Optimal Xperience & Art of the FOCUS Method

By M. Mansoor

In Optimal Xperience & Art of the FOCUS Method, social scientist and management consultant, M. Mansoor, shares a breakthrough approach to personal transformation and experience optimization. In this book you will learn a holistic, simple and effective framework for "X-ing out" what is nonessential and bringing focus to what really matters in life.

This book integrates the most promising scientific research with past and present philosophical and wisdom traditions to develop practical ideas and tools to transform complexity into clarity, separation into connection and hunger for money and power into a plan for dream actualization and experience optimization. With Optimal Xperience you will have a framework, tools and strategy to sustain your motivation. Holistic and inspiring, this book will teach you to:

- Listen to your inner voice and discover your true self.
- Be in control of your thoughts and experience the joy of the present moment.
- Understand and connect with other people.
- Discover your dreams and values.
- Use the power of habits to actualize your dreams.
- Live a life of optimal experience and inspire others to do the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. Mansoor
• Release date: Feb 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310356247

Book preview

FIRST WORDS

This book is based on a breakthrough approach for personal transformation and experience optimization. It presents a holistic, simple and effective framework for "X-ing out" what is nonessential and bringing focus to what really matters in life.

The main assertion of Optimal Xperience is that experience, instead of money or power, is a better measure of success in life. The primary focus in life, therefore, should be the optimization of experiences by directing our time and energy toward pursuing meaningful dreams.

As you read this book, you will discover a holistic framework for optimizing the experiences of life. This framework, called The FOCUS Method (TFM), is based on four universal principles (clear, connect, conduct, and continuous improvement) of personal transformation. This framework provides a set of ideas, skills, and tools that enable and empower individuals to achieve Optimal Xperience in their personal and professional lives.

Optimal Xperience & Art of the FOCUS Method applies a transdisciplinary approach to integrate the latest advancements in management theory, positive psychology, and social anthropology with past and present philosophical and wisdom traditions from around the globe to create a framework which can be applied by anyone seeking to achieve true success and optimize the experiences of life. As you read this book you will find practical ideas, tools, and the motivation to transform complexity into clarity, separation into connection and hunger for money and power into a plan for dream actualization and experience optimization.

This book is a call to discover your values and harness the power of habits to automate the realization of meaningful dreams and manifestation of a life full of optimal experiences.

Let’s get started.

CHAPTER 1 - OVERVIEW

"When all your desires are distilled

You will cast just two votes

To love more, and be happy."

—Rumi

The Big Question

"First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination."

—Napoleon Hill

What is success? Is it money or power or something else? This simple question has been debated since the dawn of time, and answers have only grown more complicated. We believe that the simplest way to measure success is to measure it not by money or power, but by the quality of one’s experiences in life; pure and simple. We also believe that these experiences can only be optimized when people choose to pursue meaningful dreams instead of spending their lives in a meaningless quest for money or power.

For most people success means money and power. The more money or power they have, the more successful they think they are. This is an illusion—a distorted sense of reality. Stockpiles of money in the bank and power to control other people’s lives are flawed measures of human success. It is true that money matters, but it matters only up to a point; beyond that, it's merely an addiction and does not lead to additional happiness.

Power that is used to empower, inspire, and serve others is a good thing, but when power is used to disempower others, it gets reduced to a Machiavellian personality disorder, which is destructive both for the individual and the society.

If you make the quest for money and power your sole focus, you are bound to feel empty, bored, and unhappy. If you never evolve from a having phase to a being phase in your life, you will never understand what true happiness feels like. True happiness and fulfillment can only come from truly appreciating and experiencing things that really matter: things like family, friends, health, spirituality, sunshine, moonlight, a walk in the park, helping someone in need, creativity, and all those small things that add meaning and color to life. These are the things that don't necessarily require money or power—just an appreciative heart; things that will not only add years to your life but also bring life to your years; things that make you who you really are.

Additionally, the secret to true happiness does not lie in any theory, knowledge, or dogma; it is in the experiences of everyday life—experiences that are optimized by aligning daily actions and habits to meaningful dreams. Unfortunately, it’s very common to see people confuse knowledge with experiences, words with deeds, and theories with practices. You will hear people say, You are not telling me anything new; I already know that; I’ve read about it before so many times. But when you ask them, That’s great, but do you practice it? they will look at you as if you were from some other planet. They believe that knowing something is somehow a good substitute for practicing it. It’s like that guy who warned other guys during a brawl, You’d better show me some respect because I know kickboxing, karate, kung fu, jujitsu, and fifteen other dangerous words. It is, needless to say, that he did not get much respect for his knowledge. The fact of the matter is that knowledge is not experience; a word is not a deed, and theory is not the same as practice. All the knowledge about food is not going to make you less hungry; you will have to eat food to satisfy your hunger. Likewise, being a doctor and knowing everything about health does not make you healthy; you will still have to exercise, eat healthy, and do everything else that needs to be done to maintain a healthy body. A figure that points toward the moon is not the moon; it’s only a pointer. The real thing is the moon and the experience of enjoying the beauty of the moon.

"All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea."

—Napoleon Hill

What is Optimal Xperience? Optimal Xperience is a state of being in which a person is fully connected with and engaged in a meaningful activity, feeling extreme positive emotions. It’s the point of unity. It’s the point where the bow becomes the extension of the archer and blends into the target. It’s the point where all mental and emotional diversions are removed, and distinctions between the observer, the observed, and the observation are dissolved. It’s the ultimate bliss. It’s something that words are not capable of describing; it can only be experienced.

This state of being has been recognized and explored by many thinkers and philosophers. In recent decades, the field of positive psychology, especially, has seen a great amount of academic interest in developing a deeper understanding of human well-being and optimal experience. This new approach owes a great deal of debt to Maslow, Rogers, Allport, and Jung. Psychologists like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Antonella Delle Fave, Fausto Massimini, and many others have done a great job in helping the world understand this theory from various psychological perspectives.

This book, however, is not an attempt to explore the philosophical or psychological underpinnings of the theory of optimal experience. The book is actually not about optimal experience; it is about Optimal Xperience (we will talk more about it in the following pages), and more importantly, it’s about the FOCUS Method—a practical framework to actually make Optimal Xperience happen and to sustain it. It’s a framework that is relevant and practical for our age—a framework that is simple, holistic, and effective.

"Logic will get you from A to B.

Imagination will take you everywhere."

—Albert Einstein

As humans, we are always experiencing something. This process of continuous experience goes on even when we are sleeping. We do not have a choice over that, but, as humans, we have the unique ability to choose the kind of experiences we want to have. We can choose to have experiences that are meaningful, fulfilling, and heavenly. We can choose to optimize those experiences.

The X in the Xperience is about Xing-out everything that is not relevant to your dreams. Most people’s idea of change does not start with subtraction; it starts with the addition of new things. But what is the point in adding a beautiful painting to a room that is full of junk? Have you noticed that most weight-loss commercials on TV are about selling new, miraculous diets that could make weight disappear? You will not see commercials telling people to stop eating the junk that is making them fat. The reasons are obvious: money is made through addition, not by subtraction—it’s in persuading people to buy new stuff.

The X in the Xperience underscores the importance of subtraction: it’s about clearing your mind, clearing your space, and clearing your schedule. It’s about unlearning before the process of learning anything new can even start. Once you X-out (or remove) the distractions, discover a meaningful dream by establishing a deep connection with your inner and outer worlds, discover the values that will guide your behavior, and develop the habits that will help you achieve your dreams, you can begin to optimize the experience of life. You can begin to live in the present moment, with complete awareness, engagement, and appreciation for what is happening in that very moment. You can begin to let go of the regrets of the past and the fears of the future in order to relish the present moment.

Optimal Xperience is also about seeing the big picture: understanding what really matters in life and ignoring all distractions. It’s about taking back the remote control of your life from others and using it to tune your focus to your dreams. It’s about discovering and pursuing meaningful dreams while experiencing and celebrating life—every moment of it.

What is failure? Failure has nothing to do with not having enough money or power; failure is about conformity. Failure is not having your own dreams or the courage to follow through. Failure is about having a herd mentality and just mindlessly doing what everyone else seems to be doing, which, in most cases, is the relentless pursuit of money and power—a never-ending race to have more and more stuff.

Failure is the inability to dream your own dreams. And success is having meaningful dreams and the courage to follow through. When you follow your meaningful dreams with a focused plan, there is no failure; there is only growth. The method being proposed in this book will exponentially increase your chances of realizing your dreams, but even when dreams are not realized in the time frame or the manner in which you expect them to come true, you learn that the real joy is the experience. You learn that the true secret of life is that it’s really about the journey, not the destination. It's really about optimizing the Xperience, not acquiring more money or power. It’s like eating a delicious meal: your objective is not to finish it as fast as you can so that you can check off another activity from your to-do list. You actually slow down to enjoy every bite of it and wish that the food would not end too soon. That’s exactly what happens when you are pursuing meaningful dreams: the journey becomes so exhilarating that reaching the destination becomes secondary.

When you choose to live a life of Optimal Xperience, you