chrisjackstone.com

“The great enemy of the truth is not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

– John F. Kennedy

It is curious to note why the myths are believed as they are. A devastating cocktail of cultural beliefs and cues lead many of us to follow the proverbial blind shepherd off the cliff. It’s a long way down for most of us, and though we aren’t physically harmed per se, setbacks like these deplete us of our most precious resource, energy. In today’s fast paced world, you are getting blitzed by an abundance of information every day, and certain critical assumptions are made on your part to use your time more efficiently. Unfortunately, these very assumptions are throwing you off track in your pursuit for the greater life you envision for yourself; the one you believe you truly deserve on a very deep level.

We are, in the west, a culture of quick fixes and immediate gratification, but I’m not here to preach to you about something that you’re already well aware of, at least superficially. We spend money that we don’t have on things we want but can’t afford; temporarily pacifying our negative affects (sadness, disconnectedness, inadequacy, failure, anxiety, etc.) We’ll eat, drink, sleep and even have sex in excess to try to patch up the holes in our lives that we’re not too keen on confronting. The sad part about all this is we are, for the most part, not even honest with ourselves about the things that are truly plaguing our thoughts, which leaves us helpless in confronting those very issues that if solved, would help alleviate our stresses. There are individuals out there who claim to be figures of authority who tell you lies like your life circumstances are not your fault, and that there are solutions out there that’ll change your life immediately that won’t require a great deal of effort on your part. They are charismatic, project an image of success, and more importantly, they tell you things that are consistent with that which you’d like to believe. They send you on tireless pursuits for things that’ll end your misery; one quick fix to rule them all.

One of these pursuits is that of self-esteem, a term I’ve grown quite familiar with over the years, and one I’ve adoringly named the False God of the self improvement industry. Though many supposed “officials” on the subject of self improvement will advocate improving your self-esteem in order to have the life you’ve always wanted, there is absolutely no evidence that suggests self-esteem has any causal relationship with achievement. This is a strong notion to consider, considering that the self improvement industry is littered with such notions as positive self-talk and eliminating psychological discomfort through hypnosis and positive affirmations, while effortlessly allowing the free flow of positive delusions to attract what you want into your life, but it is definitely one worthy of your consideration, so start considering it.

During the process of artificially inflating one’s self perceptions, people temporarily “mask” their negative belief systems and dilute themselves into thinking that they are much more successful than they actually are, projecting an image of their ideal self onto the world in hopes of living a reality they do not possess. Though temporarily elated, this phenomenon is often referred to as the paper tiger; a concept that alludes to a figure that looks far more ferocious than it actually is. Though this notion is useful for sales, and even dating; as marketing products and yourself in your best light will likely attract a large clientele, your turnover will be enormous unless you can back up your product. If you’re interested in going beyond glittered packaging, keep reading.

Now I know you’re probably thinking “Well, all successful people have high self-esteem, so in order to model their success, I too must think highly of myself.” Successful people do have high self-esteem for the most part, but the reasons advocates of self-esteem use to convince you that this is the basis of an individual’s success are circular. Correlation does not imply causation, and simply stated; if the cause explains the behaviour, and the behaviour explains the cause, then you should clue into the groundlessness of the argument.

People are successful because they have high self-esteem.
High self-esteem precedes, and henceforth causes success.

If you take a moment to consider this logic, you’ll find it in abundance, especially in big marketing industries. Self-esteem simply makes you feel good. That’s it. Your mother likely did a good job of raising your self-esteem, at least for a little while during your youth, and if she didn’t, you’ve made it this far without her praise, and you can attest to the point I’m demonstrating. Your mothers praise did not make you wealthy, it did not make you popular with the opposite sex, nor did it give you the physique you so desperately crave. You did that. The effort you so diligently put towards your passions and obligations; the persistence and devotion you demonstrated in achieving your goals did that, and if you haven’t done that yet, take note to the truth I’m moving towards. Don’t get me wrong, I love feeling good about myself as much as you do (If not more), but if self-esteem is what you’re after, then you may as well start putting your energy towards the pursuit of narcotics and alcohol, because they have a similar effect in terms of elation and let down. The reason people are successful is because they’ve worked hard at pursuing things they’ve envisioned for their lives, and these very accomplishments have generated their self-esteem, not vice-versa. It doesn’t sound as glamorous as the quest for the cure all, but I’ve got great news for you, because the answers you seek are by in large a lot closer than you think.

The truth is that you can start improving your life today by taking action towards the things you envision for yourself. You don’t have to feel great about yourself to start making the motions towards your goals. You’ll experience bumps and scrapes along the way, and even the occasional gash, but these are all normality’s in pursuit of the things you desire for yourself. A sprout gets bent in many different directions by the wind, endures torturous storms, is walked all over by insects and the occasional animal, yet consistently grows towards the sun, regardless of these obstructions. The reason sprouts are so flexible before they mature is to make allowance for the adversities they will have to endure before they reach maturity. Nature makes allowances for such adversities because they are essential to growth, and much like the sprout, you too will experience these adversities. If you start making allowances for those bumps and bruises, instead of buying into the frame of thinking success is free of charge, you too will grow more flexible and won’t be so deterred by things that throw you off balance, such as bouts of the negative affects I stated earlier.

Life isn’t about where you’re at; it’s about where you’re going. Your moment of power, regardless of your circumstance, is now.

Love,
Chris Jackstone

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Without further a due, I bring to you this month’s challenge, as per “The Secret to Abundant Energy: Tapping Your Mind“. You can check it out in our private community forums, which you can register for here, free of charge and with more confidentiality then you’ll find in your own bedroom.

Here is a synopsis of what you’ll find in the forum:

The Rainbow Catcher’s Challenge

Has it ever occurred to you that you’re missing a crucial component to the puzzle? I know I have. You find yourself focusing on the same things over and over again. You want to make a certain amount of money, so you keep plugging away at the office with little to no avail. You’re worried about your relationships, so you continue to praise your way onto a person’s good side. You can’t seem to get up the energy to go about your daily routine, so you read the latest dieting magazine.

These are all important aspects of your life, but it’s time to think outside of the box. An important source of energy is derived from not what you do, but who you are. Placing all your effort into a neat little book entitled “things that look good on paper” will often times work against you. Developing yourself in creative and unconventional ways will bring about internalized confidence, innovation, energy, and self discovery. This challenge is about lifestyle.

Without further a due, I bring to you, The Rainbow Catcher’s Challenge.

The Rules:

• You must engage in some form of creative expression for at least an hour a day, for twenty one consecutive days.
• If you don’t currently have any forms of creative expression to engage in, your time may be spent learning a creative skill.
• You must keep a log entitled “(Yourname)’s Rainbow Catcher’s Log”, where all your progress will be recorded so that we may follow along with you throughout the challenge.

The Guidelines:

• Remember, creative activities involve “creation”, while learning about creation involves “discovery”, so keep this in mind when planning out your days.

A few suggestions:

• Playing Music/An instrument
• Art/Design/Crafts
• Cooking
• Writing (Creative writing, poetry, comedy, short stories…)
• Dance/Acting/Improve
• Dream Interpretation/lucid dreaming
• Scrapbooking

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with, and I most definitely look forward to witnessing some seriously fruitful endeavours. Let’s make the world vibrate through our actions; enough whispering.

Love,
Chris Jackstone

I’ll see you all there. Let’s make this happen!

Love,
Chris Jackstone

I’m about to share with you one of the most understated secrets to abundant energy in the world today. I’m talking no pills, no frills, no insurmountable hills, no bills and no treadmills. The laws of physics state that energy cannot be created, nor can it be destroyed; only transformed. The mistake we all make is continuously tapping the same sources for energy, such as diet, exercise and sleep patterns, to name a few.

I must first state that eating a healthy diet, getting adequate sleep, and exercising for AT LEAST an hour a day will provide your body with the resources it needs to function optimally. That being said, once you have these fields covered, you should desist. Continuing to tap the same pool of energy from different angles will only give you the illusion of efficiency. You have bigger fish to fry, so let’s find out what they are.

Your mind is the most abundant potential for personal energy that you will encounter in this lifetime. This may sound controversial, but I assure you it’s not. Your mind is your body’s conductor. It dictates your current capacity, potential, efficiency and expression of energy.

What you think, what you believe, and how you feel can dramatically alter your body’s physiology. You have done some powerful things using the power of thought in your lifetime. You’ve willed yourself to do something you’d been putting off, you’ve stood up to someone who was taking advantage of you, and you’ve resisted falling off the horse even when failure seemed to have it in for you. Pushing yourself beyond your threshold cannot be achieved without first tapping into your mind.

Whenever you will your mind to act in constructive ways, it releases an enormous amount of energy. Your mind has the power to tap into multiple structural systems within your body which alter your energy levels. The reason depression is so debilitating is because it directly interferes with your minds ability to tap into these resources. Your mind can entice you to act in empowering ways, and there are an infinite number of ways to tap into this energy.

Some of the most effective methods for tapping into your minds energy are discovery and creation. Expanding your boundaries, doing things that aren’t part of your normal daily routine, and bringing your minds vision to life are powerful ways of completely altering the way your mind channels energy. But I don’t want to just tell you about the power you possess within you; I want to show it to you.

Join me on Friday, March 14th, 2008 to engage in some truly life altering behavior. I will be introducing a new challenge to the ChrisJackstone.com community, which you believe will revolutionize the lives of every participant and spectator in the crowd. This is something you’re going to want to see for yourself.

Let’s make the world vibrate through our actions; enough whispering.

Love,
Chris Jackstone

I want to make mention of something that I’ve known to be true for myself for quite some time now, which has helped me overcome a tremendous amount of confusion and adversity over the years. I’ve seen a pattern recur in behaviour on endless occasions, and you’ll begin to notice it by the very nature of paradigms once you finish reading this post!

A paradigm is a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline (courtesy of Webster). These paradigms fall into two different categories, resourceful and un-resourceful with a small contingency that plays on the seductiveness of a particular vantage point.

We naturally roll through literally thousands of paradigms throughout our lifetimes as a form of modelling behaviour; we put ourselves in other peoples “shoes” on a consistent basis to see our life from a third persons perspective. This is particularly useful when we are planning on making a drastic change in our own life, where we don’t currently possess the knowledge of those who’ve travelled the road before us.

This is an adaptive function of human behaviour; we even have neurons in our brain known as “mirror neurons” that are specifically devoted to mimicking the world around us, which work in unison with the plasticity and adaptability of our own minds to mould our own behaviour. There is a danger though, which if not headed, will hinder much of your own development, and that is the pitfall of the seductive nature of many paradigms.

The problem arises when a paradigm provides you with the solutions you’ve been looking for, almost to a tee. This is a phenomenon I call the “hook”.

A friend of mine had a beautiful dodge shadow back in 1990. Everything about the car ran beautifully for many years, until he had the unfortunate experience of having his electrical cables burnt every couple of days due to what he thought was “faulty” wiring. He spent literally thousands of dollars; going from garage to garage to get his wires replaced, consistently having the repairs come undone. He was completely frustrated (and nearly broke, I might add) at this point and had nearly lost all hope of finding a solution. One day, he rolled into a garage on a friend’s request, and left his car to the gentleman who owned the place. He was suspicious as to whether or not this man could do what all the other garages had failed to do, but he figured he may as well give it one last shot, after all, he did love the car. The next day, the problem had been solved; his alternator had failed to regulate energy surges which were continuously burning his wires. The problem was fixed and that man made my friend his customer for life.

Now at first glance, this success story seems to elude to the fact that my friend had finally found a garage competent enough to solve ALL of his car troubles, but the reality is that all work done subsequently to this event by this particular garage has been anything but outstanding (I can attest to this personally, thinking of the gas leak they’ve failed to repair 3 times now). The garage hooked my friend into believing that his place was a one-stop shop for all his car troubles, where in fact the garage had poor work ethic, often overcharged for services, and provided faulty repairs for the most part.

It is your “JOB” as an individual to filter through all the information you encounter in the world, pick it apart for what it useful and unique to you, and to discard the rest. The reason we often fall into the trap of taking these paradigms for “gospel truth” is because it’s reductionist, simple and saves us a lot of confusion and thinking. The problem with viewing all problems within a single paradigm is that there are blind spots that will evade you completely unless you think outside the box. Think of being in a dark basement with only a single flashlight, looking for a particular painting that you “KNOW” or “HAVE BEEN TOLD” is located on a particular wall. If you fail to point that flashlight in another direction, regardless of whether or not you’ve located the painting, regardless of how bright that flashlight is, you will NOT find it. Is there any sense in turning up the light to see the darkness better? You need a new strategy, and it’s hard to put yourself in that place of confusion (the place we’ve all been so many times, and often dread) but it is necessary if you want to live life on your terms, travel your own journey, and find what you’ve been so desperately looking for.

This hook is particularly seductive when it plays on human needs and emotions; it’s potency to hook becomes extraordinary. Cult leaders are aware of this fact, but a few individuals have ripped the pages right from those compendiums to influence you in ways which you aren’t even aware of. We often misattribute our own successes, failures, emotions (whether they be positive or negative) to the point of our focus, which tend to be the paradigms we’re currently engaging. How does this translate to human behaviour? The real question is, how can it not?

I encourage each and every one of you to explore all communities of knowledge around you, for every single one of them will possess new information for you to adapt to your own lives; limiting your resources to exploring one, and viewing life through that paradigm alone, will hinder your ultimate progress. If you stay the course of learning one discipline, you can only aspire to be as good as your teacher, and in order to excel beyond that potential, you must travel elsewhere.

“You must take what is useful, discard what is useless, and add that which is uniquely yours.” – Bruce Lee

Love,
Chris Jackstone

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As promised, I’m bringing you The Final Chapter for The Spartan Series. This challenge has a more social aspect to it, and will still definitely test your abilities in terms of health and resourcefulness. If you haven’t registered for the forum yet, you may do so here, and share with us your inspiration. Here is a synopsis of what you’ll find in the forum.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I bring to you the conclusion of The Spartan Series. First, we had The Spartan Challenge, which consisted of 21 days of grueling exercise, which tested both your resourcefulness and your determination to persist even in the face of life’s everyday obstacles. Then, we had The Spartan Mission, which consisted of a 5 day challenge which was even more intense than the original challenge, and made some powerful gears turn in terms of resourcefulness. Now, The Spartan Series is being laid to rest; but not without one last victory lap.

I bring to you The Final Chapter. This challenge will be geared towards both those individuals with or without experience with either of the challenge or the mission. The Final Chapter is independant  of the two, and will be the final test of your abilities. Now, we’ve all done the exercise bit, and we had a great run. We’ve all varied the different types of workouts we engage in, and we’ve all found something that worked for us a little better than something else, which was the intention of the challenge. The Final Chapter is as follows.

Rules:

• You must exercise for a duration of two hours at a moderate level of intensity.
• You may use any single, or combination of exercises to do so.
• You must motivate another individual, whether it be a friend, colleague, family member, or significant other, to do it with you.
• This is a one day challenge, and must be completed before Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 (This is one week from today.)
• You must record your progress in The Official Spartan’s Final Chapter Log.

The greatest test of knowledge is demonstrating your ability to teach it to someone else, and this challenge will prove to be just that. This is an opportunity for all of you to create some stronger ties with people you do know, or to form new ties with people you don’t. This mission will be a test of your comprehension of The Spartan Series, and will challenge you all in ways you have not yet been pushed.

I wish you all the best of luck, and I look forward to hearing from you all in the coming days!

Love,
Chris Jackstone 

This will be the final instalment of The Spartan Series, and I strongly suggest you take part in this great opportunity. I look forward to seeing all of you participate!

Stay tuned for new challenges and articles in the coming weeks.

You can sign up to our forums here!

Love,
Chris Jackstone

What could make The Challenge, and The Mission, any better than they already are? Well, after all that inspiring work you’ve done on yourself, how about 60 seconds worth of a distance run to see how far you’ve come? As promised, I bring to you the final instalment of the challenge structure.

The Final Chapter is a test of your abilities; more importantly, the ones you’ve acquired over the last month. Whether or not you’ve completed the challenge, this final instalment is a chance for you to show us your skills. Anyone who completes this challenge will have attained the highest level of the competition. The Final Chapter is designed as a demonstration to yourself, and to the rest of us, of just how far you’ve come, and how competition savvy you really are.

The Final Chapter will comprise of a one day challenge, which may be completed within seven days of its launch. It will be a difficult challenge, and will utilize the skills you’ve acquired while engaging both The Challenge and The Mission. I strongly encourage those who haven’t completed either The Challenge or The Mission, to engage this task, and see how you fare against those who have completed either of the two (or both!)

These challenges have been designed to bring about better lifestyles for us all. Even if you do not participate in the challenges directly, you can’t help but be inspired by the conquests of others. Our environment can affect us in such positive ways if we surround ourselves with the right stuff, and this challenge can attest to every word of that phrase.

I invite all of you to participate in the first launch of The Final Chapter, on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008. Don’t let this great opportunity to mingle and compete with some phenomenal individuals pass you by. The challenge will take place on our forums, and if you haven’t registered yet, I will post a registration link for you at the bottom of this post. Good luck to all of my fellow challengers, welcome to all my new subscribers, and I look forward to seeing you all on March 5th!

Register for our Forums here!

Love,
Chris Jackstone

I’d like to announce to everyone here that the latest instalment of action is here. I have released The Spartan Mission on our forums to everyone who wants to check it out. If you haven’t yet checked out our forums, I strongly urge you to do so. I will post a link at the bottom of this page for all those interested in registering!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I bring to you your first mission. “The Mission” will be a fundamental part of all challenges, with a purpose of allowing challengers to test their boundaries and reap rewards in a shorter, more intense period of time. The event will be randomly scheduled within 30 days of the challenge launch. The Spartan Mission begins today. This mission will both test the ability of our current challengers, and will allow those who’ve fallen off the horse to give the challenge another go. If this is the first you’ve heard of The Spartan Challenge, this mission is designed specifically for you.

The Rules:

• This is a 5 day event which will test your resourcefulness, and your determination.
• You cannot perform the same mode of exercise more than once throughout the mission (In other words, weight lifting, running, weight lifting is not acceptable. Swimming, running, weight training, tennis and circuit training would be acceptable.)
• The duration of exercise will last approximately an hour and a half.
• You cannot take any breaks throughout the 5 days.
• Your Mission must be recorded daily on the thread entitled “The Official Spartan Mission Log.” This thread will be located on The Challenge Board
• There are no exceptions to these specifications

The benefits of this mission are equivalent to the original challenge. By engaging these activities throughout your 5 days, you will develop initial momentum towards a healthier lifestyle, develop a habit, and learn a great deal regarding exercise. You can read more about the theory behind the mission in my resources section under A “New Twist” on a Great Challenge: The Mission. I want you all to think long and hard about how great it’ll feel having completed this mission, not only to prove to yourself that you’re capable, but to demonstrate your ability to lift and inspire others in this communal task.

Good luck to all my challengers, I hope to see some great things from all of you!

Love,
Chris Jackstone

I hope to see some fantastic things here ladies and gentlemen; this is a fantastic opportunity for those who missed out on the challenge to take me up on this new side quest! I really do want to see you all succeed, so please allow me the pleasure of watching you progress into becoming more balanced, healthy individuals!

You can register for our forums here.

Good Luck!

Love,
Chris Jackstone

To everyone who’s ever tried to achieve something, and has fallen off the proverbial horse, I salute you. To everyone who’s ever achieved something, and then longed for new heights, I salute you. To everyone who craves variety, excitement, and phenomenal personal growth, I salute you.

It is with great pleasure that I announce to all of you a new spin on the traditional challenge; The Mission.

We’ve all heard of the 30 day challenge. Everyone and their mother have seen countless ads on television insisting that individuals begin engaging a new behaviour for 30 days while watching the results just flow in. Why 30 days? Well, the individuals who created the 30 day challenge came from a time when science was not as cutting edge as it is today. The 30 day challenge is obsolete.

Say goodbye to the 30 day challenge.

I introduced to you the 21 day challenge. This number is far from arbitrary. It has been proven in countless studies that it takes 21 days for your body to physiologically create a new habit. With this new information, we can set ourselves a standard, that we can say with confidence, will bring us the results we’re looking for. But 21 days seems like a long time for many people, and sometimes emotional and circumstantial setbacks can wound a willing warrior in her struggle for a better tomorrow.

I am here to offer you something more. I salute each and every one of you who’s taken the time to change your life for the better. I want you to succeed, and I want you to have the confidence in yourself to prove to the world what you’re made of. In fact, I bring to you “The Mission” as a step in that direction.

What is the Mission?

New studies have suggested that it can take up to as little as 5 days to create a new habit! Not 30 days, not 21, but 5. That is more than 25 days less than was originally hypothesized, and this new information is yours to utilize today. There is a catch, though. In order for a new habit to be hard-wired into your mind, it must be performed every day, and must be strong enough to form an impact on your brain. In other words, not only will those 5 days have to challenge your body, they will also have to challenge your mind.

The Mission will be a 5 day challenge that will be more intense than the original challenge. It is open to all competitors, both new and old. It is open to those who are both currently engaging the 21 day challenge, as well as those who’ve failed to complete the challenge (Or, those who joined too late in the game to join up!)

It is my promise to you, that if you engage and complete The Mission (which is a new part of The Challenge structure, and will be different for every challenge), you will reap the FULL REWARDS of the entire challenge.

How it works:

The Mission is a randomly scheduled event that will take place within 30 days of the initial challenge launch. It will be edited into the original challenge thread, and will be separate from the current challenge. Competitors currently engaging the 21 day challenge are welcomed and encouraged to partake in The Mission to test their own boundaries, but are not required to do so to complete their challenge. The challenge will be more intensive than the original, but will allow competitors a chance to redeem themselves and prove to the world what they’re made of. Those who complete this challenge will earn their spot amongst those in the winner’s circle in The Gold Star Compendium, and will have given themselves the benefit of adopting a new life enhancing habit!

The first Mission will be announced tomorrow, February 27th. Good luck to all of my fellow challengers!

It takes 5 “intensive” days to form a new habit, let’s make it happen. Also note, if you have not registered to our forums (Which I highly suggest you do if you’d like to take part in this great event), you can do so by clicking on the link below.

Register to our Discussion and Challenge Forums here!

Love,
Chris Jackstone

Tom Cochrane wasn’t too far off when he wrote his one hit wonder, “Life is a Highway”. Most people don’t know the lyrics to this song (myself included), and yet the catchy chorus of this mainstream hallmark is something that appears to resonate with all of us. Why is it that you can’t seem to get Tom’s chorus out of your head? Well, Tom’s got his own highway, seated amongst billions of others in your brain, and it ain’t nobody’s fault but your own, with, perhaps, minor kudos to the songs publicity blitz.

Your brain is the most sophisticated information processor on the planet. It currently exceeds any piece of technology to date, and it will most certainly remain that way for many dates to come. There are approximately 100 billion neurons in your brain, and as you might imagine, they all communicate with one another on these information super highways, also known as “neuron pathways”. Now, I’m not here to bore you with complicated scientific jargon. I will, however, tell you that the way in which each one of your individual neurons interact with one another is determined, by in large, by the thoughts and behaviours you engage in on a regular basis. Now, what do you care about how your neurons interact with one another? Well, let me tell right now, you shouldn’t. What you should care about, however, are the behavioural implications of your neurons interactions.

I can still recall the first few days I spent learning to play the guitar. My finger pressure was too weak, my finger placement was off, I had a clumsy strum, and I could barely focus on hitting a melodic note, let alone playing a song in its entirety.

Fast forward…

The other day, I picked up my guitar, played “Stairway to Heaven”, “3 Libra’s”, and started learning the introduction to “Tears in Heaven”. Playing music most definitely has a “soothing” quality to it, and if you haven’t heard any of these songs, I suggest you give them a listen. But wait, let’s rewind a minute. Didn’t I just say I could barely play a lick? Well, that was well over five years ago, and since then, I’ve accumulated well over a thousand hours worth of play time.

What exactly happened to my ability to orchestrate a piece of music using my finger positioning, hand movements, and auditory attention? Essentially, my brain adapted to the skill I was trying to learn, and constructed more efficient highways for it. Shortcuts were created, more elaborate systems were set up to deal with the increased amount of traffic, and more neurons were recruited to help me engage the new skill I was acquiring.

Bear with me, we’re just getting started.

When these highways are constructed, the behaviours you’re engaged in become a lot easier. These behaviours even become “automatic” with enough practice. Walking is one of those behaviours you perform automatically. Over eating can also become automatic, as can driving the same route to work everyday. Exercising, as well as playing the guitar, can also become automatic. The programming for your state-of-the-art machine is simple. You will become your actions, and you will become your thoughts.

Your brain has a great deal of plasticity to it. This means that it is extremely adaptable, and is yours to program. Your brain is mouldable as an evolutionary function. Adaptation is necessary for survival. Can you imagine what life would be like if your brain was hard wired for the sole purpose of hunting squirrels using crude weapons, such as jabby sticks? We would be living in a society of jabby stick wielding squirrel hunters, and would quickly die out as soon as the squirrels went extinct (and believe me, when you have 6 billion people hunting squirrels with jabby sticks, this is a likely scenario). Your brain doesn’t know whether you’re to become a gladiator or an astrophysicist, and is wired to support either of the two or anything in between, so in other words; you’ve got options (and thankfully, so do the squirrels).

The reason it’s so difficult to change your behaviour, whether it be living a lethargic lifestyle, or listening to the same kind of music, is because in order to change your behaviour, you need to create new highways. Now, not only is your body incredibly good at processing information, it is also incredibly efficient. This means that your body will resist creating new highways unless it is absolutely certain that these highways will be used in the future. This is both good news, and bad news, and I’m about to tell you which of the two you need to hear first.

The bad news is that it will require a tremendous amount of effort, on your part, to stop engaging any of your bad habits. You will have to create new highways by engaging new behaviour, which of course, your body will habitually resist. This is due, by in large, to the fact that your brain does not like creating new highways unless they are absolutely necessary. In fact, your body has a jerk “no” reaction to any behaviour that it does not already have pre established neuronal pathways for. Additionally, your body has a built in “fear” reaction to unfamiliar behaviour, or in other words, behavior which currently lacks a communication network (a highway structure).

Furthermore, once you create new highways for better habits, the old highways still exist. This means that it is not only probable that you’ll be inclined to take the old highways again, it is likely. Your unconscious mind is wired to engage your dominant behaviours; the ones you’ve been engaging for years. This means that in order for the better habit to become dominant, it requires strengthening through consistent attention and use, or in lay mans terms, “you gotta keep doing the thing.”

The good news is that these systems can also work in your favour. After you put in the initial effort into creating these new highways, they’ll become easier to travel. Their structure will become more efficient, more elaborate, and more dominant. That means that once you get the ball rolling, you’ll be traveling a path with less resistance more frequently, and you’ll begin reaping the rewards of your new behaviour with far less effort.

Consistent exposure to Tom Cochrane’s “Life is a Highway” made the song a fan favourite amongst karaoke goers. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. Let’s make it happen.

Love,
Chris Jackstone

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know that the registration and subscription glitch for this blog at http://www.chrisjackstone.com/resources has been fixed. You can now subscribe to this blog at http://chrisjackstone.com/resources/wp-login.php?action=register and post comments, as well as receive new updates on fresh articles and important announcements as they occur! I’d like to thank everyone for their continuing support in generating activity for this community. Good luck to all my challengers and I’d like to personally welcome all of my new subscribers!

Please note I will no longer be announcing blog updates on my forum. So if you’re interested in the resources section of this website, please take this opportunity to register for my blog updates now. Feel free to post your comments there! Also note, that discussion on articles and announcements are still permitted on the General Board and are in fact encouraged. If you have not yet registered for my discussions forum, you can do so at http://chrisjackstone.com/forums/index.php?action=register if you have not done so already! I hope to hear some fantastic things from you all. (Especially you!)

Quick Links

Blog Registration:  http://chrisjackstone.com/resources/wp-login.php?action=register

Forum Registration: http://chrisjackstone.com/forums/index.php?action=register

Love,
Chris Jackstone