Shifting Gears at Midlife – a multmedia e-course -  is a simple way to consciously create your extraordinary future by using a set of tools and practices developed over 20 years by Dr. Fred Horowitz.

Shifting Gears at Midlife is an unconventional learning approach that frees you from the past and offers you the capacity to have greater freedom, power and fulfillment in your life right now.

To experience what the SGM approach can do for you, click here.

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Testimonial: Janet Cranford, Career change and life transition coach, asserts, “SGM is a valuable guide to creating a story for your life that fits who you are now, as well as who you’re becoming. . . you owe it to yourself to take this course.”

What is SGM?

In a nutshell, SGM teaches you:

1. How to be reflective.
2. How to develop a more critical worldview.
3. How to better understand yourself and the world around you.
4. How to act on your own purposes, values, feelings and meanings that you give things – not to accept uncritically these things from others.
5. How to have greater freedom, power and fulfillment in your life.

Why purchase this e-course?
There many reasons:

1. It’s fun. It’s a game worth playing, just like life itself.
2. There is a lot of material. It is full of readings, interactive exercises and activities
3. There are a ton of resources. We recommend some our favorite books and websites.
4. It contains a glossary of important terms. They go from A for “Acorn Theory” to W for “Well Being.”
5. It has a really cool look. Lisa Rodgers at Spy Vs Spy Computers did a great job.

Buy the SGM multimedia e-course now:

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Dr. Frank

I came across a fascinating article in the December 2011 edition of Psychology Today (PT), entitled “The uses and abuses of optimism (and pessimism)” by Annie Murphy Paul. I’d like to report on parts of the article, quote a few passages from it and make some comments. They are based on my studying with John Kobel in the 4 Weeks to Freedom: Unleash the power of your mind course.

PT: Current popular thinking views “optimism as an unqualified good, an all-purpose remedy for everything that ails us.” Now some psychologists are beginning to think that “the faith we place in positive thinking is not merely naive but fails to capture the complexities of human motivation.”

Dr. Frank: Optimism is only an attitude, which is simply a favorable evaluation of something or someone. It certainly does mean the same thing as a conditioned mind – based on a way of living – that controls one’s thoughts and uses their tremendous power. It seems to me that if we think something won’t work, it won’t. If we think we won’t succeed, we won’t. If we think we are persecuted, we will be, and so on.

PT: Some psychologists are beginning to view optimism and pessimism as functional. Because they involve “feelings about the future,” they “can act as powerful motivators … The emotional component of optimism and pessimism is what makes them so influential, says David Armor, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale… Optimism can act as a bulwark against anxiety.” Pessimism, on the other hand, is an “ego-protection strategy” according to psychologist Aaron Sackett.

Dr. Frank: Pessimism can also be a great demotivator.  Pessimism gives you the right to complain about others, excuse yourself from making an effort, and even justify mediocrity. As attitudes, optimism and pessimism can certainly involve feelings. However, a conditioned mind – based on a way of living – can generate constructive thoughts in the moment. When constructive thoughts are combined with powerful feelings, we can attain what we want. Focusing on negative thoughts seems counter productive to me.

PT: “Because the world is unpredictable, we continually generate mental scenarios about how we think things will unfold, and we color these scenarios bright or dark, hopeful or fearful. Why not make our forecasts neutral – neither optimistic nor pessimistic but simply realistic?”

Dr. Frank: What a great way to get “stuck” in one’s current reality. A powerful element of the conditioned mind is to create one’s reality and not to be dominated by it. Taking a “neutral” or realistic point of view restricts us to our current reality, grounds us as it were, rather than letting us soar to a new reality.

Check out the article if you can. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Dr. Frank

In Part Six of the Master Key System, Charles Haanel talks about the power of focus and concentration: “Attention or concentration is probably the most important essential in the development of mind culture.”

My Year in the Master Key System – Part 6 by Monique Pambrun, business consultant at Optimum Edge.

I didn’t really understand Part 6 when I first read it.  Sure, some comments made sense.  For example, when speaking about being open to messages from the Universe, Charles Haanel says that “the receiver must be in tune with the transmitter”.  So if we want to receive messages that help us create success and happiness in our lives, we have to be aligned with the Universe.  To me, this means being aligned with creation (rather than competition), following the purpose for which we’ve been put on this planet, and, as Haanel says, being aligned with the concept “The greatest good to the greatest number.”  We can’t simply follow selfish purposes that bring us good things without consideration of others.

But then Part 6 starts talking about mental power and how it depends on the mechanism to which we attach thought.  That’s where I started getting lost.  Haanel says that the mechanism is our brain, so the source of our mental power is how we apply thought in our brain.  After rereading Part 6 several times, I think I’m starting to understand what he means.  The brain is the mechanism by which we create that which we think about.  How could the brain do this?  Well, it is attached to the body, in fact it directs everything the body does.  So the “mechanism” is not only the brain, but also what the brain can direct the body to do.  According to Haanel, the body can cause the “elimination of any undesirable effect” and the creation of any desirable effect.

But this takes considerable focus and concentration.  And, as mentioned above, it also means that the mind has to become a good receiver, so that clear messages are received about how to get the brain to direct the body to do the things that will bring us what we want.

As mentioned in the post on Part 5, this means that I must act to get what I want, and now I know that if I discipline my mind, I will receive messages that tell me WHAT to do to actually create the life I desire.  That’s a great relief for me — I don’t have to spend hours trying to figure out the right things to do, the right path to take, and then wondering if I’ve made the right choices.  I’m better off focusing instead on disciplining my mind, waiting for the messages to come, and then following them.

So, back to “practice, practice, practice”!  See you in a couple of weeks!

Enjoy!