A Note From The President

Avil Beckford, President

Have you ever been in a situation where nothing worked for you? You tried many different things but to no avail, now what do you do? I asked Lydia Danner and Lea Chambers to share their techniques when all else fails.

Lydia Danner who teaches high-speed learning shares her process with us. "Quiet your mind and go to the place where the true solutions lie…to the alpha state of your brain. It is in this state that we can access our higher power. But, it's usually the last place we want to go in our frenzied quest to get things done. If we could train ourselves to go to this state first, that is our best solution, for everything…yes, absolutely everything.

So, how do we access our higher power whenever we want or need to? By slowing down our brain. By living an alpha life. According to scientists, there are four known (and possibly more) brain wave states…beta, alpha, theta and delta. Our general state of being is the beta brain state which oscillates at 14 to 25 cycles per second. This is where stress, anger and disease reside. Then there is alpha (7 to 13 cycles per second), where all creativity resides and where all things are conceived before they become reality. This is also where learning takes place.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where nothing is working, it is because you are in a highly agitated beta state and you are preventing solutions from coming to you. Sit in a comfortable chair and relax. Breathe deeply. Close your eyes and count backwards (in your head), slowly, from 10 to 1. While you are counting, roll your eyes upward toward the space between your eyebrows. This effectively puts a brake on your beta frenzy and slows your brain down to alpha. You can actually feel this happening. In this state of well being answers will flow to you. In other cultures this is called the state of surrender. Try it. Your life will be the better for it."

Lea Chambers, a marketing professional responded, "I believe that when we are on the right path in life and moving in the right direction, the results we want come to us, seemingly without effort or struggle. However, sometimes our conscious mind just doesn't have the capacity to understand what that might be. This causes fear and stress for us, but we can overcome those feelings if we believe in synchronicity and the power of Being in the Now.

I've just recently come through a period where I wasn't getting the results I wanted right away. At first I struggled with this, becoming emotional, fretting over why things weren't working, wondering what I was doing wrong, looking backwards at the decisions I had made to get me to this point and beating myself up about them.

Then, one day, I surrendered to all of that frustration and struggling and just TRUSTED that I was in exactly the right place at the right time. I looked at my situation differently and saw all the positive things that were happening all around me and enjoyed each day, rather than fighting against the way the path was leading me. I relaxed, just focused on doing what brought me pure joy and didn't worry about the results I was getting. I just decided to breathe and "BE" and exist in the moment and not be connected to any outcome whatsoever. I took time to "clean my space", get exercise, eat better, call people I hadn't spoken to for a while, read some good books, slept a lot, went for slow walks in the woods and felt love and joy.

Then, one day, without me having to do much at all, the result that I had wanted all along virtually came to me and was absolutely better and bigger and more wonderful than anything I had imagined. And I had to do almost nothing to make it happen.

Believe in synchronicity and ignore the mind's tendency to trouble over what "isn't". Focus on what is and let your Being breathe within that space, where time and money and all your daily troubles are irrelevant. There is something bigger out there waiting for you that is larger and more wonderful than what you could ever imagine."

Are you willing to try something that's different? Until next time!

Book Review

Review of A Book Of Five Rings: The Classic Guide To Strategy, Miyamoto Musahi

The Book Of Five Rings written in 1645 is about the "Way of Strategy," which is using certain techniques to take down the enemy. Because of when the book was written, you have to be aware of the imagery and language used - enemy, weapon, combat, sword, cutting and so on. Once you get beyond that, and use those words as metaphors, a lot can be gleaned from the book.

To adapt the book to our time, an enemy could be a metaphor for competitor. The Book Of Five Rings emphasizes the importance of practicing and mastering your art - becoming adept at what you do. Your strategy should either be decisive or fluid. You have a fluid strategy when you have obstacles in your way. Musahi outlines Principles of the Way of Strategy. Though the principles are over three and a half centuries old, they are still applicable.

• Do not think dishonestly
• The Way is in training
• Become acquainted with every art
• Know the Ways of all professions
• Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters
• Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything
• Perceive those things which cannot be seen
• Pay attention even to trifles
• Do nothing which is of no use

From the book, I found the following to be insightful nuggets:

• Lay your plans with true measure and then perform the work according to plan, thus you pass through life
• The strategist makes small things into big things. The principle of strategy is having one thing, to know ten thousand things
• Everything is difficult at first
• If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be difficult for you to master strategy
• Do what you have to do, even if it means doing it alone
• Discern your competitor's capability and know your strong points
• Do not show your hand. Do not let everybody know what you're doing
• If your strategy doesn't work change it. When you're in a deadlock change your technique. Abandon efforts that do not work, think of your situation in a fresh spirit
• Whenever we have become preoccupied with small details, we must suddenly change into a large spirit, interchanging large with small
  

Five Great Ideas

1. You must train day and night to make quick decisions. In strategy it is necessary to treat training as a part of normal life with your spirit unchanging
2. There is timing in everything. Timing in Strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice
3. In strategy, it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things
4. The Way to Understanding is through experience
5. People in this world look at things mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This not true void. It is bewilderment.When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear way, there is the true void (By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist; that is the void)

If you can get past some of the disturbing imagery you could gain a lot from The Book Of Five Rings.

November's Book List

A Book Of Five Rings: The Classic Guide To Strategy, Miyamoto Musahi

Survey Results

Are You Sleep Deprived?

Statistics Canada recently released the results of a study based on a 2002 health survey of 37,000 people.

• About 3.3 million Canadians aged 15 or older, or one in every seven reported that they have trouble getting to, or staying asleep all or most of the time
• Insomniacs average 6.5 hours of sleep while the average Canadian sleeps for an average of 7.5 hours
• Insomnia rises with age, doubling from 10 percent of 15 to 24 year olds to almost 20 percent of those 75 years or older
• Women complain of sleep disorder twice as often as men

What's the Impact of Sleep Deprivation?

According to studies conducted at The University of Chicago, Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the health risks associated with sleep deprivation include:

• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Heart disease

Source: "Good Sleep Just A Dream For Millions, Study Finds," Toronto Star, November 17, 2005, page A21
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/62/71591.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/09/health/webmd/main654548.shtml

How Did They Do That?

Andrea Nierenberg, The Nierenberg Group http://www.selfmarketing.com/

Challenge: As a small company the challenge is always getting in the door to a large, branded company.

Solution: I build relationships one person at a time. I meet people through my programs and at speaking/networking events. I nurture these relationships and doors have opened.

Lessons Learned

1. Be reliable, trustworthy, always follow-up, and be a great listener
2. Most people have some of the above traits, yet I have realized that to be successful you have to have all of them

What Can Ambeck Do For You:

Ambeck Enterprise provides diverse business research and analysis services to senior level executives, through the relevant distillation of diverse facts and data.

Formula For Success

Andrea Nierenberg, The Nierenberg Group

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." To become successful, you have to be determined, reliable, consistent, and keep looking for the goal that you want to achieve.

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