I know that people are constantly striving to get more out of life. I know that many people wish for, hope for, want for more success, more happiness, more wealth. But wishing, hoping and wanting something is simply a useless mental activity - a waste of energy - because the only thing that will get you what you want is beyond wishing, hoping and wanting - it's believing. More of that later! For now, if you really look around and observe the behaviour of so-called normal people, you will discover what normal people really want - they want you to be normal too.

There is nothing more threatening to the normal state of mind than someone who's different - in particular, someone who is abnormally happy and successful. It's not so much that normal people are jealous of abnormal success - they actually want to take the abnormally successful person down.

One of the biggest issues that my clients have to face following my two-day personal development workshop is that, even though they have learned to become abnormal, even though they have learned (from a vast array of research stretching back over seventy years) that so-called normal people are actually totally and completely mad, when they venture back out into the ordinary, everyday so-called real world, almost everyone the encounter will be normal - will be insane.

A brief aside - because stating that normal people are insane requires an explanation! Here are some quick facts. About 96% of us are normal - we behave according to and conform to a variety of behavioural and social norms. Normal people control about 1% of their mind - in other words, they are only capable of paying 1% attention to what is going on in the present moment. Normal people's reactions and behaviours are automatically created by their subconscious minds which were programmed through snapshot learning during their formative years. In other words, the subconscious mind controls the normal person - not the other way around. If you're not in control of your own mind, surely that's a definition of madness!

There's more - societal norms tell us that we must work hard to be a success, that there are many outstanding things in life that only outstanding people can achieve - not normal people. Research proves that normal people only see what they expect to see, only perceive what they expect to perceive. In other words, normal people wander through life with their eyes closed, their senses dimmed, their life confined to the box created for them by their key influences during their childhood years and by a society that needs normal people to conform - whether that's a society driven by organised religion, the nation state or global corporate interests is a debate for some other day).

Back to my point - normal people want you to be normal. A client emailed me a couple of days ago saying that he had no problem opening, clearing and focusing his mind each morning - in preparation for the opportunities that every day holds for all of us. But, then, he'd get into work and be assaulted by normal people. People wanting to gossip (one of the greatest draws on our precious mental energy), people looking for a fight ("I deserve promotion", "Someone's getting involved where they shouldn't be", etc.) - and then he arrives home and is confronted by his teenage children - and, having three teenagers myself, it can often be difficult to remain calm, focused and effective!! All these everyday scenarios drag the calmest of minds into the dirt so that we end up reacting automatically all over again - and when did reacting make anything better!?!

You need to stop being normal - and, if you've started on the path towards being abnormal, you need to protect yourself against all those normal people who, unwittingly granted, was to drag you into their little dramas - want more of your attention, want you to make them feel important or better.

Why take the path that leads towards abnormality? Well, for starters, given my albeit very brief description of the normal mental state, do you really want to be normal? But, more to the point, you need to realise certain truths borne out by all the research that I've already mentioned. Anyone - and that includes you - can achieve the extra-ordinary and the exceptional. Anyone - and that, again, includes you, can achieve effortless happiness and success. You do not need to work hard to be a success. You need commitment, vision and belief - if you've got those, no work is difficult, no effort a strain.

The commitment you need is to your own state of mind. You need to cultivate and develop a clear, present and focused state of mind - a state of mind that is completely at odds with the normal cluttered, distracted mindlessness of normality. You need to commit to developing your ability to pay attention - not to your goals and dreams, but to the only time and place we have - the here and now. That means you pay more than 1% attention - that means you're already exceptional.

You need to believe. Believing is not wishing, hoping or wanting. Believing is seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling and tasting the success you want, as if you already have it. Those five senses that you rarely pay attention to are the very tools by which you can enable yourself believe and, more importantly, the only tools you have at your disposal to pay attention to the here and now - to be present, to be "all there", rather than "all over the place".

Don't want what normal people want - believe in the extra-ordinary.

Copyright (c) 2009 Willie Horton

Willie Horton's acclaimed two-day personal development seminars have been running for thirteen years. He teaches that a clear and present state of mind creates extra-ordinary personal and business success. His vast expertise is now available in his Online Workshop at Gurdy.Net. His website also offers daily free personal development video seminars, articles and a Free http://www.gurdy.net/ Personal Development Ezine published every Monday morning.