That which does not kill you makes you stronger - Friedrich Nietzsche
I’ve mentioned before that I was a bullied boy, and I was also terrified of the dark.
I can recall my fear of larger, more powerful kids who took special care to terrorize me throughout my days in public school. I remember the sense of dread in the mornings, pulling on my clothes slowly, knowing I was walking into another day of torment.
I can recall it vividly, but I can’t feel that fear at all anymore. It has completely vanished.
I guess I drew their bellicose attention by simply being very small for my age. Although my dad was six feet tall, my mom was a foot shorter, and I was a late developer, only hitting four feet six inches by Grade 8.
I was also anemic, and our family doctor tried to help me with prescriptions for iron tonic and anabolic steroids, back before their usage was regulated and recognized as extremely dangerous. None of it made much difference at the time.
I didn’t reach my current height of five feet nine inches for several years. And in the meantime the bullying continued relentlessly all through my time at Earl Beatty Public School, worsened by a particularly nasty teacher who had it in for me.
Eventually I was yanked out of his class in grade 5, but that was no miracle cure.
Since I had to pay protection money to two boys in the new class, things weren’t much better on the surface. It was humiliating to empty my pockets week after week, and I still remember the sting of it.
But circumstances and necessity pushed me to a decision that I remember with absolute clarity.
Something clicked in my head, and without having the faintest clue what I was doing, I activated the Power of Intention.
I cannot remember what the final straw was, but I can recall the exact words that ran through my mind in 1962:
I’m going to get smart enough and tough enough that nobody will ever be able to hurt me again.
Those were the exact words. It’s interesting that I added the mental aspect of being smart enough to the physical aspects of toughness. It was as though some deeper part of me knew strength alone wouldn’t be enough.
Fast forward several decades to a training event in the Ontario Provincial Police depot in Arthur, northwest of Toronto. By that time I had a good relationship with law enforcement, having done shows and provided training for the Ontario Police College over 100 times.
They knew me, and they knew I could deliver results.
So when the OPP wanted advanced hand-to-hand combat training for fifty of their instructors, I was the guy they picked to teach them the British Jiu Jitsu system, combining the striking methods of William Fairbairn with the agonizing joint locks, throws, and pressure points of my teacher, the late Bill Underwood.
I started strong. I called a massive cop onto the mat to demonstrate the science of self-defense. I locked his wrist, swept his legs out from under him, and drove him through the mat. His scream of pain echoed off the walls and convinced the other 49 trainers that they had better take this very seriously.
I wish you could have seen the grins and baffled expressions on their faces as this medium-sized guy in sweats rendered a police instructor completely powerless with nothing more than a simple control grip on his thumb, which I held as I continued to lecture them.
There was no denying what they had just witnessed.
It was clear to me then that my multi-year intention had worked. I had become tough enough, and smart enough, to protect myself from any bully.
And years later in Ireland, when the ghost of Lisheen Castle was busy opening the guests’ securely shut bedroom doors, I climbed the circular staircase alone into the dark hallways. The other 18 guests stayed safely downstairs in the warm, well-lit kitchen, not one of them willing to venture into the gloom above.
Only I went into the darkness…
Once again, the closed doors stood yawning open as though something had deliberately unlatched them.
It was a really creepy experience.
But my fear of the dark was gone. The very thing that had once paralyzed me had lost all power.
So why am I telling you all this about bullies, and ghosts, and overcoming immobilizing fear?
Because I’m talking about the power of intention.
There is something immensely powerful about a 100% congruent decision that draws a line in the sand. When we hold onto that non-negotiable choice, we start a mechanism that can lead to startling positive results.
Intention is something I don’t understand fully. I make no claims as to why it works, but I am completely persuaded that it does work. It has carried me from a frightened, undersized boy to a man who could walk into a room of police instructors and command respect.
It’s also a huge component of threshold, that turning point when a hypnosis client is absolutely ready to change, to the point they are committed to doing their part and seeing it through to the end. At that moment, the change becomes inevitable.
When you activate your intention, you switch on something remarkable, and your life changes, sometimes to a seemingly impossible degree.
So what do you need to overcome or transform?
Set your intention. Believe it will happen in good time. Accept nothing less
- Mike Mandel
Join the Brain Software Syndicate
The Brain Software Syndicate (BSS) is our low-cost ($9) private community for smart, motivated people who want self improvement and development (not to become a hypnotist). It includes over $670 in courses and trainings. We drop new videos every week.