I came across a tale from a strapping young lad the other day.

He was on a date with a young lady – their first.

The way he tells it, she was rude. Not just rude but downright horrid. She complained to and about everything, from the food to the staff at the restaurant to the decor to… well, everything else.

Part way through dinner, he excused himself for a moment. He apologised to the waiters, paid for his food, gave them a big tip, told them his date would pay for her own food and snuck out.

He was bragging, of course, going on about how he had no tolerance for such disrespect.

Now, sure, he could have done worse. A lot worse. Trying to appease his date would have been a mistake. So would have joining her in the complaining, just so they’d have something in common.

But walking out on her?

Nah, that’s a mid move. Better than grovelling, better than tolerating such disrespect, but still weak.

The chad move?

It’s simple. He thought he was establishing boundaries by running away. There’s a time for cutting people like this from your life, but this was a missed opportunity.

Instead of punishing her for her bad behaviour, he should have at least tried to correct it.

Imagine this: say it’s the start of the evening and she’s ranting about the way the waitress led them to their table. He could have picked up the wine menu and, while casually glancing at it, said, “Pull your head in. You don’t have to enjoy yourself but at least treat the staff here with respect. Now, are you a red wine drinker or a white wine drinker?”

She might have done a few different things at this point.

If she caused a scene… well, at least he tried. That’s when he could sneak away.

If she stormed off in a huff, he should let her go. She’d probably expect him to chase after her, grovelling and apologising. If he didn’t, then she would have learned two things. One, her actions have consequences. Two, he’s not like most men.

The likeliest outcome, though, is that she would fall into line. She’d be stunned by him calmly enforcing a boundary – I doubt it happens to her often – but some part of her would react to that display of strength.

“No way! I have a zero tolerance policy for such insufferable behaviour!” Then why don’t you want to stop it? People seem so deranged these days because they’re used to acting like children and getting away with it. But they don’t like that. As much as we crave freedom and autonomy for our best virtues, we also crave boundaries and guidance for our worst impulses.

If you want to make a child or dog miserable, then stop enforcing standards, discipline and lessons. And we’re all children and dogs sometimes.

We crave discipline.

And no one craves discipline more than someone who’s being submissive. A submissive person will adore someone who is strong, stern and enforcing proper standards of behaviour.

“How do you know she was submissive? Women can be dominant!” Yeah, women can be. But no one who complains over every minor and hallucinated inconvenience is dominant. Think about it – this woman was being a brat. Brats are quintessential subs.

Maybe you disagree with me here. Maybe you think this wasn’t about dominance or submission, or he had no duty to teach his date anything, or that the only answer to rudeness is to leave.

You’re welcome to be wrong about power dynamics.

I understand them, though. Which is why I appreciate the position I’m in when it comes to my coaching clients. Generally, I’m in a position of dominance – they’ve come to me for guidance.

That means I don’t coddle bad behaviour. I put up boundaries and expect compliance. Anyone who agrees enjoys a boon. Anyone too weak to follow someone else’s lead washes out.

It takes incredible strength to establish and adhere to boundaries. Most folks who say they have good boundaries, don’t. Their walls are wafer thin, which is why they run away from the slightest conflict.

Not me. My walls are solid.

And maybe that’s exactly what you need – unless you’re happy to continue to wallow in your own follies.

Either way, make sure you’re making the strongest choice, unlike the man flexing about running away from a brat.

Choose here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/coaching

On LinkedIn, the memes are all:

Lincoln failed at everything he ever did until he was 97. Picasso never touched a paintbrush until the sun burned out. Mona Lisa was sad and unmysterious until she turned 42. It’s not too late for you. Never give up!

Meanwhile, on Facebook, it’s all:

Einstein solved all of mathematics before he could talk. Alexander the Great conquered Mars before he could drink. By the age of 17, Queen Elizabeth I was already 35 years old. It’s too late for you, you loser!

Both are clichés, which means they’re boring and they’ve already taught you everything you can learn from them.

So it’s time for a new twist on the idea.

Let’s say you’re 28 years old and struggling to make something of your life. Should you compare yourself to Alexander the Great, then? It would seem like a bad idea to compare yourself to a man who, at your age, had spent a good decade or so conquering the world.

But it’s not such a bad idea.

If you focus on the differences between you and him, of course it’ll make you miserable. He had and achieved so much more than you.

But what if you focus on the similarities?

In what senses are you and Alexander the Great similar?

Narrow your attention onto those answers and you might just surprise yourself.

Sometimes, a quick, little shift of perspective is all you need to be happier, more optimistic, focused and more productive.

That’s why I like little tricks like this.

For everything else, it’s why I love coaching so much.

To get some real changes, sign up for a consultation call here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/coaching

Years ago, I read a post on a web forum about a young man who was struggling with the ladies.

He had no problem getting a date with them. In his words, he was great at approaching women with boldness, decisiveness and charm.

Then during the date – again, in his own words – he’d use a different strategy. He’d be meek, apologetic, always asking if there was anything he could do to make the date better for them.

He was confused, even hurt, about how he never managed to get a second date.

My jaw dropped as I read that. Even not knowing that women tend to prefer decisiveness over meekness, shouldn’t it be obvious? In his own words, he asks them out with one strategy, which is successful. Then he uses a different strategy on the first date, and it isn’t.

How is this even a mystery? Stick with the successful strategy!

But, now, I get it.

Have you ever noticed how difficult, complicated and impossible your own problems are?

Then, when someone explains their problems to you, it’s all so simple and obvious.

There’s a funny thing about language. If I say octopus, then I’m not transmitting information into your brain. I’m giving you a signal to reconstruct the concept of an octopus in your mind.

This is how two people can talk about something using the same words but still misunderstand each other.

Language forces you to pare down your concept to its conceptual skeleton. To fully describe something as simple as a cat knocking a vase off a table would take thousands of pages. What size and colour is the vase? What about the cat? Which muscles contracted to move its paw? What angle did the vase hit the floor at? How was the air in the room moving? What did the impact do to the floor the moment it hit? Half a second after it hit?

To say my cat knocked a vase over deletes a lot of details while conveying the key idea.

When someone describes their problem to you, the same thing happens. They’re immersed in all the complexity of it. When you hear it, you hear it at its simplest.

That’s useful to know.

It’s also why telepathy would ruin you. If you could convey a full experience to someone else without having to simplify it through language, you’d lose the ability to see just how simple your problems are.

Because a powerful coaching technique is to ask yourself:

What would you say if someone came to you with this problem?

Often, you’ll amaze yourself with the wisdom that comes to mind.

Now, that works for a lot of things.

But it’s no enchanted gunshot. Even if that helps for many things, it won’t help with everything.

It won’t answer the big questions.

For that, you actually need to talk to someone else, not just pretend you are.

I won’t hard-sell you on my coaching here. If you like my skills and my style, you know how valuable my services are. If not, that’s okay – there are plenty of great coaches out there.

(And if you want my opinion on who some of them are, I can help with that.)

Either way, it’s worth seeing what my coaching program has to offer:

https://christianhypnotism.com/coaching

I know folks like to make that joke. We’re not really living in a Black Mirror episode though.

Thing aren’t quite that bad yet.

Except that, of course, they are.

The Black Mirror Christmas special is deeply disturbing. It’s even better/worse than the Supernatural Christmas special, although not by much.

Here’s one of the creepy premises:

There’s a device – the ultimate smart accessory. It scans your brain and analyses your preferences. From there, it learns the perfect like to draw the curtains to wake you up, the perfect temperature for the AC and shower, and how to cook your toast exactly how you like it.

Convenient!

The shocking secret behind how it works is the device doesn’t just scan your brain. It creates a perfect copy of your consciousness, which then runs on the machine.

At first, this digital copy is horrified and furious at their situation. They’re trapped in a sterile void with nothing to do. They can’t escape, they can’t hurt themselves and they can’t even sleep.

After a few weeks of this, they’re so desperate for anything to do that they gladly go along with the company’s instructions. Running a few appliances is a bleak existence, well beneath them, but it’s better than existing in a featureless void for eternity.

See, it’s easy to manipulate someone who experiences a chronic negative emotion. Make someone bored enough and they’ll do anything for the promise of some entertainment. Make them frustrated and you can direct that frustration against any target.

It’s obvious to see how this played out in 1930s Germany. Citizens were angry, humiliated and scared. It was easy for certain charismatic individuals to take all that and blame it on a certain outgroup.

But the lesson here isn’t don’t be a Nazi. If you hate fascists (fair enough if you do) but are chronically full of rage (not so fair enough), then any idiot can manipulate you. They convince you their enemy is a Nazi and then can watch as you destroy each other.

And you don’t need me to tell you how a chronically unsatisfied libido can make someone do stupid things.

If you’re often bored, or frustrated, or angry, or lonely, or sad, or pessimistic, then you’re vulnerable. Think your life is bad now? Just wait until someone weaponises those feelings against you.

Now, sometimes, those feelings can be medical. It might come down to something you need to talk to your doctor about. It could be coming from a lack of sleep, nutrition or sunlight.

Or it might be that you’re deeply unfulfilled.

Maybe you just need a change – to your ambitions, your circumstances, your thoughts.

Maybe you could use some coaching.

If so, then book yourself in for an obligation-free consultation call here:

https://christianhypnotism.com/coaching

You’ve probably heard that old thing about improving 1% per day.

That sounds achievable, maybe even easy. One percent? You can become 1% smarter, fitter and more evolved, and still have time for goofing off. That’s nothing.

But it doesn’t just add up – it compounds.

It’s evolution, not revolution.

As I said, you’ve probably heard that before. I’m not dissing it. It’s a great strategy.

But if that’s your only strategy, you’re leaving a lot behind.

So, instead, let’s talk about the sudden, drastic improvements.

The revolutions.

Those moments where you introduce yourself to your potential, rise to it and become something magnificent.

How do you do that?

Sometimes this happens from post-traumatic growth. You encounter a problem that you can’t survive as you are. So, instead, you become something greater.

That’s hard to engineer, though. Besides, if I have to traumatise you to make you smarter, happier and more focused, then we’ve both screwed up.

A better way?

Why, that’s our good friend coaching.

The right coach can change everything. Sometimes it’s just down to getting a fresh perspective. Other folks’ problems always look as simple as they usually are.

And that should be part of it, but you can get that from a good friend. Or from talking out loud to your cat.

The rest of it?

That comes down to knowing what you need to hear.

I’m probably not an expert in your field. I’m an expert in what you need, though – mindset, learning, performance, creativity and intelligence.

You bring the expertise.

I’ll show you how to use it.

For more about how my coaching program works, follow this little ol’ link:

https://christianhypnotism.com/coaching

There’s a line from an xkcd that threw me for a while.

(It’s the mouseover text for #907, if you’re curious.)

The line?

“I’m glad I’m not the clueless person I was five years ago, but now I don’t want to get any older.”

Sure, I get the impulse to avoid ageing. Youth has its merits. But for me, my ideal age has always been about three or five years in the future.

In 2020, I eagerly looked forward to who I’d be now – and I was right to. I’ve resolved countless struggles – painful hurdles I thought were permanent. My skills are god-tier compared to back then, including in some fields I didn’t know existed.

Even now, though, I can’t wait until 2026. I’m going to look back at this moment with pride at how far I’ve come.

Maybe I’ll stop thinking like that one day. Maybe when I’m 98 I’ll be less optimistic about my immediate future.

That’s a ways off, though.

When I look back at the last three years, it’s easy to see where I’ve grown the most.

Some of that has come from changing my circumstances. I wasn’t in the best job back then and my social life was failing. Now, things are a lot better.

A lot of it came from training. I’ve had some incredible learning experiences lately – stuff I would have said is impossible back when I started.

Of course, some of it comes with a little extra maturity and wisdom.

Most of my improvements, though, came from coaching.

In some cases, I can pinpoint the exact moment where a coach blew my mind and helped me rebuild it in better ways. In others, I don’t know exactly how they helped, only that they did.

More than circumstances, more than time and more than training, working one-on-one with someone wise, skilled and compassionate has changed my life for the better.

That’s why I love what I do. I know what it really means to people.

If you’d rather look forward to the future too, then sign up for a consultation here:

So says someone I coach on the regular. I’m sure they’d be okay with me mentioning their name here but I’ll err on the side of privacy.

After all, I respect all my clients as much as they respect me:

~

“I’ve spent approx $50,000 on different courses over the years, there is the good and the bad, this is gold.”

“In only 2 hours I got an answer to a life changing decision, awakened another level of creativity and genuinely feel excited about all the different ways I can use my mind now.”

~

Succinct?

Perhaps.

Genuine?

Definitely.

Inspiring?

If not, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe gold doesn’t cut it for you and you only hold out for platinum. Or maybe two hours to get revolutionary new creativity is too long for you.

Even in those cases, I could probably help you.

Hey, what can I say? I enjoy helping folks craft their goals, tap into their drive and utterly demolish all those niggling doubts and bad habits you have.

I win when you win.

Sign up for a consultation call with me here:

Note: this offer is only available to email subscribers.

Rainforests get all the credit for being the lungs of the world, but algae are the real oxygen MVPs.

Did you know algae can double its size in a day and grow 12 inches in a week? That’s over a metre a month.

If brainless slime can grow that much in a month, then what’s your excuse?

My coaching program overflows with benefits, like the audio-based energy booster (a drug-free alternative to caffeine, free from the jitters) to the Palace of Power (a private space in your mind, just for you, where you can truly build your brain). But all those are secondary. The real benefit comes from working on your mindset, mental resources and inner power.

And you can take it month by month.

The longer you stick with it, the more you’ll benefit. But even just one month is enough to change the way you use your brain – forever.

I could go on and keep trying to sell you on this.

But, really, you know how I approach things differently from other coaches. You’ve read my stuff and you know my vibe.

If you aren’t eager to work with me yet – if you aren’t foaming at the chain for one-on-one time with me – then that’s fine. I’m not going anywhere for a while.

And if you want to chat to see if we’re a good match?

That’s as easy as booking a session right here:

Note: this offer is only available to email subscribers.

Late stage capitalism – it’s a phrase that keeps popping up on social media. Always from folks criticising the system. Usually because, under capitalism, they have to work for a living.

(Boy, are they in for a shock when they learn about the alternatives to capitalism…)

The phrase comes from 20^th Century Germany, with various econo-philosophers talking about whatever.

That’s not how people use it now, though. It’s always: “I can’t wait for capitalism to collapse because my boss is mean!”

Yeah, okay.

Never mind that poverty in the US has been dropping since the George Bush Jr years, only bouncing back recently under Bidenomics. And never mind that capitalism is the only system where you don’t have to work for a living. Start a business. Invest. Create passive income streams. Monetise your hobby, assets or time. You have options! That’s the point.

Maybe it’s late state because capitalism is old now – so old that folks have forgotten its benefits. They see income inequality as a bigger problem than poverty and starvation.

Yeah, you can’t afford rent or food like you used to. Again, that’s Bidenomics or the post-lockdown economy. Capitalism puts more and better food on the shelves for cheaper until the governments started meddling. If they stopped doing the same with housing regulation, we’d see the same thing there.

But none of that matters.

What the government regulates or doesn’t isn’t something you can control, so it’s not worth thinking about much.

It’s certainly not worth complaining about.

All you can control is what you do now – whether society is in the late stages of anything.

You can control you mindset to better endure the hardships.

You can sharpen your vision to see the opportunities.

Then you can take your fears and promptly eject them from your decisions. That’s true of anyone living in an agrarian community and it’s certainly true of someone with an internet connection.

If you’re worried, frustrated or angry about the state of the big picture, then it’s time to invest in yourself. If not now, then when? After you’re in a SHTF situation? Something tells me you’ll then look back at this as a golden age – full of opportunities you should have taken but didn’t.

Stop stalling, stop complaining and stop blaming others.

Sign up for a chat and let’s talk about what you can do for your future:

Note: this offer is only available to email subscribers.

In my younger days, I was a keen tennis player. Not pro or anything, but pretty good for an amateur.

I was good enough to know the truth in this:

When an experienced player tosses the ball in the air – like they do as part of the serve – then their perceptions change. Their minds speed up and time seems to slow.

This makes sense. As the ball floats there above you, you have to meet it in a precise way. You need the serve to be fast, accurate and tricky with spin. It takes hours of practice to get any one of those. Stringing them all together reliably requires your brain to change.

Time slows down for you.

It’s not just tennis players that do this, of course. Racecar drivers have a fascinating relationship to time when they get behind the wheel. And let’s not forget martial artists of every discipline.

I could go on, listing every field where mastery shifts you into this still, serene and sublime altered state where time stretches and nerves sizzle.

Or I could ask you a more interesting question:

How would you like some of that for yourself?

It’s not just useful in sports. This heightened state, at the right moment, can make you better at just about anything. Sales, therapy, creativity – feeling time stretch and your consciousness expand to fill the space comes in handy.

If you want to excel, this could be a key tool on your belt.

Or not. You could get by without it and see how you go.

But if this intrigues you, then this could be one of the things we work on together. See, my coaching isn’t just you telling me your goals and me telling you to go get ‘em, lion. I’m an expert at working with the mind – everything from habits to motivation to strange experiences like tennis pros experience on the regular.

If you want to change, this is how – from the level of your perception upwards.

You won’t see the world the same way after.

If that interests you, sign up:

Note: this offer is only available to email subscribers.