This is part one of a two-part series.
The Greek poet Virgil said, “Fortune favors the bold.” I first discovered this truism as an older teenager, and it has served me well through the years.
As a high school student, I wanted to be involved in student government. Each year I ran for class office, but each time I took the more timid route and ran for one of the lesser offices, never class president. I ran for VP, or treasurer, or secretary, and I was never elected. My last chance came at the end of eleventh grade as a rising senior. This time I threw caution to the wind and ran for the biggest prize: Student Council President. And I won. It was a game changer for me.
Overnight, I became one of the most popular kids in school. The office came with tons of responsibilities, all of which served to build my confidence. I started asking some of the prettiest girls on dates. Many of them said, “No,” but I was proud of myself for even asking — something I would’ve never done just a year earlier. The important factor was recognizing that being bold was what opened the doors of opportunity for me. I was determined to keep being bold, and as a result, more good things came my way.
Years later, when I became a motivational speaker, I encouraged people to be bold. I would ask, “How would your life be different if you were ten times bolder?”
As a speaker on creativity and innovation, I changed from encouraging people to be bold to taking risks. A willingness to take risks is a big part of innovation, and becoming comfortable with risk is a key characteristic of creative people.
I speak to elementary school students and encourage the kids to push their fear aside and stand up for themselves. To help them, I teach two techniques that enable them to peacefully de-escalate bully attacks.
Remarkably, I never equated “being bold,” “taking risks,” and “standing up for yourself” as being aspects of courage. I didn’t learn how important courage is until just a few years ago when I started studying states of consciousness. My interest in states of consciousness came when I realized from personal experience that they can affect our health.
Your State of Consciousness Is How You Feel About Yourself and Your Outlook on the World
I’d heard many times that if I raised my state of consciousness, I would be more successful. But I didn’t really understand the concept.
It wasn’t until I went through the grief of a heartbreak that I recognized it. My state of consciousness was so low that I got sick, then sicker, and finally sickest: landing me in the hospital. I’m normally a healthy person, but after I went through three successive yet separate and different illnesses that were each worse than the last, I fully understood it was my low state of consciousness that was making me sick.
I was finally beginning to understand it, but still… I had no clue how to raise my state of consciousness.
It would be another three years until I would begin to learn that. A friend recommended a book to me titled Power Vs. Force by psychiatrist David Hawkins, MD, PhD. The book provided me with a scale of the various levels of states of consciousness. Those are from lowest to highest as follows: shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment.
Each level up to pride are negative states of consciousness. The first level that is a positive state of consciousness is courage.
Here’s How I Went Through Several Levels in One Year
I was severely bullied as a kid in elementary school in first through third grade. I was bullied by older boys. I was bullied by the kids at school because I was bullied — abused if you will — by my parents. My mother was a narcissistic perfectionist who was obsessed with appearances; my father was her enforcer. I was beaten, shamed, and criticized frequently.
My sense of self-esteem, and state of consciousness, were so low I walked around with my head down and my shoulders hunched over, which is a survival posture people use be invisible and symbolically protect their heart…
…to be continued in part two.