Firstly before I begin this special review, I would like to outline the main cause for this topic to come up and what specific reason I have for writing an entire article about it. Other than having locked myself in such awesomeness, there really is a great deal to share about the little notebook (I’m actually up to my SECOND now) that I carry around and write stuff in. The main reason though, is that the next group meeting with Jay Mclean and the ‘Life Master’ group at Docklands has now been pushed to a monthly session and I would be inevitably missing this particular session about the sharing.
Since I will not be able to make it to that session, I figured I can still play a part by featuring this special report – to both validate the significance of this exercise, but also share some personal experiences that I have encountered through them so that anybody who is serious about taking in Jay’s material would understand it coming from an external party (such as myself). Hopefully this would also be featured in some way during that session or for future reference.
The first half of this report would mainly introduce the main concept of the manual and its content and then the second half would be mainly sharing the entire process so far and how it has been for me personally.
Anyway, firstly a lot of you may be wondering – what is exactly the ‘Conditioning Manual’? To answer this question straight up, it is basically a daily writing exercise for the purpose of mental conditioning. I know that sounds very simply put, but there is of course, much more to it than that. It really does become apparent as to why it is called the ‘conditioning’ manual because it is designed for exactly just that – ‘conditioning’ your mentality.
Now I have stressed heavily in some previous articles how important psychology and personal development are in terms of creating our own circumstances and there are a lot of you who have probably listened to me go on and on about how important mind-setting is. The ‘Life Master’ Conditioning Manual is basically a practical exercise to ‘stabilize’ or maintain all this mind-setting on a daily basis and to eventually gain clarity on the direction of your own lifestyle, legacy or whatever pathway you want to take.
Moving on, I would also like to bring up for those of you who have been exposed to any personal development stuff before – remember how we are always told to write things down, such as goals, tasks, etc.? The LCM is basically a more hardcore tactical precision high-quality gourmet version of this concept.
So now we have a rough idea on what the purpose of the LCM is and what it is mainly used for. I do not want to get into too much detail so I will just briefly explain what the writing task is for now. For those of you who want to learn it in greater depth, feel free to ask Jay or even myself. Since I consider myself quite an ideal specimen for the validation of this exercise, I am pretty confident in being able to describe or even teach this to others.
Anyway, the writing task consists of seven sections. Each section is designed with a specific purpose and task in mind and specific agendas one would need to focus on.
The first section is mainly to write down five tasks to accomplish for the day. It is obviously more meaningful to do this at the very beginning of your day. These five tasks are basically daily actionable tasks for you to complete – four of them specifically to achieve for your own benefit which can either be financial, personal or anything that will lead you to the long term goal (known as the ‘Life Vision’ according to the LM concept) and then one task specifically for the benefit of somebody else.
The second section is quite simply re-ordering the tasks written in section one in order of importance and numbering them. The second section also incorporates a slightly modified version of T.Harv Eker’s money management system, through the concept of multiple accounts designed to train our subconscious to have an ideal relationship with money. Again, feel free to ask me for more details on this.
The third section involved writing the daily agenda – the set intention for that day. I usually write the main focuses in this section and specifically what I want to achieve and what I am mainly intending to make happen in that particular day. This is often coupled with the LMMQ (‘Life Master’ Morning Questions – a series of questions to answer during the day time to give a clearer intention for the day). Affirmations such as the Attitudes of Wealth reading and the ‘Life Vision’ and Mission Statement are also looked back upon. The visual exercise for the VAKS is also done during this section as well. I will explain what the VAKS acronym is and its application also later on.
The fourth section then outlines the short term goals and achievements. This section always starts with the line “I am truly happy and grateful because…” and is aimed at getting the subconscious to focus on short term goals and achievements by writing them down clearly and specifically. The auditory exercise of the VAKS is ideally done in this section.
The fifth section is then the long-term goals and achievements. This section always starts with “I am already amazing because…” and is aimed at getting the subconscious to focus on future goals and achievements with more clarity. The more specific and clear it is, the better results will come later on. The kinesthetic and spiritual exercises of the VAKS are also done during this section ideally.
The last two sections are ideally done at the end of the day and would not really make sense if you do them first thing in the morning (unless you missed the previous day).
Section six is basically an assessment of yourself in relation to the five tasks you wrote in the first section. You assess yourself in regards to what was successful and what you learned in each task (even if you failed, you must look at it from the point of view that you learned something from it, and that in itself, its regarded as a success) from one to five. This is ideally coupled with the LMEQ (‘Life Master’ Evening Questions – a series of questions designed to appraise yourself at the end of an LCM day. Feel free to contact me if you would like copies of both the LMMQ and LMEQ, with Jay’s approval of course).
The seventh and final section is to simple give yourself a score out of five. The concept here is that each day of the LCM always has to be a 5/5 rating, regardless of what happened. It is then that you must describe what exactly made the day a 5/5 and no matter how simple or awkward it may be, you must find a reason to make it a 5/5 and summarize it.
So that was a rough summary of what the LCM writing task involves. Remember, this is done on a daily basis, from step one to seven. There you have it and now you have some kind of idea of what the LCM is before I start blabbering about how and why I began to undertake such an exercise and what its effects were.
Now I will begin to shed some light on some of the effects and the true nature of the LCM in this following section. This next part perhaps can also be used as findings to validate the LCM and hopefully can be used either in a presentation or as a testimonial, but for the general audience, I am simply about to outline what this task has allowed me to achieve internally and how you could also gain similar benefits by applying such principles into your own daily activities.
Anyway, so firstly I am positive that there are some of you that are wondering just why the heck I decided to do such writing tasks EVERY SINGLE DAY and why I have made such a commitment like this.
To be honest, I was pretty much thinking the same thing in the very beginning. WHY am I going to do this? WHY bother? When I was first introduced to the concept of the LCM and having to do this writing task every day – I’ll be open and honest with you, I seriously did not see the point of it and I really could not be bothered at all. Yes, I really did feel this way.
I have been taught to write and have been writing for pretty much all my life. I have been writing ever since primary school, writing and writing all the way until assignments up until the completion of my university course – I have been writing all the way. I’ve been writing all my life and look at me – I am still an idiot and a failure (actually that’s a lie, but my point was that my initial attitude was “As if more writing will make me more successful…” when approaching this LCM task).
I did however, make a commitment to the LM group and to Jay, via the ‘Key Commitments’ (again, which you can grab a copy of from Jay or myself) and some of these commitments were to play at 100% and stretch myself beyond my normal boundaries as well as keep an open mind. Most importantly, I made all these commitments to myself. I have many reasons for making these commitments, some are rather personal, but it should be apparent by now that I, along with a lot of you, am committed to achieving more money, happiness and unlocking the secrets of success that is already within the self (more LM concepts echo throughout this statement!).
Anyway so the first few days of the LCM that I started were very rushed and messy, to say the least. They were not filled with much content, very brief and just plain confusing. I did not really know what I was doing at all for about 10-15 days. But I had a commitment to keep so either way, I had to do it anyway. What I later on learned was that 80% of this whole process was just to be committed in the first place! And a powerful lesson that was. The fact was that it did not matter whether I got it right the first few times – the whole point was to stay committed no matter what. This was the first of the very powerful ‘conditionings’ that I learned from this exercise.
There were days when I really could not be bothered doing it – but I still did it. There were days when I was still stuck at work and had little time to do it – but I still managed to do it. There were even days when I was sick! Yet I still tried to find time to do it. Whether I was working as a manager trying to sort out orders from suppliers, attending to phone calls, paperwork, handling customers and staff, or whether I had several appointments booked throughout my days – I still managed to find time to squeeze the LCM tasks in between all of these. There were even times when I had to confine myself to a ‘toilet break’ for several minutes just to try and complete some sections I missed. No matter what, I made an absolute commitment to this exercise. Even when I had my job, man – as soon as I got to work (in fact, I’d purposely get to work earlier sometimes), I completed LCM tasks 1-5, away from any visual contact from anyone so as not to have anyone disturb me. Even right now, as I am on holiday overseas – I’m still doing the LCM tasks!
The important lesson here is that, once you bury all excuses and limitations, anything is possible so long as you stay 100% fully committed.
I did however eventually get the damn thing right. The first few weeks or so was just me simply getting used to the process and repeating the exercises over again on a daily basis. It took me a while but I did eventually get to the point where everything was almost automatic.
The first section, I will admit is definitely challenging at first and without a doubt, still challenging from time to time. The first four tasks can be a little tricky from time to time but definitely beneficial because you get to think of activities that will lead to either something money-related or a personal gain or benefit of some sort which automatically weeds out and omits other useless tasks. These can be very vague at first, from about Day 1 to about Day 15 to 20 or so, I was probably doing some pretty useless tasks that I thought were beneficial at the time and were also very unclear. This does eventually get clearer, more specific and more precise over time (for me, around Day 30-40ish). So those of you who try to attempt these exercises do not be too hard on yourself even if it gets difficult. It is even difficult for me now too, and especially because I am on holiday and still doing the LCM tasks trying to figure out what productive things I can do while I’m away
The other task, the one focused on others is as I’m willing to admit, the more challenging one. Although I am openly admitting that I am generally a selfish being as this section may imply but thinking of something productive for others may seem difficult at first, but it is definitely the one that exercises your creativity the most and can be one that may actually give you the most fun! No joke! Be creative! Improvise!
These tasks can be as petty or little as sending someone a birthday text, or can be as grand as providing a lift for someone or taking someone out to lunch/dinner or somewhere. As long as it makes a difference in another human being’s life, then this task is done. There were times when I’ve merely sent texts to another person asking about their life, there were also times when I sent cards, flowers, greetings, letters to certain friends I thought of at the time or even just a simple phone call to see what’s up. There were also times when I help deliver packages for someone, provide mentoring for a certain topic, lend a resource or contact, shouting a meal for someone, cheering someone up and even simply spend time with certain people in the direction of making some sort of difference in any individuals’ day.
The first part of the second section is pretty self-explanatory. Just number the tasks in order of importance. The second part though, is another dynamic and requires a certain level of commitment as well. The money management system was something I initially wrote down on paper, starting off with a conceptual one dollar, divided it up into the percentages within the system (again, ask me for more details) and eventually I actually integrated the system into my real income, starting the division from $100 dollars per day. To take this even further, I literally went to the bank and opened several accounts to reflect the money management system I wrote on paper (no fees of course).
This was another good commitment to keep as it always keeps you in perspective of your cash and where it’s going to. There were some challenges here as well, from a systems standpoint, in which I’d confuse certain spending with certain accounts. Again, just like the LCM process, this took a lot of getting used to. For example, although I do consider food as part of my NEC Account, spending the money at freakin’ Rockpool or Kobe Jones was not really what most would consider ‘necessary’ and could have probably been taken out of my PLAY account instead.
The third section is probably what I considered the largest portion of the writing task because it consisted of multiple affirmations such as the Attitudes of Wealth, LV/LM as well as the LMMQs. I actually used the format in which I do step 1-3 on one page, and then do LMMQs from 1-7 right at the back of the page. I basically wrote in this part my set intention for the day, and although I did find it hard to be in my centered time, I just had to keep improvising. I’ve had ‘centered times’ (Centered time – what we refer to as the time during our day when we can concentrate and focus on these tasks) in interesting places such as the toilet, offices, dinner tables, food courts, in my car, wherever and whenever I find time, that’s where I’ll do it.
Now the VAKS I mentioned earlier above is a set of physical exercises aimed at providing more affirmations to our subconscious with specific things we say. As you may have guessed, VAKS stands for VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC and SPIRITUAL. Now the VAKS is another one of those things that I firstly thought was ridiculous, silly and embarrassing. But like I said, I made several commitments. I committed to playing at 100% and committed to keeping an open mind as well as stretching beyond my comfort zone.
I did however, as part of the seven Key Commitments, committed to have FUN. So I did try to have a little bit of fun with it. There was a time when I slept over a friend’s place and as per usual, I’d do the LCM tasks as soon as I woke up before I did anything else. When I got up to the part when I had to do the VAKS, I just thought, ah what the heck. I went downstairs to hassle my friend who was sitting on the couch watching some program that was on which I tried to ridicule. As immature as I was, I just literally planted myself in between my friend and the television and started doing the VAKS exercises much to her annoyance and irritation. She constantly tried to get me to move out of the way, from verbal assault to pillows thrown, but my commitments could not be broken so easily!
Shortly after, another friend arrived and saw us and naturally she was confused about just what the heck was going on. Knowing her nature, she immediately jumped in and started doing the VAKS alongside me (without knowing what it was) and mimicking everything I was doing as a means to annoy my other friend to greater extent. This was getting good.
Before we knew it, the friend who was on the couch finally gave in and started to join us to do the VAKS. All three of us stood there looking silly in front of the TV set yet surprisingly had some fun (although at someone else’s expense). But like I said, be creative! Improvise!
The fourth section is what I would probably say is by far my favorite section out of the seven sections of the LCM for no particular reason other than it has probably had the most impact for me in many different ways. Mainly beginning with the line “I am truly happy and grateful because…” which on its own already re-established my focus and somewhat re-programmed my subconscious to be more receptive of better, more positive things during the day. This is what created more awareness for me and the opportunities around me to tune on which I had not originally noticed.
In fact, there were times when I’d feel like I’m going insane just being able to harness the kind of effects that this section emphasizes on your subconscious. I do not want to continue to blabber on too much about how this section teaches you the important lesson of counting your blessings, so I will try to keep it as brief as I can. This section is mainly themed on your short term goals and achievements as described previously. However, because it brings emphasis on what you are grateful for within this time frame, you constantly fill your consciousness with such a warm and fulfilling attitude. And if it does not come to you immediately, you just start being happy and grateful about anything and everything. Even the bad things that happen can be seen as blessings. They too are gifts because they are either meant to teach us important lessons or enable us to put something better in its place.
Now I’ve just rambled on about how this section gets you in check with the whole ‘positive thinking’ optimistic concept, but let me tell you about this section’s second feature which I have also come to realize. For all you personal development junkies out there, you were probably eager for me to mention something about the laws of attraction or something. Well I’d say this is something going along those lines. Because section four fills your mind (and eventually sinks into your subconscious level) with such thoughts, you obviously start to be come more receptive in order to ‘attract’ more of that good stuff.
Let me tell you what I mean about this in quite literal terms. Because I’ve ‘conditioned’ my mind to be more receptive, I have had something that I’ve been wishing for years finally happen to me. Actually that’s another lie. It kind of never happened. But a much better version of what I wanted actually happened and I was happy that my original intention did not come. Funny how stuff works. And to prove to you this was not just a coincidence (I too am a huge skeptic), there were other things that I have been wanting that I only just realized that I already had. I realized I already had a lot of the things that I wrote down. If I thought of something and wrote them down constantly, what I wanted or even just opportunities leading to what I wanted was detected by my internal ‘radar’.
All the ‘greatness’ was already internal. It was all inside all along and the LCM tunes your internal ‘radar’ to detect these things.
Okay, so I really do not feel like continuing all the wishy-washy sugar-coated optimistic personal development stuff – but I tell you that a lot of this stuff is definitely as real as you make it out to be. It is definitely real to me and has helped contribute to my psychology greatly. Thinking is just one side of the coin though, so let’s move on.
The fifth section is basically the more long term, as I’ve previously described above. At first, this section for me was very vague and unclear, which I believe is natural. A lot of us may say we already know what we want, but the level of clarity I am getting with the LCM is definitely beyond the simple “I just want to be rich” kind of knowing. In the beginning, from about Day 1 to about Day 20, I just focused on vague stuff like “I have left my job” or “I’m going to have a lot of money” until much later on, at around Day 30 onwards, things started to become a lot clearer. I was clear on how much money I have by what date, how I am going to do it, what companies I would be running by a certain age, what countries I would visit, how many books I’d have released, when they would be published and what kind of person I am within X amount of years, and so on.
Again, for those of you who are attempting this, do not stress too much if you are still unclear. It will come eventually as long as you just stay committed to the process every single freakin day. Some will take longer than others and some will be faster too. We’re all different.
Moving forward, the sixth and seventh step in the LCM is obviously done at night time or just before I go to bed. I will also admit though, I do not always end up completing all five tasks I set out for the day as there are often times where I miss a few things or other things come up spontaneously throughout the day and that’s natural.
The point of section six though is to work out the successes behind each of the five tasks in the first section and even if I missed some, I still have to write down WHY it is STILL a success. For example, I may not had time to write a document, or attend a seminar in one of my tasks but it was still a success because I was able to allocate that time to some more important task or being able to attend to someone else in need of immediate help. Again, be creative in this section. I think the point of this part is to keep training your subconscious again to be as receptive of success as in the previous sections.
The LMEQ then is what I do right after section six, which I flip to the back page (where I have done the LMMQ that morning) and complete them there. After that it is on to the seventh section, which is simply giving yourself a score out of five.
However, do you remember I mentioned above that you always have to give yourself 5/5? Again, same concept mentioned previously – be creative and justify why the day was a 5/5.
In summary, this whole LCM process has been a great learning experience so far and I still continue to do it daily. In fact, I’m up to Day 87 upon completing this article and I’ve already reached my second book (ran out of pages in the previous one) and keep plowing through. In fact, I had to dig around for a spare book to use and fussed about it a lot because I had to fulfill the commitment of completing the LCM every single day.
It has definitely contributed greatly to my mind-set and psyche. It keeps me in check with my focus and also pushes me to do certain tasks since if you keep missing your tasks but write them down every day anyway, you will eventually end up doing them. My attitude has also evolved and I am a lot more self confident now that I have gained a lot of clarity.
I would like to point out though to those who are expecting some sort of miracle cure or some get-rich-quick formula from this exercise are probably not going to find that sort of thing here. The biggest and only reason why the LCM works is because I MAKE IT work. It only works because I stayed committed and I pushed myself the first few times and put in 100% effort. The whole concept was just a tool or a guide to help you manifest what you already possess internally.
Let me say that again, it only works because I make it work.
It also gets us used to taking responsibility. If you do not fully commit to this task and ACTION these things yourself then the process of course will fail along with you. It is always easier to undertake a task and expect it to produce results with minimal effort and then blame the system if it does not work. No, people – this only works if you put the effort in. That in itself is already 80% of the work. The other 20% are the actual results you produce, which will come later on with patience.
If the process somehow fails, then it would be MY failure in not putting in the effort and not the system itself. I know this sounds very cliché, but it is cliché for a reason.
To this day, LCM 87, I will admit that I still have not found the totally ultimate and perfect clarity that the exercise aims for, but I am getting certain hints here and there as well as learning a lot of other major stuff along the way. It has given me a different perspective during my days and helped manage my thoughts and stabilize my focus. But I tell you what, I am getting closer.
I will keep doing this exercise until… well, forever perhaps, I don’t know for sure. Until something happens maybe – as you can see there is still a lot of vagueness I haven’t explored but I uncover a little piece every single day. I know I’ve spoken about a lot of personal development stuff here, but really, you cannot deny its significance. It is important to have behind all the other practical wealth creation strategies and up until now, it is something that definitely needs continuous learning and development. And we never stop learning. Otherwise, we might as well be dead.