Many people go through life acting like trained circus animals.  They repeat the same antics they observed their neighbors, parents and family performing.  What they often don’t realize is that they are wrecking their lives.

Do you know someone that performs these tricks?

Understanding that these tricks change good lives into a zoo is the first step to freedom.  So, let’s take a look at the most common traps people fall into.

10 Very Common Stupid Tricks That Wreck A Good Life

I’d bet we’ve all witnessed at least some of these stupid tricks.  Unfortunately, they plague many people and are incredibly common.  Read over the list and let me know which one you think is the worst or most prevalent.

1.  Performing the starring role in a never-ending drama

It seems that some people want the days of their lives to mirror a soap opera.  They constantly behave badly and then wonder why their lives are so freaking crazy.  It is almost as if they are addicted to chaos!  These folks usually fail to see that they are their own worst enemy!  Do you know someone that is the big star in their own perpetual drama?

2.  Jumping through hoops without accomplishing anything

Who do you know that lives life like a hamster spinning in a wheel?  These people run and run, but never get anywhere.  In addition, they probably think they have little to no control over their lives.  They are stuck in the Twilight Zone where every day is just like the next.  They continually jump through hoops for everyone else, but never realize their own dreams.  I assure you this is only an illusion, but how do we convince them?

3.  Parroting the negativity heard in the media and from others

The voices of negativity are constantly lobbing grenades of gloom into our laps.  Many people become echo chambers that repeat and amplify this barrage until they are deaf to anything else.  Then their minds freeze up in fear, doubt and panic.  These people let themselves be toyed with like a puppet!  We all need to turn off the talking heads and feed our minds positive, encouraging vitamins of hope to regain a good life!

4.  Disappearing when they hear the words volunteer or charity

Why are people so afraid of giving away their time and money?  I know there are a lot of scams, but are we really going to let that squelch every attempt at good?  So what if once in a blue moon we give a nickel to someone that wastes it!  Life goes on!  Get over it!  The most significant thing we can do with our limited days on this earth is make someone else feel safe, comfortable and cared for.

5.  Trying to walk a high-wire without a net in their personal finances

The recession we just experienced was a gift.  It was a warning shot across the bow giving people the opportunity to turn from their destructive financial path.  Spending beyond their means, piling up mountains of debt and failing to save a penny for a rainy day will be the demise of many.  Our economy reflects our collective financial condition.  Hopefully, the warning we got will motivate people to get their house in order so we can prosper as a country!

6.  Rolling over and quitting because they made a few mistakes

Making a bad mistake can be painful.  I’ll admit it can feel like someone scarred you with a white-hot branding iron on your backside.  The memory of such an event leaves many thinking that the best thing they can do is to curl up into the fetal position and quit.  Of course, this means they’ll miss out on even the slightest chance that life might throw them a bone just when they need it most!

7.  Swinging from one relationship to the next to avoid commitment

It isn’t always easy to let yourself be loved.  A true partner will challenge you to grow and better yourself.  They will force a person to relinquish some of the selfishness we all cling to for dear life.  Jumping to another relationship won’t solve the problem.  One day you have to deal with the person staring back at you in the mirror.  This is the only way I know to ultimately find the kind of love we all long for.

8.  Playing opossum on the couch to evade all forms of exercise

There is nothing that will steal the joy out of a person’s life quicker than health problems.  However, you don’t have to look far to find a person taking a very short-sighted approach when it comes to exercise and eating right.  Neither of these is all that hard, expensive or time-consuming.  They just take a little discipline and ingenuity.  I don’t understand why people don’t get up and get active!  It is the single best thing we can do for ourselves!

9.  Throwing daggers of blame while blindfolded at anyone in range

Some people will throw blame at just about anybody but themselves.  It is always the other person’s fault that their relationships suck, their career is at a dead-end and the collection agent knows their whole family by first name.  Accepting responsibility for our lives and making a conscious decision to do everything we can to make this one life we have worth living is the only solution to our dilemma.  When will people learn?

10.  Flipping out when it is suggested they should learn something new

I never cease to be amazed at how strongly people resist and fear change.  They will do everything within their power to avoid, divert and even sabotage anything that is going to make them have to learn something new or change in anyway.  Change is a necessary and healthy part of life.  Our routines are not pets!  People need to learn to grow!  It doesn’t hurt as much as they think!

Retraining to Quit These Stupid Tricks

We are not circus animals!  We have a choice in our behavior.  All we have to do is decide to retrain ourselves.  How do we get people to quit these self-destructive tricks?

Well, you’ll find a lot of great advice by continuing to read Pick The Brain.  In addition, you can find a lot of great information on good habits and smart living on my blog.  Hope to hear from you soon!

Jeff Nickles is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain. He writes about living life to the fullest at MySuperChargedLife.com.

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You have the power to do things so far beyond what you can even imagine right now. In fact, you are capable of things that you would probably consider bizarre or even maybe supernatural. Your mind is a vast, largely unexplained source of energy and power. In fact, your thoughts even have the power to alter reality.

Unfortunately, because we don’t understand how these powers work, most people dismiss them. In so doing, we limit ourselves and our success in life. I will reveal here how you can tap into these superpowers and take advantage of them to make drastic improvements in your life.

Stay with me here. I know the tendency of many will be to immediately dismiss this as just a bunch of nutty ideas. But let me submit to you that many very successful people have believed in these powers and used them to create incredible fortunes and success. Also, if you just look at the facts, it is easy to conclude that there must be some truth to this. Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. These powers have been written about for centuries. They have been researched and acknowledged by very notable people. They are mentioned in most of the classic wisdom literature. They exist whether you are willing to admit it and use it to your benefit or not. If you don’t, then you are missing out on getting the very most out of your life.

Examples of Extreme Mental Power

There are so many powers of the mind that are not fully explained or understood. Things like telepathy, psychokinesis, and extrasensory perception (ESP) fall into this category. J.B. Rhine, a researcher at Duke University back in the 1930s, did extensive and rigorous lab tests on subjects to evaluate the existence of ESP. He concluded that many people did seem to have powers beyond the five senses to detect the thoughts and feelings of others. His research led to the coining of the term parapsychology and the founding of a research center at Duke to explore this further. Of course, there are numerous critics and skeptics of Rhine’s conclusions and the results have never been repeated since. However, Rhine was not the only researcher that came to these conclusions and many people think ESP is the sixth sense. This is just one area that suggests the mind has power and emanates energy beyond our current understanding.

There are also numerous people that believe in the miracle of faith healing. Faith healing is the belief that people can be cured of diseases and abnormalities through prayer and divine or supernatural intervention. Of course, when you look objectively at prayer, it is focused thought or meditation which is directed outside ourselves to summon supernatural power to achieve an end we desire. If you plug “faith healing testimonies” into any popular Internet search engine, you will find countless stories of people that have been miraculously cured of things like cancer. It usually involves situations where no further hope was offered by medical science. The person had to believe. If they didn’t, then they had to accept the fate of their medical diagnosis.

I mention ESP and faith healing to stretch your thinking. If you are still reading (I’m sure many have probably given up by now because they are just incapable or unwilling to consider that our minds have power beyond our current understanding), then you are ready to grasp and use the superpowers of your mind. You are ready to tap into the source of energy that has propelled people like Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, and Oprah Winfrey to levels of extraordinary success. You can also reach these levels. No matter how you define success or what it is that you desire. You can achieve it!

Unleash Your Superpowers

So, what is it that will unleash the superpowers of your mind? It is belief. You have to believe without doubt in the deepest recesses of your heart and mind that you can and will fulfill your desires. You have to believe so deeply that it creates a level of intensity in your thinking so that your desire becomes a burning obsession. You have to be able to visualize it and emotionalize it vividly. It has to consume you. You have to believe at the level where you know that you can overcome any obstacles that may arise. That you will pay any price. You will give and do whatever it takes to achieve your goal. When you believe like this, you invoke the superpowers of your mind and you will alter reality.

Your intense thoughts and belief when focused in this manner will create in the physical world exactly what you desire. This concept is well documented and absolutely true. It is confirmed in every classic success book that I have read. It is the secret or magic that these writers speak of so frequently. This philosophy is thoroughly discussed in Chapters 13 and 14 of Think and Grow Rich, a very well-known success manual written by Napoleon Hill. In Chapter 14, Hill states the following:

“This much the author does know – that there is a power, or a First Cause, or an Intelligence, which permeates every atom of matter, and embraces every unit of energy perceptible to man…This Intelligence may, through the principles of this philosophy, be induced to aid in transmuting DESIRES into concrete, or material form. The author has this knowledge, because he has experimented with it – and has EXPERIENCED IT.”

Another confirmation that these powers exist is from As a Man Thinketh written by James Allen. Allen states:

“Nature helps every man to the gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface both the good and evil thoughts.”

In other words, these authors confirm that whatever it is we most deeply believe will come to be in our lives and that outside super forces, in these instances called Intelligence and Nature, will assist us. Of course, as the quote above alludes to this principle works in both directions of thought. We must therefore focus our thoughts on the positive to move in the direction we want. We must eliminate all negative thinking and fear. These thoughts dilute the effectiveness of our superpowers and may even take us in the opposite direction. Use your powers for good and not evil!

I think W. Clement Stone says it most succinctly. He states:

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

Jesus even confirms this in the Bible when in Matthew 17:20, he states:

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

As you can see, this philosophy of belief is well documented. These men were not easily deceived. Napoleon Hill spent 20 years of his life researching the material in his book. These men knew the superpowers of the mind exist and they tried to document it so that others could use them too. Are you ready to believe? I could go on and on with more examples from many more books, but there is not room here to do so. You, however, can research this for yourself if you would like or you can take the leap of faith now and start benefiting immediately.

Believe and Succeed or Doubt and Do Without

I know that some will be reluctant to accept these truths. To the skeptics and critics, I say that I hope they are happy in their circumstances. No matter how hard they work or how much effort they put forth without utilizing the principle of belief they will always be severely limited in their accomplishments. If you look further into this, you fill find that every person with a track record of super success has fully and whole-heartedly embraced this philosophy. Our minds do have superpowers that we can utilize to our benefit if we believe. The only question that remains is, will you believe?

I would love to hear your comments on the ideas I have expressed in this article.

This article was written by Jeff Nickles. Please join him at My Super-Charged Life to learn more about living life to the fullest!