This is part one of a two-part series.<\/p>\n
The Greek poet Virgil said, “Fortune favors the bold.” I first discovered this truism as an older teenager<\/a>, and it has served me well through the years.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. I started asking some of the prettiest girls on dates. Many of them said, \u201cNo,\u201d but I was proud of myself for even asking \u2014 something I would\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n Years later, when I became a motivational speaker, I encouraged people to be bold. I would ask, \u201cHow would your life be different if you were ten times bolder?\u201d<\/p>\n As a speaker on creativity<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n I speak to elementary school students and encourage the kids to push their fear<\/a> aside and stand up for themselves. To help them, I teach two techniques<\/a> that enable them to peacefully de-escalate bully<\/a> attacks.<\/p>\n Remarkably, I never equated \u201cbeing bold,\u201d \u201ctaking risks,\u201d and \u201cstanding up for yourself\u201d 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. <\/p>\n Your State of Consciousness Is How You Feel About Yourself and Your Outlook on the World<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n It wasn’t until I went through the grief<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n I was finally beginning to understand it, but still… I had no clue how to raise my state of consciousness.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, guilt<\/a>, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger<\/a>, pride, courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment.<\/p>\n Each level up to pride are negative states of consciousness. The first level that is a positive state of consciousness is courage.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s How I Went Through Several Levels in One Year<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 abused if you will \u2014 by my parents. My mother was a narcissistic<\/a> perfectionist<\/a> who was obsessed with appearances; my father was her enforcer. I was beaten, shamed, and criticized frequently.<\/p>\n