73weaken your resolve to build it. To increase your resolve,
it’s often useful to think of new word associations.
To weight lifters, failure is success. Unless they lift
a weight to the point of “failure,” their muscles aren’t
growing. So they have programmed themselves, through
repetition, to use the word “failure” in a positive sense.
They also call what we would call “pain” something
positive: “the burn.” Getting to “the burn” is the goal!
You’ll hear bodybuilders call out to each other: “Roast
’em!” By consciously using motivated language, they
acquire access to inner power through the use of the
human will.
Zen philosopher and scholar Alan Watts also used
to hate the word “discipline” because it had so many
negative connotations. Yet he knew that the key to en-
joyingany activity was in the discipline. So he would
substitute the word “skill” for “discipline” and when he
did that he was able to develop his own self-discipline.
Language leads to power, so be conscious of the cre-
ative potential of the language you use, and guide it in
the direction of more personal power.
34. Program your biocomputer
If you’re a regular consumer of the major news pro-
grams, you belong to a very persuasive and hypnotic
cult. You need to be de-“programmed.”
Start by altering how you listen to electronic radio
gossip, the news, and shock and schlock TV shows. Pro-
gram out all the negative, cynical, and skeptical thoughts
that you now allow to flow into your mind unchecked
when you hear the news.
“Headless Woman Found in Topless Bar!”
That was an actual headline in a daily New York
City newspaper. I used to work for a city newspaper,
Program your biocomputer