Awareness of the moment means you understand the reality of what you are facing and take new actions to go in a new direction.
Deception is when you understand the reality of what you are facing and think you can’t do anything to change it.
Big difference.
Also —
Consider –
I’ve been reading the book, Not Impossible by Mick Ebeling.
It’s the story of a man who learns to say YES! to the biggest challenges brought to him, even the “impossible” ones, and then scrambles to figure out a way to make what he just promised come into reality.
He’s famous for creating artificial limbs for war victims out of 3-D printers.
He could have said “It is what it is” and went about his life.
Instead he said the equivalent of, “It is what it is and I am doing something to change it!”
And he did.
The point here is to be aware of the statements you speak and how you feel when you say them.
Do they empower you or weaken you?
You want to be empowered, so you can live out your mission and make a difference.
After all, is anything really impossible?
Ao Akua,
joe
PS — I started Miracles Coaching so you can have one on one assistance in working with your database of hidden beliefs and concepts like this blog post. Check it out.
The more books I read about free will, neuroscience, and neuroplasticity, the more I realize that each of us has “a window” of awareness.
It’s The Window in your mind where thoughts appear.
It’s the mental place where you can consciously choose to follow, or not, the thoughts that come to you.
But you can’t consciously act on or reject any thought you haven’t witnessed in that window of your mind.
And for now, you don’t have control over what thoughts occur to you.
To prove this, predict your next thought.
Go ahead and try.
You can tell me what it is after you think it, but you can’t tell me what it will be beforehand.
That means that your thoughts come from somewhere else and appear in your “window” of awareness for you to then observe.
You don’t think thoughts; they think you.
Where do thoughts come from?
In the ho’oponopono tradition (as written about in my books Zero Limits and At Zero, and as taught by Dr. Hew Len), your thoughts arise from the programs or data in your subconscious/unconscious mind.
Programs are mental paradigms, mindsets, perceptions and more. They are memories.
In neuroscience, the thoughts arise from your unconscious storehouse of beliefs, experiences, and more.
They are pretty much saying the same thing: thoughts appear from what’s in your subconscious mind.
In both views, your thoughts “appear” from somewhere out of your full conscious awareness.
Your thoughts are appearing in “the window” of your conscious mind, bubbling up from what is hidden in the mind below, from an underground database of memories/beliefs/data.
This is so important that I’m not even sure where to begin to explain it.
For example –
If you are trying to attract money but struggling at it, it isn’t your fault at all.
The programs in your unconscious are not allowing you to see the opportunities for wealth around you.
It’s as if you are wearing blinders, goggles, or filters.
The hidden data in your mind about money is what allows or prevents thoughts about money to enter “the window” of awareness in your mind.
What sort of hidden beliefs might keep money away?
Money is bad.
Money is evil.
Money is not spiritual.
Money is not good for me.
And so it goes.
Any limiting program in the subconscious is the “blinder” preventing you from seeing anything that could help you.
What enters “your window” of awareness is based on your programs.
Change the program and you see a different reality.
New thoughts will arise.
And in “the window” you will see new choices.
You can still ignore what appears in “the window” of your mind.
Some call that free will.
But it might be more accurate to call it “free won’t.”
When a thought floats into your window of awareness, you can act on it or not.
You have the freedom to decide once you are aware of the thought.
But your “window” is the only place you get to consciously choose anything, and what appears in that window will come from your secret mental software – unless you start working with the programs and data in your unconscious/subconscious.
How do you change the hidden programs?
There are numerous ways, and I’ve written about them in many books, such as The Key, and spoken about them in many audio programs, such as The Zero Point and The Missing Secret.
I also started Miracles Coaching so you can have one on one assistance in working with your database of hidden beliefs.
A new way to begin dealing with the hidden programs is with what I call The Fourth Dimension Process.
I wrote a Special Report about it which you can have, free, by clicking here: The Fourth Dimension Process: Hyper-Manifestation for Wealth.
This brand new report reveals the process and proves it works by explaining how I used it to manifest one of the biggest goals of my entire life.
I also just taught it, with the help of Dr. Steve G. Jones, to a group of eight people in a private seminar in Las Vegas.
Every person loved it and said — on camera — that it transformed them.
I think you’ll like it, too.
Meanwhile, consider where your thoughts are coming from.
Even right now, whether you like your thoughts or not, notice that the thoughts seem to float into The Window of your awareness from someplace else.
And then consider how you respond to those thoughts.
Again, you have free will.
And free won’t.
The point is, if you are trying to attract or achieve something and not succeeding, it most likely isn’t what you are consciously thinking, but what you are un-consciously believing.
Think about it.
Ao Akua
Joe
PS – Whatever you are thinking right now just bubbled up from your subconscious/unconscious/collective unconscious database of programs. It’s now in “The Window” of your awareness, where you can act on the thoughts, or not. But even your action is based on what is in your programming. No foolin.’ 🙂
I have a terrific new gift for you.
I’m not sure how to convey how excited I am about this breakthrough new process.
I developed it to turn the “impossible” into the possible.
And I just proved it works on one of the biggest dreams of my entire life.
This is the most electrifying method I’ve ever been inspired to share – and I want to give it to you.
I wrote a Special Report about it called —
“The Fourth Dimension Process: Triggering Hyper-Manifestation for Wealth”
It’s a mind-melter.
It’s a belief-buster.
And it’s yours free at http://thefourthdimensionprocess.com/
There’s nothing for sale in it and it just might melt the limitations in your mind so you can finally attract and achieve virtually anything you can imagine – including those experiences that (until now) have eluded you.
Again, I wrote it for you and am letting you have the report as my gift to your awakening.
It’s short and won’t take long to read.
And it just might change your life forever.
Go get it at http://thefourthdimensionprocess.com/
Expect Miracles.
Ao Akua,
Joe
PS — Again, this new report is entirely gratis. I want to help you. I wrote “The Fourth Dimension Process: Triggering Hyper-Manifestation for Wealth” for you. I’m giving it to you. But I can’t read it for you. Please go get it and read it today at http://thefourthdimensionprocess.com/
Elsie Lincoln Benedict – the forgotten wonder woman of self-help who I wrote about here on my February 15, 2015 blog post – taught me something profound.
I was reading her 1921 book, How to Unlock Your Subconscious Mind (sometimes called Mental Analysis: How to Unlock Your Subconscious Mind) when I came across this insight in the final chapter:
“Whatever your conscious mind affirms, visualizes and suggests to the subconscious, the subconscious will build into your life.”
For you and I today, that’s probably not news. But in 1921, it was a breakthrough new concept.
It basically said that you could choose what you want with your conscious mind, and with intention and imagery, you could get it into the subconscious, where it would take seed and begin to grow.
Why is this so important?
Because Elsie said something else right before revealing that concept that was even more insightful, and something so profound that I had to reread it a few times.
Elsie wrote –
“This newest, hitherto unpublished and most far-reaching of all the discoveries concerning the laws of human life is that every human being GETS his supreme subconscious wish.”
In short, there is a type of prime directive in your subconscious mind.
It is the secret guiding desire for your life.
You may not know what it is, but your subconscious is attracting into your life everything to make it real.
What you are getting right now is a match to the secret desire of your subconscious – your “supreme subconscious wish.”
In my own work, I talk a lot about counter-intentions.
A counter-intention is a hidden belief in contrast to what you consciously say you want.
You might consciously say you want a new job, but unconsciously believe you won’t get one due to the economy (or some other excuse/reason/belief), and your unconscious, being more powerful, will make the counter-intention come true.
Elsie would probably agree but her deeper insight is that the subconscious has one major intention and it will allow nothing to come about to contradict it.
Elsie explains –
“Let us repeat: Your supreme subconscious wish dictates your life. It permits nothing seriously to interfere with its materialization. It is automatic, implacable. What you want most of all, as a condition in your life, it will get for you.”
Now think about this.
If your conscious intent is to attract more money – for yourself or others or causes you believe in – but your secret subconscious wish is to avoid money so you consider yourself “spiritual,” then your subconscious mind will make sure that you get your chief hidden intention — and stay broke.
Your subconscious secret desire will win.
It’s the same scenario with anything you can name.
Want a relationship but secretly want to stay alone because it feels safer?
Then nothing you do will work because the secret intent of your subconscious will control the outcome. You will be alone but “safe.”
Want better health but secretly want to stay ill so you can avoid taking actions and risks in the world?
Then your overriding subconscious desire will make sure you stay ill. You will be sick but “risk free.”
Elsie goes on to explain that your secret desire is for a feeling or condition, not anything specific. She says –
“Our supreme subconscious wish is never for any specific thing or person but for a condition, a certain avenue of self-expression.”
Elsie’s insight, offered in 1921, is a mind opener.
Here’s why –
First, realizing you have a secret subconscious “prime directive” helps explain why you are attracting what you have in your life: your subconscious insists on it.
Second, realizing you can change your subconscious secret desire to something else – with your conscious mind affirming and visualizing a new outcome – is enlightening and empowering.
Once again, Elsie has rocked my world.
I trust you see the power of these insights from our dear woman of the 1920s.
But here’s a suggestion –
You can sit and reflect on what your subconscious might want for you, which will help explain what you are attracting into your life.
You can then use your conscious mind to offer new instructions to your subconscious, reprogramming it to help you attract more of what you consciously prefer.
Got it?
Elsie was pointing the way to the hidden operations in our mind, long before positive psychology and neuroscience came into play.
Thank you, Elsie.
I love you.
Ao Akua,
Joe
PS – Unraveling your own beliefs can be tricky, since you are the one wrapped up inside of them. The fastest way to expand your mind is with the help of your own Miracles Coach. Check out Miracles Coaching.
Elsie Lincoln Benedict.
Recognize her name?
Neither did I until I found a copy of her 1928 book, Brainology.
Turns out this remarkable woman was the most popular self-help author in the world in the 1920s – seen by over three million people during her lifetime – before radio, television, and of the course the Internet.
The only person maybe more well known as a speaker was the former athlete turned fiery evangelist Billy Sunday. (I’ll pause while you Google him.) But even his extreme popularity shrunk in the 1920s as Else’s grew.
Elsie was an American suffragist leader, international lecturer, and popular author on psychology, self-improvement, and more.
She created and ran the Benedict School of Opportunity and founded The International Opportunity League, a book and correspondence business.
She traveled the world with her husband, Ralph Benedict, visiting at least 55 countries, and wrote about their adventures in a popular book, Our Trip Around the World.
She was born in 1885.
She was a millionaire by 1920.
This amazing woman wrote numerous books, such as Practical Psychology (1920), and with her husband, Unlocking the Subconscious (1922), How to Make More Money (1925), and their standout bestseller, How to Analyze People on Sight (1921).
I found Brainology: Understanding, Developing and Training Your Brain, and couldn’t believe it was written in 1928 but as useful today as it was when it first came out. She was way ahead of the modern fields of positive psychology and neuroscience.
Who was Elsie?
Apparently she was a cutting-edge leader, a petite woman with a commanding presence and charming personality, speaking and writing on what Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie and a long list of men would do later.
In many ways, while Elsie was just as upbeat as Hill or Carnegie, and just as subtly metaphysical, she was more practical. She gave people the nuts and bolts of how to succeed by teaching them practical psychology.
Hers was a common sense approach to a happy, healthy, prosperous life.
And she championed women’s rights.
She spoke — in the 1920s, remember — on such topics as Sex Psychology, How to Choose a Mate, How to Get Anything You Want, How to Succeed in Business, and more.
In 1922 she told an audience, “Most people use less brains in selecting the person with whom they are to spend their lives than they do in choosing an automobile, a bicycle or a cut of steak. Love isn’t enough; there must also be understanding.”
She made money even during the Great Depression. Her talks (usually free) inspired people. She urged them to think right, take action and take care of themselves. She also wrote, Outwitting the Depression.
She believed in the “work cure,” which was a new way to handle nervousness and hysteria and other psychological problems of the early 1920s.
The idea was to get you to do useful activities, like taking a college class, learning carpentry or music, or running an office.
The “cure” for what ails you was in the “work,” or the doing, of something meaningful.
Instead of disconnecting from life, you re-connected to life.
In 1923, the Oakland Tribune called Elsie “Wonder Woman,” explaining that “..she actually MAKES OVER THE LIVES of those who follow her wonderful, powerful teachings.”
When Elsie was asked, in 1920, how she attracted 3,000 people at a time to her talks, with hundreds being turned away due to lack of room, she replied, “Because I talk on the one subject on earth in which every individual is most interested – himself.”
I got so excited discovering Else that I went looking for more of her books. I found a pristine 1920 edition of Practical Psychology.
What a treat!
I was impressed at how her clear, direct, conversational writing style communicated practical insights about everything from how to stop worrying, how to build self-confidence, to how to make money.
I of course jumped to the How to Make Money chapter, which was the last one in the book.
Knowing all her readers would do what I did, there’s a line in parenthesis in that chapter where she says, “You are reading this chapter first!”
Elsie knew people.
While I haven’t seen her use the phrase “Law of Attraction” – yet, as I haven’t read all of her books yet – she certainly knew the power of the mind to direct action, which attracted results.
In that last chapter in Practical Psychology she writes:
“All men and women who have climbed to the top of life’s ladder climbed up mentally first.”
When her husband died in 1941, Elsie withdrew from public life.
She was heart broken.
She stayed plugged into life by traveling and visiting family.
But her public appearances and books were over.
She died in 1970.
I’m glad I discovered her.
She was one of those pioneers who paved the way for many others, including me and other Law of Attraction authors, by stepping forth in courage to share her message of self-help and self-improvement.
“Make a rule to dwell on nothing but the strong and good in life and people.”- Elsie and Ralph Benedict, Brainology, 1928
Thank you, Elsie.
I love you.
Ao Akua,
Joe
PS — Heather Mickelson, Else’s great granddaughter, is bringing the “forgotten wonder woman” back into public awareness by reissuing her lost books, writing a biography, and carrying her work into the modern age with humanitarian efforts. Heather’s site explains it all. See http://www.elsielincolnbenedict.com/