The Beginners Guide to Living Consciously

The purpose of this e-book is to both familiarize you with the type of material that you'll find on ThinkNowLiveNow, as well as show you the benefits of choosing to live life consciously - rather than passively – in regards to personal development.

It is not my intent nor the nature of this e-guide to offer you ambiguous strategy and typical self-help affair. This is a very different way of approaching the field of personal development. It deals with the deeper emotional and psychological aspects that will require conscious awareness to remedy. There will be no need for “tips” on how to lose weight or earn a million dollars if you correct the culturally and socially conditioned mental and emotional biases you have in regards to yourself and your capabilities.

Conscious personal development is about achieving congruency across all areas of life.

With that said, I will be up front and honest with you. If you are looking for a quick fix or a method of progress you can implement while sitting around watching TV or playing Xbox, this guide and site are not for you. If you can't handle pressure from the areas of your life in which you wish to progress, you'll just keep giving in to fear and doubt. This is a waste of your time. Self-discipline is the most fundamental principle to progress on any level in any area of your life. Self-discipline is the name of the game here; you can try and avoid or deny it all you want, but the deciding factor in making any goal a reality is the self-discipline to continue moving forward – even when things aren't going your way.

If this makes you feel uncomfortable, save this e-guide for a later time. There's plenty more information on ThinkNowLiveNow to help you get started.

You're going to need sufficient self-discipline to deal with the futile negativity of others. You'll also need it to avoid emotional self-sabotage of your own efforts. You'll need self-discipline to keep taking action towards your goal, even when things aren't going your way. You need self-discipline to stay the course while you make the mistakes necessary to truly learn. The world around us is changing constantly. The only thing you have 100% true control over is your ability to choose how to handle the various circumstances life throws at you. Your only hope is to awaken the truth and passion within and begin living life with purpose.

This e-guide was written/created by Jason Demakis, owner and creator of ThinkNowLiveNow Page 1

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Purpose is having a conscious direction to your life. You are fueled by something much greater than just the will to survive. Some people know their purpose with great clarity, and others have a difficult time figuring out their optimal path in life. This took a while to sink in, but I eventually realized that I have certain skills and talents unique to myself. Nobody has the same combination of skills and talents as me. I'm a writer, but I'm also well versed in graphic design. Depending how I choose to apply these two skills, I can generate massive opportunity. The only true limit is how you think or feel about any given course of action. Every job I've ever held has always felt very unnatural to me, despite what my friends and family suggested. It wasn't until I consciously utilized my unique skills in direct service to others that things really picked up.

If you can take a moment and brainstorm some ways in which your unique talents or skills could be put to use in direct service to others, you will eventually corner your purpose. For instance, if you like to knit, understand that it's totally possible to market yourself and generate income either selling things you've knitted or becoming a “custom” knitter. That particular path would also involve understanding some basic marketing and legal strategy, but it's not impossible. The chances of it becoming a reality depends directly on your emotional bias towards the idea.

Understand that life is far too short to be engaged in anything that isn't making you happy and deeply fulfilled. If you don't choose to live with purpose, you'll just carry a sinking feeling around with you for the rest of your life. Some people choose to drown this out with drugs, but it never really goes away. This sinking feeling is the denial of happiness due to the emotion of fear. Fear is what keeps you in the pen. With time, you learn to trust yourself more and more in spite of fear. This is how you cultivate courage. The next stage of growth will always appear to be a tad too much to handle – and that's precisely how you'll know it's right.

Conscious personal development solves the deeper mental and emotional issues keeping you from living the kind of life you truly desire. This may turn some readers off, and I am perfectly fine with that. Politically correct euphemisms act as barriers that serve no purpose other than obscuring the truth. But I have yet to find thorough and thought-provoking information regarding the importance of perception and emotion in regards to personal development – so I created the resource myself. This isn't to say I won't be offering you strategies to help you progress – quite the contrary.

I find it necessary to help you cultivate the mental and emotional discipline to achieve any goal, as opposed to mere “surface” strategies that only remedy symptoms of the core problem.

My strategy is to help you cultivate the mental, emotional and physical discipline to make your goals a reality.

Mastering one universal technique that has the ability to effect any area of development you wish to






undertake seems a lot more efficient than strategies pertaining to only one area of growth. And even at that, they only deal with the symptoms of issues rather than the core problem itself.

Instead of running in circles with various tips (that may or may not be helping you in the long run), YOU save precious time and can begin moving forward, working on what actually effects your progress.

You do not have time to waste or delay; there is only NOW. You don't have time to waste on exercises that keep you swimming in circles in regards to your personal evolution. This will test your emotional self-discipline as you learn to deal with failure and rejection as soon as possible. By having the courage to do so, you start proving to yourself that failure isn't the end, and that you are completely free to just keep on keeping on. This was a huge one for me, but I felt inspired enough to take the leap and begin helping others by writing about it. It's only when you run headfirst into the storm that you realize it was actually an island oasis all along.

“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed.” -Terence McKenna






The goal of conscious personal development is to become congruent with the person whom you strive to become. If your future self is ever going to make their way to the present moment, you're going to need to shift gears - and priorities. Moving towards that which you aspire to become can only occur if you choose to make it so. Indecision and neutrality are just as useful to you as negativity when it comes to personal progress, so it's important that you become the initiator of cause. You must sustain and maintain the momentum of your choices in the moment. You must live now; there is no other way.

It's not about acquiring anything. Everything you will ever need to succeed already exists within you. You just need to become aware of how to utilize these tools via the magic principle of freewill choice. Rather than offer you lengthy strategy that may or may not work for you, I'm going to offer you insight and perspectives aimed at piquing your interest to pursue and expand the choice within yourself.

What this all boils down to is:

YOU need to be in control of your use of time and actions, not your present and temporary emotional state. In this way, all obstacles then become temporary set backs because YOU are choosing your course of action every step of the way.

I greatly value your time as well as my own - after all, the present moment is all we have. I find it necessary to inform you only of the key elements so you can begin implementing these techniques as soon as possible.

After all, the purpose is to live NOW.






The most accurate and articulate explanation is that consciousness is awareness. From our perspective as human beings in physical bodies, our center of awareness perceives and interacts with the reality around it via five senses. The information it reads (and thus it's ability to accurately interpret information existing outside of itself) is limited to these five sensory inputs.

In the same way that you use a car to drive, consciousness utilizes a body to interact with physical reality. This awareness resonates and permeates all levels of the physical universe - from the physical matter from which it is composed - to the plants and animals we share our planet with. The only difference between these levels is the expression or form within which consciousness resides.

Since all choices occur in the present moment, it is vitally important to become consciously aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions so you can begin generating the types of results you really want instead of falling prey to demotivation, distraction and procrastination. Only by first becoming consciously aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions can you begin to successfully cultivate the self-discipline, courage and motivation to bring true change to your life.

I understand that most probably won't read until the end, but those who stick around will undoubtedly walk away with some incredible insight. After all, this site is about helping people better understand themselves in relation to their own goals. In doing so, they can begin gaining the inner strength and courage to start taking direct personal action in the direction of their aspirations.

The interplay between the subconscious and conscious mind are directly responsible for the nature of your everyday experiences. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the types of behavior that are keeping you from progressing. An example of passive (unconscious) behavior would be someone with the tendency to over-eat. Until they consciously (actively) become aware of this as a limit for themselves, they will forever fail to meet their goal weight. This is an oversimplified example, but the intent is to get you used to identifying unconscious habits and behavior as best you can.






People who live actively choose to become the initiator of cause of effects external to them.

People who are passive choose to become the effect of causes external to them.

The massive benefits and the quality of life you can achieve by choosing to operate via active consciousness should be self-explanatory.

The key to living consciously (or actively) lies in your ability to center your conscious awareness in the present moment. The difficulty in doing so varies from person to person, but even with minimal self-discipline, anyone can achieve steady focus. The key is to center your conscious awareness on your perceptions and senses. This involves quieting the mind and becoming aware of your tendency to “think with a voice” or sub-vocalize. The goal is to eventually get your mind to become silent enough that nothing but your perceptions of the present moment remain.

You will know that you've reached “center” when you are no longer sub-vocalizing your thoughts (using a voice inside your head to “read” your thoughts out loud), and just become immersed in observation. It's just like sitting in a parked car with the radio turned off; looking out the windows, seeing and hearing people moving past you etc. It is from this perspective that you are intelligently in control of your thoughts, emotions and consequently actions. If you could maintain this state indefinitely, you'd just march straight towards your goals succumbing to zero distraction.

Now, complete mental silence on occasion does occur naturally, but just because you can't “perfect” conscious mastery doesn't mean you've failed. You don't need to be a master of meditation, just able to weed out the incessant mental chatter that blocks clear, conscious thought. How you do this doesn't matter so much as you strive to make it possible to center yourself in the present moment.Making it to this benchmark should be your first goal when exercising self-discipline; with practice, your ability to remain consciously aware in the present moment increases just like any muscle in your body grows through exercise and fatigue.

What most people never realize is that this is your “default” setting. This “center of perception” perspective is your conscious core (awareness) perceiving through the five senses a fixed perspective of time and space as it truly exists on the human level - in the present moment.

I will say that it is much, much easier to accomplish this when you have a somewhat healthy diet. This is simply due to the fact that the high-sugar and high-saturated/trans fatty foods typically eaten in western society can make attentive focus much more difficult than it needs to be. It's like being in a room where the walls are made of television sets all blasting different channels at once.

This is your true self; consciously aware in the present moment and ready to take action. You will often find yourself wanting to do things naturally rather than feeling like you have to. Your actions are then fueled with the correct level of intent to both attract positive growth experiences as well as assistance via circumstance in your favor. Your incredibly positive growth experiences then reinforce this causal cycle because they fuel your thoughts and emotions to keep taking action of progressively increasing challenge. Your actions may also inspire others to






choose to behave similarly. In this way, a single conscious choice created effects beyond the imagination of the observer.

And this is the process of conscious personal development; to grow through personal experience just like you would with weights in a gym.

Except instead of weights, it's emotional self-discipline against increasingly challenging circumstances.

For all intents and purposes, the organized structuring of linear time is absolutely necessary to the function of society. I don't need to explain the ways in which chaos would result if people stopped living by clock and calendar. But along with the convenience of being able to accurately plan our day, month and year comes a subtle truth that is commonly overlooked.

When you are consciously aware in the present moment, you are thinking NOW. Thus, you are then able to truly live NOW. This is an axiomatic truth of personal development, and your conscious core reflects and radiates this truth with absolute certainty.

This is because all future results (effects/reactions) are the direct result of the of choices (initial cause ) made in the present moment.

Stop for a second and re-read the above sentence until it really sinks in.

All perceptions originate and exist in the present moment, without past or future. Your understanding of your past is actually your brain's way of interpreting and assembling the sequence of events leading up to the present moment. In this way, you may visualize a timeline or “slide” of your life events from your birth to the present moment. Realize that all of these experiences (at their time of original occurrence) were perceived by you in the present moment - and you're actually remembering all of this in the present moment.

Likewise, when you try and envision the unfolding of future events, you are basing your premise under complete assumption. You do not have the information required to predict the future with 100% accuracy. If you could, making choices wouldn't be so challenging in the first place. The best your brain can do is project a probable future based off of current circumstance. Worse yet, your emotional state can then influence your course of action. Because of this, investing emotional energy into worrying and trying to control future events becomes a trap that many fall into.

Because of this, it is crucial to prioritize and start managing how you spend the now. If your thoughts, emotions and actions aren't consciously aligned, your goals will continue to allude you. If you don't begin thinking, feeling and taking action towards your goals in the present moment, they will forever remain out of reach. Too many people fall prey to this trap; don't add yourself to this list. Every tick of the second hand is a missed opportunity for growth.

Ironically, because of this, the present moment becomes your greatest asset. The next






application of choice has the potential to initiate consequences (effects) beyond your wildest imagination.

Since the present moment is your greatest asset, it is imperative that you begin steering your momentum in the direction of your passion. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing most, figure out a way to deliver it directly to people in the form of a service or product for a fair price. It sounds over-simplified and cliché, but it's true, and it will blow your mind once you are in motion. I've been freelance writing for six months now, and every day things get more and more incredible for me.

It can be incredibly difficult to reach conscious awareness of the present moment. Nobody in particular is to blame; the world is a fantastic and amazing place to live. It's very easy to forget ourselves in the present moment while observing the wonders of creation – and understandably so. But at any moment, you can choose to re-focus your attention to yourself in the present moment. Since the present moment is where all the choices you've ever made and will ever make occur, it is vital to remain consciously aware of your thoughts, actions and emotions to avoid making the types of choices that move your goal further instead of closer.

To put it in the most simple terms possible: if YOU are not consciously aware and in control of your thoughts, emotions and actions in the present moment, something or someone else is.

I know this initially appears to be a massive effort, but those who stick it out will soon understand the benefits I keep mentioning here. With sufficient conscious awareness of the present moment, you are able to approach life and goals with far more efficiency and success than if you were to succumb to emotional impulses and distractions of an unconscious nature. With time it becomes second nature. You'll find yourself looking back and laughing at how reactive (rather than active) you were.






If you reduce the field of personal development down to a foundation, you will be left with only three principles.:

It is these three key factors which have the largest cumulative effect on your ability to achieve any goal you set out to accomplish.

These three principles, in combination, create the vehicle for personal development – in any area of your life. Your ability to effectively implement these three core principles is going to depend solely on your current level of self-discipline. The purpose of conscious personal development then becomes building the self-discipline required to maintain your mental and emotional stability so you can keep taking direct action towards your goals. This sounds incredible simple and obvious, but you'll soon see why most people completely avoid this method – and their results suffer for it.

Results cannot occur without direct action. You will always get feedback from any action you take in life in the form of a result. Said result might not be the one you wanted initially, but you are completely free to keep taking action. Nobody says you have to stop after one try. Nobody said that you are a failure if you don't succeed 100% on your first attempt. At present, you might believe this to be true. Recognize that you have an emotional attachment to the idea of success and failure. Your emotional response is enough to keep you from trying. Are you starting to see the importance of the principle of emotion?

Once you build the courage to begin shifting your thoughts, emotions and actions in the direction of






your goals and desires, it will be tempting to cling to your old habits and patterns. This is where your mental and emotional self-discipline comes into play. The emotion of desire and satiety for food is the number one reason people cave in shortly after setting a weight loss goal. Their emotional desire to eat unhealthy food overpowered their ability to think and take intelligent action. If they had first built up their self-discipline, no amount of food could persuade them to give in. Are you starting to see the importance of self-discipline here?

You need to build the self-discipline to hold only positive thoughts about your future goals – even if your present circumstance and situation reflects just the opposite. I know this sounds counter productive and absolutely ridiculous, but please allow me to explain.






Because people tend to react to life experiences rather than stop and think about what they are actually doing. This type of unconscious behavior makes people totally undisciplined in their approach to personal development - they become slaves to their temporary emotional state and circumstance.

The key is to use your emotions to think, instead of thinking with your emotions. When you aren't in control of your thoughts and emotions, something else is. To put it simply, instead of letting your emotions do your thinking, you learn to choose your emotional state and make it work for rather than against you.

This may sound simple, but at present so many people allow the emotions of fear and worry to dictate their choices and actions. Emotional subjectivity offers no room for consistency and discipline in regards to personal growth. An internal shift must occur on the inside before external growth and change can occur on the outside.

At present, too many people remain trapped by the emotion of fear. People base their entire lives around the fear of failing – the fear of losing money. A single emotion is enough to distort someone's perception, and thus directly effect the types of experiences and circumstances they attract to themselves. People who are unaware (unconscious) of the power of their own thoughts will just automatically allow their mood to become dictated by their present circumstances.






People who are consciously aware in the present moment can use freewill choice to begin steering their life in a new direction just by thinking and feeling positive – despite their current situation. To do so is to choose to break the treadmill loop and initiate effects of your own causing. In this way, YOU become the scientist instead of just a guinea pig running on a wheel in the lab. Because of your self-discipline, you are now free to employ any thought or emotion at anytime with no need for a reason to do so.

In fact, choosing to think and feel positive in the face of a seemingly negative and uncomfortable situation is the first real step to proving to yourself that you have the power to choose in the present moment.

Once you start to realize that you have the ability to choose to think and feel a certain way without needing any external reason or proof to do so, you are then free to use your thoughts and emotions to your advantage, instead of against you. Instead of allowing emotional reaction to blind you to choice, you choose to intelligently utilize positivity to your advantage. It's like the difference between getting nailed in the face with a volleyball and lashing out in anger, versus being aware and intelligently volleying back. In this way, you transcend the limitations of your emotions by “flipping them” and putting them to use for yourself actively, rather than succumbing and allowing them to hold you back.

Money isn't the problem. The real issue is your relationship to the emotion of fear. It's either fear of not having what you need, or fear of losing what you've already got. Fear (an emotion) is in direct control of your thought patterns and decision making, and consequently your actions. It is the emotion of fear that keeps people on a treadmill for life – flawed thinking leads to actions which further reinforces their fear. Fear is also what keeps many people from reaching their goals. The emotion of fear is strong enough to make people rationalize excuses all day as to why it's too risky to take chances in life.

Many people also believe that you must reach a state of financial security before you can start moving towards your real goals in life. What most people fail to realize is that just by thinking this way, they are blinding themselves to the opportunity right in front of their faces.

Understand that in truth, your ability to succeed is not based on your bank account, credit score, college degree or your current financial circumstance, but your ability to remain mentally and emotionally balanced in the present moment. Regardless of your current life circumstances – being consciously aware in the present moment allows you to recognize opportunity and take intelligent action accordingly. It is these types of opportunities that offer you the next step of progress on your path of personal development and growth.

The sooner you fail, the sooner you learn that failure is all part of the process of reaching goals. To fear failure is to also fear success.

Failure is necessary – and vital – for growth. Failure has the ability to reveal flaws in your course of action, reveal the next step for progress, or in muscle and fitness training, allow for an increase in capacity for energy. I have personally made and followed through with choices that others label stupid






and unwise, but they are not me. I was testing my own limits in various circumstances. What compels me to write about personal development from this angle is that simply very few resources delve so deep. Everyone seems more concerned about trying popular strategies for dealing with symptoms, instead of going straight for the cause of the problem itself.

You fear failure. You fear having to deal emotionally with a difficult situation or circumstance. So, you instead perform actions which you may or may not enjoy in order to avoid this outcome at all costs. Your entire life then becomes about avoiding instead of progressing.

But what if you learned that failure is only temporary and not really a big deal at all? You're completely free to just keep on keeping on. A person with sufficient mental and emotional self-discipline could lose all their money but just keep taking intelligent direct personal action until they were back on their feet.

The challenge with remaining consciously aware of your thoughts and emotions is the initial difficulty that comes along with just starting out. Believe me, I know – I was there myself. If you had asked me two or three years ago where I thought my life was headed, I would have given you an answer fueled completely by the emotion of fear. Today, it's just the opposite. I have detached myself from outcome and circumstance, and enjoy mental and emotional control in the present moment.

Understanding that achieving emotional stability doesn't free you of the challenges and actions you will have to take; it merely clears the path so you aren't self-sabotaging your own progress. With that said, the action will feel effortless to you because it is in line with your highest desire and purpose - the overall process becomes very natural. You will have much more control over yourself and your urge to throw in the towel once you understand that all emotional states are temporary and selective.

It all comes down to the following question:Is this really what I want, or is my present mood seeking satisfaction?

Do not let the amount of time it takes to reach conscious mental and emotional balance intimidate you. The amount of time that passes between now and then is irrelevant, because that time is going to pass anyway. You could spend the next year of your life fully engaged in conscious personal development, sailing towards your goals and desires with gusto, or you can continue doing what you're doing, and live with the sub-optimal results that come along with that strategy. The next year is going to come and go whether you decide to do something or not. The choice is yours.






As you develop self-discipline while moving in the direction of your goals and desires, you become more and more accustomed to your own tendency to emotionally act/react/over-react to certain things. This was a particularly difficult step for me, and I still catch myself from time to time. Thanks to a diet low in excess refined white sugar and flour, my anxiety level is null in comparison to even three years ago.

Many people seem surprised when they learn of my age. It seems odd to most that a 24 year old would amass such an understanding or grasp of anything of this caliber, yet alone be helping others of all age groups with their emotional anguishes. It doesn't make sense that I'm passionate about personal development since I'm still growing myself. But to me, it's just the opposite. I can't fathom how more people aren't interested in developing self-discipline so they can begin living the life they dream of. I don't see how more people don't choose to study the topics that not only expand your understanding, but also why and how you understand and relate to information in the first place. I just chose to study and experience at my own pace (which, admittedly, may be a bit fast for some), but because of this, I am where I am now.

I was able to build my experience and understanding at a rapid rate because I did a lot of things that many people would consider unwise, risky, or unintelligent. I've worked and quit more jobs than I care to discuss. I dropped out of college - twice. I've been involved with several bands that had serious potential, only to dissolve them via emotional instability and ego affair. All of these things share a common denominator; they were all emotionally involving.

At the same time, I have absolutely zero regrets on my past choices because they've led me directly to where I am right now. My decisions and trust in myself and my choices led me directly to my path. If I had listened to others and ignored my intuition (no matter how sketchy things got at times), my self-discipline and confidence in my own ability would be drastically lower. I'd probably still be working at the same supermarket that I hired me back in 2006.

It took dozens of emotionally draining, invasive, terrifying and uncertain experiences for me to finally gain the insight, strength and perspective needed to pursue my true path in life. In hindsight, I can now see that the majority of those experiences occurred because I was allowing the emotion of fear to control my choices, and thus my actions. Feel fear - give fear - get fear – repeat. It wasn't until I realized the true power of my thoughts and emotions that I began applying them to various areas such as health, fitness, education, relationships and finances with amazing results.

You see, most people base their entire lives around avoiding fear and discomfort. They fear going broke, so they keep working that stable job that leaves them feeling dead and empty at the end of each day. They remain in an unsatisfying relationship for fear of never finding anyone else. They sacrifice their dreams on the altar of fear in exchange for temporary security. The emotion of fear is in control of their thinking.

Realize that in doing so, you are doing nothing more than clambering neurotically to protect material goods that are useless to you upon physical death. Self-help guru Steve Pavlina says it best when he exclaims “security is worthless if you have to sacrifice growth to get it”.

But what if you stopped playing “not to lose” and started playing “to win” instead? In other words, instead of your life just becoming a series of events catered around keeping you safe and secure, you






just started taking direct personal action toward a goal, remaining detached from a particular outcome in the process?

If you have the self-discipline to get up and go to a job you don't really care for every day of your life, pay half your life earnings to the government and pay bills for things like cars and houses, then there is absolutely no reason why you can't apply this same strategy in the direction of your real goals and desires.

The difference is fear fuels the first strategy and blocks the second.

It is perception and choice that allows such a contrast between the wealthy and the poor. It's not that the poor and middle class aren't intelligent or capable; they just lack the financial knowledge and emotional self-discipline for intelligent earning and spending cycles. A wealthy person understands that time is their greatest asset, because all opportunities to invest in more assets can occur at any moment and without warning. They also understand and make a priority of paying themselves first via re-investing their gains into the very assets that provide cash flow in the first place. Because of knowledge, thought preceding emotion (thus leading to intelligent action), it is possible to create a cycle of passive, automated and amplified income, with the time and freedom to enjoy it.

Unlike the majority of personal development material which only offer “surface” strategies that may or may not work for you, my focus is on identifying and targeting the true sources of cause which actually effect all levels of personal growth. This involved delving deep into the emotional aspect that most people either ignore or marginalize. It is a direct lack of knowledge which creates the blind spots for exploitation and manipulation via circumstance. To understand is to see the fault in previous attempts and patch the gap, thus growing in the process.

By doing so you begin to approach absolute truth. At present, too many people remain slaves to their emotional impulses, unaware of the true powers they possess. They are literally using their own powers against themselves; how foolish and unintelligent is that? They rob themselves of the personal progress they could be making if they simply shifted their focus from fear to understanding. By understanding the nature of choice in regards to their thoughts, emotions and actions, they could begin turning their lives around immediately.

Living consciously is about having the courage to make difficult choices and trusting yourself – even if you end up being wrong. This is how you develop context for your own personal growth; you didn't learn to walk or ride a bike without first crawling and falling many, many times. Living consciously is the same way. It seems shaky and unstable at first, but once you get your footing and stick to it, you can't see how you managed before. Walking is way easier than crawling, and riding a bike is easier than walking twenty miles.






“There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts" -Elizabeth Gilbert

Freewill choice is the ability to choose independently of another being. However, the implications of this run far, far deeper than simple dinner plans or what clothes you'll wear today. Freewill choice is the ultimate pre-condition for the unfolding of events in our daily lives.

This is because:

Results are generated by actions. Actions are generated by emotions. Emotions are generated by thought. Thought is influenced by freewill choice. Freewill choice is influenced by conscious awareness. Consciousness is in control.

No matter what your goal or goals may be, it is absolutely crucial to consciously visit this first step before any progress can occur. It is vital that you come to terms with and understand that YOU are the only one who can decide to take your life in a better direction. It is both unwise and unintelligent to allow your friends, family, spouse, co-workers, boss, television, media and internet to do your thinking for you. To do so is to limit yourself to the expectations of others, which sounds harmless on the surface, but literally robs you of your potential progress.

Nobody can make the decision to move forward in a new and better way other than YOU; it's called freewill choice, and it plays a larger role in your life than you may presently be aware. Without that initial choice to pursue your goal, it forever remains a fantasy. If this makes you feel uncomfortable then perhaps you aren't ready to truly tackle the deeper aspects required to initiate change. If, however, this resonates with you in the slightest way, then please make your first conscious choice an intelligent one, and reach that conclusion to improve your quality of life for yourself - first and foremost.






Life is a series of choices made in the present moment, and every application of choice is either going to move you closer to or further from your goals. Becoming consciously aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions in the present moment makes for a much smoother and more consistent strategy for personal development versus constantly sabotaging your own effort through emotional blind spots.

If you can build sufficient self-discipline against initial emotional reaction to circumstance and situation (both of which are temporary), you can indeed accomplish anything. With fear and worry no longer biasing your choices in the present moment, you very well could figure out a way to earn a million dollars. You'd just keep taking direct personal action until you reached your goal; it then only becomes a matter of time as opposed to circumstance. How you get there is not important (real estate, stocks and bonds, product sales, etc)-but the fact that you keep moving forward with positivity in the face of failure is.

And it all begins with a simple choice...






Causality executes all chains of order in the physical universe in which we presently find ourselves. It is the vehicle through which all events and progress unfold. From the cause and effect of actions, to the cause and effect of emotions, to the cause and effect of thought and choice – causality is the executive branch of personal development.

The types of results you will get out of life depend directly on the types of actions you take.

The types of actions you will feel capable of taking will depend on the emotions you feel

The types of emotions you feel are greatly dependent on the thoughts you think

Your thoughts are dependent on how you choose to perceive the world around you

Personal development as a whole becomes a lot easier when YOU are the one making the choices instead of your emotional reactions and temporary circumstances.

Causality is the phenomenon of a chain reaction that can be traced back to a single definite cause. Once you know the cause behind any particular effect, you can then implement the cause and experience the same result(s) with 100% accuracy. Just like dominos, when the first is pushed, the last one may as well have already fallen; there is no other outcome. This is the goal of modern science; to isolate and understand all causes so the effects can be duplicated in a controlled setting. Without isolating the cause of an effect, stem cell cloning would not have made it past the drawing board.

The physical universe operates and interacts via causality. Matter, by nature, is unconscious and cannot choose to do anything other than obey the laws of physics which act upon it. If you rolled a ball down a hill, it cannot choose it's path, speed or its resting location – physics decides this. 100% of the time, there is no other way for Mr. Ball.

But we are not Mr. Ball; we humans have the faculty of freewill choice. Because of this, we can defy patterns of behavior that matter would have no choice but to follow through with. For instance, Mr. Ball has no choice but to submit to the destructive forces of fire if physics determines his ending point (the location where his roll slows to a complete stop) to be a campfire. You and I however, have the option to choose to avoid the fire all together. We even have the ability to stop rolling down the hill at any point in time. We may say “Wait a minute; why the hell am I rolling down a hill towards a






fire?!” and jump to our feet. Mr. Ball keeps right on rolling, though. Lack of freewill choice makes it so.

The point is that by becoming consciously aware of the nature and effect of your choices, you begin to recognize the subtle forces of the universe which are at work. To exercise choice is to reroute and divert causality in a new direction – the one of your choosing.

The sad truth is that more people fall prey and victim to the phenomena of causality rather than understanding how to use it intelligently to their advantage. Many allow their present circumstance to dictate their mood (emotion), thereby causing the attraction of experiences which resonate with said mood. Upon encountering the experience they themselves are solely responsible for attracting, they again emotionally react and reinforce their negative emotional mindset, remaining trapped on a treadmill of self-inflicted emotional drama.

If they instead chose to think and feel positive - DESPITE their current circumstance, they initiate a cause. Their choice will spawn a small chain of cause and effect that is very subtle at first, but with persistence and self-discipline, amplifies as one chooses to maintain a positive mindset. What eventually starts happening is your body starts taking cues from your thought process and reinforces the emotion throughout your body via your limbic system.

In this way, your conscious choice - made in the present moment – influenced your thought and emotions. With the two now working in tandem, they begin to influence you into taking action by fueling you with incredible energy and optimism. This natural “optimism” is your connection to the universal energy you remain disconnected from when you choose to engage in negative thinking.

This is your true self; consciously aware in the present moment and ready to take action. You will often find yourself wanting to do things naturally rather than feeling like you have to. Your actions are then fueled with the correct level of intent to both attract positive growth experiences as well as assistance via circumstance in your favor. Your incredibly positive growth experiences then reinforce this causal cycle, because they fuel your thoughts and emotions to keep taking action of progressively increasing challenge. Your actions may also inspire others to choose to behave similarly. In this way, a single conscious choice created effects beyond the imagination of the observer.

And this is the process of conscious personal development; to grow through personal experience, just like you would with weights in a gym. Except instead of weights, it's emotional self-discipline against increasingly challenging circumstances.






“It's about taking constant action in the direction of your goals - regardless of your emotional state.”-Unknown

Money isn't the problem. Your current circumstances aren't the problem. Your diet isn't the problem. Your relationship isn't the problem. The real problem is a lack of emotional discipline.

Self-discipline is the ability to exercise discernment and restraint in regards to the initial emotional response triggered by a particular situation or circumstance. If you have a habit of over-eating and a hard time avoiding the consumption of unnecessary large amounts of food, your emotional desire to consume the food outweighed your ability to think. Self-discipline is used both in the restraint of impulse as well as the continuation of effective action during times of difficulty. It's about taking constant action in the direction of your goals - regardless of your emotional state.

The number one reason for people not having the money or health they desire isn't due to luck or lack of skill or intelligence - it's lack of emotional control to impulse. A person who wins the lottery, but lacks emotional control, will spend their entire prize in a day and revert back to the same energy and lifestyle of being broke, wondering why they aren't any good with money. Despite having just won the lottery, they can't understand how or why they lost it all so quickly. They don't understand how all the money in the world doesn't solve a single problem for them. This is because the origin of their problems lie in their perception and emotions, not their bank account and budget.

And the only way to begin moving ahead intelligently is to become consciously aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions in regards to your goals and desires.






Mental and emotional self-discipline absolutely destroys all lists and strategies - hands down. The goal then becomes progressively building your level of mental, emotional and physical (your ability to take action) self-discipline. With sufficient self-discipline, it only becomes a matter of time until you make your goals a reality.

Many people marginalize or substitute their own self-discipline by working for someone else, voting for someone in particular, or allowing someone else to decide the course of their lives. In doing so, they allow their culture and media to decide and thus control their thoughts, emotions - and consequently the types of actions they take in life. These same people then have an almost inhuman capacity to complain about the current state of the world, the corruption of politics and corporations, and why the next presidential candidate is going to the one who changes everything. They invest time, energy and emotion into everything and everyone - except themselves.

These same people will often complain about how nothing ever goes their way, that they are too over-weight and that they can never seem to get ahead financially. And understandably so. When you've been taught to make the best of your hand in regards to the game of life, you tend to forget that you are playing a game in the first place. And like all games, understanding the rules will not only make you a better player in the long run, but it allows you to implement intelligent choice and strategy in regards to approaching your goals, dreams and desires. The path to abundance across all areas of life begins with a simple application of choice.

Conscious awareness and freewill choice over-rides unconscious choices and behavior

Personal development as a field is about helping people change their habits and lives for the better. But whether it's weight loss, new diets, exercise habits, financial goals, relationship goals – it all boils down to your current level of self-discipline. You have to really want your goal (will) while simultaneously disciplining yourself to stay the course of action until you succeed. And ultimately, your level of self-discipline is going to depend on your present emotional state. In layman’s terms:

Your mood influences your actions - whether you realize this or not.

If your mood is unstable and constantly shifting due to circumstance, so too will be your ability to take intelligent action. In order for intelligent action to occur, you need to build the self-discipline to become aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions in the present moment. If your emotions dictate your actions, it will become impossible to achieve consistency in the direction of your goals.

For Example:

Let's say your goal is to cut soda out of your diet completely. It seems like an easy enough goal, and the initial choice to implement it was rather simple. Getting rid of the rest of the soda in your kitchen and fridge will get you off to a good start, but what about all your friends and family who still drink soda and have no desire to quit? The urge of uncertainty in yourself increases as friends and family poke harmless fun at your healthy decision.

If you lack the discipline to recognize your emotional reaction as just that – a reaction, and NOT






intelligent thinking, you will relapse faster than you set out. Your body and mind's emotional desire for sugar and chemicals over-rode your ability to intelligently think and weigh your options in the present moment. Lack of self-discipline strikes again.

This example is not limited to dieting and fasting, however. It applies to every area in life in which one seeks progress or change. In this lies the point of this section:

You have no control over events, people and circumstances that randomly occur in life, but you have 100% control of your thoughts, feelings and emotions in regards to any event, person or circumstance in life.

Therefore your attempts at personal growth – regardless of the area in which you seek to progress – all depends directly upon your level of self-discipline. It then becomes vital to establish ways to increase your level of self-discipline so you can grow by tackling progressively larger goals.






The following is a list of the thing which are most detrimental to personal growth, regardless of the area one is attempting to progress:

The following are the principles which hinder and obstruct personal growth on any level or area:

• Distraction• Procrastination• Ignorance• Denial• Fear• Doubt• Worry

Distraction

Perhaps the most severe of the group, distraction is typically the number one cause for failure to meet a goal. Distraction can occur in many forms, from people and places to a simple thought or idea. Distraction hits the hardest when you succumb while in the middle of doing productive work.

Procrastination

The cousin of distraction. Procrastination occurs when you know deep inside that you should be doing or attending to something else, but choose to delay action. “I'll do it when the show is over” and “I've got the whole day to get that done” are convenient ways to combine procrastination with distraction.

Ignorance

Perhaps the highest form of hubris, ignorance is the freewill choice to ignore and deny truth when presented with it. This is a level of thinking that many people live at on at daily basis.

Denial

The cousin of ignorance. It is the choice to refuse to face the obvious truth staring you in the face.

Doubt

Doubt is the choice to assume a negative outcome. Doubt is pouring focus and energy of a negative variety into your surrounding environment. Since you don't have enough information to accurately predict the future anyway, you're simply increasing the probability of negative events/results. When you doubt your own ability, reality has no choice but to respond with circumstances which mirror your conscious will.






Worry

Worry is the attempt to control circumstance (which is impossible) to create a desired result. Instead of thinking in the moment and choosing their next course of action, people who worry about the future end up displacing their emotional power and attracting unpleasant results to reinforce their mindset.

“All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism, for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” ― Conan O'Brien

We've all dealt with cynics at some point in our lives. We may even have friends who are genuinely good people, but always seem to look for the worst in everything. They always complain about the current state of affairs, the economy, and just about anything else they can dig their hooks into. The problem with the cynical mindset is that is based around stagnant negativity instead of positive progress.

Understand that the severely cynical are basically holding up a mirror for you to see. They are a walking, talking display of low self-esteem and self-image. They dedicate their time to tearing others down who are headed in a direction of their choosing – NOT because they don't believe it's possible, but because they themselves lack the strength and courage to move forward in a new way. Simply put, don't waste your precious time arguing with a cynic.

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”- Thomas Jefferson

Surrounding yourself with cynical people is analogous to driving through a parking lot made of nothing but speed bumps. All efforts at achieving momentum are stifled by the obstacle of negative minds. Cynics will always tell you why your plan and dreams will fail, despite having no experience with it themselves. Funny, I didn't know cynics could see the future. Maybe they should play the lottery since they know so much ; ).






"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."-Unknown

With the above in mind, it becomes extremely difficult to progress when immediate family and friends criticize you. I've dealt with enough “concerned love” to last me a lifetime. Parents truly want whats best for their kids, but almost always fail to recognize that they behave more as dictators then nurturers of growth and progress. And this is understandably so; no parent wants their child to fail.

There is no way around changing the opinions of others who are set in their ways, but there is something you can do for yourself. And that is recognize that people have the right to their opinion, even if it goes against your own beliefs and morals. The difference is, you grow as an individual via acceptance of this fact, while cynics exhaust themselves trying to get the world to conform to their limited outlook. The number one reason why you should respect the cynic's opinion but not take them seriously is:

Their negative perception of the world and the potential it holds is a direct result of their lack of control over their own emotional state. They react to their negativity rather than become consciously aware in the present moment, thereby allowing themselves to move forward intelligently.

This is a subject that deserves further analysis, and will be followed up on heavily on ThinkNowLiveNow. For now, simply understand that cynic's aren't in full control of their emotional state, hence they shouldn't be taken seriously.






Hopefully you can begin to see the advantage of choosing to live life consciously rather than passively. With mental and emotional control over the types of actions we take, we effectively choose the direction and course of our lives. The next choice has the potential to re-route you towards results and effects beyond your wildest imagination. I hope you can see the benefit of intelligently dealing with emotions and going for the bigger choices in life. The ones that increase your quality of life and move you closer to your deepest dreams and aspirations.

The truly intelligent understand that everything is a result of choice, whether active or passive. This understanding alone gives one the confidence and courage needed to begin initiating the types of causes that will generate the effects of their deepest desires. YOU are the scientist, not the guinea pig on a wheel. And the only way to take control is to choose to live consciously in the present moment.

Let's Connect!I hope this e-guide not only informed you of the importance of choosing to live life consciously, but inspired you to begin living consciously yourself. And even though this is the end of the guide, I'd love to hear what you have to say! Here are several ways in which we can connect:

1. Become a fan of ThinkNowLiveNow on Facebook, and follow ThinkNowLiveNow on Twitter

2. Add me as a friend on Facebook

3. Comment on the any number of articles and podcasts found at ThinkNowLiveNow

Most importantly, thank you for taking the time to check out this e-guide. I love to hear feedback and discuss concepts of consciousness with people just like you! drop me a line, and together we will make the present moment count!


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Documents

The Beginners Guide to Living Consciously