Written by: Daniel Mangena, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. 2020 saw one of the biggest rises in life coaches, and it’s easy to see why! All of a sudden, we were forced into a state of introspection. Sat around, no longer able to be out there in the world chasing down whatever it was that we were chasing down; we all took stock of what was important to us. For some, this was about getting out of relationships or jobs that weren’t really serving them and asking more existential questions for themselves. Who can really argue with that (on the face of it, at least)? With such a heavy focus on the internal and a distilling of life into its most fundamentally important aspects: naturally, lots of people have turned to meditation in their quest for inner engagement and alignment. How many have actually seen this payoff in their day-to-day lives, though? Meditation is an incredibly effective practice for bringing your physical and inner self back into alignment in the present moment. It can help with pain relief, anxiety, and clarity of thought. How does it do this? Fundamentally because it stops you from living mentally in either a state of past trauma or imagined future stress. It forces your attention into the present and out of a state of judgment. This is why so many life coaches, personal development experts, councilors, etc. Encourage the practice of meditation. It’s also why I do! Meditation is one of the greatest tools in your arsenal when it comes to creating your dream life. So why should you stop meditating? Hopefully, by now, you’ll understand that I’m not saying that you should never meditate. Quite the opposite! In fact: in order to stop something, you have to already be in the process of doing it. The point I am making is that in order for meditation to have its desired effect (alignment of the physical and spiritual in the present moment), you need to bring that alignment into the physical realm. That is to say: you need to actually step back into physical reality, where you can take physical action. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve come across who have been taught previously to focus on the inner-work. Meditate diligently, erect vision boards, and chant positive affirmations twice a day. These are all great, but only if they are in service of a physical end! Think about it: if you are looking for a new life, one where you have everything you need and live in a state of happiness, joy, abundance, etc., you are seeking a specific physical reality. Of course, you’re seeking the emotional payoffs, but they come from your physical surroundings. Just as you’re looking to be aligned in the present, so too must you be in the future - in order to experience your desired outcome. Action! Taking action is concurrently the most and least important part of realizing anything. Least - because blind action will not result in a specific outcome. You have to be specific with your goal and specific with your actions, and that means doing the prep-work meticulously! Mostly - because no matter how much preparation we do, taking no action at all will mean that whatever desire you hold remains unrealized in the physical realm. These things have to work in tandem. This is why just meditating, looking at vision boards, and doing yoga is not bearing tangible results. You need to make it a part of a holistic view of how you live your life, not where you stop! It’s got to be about implementing change in your life as a whole, not just in the area. So many people (it seems from an anecdotal perspective anyway) get caught up in the sexiness of meditation and mind work. They miss the opportunities that come their way to improve themselves and their situation because they’ve not understood the bigger picture. That brings me on to - intention. Intent means everything when it comes to any action. We recognize this in law, with punishment being metered out on a sliding scale - as dictated by the intent behind an individual’s actions. So why can’t we recognize the significance of our own intentions when it comes to the practices that we engage in every day?! The intent is not a “set & forget” thing either. We need to keep checking in with our intentions, goals, and desires on a daily basis. Why? Well put it this way: it’s estimated that we dedicate only 3% of our brain function to the conscious mind. The other 97% is taken up with subconscious processes. When you view intentions (as I do) as the mechanism by which we disrupt a subconscious pattern, you realize just how important they are! We’re talking about harnessing 97% of your brain and directing it towards your goals. Think about this and really let it sink in: the vast majority of our actions are guided by programming, over which we didn’t have any conscious input. That’s crazy! Of course, things like breathing, chewing our food, walking, etc., are generally best left to our subconscious. After all, if you have to consciously decide to move every muscle and take each breath, you wouldn’t get a lot done. That said, and not to go off on too much of a tangent here, but most people do not chew their food enough! We should be training ourselves to chew our food for longer in order to alleviate the amount of work our gut has to do. That can have a marked impact on our overall weight and health! But I digress! By clearly setting and then staying in check with our intentions, we can make sure that our actions are serving us in creating the life that we truly desire. Understanding our desires fully is vital and a whole other topic, but it is a good intention for meditating. Spending time in the present moment, witnessing without judgment what’s going on in your mind and body, is a great way to connect to what you truly desire! This is what I’m talking about, though: once you’ve created that connection, understood your desires, and fulfilled your intent - it’s time to stop meditating! By having that intent, you’ve effectively designated the criteria for when meditating has ceased to serve your goals. This is the whole point! Be aware of that and honor it. Only then will you start to see the promised results from your mindful practices. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Daniel! Daniel Mangena, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dan Mangena is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and public speaker. Recently named in the Wall St Journal as a "Master of Success," he is completely self-made and has spent decades perfecting his world-class coaching methodology. His books, podcasts, events & retreats continue to help captains-of-industry and private individuals alike live an abundant, joyful, purpose-driven life. He offers many unique and effective free tools via his website.

Written by: Samantha Touchais, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. I am a 22-year veteran of the corporate world. I left my full-time, six-figure paying job at the beginning of 2016. I left for a number of personal reasons, and it was a time in my life where I had to put my family first. I took a major step back and reviewed all the possibilities, and after much deliberation, I decided to start my own business. I was not a total rookie when it came to entrepreneurial life. Throughout university, I worked in the family business and learned an awful lot about working for myself . I learned so much, in fact, that I decided never to go into business for myself! So what made me change my mind and decide to take the plunge? Life is all about choices. Life is never static, and while we may feel stuck, there are always ways to move forward. I evaluated the experience I had had in the family business, and I realized that I was affected by the mindset of others. The first thing I did was decide what I was passionate enough about to put my heart and soul into. I am not necessarily a big believer in turning a hobby into a business, as quite often, all you end up with is the loss of a hobby that once brought you pleasure and the pain of a business that is not living up to expectations. However, as we spend the majority of our waking hours working, we may as well be doing something that brings us meaning in our lives and pleasure even in the dark moments. Here are five things that I learned from launching not one but four businesses. 1. Be Really Clear On Your Why Why do you want to have your own business in the first place? Why have you chosen to work in your specific area or industry? How will run your own business, and specifically the business you have chosen to run, make your life better? How will it add meaning? Being aware of the answers to all of these questions is really important as running your own business can be very challenging. Holding on to your reason for going into entrepreneurship in the first place is what will pull you through the hard times and will keep you on track. 2. Appreciate That The Journey Is Not Linear I often liken running a business to being on a roller coaster; sometimes, you are experiencing the rush and exhilaration of getting a new client or making a sale, and other times you are crashing down in despair as no one is responding to your posts or buying your services or products. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship! Everyone will have a different journey, but a common complaint I see from my coaching clients is that nothing is consistent. Some months they do really well, and other months, it’s crickets. There are ways to limit the ebbs and flows and to have more consistency month to month, and that is what I help my coaching clients with, but a basic acceptance of this journey will help pull you through the hard times. Running your own business is such an adventure! Despite the challenges, I wouldn’t give it up for the world. 3. Running Your Own Business Can Be Lonely I left a fabulous career working with an incredible bunch of international colleagues, traveling the world for my job, and regularly connecting with others in meetings or during our lunch breaks. Suddenly I found myself as a party of one, eating lunch on the fly while my baby slept, in between my social media posts and other business-building activities I was doing for myself. I hadn’t expected this level of loneliness. And it was really hard. Social media gets a lot of negative press, but with careful consideration, you can find your tribe. Join Facebook groups, connect with people on LinkedIn, and set aside time for virtual coffees. You don’t need to do this alone, and even if you don’t have a business coach or mentor, you can always find someone who’s willing to share the journey with you. 4. You Don’t Need A Lot Of Money To Begin With Trust me when I say that businesses are not successful because of the fancy website they have or the professional photography or even the team of virtual assistants who are managing things behind the scenes. A business is successful because of the person running it. There are so many build-your-own-website platforms nowadays that you don’t need to get one professionally built. If you have the resources, then, by all means, go ahead but keep things simple at the beginning. I did everything by myself at first. While I dreamed of having an assistant and a team of people to do all the tasks I didn’t want to do, thus allowing me to focus on where my passions lay, I realized it wasn’t realistic for me in the early days. I’m actually really grateful that I started off by doing everything myself. I have learned so much, and I know my business intimately, and that had allowed me to get the help where I need it while also developing skills I didn’t have before this venture began. 5. Mindset Is Crucial As a business coach, clients come to me because they want help with marketing, sales, and strategy. They want to know the next steps they need to take in their business in order to build something that will last, will be profitable, and that will be successful, whatever success means to them. But what inevitably happens is that their mindset gets in the way. Mindset has become a buzzword, and that is such a shame. I have a certification in mindfulness, and I am a master NLP practitioner. I am also a science geek and have read everything I can get my hands on about the brain, how it connects with the body, neuroscience, and quantum physics. I have learned so much over the last few years that when I hear the statement ‘Mindset is everything,’ I know it is true. Social media is one of the best and cheapest ways to build a business these days. But it is also the number one killer of success. Why is that? It is because of comparison-itis and imposter syndrome. Women are particularly affected by these two conditions as we see the success of others and feel that we can never live up to it. The simplest way to overcome these mindset setbacks is to realize that you are unique. Nobody can contribute to the world the way you can. I promise you there are people waiting to receive your help in the form of your products or services, so never give up. But never compare yourself to others either. Their journey is different from yours, and they are most likely further along. I have learned so much more than just these five points, of course. I have run a health food business, a jewelry business, a mental well-being business, and I am a business coach. My health food and jewelry businesses I closed when I left the country I had been living in, as they were geography-specific . But my mental well-being and business coaching practices are still going strong today. I wish everyone would have the courage to step into their own business. You don’t have to leave your day job if you don’t want to. But knowing what a difference it has made to me, my daily life, my self-confidence, and the level of meaning I feel in my life, I can’t help but want to share that with the world. You can find Samantha on her website , wellbeingseries , and Link edIn ! Read more from Sa mantha ! Samantha Touchais, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Samantha Touchais is a Business and Mindset Coach helping women create a safe and secure path to launching their dream business by providing them with the support and tools to make it a success. She has over 20 years of marketing and strategy experience working for large international companies worldwide, and it was her love of how the mind works and how to create the right mindset for success that led her into coaching. She lives and breathes marketing and mindset and loves sharing her learnings with others. Author of four books and the creator of the Well Being Series (a collection of apps and books that provide meditations and affirmations for well-being based on the latest neuro-science), she loves exploring Europe, where she has been for the last 14 years but misses the beaches of her native Australia.

Written by: Omu Obilor, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. There’s a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi, the prominent political figure in the Indian freedom struggle and an influential leader of all time. It says, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Servant leadership refers to the philosophy or leadership approach that focuses on the needs of others, lets you help others achieve their goals, and build a sense of community within a team. It’s about putting others first before you, to accomplish a common goal. But sometimes, the two words ‘servant’ and ‘leader’ collide against each other, resulting in a paradox. How can someone serve others and lead at the same time? Keeping that in mind, here are the three paradoxes in being a servant leader. 1. The Paradox in Leadership to Others As a servant leader, you might look for opportunities and places where you can serve others, where you can make a difference or an impact to uplift others. And there arises a paradox in being a servant leader. It's because to be a part of something larger and look beyond your self-interest, you need to look within yourself first. You need to know yourself, hold yourself up accountable to that standard, you need to treat yourself right, you need to serve yourself, and much more. If you are aware of the areas that you need a change or improvement within yourself, then you’re ready to set up the standards for others too. But, if you don’t incorporate self-leadership, then dreaming about being a servant leader is impossible. 2. The Paradox in Motives When you’re a servant leader in an organization, one of your goals is to make your employees or your team members feel like a customer or client themselves. You might hire them, promote them, or even pay them as a leader, but your aim might be to keep them happy and satisfied with your services. There arises a paradox in such circumstances. What might be the best for you as an individual might be the worst decision for your organization or team as a whole. You might have aimed for personal fulfillment and simultaneously leading the organization to success. But that doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes, you need to give up on your personal needs to provide more for others. 3. The Paradox in Hierarchy The most difficult paradox in being a servant leader is the paradox in the hierarchy. Although the goal of being a servant leader is to serve as many people as you can, it can only be possible when you move up the ladder. When you get promoted to a higher level in an organization, you will have to work harder, and you will have more people to serve. That means you will have to give more of yourself to others. Success can make your work more challenging! Visit Omu's website to learn more! Read more from Omu! Omu Obilor, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Omu is an International Coach, Speaker, Trainer, and Thought Leader. Her mantra is “Living my best life," this she achieves by living Intentionally. Her mission in life is to empower others to live their best life, curating the life they want for themselves. As a founding member of the John Maxwell Team, she has mastered intentional living in personal and professional life. She performs the role of Executive Director and National Trainer in Business Network International (BNI), which empowered her to master training networking. Omu has, over the years, poured out her all into the lives of her clients. Walking them through the various transitions in life and mentoring them through the transformation. She is driven by her passion for helping individuals realize that it is possible to live the life they dream of. Extremely passionate about Transformation in people, she works tirelessly to see this through. Her approach is designed to increase awareness and accountability to increase morale and determine values. She runs a mentormind group for women looking to grow in their personal and professional lives. She also runs masterminds monthly, amongst others.

Written by: Serena Fordham, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Do you know that the number one reason why women start a business is due to circumstances? We have a baby. We get made redundant. We move. Etc., etc. However, it is not always our choice, and it is being forced to reduce our working hours, having the job pulled away from us, having added responsibility in life - but what if we made it our choice? Back in 2013, I was made redundant from my role as a Lettings Manager, and as I had worked up to that position in Estate Agency since I had graduated in 2009, I was devastated. To make things worse, this all happened while I was on maternity leave with my first child, and within the month, I was due to go back to work and sanity away from purely speaking at my baby all day, every day! With another mouth to feed me and my husband knew we desperately needed another income coming in, so I found myself in the situation where I would have done almost anything to earn money. So, after being approached by a friend who needed help setting up an Estate Agency business, I decided to become self-employed. Today, I have more than one business, with my main focus being on HER Business Revolution, where we provide empowering and collaborative training, coaching, networking, and events for Female Business Owners, so, whether they’re just starting to navigate the business world or want to elevate and scale their business to the next level, we have something just for them. Her Business Revolution offers a wide range of fun, fresh and innovative Networking, Training, well-being, and Empowerment Events (both globally and online) and our multi-award-winning Superwomen Membership offers everything a start-up or established female-owned business needs to develop and progress successfully. Looking back, if I had realized how amazing self-employment was when I finished my Business Management degree, I would have delved right into building a business from the start of my career, rather than waiting for that moment of desperation, which did make many of my early decisions forced. What I am getting at here is that if you are currently unhappy in your employment or what you are currently doing in life, don't wait for circumstances to force change — instead, choose to change things yourself today. If you are waiting for something to happen to force you to change your life, then you could be waiting forever, or worse, it might one day be too late to make the change. Life is too short of leaving it up to external factors to decide whether you follow your dreams or not. Plus, even though employment was once the safe bet, the uncertainty in the current job market, and let’s not forget the gender pay gap, it is now no longer always the best option for the modern-day woman. Behold, being self-employed means you take back control of your career, your choices, your opportunities, and your life as a whole. Yes, it is hard work, yes it takes time and commitment to earn amazing money, and yes, you will have to make some sacrifices, but ultimately it allows you to follow your true passions and do what you love every day of your life. And how awesome is that? Plus, if I had a ‘normal’ 9 to 5 job, I would not be able to spend the school holidays with the kids or take days off at the drop of a hat. I also wouldn’t have the flexibility to work when I wanted, and plan out my own path in life, and embrace exciting opportunities along the way. So, my question to you is, do you: A. Want to let life's circumstances control your fate? Or... B. Grab your life by the horns and choose how you want it to play out? Only you can decide. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Serena! Serena Fordham, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Serena is an expert Business Strategist, Growth/Development, and Empowerment Mentor to Female Entrepreneurs, as well as a best-selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, and successful multiple Business Owner. Her main passion is offering business strategies, support, and empowerment to ambitious and high vibe business women locally and internationally – through HER Business Revolution at www.herbusinessrevolution.biz. She is also known for her organizational skills through owning Glow Virtual Assistants and for her support of women and child-related charities (also founding two charitable initiatives – Mums Empowerment Movement and SociaBubble).

Written by: Jodie Gallant, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Do you ever notice how you feel alive and creative in some tasks and overwhelmed or irritated while doing others? Do you ever notice that the anxiety sets in when you have to begin doing some “thing” that you just don’t want to do but you are committed to? Do you catch yourself saying YES to things you really want to say NO to? See, we only have so much time, AND we have really big goals and dreams, but I can bet that there are many days you are on a myriad of long to-do lists that have absolutely nothing to do with your goals! Frustrating right? If we continue to use our time towards things that are not aligned with our zone of genius (meaning lighting us up and easy) and not intentional toward achieving our goals, then we will continue to struggle with the effort to pursue our desires rather than celebrating the reality of their existence. Some of the “tasks” at hand are necessary for our success, but what if you secured the help you needed or built the right system of efficiency to create ease in accomplishing these tasks so you can do more of the things that ONLY YOU CAN DO?! Do you know how that will change your revenue and your bottom line? See, we have this societal belief that we have to do it all ourselves. What if I told you the success comes when we do more of what lights us up and find support or build systems to support the rest. Better yet, what if we STOP over committing to other things that really are a “NO THANK YOU,” “I am not interested,” “I don’t want to make the time for that,” or “that simply does not bring me joy.” "WE ARE NOT supposed to say YES to everything, and we are NOT supposed to do it all alone." We are supposed to find the right support to get things done, so we can have more space for the things that bring us joy, move us toward our goals, and create opportunities for revenue. How often do you pay attention to how you are using your time? When you do, are you paying attention to how you feel emotionally and energetically while you are taking action? Consider this your challenge to put some deep and intentional awareness to what you are doing and identifying, and tracking is this a “YES! I want to do this!” Or “NO! I don’t enjoy doing this or even want to.” This is REAL LIFE DATA that guides us with permission to: Do more of this action Create awareness to build out an operating system to create efficiency or teach others Delegate to your team, or hire the proper support agents to outsource to And most importantly… To recognize where we need to politely say NO more often. Begin to pay attention and take inventory of your days. Dig in and allow yourself the awareness to say yes to more yes’s and no to more no’s. If you want to achieve your goals faster, you have to take back your time and spend it doing the RIGHT things. I want those things for your life too. So tell me, will you work on being more open to receiving? I’d love to hear how it goes. Find me on Instagram and let me know! Want to learn more from Jodie? Follow her on Facebook or Linkedin and visit her website. Read more from Jodie! Jodie Gallant, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Business Strategist and Coach for JMG Business Strategy, Jodie Gallant, uses her experience in marketing and planning, paired with owning 5 NH local businesses while raising a vibrant family, to inspire, lead, and support entrepreneurs to achieve the life they desire through the design of their business. Having left a secure 15-year corporate marketing and leadership career in 2012 to build two family businesses alongside her husband and three small children, Jodie quickly realized the hustle and grind was not going to work. Today she guides her clients to achieve their goals with the support of the strategies and tools she lives by. Jodie is the host and curator of the Connect Mastermind for ambitious female leaders, offers 1:1 Coaching for high-performers, and is the host of the To The Point Podcast.

Written by: Silviye Gurung, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Here are the three things that you can do. Clients don’t come to me because they have no clients but because they want to work with soulmate clients . It’s like dating. Why would you settle and date someone you don’t like? You wouldn’t (hopefully) would date someone you love . If you’re attracting the wrong clients, who… Default on payments. Don’t send their homework in time. Are super needy and need hand-holding/spoon-feeding. Here’s what I want you to think about. What signals are you sending out to them? You might not be aware of this, but people pick up on those signals. So, if you’re attracting the wrong clients, the first thing you need to do is take a closer look at yourself. Start by asking yourself this question… “Am I my own soulmate client?” How do you behave as a client? Do you pay on time? Submit your homework on time? Take the initiative and be proactive? Take a closer look at yourself to understand where that’s coming from. So, how can you attract clients you’ll love? 1. Change The Language You’re Using In Your Content Words are powerful. Use it the right way, and you’ll rise; use it the wrong way, and you’ll fall. I see this with my clients. They’re speaking to someone who’s struggling and afraid to invest. Struggle attracts struggles . I teach them to use empowering language. So, they speak to someone who is looking for a solution and wants to do the work. For example, instead of saying, “Are you exhausted, overwhelmed and confused?”, say, “Are you an amazing coach who has tried ( ), but it’s left you feeling overwhelmed?” 2. Get Crystal Clear On Who Your Soulmate Client Is If you want to attract clients you love, you need to be clear on who they are. To find out who your ideal client is, ask yourself a couple of questions: “Which group do I feel passionate about?” (Parents, yoga teachers, coaches, executives, etc.) “What problem do they have?” (Combining business with parenting, how to get more clients, how to manage a team) “How can I help them with that?” (What is your zone of genius?) When you’re clear on that, get to know them better. How? Simple, talk with them. Ask if you can interview them so you can better understand them and their situation. 3. Repel Those You Don’t Want To Attract Yes, you read that right. To make space for clients you love, you need to repel those you don’t. So, think about it. What kind of clients are you not looking for? My list includes: Clients who are not coachable. Clients who blame others for their results (or their circumstances). Clients who are needy. Clients who don’t see the value of investing in themselves. Clients who are not committed to getting results. Clients who are looking for a coach who agrees with them all the time. Create your own list of clients you don’t want to attract and speak to them in your content. For example, I wrote a post saying, “7 reasons why you don’t want me as your coach” and listed people I didn’t want to attract. I continued with, “If that’s not you, here are 7 reasons why you want me as your coach,” and listed people I wanted to attract. Follow me on F acebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and visit my website for more info! Silviye Gurung, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Silviye is a business and life coach based in the Netherlands. Having battled burnout from unfulfilling jobs, perfectionism, and fear of failure, Silviye decided enough was enough and took her healing into her own hands through therapy. Now, she has dedicated herself to helping other women heal and live the bold and fearless lives of their dreams. Silviye is the founder of Happy Insider, a coaching business helping female coaches captivate soulmate clients and get fully booked through social media. She is also the creator of the wildly successful Facebook Group Intuitive Women in Business, a community for bold entrepreneurs to grow their networks and create meaningful connections with other like-minded women. Through her own creative marketing techniques, she grew her community to nearly 1,000 members in just 2 months. Silviye has also been featured on the Women Worriers podcast, which received 56. 000 downloads.

Written by: Laura Hill, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Hello there! My name is Laura Hill, and I am from a little country called Wales in the UK. I am a single Mum to two pugs (one of whom is pregnant), a son (teenager), and one cat. I work full-time for a domestic abuse charity and have just launched my brand-new business as a certified Law of Attraction Life Coach. This is my first article as an Executive Contributor, and I look forward to writing more and sharing my story with you, the readers. Many of you may have heard of the Law of Attraction; you may have watched the film ‘The Secret’ or have even read the book. You may feel dubious and doubt its mere existence. Well, I am here to tell you that the Law of Attraction is a universal law that is always in action, whether you are aware of it or not! It is always working. So, what is the Law of Attraction? Simply put, it is the notion of ‘like attracts like’ the more negative thoughts we have, the more negativity is brought. The more positive thoughts, the more positivity comes to us. Suppose you imagine that your thoughts are the most powerful tool you have in your life. Every action comes from a thought. Every action produces a reaction. When we use our thoughts carefully and purposely, we start to cultivate a life of deliberate creation. When you start to be more conscious of your thoughts, you will not believe how often negative thoughts pop into your mind. Our environment and the content we consume are often rather negative. (Think of the news, for example, and the constant outpouring of negativity and fear). We often feel we are missing out if we do not watch something, but the truth is if anything major happens-we will find out through family or friends quite easily. Even the songs we listen to, if you pay attention to the lyrics-you may be surprised to find that much of it is sad or negative. Imagine that your mind is the epicenter, the control room of your life, the engine, if you will. Now imagine that every thought creates energy and that energy has a ripple effect that reaches far outside your body, encompassing all around you (including your close family, friends, and colleagues). Think of a day that you have had where everything has gone wrong. Perhaps you got out of bed, tripped over the dog, knocked over a glass of water, smashed a plate. Then you lose your car keys and are rushing for work. When you finally find them, you hit every red light on the road and end up late for work. Your boss is annoyed at you, and then your clients are making complaints and so on and so forth. That’s how negative energy can spiral out of control. Like attracts like. Thoughts become things. The good news is that there is a time-lapse of around 17 seconds. So, next time you catch a negative thought, try to stop it and think of a happy moment instead. As you become more aware of this, you will be surprised that most of our daily thinking is, in fact, very negative. It does require time and effort, but it can be done. The more you practice the prevention of negative thoughts, the more you will notice the people around you and their levels of negativity. With time you may find yourself naturally moving away from negative people to preserve your emotional energy. The Law of Attraction will fill this void by bringing like-minded people into the equation, and you will start to make new connections and friends. How can I start to practice the Law of Attraction? To learn more, I recommend you start by watching the film ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne. This is how I started, and it has quite frankly changed my life. It was about 8 years ago that I had been bullied at work and was off sick with depression. I was struggling to cope with daily life and wanted to curl up in bed and sleep. I had panic attacks when taking my son to school, which was very severe. My friend encouraged me to attend a Psychic Night (which I did under duress). The Psychic informed the audience to look into the Law of Attraction, I was curious so after the event, I investigated it. I was fascinated, and it sparked hope inside of me. Hope that I had lost, and I regained the belief that I am good enough and an ‘I can’ attitude. The Law of Attraction changed my life. I resigned from my job shortly after, applied to university (at the age of 34), started volunteering and working behind a bar. Now I am 41, and I have not looked back. You see, my depression at that time was the universe telling me to ‘STOP! You are on the wrong path. STOP! Take action!’ Depression is your body alerting you that something is not right. It is your body forcing you to rest; it makes you incapable of normal day-to-day function and is extremely impactful. Depression, for me, served a purpose-to change and grow. It pushed me onto the path to help others. Now back to the Law of Attraction. Here are 5 top tips to get started. This will help change your mindset. Five Tips Read/watch ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne. It is the simplest way to understanding. Catch negative thoughts early. Remember 17 seconds, and you can change them. Think of the happiest memories you have, a holiday, a wedding, a birth, a childhood moment, a sunny day at the beach, a best friend. Write it down/re-visit old photographs. Play your favorite music and dance. Dancing helps increase dopamine-the happy hormone. Write a list of everything you are grateful for. Gratitude is the most important step. The above tips will help you to move into an attitude of gratitude. Remember, this takes time and practice, but it does work. These are the first steps in the Law of Attraction. Once you have caught the negative thoughts early and transferred them into positive you will be ready for the next step, ‘Ask.’ The ‘Ask’ step is asking for what you truly desire. How do I know what I really want? Try this activity: Set a timer for 7 minutes and write down freely everything that you would want in your life. Everything if time, money, circumstances were not an issue. Write like a child who is dreaming and making wishes. A child who is writing their Christmas list to Santa Claus, Write with heart, with imagination, with soul. Write freely without expectation or limitation. Simply write from your innermost self-from the heart. Stop exactly at the 7 minutes and read what you have placed on paper. This list is your personal ‘Ask’. This is what you would like to manifest. There are many important steps to the Law of Attraction, but this is a perfect start. Give it a try! I also recommend listening to ‘raise your vibration’ music on YouTube whilst you are conducting any of the activities I have suggested. This will help your mind to focus and be calm. The Law of Attraction is working for me. I am writing in this magazine because of the Law of Attraction. The day before I received an email from Brainz Magazine I had watched a YouTube video about a woman who had written a book. I thought to myself ‘I’d love to write; I really want to write something’ Lo and behold the very next day I received the email inviting me to apply to become an Executive Contributor. This is how quickly things can manifest! In the space of one week, I was offered to appear on two different radio shows, secured a speaking engagement at a retreat and a speaking slot on a Facebook live. This was so rapid and happened before I had even launched my website! The Law of Attraction is always in action. So, use it to your advantage. With my articles, I shall take you (the reader) with me on my own personal Law of Attraction journey, with this my brand-new business. I will allow you to see that it really does work. I shall share tips and tricks along the way on how to get it to work for you. So, watch this space! Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Laura Hill, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Laura Hill is the Founder & Owner of LOA Life Coaching International Ltd. Laura is a certified Law of Attraction Life Coach that specializes in positive psychology and the power of human emotion. She is trauma-informed and has a BA First Class Honours in Counselling Studies and Psychology which is accredited by The British Psychological Society. Laura helps her clients to switch their mindset from that of 'survivor' to 'thriver'. This empowers them to transcend from a life of mere existence to that of deliberate creation and manifestation. She is able to motivate anyone to push past their pain, close the door to the past and focus on the present.

Written by: Jane Christine, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Fear can be conscious or unconscious. You know conscious fear when you are aware of keeping away from painful experiences; fear of dogs, flying, claustrophobia. Whereas unconscious fear manifests as self-sabotage, and you may not even be mindful it is happening, fear of success, money, notoriety. Fear of visibility can prevent you from scaling or even starting your business. When you become more visible, your underlying insecurities can show up as lack of confidence, imposter syndrome, overwhelm, and feeling of overall self-doubt. And who needs all that when trying to create a successful, sustainable and pleasurable business? Not me! Take this quick test to see if you suffer from fear of visibility. A quick test for fear of visibility Do any of these statements resonate with you? You pick up your phone to take a video, get overwhelmed then put it down and walk away. You undercharge yourself and struggle to convert sales calls into clients You censor your voice when writing content as you don’t want to offend anyone and stand out You hesitate to invest in yourself and your business for fear of failure You apply to podcasts only to freeze when they accept as you don’t feel worthy to be heard You launch an offer and don’t immediately get any clients; you think you mustn’t be any good You get physically nervous, sweaty palms, stomach-churning when you think about collaborating with other entrepreneurs in your field You take 100 photos for 1 post but none of them reach your expectations, so you distract yourself with other things You wonder how other people go live with so much confidence and think you must be missing something You avoid talking about your business with friends and family for fear of judgment If you resonated with 3 or more of these statements, then you have a fear of visibility. Please don’t worry; an acknowledgment is the first step. You’ve now moved an unconscious fear into your consciousness, and this is where true transformation takes place – in your conscious mind. Where Fear Comes From It’s usually pretty easy to identify the external representation of fear, as above, but taking a look internally and identifying where the fear is coming from is the key to breaking patterns no longer serving you. Fear of visibility often stems right back to childhood when you put yourself out there only to be made to feel different, bullied, or rejected. This has led to a cycle of fear that our minds evaluate each situation and risk assesses if there is danger, a threat, or pain. If you’ve experienced pain, rejection, or judgment in past experiences when you voiced your opinion, spoke about your beliefs, or showed your face and body, then these experiences have been stored as data in your unconscious mind. We, as humans, move away from pain and move towards pleasure. So, it makes sense if you’ve felt pain in the past when you spoke up. Your mind doesn’t want to put you through that again – its only interest is in self-preservation. “Just doing it doesn’t remove your fear . ” I disagree with those who say to push through your fears to just do it. If it was as simple as that, you would have done it already. There is true that doing more of anything will make it become easier. That’s how you raise your self-efficacy as you’re building evidence to prove you can do it. But what happens when you’re not at that point yet? You’re so overwhelmed you can’t even see that as an option? We Fear 3 Things: Fear of Loss, Fear of the Process, and Fear of the Outcome In our modern era, we normally don’t fear for the safety of our life; this is leftover from our caveman times. Our brains are very much instinctual, so we repeatedly misunderstand our fear perspective. I work from the notion that behind every action is a positive intention. And the positive intention behind fear is self-preservation. So, are you experiencing actual fear or a bad thinking strategy? How to Prepare Yourself for Visibility As we know, fear is a form of self-preservation. It’s to keep you protected and safe. So, with that knowledge and understanding that we have a bad thinking strategy, we can alter, let’s serve that need of feeling safe in another way than fearing the thing we actually want to do. Think of a time when you feel most safe. What about it made you feel safe? A specific room, a song, a sweater or blanket, a bath, cuddles with your dog. Specifically, list 5 tangible things that make you feel safe and protected. Now choose 3 options you’d like to introduce into your choices when you need to feel safe. Do 1 of or more of these things before you activate the task that makes you fearful of visibility to bring you into safety and a sense of protection. You are changing your emotional association towards this task. You can authentically become confident to show yourself online and in your business to succeed as you desire and deserve. When fear of visibility is deep, people often try to handle it themselves. However, getting to the root cause of fear isn’t something easy to do by yourself when you aren’t qualified in mindset work. Also, you’re in the midst of it, so it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. But that’s ok, as finding guidance from a mindset coach can quickly get to the root cause and help you achieve your business goals faster than if you were to tackle your fears on your own. Plus, who wants to do that? Support and encouragement sound way better, right? Follow me on Instagram , connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more info! Read more from Jane ! Jane Christine, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jane Christine is a certified Life Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, and author. Originally from Australia working in the corporate world until she questioned her life's purpose. Jane believed there had to be more to life, so she sold everything she owned and set off for a nomadic lifestyle traveling around the world searching for answers and a place to call home, which she finally found in Spain. Her search and transformation took her to over 37 countries. Life experiences and her own personal growth guided her to become a certified Life Coach; her travels inspired her quest to learn about the world around us and why we do what we do. Since 2012, Jane Christine has been studying how our pasts shape us, the effects of societal standards, and the impact of values. With the techniques of Neuro-Linguistics Programming and through the power of transformation, learn how to; bridge the gap, define self-worth, set tangible goals, find comfort through change, and how 1% micro-changes can alter lives. Jane Christine is the author of "How You Know Already: Questions to ask yourself to find the answers within," as she believes we are all unique, and so are each of our paths to follow. She is dedicated to her clients and supporting their growth and journey. Her motto: Design your life, don't just live it!

Written by: Leticia DeSuze, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Yes, there’s a difference. We, humans, are a lot of things, and impatient is one of them. When we set our eyes on something, we’re hard-wired to want it now. Not tomorrow, not next week, now. Unfortunately, this is very much imprinted in our DNA. Consider our ancestors eons ago. If they were hungry, they’d venture out and sort it out. But the world has changed since those days. Today, we live in a world where most of what we want is at our fingertips. We can order food at the tap of a button. No more hunting and gathering to make ends meet. The problem with that, however, is that we’re catering to human laziness. The ease with which we can get things has programmed impatience deep into our brains, so when we want something, we want it right now. While rushing to get something you want might bring instant gratification, that’s it. You’ve got what you wanted. But is it everything you wanted? Could it have been better? Could it have been bigger? Like they say, life is about the journey – not the destination. In fact, it begs the question – is there even a destination at all? Setting a destination means setting a finishing line. And what’s beyond that? If you really want to get not just what you want – but to get it right – then it’s time to start practicing some patience. It’s time to start treating life like the journey it is. Here are five reasons why you should start putting the art of patience to the test, starting today. 1. Patience Reduces Stress Wanting something that doesn’t come quickly enough can be a recipe for anxiety. But the second you accept that something will take a little longer than you’d like, negative emotions like frustration and anger will simply melt away. You’ll know it will be worth it in the long run. 2. Patience Shows Self-Control When you force yourself to learn the art of patience, don’t be surprised if every aspect of your life changes. Something as trivial as sitting at a standstill on the highway will present no issues because you’ll know that – on the other side of traffic – something better awaits. And having gone through some discomfort will make you that much more grateful once it’s over. 3. Patience Transforms Relationships Impatient people are notorious for being irritable, restless, and inconsiderate. However, patience forces you to think before you speak. Every relationship in your life will change, for the better, because you’ll naturally take the time to embrace others with more empathy and understanding. From personal relationships to business, patience is essential. 4. Patience Reveals New Opportunities Rushing to meet goals with haste promises quick gratification, as I mentioned, but slowing things down will help you see things you normally wouldn’t. You’ll spot opportunities you may not have noticed before, all because you were patient enough to see them. Even though mistakes are a huge part of learning, they won’t be as costly when you take your time. 5. You’ll Build Positive Habits That Last A Lifetime Exercising patience on the road to our goals forces us to build sustainable habits. The same habits we used to achieve our goals can be implemented into every other facet of our lives for the rest of our lives. Honestly, I could go on all day because this has been one of my greatest personal and professional challenges. The fact that you’re still reading this means you must have some patience in you – otherwise, you wouldn’t still be with me. As a mindset and business coach, a huge part of what I do involves helping my clients slow down to enjoy the journey. Now, it’s your turn. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Leticia! Leticia DeSuze, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Leticia DeSuze is a holistic mindset coach and business strategist who works with C-level executives and established entrepreneurs who desire to break the 7-figure barrier. Having coached more than 1200 senior leaders and entrepreneurs across multiple industries, Leticia believes that every problem is a mindset problem and that mindset matters most. Leticia has developed a 'laser-like ability to pierce the facades and identify the deeply engrained thought patterns that have limited her clients' potential, and identify opportunities for accelerated growth. She helps them clearly define what they want and designs the roadmap to get there - while holding them accountable. The result is a life and business they've intentionally created vs. one they've settled for.

Written by: Barry Borgerson, Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise . Grave Peril and Great Promise A Fork in the Road! We have hit a fundamental fork in the road due to unstoppable technology advances where maintaining the status quo is no longer an option. We all have hidden automatic mental contexts that have become so crucial to our widespread prosperity and well-being that we will not have a successful future in many important ways unless we learn to understand them comprehensively and manage them systematically. We indeed live in a time of grave peril but also of potentially great promise. By following a systematic path, we can periodically transform our problem-solving and realities-creating mental “lenses” to avoid the success-destroying peril of being stuck in old mindsets and succumbing to technology-enabled constructions of delusional beliefs. Conquering this contextualizing part of the mind will also create the emancipating promise of a better future than we ever experienced. This article describes that path, discusses where we are in the West, and shows how to transform to gain a competitive advantage in the 21st century. Part 1: Introduction: Conquering Auto-Contexts Is the Key to Restarting Widespread Prosperity and Well-Being The Next Level of Understanding and Managing Human Nature Learning to Manage the Foibles of Human Nature: Why does change remain so difficult and profoundly slow in our digital era when we need to make deep changes increasingly often? Why do so many people become easy victims to purveyors of simplistic solutions that satisfy their desire for success without providing the success they desire? Why do people increasingly believe manifestly false assertions? Human nature evolved in such a way that crucial parts of it have eluded effective understanding and therefore systematic management – until now! Seemingly Disjoint Aspects of Human Nature: You may be surprised to learn that for many aspects of human nature that you have probably noticed or at least know something about that your understanding of what they mean and how they work varies from solid to vague to minuscule. Here are some examples. Paradigms and paradigm shifts Business cultures and culture changes Worldviews and worldview transformations Revolutionary (as opposed to normal) science Discontinuous change The Science Revolution and the Enlightenment of the West A mysterious untethered second form of “truth” Beliefs (vs. thoughts) Delusional thinking Changes of kind and not degree Enduring values Product branding Cult conversions and political brainwashing Cognitive dissonance Disinformation and Big Lies Disruptive thinking, social models, institutional frameworks, conceptual and operating models, assumptions of operating teams Halo effect Explicit attitudes/prejudices Implicit bias Many Incarnations of Auto-Contexts: All of the above topics are incarnations of the same process hidden in the deep recesses of the mind that few investigators have previously identified. That mental mechanism, which produces what I model as auto-contexts (automatic contextual frameworks), is what we now must explicitly understand and directly manage. If we don’t, our current widespread ignorance of this uniquely human property will create an existential threat to many positive aspects of our previous way of life. Fortunately, conquering auto-contexts opens up amazing new possibilities for us not just to reverse many of our growing problems but to create grand new benefits similar to what happened after the West’s Science/Enlightenment Revolution. The underlying foundation of the greatness aspects of the modern West occurred because our predecessors indirectly struggled through a multi-century process of transforming the foundational auto-context for the West. Now, we must go through a similar transformation. Leaders, businesses, and even countries that transform their overarching auto-context first and learn to make periodic and systematic transformations will gain many competitive advantages. Winning in the 21st Century The Modern West Had an Unfair Competitive Advantage for Two Centuries: In many important ways, the West won the last third of the 18th century, the 19th century, and the first two thirds of the 20th century because of the Science/Enlightenment Revolution that reached maturity around 1770. However, over the last four decades, the West’s unfair competitive advantage has systematically eroded because other advanced societies cracked the code on how to use science and build technologies and products very effectively. As a dramatic example, in 1978, I was privileged to be an invited member of the first delegation of computer experts from the United States to visit China. They were just coming out of their disastrous Cultural Revolution and the state of their technology expertise was very primitive, so they read our articles and invited us to visit them as part of an effort to jumpstart their technology progress. Now, just over four decades later, they are a technology juggernaut comparable to what we produce in the US and the rest of the West. What Is the Key to Gaining an Unfair Competitive Advantage Now to Win the 21st Century? “We are in a competition to win the 21st century, and the starting gun has gone off,” President Joseph Biden said on June 8, 2021 discussing a bipartisan bill to boost technology competitiveness. Biden made that statement with regard to US government investment in technology development to level the playing field with other countries and particularly China, but winning the 21st century requires that other leaders follow an additional path. We in the US, the rest of the West, and now in many other advanced parts of the world including China are very good at developing technologies. However, no countries are adequate yet in systematically managing the human-nature ramifications of these Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. That fundamental inadequacy is leading to the systemic descent of the West on many aspects of our previous greatness including our widespread prosperity through reliable business successes. However, we can follow a discontinuously new path that will halt our decline and empower us to achieve a greater, more systematic future than we ever previously attained. Countries that accomplish this top-level auto-context transformation early will achieve a new unfair competitive advantage over other countries that miss this wave – they will have the best chance to win the 21st century! The State of America: Problems related to automatic human activities are not confined to business and prosperity – our most visible dysfunctions reside in our self-governing systems. On July 4, 2021, the CNN program GPS hosted by Fareed Zakaria presented a special report on the “State of America." Pulitzer prize winning historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham were guest contributors. When I use quotes from Zakaria, Goodwin, or Meacham in this article, they will come from that special report. Meacham: “I hate to say it because of the way the decade turned out, but I think we're in the 1850s in America. I think you have a dedicated minority of the population...who are no longer part of a coherent and constructive and good intentioned conversation about the future of the country.” That 1850s breakdown of our political system ended in the conflagration of the Civil War. As Meacham points out, our political system is falling apart again. However, you will see in this article cohesive, constructive, and good intentioned ways to resurrect the functioning of representative forms of government (democracies, republics) – the noble self-governing experiment launched as part of creating the modern West with the establishment of the US two and half centuries ago. Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Certainties-Producing Auto-Contexts Our Realities-Creating Mental “Lenses”: The most consequential aspect of the automatic mode of human activities is the hidden realties-creating and perception-framing mental “lenses” through which we understand the world about us and manage the many previously mysterious problems as outlined in the article Our Mysterious Problem-Solving Deficiencies . These deficiencies have created an existential crisis in our prospects for systematic success achievements, prosperity improvements, and well-being maintenance. To make the progress we desperately want, we must learn to understand and manage crucial aspects of human nature that we have avoided until now. We Must Focus on Our Automatic Activities: My Brainz Magazine article, It’s All in Your Mind: A Systematic Path to Transform Behavior and Culture Habits , demonstrated that we all operate in two distinct modes. We can usefully understand these two modes by modeling our activities as occurring due to two distinct “selfs.” We have our familiar, transparent thinking mode that is where we formulate and sometimes can execute our intentions, which for convenience we refer to as our thinking-self . However, we also have an unfamiliar, opaque automatic mode that operates independent of our intentions, which we can learn to understand and manage effectively if we view it as the involuntary actions of our auto-self . 2Selfs Theory: Once we explicitly recognize the existence of our auto-self, we have the opportunity to understand comprehensively and manage systematically this previously mysterious aspect of human nature that evolution has bequeathed us but kept hidden from our normal awareness. Part of that understanding is identifying the four types of auto-self activities: 1. Auto-Contexts : The frustratingly elusive (we don’t notice them) and devastatingly illusive (they confuse and often deceive us) auto-self type that is the topic of this article. 2. Auto-Behaviors : Automatic behavior habits including failure to take needed actions consistently and displaying behaviors that negatively impact those around us. 3. Auto-Skills : Rapid actions without thinking-self direction or attention. They act in sports, musical performances, and nonverbal (evocative) communications. Auto-skills also provide crucial parts of language processing and perform complex image processing. At work, auto-skills play a key leadership role in motivating others through effective interpersonal communications and public speaking. 4. Auto-Expertise : Detects patterns and relationships in familiar, complex situations and presents “intuitive” results to the thinking-self. When former GE CEO Jack Welch spoke of making “gut” decisions, he referred to what we model at the mental level as auto-expertise. Human Ramifications of Escalating Technology Disruptions: The onrush of technologies associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution is overwhelming our current naïve abilities to manage their unintended consequences effectively in our businesses and elsewhere. Also, technology-enabled manipulations will continue destroying the participative political and governing systems of countries that fail to mentally inoculate their citizens against such dysfunctions. Advanced societies, and that certainly includes the West, will not have positive futures unless they conquer the many ramifications of auto-contexts! The Abilities Mismatch Has Now Overwhelmed Us: All current advanced societies have a fundamental disparity that has recently emerged and is growing between the widespread capability to manage thinking-self-based activities and the chronic lack of ability to manage the auto-self ramifications this thinking-self prowess has unleashed. I call this the “Abilities Mismatch.” To take a West-centric view, the empowering results of the combined Science/Enlightenment Revolution emancipated our thinking-self and launched the modern West about two and half centuries ago. Prof. Klaus Schwab, founder and perennial chair of the World Economic Forum, indirectly frames this issue in his prescient book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution , in which he identifies the accelerating arrival of a wide range of technologies. For our purposes, he also identifies many fundamental inadequacies business leaders, and therefore the businesses they run, have for accommodating this rising tsunami of technologies. Escaping the West’s Doomed Cultural Revolution We Do Have a Way Out of This Mental Trap: The Abilities Mismatch is fundamental and has caused us to reach a point where incremental progress can no longer head off a systemic descent. Human nature might have evolved in such a way that we could not escape this trap we have blindly stumbled into. In that case, we would likely face the continuing demise of many of our previous successful ways of life. Fortunately, there is a way out of this trap but it will require another mental revolution of the same magnitude as the Science/Enlightenment revolution that launched the modern West. The Third Industrial Revolution Was Inherently Self-Destructing: The foundational technology of the Third Industrial Revolution, which the World Economic Forum identifies as launching in 1969, was digital semiconductors. Unlike steam and electricity technologies and the products they spawned of the first two industrial revolutions, semiconductors had the unprecedented property of producing huge year-over-year and decade-over-decade improvements of performance while lowering costs. This led to an explosion of computing, information processing, and communications technologies and products. These new technology capabilities impact us in business, politics, values, and other aspects of our lives. The Abilities Mismatch emerged because we can no longer successfully accommodate the disruptions caused by these digital technologies unless we learn to manage their auto-self and particularly their auto-context ramifications. If we fail to acknowledge and take direct action to overcome this structural Abilities Mismatch, the widespread successes, prosperity, well-being, and self-government we in the West had enjoyed for so long will continue to atrophy. America’s Version of China’s Cultural Revolution: To understand our current difficult situation in the West, it is helpful to relate it to China’s Cultural Revolution. By 1966, Mao Zedong’s power was waning as the centrally-controlled economy was following the reliable highly seductive but repeatedly destructive path because it violates human-nature. To head off the rise of market economies that would breathe life into the Chinese economy but contradict his communist agenda, Mao and his subservient acolytes launched the disastrous Cultural Revolution to satisfy his insatiable need for power and regain solid control of the government. This resulted in a decade of antiscience and anti-prosperity suffering throughout China. When I visited China in 1978, the professors I met with at their universities had just recently returned from the farms to which they had been exiled. The West is going through a similar Cultural Revolution based on the human-nature flaw due to the Abilities Mismatch. In the US on January 6, 2021, we saw a pied piper, to satisfy his insatiable need for power (and with the help of many subservient acolytes), attempt to retain power after being voted out of office in a free and fair election. He incited his version of Red Guards (or Brown Shirts) to storm the US Capitol in an attempted coup by trying to stop the time-honored and constitutionally mandated peaceful transfer of power. This Cultural Revolution, like China’s, ignores science, which creates huge negative consequences – in this case for the coronavirus and global warming. Today, China pretends to be a communist country whereas in reality “Communist” is just the name of the single-party dictatorship that for economic progress has relied on market-economy reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping after the collapse of their devastating Cultural Revolution. No amount of antiscience dysfunctions, pandering to white grievances in a growing multicultural world, constructing delusional beliefs in voters, or rigging elections will extricate the US and indeed the West from its current descent. We are unstable now due to the structural Abilities Mismatch, but successes and well-being in the US and the rest of the “free” world including the whole West cannot withstand a long-term regressive Cultural Revolution like China suffered through. We need an emancipating mental revolution! Resurrecting and Exceeding the Greatness Aspects of the West: From a technology-disruption standpoint, the Fourth Industrial Revolution that Schwab identifies will exacerbate the problems unleashed by the Third Industrial Revolution. We have been trying to solve the Abilities Mismatch, particularly in business, using the proverbial “finger in the dyke” approach by identifying “soft” success factors to try to manage the auto-self ramifications indirectly . Fortunately, we now have a way to create a future even greater than anything we previously experienced by learning to manage our auto-self directly . Conquering auto-contexts is the necessary path to resurrecting and exceeding the greatness aspects of the West because explicitly understanding and directly managing auto-contexts will create discontinuously new capabilities to establish progressive leadership careers, repeated successes for businesses, functioning representative governments, and advances in many other aspects of life. Roadmap for this Article on the Imperative to Understand and Manage Auto-Contexts Feel-Good Simplistic Solutions Create a Path to Failure: You can follow the easy path by not reading anything or by only reading articles or books that provide feel-good simplistic solutions. In today’s digital world, there is no systematic, reliable success path forward without expending the effort to understand and manage auto-contexts. In many aspects of life and business today, you will increasingly fall behind those who invest the effort to understand and manage automatic human activities. That is particularly true for auto-contexts. Auto-Contexts Create the Foundation for Successes and Well-Being: As we learn more about the hidden intricacies of human nature through 2Selfs Theory, we can now understand that the glue that holds societies together and creates the foundation for prosperity and well-being is the set of auto-contexts that societies construct and propagate. Parts 2-7 of this article provide an overview of different important aspects of auto-contexts starting with some fundamentals and then looking at specific areas of our life that will benefit greatly when we learn to conquer auto-contexts in their many incarnations. My subsequent Brainz Magazine articles will expand on several of these key topics. Finally, Part 8, which we broke into two segments to make it easier for you to work through it, examines the big picture of the significance of what we must, and now fortunately can, achieve with this mental revolution and makes a comparison with the Science/Enlightenment Revolution that launched the modern West two and a half centuries ago. Part 2 of this article will start the process of guiding you through understanding and managing auto-contexts by building up from a well-known incarnation in the form of science paradigms Connect with me on LinkedIn and visit my website for more information! You can locate other Parts of the article as they appear by following this link: https://www.brainzmagazine.com/executive-contributor/barry-borgerson Barry Borgerson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Dr. Barry Borgerson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in computer science and one of his minors in the management of human resources. Barry co-led a multi-year DARPA-funded research project at the University and then went on to a highly successful career in the computer industry starting as a lead computer architect and progressing through successive promotions to increasingly responsible leadership positions in technical management up to executive-level general management. When he took over a business that was failing and initiated actions to change some dysfunctional behaviors and the outdated culture of that business, he encountered so much counterproductive resistance that he started a long-term study into why very smart, highly educated, and extremely experienced people frequently cannot enact externally obvious changes they need to make to succeed. That study led him to discover that the underlying cause of so many dysfunctional activities and the tenacious, normally uncontrollable, resistance to deep changes reside in enigmatic automatic human activities that business leaders normally do not notice, cannot change on their own if others point out their dysfunctions, and often deny they even exist. Barry then developed 2Selfs Theory, a comprehensive, business-friendly, generalized theory of the mind that models the sometimes cooperation but often competition between our explicit problem-solving abilities (using our “thinking self”) and our previously mysterious involuntary activities (driven by our “automatic self”) and provides systematic, reliable processes to align our elusive automatic actions with our explicit intentions and needed success priorities. Dr. Borgerson has repeatedly verified the effectiveness of the pragmatic 2Selfs Theory by applying it in many venues including through transformation coaching to reconstruct counterproductive behavior habits of business leaders and to change obsolete or dysfunctional company cultures, where the transformation processes worked immediately and repeatedly as the theory predicted.

Written by: Thomas J. Kent Jr., Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. But it still holds a certain level of mystique to new clients. There are quite a few that are familiar with this business and yet, a whole lot more that are not. On the surface, it seems improbable that future sales receipts are viewed and processed to determine how much to give to a singular business entity. But essentially, that is what happens. An MCA lender calculates how much to give a business owner based on the number of deposits, the balance on each day, the credit report showing all business owner inquiries (to figure out how many places the owner approached before sending in their information), and most importantly whether they were making revenues despite the ongoing pandemic concerns. The credit score is rarely considered as the repayment ability, and the character of the client is of more pressing concern. Is this a doomed market? No. And that now has a resounding echo since business-to-business lending can be viewed and studied after the fact but never stopped. There will always be a modicum of silent acquiescence in the industry since banks are not expected to be the final stop for anyone requiring funding to grow or steady their business. Alternative lending sources are always going to be sought out and utilized due to their ease of use and satisfaction with interim financing needs. How will this market adapt for the future? In dire circumstances, any entity can change and meld into its surroundings. However, the MCA field is not suited for adaptation since each company is run by groups of individuals who look to satisfy their basic needs. This is a question of character, not finance. A person with an overwhelming sense of greed at others' expense will always act in a coarse manner to make sure they are the only ones benefiting from any transaction. The methods of delivering service will change, but the greed will always remain. If an MCA company is run by ruthless individuals, then their service and provision will be ruthless to the point of eventually hurting themselves. But that happens only after they visit undue harm to the clients they serve. This industry does not need regulation ; it needs self-intervention. This is for each individual to reflect on internally. Long existent companies with decades of experience should wake up to the fact that hurting a business owner is never a good idea to survive in the long run. For more information, visit my webs ite ! Thomas J. Kent Jr., Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Mr. Kent is the founder, C.E.O., And Chairman of Kent Global LLC . Kent Global LLC is a boutique investment firm based in New York City. Mr. Kent has helped over 300 companies raise over 1 billion USD.

Written by: Jason Richardson , Executive Contributor Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise. Leader or Boss? I walk into my airline’s headquarters wearing a crisp white shirt, a black tie, and 4 gold bars on each shoulder. As I meet the team of 15 pilots and cabin crew in front of me, I have a choice; I can manage them, I can command them, or I can lead them. If I choose to manage my crew, they will receive adequate resources to do their job. If I command them, they will comply with my legally granted authority. But only if I lead them will I see them motivated, engaged, and producing the synergy we all desire from our teams. See any parallels with your work environment? Our job title may give us the authority to command, we may have the resources and time to manage, but our teams will never go ‘above and beyond’ unless we lead them. The military understands the critical role of leadership. I joined the Air Force with the sole goal of becoming a fighter pilot. The Air Force, however, recruited me as a leader first; they spent 3 years training me to lead and only then released me to fly. Why should we bother? After all, leadership requires our sacrifice, a commitment to placing our team’s needs ahead of our own. What’s in it for us? At the organisational level, improved employee engagement drastically reduces the costs of staff turnover, high sickness rates, and low-quality output. Employees will NOT commit to our organisational goals and purpose if they aren’t first committed to their direct supervisor. Investing in developing our leaders is perhaps the most cost-effective and reliable method of improving business outcomes. For us personally, if we commit to leading, we will find that success starts to follow us. A well-led team is more innovative, has higher quality output, and is committed to the organisational goals; research continually shows the enormous impact of quality leadership on business KPIs. Finally, and maybe most importantly, leadership has a profound impact on the well-being of our individual staff. We determine if our employees walk into the office with a commitment to give their best. It is also us who can cause their feeling of despair on Sunday evening as they are faced with another working week. Commit to being a leader and accept the challenges. By focussing your energy on leadership, you will produce the best in your organisation, in your team, and in yourself. Follow Jason on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and visit his website for more info! Jason Richardson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jason Richardson is passionate about increasing the performance of both individuals and organisations. He has spent almost 3 decades in high performance teams, with experience ranging from leading large fighter aircraft formations through to commanding international airliners. Jason believes that the focus of ANY leader should be to build and sustain an environment in which their team will thrive. In 2019, Jason founded Richardson HPS to help organisations build exceptional operating environments, thereby realising the same extraordinary levels of engagement and performance he experienced in air force fighter squadrons.