Connecting Your Biology To The Chemicals Of Success

I wanted to talk about something that I don’t believe is understood, or discussed enough in the Home Business industry, or in training courses in general, and that’s the real link between your mind and your body that you need to maintain the success you have in your life.

I personally don’t think that you have to be healthy at all to become financially successful. I’ve met lots of tired, old looking worn out people with lots of money. That’s not what this article is going to be about. This article is really about presenting you with a choice on how you want to live your life, and to talk about some ‘deep, dark secrets’ of some top producers, behind the scenes in their lives.

(not mentioning any names, of course)

One of the things that you realize when you’re in the foundational process of building your business, is that it takes a lot of mental and physical energy to accomplish great things, especially if you’re starting out in a way that a ‘budget’ is needed to build your organization – or if you’re burning the candle on both ends and working all night and day between a job and your business.

Usually what happens, is that in order to sustain the energy to continue to accomplish goals and tasks late into the evening, you start to become a bit of a caffeine fiend, upping the regular one coffee a day to five or ten – and fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong with doing that for a short bout – this isn’t a philosophical discussion of right and wrong, it’s just pointing out some observations I’ve noticed in A LOT of people on their journey to success.

What happens is, the caffeine (as an example) lowers the absorbtion of a chemical called ‘adenosine’, which is a feel good relaxation neurotransmitter produced by the brain, and the more of it you block from being used by your nervous system to keep you ‘awake’ late into the night, and the more often you do that, the more adenosine your body begins to produce, and the more stimulation you need to keep yourself going.

I don’t think this happens as much if someone is just kind of – being lazy with their lives, but I’ve noticed a lot of people who are entrepreneurs end up progressing down a path where they need greater and greater stimulation to keep themselves going, and end up developing drug dependency’s on really, really nasty stuff.

One story I will tell, only because the person is quite public about it in an attempt to keep his addictions at bay, is that when I was in Agel, Randy Schroeder had to go to drug therapy multiple times to get over a cocaine addiction that has plagued him for nearly a decade. If you looked at Randy (at least when I saw him at events), he was always jittery, huge dark circles under his eyes, smoking at every meeting break, and otherwise looked like his life was REALLY out of whack.

As a testament to the power of change and therapy, Randy has now been drug free for more than 3 years, and as of writing this article is no longer bound by his crippling addiction – bravo 🙂

But this is worth exploring for a variety of reasons – like I said earlier, without mentioning names, this is a very common phenomenon, (more than you would think), and the question to ask is – why does it seem to happen A LOT to successful people?

I believe that your ability to reason, think quickly, and make executive decisions is foundational to your ability to sell, recruit, and produce in the Network Marketing industry (depending, of course on the quality and efficiency of your marketing system). Sometimes, in order to compensate for poor diet, lack of physical movement, lack of balance, and emotional problems – in order to reach that sustained clarity, people have to over compensate by using excessive stimulants and other drugs.

A better solution (at least for happiness and balance) is to live in such a way that allows your body to produce that energy and well being as naturally as possible, and realize that certain lines have to be drawn and you might have to get educated a bit on nutrition and exercise if you want sustained joy and prosperity in your life.

A few examples:

1. I’ve learned that nearly all people who don’t have massive addictive problems while maintaining their success over a long period of time have a clear cut, structured routine to start their day. A great example of this is one of my good friends Ray Higdon. Ray wakes up at the butt-crack of dawn (4am – not kidding) and works out like a horse for the first 30-60 minutes of the day, followed by about an hour of reading and meditation. Most people would blow this off as a little obsessive, but if you look at Ray, his health is excellent and he stays so consistent building his business that he has been able to create a tremendous amount of success in his life.

2. With myself, every day I start the day with about an hour of exercise, followed by at least an hour or two of intense mental concentration (meditation, reading, visualization, etc – more on this later in future posts). I always do this, every day, and when I do my mental abilities are so enhanced throughout the day that it completely changes my ability to produce. Most people wouldn’t tie mental exertion early in the day with the ability to recruit, as an example – but if you think more clearly, visualize better, and focus more intently you just happen to choose the right words at the right time with statistically increased efficiency.

Also, before I go to bed I spend another 30 minutes or so in intense mental exertion.

3. Jonathan Budd (just learned this from this sweet video series he put out about a week ago) starts the day and ends it with meditation and Yoga. Obviously it enhances his ability to succeed – he’s done $10 million in sales his first five years online. I think that a majority of his abilities to create prosperity literally COME from the enhanced mental abilities that accompany daily disciplined activity, nutrition, and visualization.

Let’s look at a couple of scientific perspectives on the connection between exercise, drugs, and sustained mental concentration on your ability to succeed. (keep in mind I’m not a scientist, lol)

If you look at Cocaine – essentially what it does is block the re-uptake of a neurotransmitter called ‘Dopamine’, which is primarily responsible for enhanced mental concentration, focus, and increased physical abilities. When Dopamine re-uptake is ‘blocked’, it makes more dopamine circulate in your blood, brain, and body – and your concentration, mental quickness, strength, and endurance is all temporarily enhanced. Of course, the problem with that, is anything involving dopamine is EXTREMELY dependence forming, and causes a rampage of physical problems with sustained use. This is the same primary action that Ritaline (Methylphenidate – your child’s ADHD drugs) and Adderall (Dexamphetamine, very similar to Crystal Meth) have on the brain and body – although they are much safer if taken under extreme medical supervision.

Fascinating enough, when you engage in moderate to intense exercise, a similar effect on brain neurotransmitters (although definitely not as pronounced as cocaine) is produced in the mind and body. Exercise has been proven to increase dopamine, improve serotonin levels (the same thing that prozac does), and also release a massive amount of feel good endorphins into your nervous system. The benefit to daily exercise is, of course, that it keeps working. One of the things I learned recently, is that if you start the day by eating a bit of protein (within about 30 minutes of waking), followed immediately by exercise, the effect on neurotransmitter release is even more pronounced – it literally changes your whole day.

Aside from exercise, let’s look at the value of some kind of intense mental workout – whether it’s meditation, reading, memorizing something, or doing some kind of visualization. There is anecdotal evidence that has suggested that your actual intelligence level can be dramatically enhanced over time with daily visualization, meditation, and memorization. Although I don’t believe that you need a high IQ to create a dramatic level of success, I do think that you need to have an ability to maintain sustained focus on a goal for a long period of time – which can be enhanced by a daily routine of visualization.

I first noticed the relationship between visualization ability and success a few years back when I was working in a job for Discover Card that I absolutely despised. I kind of sucked at the job (because I hated it) and I had just enrolled in an intense memory training program that involved the craziest spacial visualization I had ever done in my life (it felt like an hour of doing this was more work than I did with my brain in a week). After about 3 weeks, my ability to see images in my mind enhanced so dramatically that my internal representations had almost as much clarity as things I actually saw (not joking). As a side effect, however, I started having the highest conversion rates from phone calls to sales in an office with over 2,000 people – the visualization, even un-related to my job DRAMATICALLY enhanced my ability to sell, and a host of other aspects of my life simultaneously improved.

One of the neatest things about exercise as it relates to business, is that for some reason stuff doesn’t bother you as much when you work out. I don’t know if it’s the endorphins or what – but it’s a bit easier to take it when people tell you stupid bull crap – you just kind of stay ‘even’ throughout the day.

One of the things I read a while back is that Einstein visualized himself in a light beam for more than 10 years (obviously when he wasn’t doing something else) before he came up with the special theory of relativity. I’ve always wondered how much doing that enhanced his intellectual ability by the very act of the visualization, based on my own experience.

Aside from just raw intelligence, clarity of mind, robust health, and an animalistic focus on your goals – living a mentally and physically disciplined life will make you happier, have a better social life, you’ll have more success in your business, and you’ll be able to manage your resources better.

The way I see it – you essentially have a choice when creating the success you want in your life – do it in a way that is natural and sustained, or throw your body out of whack and suffer the consequences later. This article might not make so much sense to some of you, but if you’ve ever been around success circles, you know what I’m talking about – we’re an extreme group of people, and along with the happiness and prosperity experienced by a lot of us, there is a ‘dark side’ of addictions, abuse, and health problems.

A couple of suggestions I have is – eat better, exercise more, breathe deeper, visualize – and your whole life will improve dramatically.

How do you want to live?

To the TOP,
David Wood

P.S. Because I mention ‘caffeine’ doesn’t mean that I think moderate caffeine is bad for you, it’s just an example of a pattern that I’ve seen happen in A LOT of ultra successful people, who’s finances are in order and personal lives are TOTALLY screwed up. There’s actually evidence that moderate caffeine intake has a positive long term impact on your brain (Google it), as long as it isn’t abusive. Also, I don’t necessarily think stimulants or other drugs are ‘wrong’ if used under proper medical supervision and used wisely. The problem comes from a cycle of addiction similar to alcoholism that is present in a lot of people, like you and I – who constantly strive to live a superior life. We’re an odd bunch with our own rules, and one of the things that we need to do is manage our energy and lives with wisdom – just my two cents.

Comments

Wadell Jones, September 1, 2011, 18:36

ONE WORD WOW!!!!!!!!

Doe Winfrey, September 2, 2011, 10:15

Dave I want to commend you and thank you for sharing these nuggets of success. I am a new networker and I am trying to learn how to do it right! This wisdom will take me so far. I started some affirmations and a mini workout-but now that I read your insightful post, I am going to take a more serious and intentional approach to these foundational truths! I am considering adding an am workout as part of my routine. This is the freshest post I have seen so far. Thanks a million (literally!)

Chuck Bartok, September 3, 2011, 09:30

Always a pleasure to find a Blog with top flight content. This may sound a bit sophomoric, but when we realize the Power from Within it is very easy to enjoy a life of wellness and moderation….. And that lifestyle just seems to generate success in any venture. For some reason over the past few decades there has been too much focus on excess, including the ridiculous drive for Large Income. Wealth building is easier when you are Well…..

Gregory Elfrink, September 3, 2011, 17:45

This is a pretty awesome post David, as always. I see what you’re saying, probably the most dramatic example of this is mega success in the arts such as music. (Living like a rockstar ain’t so fun…) I am hugely addicted to soda, and am in the process of quitting that/getting healthier myself to lose the 30 lbs I gained from my heart problem last year. (That wasn’t cause by bad health, but a really random extremely deadly flu virus, I’m so lucky to finally be a one in a million.. haha) How do you visualize? I would like to hear more on your own personal mental exertions and what you do, that course you took on it sounds really fascinating. Skype me to the info if you ever get the time my old friend =)

JoKarol Dean, September 4, 2011, 11:00

Great post Dave and thanks for making us stop and think! And could you give me a recommendation on the intense memory training you talked about in your post? I know that was a few years back for you… but I would love to be able to visualize with that kind of clarity and have that kind of mental focus.

Hans Schoff, September 5, 2011, 08:45

You know Dave, I used to think sleep wasn’t important, that I was young enough and could just fit it in when I could which of course led to me sleeping crazy times and hours (since I set my own hours). Then when I couldn’t function properly and was always tired, or groggy, or unable to think did I realize how important a regular schedule and healthy routine is to success. If nothing else, it just makes life and success easier! So why fight it? Sometimes you have to learn through making your own mistakes…