Page 26 - Standard Workbook 8-27-18

TOPUCU Standard Workbook
LESSON 4: PART 1
E TO THE 7 POWER
TH
Welcome to Lesson Four of the TOPUCU
Starter Program! You’re just about halfway
through the 7 lessons, congratulations! But
you’re not done yet. Keep plugging away
because all of the powerful principles, tools
and secrets from Lessons One, Two and
Three won’t have as much affect if you don’t
continue and finish what you’ve started.
Today’s lesson tackles an idea that is truly
at the center of it all. You’re going to learn
some techniques that can be used to take
back control of that central processing unit
we call a brain. Now, there’s tons of clinical
research and data out there that attempts to
explain all of the nuances of the brain but at
the end of the day that is all just information.
And remember, this is a program that is all
about transformation, so we’re going to
talk about how to get your brain to think
differently; to see things differently; to
approach and apply different logical patterns
to areas in your life where you want to see
change; and specifically to that one habit
you chose to address in Lesson One. Do you
remember what that was? Did you write it
down? Have you been working on it? If not,
go back and review the previous lessons.
There is no limit to the amount of times you
can listen to them and study them. There
should be no limit to what you’re willing to
do to see positive change.
With that said, let’s get to today’s formula.
It’s called “E to the 7 Power.” It is so
th
important that you memorize and internalize
the 7 E’s you will be taught today. We’ve
talked about motivation and how to stay
motivated, but what happens when you
simply lose faith and belief in yourself that
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you can do what you’ve set out to do. That
has most likely happened to you before. E to
the 7 Power is the formula that will explain
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how we allow those negative thoughts to
take hold of us. Then in the next part of
this lesson you will learn how to get back
on track and remind yourself that those
negative thoughts are only thoughts and
that you have the power to get past them.
It’s a powerful formula. So here we go.
“E TO THE 7 POWER”
TH
The first E stands for “Entrance.” This is
referring to when a negative thought enters
your brain. The first thing to understand is
that we can’t stop negative thoughts from
entering our brain. Anyone who tells you
that you can is not telling you the truth.
You’re going to deal with it every day.
You’re going to think, maybe I deserve that
bowl of ice cream at ten o’clock at night.
Or, I really don’t feel like doing that last set
of curls. Or, maybe I’ll watch just one more
hour of television.
Whatever change you’re working on, that
trigger or craving to fall back into a negative
habit is going to come back over and over
again. This is the Entrance of a potentially
destructive thought.
The second E stands for “Entertain.” Once
the thought enters your brain you begin
to think about it. You make a cognitive
decision to entertain that thought. By way
of illustration it’s like that thought is a bird
landing on your head. You can’t really do
anything about the bird flying over and
perching on you. But the question is, will you
entertain the intentions of the bird? Will you
let that bird build a nest on your head? Will
you let it lay eggs and nurture the babies
that are hatched later? You can’t stop the
bird from swooping down on you, but you
can definitely stop it from creating a home
on your head. You can’t stop the thoughts
from entering your brain, but you can
stop short of entertaining those thoughts.
Entertaining those thoughts is where the
path to mental destruction begins.
The third E stands for “Examine.” This is
when you begin to rationalize the negative
thought. You think to yourself, one little
scoop of ice cream won’t cause that much
damage. But we know that’s a trap. As soon
as there is a crack in your armor, that bad
habit will start to rear its ugly head again.
A small scoop of ice cream becomes a big
scoop of ice cream. That big scoop of ice
"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the
circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.
That is something you have charge of." — Jim Rohn
cream becomes two big scoops of ice cream.
And so forth and so on until you’re right back
where you didn’t want to be.
Examining a thought is pivotal in the “7 E’s”
because allowing ourselves to justify that
first step backwards inevitably leads to the
proverbial slippery slope.
The fourth E stands for “Enjoy.” Once
you’ve allowed your mind to rationalize this
negative thought that has led to a negative
decision, you begin to remember how much
you enjoyed this negative behavior, even
though you knew it was bad for you. All of
us humans struggle with this. The enjoyment
factor is one of the biggest reasons why
so many of us don’t break bad habits. It’s
easy to go back to something that gives
Lesson 4: Part 1
us pleasure. But it is for this reason that
Transfer technique in the previous lesson.
we talked about the Pain Association
All positive change is going to be painful or
uncomfortable in some way, so you begin
to enjoy the negative thoughts because it
takes the pressure off. Then you find yourself
thinking things like “My grandfather didn’t
really amount to much; my father wasn’t any
better, so I guess I am not really that special
and I’m not going to amount to much either.”
This kind of thinking allows you to just sit
back and wander through life, instead of
living to your full potential. Don’t fall into the
pattern of enjoying the easy road.
The fifth E stands for “Experience.” The
destructive thought has entered your mind,
you’ve entertained it, examined it and you’ve
enjoyed the mental break it gives you. Then
you take that thought and begin to verbalize
it, which gives even more power to the habit
or behavior you were initially trying to avoid.
The power of your words is something we
are going to explore in depth during Part 2
of this lesson, but for the purposes of what
we are discussing right now, suffice it to
say there are fewer things in this world that
have the creative and destructive magnitude
of words. Instead of just thinking about the
shortcomings of our ancestors, we begin
to talk about it. The negative speech is now
confirming the negative thoughts. We’ve
given the thoughts more power. Think
about this example of corrosive rust. If you
take water, salt and steel and put them in a
vacuum nothing will happen. But if you take
them out of the vacuum and expose the mix
to air you’ll have rust. The first four E’s took
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