How Do You Unlock the Barriers to Your Potential?

Scientific experiments reveal that we use only 10% of our brain capacity. Scientists also tell us that humanity is only using 10% of its DNA. Psychologists tell us that we are only 10% conscious. Most people are not aware of the other 90% of their thoughts. They are buried in our subconscious yet they affect everything about us. We are said to be unconscious. The body only uses about 10% of the available oxygen it takes in and most people only breathe at 10% of their capacity. Is this just a play on numbers and a coincidence or does this pattern have meaning for you and me?

I don’t know much about coincidences. But, it seems that most of humanity is living within a prescribed range of what is viewed normal. Since very few have had experiences outside the range of normal, the collective view is that such things are wishful thinking. But I don’t believe that. It does not have to be this way. Right now you can change the way things are and tap into your human potential.

Let’s say that you want to be smarter tomorrow, that you want to double the capacity of your brain power. In fact, let’s say that upon waking up tomorrow we will use 20% of our brain instead of the normal 10%. Ready! Set! Go!

So, Where Do We Begin?

Go where?

Do What?

How?

That’s exactly the point.

Where do we begin? 

How do we tap into this potential? 

We cannot simply increase our brain capacity, activate more DNA or become more conscious by turning on a switch. There is no such switch nor should there be since these are effects not causes. But the causal point of our suppressed potential can be accessed through our breath capacity. Even our breath capacity is only at 10% because of energies that lie within our system that contract and restrict the diaphragm. Within the diaphragm lies our potential. Every limiting belief, negative thought form, negative program is reflected in these restrictions. The key is finding the key that unlocks the diaphragm and allows you to access your potential.

At some time in your life you unconsciously decided to block out the truth of who you are and temporarily decided to believe in lack and limitation. You took on a role to be less than you are. This is the path of the human condition. Everyone must pass this way. But we don’t have to stay stuck here. We just have to remember.

Is it a Choice? 

What is keeping you where you are is a choice. It is a choice to hold onto the story of who you think you are. So many who come to us are stuck here and are suffering through sadness and grief, anger and fear. They know not what to do. With love in our hearts, we tell you it is safe to let go of that story. Your story is just an energy configuration that remains locked within your subtle bodies. When we free up that energy, we can use it to create a new story, a new world view.

For you to have a new world view, you must first acknowledge it is possible. You must go against the flow of the collective consciousness of humanity and invite into your consciousness that a new possibility is possible. When you have done this, you have taken a giant leap forward. But there is more.

This simple step applied consistently will help you manifest more of the following:

• Your level of consciousness will increase. As you become more aware of your creations you will become a more powerful conscious creator. You will have the ability to create a new story.

• Your breathing will open up delivering more oxygen to the body. As a result your energy level will improve, immune functioning will be enhanced and you will sleep better at night. Things will happen with less effort as you begin to flow with life rather than resist it.

• Brain functioning will increase as more oxygen is delivered to the brain and your mind becomes less cluttered by unconscious thoughts. Mental clarity is enhanced.

• More DNA will be accessible. The solar plexus is the seat of the emotional body. The energies that suppress our breath capacity are emotional in origin. As we free these energies, this new energy will rise up and into the heart chakra activating more love in our hearts. It is this newly found love energy that has the power to activate the unused coding within our DNA.

Conscious breathing is the key to unlock your potential. When you open your breath, everything changes. Anytime you change the way you think or the way you look at things, every time you heal, your breath pattern has to change. If it doesn’t change, the change/healing will not be maintained. The breath must change for the energy to change. All of this happens unconsciously. No matter what you do or how you do it, why not bring the conscious awareness of the breath to it. It will help make everything you do manifest more quickly and easily. It is the key to unlocking your potential and stepping beyond the barrier of the 10%.

Why Failure Is Good for Success

This week's article is a follow-up to my last week's radio talk, on the Fear of Failure. To achieve the greatest success, you have to embrace the prospect of failure.

The sweetest victory is the one that’s most difficult. The one that requires you to reach down deep inside, to fight with everything you have got, to be willing to leave everything out there on the battlefield—without knowing, until that do-or-die moment, if your heroic effort will be enough.

Society does not reward defeat, and you won’t find many failures documented in history books. The exceptions are those failures that become steppingstones to later success. Such is the case with Thomas Edison, whose most memorable invention was the light bulb, which purportedly took him 1,000 tries before he developed a successful prototype. When a reporter asked “How did it feel to fail that many times?” Edison's response was, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” 

Unlike Edison, many of us avoid the prospect of failure. In fact, we are so focused on not failing that we don’t aim for success, settling instead for a life of mediocrity. When we do make missteps, we gloss over them, selectively editing out the miscalculations or mistakes in our life’s résumé.

“Failure is not an option,” NASA flight controller Jerry C. Bostick reportedly stated during the mission to bring the damaged Apollo 13 back to Earth, and that phrase has been etched into the collective memory ever since.

To many in our success-driven society, failure is not just considered a non-option—it’s deemed a deficiency, says Kathryn Schulz, author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. “Of all the things we are wrong about, this idea of error might well top the list,” Schulz says. “It is our meta-mistake: We are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition.”

Life’s Greatest Teacher

When we take a closer look at the great thinkers throughout history, a willingness to take on failure is not a new or extraordinary thought at all. From the likes of Augustine, Darwin and Freud to the business mavericks and sports legends of today, failure is as powerful a tool as any in reaching great success.

“Failure and defeat are life’s greatest teachers but, sadly, most people, and particularly conservative corporate cultures, don’t want to go there,” says Ralph Heath, managing partner of Synergy Leadership Group and author of Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes and Thinking Big. “Instead they choose to play it safe, to fly below the radar, repeating the same safe choices over and over again. They operate under the belief that if they make no waves, they attract no attention; no one will yell at them for failing because they generally never attempt anything great at which they could possibly fail (or succeed).”

However, in today’s post-recession economy, some employers are no longer shying away from failure—they are embracing it. According to a recent article in Business Week, many companies are deliberately seeking out those with track records reflecting both failure and success, believing that those who have been in the trenches, survived battle and come out on the other side have irreplaceable experience and perseverance. They are veterans of failure.

The prevailing school of thought in progressive companies—such as Intuit, General Electric, Corning and Virgin Atlantic—is that great success depends on great risk, and failure is simply a common byproduct. Executives of such organizations don’t mourn their mistakes but instead parlay them into future gains.

“The quickest road to success is to possess an attitude toward failure of ‘no fear,’ ” says Heath. “To do their work well, to be successful and to keep their companies competitive, leaders and workers on the front lines need to stick their necks out a mile every day. They have to deliver risky, edgy, breakthrough ideas, plans, presentations, advice, technology, products, leadership, bills and more. And they have to deliver all this fearlessly—without any fear whatsoever of failure, rejection or punishment.”

Reaching Your Potential

The same holds true for personal quests, whether in overcoming some specific challenge or reaching your full potential in all aspects of life. To achieve your personal best, to reach unparalleled heights, to make the impossible possible, you can’t fear failure, you must think big, and you have to push yourself.

When we think of people with this mindset, we imagine the daredevils, the pioneers, the inventors, the explorers: They embrace failure as a necessary step to unprecedented success.

But you don’t have to walk a tightrope, climb Mount Everest or cure polio to employ this mindset in your own life. When the rewards of success are great, embracing possible failure is key to taking on a variety of challenges, whether you are reinventing yourself by starting a new business or allowing yourself to trust another person to build a deeper relationship.

“To achieve any worthy goal, you must take risks,” says writer and speaker John C. Maxwell. In his book Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success, he points to the example of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who set several records and achieved many firsts in her lifetime, including being the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean. Although her final flight proved fateful, Maxwell believes she knew the risk—and that the potential reward was worth it. “[Earhart’s] advice when it came to risk was simple and direct: ‘Decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying.’ ”

Of course, the risks you take should be calculated; you should not fly blindly into the night and simply hope for the best. Achieving the goal or at least waging a heroic effort requires preparation, practice and some awareness of your skills and talents.

Easing Into a Fearless Mindset

“One of the biggest secrets to success is operating inside your strength zone but outside of your comfort zone,” Heath says. Although you might fail incredibly, you might succeed incredibly—and that’s why incredible risk and courage are requisite. Either way, you’ll learn more than ever about your strengths, talents and resolve, and you’ll strengthen your will for the next challenge.

If this sounds like dangerous territory, it can be. But there are ways to ease into this fearless mindset. The first is to consciously maintain a positive attitude so that, no matter what you encounter, you’ll be able to see the lessons of the experience and continue to push forward.

“It’s true that not everyone is positive by nature,” says Maxwell, who cites his father as someone who would describe himself as a negative person by nature. “Here’s how my dad changed his attitude. First he made a choice: He continually chooses to have a positive attitude. Second, he’s continually reading and listening to materials that bolster that attitude. For example, he’s read The Power of Positive Thinking many times. I did not get it at first, so once I asked him why. His response: ‘Son, I need to keep filling the tank so I can stay positive.’ ”

Heath recommends studying the failures and subsequent reactions of successful people and, within a business context, repeating such histories for others. “Reward them and applaud their efforts in front of the entire organization so everyone understands it is OK to fail. So employees say to themselves, ‘I see that Bill, the vice president of widgets, who the president adores, failed, and he is not only back at work, but he is driving a hot new sports car. I can fail and come to work the next day. Bill is proof of it.’ ”

Finally, Heath stays motivated by the thought that, “if I become complacent and don’t take risks, someone will notice what I am doing and improve upon my efforts over time, and put me out of work. You have got to keep finding better ways to run your life, or someone will take what you have accomplished, improve upon it, and be very pleased with the results. Keep moving forward or die.”