Having introduced Deena Douglas' The Seven Steps Into The Mastermind Consciousness to my mastermind group, I confess to taking a step back from really using it to enhance the success of what we were all individually trying to achieve.
Number five of the Seven Steps which is about asking for what you want, states "Knowing that I am in conscious contact with Infinite Intelligence and my Master Mind partners, I now ask for, and accept help and guidance in the area of ...."
Why feel self conscious about saying this as a group? Well it got heard but no one else was showing any enthusiasm for a group response that required us to say " (name) I know that the Mastermind/Spirit hears your request and it is already yours".
Yes, OK I felt a little foolish even though many of the participants are very familiar with the idea of asking for what you want from a higher power. We are mostly familiar with the idea of manifestation, have seen films like The Secret or What the Bleep Do We Know, have mostly attempted in our own ways to connect with a higher spirit.
But you know what? Is it just me or does it feel ever so slightly cultish to respond as a group when each individual has expressed their goals? Maybe everyone else felt a little sheepish too about saying this out aloud.
Number six, which is about receiving, states "I lovingly and gratefully accept that the Master Mind supplies me with an abundance of all things necessary to fulfil my desire. I know that the miracle working power of the Master Mind has responded to my every need. I assume the feeling I would have if my requests were already fulfilled."
I guess this had me thinking that I was assuming all along that this source of power was outside myself. Some Higher Being. And that could be valid too. But I would also like to entertain the idea that there is power in the collective spirit when several minds are banded together to achieve some greater good than can be achieved by one person alone.
So I was quite interested to come across Mary Robinson Reynolds' own Seven Steps to the Mastermind Connection.
One of her steps states "I SURRENDER ordinary thinking. I recognize and accept that I desire to add to my own inherent power the sum and substance of the intelligence, experience, knowledge and spirituality of my MasterMind partners to provide amazing ideas and affirmative language to assist me in generating new results now."
Isn't that neat? Here I must acknowledge my own power and add to that the strength and resources I gain from others in my group as well as some other universal energy that moves amongst us. Indeed, may the Force be with you. And I will definitely share this again with my mastermind group.
My mastermind group has been in a process of change recently.
One member had simply drifted away and couldn't be contacted and the remaining male was uncomfortable both with what he felt he could bring to the group and about being the only male. This group has been going for about a year now and in many ways feels like its still working at finding itself. So I've been keen to look at how long does it takes for a mastermind group to feel established (how long is a piece of string?) and what elements determine the strength and success of the group.
What's needed for the success of this group?
Similar interests? - Well we are a 'money mastermind group' and while our focus was financial we were mostly on very different paths. It feels like it shouldn't matter as long as we could ask the right questions of each other, support, challenge, encourage and hold each other accountable for what we said we would do. Yet it's a bit of a divide when for example a solicitor and an engineer are trying to understand each other's world.
Similar levels of success? - That clearly is not the case for us as there are many different levels of financial aspirations and success amongst us. What is clear and understood by us however is that financial success is nothing without other aspects of our personal development being in alignment. And that is something of a level playing field.
A shared desire to achieve success? Its extraordinary how capable we are of saying one thing and meaning another! I mean, some of us may intend success at one level but find that we sabotage clearly our efforts. Its as though we are saying to the universe 'Yes I want success' while at the same time negating it in our thoughts and by our actions.
Fear of success can be an disempowering as fear of failure. And of course it sends out mixed messages to the universe. So I'd say a real desire to grow and to strive for your goals was fairly important then to the results people get from the mastermind group.
Awareness of others? Are members willing to really listen to others, make space for them, truely desire to put self aside for a while and go with the experiences that others bring? One member of our group struggled with not being able to bring in personal stories that detracted from the work and time belonging to another member of the group. Its a fine line from being supportive and sharing your expertise in a way that empowers the other person.
Well where that leaves us is that we are now looking for one or two new members to join this group. And what's going to work are people who able to support others, share their experience, talents and skills, have a vision of what they want to achieve and a willingness to strive for it, who will accept support and challenging from others in order to really fan the flames of their own success and who accept the general masterminding principles. It could work beautifully.
One of my mastermind group members has a problem disentangling himself from a personal relationship that is strangling his success. We've been using the experience of others in the group, especially those who've dealt with similar situations, to brainstorm ways he can move forward but he is fragile and depressed and can only respond to these with "yes, but..."
But before our meeting is ended, he picks up on a couple of the offered suggestions and says he will try. I hope he does more than try. And the group will be holding him accountable.
This is most certainly not a therapy group although it can be therapeutic. I notice that with each meeting as we get to know each other better, start to build a shared history, we become more trusting and aspects of our lives that are a bit more intimately challenging, we may disclose more readily knowing that all members of the group are committed to helping each other and to our success.
Together we can solve problems, gain insights and added motivation and achieve our goals quicker and more successfully than if we were trying to do it on our own.
We have a long way to go yet. Some people need to listen more and talk less, some to fully commit to attending meetings, some to ensure they both set their goals and keep to them, and all need to keep challenging each other to maintain the spirit and ethos of the mastermind group.
One of the vital essences of building a strong bond with each other though is that we have compatible interests. My group was arbitrarily formed from a course we did together as a group interested in creating greater financial success. Many mastermind groups are formed on the basis accelerating financial success.
However we assumed that meant we had similar visions and that isn't necessarily so. And what we acknowledged from the start was that financial success could not be entirely separated from taking a more holistic approach.
We are still coming to terms with being at different levels of our wealth creation journeys and with different needs. We have to work on that. And that will become more apparent as we work at creating stronger bonds with each other.
I went to a couple of introductory talks this weekend on property investment and both made the point about leveraging OPM - Other People's Money - to raise the finance for property investment. It led me to thinking about how through the medium of the mastermind group, we can also leverage OPR - Other People's Resources to develop our enterprises.
The idea of using other people can seem a little exploitative and unethical to some people. However consider this in the context of a group of people who mutually exist to help each other become success and are willing to commit their time, energy and available resources to doing so.
Then its much more a win-win situation for all concerned to exploit the collective talent, mindfulness, contacts and other resources available within the group. In this way the individuals within the group gain far more than they could just using their own resources.
Of course its been done since time immemorial in a number of different ways. Consider the Co-operatives, the Masons, Boys Own clubs, and so on to name but a very few. And then, there is the Mastermind Group.
In a financial sense, when you leverage OPM, you are borrowing someone else's money that you can invest in a way that you intend to bring a far higher rate of return than you could do from the cost of paying the interest.
Within the context of the mastermind group, its connecting with others who want to share their ideas and information to help you solve the problems of your business and to grow. So everybody gets to accomplish more with less energy than they would if they were trying to move that boulder all by themselves
There are some groups you wouldn't want to or couldn't become involved in but the mastermind group is within the capacity of everyone to share in. If we look at a classic often held-up model of success such as Henry Ford, we have here someone who exceeded his personal capacity from impoverished beginnings, to become one of the richest Americans of his time.
Here's the thing though, he achieved most outstandingly during the time when he formed a mastermind alliance with other like minded business acquaintances, enabling him to leverage the combined knowledge, experience, intelligence and resourcefulness of the group to grow his business. And for ordinary people like you and me, wanting to raise the levels of success in our lives, the same principles can apply.
To quote Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich
"No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third intangible force which may be likened to a third mind."
"A group of brains coordinated (or connected) in a spirit of harmony will provide more thought-energy than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries will provide more energy than a single battery."
There are of course lots of other ways to leverage Other People's Resources. The power of the Mastermind group is but one. However, almost all successful people use leverage and a good mastermind group can make that happen. There is simply not enough of our own time, energy and other resources to achieve the success we require in the time we need it. And success isn't about extracting every last ounce of your own energy and resources to get there, for that carries a huge personal cost which may not sustain your success.
Imagine this. You're excited about a new relationship you've recently embarked on. You can see the future in this relationship bringing you great fulfillment in many areas of your life. Its Valentine's Day (why not?) and you're arranged to meet and you turn up with great expectations. And your date doesn't show. No phone, no word. Nothing. Has this ever happened to you? Not a great feeling is it? Of course your mind goes into overdrive about what could have happened and what this could mean.
By now, you're probably wondering where this is leading. What does this have to do with my mastermind group? Imagine this then. Your mastermind group has arranged to meet and one or more members of the group don’t turn up and have left no forwarding message. Your mind goes into overdrive and....
OK, they're not quite the same kinds of relationships but you can see where this is going. The fact is that the success of the mastermind group so depends on the solid commitment of all its members to attend and to adhere to the basic principles that the group operates by.
It's a commitment to being there. It's a commitment for yourself and all that you can achieve, to raise your level of success. It's being committed to others and supporting and celebrating their success, as they would do for you. A commitment to listening to others, respect for self and others, being on time for meetings, challenging appropriately, asking for what you need, helping others grow and to accepting the help that others can give you.
I say this with the experience of having to challenge a couple of people in my mastermind group recently who have previously shown a pattern of just not showing or telling anyone about their absence. Now this isn’t easy but it has to be done to maintain the purpose and success of the group, that this behaviour is not allowed to continue unchecked.
These people have a lot to contribute and the rest of the group value these contributions and while I validate these, I think I do myself and the others a disservice if I don't challenge behaviour that has a negative impact on the energy of the group
The thing is, when they don't show, we speculate, as we would do if our date didn't show. We turn over several emotions and we try to figure the best way to deal with it. Or how not to! But I maintain that it is vital not to just let it go like an elephant in the room you are trying hard to ignore, but to be honest and open with them and with yourself. And that may mean making a hard decision at the end of the day to terminate their membership of the group if the behaviour continues.
Make no mistake. The combined and committed energy of the mastermind group makes for success for all when we can leverage that energy to create an enriching experience for all the members in that alliance. To our success and the success of our mastermind groups!
Well, its a week into the New Year and I wonder how we're all holding up with our resolutions if we made any? How long does it take before our best intentions for ourselves begin to totter and then to bite the dust or before we are able to punch the air in triumph with a real sense of having made it? The usual targets for our resolutions tend to be around taking better care of our bodies especially after the excess of the season, dealing with financial, career or business problems and a desire to be a 'better person' in some way (which by the way is not a terribly well formed goal).
We know that statistically the numbers of people able to maintain their resolves fade significantly with each passing day, often with very few getting beyond the end of the month.
Now, that doesn't mean resolutions are not worth making. People like to feel there's a chance for them to start afresh. Even if they have failed many times before. It fills them with hope and optimism. And even a month of dieting or exercising has got to be better than nothing. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. However in the long run, our level of satisfaction at our achievements will be higher, if we can maintain our resolve for longer. If you've said 'This is the year I'm going to do such and such' then just three weeks at it doesn't quite give you the same satisfying feeling.
Apparently there is a difference of approach between men and women, with women leaning more on their social circles to help keep their motivations going. They are much more inclined to tell someone about their intentions or buddy up and maybe to seek support from them to keep at it.
There is a lesson here that may well make all the difference between how far we succeed and not. Now I know there are some people who are proud spirited or self disciplined enough to be able to make a real success of their well laid out intentions all by themselves. Great. But this is not true for too many of us. We need help. And if you haven't got a friend or family member who can do the right sort of supporting, challenging and holding you accountable, then one of the ways this can be achieved is to get involved in a mastermind group.
Of course a mastermind group is not simply about new year's resolutions as such, more about helping you to achieve your goals whenever you set them. Those familiar with the mastermind principle, and they include some of the more successful people in all spheres of life, recognise it as a most valuable resource in their success. They can achieve more with the combined insights and experience of the group than they could alone.
The mastermind group consists of a small group of people who work together with each other to inspire, stretch, develop new opportunities and perspectives, and most importantly, to keep people focused and on track with what they say they will do.
Typically a group may meet once a month or even weekly with perhaps teleconferencing or telephoning or emailing between times. How would you like to have your own angel voice saying 'How are you doing with that goal you set last week? What would you find most helpful now to do? How realistic is that for you to achieve within that time?' And other questions designed to support and get you to think through you best way forward. Do you think you could have stuck through with goals for longer that you set yourself if you had this?
The mastermind group could be just 2 people but I would suggest for greater impact it should be more, but no more that 6-8. You may find these people from among your acquaintances, on courses or at conferences, from social or professional networks, or through advertising your desire to be in a group through a variety of forums. A word of caution though is to choose your group carefully. There is much trust at stake and you need to feel comfortable with the people you have chosen.
Alone or together with others, its up to your style. But as a matter of recommendation and acknowledging how mastermind groups have sky rocketed others' success, its a serious matter for consideration to start the year connected with a group of like-minded people who can give you the impetus to go up and much further than you could do alone. Can you imagine how good that would feel by the end of the year? Does it cost? You bet! It costs your time and your commitment and your energy, and you have to be prepared to give something of yourself to other people's development, as well as take from them for your own growth.
But quite simply,there is much to gain to make your outcomes a matter of greater triumph. Don't take my word for it. Try it out and then tell me what your experience has been. Here's to your success.
I had the rather pleasant experience recently of being lifted high into the air by the combined energy of four people using just 2 fingers each. This technique required the lifters to try to lift me, having failed to do so on the first occasion, after some mental preparation and creating a combined field of energy which they transmitted through me. My part was to think about being light to lift - and to enjoy the ride. How was this apparently impossible feat achieved? On their third attempt, I was so high in the air it was amazing.
It brought to mind the immense power and energy that can be contained in a mastermind group. After all, this is about harnessing the collective energy and brainpower of a group of individuals to create the lift that will provide each individual in the group with an additional opportunity to grow and develop themselves and their business.
"No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind."
- Napoleon Hill, Think And Grow Rich
Clearly one of the criteria for the development of such a group is to have the right mix of people and by that I mean people who can create synergy. The success of the mastermind group requires people who arecommitted, participative, open minded and positive. They also need to be focussed around their own goals and yet also able to give positive attention to the person whose circumstances are being discussed at the time.
I have been in a mastermind group where there appeared to be several individuals not able to give this quality of attention to others and nice people that they were, it nevertheless diffused the level of energy of the group. This meant that the individuals who wanted to develop their visions and focus within the group were left with an empty dissatisfied feeling.
It's a young group that is growing and there is some learning taking place but it is important in any mastermind group to establish a clear structure and focus, and also for people to be trusting and confident enough to challenge each other when one or more members go off at a tangent into their story when they needed to be giving quality attention to another individual. I suspect I could only have been lifted off the ground when my helpers were able to use their combined focus and energy to give their attention to me at that moment
I love the fact that we've got the group going. That is a success in itself. We have some learning to do as the masterminding concept is new to some of us. We have the capacity to leverage each other's collective brain power and to rise to new heights within it.
EvanCarmichael.com is the world's #1 website for small business motivation and strategies. Evan also runs a series of successful Mastermind Groups in Toronto for entrepreneurs.
Guest Contributor: Yvonne Mahoney
