Cultivating Brilliance: Harnessing the Magic of Good Thinking. Master Series.

Episode 24

Our 24th Master Series takings on the fundamental issue of 'Good Thinking.' We cover four key ideas to help you find clarity of the mind and purity of the heart.

Listen to the entire show; become a Moonshot Member https://www.patreon.com/Moonshots

1. Suffering
Michael A. Singer's book on suffering, titled "The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection," is a memoir that explores the author's personal experiences and insights into overcoming suffering and finding inner peace. The book offers valuable wisdom and practical guidance on embracing life's challenges and surrendering to the flow of existence.
Buy the book from Amazon https://geni.us/Untethered_Soul
Get the summary from Blinkist https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/jr1nMP

2. Memory
Kevin Horsley is a prominent author known for his book "Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More, and be More Productive." Published in 2014, this book offers insights and techniques to improve memory and enhance learning capabilities.
Buy The Book on Amazon https://geni.us/UnlimitedMemory
Get the summary via Blinkist https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/jrnRqb

3. Wisdom
Don Miguel Ruiz's book "The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" presents a set of principles rooted in ancient Toltec wisdom. These agreements are practical guidelines for living free from self-imposed limitations and unnecessary suffering.
Buy The Four Agreements on Amazon https://geni.us/the4agree
Get the summary via Blinkist https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/ZdOA91

4. The Brain
Jim Kwik has authored a book titled "Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life." In this book, he shares insights, strategies, and techniques to improve memory, increase learning speed, and develop a sharper mind. The book provides practical advice and exercises to boost cognitive performance and overcome mental hurdles.
Buy the book from Amazon https://geni.us/9sUBz0
Get the summary from Blinkist https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/q4gLPq

Run Sheet

Michael A. Singer kicks off the show with a quick breakdown of the inner and outer environments we have around us every day
How to Stop Suffering (56s)

Kevin Horsley at TEDxPretoria introduces us to the power of memory
Attention Problem (3m12)

FightMediocrity provides a summary of Don Miguel Ruiz’s four agreements
The four agreements (2m20)

Jim Kwik closes the show with 5 ways to improve Memory and Concentration today
Brain Exercises (4m31)

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Parsons: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the Moonshots Master Series. It's episode 24. I'm your co-host, Mike Parsons, and as always, I'm joined by Mark Marathon, Pearson. Freeland. Good morning, mark.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think that's quite a statement, Mike, but you're totally right. Not only perhaps are some of us Gearing up, warming up, stretching to go out and perform in marathons that are coming up here in Australia.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But actually even today, in episode 24 of the Master Series, we're getting ready for a bit of a marathon ourselves,

Kevin Horsely: aren't we? We definitely are. We're both meant to be running very long distances on the weekend, as you can probably hear. It sounds like I have a peg on my nose, but I can promise you I don't.

Kevin Horsely: I am recovering from the flu. Mark, you're a week ahead of me you'll be crossing the line first without a doubt, but we're still gonna go on a big adventure and run a marathon together this weekend. But we're also gonna run a marathon of some [00:01:00] very good thinking, aren't we?

Mark Pearson Freeland: We are indeed, and actually Mike, maybe the secret to running and performing in marathons in the physical world, so to speak, is only capable.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Once you've mastered and started to get your head around this idea of good thinking and this idea of good thinking, Mike has really resonated with me. Once we've completed our series on the Moonshots Weekly show, now we are getting a chance to dive even deeper into this plethora of ideas, concepts, frameworks, and also practices that we can put towards our own mental ability and how we think about things.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's really resonated with me because of how much it has educated me. On how much control I have. Which is not necessarily something, and I'm giving away a little bit, perhaps too much the show, but I think what we're gonna really, what I think we're gonna really find out in this journey that we'll go on today.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Is just how much we can [00:02:00] influence, control and have power over the thoughts that go around in our heads. Yes. And as we've discussed on the Moonshot Show as well as a master series, how debilitating is it when you've got an idea or maybe a point of view that's just stuck in your head and it's pretty negative?

Mark Pearson Freeland: I don't want to have to do that. I'm afraid of getting in that, I dunno, maybe it's cold water. Maybe it's running a marathon. Maybe it's just having that tricky conversation. How much time and effort and emotion goes into those considerations and decisions that fundamentally distracts you from the task at hand,

Kevin Horsely: doesn't it?

Kevin Horsely: So true. I think we're all in a battle with fear, self-doubt, or even just the monkey mind, letting those thoughts run wild. And what we've learned, mark, is that those that get the most outta life, what's really interesting is they're no different from us. They all experience those same feelings, but they have the tools to overcome.

Kevin Horsely: And not only are [00:03:00] those tools, at first a thought. And a choice, but their habits as well. And so we can have clarity of thought and goodness in our intentions. And these are all choices. Much of what we've learned in the Moonshots Podcast and here in the Master series is that if you truly accept full responsibility for your situation, then you're actually able to put yourself to work and improve your thinking, your mindset.

Kevin Horsely: Your intentionality and your habits, and that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna mix it up today. It's all about to, how to have clarity of thought, how to have goodness in your intentions, and to come out the other side being the best version of yourself. So get ready. This is a workout of mind and heart.

Kevin Horsely: So let's get ready to roll. Mark, where should we jump in?

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think with a setup and a promise like that, Mike, we've gotta kick off with a little bit of energy. We've gotta kick off with a quick [00:04:00] breakdown on how the environments around us really do influence us. So we're gonna hear from Michael, a singer or of the untethered soul who's gonna kick us off with some action into how we can stop suffering almost

Kevin Horsely: all of us.

Kevin Horsely: Put almost entire focus of our lives on the outer environment. Why? It is the inner environment that we really care about, but the only way that we have learned to change our inner environment, since we're not really very conscious and aware of the inner environment, is to change the outer environment.

Kevin Horsely: Let's take an example. You're feeling lonely inside. That's an inner environment. Your mind is bothering you. It's sitting there talking about the insecurity when you get older and I have enough funds and what's going to happen to me and so on. And you start that when you're 12, right? That's called the mind can be a dangerous place if that's how you're thinking when you're 12 years old.

Kevin Horsely: What do we do about that? We do normally and naturally is to go outside and try to make sure that the outer environment [00:05:00] is a way that supports this inner problem that we're having. Yet the truth of the matter is the only thing we care about is the inner environment. Oh, he is bringing some pretty heavy thinking there, mark.

Kevin Horsely: I believe that there is an absolutely so much power into saying, I have this worry. Or this concern. I think what's really important is what we've learned in the Moonshots podcast, is you have to acknowledge those feelings. And Mark what is our go-to way of acknowledging how we're thinking and feeling.

Kevin Horsely: What would we tell when in doubt resort to what is the activity? For

Mark Pearson Freeland: me, it's all about journaling, isn't it? Mike?

Kevin Horsely: Bang on it is getting it out of your brain, getting it out of your mind, get it onto some paper. It is the [00:06:00] cleanse, right? It's the ultimate detox. There's a

Mark Pearson Freeland: real so liberty. That comes, isn't there?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. Once you start to name the beast, you start to think about it and maybe even understand it a little bit more. Yes. You suddenly feel, at least I do, like a weight has been lifted.

Kevin Horsely: Yes. So here's the interesting thing though, once you've acknowledged it, I think what is important is not to find yourself stuck continuously reliving and dwelling in the problem.

Kevin Horsely: So what we see in those that truly do their best in the world are those that acknowledge and then get ready. They move on. They use it as a platform to launch them themselves into self-improvement, right? Like any good sports team that has a bad season says that season. Just wasn't good [00:07:00] enough.

Kevin Horsely: But the danger is if they keep reliving all those terrible performances, then they're not able to actually move forward. In a way, you have to purge yourself of negative thought. You have to purge yourself of fear and self-doubt. Acknowledge that it exists, but I think this is where we have a choice, which is okay.

Kevin Horsely: I've accepted. That's how I feel. But I think what we see in all of these great people who encountered challenge and suffering in their lives, Oprah, Jordan, you name it. We can just go on. Michael. David Goggins. The list is never ending. They had the capacity to use that as fuel to move forward, and that moving forward is a choice.

Kevin Horsely: I. The thing that we are really studying on the Moonshots podcast is that the [00:08:00] power of the actually letting ourselves know that choice even exists. Cause I think we can find ourselves stuck in those negative loops and never getting out. Yeah, for

Mark Pearson Freeland: sure. It's actually, you reminded me, Mike, of a statistic that I remember hearing about a few years ago, and it struck me as quite insightful that the times when you have, let's say, a near miss in your car, maybe it's not necessarily like a big deal, I'm not necessarily saying, oh, you've just averted some kind of crash.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe you went a bit too quick or maybe you were worried about going through a red light, something like that. You then are so distracted by thinking about that event, thinking about it, wondering, concern, anxiety, that you end up having an even worse accident because your mind is elsewhere, repeatedly going over that potential struggle that you might have had that distraction.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think where, why this has come to my mind is in my career when I [00:09:00] have had times when I've really. Maybe not regretted something but felt very uncomfortable. Maybe I've been second guessing how somebody is going to respond to something I've said or something I've done. Was that the right choice? Did I go and do that too quick?

Mark Pearson Freeland: That's when I'm more likely to then make a mistake because the beast has not been named, I have not necessarily looked at it under a microscope to try and figure out what it was. Instead, it's something that, like you said earlier, that monkey mind. Who's playing around in the background and that stuff can lead us into, even worse murkier waters, than we were previously.

Mark Pearson Freeland: So it's this idea of exacerbating through time, isn't it? If you don't address it quite early on, if you don't want to dig in, Look at it, figure out what it is. Why does that make me uncomfortable? What specifically is it's possible that not only will it reappear and happen again, but actually you might be the trigger to then go and stumble in another five minutes or so.[00:10:00]

Kevin Horsely: Does that resonate with you? A little bit? Yeah. Because I think what you are exactly talking about is the dwelling. Dwelling continuously reliving, and that's why it's so dangerous. Entertaining thought patterns like victimization, right? If you continually relive suffering and everybody experiences suffering, that's Michael, a singer.

Kevin Horsely: His whole book is about how to move through that, right? Yeah. If you continuously relive it, then it's almost like you, you never close the chapter. You're constantly reliving it, so you're not able to move forward. And I think what in the suffering of great people is they built resilience.

Kevin Horsely: It made them stronger. I think about the great architect Zha Ha did. As a Middle Eastern woman becoming an architect at the Royal British architectural Society, which was full of all these posh white guys she had. And she did this in the sixties and she was so brave, and that's why her [00:11:00] work was so brave, so outstandingly different and will be just, and it will last the test of time for sure.

Kevin Horsely: So she used it. Jordan used the the loss of getting kicked off the high school team. Oprah was told she was no good for television. Disney was told he didn't have an imagination. All of the people moved through it. And this is a choice. So it's not that when you look at great people, that they are just perfect.

Kevin Horsely: They have exactly the same challenges. They just have the solutions as well. So let's learn from their solutions so we can, think a little clearer, think a little better, and have better interactions, better relationships with the people around us. Because if we get through our own suffering, then we can move on and help others through theirs.

Kevin Horsely: And I think that's the greatest gift, don't you? That's a pretty

Mark Pearson Freeland: attractive concept, isn't it? If we all are trying to become our best versions of [00:12:00] ourselves, why not do that? Not only for ourselves and our own, mental wellbeing. That's right. But also for those around us. Yeah. Our family, our friends, our

Kevin Horsely: colleagues.

Kevin Horsely: Yep. And if you're not in a good place, how can you possibly really help family and friends? If you're bit off track,

Mark Pearson Freeland: yeah I believe that, I really do believe that's the case. If you're going to go and let's say, criticize others, and what I mean by that is not necessarily behind their back, but more about if I'm gonna provide constructive feedback, I want to try and make sure that I'm also living that feedback.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I wanna make sure that I'm not going against the advice that I'm providing a colleague or a friend. I want to try and maintain that similar mindset. Yep.

Kevin Horsely: But I tell you what the viewers and the listeners of this very master series, they are certainly on track because they are part very exclusive little club, aren't they?

Kevin Horsely: Mark? They certainly

Mark Pearson Freeland: are. And in fact, I'm just gonna have a sip of water, Mike, because I think that this one is probably the longest list we've had in maybe forever.[00:13:00]

Kevin Horsely: We're very grateful to you, our members, for your support. We love all of your suggestions and your questions. And if you, Sitting there thinking, I'd love to hear Mark and Mike review a book or an expert or someone that inspires you.

Kevin Horsely: Just jump onto Patreon, send us a note and we'll definitely follow up. We did Tiago for recently. That was thanks to Vet. So thanks to him. You guys got to learn how to develop a second brain. Very much part of good thinking, but I think now, mark, with the water consumed with the trumpets at the ready, let's tip the hat to our members.

Mark Pearson Freeland: That's right. Please welcome Bob. John Terry. Ken DeMar, Mar Connor, Rodrigo Lizza, Sid, Mr. Bon Paul Berg, cowman. David, Joe Crystal, Ivo Christian Samo. Barbara, Andre, Eric and Chris, Deborah Lase, Steve Craig and Daniel. Craig and Daniel have just eclipsed their 12 [00:14:00] month mark as well, Mike. So that 12 month list of individuals who keep on powering the moonshots rocket ship.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Thank you so much for continuing your support, but very soon on Craig and Daniel's heels are Andrew, Ravi, Yvette, Karen, Raul, PJ nta. Ingram, Dirk and Emily, Harry Karthik, van Katta. Marco Roger, Steph Gabi, Anna Ro, Niland, Eric, Dan Diana Wade, Amanda Christoff, Denise Thereza, Bora, Laura, Smitty, Corey, Andre, Gayla, max, Bertram, Daniela and Mike who.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Mike, that list is getting bigger, but boy, are we pleased to have all of you join us as well as support the Moonshot Show, as well as the master series. Week in, week

Kevin Horsely: out. Yeah. And if you're listening to a trailer of the Good Thinking Master Series and you'd like to participate, head over to [00:15:00] moonshots.io where you can become a member.

Kevin Horsely: You'll get the access to the full episode of our master series. You'll have the chance to chat with us, send us suggestions. And generally support what we think is our quest to be the best version of ourselves to learn out loud together. So Mark, now that we are ascending higher, I think we can now lift our minds just to, and take them to that next level.

Kevin Horsely: And a key part of that is attention, isn't it?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes, it really is. Something that we've learned and we're going to really dive into now, is this idea of attention as well as memory, but we aren't necessarily Mike the grandma. So let's hear from author as well as Memory Grand Master, Kevin Horsley.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Talk to us about the attention problem. There is no such

Kevin Horsely: thing as a good or bad memory. There is only a good or bad memory strategy. Now some people think I have a bad [00:16:00] memory because I can't remember where they put their car keys. Have you had that experience? That's not a memory problem. That's an attention problem because when you put your car keys down, you just didn't pay attention.

Kevin Horsely: But if you look at your car keys and you dunno what they're for, now that's a memory problem. But what about if you park your car to shopping mall and you get back and it's gone? Sometimes it is gone. But if you always wanna remember where you parked your car, you just need to turn around market as something in the environment, obviously not the car next to you, and you'll obviously be able to remember your car.

Kevin Horsely: So most of the things that we call memory problems are quite normal and can be solved with a bit of attention, but memory is so much more than this. So why is it important for us to improve our memory? How many of you have read the book, seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

Kevin Horsely: Okay, what are the seven habits?

Kevin Horsely: What's the use of reading [00:17:00] or learning anything if you can't recall what you know? Because no matter how much you discover or experience here today, it's value vanishes. If you forget it all tomorrow, you can only live information if you can remember it. The quality of your thinking is determined by the facts that you have remembered, because your thinking relies on short-term and long-term storage of information.

Kevin Horsely: The great innovator Thomas Edison said, I didn't read a few books. I read the library, and he remembered everything that he read. Because the more information that you can process, the more ideas you can generate. When you have laser-like focus and you improve your memory, you also improve your speed of learning and recall.

Kevin Horsely: You improve your self-confidence [00:18:00] and you'll be known as someone that knows their stuff. Tell me, would you allow a doctor to operate on you if they had to continually refer to a manual or would you hire someone for their ability to Google information? No, you wouldn't. So we really need to get back to our brain and start storing information in our brain.

Kevin Horsely: In our brain again, because that is where the magic of creativity happens. There's a saying that says that the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory. That's not true because when information is on paper or on a screen, you are observing knowledge. But when it is in your brain, you have an inward experience of knowledge and the more memories you have properly stored in your brain, the more potential you have to make unique combinations and connections.

Kevin Horsely: And the more you know, the easier it's to get to know more. [00:19:00] Mark, look, I'll just take you back to when we first heard that clip and how we were both like feeling very guilty. We're like, we never work on our memory. Now I hear a clip like this and it feels like I've got so much work to do. How do you process it and how are you working on your memory?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. I look, I think first of all, Where Kevin is taking us there is, he's really made the case just how much work. We aren't putting in at least myself into something as powerful and influential as something that, as he calls it, improves your ability to learn. To recall, gives you authority, but also gives you more confidence.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. My experience from a memory improvement plan, I guess you could call it, Vitamins, fish oil diet, maybe a bit of exercise outside. [00:20:00] It is not as as considered as Kevin would say, it is not sticking to the plans. It is not necessarily sticking to any sort of program. It's much more passive. Yeah. I just assume my memory will catch up with the way that I'm living because my assumption is I've got other things to do that are more important, but really, Heaven's making the case that's not the case.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And when

Kevin Horsely: he says, okay, who's read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People In Future, by the way, we have done a full show on Very popular show. Yeah. Very popular. And I start thinking to myself, oh I know a one or two maybe, but to think that we studied that book, but because we've done so many shows since.

Kevin Horsely: Our memories have just discarded that information. So we might be able to recall at a scratch one or two maybe, but think about that. That means that the lessons that are inside of seven habits are harder for us to [00:21:00] access. They're not in our accessible memories. So what happens is, that's right.

Kevin Horsely: Is, think about it, when push comes to shove and you really need to re resort to some first principles, those are not available to you, are they?

Mark Pearson Freeland: No, they're not. And it is funny, Mike, I think what we have experienced, you and I specifically, the ability of diving into all of these authors, these frameworks, these moonshot legends, Is that we do start to get exposed to their ways of thinking, their advice and lessons and so on.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And through the act of repetition, I think we have benefited and I think we do. We have improved our ability to connect these dots, so to speak. But at the same time, that's probably the extent that I go to. That's probably it. Some

Kevin Horsely: repetition. So let's stay with the seven habits.

Kevin Horsely: Okay. I'm gonna read to you the seven habits. Okay. Let's have a look. So first of all be proactive. Begin with the end in mind. Put first things first. Think, win-win, [00:22:00] seek first to understand synergize and sharpen the soil, right? Yes, that's right. If you think about that for a second, those are seven amazing habits and I couldn't recall all of those, could you?

Mark Pearson Freeland: No, I couldn't. Now that you read them out then Mike, I do remember, and I actually, I remember, I believe we split the seven habits into two shows. That's right. So we actually went really deep into them, didn't we? But still, they're not randomly accessible.

Kevin Horsely: So just think if, where. Two guys going out trying to work hard on ourselves and we don't have the capacity just to go be proactive.

Kevin Horsely: Begin with the end of mind, put first things first, and so on. If we can't just recall them like that. Some of the most fun, fundamental, like time proven, classic ways to be the best version of yourself. You and I do this for a job. We study this stuff and we couldn't recall it. [00:23:00] I

Mark Pearson Freeland: know Kevin puts us on the spot, doesn't he?

Kevin Horsely: He, he does. And I think this is the most powerful thing about studying Kevin's work is it's a reminder that there is the option. Like we found out that you can work, you need to work on happiness, like going to the gym. You need to work on your memory, like going to the gym as well, don't you? You do.

Mark Pearson Freeland: You do. And I, that's really something we've uncovered, isn't it? The mind or the brain and everything that comes attached with it. The ability to learn, the ability to recall, but also the ability to roll with the punches to react and respond. It is a muscle, it is like training your legs to run a marathon.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Your arms to lift heavier weights. It's something that we need to put practice into. And I remember Mike, when we did that show on Kevin, and when we've gone through all of those individuals in our good thinking series on the Moonshot Show, a lot of the stuff was not necessarily things that I have [00:24:00] heard before or.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Unless I had opened up the book or gone out and, watched Kevin's TEDx talk in Pretoria, it's gonna be something that I'm only gonna rely on other people telling me, maybe I'm gonna listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video. And isn't that striking? Because really we are missing out quite a large percentage of ability by not harnessing the power.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Of the, let's say, faster recall, the ability to respond more positively to this Absolutely reduced to a somewhat extent for me at least. I've probably taken for granted. Yes.

Kevin Horsely: Yeah. So a really powerful lesson is think of things, matters of the heart and mind are not just fatalistic. They don't just happen as they are.

Kevin Horsely: The cards fall as they fall. We have a very active choice in how those cards play out, and although we don't control the things [00:25:00] around us and, circle of influence and circle of control is a big one of Stephen Covey's. We certainly have control over how we want to perceive things and how we want to take action as a result.

Kevin Horsely: And I just think, I can't reiterate. For all of our members, how powerful this thinking truly is when you say to yourself, okay, it doesn't matter what the world throws at me, I will have the capability to adjust, to overcome, and in doing so, I'm not gonna get stuck in fear, in self doubt, in uncertainty. I know that those are choices and I choose not to go down that path.

Kevin Horsely: I'll choose for hope for hard work and that if I do those things, good things are gonna happen. That's pretty powerful stuff, right?

Mark Pearson Freeland: If we had to put it in a can and start selling it in the supermarket, I'd say, Mike, that I would go out and [00:26:00] purchase that but it's hard. It's hard, isn't it?

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's sometimes challenging to really. Motivate ourselves to go out and find that information, but it's when you really appreciate what is contained within it. It just makes so much sense.

Kevin Horsely: It's really true. So let's do a quick recap on what we've done so far. Michael Singer really opened the door on the choice of the internal versus the external world, right?

Kevin Horsely: And really we learnt about suffering being really a choice. And then with Kevin, he's Hey guys, apart from asking us, Remind me what the seven habits of effective people are. He reminded us to work on memory because that unlocks learning and it's important to mention the reason why he's called the Grand Master in his title is, remind me of what he was able to memorize.

Kevin Horsely: He, how [00:27:00] many characters of pie did he memorize? Merck, I think it

Mark Pearson Freeland: was 10,000 characters of pie.

Kevin Horsely: So explain what that means. What is that? So

Mark Pearson Freeland: that means having the ability to remember in order. 10,000 different numbers. So 1, 2, 3, 4, but in random order, or not random order in order of pie, but to the tune of 10,000 all through the usage of the techniques that he outlines within his book.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Unlimited Memory. And obviously we dove into that on, in our Kevin Horsley shows. So I recommend everybody to go and check it out because I learned a lot from that and it really got me excited about the. Possibility of improving my memory and my ability to recall. But he's a grand mastermind. He has Guinness World Records because of his ability to memorize things.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Better than anyone. He is the grandma master, much like they have in chess. Yes. Grandma's in chess. He's the grandma master of memory.

Kevin Horsely: What a great platform. But we've still got more to come and I think now we want to take [00:28:00] a, another twist and turn in the good thinking series.

Mark Pearson Freeland: That's right. We are now, if we've just recapped our areas of starting to get inspired, I suppose you could say Mike.

Mark Pearson Freeland: With regards to the power of our brains, the power of our thinking, let's now really dig into some specifics with regards to how we might be able to adopt these practices in our day-to-day lives. We've got a very popular show on Dom Miguel Reyes's four Agreements, so we're now gonna hear a breakdown of those four agreements by fight mediocrity.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Who's gonna break down for us? Don Miguel? Ye's. Thinking. Be impeccable

Kevin Horsely: with your word. That is the first agreement. Stop gossiping. Complaining and criticizing your word is one of the most powerful tools you have. When was the last time you used it to bring someone up instead of gossip? When was the last time you used it to put value out into the world?

Kevin Horsely: Instead of complaining and [00:29:00] criticizing the person who didn't practice being impeccable with your word? The second agreement is don't take anything personally. Imagine a person who hates books watches one of my videos. What's this comment going to look like? Now, imagine that same person in two years.

Kevin Horsely: This time he's gone through a major life transformation and loves reading books. What's his comment going to look like now? But notice how my video is the same in both cases. How people treat you is a projection of who they are. That is why it doesn't make sense to ever take anything personally. The third agreement is don't make assumptions.

Kevin Horsely: If you are in a leadership position, you will lose all respect when something doesn't get done the way it's supposed to. And instead of having the courage and skill to communicate, you just assume things and start treating people like trash. If you had asked, who knows, you might have actually found [00:30:00] out that the person is going through a divorce and your little task isn't really his number one priority right now.

Kevin Horsely: Build up the skill and the courage to communicate, and you will easily turn hatred towards you into loyalty and respect. The final agreement is always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment, but under any circumstance. Simply do your best. Nobody abuses us more than we abuse ourselves, but if we simply do our best, we can avoid all the unnecessary self-judgment, self abused, and regret.

Kevin Horsely: These are the four agreements that I constantly break, but when I do, I just say, okay, I broke the agreement of being impeccable with my word. I will start all over again today. I will be impeccable with my word. I will not take anything personally. I will not make assumptions, and I will do my best. Oh [00:31:00] boy, mark.

Kevin Horsely: There is a lot going on in those four agreements. Let's just do a quick recap. Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, and always do your best. I think like the power of those, if you hold those to be true, worst case scenario, you are just gonna be able to avoid a lot of drama in life, right?

Kevin Horsely: That's like the absolute, like just do that and minimum life will be a little less stressful, wouldn't you say?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, absolutely. That, and in fact, Dogo Rios even calls that out. He says, this is your ability to turn or transform hell to heaven. So even just doing those, you're gonna feel that little bit better.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah,

Kevin Horsely: totally. So let's do something fun here. I'm gonna pitch you each of these four, and then you tell me which one you think and you observe The world around you [00:32:00] is the most relevant. Today. Okay. So be impeccable with your word cuz a lot of people, they often say yeah I'll do that and then they don't.

Kevin Horsely: So being, keeping your word and your commitments don't take things personally. Oh my gosh, that's a big one. So many people perceive events that happening as a on them when unknowingly something we've studied a lot on the Moonshot show is that when there is a trespass between two people, the person.

Kevin Horsely: Who has made the mistake is often completely unaware of the supposed personal attack that they made. They have no idea because they're not thinking about that person. Another one is, We see a lot of things outta context and we make assumptions. We judge people and we don't know the full story.

Kevin Horsely: Judgment and rushing to assumptions is very dangerous. And the last one is always do your best. In the end of the day, do your best. And then that kind of the outcome is the [00:33:00] outcome. It doesn't matter because you did your best. So those are the big four from Don McGuill. Hugely popular show from us.

Kevin Horsely: It's actually the most watched YouTube video for us. So I'm very interested to know. Now I've set those up. Alright, I want you to tell us which one and why you think the world needs the most.

Mark Pearson Freeland: As we might remember from the show, that Oprah's favorite. Was the idea of being impeccable with the word, but also Don's was always do your best.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. So already we've got a couple of different directions. Yes. From when we heard about those rules, first of all, but in answer to your question, Mike, the one that I think the world could probably do more of is this idea of being impeccable with your word. The reason why I say that is because I believe.

Mark Pearson Freeland: We are in a time now where people are trying to appreciate and work as hard as they can. I think there are obviously a lot of [00:34:00] tools that are around us and we have the ability to learn, educate ourselves maybe with the power of Kevin Horsley, even remember some of the stuff that we learn. So I think people are starting to try that little bit harder to do that bet.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And with regards to not taking things personally and not making assumptions, again, I believe that those are very valid. But the reason why I think being impeccable with your word is something that really strikes me as an area that should be, focused on, is that idea of integrity.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. We can rely on each other. Much more so than perhaps we already do. Yeah. You and I hear a lot of lessons from these authors and these speakers and these idea moners on understanding how you can control your reaction to things, feel empowered and so on. I would say that the same is true for other people and if we can hold ourselves accountable, if we can be.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Direct, yeah. The work that we're doing ourselves, but then inspire [00:35:00] others. That's it to also be,

Kevin Horsely: that's a really good point, mark. I think if you want to encourage great teamwork, start with yourself. Keep your own word, and whether you are thinking about relationships, friendships, or just working as part of a team, I think the starting point is keep up your end.

Kevin Horsely: Exactly. Do the things that you promised you would because you can't. You can lead by example. I think there's a great way of saying that, whether it's in friendships, relationships, working setups, sports teams, and way beyond. I think also right now we could probably Stole back some of the assumptions and judgments.

Kevin Horsely: Seems like the world is, it's always left versus right, east versus west, there's all this stuff going on. If we could just work more towards the common ground rather than suing Ill upon those around us, I think life would just be that little bit easier, wouldn't it?

Mark Pearson Freeland: It would. And I think the other layer, Mike, I [00:36:00] mean we could obviously do an entire, another show on John Mcg Miguel by this time 10.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Cause he he's getting us gay is not only being impeccable with your word to others and inspire them to be the best versions of themself but ourselves. Yeah. Be impeccable and also disciplined with your own behavior, with how you talk about or think about others behind the scenes. If you make a promise to go out for a run twice a week.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Make sure you're impeccable with the word and you go and do it. Yeah. Because you are the only one who holds yourself accountable. Yeah.

Kevin Horsely: Very good wisdom. The, isn't it crazy that a dude can come along and write a book about four fundamental ideas like that and he has had a worldwide bestseller?

Kevin Horsely: Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Always do your best. Each of those we will have heard before. But don't you think it's inspiring and just almost miraculous that someone could come along and tell that story [00:37:00] in a different way, and it resonates with literally millions of people.

Mark Pearson Freeland: That's fundamentally the big surprise on a lot of these shows, isn't it, Mike? There there's a truth in the reveal that sometimes these lessons. May be familiar, but the truth is how often do we actually remind ourselves of them? Again, maybe this is Kevin Horsley coming into play. Yes. We hear about advice from others and so on.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe we listen to podcasts, but retaining that information can be hard until. Somebody comes along and says it in a way that particularly has gravity for us. Yeah. That really resonates and sinks its teeth into your brain so that you remember it. Hopefully we're doing a little bit of that, Mike.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. On the Master series

Kevin Horsely: as well as the Moonshot Show. Yes I hope so. And we saw that a lot that same pattern for Don McWell with Jordan

Mark Pearson Freeland: Peterson. We did. Exactly. And we even had Robert Greens, the the, oh, I've forgotten how many laws there are. Quite nine. Yeah, quite a few. The [00:38:00] 49 laws of power.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Some of them much like Peterson. Are not necessarily brand new, but as we know from our series on creativity with Elizabeth Gilbert, sometimes these ideas have not been said by the person who can break it down in the simplest language, right? Or break it down in a way that is particularly inspiring or creative, or gets people going.

Mark Pearson Freeland: So really this idea of originality and so on. Really, it stems from just ideas, topics as well as lessons that really resonate with people. There's a reason why perhaps there's only four agreements Yes. Is because they're so powerful.

Kevin Horsely: Yes. They pack a lot of punch. They back a lot of punch. I'm totally with you.

Kevin Horsely: Now listen, I, mark, we are, we're covering a lot of ground here. We, there's four agreements from Don McWell. There's seven habits from Stephen Covey. Yeah, there's like dozens now from Jordan Peterson. There's 40 plus from Robert Green. We need to. Give our members a way [00:39:00] to remember and to activate their mind.

Kevin Horsely: Make sure that all of this good stuff stays in so they can be the best version of themselves. So if you've got something there in the archives, you can throw out there just to help them loosen up a little bit, mobilize those brain cells.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think you're right, Mike. That's a nice setup for this.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Something that can help us feel limber, get us ready in the mornings or during the time of days when we need that little bit of a kick. I think it's only fair to dive back into the archive, but also find a brand new clip from one of our favorite authors, Jim Quick, who was the author of Limitless amongst many other accolades.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Of course. Now, Jim Quick is gonna help us close the show with a little bit of proactivity, specifically around some brain exercises. All right. This is what I do

Kevin Horsely: before I get ready to go to learn something or go on stage. Okay, so there's called, it's out of a science called educational Kinesiology, and it goes like this.

Kevin Horsely: These are different sets of exercises. So [00:40:00] one is taking your elbow and touching it to the opposite leg, like this. They're called cross crawls according to brain. Jim. Hey, brain, Jim. My name is Jim.

Kevin Horsely: So you're just doing this and basically anything that you know, that anything below the neck is controlled by the opposite side of the brain. So you know that the left side of your brain controls the opposite side of the body and vice versa and so on. And so this helps to be able to connect more of your corpus, cossum, left brain, right brain, more integrated versus very, check this one out.

Kevin Horsely: So a lot of us spend a lot of time on the computer, so it's kinda like you're shaking out your hands like this. All right. Shaking out your hands. Getting some fluidity in your wrist. And now watch this. Now one, it's gonna go twice as fast as the other. So watch this. Just try this now. This very simple.

Kevin Horsely: Can I see that? Cool. And then I can also reverse it too, right? I [00:41:00] can do it with the opposite hand, right? Kind of fun exercises. Wake up, get you thinking a little bit. Another one is this. You take your arms and you just bring them towards you, like you're moving energy towards you and bring it towards you, pulling it in like this, and now do this.

Kevin Horsely: Do one towards you and one away from you. Like that. So you're just making these circles and you can go opposite also and breathe. Also, some people hold their breath for some reason when they do this. So it's like this, and if that's too difficult, you could just pat your head and rub your stomach. Mark, did you ever think that we would be patting our head, rubbing our tummy in order to be the best version of ourselves?

Kevin Horsely: This is crazy. Have we lost the plot?

Mark Pearson Freeland: No. A very rare moment, Mike. I did remember learning that when I was a kid. Unlike most of the topics we cover. Yes. That was the one, [00:42:00] one exercise that I do remember what

Kevin Horsely: now. It's funny, isn't it? It is. It is. And what it shows you is these are habits that we can adopt to stimulate our mind.

Kevin Horsely: We're big fans of journaling. We're big fans of cold showers in the morning. We're big fans of exercise. These are not only good in and. Of their own characteristics, but we know that they stimulate the mind and the nervous system and help us think what Jim's giving us is techniques that will activate the brain and what a perfect way.

Kevin Horsely: We've started with suffering and trying to remember 10,000 characteristics of pie, but we've ended up with like childhood nursery rhymes of patting the head. Yeah. Rubbing the head and patting the tummy, but. With all seriousness, this is the scope of what good thinking really takes. To have clarity of thought, you need to activate your brain.

Kevin Horsely: If you wanna be full of good intention, then [00:43:00] you need to live out these four agreements from Don Ria. Mark, what's your favorite brain activation? Technique.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It was reminding me of Andrew Huberman. When we did a show on him in the last few months. And he had a great tip for mornings where you just walk out directly into the sun.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes. No sunglasses. Yes. There's only one level of brightness that's gonna wake you up. And that's the sun. So I think there's a nice practicality and. Let's call it nature focus. That comes with Jim Quick's Little exercise at the end there. Yes. To stimulate our brains. But the thing that it reminds me of, Mike, is just how connected our minds are.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And what I mean by that is if we can stimulate our body, wake ourselves up, oh, we might feel a bit stiff. A bit tired. Maybe the cobwebs are here cuz we went for a run last week. You then stretch, you activate it, and movement is the way to get motivation. Yes. Funnily enough, I think we're hearing the same thing when it comes to our brains.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. That's how we think about [00:44:00] things. Yeah. A little bit of movement, a little bit of activity, whether that's journaling or something more physical like Jim Quick was showing. Then we are going to set ourselves up correctly by activation. Yeah. By getting it moving rather than. Putting things off, not being accountable to our word as we were hearing.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. Yeah. And instead, going out and focusing on trying to get better each day. Yeah.

Kevin Horsely: Look, I resort to simple things like getting sun in the morning. Also, when in doubt take a 20 minute walk. Just a 20 minute walk. Yeah, exactly. Incredibly powerful. These are all things, that will help you.

Kevin Horsely: Change things up a little bit and activate. I think the one huge warning sign is when you're sitting at your desk for hours upon hours, that should be a huge warning sign that both clarity of thought and good intentions. Will you're fighting a declining [00:45:00] battle there because Yeah. We're designed to move about, we're social animals, we, we need to mix things up. We only need to look at what happened when we were locked down for a period and everyone went bananas, right? So the proof is in, we know we need to get out and about. We know we need to mobilize to feel good, to think good, right?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. And you know what? How much better?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Speaking from experience, I know how much better I am, not only in how I feel, but actually how I function when I have had, let's call it, Something maybe not strenuous, maybe 20 minutes or so is enough. Yeah. Just getting that blood pumping. Yeah. I'm much better at it. Yeah. Yeah. Once I've done a little bit of exercise.

Kevin Horsely: Absolutely the same here. So we covered a very broad palliative ground. I think this is the broadest master series we've done yet. So I'm curious which one is gonna, which thought, which idea is gonna get your [00:46:00] attention after this epic journey?

Mark Pearson Freeland: That's a tricky one, particularly this time, Mike, because I think that we were hearing such valid insights from that very first clip with Michael Singer about stopping suffering.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I love the Kevin Horsley work, but the Four Agreements, and even Jim Quick at the end, that they're all pretty powerful. I suspect though, Mike, I'm gonna lean towards the four agreements. With Dongo, because I think as a package they Inspire me to try and hold myself. Obviously the first agreement not only hold myself accountable, but also try and focus day to day on the stuff I can control.

Mark Pearson Freeland: How I interpret things, how I behave with others, what I'm doing not only with myself, but in terms of collaboration. So I think for me, when it comes to thinking, getting my mindset my habits, the way that I work on things that I think is still. It's a powerhouse still staying up there. What?

Mark Pearson Freeland: What about you, [00:47:00] Mike? You're right. It's an eclectic bunch today.

Kevin Horsely: Yeah. I honestly think I'm gonna write down the seven habits of highly Effective People and memorize them. I feel so bad that I can't recall them all. Yeah. Gosh. Mark, listen. Thank you to you and thank you to you, our members for joining us on this video and audio podcast we did together.

Kevin Horsely: Episode 24 of the Master Series on good thinking and our journey started with Michael, a singer, and he was teaching us how to stop the suffering. It's a choice. Kevin Halls lead the Grand Master. He made us aware of the attention problem and one of the big classics. Dongo S'S four Agreements gave us a North Star for good vibes and good intentions.

Kevin Horsely: And Jim Quick brought it all home to activate mind, to get the brain working so that we can truly be the best version of ourselves. And that ladies and gentlemen, is what we're all about here on the [00:48:00] Moonshots Master Series. That's a wrap.