Week 3 -This Should Be Easy

When I first started The Master Key Experience, I had to watch three introductory videos.  Those videos told me that there would be some daily mental exercises that I needed to do to qualify for and maintain the pay-it-forward scholarship.  This should be easy.

The requirements of the class are as follows: 

• 90-minute webcast for 6 months on Sundays. 90% attendance required.  
• Reading for 15-25 minutes every day. 
• Daily thinking 15 minutes.  Absolutely still.  Think about what Haanel is suggesting.
• Written Assignments.
• Harmony – not merrily cooperation, but harmony. 
• Daily means 7 days a week. 
• One blog entry a week that journals your journey.
• Feedback surveys filled out on time.
• A Personality profile.

It should be easy, right?  Well, I have come to see that it is not so easy.  Some days I have a hard time doing my reading after lunch, but I have always managed to get it in by the end of the day.  The place I have had the hardest time is with the daily thinking for 15 minutes, aka the “sit.”

I know 15 minutes is a long time, but I have done other things where I was absolutely still.  Things like meditation and Bikram Yoga.  I practiced Bikram Yoga six days a week for 90-minutes a day.  We were in a hot, 105 degrees hot, room.  Sweat would be running down my entire body and we would have to be perfectly still for the length of the pose.  We would get two breaks to wipe the sweat and drink water. I became quite good at being still during and between the poses until break time when we could move around. 

This Should Be Easy

I thought I would be able to practice the sit for a couple of weeks and then be good at it.  That is what happened to me in the yoga class so it should be easy. Only difference was that each pose in the yoga class was 1 & ½ minutes before we went out of it and then right back into it for an additional ½ minute.  So, I was not still except for about a 1 & ¼ minutes at a time, 1 & ¼ minutes after I spent ¼ minute getting into the pose. 

Since I got a late start on the Master Key Experience, I have only been doing the daily exercises for about two weeks.  It seems that the “sit” has gotten harder, not easier.  The first week we were told to sit perfectly still and just think.  The Master Key said to do it for four or five days and then move on and that is what I did since I was behind.  The next six days I sat still and tried clear my mind as directed in Lesson 2 of the Master Key. 

Well, that wasn’t happening.  My mind went wild.  It started screaming and demanding to be heard. Then it would jump to a new subject.  I swear, it was like having a lot of puppies in a box that keep jumping out and my only job is to keep them in the box.  That should be easy too, but it’s not. I keep having to reign my mind in like keeping the puppies in the box.

Needless to say, I have not been very good with keeping the puppies in the box much less keeping my mind quiet.  Hopefully over time with practice my mind will grow up like the puppies and learn to be still and quiet.

Read more about my journey in The Master Key Experience here.

Get on the waiting list for the next session of The Master Key Experience here. To receive a free copy of The Seven Day Mental Diet, complete the form above.