Foreword ......................................................................................................

5
Structure....................................................................................................... 6

Section I: The Three Psychological Tenets of THE PHOENIX

PROGRAM .................................................................................................. 8
1. The Power of Purpose .......................................................................... 9
2. The Inner Scripts of Your Mind ......................................................... 12
3. Harnessing Neuroplasticity ................................................................ 15

Section 2: A Bulletproof Belief System...................................................... 19

1. Embody Your Royalty ........................................................................ 20
2. Cultivate Ownership Of All Events .................................................... 23
3. Curate Your Personal Incentive System.............................................. 25
4. Program Your Mind to Ease Your Life:.............................................. 28
5. Operate Through Self-Fulfilling Prophecies ....................................... 31
6. Chase Excellence in Any Endeavour .................................................. 33
7. Interpret Reality Through Gratitude ................................................... 35
8. Tame Your Attention, Cultivate Focus ............................................... 37

Section 3: THE DON’Ts ........................................................................... 40

1. Don’t Check Social Media At All Times ............................................. 41
2. Don’t Eat All The Time ...................................................................... 44
3. Don’t Smoke Regularly ...................................................................... 47
4. Don’t Drink Compulsively ................................................................. 49
5. Don’t Do Drugs ................................................................................. 52
6. Don’t Indulge In Mind-Numbing Entertainment ............................... 54
7. Don’t Complain.................................................................................. 57
8. Don’t Masturbate ............................................................................... 60

2
Section 4: The DOs .................................................................................... 64
1. Sleep The Right Hours ....................................................................... 61
2. Affirm Your Success ......................................................................... 68
3. Plan Your Day in Advance ................................................................ 71
4. Time Your Tasks ............................................................................... 73
5. Meditate ............................................................................................. 76
6 Journaling........................................................................................... 78
7. Learn a New Skill .............................................................................. 81
8. Productive Reading ............................................................................ 84

Epilogue ...................................................................................................... 88
Disclaimer................................................................................................... 90

3
4
Foreword
Life is an endless collision course on which everyone bangs into each other
while making moves towards their own goals.

No matter the road you take, obstacles, roadblocks, problems, and conflicts will
always be an inevitable part of the journey. If you lack the proper foundational
habits and beliefs, it will be very difficult to stay on your path.

The right foundational beliefs and positive habits are the compound interest of
self-improvement. Becoming 1% better every day through behavioral change
might not matter much in the short term but makes a noticeable difference in
the long run. It is the only way to change your life, for good.

The real value in pursuing meaningful habits is not because they provide you
with positive results. Their true significance lies in their power to create a long-
lasting identity change.

In fact, your habits are in fact the foundations on which your identity stands.
Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your
beliefs and improve your habits in order to upgrade and expand your identity.

Think of it this way: everything that you do repeatedly is a vote for the type of
person you want to be. Nurturing the right habits is therefore paramount to
change your self-beliefs, override your preset mind programming, and create a
well-deserved life of wealth, success, and meaning.

Inspired by real-world life experiences and backed by proven psychological

principles, THE PHOENIX PROGRAM aims to be the cornerstone of your
future identity.

Follow this eight-week program and learn how to fix your mindset, rewire your
brain for greatness, and ultimately unlock your full potential.

There really is no worthier pursuit.

5
Structure
This book is structured in the following way:

In the first section of the book, we will discuss the three major psychological
tenets of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM. Understanding these three core
features of your mind will help you leverage its full potential and achieve a long-
lasting psychological and behavioral change.

In the second section, we will go through the eight negative habits that you
need to eliminate during the next eight weeks in order to find your psychological
and energetic baseline. These pernicious habits are likely impacting every major
aspect of your current performance: energy levels, sleep, focus capabilities, etc.
Getting rid of them, at least momentarily, will make you conscious of your
physical and mental processes and help you break some of the negative
programs running in your mind.

Finally, in the third section, we will discuss eight positive habits that you ought
to pick up and nurture in the long term if you want to live a life at the pinnacle
of your personal potential. We will review the importance of each habit we
discuss thoroughly in order to convince you of its suitability.

Use this information as a guideline for your life, but use it strictly during the 8-
weeks of The Phoenix Program. If we advise against masturbation during 8
weeks, you must abstain from it during that time. No further questions asked.

This program is about rewiring your brain through discipline. It works, if you
are willing to work.

The new identity that you’ll create by implementing these new habits will
emerge progressively as you advance in the program.

The accompanying Accountability Workbook will guide you through the eight-
week program. Follow it without change or deviation.

6
7
I. THE THREE PSYCHOLOGICAL TENETS
OF THE PHOENIX PROGRAM
1. The Power of Purpose
2. The Inner Scripts of Your Mind
3. Harnessing Neuroplasticity

8
 I.1

The Power of Purpose

Purpose is one of the most important psychological forces in your mind.

Purpose is the fundamental force that powers any personal accomplishment: it

provides you with meaning and wards off anxiety, boredom, depression, and
sadness. it is a basic component of a life worth living.

The need for purpose, or “calling,” is one of the defining characteristics of a

successful individual. Some people are born with an innate sense of purpose, a
calling that they must submit to since childhood.

It may be mastering a skill (how to play an instrument, for example), attaining

a position (such as becoming a powerful politician), or fulfilling a childhood
dream (going to the moon).

Most people, though, don’t have an innate calling. Nothing quite burns inside
from childhood. Later in life, once they grow up, they tend to feel a restlessness
that comes creeping inside and tormenting them.

I know what I am talking about, because I have been there. And I managed to
create my purpose. Creating your purpose is an easy thing, if you are willing to
experiment and suffer.

Those of you that are born without an innate purpose must experiment
purposefully until you find what ticks. You must commit to the experimentation
itself and allow three to six months to hone your skills in the craft of their
choosing before moving on to the next thing. If, at the end of that time, your
interest in the activity has faded away, then (and only then) you can transition
into another activity until you find what you’re looking for.

Purpose is not found, it is built.

9
By focusing your attention towards purpose and the road that leads to it, you
are immersed in the flow of meaningful play of ideas, their exchange, and the
conclusions that go on inside your minds.

Purpose helps you become less self-centered. Instead of living with the thought
that the world that revolves around you, purpose makes you part of the entire
system, harmoniously swinging and soaring through the elements that
constitute it.

The creation of purpose is not a blind act, though. There are some fundamental
questions that can guide you towards it.

Think about what kept you up at night when you were a kid. What was the
activity to which you dedicated most of your time, when hours seemed like
minutes? That’s a strong indicator of where your sense of purpose might lie.

Another question that can help you is to think about the worst thing you could
endure while doing something you really like doing (because all activities suck
at one point or the other). What sacrifice are you willing to endure to fulfill your
desires? What is the preferred flavor of your shit sandwich?

A final exercise that can also help is picturing the content of your future
biography. What would you like it to tell?

These questions are some of the most direct ways that you can prompt yourself
to identify your purpose.

Sometimes, purpose can also emerge from having personal experiences that
transcend our own interests. That feeling of connecting with an entity that is
larger than you can also spark a sense of purpose.

The main idea of this section is that finding your purpose is the catalyst for
long-lasting behavioral and identity change.

10
Pursuing the wrong path, whatever it is, will inevitably end up in frustration and
will prevent you from developing your full potential.

Purpose is one of the major psychological tenets of a meaningful life, as it

provides a framework in which to develop your life. Don’t live it without
committing to find yours.

If you have already identified it, you don’t need to worry about it anymore. Just
keep pursuing it.
If you still don’t have it, don’t despair. Commit to the experimentation we
already discussed. You’ll end up discovering it.

11
 I.2

The Inner Scripts of Your Mind

Your brain is a pre-programmed entity. Most of your thinking is influenced by

societal norms, stereotypes, culture, conformity, and the fear—whether fear of
others or fear of your community. You have been pre-programmed to think
and act the way you do.

Pause a moment and think about the involuntary actions that you perform on
any given day. Ponder for a moment how many thousands of unconscious
decisions help you regulate your body processes, thoughts, and emotions.

Psychologists draw a line between those thoughts that we can control, which
integrate our conscious mind, and those processes and thoughts that reside
outside our control, in our subconscious.

Your subconscious mind was programmed during your first seven years of life,
when your brain was basically absorbing loads of information. In those seven
years you programmed yourself by imitation into a series of actions and
behaviors that reflected your adult environment.

These behaviors are now responsible for about 95% of your actions. Only 5%
of what you do is conscious and modifiable on the spot.

This mental programming has embedded a pattern of thoughts about yourself

and your environment that directly affect your involuntary thought processes:

“I’m just not this kind of person…”

“I’m just like this, so it won’t work.”
“I don’t like X, so I won’t like Y either…”
“I’ve never had success in this area, so it won’t happen now.”

See how it works?

12
You are your worst enemy.

The first step towards achieving personal mastery is getting rid of the limitations
that your subconscious mind has imposed unto yourself.

Every time you subject yourself to the automatic thinking that emanates from
this subconscious programming, you are in fact limiting your options.

Accepting this reality and understanding how your brain is programmed right
now is the first step towards successfully overriding that program.

Open yourself to the possibility that life is created on a series of scripts and
understand that the moment in which you stop riding along with them is the
moment that you can begin to step back, look at what it is, and change it.

When you understand the power of the subconscious mind and the mental
programming that runs it, you will force it to learn new positive habits and
unlearn negative ones.

This mental reprogramming will be achieved by forcing your subconscious

mind to incorporate the habits and beliefs that your conscious mind will instill
in yourself.

Forced to adapt to a program that the conscious side of your mind performs
consistently, your subconscious mind finally ends up assuming it, therefore
creating a new identity for you.

This repetition implies discipline, sacrifice, and overcoming your fears and
apathy.

It implies conquering yourself. It implies getting rid of your old self.

Which, by the way, is not sexy.

There's nothing sexy about doing the same things over and over and over again,
some of which will take a few days to actually be pleasurable.
13
Nothing sexy about repeating the same patterns of behavior against your own
true nature, over and over again.

But it works.

Discipline works.

Routines are a sign of ambition and a recipe for success.

Now let’s create yours.

14
 I.3

Harnessing Neuroplasticity

We’ve already discussed the importance of creating a psychological framework

to guide your behavior (purpose) and reviewed how your brain’s processes rely
mostly on your subconscious mind, which can be changed only through
deliberate practice and conscious repetition of the same behaviors.

The final tenet of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM’s psychological system is

harnessing the power of your brain to expand its abilities.

Contrary to what used to be believed, your brain is not hardwired at any age.

You’re not stuck with the default brain you were born with. In every moment
of your life, everything of which you are aware (sounds, sights, thoughts,
feelings) can be directly mapped to neural activity in your brain.

Everything that you do, experience, think, and hope has a physical effect on
your brain. All of what happens to you changes your brain through what is
called “neuroplasticity,” which is defined as the mind’s ability to reorganize
itself in order to form new connections.
Although the current state of affairs in psychology and neuroscience hasn’t
uncovered the precise mechanism by which this process operates, it is now
widely accepted that neuroplasticity opens up the possibility of personal long-
term reinvention.

In fact, neuroplasticity can help you move away from your current self and
overcome past traumatic events that evoke anxiety and stress. It can override
hardwired, fear-based memories that too often lead to avoidance behaviors and
hold you back from living your life to the fullest.

Neuroplasticity works, again, through deliberate repetition of patterns.

15
The good news is that your brain makes physical changes based on the repetitive
things you do. The bad news is that your brain makes physical changes based
on the repetitive things you do. This morphing capability of your brain works
both for you and against you.

If you regularly rest your mind upon worries, self-criticism, or anger, then your
brain will gradually foster those neural pathways and develop neural structures
and dynamics of anxiety, low sense of worth, and reactivity to others.

On the other hand, if you regularly rest your mind upon the good in yourself
and the world, your brain will gradually take the shape of calm strength, self-
confidence, inner peace, curiosity, sense of awe, etc.

The physiological reality underneath this process is that the busiest regions in
the brain get more blood flow, because they require more oxygen and glucose.
Neurons that fire together wire together, producing thicker neural layers. In the
end, neuroplasticity works under the same conditions as physical exercise: good
(or bad) practices done with consistency will gradually have noticeable effects
on your brain.
Neuroplasticity has also been shown to allow nerve cells in the brain to make
up for illnesses and injuries that have afflicted it.

It involves adjustments to new situations and inevitable changes in the

environment.

How frequently does this happen? Minute by minute. Every minute of every
day you are shaping your brain.

Several ways that neuroplasticity benefits you:

 Power to rewire brain functions

 Enhanced memory
 Improved cognitive functions
 Upgraded learning capacity
16
  Recovery from threatening illnesses
 Recovery from various brain injuries

The value proposition of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM is to offer you a

system, a set of guidelines, a definitive toolkit rich with information and lots of
recommendations based on facts, research, and inspirational experiences that
will help you create new meaningful mental pathways and override old, negative
ones.

You will learn that using neuroplasticity to your advantage as an adult is just a
matter of focus and dedication to the right things.

17
18
II. A BULLETPROOF BELIEF SYSTEM
1. Embody Your Royalty
2. Cultivate Ownership of All Events
3. Curate Your Personal Incentive System
4. Program Your Mind to Ease Your Life
5. Operate Through Self-fulfilling Prophecies
6. Chase Excellence in any Endeavour
7. Interpret Reality Through Gratitude
8. Tame Your Attention, Cultivate Focus

19
 II.1

Embody Your Royalty

Communication transcends orality. In addition to what is spoken, our minds

interpret gestures, facial expressions, and stimuli like touch and body
movements to complement the words that go along with them. This is what we
call “non-verbal communication.”

Non-verbal communication is not a phenomenon with a universal code. It is in

fact heavily influenced by culture, and its code varies across regions and social
strata. Decoding regional specificities that assign a value to certain signs or
postures necessarily involves understanding the meaning, sense, and purpose of
this said communication.

Evolutionary psychology, though, states that there is a universally shared

understanding regarding the subtleties of body language. Some cues, generally
related to dimensions like power or wealth, are prevalent across all cultures and
races.

Understanding the universality of body language is the first step towards

creating a powerful personal frame to command respect and attention through
the unconscious use of your body language. Your gestures and the way you
move your body and direct your gaze provide subtle behavioral cues that must
be understood and leveraged.

In fact, people react unconsciously to your non-verbal cues alone, even before
you start speaking. Trust is therefore created using a mixture of body language
and verbal statements.

And this brings us to the fact that the fastest way to fix your body language is
to master your everyday posture.

20
In this case I mean posture to the position in which a person holds their body
when standing or sitting. Public speakers, stage performers, television
personalities, and the like are all about nurturing a good posture.
This is extremely important because the posture you adopt in your everyday life
directly influences several aspects of your life:

Your mood
Your sense of self-worth
Your overall behavior
The way others perceive you

How to Fix Your Posture

Your present posture will depend on the inertia of the life that you have lived
so far. It will depend on the sense of self-worth that your subconscious has
carefully created throughout the years.

You may consciously think of yourself as a king, but your body will reflect
whatever your subconscious believes deep inside.

The first step towards fixing it is to have several photos taken, in different
positions, and examine them. You may also look at yourself in the mirror,
although taking a cue from photographs gives you an objective measure that a
mirror simply can’t.

The three immediate ways of fixing your posture are:

1. Straighten your shoulders

2. Pull your chest up
3. Stop slouching

These three movements will straighten your back, smooth your shoulders and
create a better curve for your spine, resulting in a more dominant body
language. This will naturally imply opening your body, arms, and legs to signal
confidence.

21
In general, the wider you open your arms and show your torso, the more
dominant your attitude shall be perceived.

The key to successfully implementing a dominant posture in your everyday life

is to use variations of the fixed posture we just discussed while performing
different tasks. The end goal is to create a muscle memory of how you should
be showing yourself.

A few examples are:

1. Walking with an open posture that shows your torso

2. Leaning with your arms wide open
3. Sitting with a laid-back attitude, signaling calmness

The key to mastering your posture is creating positive feedback mechanisms,

notably with the help of others, in order to check your posture at different
moments of the day and correct it if it is suboptimal.

Keeping a good posture will take some days to master, but it should eventually
become second nature to you.

In addition to the positive psychological effects I just mentioned, power posing

also affects you at a hormonal level. Studies have shown, for instance, that
testosterone tends to go up and cortisol to go down significantly if you have a
physically strong and powerful position in your everyday life. The combination
of high testosterone (the hormone associated with strength) and low cortisol
(the hormone released when under stress) directly correlates with success,
especially in men.

On top of that, having good posture relieves health problems such as

headaches, muscle fatigue, back and neck pain, acid reflux, and bad breathing.
It literally changes the way you feel and the way others perceive you.

By improving your posture and body language, you will rewire your brain to
view yourself as a king or queen in the making.
22
 II.2

Cultivate Ownership of All Events

One of the best psychological hacks that you can use to improve your life is
assuming that everything that happens to you is a result of your actions.

Cultivating a culture of personal responsibility over your life's events, whether

you have control over them or not, will reprogram your mind to take full
advantage of every opportunity and surmount every obstacle that comes your
way.

There’s an inextricable link between meaning and responsibility that you can’t
overlook, as it is rooted in evolutionary psychology. Ownership of all events is
the quickest way towards personal fulfillment, because meaning and success are
only to be found in the struggle.

Beginning each day fully knowing that everything that happens to you is your
responsibility will skyrocket your personal productivity, advance your sense of
meaning, and propel you in a positive direction towards the fulfillment of your
goals.

Ownership of external events is the best way to develop the necessary

leadership skills to thrive in today’s competitive world. You may not be in a
position of leading others, but you will always have to lead yourself in order to
suppress your ego, showcase your abilities, and carefully nurture an example for
others.

To begin implementing this belief, you must renounce your ego and embrace
the hardships of life as the true foundations of happiness and success.

You will do this by:

 Making no excuses
23
  Always speaking the truth
 Taking feedback seriously
 Seeking continuous expansion of your circle of competence
 Reach out for help to overcome your limitations
 Lead the way of positive change in personal & professional settings.

No matter how difficult life becomes, there is always a way out. In order to find
it you must take ownership of your problems and surpass them in full force.

Nobody is coming to save you.

Learn to save yourself.

24
 II.3

Create Your Personal Incentive System

The smartest people don’t fight their instincts—they leverage their power in
their favor.

Instead of building yourself on a constant struggle against your nature, learn to

interpret and incentivize your own behaviors.

According to Freudian psychology, the subconscious part of the mind is driven

by what we call the “pleasure principle.” This principle states that humans
instinctively gravitate towards pleasure and stay away as much as possible from
pain.

More prevalent among infants and teenagers, the Pleasure Principle is the
psychic force that motivates your tendency to seek immediate gratification of
your impulses.

This is precisely what is making you weak. According to several psychological

studies, the capability of embracing pain instead of indulging in immediate
gratification strongly correlates with success, as it indicates a powerful stress
management capacity, among other things.

Understanding the Pleasure Principle will help you design an incentive system
that works for you. To discover it, use the following steps:

1 - Understand what triggers you.

Monitor the things that trigger your reactions. Identify every environmental and
personal cue that, in one way or another, triggers those habits or attitudes that
are causing trouble. It may be anything from procrastination or overeating to
drinking alcohol. Whatever it is, just note it down.

25
From the moment that you identify these triggers, you will have a better
perspective on how to handle them and avoid repeating the same mistakes.

In order to conquer your character and defeat temptation, you must avoid
having the possibility of being overpowered by it.

2 – Expand your awareness

Some reactions and impulses are triggered without you being aware of it. A
healthy approach to habit modification is to cultivate an expanded awareness
of these feelings and desires by noticing them without getting attached, in order
to avoid excessive fixation and self-induced pressures.

3 – Design your system

Designing your life by controlling your impulses is a necessary pursuit if you

want to be consistently successful.

Once you have identified the cues to your behaviors, you’ll be in a good position
to design your everyday life around them. Instead of countering their impacts,
you will prevent them from happening, thus skyrocketing your positive
behavioral adaptation.

A good example of this is, for instance, refraining from buying cigarettes if you
want to stop smoking, or sleep with your cellphone in another room if you tend
to hit the snooze button unconsciously in the morning.

4 - Receive feedback

Positive behavioral feedback loops are one of the easiest ways of learning and
growing. Sharing your experiences is a much better way of reflecting on your
behaviors than trying to improve them in the dark.

In fact, the fastest way of self-development doesn’t rely on doing it on your

own, but rather on balancing your experience with the different perspectives

26
coming from other people. Situating yourself in a position of balance is going
to take you further into your vision.

5 – Reward yourself

Catalyze your behavioral change by creating the proper reward mechanisms that
will trick your brain into deferring gratification to ensure a larger prize along
the line.

For each impulse controlled for long enough, reward yourself. Look forward
to receiving a prize every time you achieve personal mastery over your impulses.

If you create this positive feedback loop several times, you’ll end up rewiring
your brain to delay gratification subconsciously.

Which is, as you know, the key to long-term success. Building character in the
face of immediate pleasure and instant consumption is one of the best
predictors for success in life.

So go build it.

27
 II.4

Program Your Mind to Ease Your Life

Your subconscious mind is a powerful force that interprets reality according to

its programming, as we already discussed. Thus, your ability to successfully
navigate through life will depend on what your subconscious effectively believes
and filters.

The brain mechanism that interprets reality to its own liking is called the
Reticular Activating System. This is what you unconsciously use to select which
kinds of information can enter in your conscious mind.

Developed since childhood, its parameters have been honed throughout the
years to perceive reality in a way that suits your current beliefs and ideals.

The RAS in fact works as the bouncer of your consciousness: it filters out less
significant information in order to welcome what it deems more important.

This system is the reason for spotting a familiar face in a chaotic crowd full of
conversing people or starting to hear a word in your everyday life after you’ve
just learned what it means.

Everything that you sense has entered your consciousness through the gates of
your RAS. It has been deemed "worthwhile”; its presence in your consciousness
"makes sense."

Anatomically, the RAS is a vaguely-defined region in the brainstem (located

roughly near the end of your spinal cord inside your brain) that has nervous
ramifications in the rest of the brain and is connected to several other parts of
the body (the eyes and vision, the nose and smell, etc.). It is composed of
several different receptors for the most important hormones regulating your
brain (dopamine, norepinephrine, histamine, etc.).

28
The RAS is basically connected to all your sensory systems and is fueled by all
the hormones that regulate your emotions.

In a way, it controls you. It takes what you focus on and then builds a filter for
it, much like how your social media identifies your interests and filters whatever
you see according to them.

Your RAS seeks information that validates your principles, in theory. The truth
is that we can change the RAS parameters and make them work better to suit
our needs.

We call this “setting your intent” or “re-programming your mind.”

You are going to program your mind to think that everything is easy, which is
the most important belief that you can instill in your subconscious mind. You’ll
train your mind to label reality as something easy, that harbors no special
difficulty for you.

If you label something in your mind as hard, you will run away from it and
procrastinate as much as possible. If you think it is easy, on the other hand,
you’ll smash through it with ease and confidence.

The moment you program your RAS to believe “everything is easy,” it will start
finding useful, unexpected patterns and underlying principles of reality that you
tended to overlook and that can now help you achieve your goals.

Teach your Reticular Activating System to look at reality as a series of easy

games that need to be mastered one after the other.

Believe wholeheartedly that you’ll always be able to find a breakthrough, and

you will.

The process to progressively start taming your RAS for success is the following:

1 - Think of a goal that you want to influence.

29
2 - Then think of an experience you desire to reach in regard to that goal.
3 - Now, create a mental picture or movie of how you want this to turn out.
Replay it in your head.
4- Execute.

Don’t lower your chances for success by putting yourself in your own way.

Believe everything is easy, and I assure you, it will be easier than you expect.

30
 II.5

Operate Through Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Just as having a good posture creates a hormonal response in your body,

having irrational self-confidence in your potential has powerful mind benefits.

In fact, several studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between
overconfidence—believing you are better than you are in reality—and success,
both on an individual level and at a population level.

Apparently, overconfidence is advantageous because it serves to increase

ambition and morale, generating a self-fulfilling prophecy in which exaggerated
confidence actually increases the probability of success.

No matter the area in which you may be trying to improve, believing that you’re
good at it, even the best at it, will increase your chances of success.

Irrational self-confidence also creates positive feedback loops, as it encourages

you to attempt bigger things for which you are not fully prepared. Failing to
achieve them will help you broaden your set of skills as you to try and find
solutions. You’ll end up winning.

Self-fulfilling prophecies influence behavior at a subconscious level by instilling

in your brain a winning attitude that underpins your efforts.

An example of this is the Pygmalion effect, which is a psychological principle

that states that our beliefs about ourselves influence our actions toward others,
while our actions toward others influence their beliefs about us. Others’
perceptions of us influence their actions toward us, which in turn affect our
self-beliefs. Thoughts are affected by actions, and vice-versa.

31
Creating a positive self-fulfilling prophecy is a powerful way of preparing your
mind to over-deliver in special situations and ensure success.

Let’s take, for example, a situation wherein you are tapped for a speaking
engagement at a business gathering. You begin to ponder the night before and
ask yourself, how is this going to turn out?

It is only then that the self-fulfilling prophecy can begin. Since you want the
speech to turn out well, you foresee that you will wake up full of positivity the
next day, will arrive earlier than the call time, will not stutter during the speech,
and will be interacting with the people around right after.

If you visualize yourself completing every single step, you will prepare your
brain to achieve it, one step at a time.

A self-fulfilling prophecy becomes useful if you do what you have believed in.
Your thoughts will inevitably shape your actions.

Rather than thinking negatively about the next day, re-program your
subconscious and start making your predictions the right way.

If you want to live a legendary life, start thinking of yourself as the hero in a
legend. Do it purposefully and watch your life become what you wanted.

32
 II.6

Chase Excellence in Every Endeavor

In the dark and ruthless world in which we live, only the fittest survive. Only
those who become masters at their professions can expect a smooth survival
in an ultracompetitive world.

Individuals like to play it safe for several reasons: either because they are afraid
to make mistakes, or they are escaping responsibilities. It can also be because
they fear being reprimanded because of their efforts (peer pressure).

Anyway, you were not born to do half-assed things, good enough to stay
afloat but not worthy of merit and recognition. Attempting things below a
personal level of excellence is an unacceptable way of going through life.

You need to demand as much as possible of yourself, since I can’t think of

anything worse than meeting the person you could have become at the end of
your life and disappointing it.

Be your best.

Excellence is the highest pinnacle of human endeavors, where the quality of an

accomplishment is so unusually good that it surpasses ordinary standards.

Excellence is what the ancient Greeks called Areté, a quality of the soul that was
considered the best possible way of creating a bridge between your actions and
your own purpose.

In order to break free from psychological and societal programming, you need
to surpass your own expectations. Becoming the best possible version of
yourself implies doing things in the best possible manner, striving to surpass
any previously known level of achievement.

33
Excellence arises from a positive attitude fueled by consistent personal growth,
a strong regard for accomplishment, and the thirst for fulfillment.

Staying average will not help you surpass your limitations and will keep you
stagnant.

Chasing excellence, which is attainable, will end up providing a sense of

meaning in everything you do.

34
 II.7

Interpret Reality Through Gratitude

Cultivating gratitude is a very effective way of rewiring your brain so it feeds

itself with positivity.

Concentrating on what you have fosters acceptance and create positive

momentum, while concentrating on what you lack breeds negativity and ensure
permanent dissatisfaction.

Don’t take your life for granted, as there are countless things that have
happened to you that deserve acknowledgement and recognition.

You can focus on the important stuff, those things that really make a difference.
You can acknowledge the fact, for example, that you are alive, and have a body
that carries you, a mind that guides you and close friends and family who
support you.

Or you could focus on small things that eventually add up, like having a shorter
commute to work, having had a great session at the gym the day before, or
having talked on the phone with a friend with whom you haven't talked in a
while.

Whatever it is, make sure you reflect on all the positive things that have
happened to you.

If you do this consistently, your brain will rewire itself to further appreciate your
life, which will render positive energy during the day.

Cultivating gratitude is a very simple habit that can be done through

affirmations or journaling, two of the essential new tasks that you’ll learn in this
book.

35
In addition to improving mood, recent studies have shown that expressing
gratitude leads to better physical health as well.

Among other things, it has been found that individuals who keep a daily journal,
writing about two or three things they are grateful for, have reduced levels of
inflammation and improved heart rhythm compared to people who do not
write in a journal. Journal-keepers also showed a decreased risk of heart disease
after only two months of the routine.

Acknowledging your good fortune will soothe your mind, calm your spirit, and
improve the overall performance of your cognitive processes.

Do it daily, often and unapologetically.

Just do it.

36
 II.8

Tame Your Attention, Cultivate Focus

Attention is the most valuable currency for every single business in the world.

If a business manages to capture your attention long enough, it can end up

selling you something or harvesting enough data to get to know you deeply and
optimize their advertising segmentation for you.

Attention must be considered one of your most precious assets, as well as time.

- You shouldn’t keep squandering it.

- You shouldn’t keep scrolling mindlessly through your social media feeds
reading things that bring you no value whatsoever.
- You shouldn't try to multitask your way into a success that will never arrive
without sustained focus.

But what is focus, exactly? Well, focus is the ability to set your attention on a
area until it yields the desired results.

Focus involves directing all your energy and concentration into a specific task,
either long-term or short-term, and remaining in that state till the task is
accomplished.

Focus requires commitment to one’s goal and discipline to stay the course, as
there are many things that can sway you from that course. Learn to take away
all the distractions and start uncluttering your life. Regaining your mental
capacity can be achieved by conquering small tasks.

Once you have selected a task, commit to it. Along the way, obstacles and
impossibilities will come. Be positive when tackling them. Remember that, in

37
order to succeed, you must get ready to be uncomfortable and learn how to
protect your mental capacity from distractions.

According to the latest research, there are ten steps to master extreme focus,
no matter the task:

1. Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve

2. Being able to concentrate for a sustained period
3. Losing the feeling of consciousness of one's self
4. Finding that time passes quickly
5. Getting direct and immediate feedback
6. Experiencing a balance between your ability levels and the challenge
7. Having a sense of personal control over the situation
8. Feeling that the activity is intrinsically rewarding
9. Lacking awareness of bodily needs
10. Being completely absorbed in the activity itself

Clear and focused attention on one single task for long enough will do a
hundred times more for your productivity and success than any other thing you
can think of.

Being a focused individual will help you overcome the odds, no matter how
daunting the task might be.

38
39
III. THE DON’Ts
1. Don’t Check Social Media All the Time
2. Don’t Eat All the Time
3. Don’t Smoke Regularly
4. Don’t Drink Compulsively
5. Don’t Overdo Stimulants, Such as Caffeine
6. Don’t Watch TV
7. Don’t Complain
8. Don’t Masturbate

40
 III.1

Don’t Check Social Media All the Time

The proliferation of smartphones and global communications infrastructure

have boosted the instant interconnectivity of billions of people on the planet.

Smartphone notifications and large social media followings have risen to near
obsessive status for companies and individuals alike, spawning a whole array of
different professions in the market. Influencers, branded content strategists,
social media managers… the list goes on.

Social media is a phenomenon in our lives that should not be overlooked. In

fact, it must be controlled. The average person spends more than two and a half
hours on social media and email and checks the phone between 100 and 150
times per day.

This is insanity.

This phenomenon has a pernicious effect in your brain. In fact, the latest
scientific research has proved that social media usage messes with our brain in
several ways. Notably:
 It interferes with the brain’s reward system, triggering dopamine
secretion in the same way winning money does.
 It impairs the capacity for normalized social interactions, as it
reduces real-life conversations.
 It can create havoc in our innate stress response mechanisms, as
these are unable to differentiate between real threats and virtual
feuds, triggering a body response that emulates the fight-or-flight
response.
 It erodes your ability to focus; short-term notifications and short
reading times progressively reduce it.

41
Social media is undoubtedly a powerful tool that can be used to your advantage.
Its inane consumption, though, will damage your brain in the long run.

The best way to cope with this reality is controlling its consumption and
customizing it to your needs.

We suggest the following strategies:

1- Focus on one to two platforms, at most

Select your medium according to your preferred way of content consumption.

If you absorb information best through reading, for example, Twitter may be
your go-to option to learn and debate, whereas if you prefer videos, YouTube
should do the trick.

Instagram and Snapchat lean towards images, while Facebook can be a mix of
media (text, videos, and images).

Choose your preferred medium and limit the options that don’t serve you.

2- Turn off notifications

Turning off notifications is absolutely paramount if you don’t want to erode

your focus capabilities.

Every time you receive a notification on your cellphone, especially if it comes

with vibration, the body reacts instinctively and disrupts its natural rhythms. Do
this enough times, and you’ll inevitably mess up your stress response
mechanism.

The problem can become so pervasive that it triggers phantom responses to

notifications that you haven’t even received.

3- Block out time for email and social media

42
The best strategy to getting more work done is to create pockets of time in
which you are will not be disrupted. In those short periods of time, nothing is
allowed to disrupt your focus—especially not social media, which should be
used outside those pockets of productive time.

We personally recommend a daily consumption of 90 minutes, at most

(excluding applications like WhatsApp and Telegram Messenger that are better
used for communication).

4- Use auto-responders when using email

Most of your email communications, especially if you’re doing cold outreach,

can be automated with the help of auto-responders that will save you time and
mental capacity. Don’t force yourself to rewrite the same things more than
once.

5- Schedule your content to be posted

Constant social media exposure is an unsustainable and unnecessary burden.

The more you’re exposed to it, the worse your overall performance will tend to
be on it.

The best way to limit your total exposure time is to use an automatic tool to
post content and relieve you from constantly checking your smartphone to
engage with your followers.

43
 III.2

Don’t Eat All the Time: Cognitive Effects of

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting

and eating. Unlike most practices, this pattern does not specify which foods you
should or should not eat, but rather when you should eat them. It is not a diet
in the conventional sense but mainly a pattern, or a lifestyle.

Intermittent fasting is gaining popularity in recent times, especially in fitness

and celebrity circles.

Before intermittent fasting became popular, there was the standard habit, or
ritual, of fasting. It has been done throughout human history and allowed early
humans to thrive without food over longer periods of time. In fact, some
experts say that fasting is even more natural than eating three to four meals a
day.

For many in today’s world, it has become a way of life.

It is also a faith-based practice:

-In Christianity, Jesus practiced fasting in the wilderness and taught this to his
followers.
-In Judaism, believers have a day of “self-denial” or a day of cleansing of their
sins. It is observed eight days after the start of the Jewish New Year and fasting
has been part of the practice.
-Muslims are among the strongest devotees to fasting. During the Muslim
month of Ramadan, fasting is a symbol of atonement for sins, a reminder of
disasters, sadness, and mourning.

44
Among the benefits sought by intermittent fasting practitioners are its positive
effects on the brain.

The brain basically presents two modes: the feeding mode, roughly 10 to 12 hours
after a meal, and then the hunting mode.

The hunting mode brings a lot of benefits to the brain:

 It dissipates the “brain fog” that is so pervasive nowadays.

 It helps cleanse and detox the body.
 It helps you develop more willpower.

Its positive effects are also hormonal: intermittent fasting increases the brain
hormone known as BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) and may
promote the growth of new nerve cells. It may also combat Alzheimer’s disease,
a prevalent condition among aging populations.

The habit also enables a cellular cleansing process called autophagy activation.
Autophagy is where the body “eats itself” at a cellular level. This is one of the
most natural ways for the body to clean itself from the inside out. It plays an
important role in the body’s capacity to detoxify itself through regeneration.

If you refrain from consuming food during several hours of a day, the brain is
challenged, and it reacts to it by adapting response pathways, a process that can
also help a person cope with stress.

The brain’s reaction to this popular eating pattern is the same reaction it has
after regular exercise. Both fasting and working out increase protein production
in the brain, thus promoting the growth of neurons and strengthening of
synapses.

Thus, intermittent fasting has net effects on enhanced memory and learning.

Methods to choose from

45
There are several ways of implementing this technique. The three most popular
methods are:
 Skipping breakfast and restricting your daily food consumption to an
eight-hour window. Then fast for 16 hours in between. (This is the most
popular method.)
 The eat-stop-eat technique, or fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week
 The 5:2 diet, or consuming only 500-600 calories on two non-
consecutive days within a week, and eating normally in the rest of the
days

Whichever you choose, make sure you can maintain it once you’ve started so it
eventually becomes second nature.

Learn to operate in hunting mode and your brain will reward you with acute mental
clarity.

46
 III.3

Don’t Smoke Regularly

Why do people smoke? The answer is simple: They are addicted to nicotine, a
powerful stimulant found in tobacco that has quite an effect on the brain when
released.

Nicotine is a highly addictive stimulant that prompts the adrenal glands to

release more adrenaline, a hormone that is usually processed if a person gets
into a stressful situation. When you smoke, especially if you do it often,
hormones like adrenaline (or epinephrine) stimulate the central nervous system
to affect blood pressure, your breathing rate, and your heart rate.

Furthermore, nicotine activates that part of the brain that regulates feelings of
pleasure, also known as reward pathways. Experts agree that nicotine increases
dopamine levels. Dopamine is the key brain chemical is involved in mediating
desires in the brain’s reward circuits.

There are some positive aspects to nicotine: there is some evidence that it could
have small positive short-term effects on specific aspects of cognition. In fact,
smoking may also help boost memory and concentration, scientists reveal, but
for the short term only.

There is also a good basis to affirm that nicotine can help treat people with
Alzheimer’s disease. The positive effects of nicotine on cognitive performance
suggest that nicotinic receptors may contribute to better functioning and that
dementia patients may benefit from using this component for therapy.

In average terms, though, frequent smoking has pernicious effects on your

productivity.

47
However, apart from these disorders, it has been concluded that long-term
smoking is associated with higher risks of cognitive decline and yielding to
certain disorders like dementia.

Cigarettes and cigarette smoke contain around 5,000 chemical components,

which include toxic ones such as vinyl chloride, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic,
carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and heavy metals—all of which have a
negative impact upon the brain. Furthermore, nicotine may also affect areas of
the brain responsible for attention, learning, and memory.

In fact, long-term smoking has been associated with reductions in both

prospective and working memory. These types of memory are used for daily
tasks, such as taking note of an appointment or remembering to take medication
at a certain part of the day. It also has negative effects on executive function,
which helps individuals plan their tasks, pay attention to what they are currently
doing, and handle distractions.

Of course, smoking also has various health consequences, and you may very
well know of some, including asthma, cancer, and heart-related conditions.

In short: avoid smoking due to the pervasive effects it has on your brain’s
natural hormone flow.

48
 III.4

Don’t Drink Compulsively

Drinking is one of the most fun harmful habits you can engage in. Alcohol
consumption disinhibits you and provides you creativity and courage.

However, consuming too much alcohol may impair your energy levels and
drastically impact your cognitive abilities.

These are the overall impacts of alcohol on your body and mind:

1- Arouses the body at high levels

Most alcoholic drinks contain high amounts of sugar and a significant number
of calories, which provide an energy boost to the body.

Alcohol also raises the level of epinephrine, a stress hormone, which causes an
increase in your heart rate and generally stimulates the body, just like when you
are on full blast in your wakefulness state. This is among the reasons why you
feel “nighttime awakeness” for a few moments when you drink a glass of beer
or a shot of tequila.

Moreover, drinking also increases levels of neurotransmitters responsible for

arousing the body and thus excites you even more.

2 - Depletes your energy

The opposite is also true. Alcohol depletes your energy, which is the exact
opposite of the effect we just discussed.

Here’s why: as soon as the stomach absorbs alcohol and its components, it
disrupts water balance throughout your body.

49
This imbalance hinders the muscle cells’ production of adenosine triphosphate,
which usually provides the fuel needed for the muscles to contract. Reducing
its levels leads to lack of energy and loss of endurance.

Moreover, alcohol also dehydrates the body, which makes it difficult for fitness
enthusiasts to recover from workouts. If the body is dehydrated, there is a
greater risk of experiencing muscle cramps, pulls, and strains.

3 - Disrupts your sleep

Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns, alters moods, and makes you more susceptible
to sensitive feelings. It leaves you feeling very tired and irritable. Because of this,
it also affects your body’s sleep regulator or sleep homeostasis.

While alcohol usually makes one drowsy, it is the sleep you get hours or a day
after that is affected. These hours will tend to be a much lower quality sleep
than what you get if you aren’t drinking. Furthermore, alcohol also reduces the
amount of rapid eye movement, a major indicator of deep sleep, the kind of
sleep you need to cleanse your body.

4 - Triggers anxiety attacks

Another chief reason that you may succumb to drinking is to combat anxiety.
You may be tempted to pour a drink in the hope of coping with your emotions.
Initially, there’s some sort of instant relief. However, in the long term, things
get worse.

Instead of alleviating the stress, the long-term effects may exacerbate it, thus
increasing the chances of anxiety attacks and irritability.

Once the alcohol leaves the body, it does not stop there. It can cause anxiety
and panic attacks even in those who have not experienced them before.

5 - Affects memory

50
Alcohol impairs the proper functioning of the hippocampus, the part of the
brain responsible for forming memories. Once it is targeted, the way you
remember things changes and can even disappear.

Excessive drinking can permanently damage your memory.

6 - Pushes you to drink more

Alcohol also messes up with our brain’s reward system. Consuming too much
booze increases your body levels of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that is
responsible for sending signals of pleasure and reward, thereby creating that
urge to keep on drinking and drinking.

For all the aforementioned reasons, we discourage heavy and frequent drinking.

During the program, you will refrain from drinking at all to allow your brain to
adjust its natural processes.

51
 III.5

Don’t Do Drugs

People do drugs for a variety of reasons, most of which involve changing the
way they perceive things. These individuals yield to the chemical because they
either want to break from their own realities, they want to fit in, they want to
rebel from their families or from the society, they desire to escape, or they just
simply want to relieve boredom.

Like drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, taking drugs may be influenced
by peers and the environment where these individuals exist.

Some see drugs as solutions, but little do they know that these substances only
create massive problems, especially in their cognitive function.

Stimulants are a group of psychoactive drugs that increase alertness, awareness,

brain function, and mood. Thus, the term “uppers.”

Their rampant use may be correlated with how societies have made them legal,
even though there are communities that condemn their use. Here is a general
look at the effects of stimulants on your health:

Short-term effects

After the height of their experimentation, takers may experience apathy,

depression, and exhaustion. These effects likewise push a person to keep
looking for the drug, seeking the feeling that he or she first experienced, and it
can be unstoppable if not controlled.

52
Long-term effects

Basically, many of the long-term effects of these drugs are similar—increase in

dopamine levels to heighten energy, rapid heartbeat, increase in blood pressure,
and an increase in body temperature. Furthermore, they also alter brain
functions and structure, especially those that concern emotions and memory.

Some of the harder stimulants, like cocaine or methamphetamine, can bring out
erratic behavior, including violence, hallucinations, and paranoia.

Avoid stimulants like a plague if you want to cultivate a healthy self-regulated

mind, free of addictions.

53
 III.6

Don’t Indulge in Mindless Entertainment

Media has taken great strides to shape the way a person thinks, no matter the
format. Their effects are long-lasting and pervasive since television programs
and videogames have become part of our most cherished childhood memories
and experiences.

There are several reasons why these activities may numb your mind.

1 - The mind shifts to a hypnotic state

Sitting in front of the screen, watching your favorite TV show for several hours
shifts your mind to a state of sleep-like immersion into the material being
viewed. Associated with hypnotism, the effect is said to be caused by the
flickers, which lower a person’s brain waves into alpha state within just a few
seconds. This state is also achieved during sleep or meditation. It becomes
easier for the material to instruct or influence thinking and decision-making
processes.

2 - Causes a decrease in attention span

The TV habit can reduce higher brain activity and cause a decrease in a person’s
attention span. When you watch a TV show in one sitting, you are generally
immobile, and your body takes in less oxygen, thus negatively affecting mental
focus. Excessive viewing correlates with poorer health and lower energy levels.

3 - Lowers IQ levels

Since binge-watching is a passive activity where information is provided in its

final form, meaning the viewer is almost spoon-fed, it diminishes the need for
critical analysis. It reduces the ability to think and reason critically. The habit

54
switches brain activity from the left hemisphere—that which is responsible for
logic—to the more creative right side.

A variety of research has also inferred how TV negatively impacts the brain’s
frontopolar cortex, leading to a decreased verbal IQ. Moreover, other studies
have shown a relationship between excessive viewing and unsatisfactory
educational performance among children and teenagers.

4 - Distracts a person from prioritizing more important tasks

People tend to be too consistently connected with the television and the
programs being presented. They spend most of the day preoccupied with the
storylines of the shows they are watching, thereby reducing their time to do
more important tasks, which might include working on household chores or
doing their homework.

5 - Causes poor sleep

Poor sleep quality and developing insomnia also result from too much binge-
watching. Long hours of viewing stimulate the mind in the moment a person
switches on the TV.

For instance, tuning in in the evening stimulates brain activity and makes you
more alert, even if the body has started to prepare for the sleeping state. It fires
up the consciousness, making it more challenging for a person to get tucked in
and doze off. Binge-watching TV may also trigger bad dreams and
unexplainable nightmares.

6 - Evokes depression

Another major impact of the TV habit is the way it evokes longing and leads
the mind into a depressive state when an episode is done. It literally unleashes
the feeling of constantly looking for a certain character once the show is over
or missing one’s favorite scenes on screen.

In summary, the mind dries out from too much mindless entertainment.
55
Human emotions starve to death when person-to-person connection and
relations are exchanged for a trending TV show. If this happens continually, the
natural ability to feel with other human beings is overtaken by fixating our
attention on a non-living thing.

56
 III.7

Don’t Complain

Complaining is a terrible habit to cultivate, although it can be pleasurable.

There’s a feeling of fulfillment that some individuals get from complaining,
simply because it feels good right after. But is it right?

Generally speaking, a complainer is someone who does not take responsibility

for their actions. He or she is someone who always talks about the reasons they
failed instead of how they can succeed, moving forward, and doing it.

There are various ways complaining badly rewires your thinking:

 It damages certain areas of the brain that are critical to problem-solving.

 It worsens among people who share the same attitudes. Hanging out
with people who complain about everything influences one to mirror
their actions.
 It brings a person away from self-realization, devouring time that could
be spent on more worthwhile activities.
 It breaks good relationships, friendships, and memories. People tend to
shy away from a complainer, as complaints pierce through the core of
emotions, making the complainer feel stronger by diminishing others.

The science behind complaining

Throughout your brain, there is a collection of synapses separated by empty

space called the synaptic cleft. Whenever you have a thought, one synapse shoots
a chemical across the cleft to another synapse, thus building a bridge over which
an electric signal can travel, carrying along in its charge the information you're
thinking about.

57
Each time this charge is triggered, the brain rewires its own circuitry and makes
it easier for synapses to click together, thus making it easier day by day for the
thought to get triggered.

Through repetition of thought, you've brought the pair of synapses that

represent your [negative] proclivities closer and closer together, and when the
moment arises for you to form a thought, the thought that wins is the one that
has less distance to travel, the one that will create a bridge between synapses
fastest.

The main reasons people complain

 First, it happens because people need acknowledgement and they want

to get noticed.
 Second, they want to unburden themselves of a particular responsibility.
 Third, it’s an excuse for an unsatisfactory performance, whether at home,
in school, or at work.
 Fourth, it gives a sense of lifting the complainer above the people who
have allegedly wronged them.
 Fifth, life is not how they want it to be.

But here’s the catch. Life will continue to move at its own pace. The trick is not
to get swayed by life’s awful moments and rather keep on growing and moving
forward.

Repeated complaining rewires your brain to make future complaining easier and
more frequent. You might be unaware that you are seeking solace from being
negative rather than being positive. This is true regardless of your surroundings.
Complaining rewires the brain in the sense that it becomes your default
behavior, and as a consequence, people’s perceptions of and actions toward you
change.

The more you complain, the more certain areas of your brain get damaged. A
Stanford University research study once showed how the habit “shrinks the
hippocampus.” This area is critical to intelligent thought and finding solutions

58
to problems. The hippocampus is also one of the main brain areas affected by
Alzheimer’s disease.

Your social sphere creates a domino effect toward the habit to complain.
Human beings are inherently social, and the mind may naturally—and
unconsciously—mimic the actions, mannerisms, and moods of the people one
spends a great time with. It is part of the ability to empathize.

The habit of complaining can distance you from self-realization, because once
you start to grumble about something, chances are, the words that come out
are something you really do not want to hear.

No amount of complaining will solve your problems. Don’t do it.

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 III.8

Don’t Masturbate

To be clear: masturbation refers to the self-stimulation of the genitals to attain

sexual arousal up to the point of climax. It is usually done by massaging,
touching, or stroking the penis or clitoris until orgasm is achieved.

 It is a way to relieve sexual tension that can accumulate over time.

 It is mostly done by people whose partners are not available for sex or
those without partners.
 It is considered a safe alternative to avoid pregnancy or acquiring sexually
transmitted disease.
 It is also done medically to provide semen samples for infertility testing
or for sperm donation.

It’s been said that masturbation may help prevent prostate cancer by decreasing
toxins building up in the urogenital tract.

Sexual satisfaction

Orgasm releases stress from the body by flooding your system with endorphins,
which then trigger positive feelings and are also responsible for giving you
better sleep. Neurochemicals dopamine and oxytocin are also released,
activating the brain’s reward circuits.

The negative effect

Now that you know the basics about masturbation, it is time to get to know the
negative effects.

Masturbation and addiction to stimulation like pornography can cause a person

to literally destroy their body. Those who masturbate frequently often suffer

60
from poorer health, since energy is wasted through ejaculation once the
genitalia are prompted to release the fluid.

Chronic masturbation affects both brain and body chemistry because it can
trigger overproduction of sex hormones and neurotransmitters. When fluids
are released, it drains and robs you of valuable energy.

Thus it causes various health problems, which include feelings of tiredness and
lack of concentration.

It has also been argued that masturbation can lead to anxiety due to a person’s
inability to perform sex or because of the absence of a sexual partner. It is drawn
from the feelings of guilt, and several beliefs still have negative connotations
associated with the act.

Apart from chronic fatigue, other effects may include insomnia, possible
memory loss, inability to concentrate, premature ejaculation, and loss of sex
drive.

On keeping the energy flow

In the larger view, many medical practitioners will not dissuade you from
masturbating since it is part of human nature, in both men and women. But
since each of us is created unique and reacts differently to life situations, no one
can actually measure safety in a perfectly precise way. Science has its flaws, as it
is human to err.

There are guidelines that you can follow to counter the ill effects of
masturbation upon your energy.

If you are hesitant about the decision you are going to make, think about what
will happen should you fail to become aware of these notions. Acting at an early
phase is better than repairing damage once you find out things have gone badly.

61
Training yourself this way and practicing this alternative bring out your inner
creative side. It turns you powerful. It is one of the effective ways to finally let
go of your addiction to certain stimulators and, in time, mindless masturbation.

Avoiding mindless masturbation is just about using your sexual energy in the
most resourceful way: either with a partner, or channeled towards your purpose.

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63
IV. THE DOs
1. Sleep the Right Hours
2. Affirm Your Way to Success
3. Plan The Day in Advance
4. Time Your Tasks
5. Journaling
6. Meditations
7. Practice a New Skill
8. Productive Reading

64
 IV.1

Sleep the Right Hours

The single best productivity hack that exists is being well-rested. Nothing beats
it.

Problematically, it is also something that very few people learn how to master.
In this section, we will see the best way to understand how much sleep you
need, on average, in order to organize your life around that basic need.

We will be discussing monophasic sleep only. I personally don’t think

polyphasic sleep is sustainable nor desirable in the long term.

Everyone has a personal number of hours of sleep that suits him or her best.
Depending on your nature (genetics) and your nurture (culture, eating habits,
etc.), you may have different sleep needs that you need to accommodate within
your busy life.

Most people, though, haven’t found their sweet spot and go through life
profoundly sleep-deprived. In fact, sleep deprivation is a worldwide epidemic.

When you’re at a sleep deficit:

 Your brain's prefrontal cortex, the area that supports mental faculties
such as working memory and logical and practical ("means-ends")
reasoning, must work harder to conduct the high-level thinking
processes.
 The temporal lobe, the brain region involved in language processing,
doesn’t activate during verbal learning in sleep-deprived subjects.
 The brain secretes less of the growth hormones, responsible for building
and repairing existing tissues.

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  A whole array of body functions underperforms, resulting in higher
likelihood of developing an illness.

Not sleeping enough impairs your cognitive functioning severely.

One of the best performance hacks that you can develop is finding the exact
number of hours that you need to perform at an optimal level. This process
that takes roughly two weeks but renders benefits for a lifetime.

The process has four steps:

1- Choose a bedtime.

Select a typical bedtime that will give you enough time to sleep fully. Adults
normally need between six and ten hours of sleep per night, so go to bed at a
time that will let you sleep for ten hours.

It is important to choose a time that you will likely feel sleepy and would
normally go to bed. Whatever time you choose, stick with it, night after night.
If you choose to go to bed at 10:00 p.m., over the next week or two, you must
go to bed at that time every night.

Set an alarm clock for ten hours later, and sleep. Depending on the sleep debt
you carry, it may take several days to sleep less than those ten hours.

2- Sleep until you are no longer tired in the same conditions.

Let your body rest by sleeping until you are no longer tired. You may wake up
several times during the night, but if you can still get back to sleep, you should
try.

Rest as much as possible without an alarm clock. (The only alarm allowed is the
one we set up at the ten-hour limit). Enjoy!

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3- Monitor your sleep and its effects.

Create a sleep journal in which you jot down the context of each night’s sleep.

Were you alone in bed?

Did you have sex before sleeping or not?
Could you hear any environmental sounds before falling asleep?
How many times did you wake up, on average?
How did you perform during the following day? Pay especial attention to the
following cues:
 Focus and attention
 Short-term and long-term memory
 Stamina and strength at the gym

Jot down everything.

4- Find the average.

After paying off your sleep debt, your amount of sleep will gradually begin to
even out and approach an average. It could take a week or two before this
becomes clear under a specific set of conditions.

Most adults require seven to nine hours of sleep on average, while people older
than age 65 may need seven to eight hours. Once you have found your average,
organize your routine around it.

If you want to balance everything in the long run (health, wealth, and
relationships), you need to prioritize your sleep.

Pay yourself first by allowing the body to feel rested, and then organize
everything else around it. In fact, set an alarm clock for both the moment to go
to sleep and the moment to wake up the following morning.

Be unapologetic in protecting your sleep.

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 IV.2

Affirm Your Way to Success

As you must know by now, most of our thinking is done by the subconscious
mind. Up to 95% of all thought processes are carried out without the conscious
part of the mind knowing. As a matter of fact, the subconscious part of the
mind is working all day long on the back end, and from time to time, it shoots
a thought to the conscious mind. This is what we call “intuition.”

It turns out our brains are strict and straightforward about their language rules:
the only way for the conscious side to communicate with the subconscious side
is via repetition.

And the only way of positively programming the subconscious? Through the
repetition of positive affirmations.

What are positive affirmations, and how can they change a person’s
perspective? You’ve heard about them one way or another, as they are also very
popular on social media. They are statements that are spoken aloud and
repeated often to encourage, motivate, and uplift an individual. There is so
much more to affirmations than just words of positivity.

There are four key characteristics of a positive affirmation:

1 - Positive affirmations are always in the present tense.

Your brain responds to present tense statements as if they had already

happened. The subconscious feeds on self-perceived facts, not wishes or
desires. By speaking in present tense, you force it to consider your goal as a
reality and adjust its subconscious filters accordingly.

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2 - Positive affirmations are based on pre-assumed identity.

Your brain will incorporate the affirmation much faster if it weaves it around a
self-perceived identity instead of a self-perceived belief. Instead of saying “I
have a six-figures business,” try saying “I am a self-made businessman who right
now is generating six-figure income but next year will multiply that.”

Try to embody what you want to be true, instead of merely stating it. Statements
that contain words like “do” aren’t nearly as powerful as statements that contain
words like “be.”

3 - Positive affirmations include only positive words.

Your brain processes affirmations a whole lot easier if they contain only positive
words. Those that include words like can’t, don’t, or won’t are not statements that
you want to repeat. The brain does a lot of work to get past negative statements,
then transform them into positive ones. Thus, use affirmations that include can,
shall, or will.

4 - Positive affirmations are spoken as facts and truth.

Your brain identifies uncertainty in affirmations and will not respond it would
to repeating words or facts. The statements should be powerful, motivating,
and encouraging. Statements that contain words like could or might are not nearly
as impactful as statements the words am, must, or do.

Repetition is key. Positive affirmations are all about mastering a skill. For instance,
driving a car or riding bicycle. At the very beginning, it can be awkward, and
this is during the learning phase. But after you have figured it out, it happens
naturally.

Each time thoughts are repeated, the brain strengthens those connections, re-
building them every time an affirmation gets another mention. Then you’ll
master the skill.

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It will be easier for you to drive the car or ride the bicycle. If not, there’s likely
something else you’ve learned that comes completely naturally to you. Anything
you want can come naturally to you using positive affirmations that are
repeated.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, once said, “Words have a magical
power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer
knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway his audience and dictate
its decisions. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men's
actions.”

Positive affirmations are words that work because they can program a person’s
mind into believing the statement. This is because your brain does not know
the difference between reality and fantasy.

Keep in mind the following pointers to help you get started:

 Only positive words, and keep it in the present tense

 Should be timely & relevant
 Repeat frequently
 Empower the affirmation

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 IV.3

Plan the Day in Advance

An accomplished individual leaves as little as possible to chance and plans

everything ahead. Weekly and daily planning are the core tenets of long-term
productivity and personal fulfillment, stop overburdening your mental capacity
every day with choices that end up being suboptimal.

Setting aside about half an hour each week to plan ahead is not that much time,
but the return on investment is phenomenal. Planning provides control over
your future work and prevents wasting hundreds of hours per year just on
choosing a task to accomplish.

Planning can help you prioritize among several tasks at work in a way that
significantly increases your chances of accomplishing the essential stuff.

Planning ensures the alignment of day-to-day and sometimes trivial tasks along
with the long-term plans and goals that you need to accomplish.

Planning bridges the gap between your long-term strategy and the short-term
tactics that you need to implement every day. It also reduces the burden of
everyday logistics, which normally have little ROI.

The secret to weekly planning, though, is to be as consistent and comprehensive

as possible.

In a nutshell, there are five steps to this process. What you need: pen, paper,
and quiet space. Very simple. If you are tech-savvy, you need your device and
apps ready to support you in this new habit you are developing.

Get your pen and paper right now or open your chosen app on your mobile
device. Follow these steps and ride along.

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1 - Make a list.

Create a list of all the things that are in your head, doing this once daily or
weekly to save more time. It can be a list of to-do’s, your goals, your long-term
plans, or it could be as simple as a grocery list. What you will produce might be
a long list of things. (Duration: 1-2 minutes)

2 - Organize the list.

Group things according to the time needed to accomplish them. Make the list
on the night before you begin another day, or to provide ample time, the
spacing between doing the list and executing what’s on it could be a week or
even a month. Allot the annual planning to long-term goals. (Duration: 3-5
minutes)

3 - Determine open time slots.

You have a normal routine, daily tasks that become your duties—cooking
meals, driving to your office, etc. Then, you have open time slots. This is where
you’ll plan to do those tasks on the list you’ve created. (Duration: a few minutes)

4 - Schedule systematically.

Prioritize the items on your list. Which ones are urgent? Which ones are not
too important? Start scheduling the most significant tasks and to-do’s in a day
down to the least significant ones. Find time to be in the moment, and vary the
tasks. A heavy one then a light chore, repeat. (Duration: still within a few
minutes).

5 – Do.

Now that you know exactly what tasks are feasible and which ones can be done
soon, it’s time to execute your plans.

Be ruthless and unapologetic in the execution.

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 IV.4

Time Your Tasks

One of the best productivity hacks is to find a balance between work and rest
during the day in order to ensure maximum brain efficiency. When it comes to
productivity, the brain works like a muscle; it tires from repeated stress. Brains
also work better when we set deadlines, real or imaginary, and work to achieve
them under time constraints.

Do you need to work out maybe once each day?

Do you need to walk your pets outside your home?
Do you need to allot time to travel from work, considering road traffic?

Timing your tasks is one way to ensure that you can maximize every moment
of your day.

Rewind and you’ll see how this activity is very much connected to planning your
day in advance. You cannot be successful without learning the optimal way of
doing this.

Timing these tasks will make sure that you do as much as possible without
compromise, from the top priority to the least important ones.

Knowing your goals is key. The timing should revolve around tasks, projects,
and accomplishments that lead to generating income, looking for opportunities,
and growing your business. Then be sure to prioritize wisely.

Use categories like important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not
important, and not urgent and not important. (Search “Eishenhower Matrix.”)

Then eliminate distractions. Frequently checking your phone or browsing social

media need to stop. There is a good benefit to blocking off certain parts of the

73
day for answering messages from your mobile device or logging into your online
network.

Watch the time you are spending. Perhaps you have planned, listed down your
daily goals, and have set a time for each. Are you monitoring the time? There
are programs nowadays that will help you do so. It will be very helpful to see
where you were in the previous days and see where you are headed.

Some techniques:

1 – Time-blocking

Prepare a calendar, for instance on Google Calendar, and in each column that
pertains to a particular day, indicate the tasks according to the hour that appears
on the side. There are two categories involved here—proactive time blocks and
reactive time blocks.

Proactive time blocks are those boxes on the calendar that indicate important
and urgent tasks that must be completed. These include project management,
drafting documents, or sketching out products for your business. Meanwhile,
reactive time blocks are those that indicate interruptions or breaks. These
include responding to emails and attending impromptu meetings.

To illustrate, blocking your time within a day, perhaps one to two hours of not
looking at your phone or not checking even once on your social media is one
way to utilize proactive time blocks to accomplish more important tasks.

2 - Most important tasks list

From the list of every task you have in mind, as stated in “Planning the day in
advance,” extract only one to three tasks that you will categorize as urgent and
important. The idea is focusing on the essential.

Remember, it is not that you do not perform the other tasks on your long list.
It only means finishing the most important tasks on the list before heading to
the others.
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3 - Pomodoro method

The technique lets a person finish as many tasks as feasible within a day, plus
moments of rest and recollection. It works in easy steps: choose a task, set your
timer for 25 minutes, do the task until the timer ends, take a five-minute break,
repeat. For each of four sets in a series, take a longer break, maybe around 15-
20 minutes, then continue again.

4 - 90-minute focus periods

This one is another way to time your tasks without becoming unproductive.
Science believes that the human body works in patterns, wherein it is energized
in one moment and exhausted in another. Instead of mulling over this reality,
reprogram your mind to go with this flow and work alongside this rhythm.

Specify a 90-minute period and take full advantage of this time to do some
projects.

Once the 90 minutes have elapsed, take a 20- to 30-minute break and get back
on track.

You will see for yourself the big change if you segment your time in this way.
Calibrate, troubleshoot, and open yourself for adjustments every once in a
while. You may use just one of these methods for a long term, then shift to
another. Explore each of these and determine which one works best for you.

Each person is different. Sometimes, a combination of two or three of these

techniques is the perfect mix for one person, and different for another. There
is no way you can miss out on tasks that you ought to do in a day, in a week or
in a span of a month if you are dedicated to timing your tasks. You will be able
to complete each piece of the pie—productivity, results, and time for yourself.

Time should not consume you and stay in control. Treat it as your ally.

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 IV.5

Meditation

Meditation is one of the healthiest practices you can engage in. It soothes the
mind, sharpens your focus, help regulate some body processes, and provides
mental clarity.

Meditation provides immense benefits to our minds, as hundreds of studies

have already shown. In fact, there is no other habit that can supercharge your
mind like a daily meditation practice can.

Engaging in a regular meditation practice:

Increases your focus

Builds your willpower
Quiets your mind
Tunes out distractions
Increases self-awareness

Another benefit is that consistent meditation makes you more energized and
refreshed in the long run, ensuring you don’t fall prey to the fatigue that
inevitable builds up during the week. Another side benefit is learning to let go
of non-essential activities that prevent you from taking your time and doing
your best on the important things.

Finally, meditation promotes a sense of peace and well-being, which in turn

increases motivation and productivity with everyday tasks.

Stages of meditation

There are various stages involved with meditation. The very first stage is known

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as self-regulation, and it occurs as soon as you go deep down to alter the
functions inside the body, mind, and emotions. Breathing awareness is
important.

Then the routine will transition into focus and self-awareness. It is ironic to
think about how it works, since it lets the person become fully conscious of
themselves while being unconscious. It is used to boost inner strength and
balance.

The last and final stage is known as self-exploration, and it involves connecting
deep awareness to raise consciousness. This stage then leads to self-mastery
which involves realizing from these thoughts and learning from them.

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 IV.6

Journaling

Journaling is another habit to develop if you want to live a productive and

meaningful life. Creating and keeping a journal means creating the context for
transforming your experiences and ideas into something more tangible and
transcendent.

The possibility of examining your life with perspective and writing down your
unfiltered thoughts on the passing show will provide a new level of mental
clarity that will inevitably propel you to new heights.

Journaling provides meaning to your actions and ensures they don’t deviate
from the purpose you should be chasing. It also creates a positive feedback
mechanism, as the frequent registration of ideas and insights clarifies and
purifies both, helping its analysis and retention.

Another hidden benefit from journaling is how it bridges the gap between the
subconscious and the conscious side of your mind. Engaging in a regular writing
practice reveals your most hidden desires and intertwines them with your
conscious mindset. Journaling can also help you to soothe your ego by
acknowledging the luck that is always involved in any successful endeavor.

Getting started

The point between planning and doing is a challenge for many. For it means
making it happen, making the ideas become actions. So how can one get started
with journaling? Here’s a guide, and it is more than just grabbing the pen and
opening the notepad. It involves your thoughts and experience.

1 - Add the activity to your day.

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Committing yourself to journaling means that it has to become part of the
schedule.

Most people do it before they sleep, recollecting what they did within the day,
their feelings, and jotting down random thoughts to express. However, experts
are unanimous in saying that it is also best to journal upon waking up in the
morning.

The morning opens the mind to a fresh new start, therefore the flow of ideas is
spontaneous, and creativity is at its peak. Will it drain your energy? Of course
not. Take a few minutes before you get up and reach for your notepads.

2 - Organize and make a template.

Journaling is more of a commitment than an obligation, it does not have to be

forced. To make things easier for you, set up a template that you can follow
daily or every other day. It provides a pattern and a sense of harmony over your
writing.

For example, write about three things you are grateful for each day, simple
things or huge ones. It could also be writing down answers to questions like
“What can I do to make tomorrow better?” or “What’s the most unforgettable
moment of the day?”

Don’t be afraid to write down your goals, short-term or long-term, lay out
activities you plan to do, things you want to change in yourself, places you want
to visit, or experiences that you want to try.

3 - Dig into what you feel.

Take advantage of that particular moment when you journal, alone, perhaps
with a cup of coffee or tea beside you, by your room’s window, and away from
all the distractions outside. Here’s one thing to remember: your journal is your
friend.

79
Dig into your true feelings. One good thing about keeping a journal is being
able to turn back time and revisit those moments through the words you have
written. As you do it presently, it is a great way to release inner tension. As you
read back to earlier pages, it is a perfect way to reflect upon each day.

4 - Feel free to doodle, write what you want—it’s your space.

There are no limits when it comes to journaling. Write what you want and in
the way you want it. The journal is a free space to let your thoughts and ideas
move. Once you are into it, there are no boundaries that prohibit you.

Today, everything can be beyond pen and paper. You can utilize applications
from your mobile devices, laptops or tablets that have already prepared the
space for you. Plus, these spaces are wider and more expansive, letting a person
do the activity as much as they want.

Let journaling:

 Offer you a better point of view

 Remind you of a life worth living
 Reveal things you did not know about yourself
 Listen to your stories
 Give you serenity

The neuroscience behind the benefits of journaling is straightforward: writing

down allows you to ingrain in your memory more efficiently the important stuff
you want to remember.

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 IV.7

Practice a New Skill

Creating the habit of learning new skills is one of the easiest ways of leveraging
the power of neuroplasticity and expanding your possibilities.

Since new skills build on previous brain foundations, they complement and
expand the possibilities of the existing ones and therefore exponentially
multiply their possibilities. By engaging regularly in this new practice, you can
transform your brain into a powerhouse, especially if you develop different
parts of the brain at once.

Some examples of skills to learn that use different parts of the brain are:

 Logic, e.g. programming, coding, etc. (left hemisphere)

 Creativity, e.g. art, design, movies, etc. (right hemisphere)
 Languages (both hemispheres)

The idea is to hone a well-rounded mind. Prodigies and polymaths like Aristotle,
Leonardo Da Vinci, William Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, Elon Musk, and
others have mastered the art of practicing various skills. The majority of
individuals are dominant either on the left or the right side of their brains, but
some have been able to enhance their skills in both hemispheres.

Learning new skills is among the most effective ways to make yourself better,
happier and more likeable. Some say it is easy, some say it is not. Whichever
your position is, it is always possible to perfect this. It takes commitment and
dedication.

There is a science behind acquiring new frontiers for your mind.

First, you must realize that the human brain remains a mysterious organ. It is
vast, complex, and at many times, unpredictable. However, it is like a large cup
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that can hold limitless information, knowledge, and skills. It is welcoming to
new ideas and far more powerful than the fastest computers or mobile devices
around.

Take the opportunity to learn new skills while you are young. Be prepared to
uncover territories that you have not touched before and now present
themselves to you. You don’t want to regret not making this move as you get
older. Here are some pointers:

1 - Find meaning in it.

Do it because you want it, more than simply to unlock an achievement. Don’t
try it just because everybody is doing it. It is important that you find yourself
attached to learning these skills. It will be more worthwhile if there’s a meaning
to each milestone as you learn.

2 - Learn by taking action.

The secret to practicing a new skill is to translate it to action. It is important to

jot down notes, but it is more important to put those notes into action.

For example, you are trying to learn how to sell online. You have read all those
materials that tell about it, watched the tutorial videos, and mastered the theory.
These do not mean that you are done.

The true test arrives at the moment you start putting up your own products,
getting sales, and making money.

3 - Conquer weaknesses.

The big blunder to successfully learning a new craft is by not being naturally
inclined to it. It comes at opposing poles most of the time. A person good with
logic and mathematics may be poor in the arts, or vice-versa. Should this stop
you? No.

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Conquer these weaknesses by becoming brave enough to infiltrate these
frontiers and then dominate them. Even if you find one field as part of your
weakness, do your best to open those books and read what’s inside. Then follow
the other tips from this chapter. Practicing new skills won’t be completed
without passing through these weak spots.

4 - Challenge and test the learnings.

Another great piece of advice to succeed in this venture is to challenge yourself.

Put it to the test. This is effective in helping gauge what you have learned so far
and also boosts the capacity of the brain to store more information.

It may be as simple as scanning and skimming your notes before closing your
notepad and applying these learnings in your life. A study done by Elevate
Education found that students not only re-read notes before quizzes, but they
also spend much of the time taking practice exams before the real one.

The idea behind testing yourself goes deep down to expanding your mind for
recall. You may also find a mentor to guide you here.

5 - Treat yourself.

Doing is one thing and being consistently effective is another. You have taken
tests, you have applied what you learned, found meaning, and faced your
weakest links. The most exciting part is all about rewarding yourself.
(Remember the part on the Pleasure Principle).

By simply looking forward to an exciting moment or experience—a movie

night, a party with friends, or a date with your spouse—motivation goes up. It
is all about orienting yourself toward the goal.

There is no such thing as being unable to master a specific skill.

You can learn anything in life, provided you find it useful and you are consistent
about practicing it.

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 IV.8

Productive Reading

Reading is paramount for achieving success in life. There’s no way around it.
The brightest and most accomplished individuals are compulsive readers about
the topics that help them the most. Don’t let people tell you otherwise:
compound learning, as compound interest, will catapult you to new heights if
you practice it.

There’s a caveat, though. You need to carefully curate what you read and how
you read it to ensure maximum efficiency. As a general rule, productive reading
implies knowing how to make insightful choices about books and mastering the
necessary skills to read thoroughly and retain as much as possible.

The best way to advance your career are non-fiction books related to your area
of interest.

The best technique to ensure maximum retention is the following:

1- Read the table of contents.

2- Read slowly through each chapter (speed reading is bullshit).
3- At the end of each chapter, make a mental summary.
4- At the end of the book, write a personal summary.

To get you started, here are some steps to help you succeed.

1 - First, set aside social media or use it right.

The archenemy of reading is indulging yourself in social media, scrolling

through feeds, capturing photos to post, etc. Set aside these applications for a
while and make the switch to finding interesting reading material. You can begin

84
with the items you see online. Read about people. Take this to a whole new
level gradually until you turn toward novels, great literature, history, and more.

2 - Find good material.

The next step is about deciding what to read. Thousands of books, magazines,
research studies, and other forms of publications are released annually. Take
advantage of such bountiful choices to seek something to read that will expand
your abilities and leverage on your current knowledge. It is better if it falls under
your personal interests.

3 - Manage and curate.

Now that you have a list of materials for productive reading, curate them.
Another enemy of this activity is time spent on other things, like chores and
errands. It snatches precious moments that you could have spent reading
productively. What should you do? Find balance and take advantage of concise
information. Like articles.

There are two categories involved: reading for information and reading for
understanding. It is perfectly fine to accomplish this feat through short articles
that can increase your “store of information.” On the other hand, reading for
understanding consists of communicating with the mind of the author. To
summarize, the first is about objectivity, the latter is about understanding
perspectives.

4 - Share the good news and views.

Productive reading translates to four levels of understanding: elementary,

investigative, analytical, and synoptic. From basic awareness of the material to
the ability to summarize it to others is what these levels are all about.

The final crucial step is to share what you have learned with others. Show your
love and show that you care by re-telling the good news to them. Inspire them
to duplicate what you have just done, and you’ll never know where this will take
them.
85
True enough, the gift of productive reading is something that lasts for a long
time. Its concepts and all the techniques behind it deserve to be shared with the
most important people in your life.

The above steps, over time, will compound into wisdom.

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87
Epilogue

Congratulations for finishing the core part of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM.

By now you must have a thorough understanding of how your brain works in
regard to discipline, habits and motivation. You must therefore be able to create
an environment that suits your needs and propels you to new heights.

A bulletproof belief system, based on 8 fundamental beliefs, has now be

instilled in you to help you overcome the obstacles and roadblocks of your life.

Finally, you now have learned how to get rid of up to 8 negative habits that
were dragging you down and picked up 8 positive habits that will help you
achieve that new identity that you have been looking for a long time.

You now have everything you need to start making an impact in the world and
build a legacy to be proud of. No excuses.

You now have the keys to your future success.

You now have become a new, improved version of you.

You now have risen from the ashes.

You now have become… A PHOENIX.

Go fly high.

88
89
 Published by Eudaimons Media

Copyright © 2019 by Eudaimons Media

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any
manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of
quotations in a book review.

First Edition January 2019

90
 Sold to
mr.hauteur@gmail.com

Make a copy of every sheet into your personal Drive folder. Use an X to fill out each cell.
Feel free to adapt them to your needs.
 Sold to
mr.hauteur@gmail.com
FOREWORD
HOW TO USE TH E PHOEN IX PROGRAM

Welcome to the program that will change your life.

I can assure you that if you follow this 8-week program religiously you will finally
experience the radical transformation you have been seeking for so long.
This workbook includes a worksheet for every day of the program. 3ust print it full
and start jotting down your performance for every day of the program.
The structure of the program is based on the latest neuroscience discoveries,
although this may not be obvious at first sight. This is the reason, for example,
that there’s a gradual approach to habit incorporation but a radical one to habit
elimination. Science has shown that this is the most effective way to achieve
long-lasting behavioral change.
I strongly recommend that you upload your results to the digital worksheet that I
shared with you already. That is the document that we will be using for our
mentoring, if you chose to do it.
If you still want to access our personal mentoring program, shoot me an email to
leon@selfmasterykey.com and we’ll sort out the details (only if there are slots
available).
Good Iuck with TH E PHOEN IX PROGRAM,

Brave on Eudaimons,

Leon
PART I
WEEKS 1-2

The first two-week part of TH E PHOENIX PROGRAM is devoted to breaking the

cycle of addictions, bad habits and poisonous beliefs that you may have been
harboring for quite some time.
Your main focus at this stage will be to reset your body cycles through an
improved sleep quality sleep and a heavy subconscious reprogramming that will
prospectively underpin the new identity that you are willing to build.
This part of the program is the most difficult. Your body will take some time to
adapt to the new habits you are trying to build. Don’t worry, stay the course. Try
to be as creative as possible to refrain from all of the vices that you have been
cultivating for years.
The positive aspect of dropping social media & mind-numbing entertainment will
be the amount of hours you’ll sleep as a result, which will enable you to attain
your main objective during these first two weeks: finding your sleep sweetspot.
Proceed to Part II ONLY when you have completed the full Part 1 challenge. Don’t
try to incorporate new habits without getting rid of the old ones, don’t rush this
process.
Your minimum total score to be attained in this part is 226 (out of a total of 252).
Don’t proceed to the next part of the program is your total score is below 226.
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
SELF-ASSESSMENT
What has been the most challenging thing to achieve in this first part
of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM?

What has been the easiest challenge to complete in the last two-week
period?

What is the daily average score you’ve had in the last two weeks and why?

What can you improve to make things easier for you in the next part of
the program?
PART 2
WEEKS 3-4

After two weeks of severe reprogramming of body and mind processes, the
negative inertia you carried with you historically should be mitigated by now. You
should have got rid of most of your historical bad habits and beliefs that were
holding you down.
At this point there are several key things to be expected: more mental clarity,
better sleep and better focus capacities.
In PART 2 of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM your goal is to sharpen the rational side of
the mind.
You will pick up two very important habits for your future success: planning your
tasks ahead and timing your work. No matter how trivial your activities may be, it
is paramount that you start planning and scheduling every minute of your day.
Divide your day in manageable chunks and monitor everything you do. Look for
inefficiencies and unnecessary time easters. Be ruthless in your approach to time
management: cut anything that robs your valuable time.
Your minimum total score to be attained in this part of the program is 252 (out of
a total of 280).
Don’t proceed to the next part of the program is your total score is below 252.
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO

YES NO
SELF-ASSESSMENT
What has been the most challenging thing to achieve in this second
part of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM?

What has been the easiest challenge to complete in the last two-week
period?

What is the daily average score you’ve had in the last two weeks and why?

What can you improve to make things easier for you in the next part of
the program?
PART 3
WEEKS 5-6

After a month of rewiring your brain through a new belief system and
incorporating 4 new positive habits, you should feel more energized and focused
than ever. Your body processes should be working at cruise speed and your mind
should be taking less efforts in performing average tasks.

After reprogramming your subconscious in Part 1 and fostering your prefrontal

cortex’ processes in Part 2, you will now be underpinning both sides of the mind
(conscious and subconscious) during Part 3 of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM.
The killers app to do this are two very simple habits that can be done everywhere
and are virtually free: Meditation & Journaling.
These two habits can be done throughout the day, although I recommend you to
do them together during the first or final moments of the day. They will work
better this way.
Your minimum total score to be attained in this part of the program is 277 (out of
a total of 308).
Don’t proceed to the next part of the program if your total score is below 277.
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YE N YES
S O N
O
YE N
S O

YE N
S O
SELF-ASSESSMENT
What has been the most challenging thing to achieve in this third part
of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM?

What has been the easiest challenge to complete in the last two-week
period?

What is the daily average score you’ve had in the last two weeks and why?

What can you improve to make things easier for you in the next part of
the program?
PART 4
WEEKS 7-8

You’re almost there!

By now, at least 6 weeks from the moment you started, you should have stopped
all your bad habits and created new positive ones aimed at rewiring your brain for
good.
You should have noticed by now how your identity has changed: you no longer
have brain fog, no longer engage in fruitless political debates and no longer
spend time with the wrong people. You have mended your ways and are ready to
do the final push towards A BETTER YOU.

At this last stage you will be focused on building new frontiers for your new
identity.
The two habits to pick up here are undeniably the ones that will become the
foundations of a new life of wealth, success and meaning: reading and learning a
new skill.
Your minimum total score to fully qualify for completion of THE PHOENIX
PROGRAM is 302 (out of a total of 336).
If you’ve achieved more than 302, then... YOU DID IT.

Welcome to A NEW YOU

Shoot me an email to Leon.daimon@smaiI.com and share with me your
triumph. Please do. I really want to know about it.
Brave on Eudaimons!
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO
WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

YES NO YES NO

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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WAKE UP TIME: EXERCISE INTENSITY (NONE –> HIGH): DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING?:
QUALITY OF SLEEP (1-10): DID YOU HAVE SEX?: DID YOU EXPERIENCE FLOW?:

SLEEP TIME: GENERAL ENERGY LEVEL (1-10): GENERAL QUALITY OF WORK :

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SELF-ASSESSMENT
What has been the most challenging thing to achieve in this final part
of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM?

What has been the easiest challenge to complete in the last two-week
period?

What is the daily average score you’ve had in the last two weeks and why?

Final comments on THE PHOENIX PROGRAM

EPILOGUE
FINAL WORDS

Congratulations, Eudaimon.
You’ve made it!
I really want to know how do you feel now.

Please, please, please... shoot me an email telling me how it went.

I will be happy to answer any doubts, recommendations, questions etc, that you
may have. 3ust write me to leon@selfmasterykey.com
Welcome to your new identity,
You should be proud of yourself.
Brave on Eudaimon,

Leon