If you’ve listened to Fried On Business for any length of time, you know that I’m all about keeping positive energy around me.
I like to be upbeat, and I want upbeat people around me as much as possible. I want to be around doers and achievers.
Michael Cooper is the same way. In fact, he makes it his business to teach people how to craft a vision for their lives and then attain it.
Cooper is the founder of Human Performance Mentors and The Missing Playbook. He has spent more than 20 years studying the teachings of Napoleon Hill.
Hill, of course, was the author of Think and Grow Rich and is a key figure in the New Thought movement, which emphasizes the power of personal beliefs in generating success.
Cooper trains people at all levels to stay positive and take their performance to the next level.
In order to change your frame of mind, Cooper said, you have to be very focused and clear on your purpose. That, he said, is the biggest challenge he has in working with influencers in the world.
“So many people are drifters in the game of life. They don’t have a definiteness of purpose. They’re wandering like a ship out at sea without a rudder,” he said.
Now, I remember being taught in school about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And at the very top is self-actualization.
To reach that pinnacle, Cooper said, we have to start by looking inward – not outward.
“They’re wanting to get the acceptance and approval of everybody else. And you don’t need the acceptance and approval of everybody else. You need the acceptance and approval of yourself,” he said.
“You certainly want support and encouragement from others, but you have to look within.”
There’s a lot of noise in most people’s lives, Cooper said, and it takes a lot of discipline to get quiet, sit down, and write a detailed plan for what you want out of life.
Once that is done, however, you can begin to build a vision of that life, he said.
It kind of goes like this:
– Decide what you want.
– Decide what you’re willing to give up to get there.
– Take personal responsibility for making it happen.
– Identify the value it brings to other people.
Then it takes visualization – in great detail – of the goal and what it will take to get there.
Most people never do it, Cooper said.
“This is why they’re drifting in life – and experiencing chaos, and suffering, and pain,” he said.
A key element, according to Cooper, is having a team around you that supports the vision. Napoleon Hill called it a mastermind alliance, which helps, inspires and empowers us.
This is a must-listen conversation. Click here to listen to the full interview with Michael Cooper of Human Performance Mentors.
