Hi, BenArion here...

I want to share a story with you.

It was several years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

I had a close friend named Sam. (His name isn’t actually Sam, but I don’t want to go spreading his name over the internet.)

Anyway, “Sam” was my neighbor, and we’d see each other practically every day in the breezeway of our apartment complex, because he lived directly across from me.

Now, Sam was a large fellow. And I was kind of… well, I wouldn’t say “scrawny”, but I definitely needed to put on some muscle.

So naturally, Sam and I bonded over the fact that neither of us exercised like we both knew we should.

But when I started to meditate, and as a result started to eat healthier food and love the feeling of frequent exercise, Sam took notice of my changing body and got a little jealous.

One day, he asked me what I had been doing, and so I told him: “I’ve been meditating.”

Sam laughed at me, and so I explained to him that the meditation itself didn’t build the muscle, it just helped me stay balanced and focused on my goals.

Every time I had tried to get in shape before (without meditation) I had eventually given into self-doubt and quit.

By the way… this is the exact reason most people don’t get results when they go on a fad diet or exercise program. They start out strong, and then eventually give up.

75% of all people fail their New Year’s Resolutions before February rolls around. I knew this hit home for Sam, because it was my problem too.

That’s why meditation worked so well for me.

Anyway…

Sam proudly announced “Well, I guess I’ll start meditating, then.”

I was excited, so I offered him my help. And he flat out turned me down. I thought maybe he was competing with me, and he just wanted to look cool.

When I asked him why, he said, “It can’t be that hard. All you have to do is sit and not think for a while.”

“Sam,” I said, “it’s a bit more complicated than that…” But he wouldn’t hear it, and he assured me that “he’d be fine”.

And I really hoped he would, because I knew that Sam weighed enough that even a tiny change in his lifestyle – if applied consistently – would have an incredible effect on his entire life.

But I ALSO knew that Sam didn’t understand the first thing about what he was getting into. First of all, meditation is not the process of “sitting and not thinking for a while.” It took me years of trial and error before I was able to see any real results with meditation, because when I started out I was just as stubborn as he was.

I protested again, and Sam again told me no. And to his credit, Sam did start to meditate. For about a week.

Then, like countless others before him… he gave it up completely. I wasn’t surprised, and I bet you aren’t either.

That’s weird, right? Just like with exercise, practically everyone who starts to meditate eventually stops. Have you ever tried to pick up meditation before and quit after a while? I’ve done it several times.

It’s really rare that people actually stick with it. Instead, they start out strong, make a few mistakes, then miss a few sessions, and then give up completely, taking refuge in their old habits.

And then the strangest thing happens… I’ve seen it so many times, and it still amazes me. It happened to Sam, too.

Whenever I would bring up meditation later… after Sam had already tried and failed… he was absolutely certain that meditation wouldn’t work for him.

Never mind the fact that I was meditating every day and making incredible improvements in my own life. It wasn’t just muscle. I was having more successful relationships, making more money… my life was getting better every day in every way.

I was living, breathing proof that meditation DID work.

But Sam wanted to be special so much that he invented a story about how he couldn’t ever get what he wanted.

Some of us say “I don’t have time. I’m too busy with XYZ.”

Some of us say, “My mind won’t even slow down, let alone stop. It’s just the way my brain works. ”

Some of us say, “I just can’t shake these doubts, these fears, these limiting beliefs… no matter what I do.”

“I don’t have the energy.”
“I don’t have the focus.”
“I don’t have the money.”

It’s always a unique reason, but it’s always there. And often, it’s not even that unique. But after we try and fail, our justifications seem so much more plausible, even though they’re typically just total lies that we tell ourselves because we need to make ourselves feel better.

And even though we do feel better (for a moment), our lives get worse as a result. With each lie we tell ourselves, we further cement our own limiting beliefs.

When we don’t take the actions that we know we should… it actually gets harder for us to change later on. How tragically sad is that?

For Sam, it actually got a LOT worse. In fact, it almost killed him.

Tomorrow, the story continues.

I’m going to tell you exactly what HE did, and what you should absolutely avoid at ALL costs.

See you then…

Peace!
BenArion