How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
5
Chapter 1
The Introduction
If you are reading this book, you may have several questions running
through your head about me. Why did I write How to be Happy and Have
Fun Changing the World? Will this book be able to deliver the goods or am
I just a dreamer? If the insights revealed in this book can make you happy or
happier and help improve the world, why would I give something so valuable
away for free?
I wrote this book for several reasons. The first one is because I love
sharing the insights contained in this book with others and it makes me very
happy. The second one is because I wanted to reach a mass audience by
addressing a subject that would appeal to most, if not all, of the people living
on our planet. After all who doesn’t desire to be happy or happier and make
our world a better place for themselves, their children and their children’s
children?
The third reason is because I needed a feedback mechanism that you
can easily relate to and cannot deny. Everyone knows whether they are
happy or unhappy. You can decide for yourself what gives you true and
lasting happiness. You will be able to judge for yourself if what I share with
you makes total sense.
The most important reason is that this book allows me to introduce you
to eight words that will help you increase your self-awareness and happiness.
These eight words will help you make better choices that will change you
and the world for the better, in the process. If you want to be happier and
remain happy, this book will show you the way.
If you can honestly say that you’re totally happy with all aspects of
your life, are you happy with what is going on in the world? Unless you
never follow the local news and world affairs, or live in a cave in the
Himalayas, you’re probably not happy about something or at least would like
to improve it if you knew an effective way to bring about positive change.
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
6
I acknowledge that there are many positive things about our world, but
you have to admit that some things could be much better. I’m not going to
go into a commentary about what’s wrong with the world; you can decide
that for yourself. I wrote this book to increase your self-awareness and give
you some positive steps to take, if you desire to be happier and have fun
helping to change the world for the better.
By the time you finish reading this book, you will know if I’m a
dreamer or a man with a plan that will work if you help out by doing your
part. In the meantime, here is a very brief story of my life to help you get to
know me better.
As I write this in the year 2005, I am in my early sixties. So I have
some life experience to draw on. I was born in 1943 to a very religious blue
collar family. We didn’t have much money, but I was given very solid
values. I had a very happy childhood playing on the railroad tracks and
swimming in the Baltimore harbor. Some would consider my playground
dangerous, but to me it was lots of fun and adventure, Huckleberry Finn
style.
After high school, I worked for two years to earn enough money to pay
for my first year of college. Working part-time jobs during college paid for
the rest. I was one of the rare kids in my neighborhood that went to college
instead of going to work on the waterfront, or in the local factories like their
fathers.
I majored in business and economics at the University of Maryland
and graduated in three and a half years. I had a great time during my college
years, and even became President of my fraternity Sigma Pi. My only regret
was not taking the full four years to graduate .
From there I went to New York City and worked in the Wall Street
area as an international banker for one of the largest banks in the world. In
the evenings I worked on getting my MBA at New York University. I even
got married to a wonderful woman. In the so-called “real world” I was
making a lot of progress, but I realized that I wasn’t having much fun
anymore in my world.
The child in me was growing up and becoming unhappier day by day.
By the time I was in my middle to late twenties, my ambition had dried up. I
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
7
started to search for what would make me happy again. I looked into the
future and realized that the outside world of riches and material comfort had
little to offer me as a means to achieve true and lasting happiness.
I started reading books on philosophy and metaphysics. Blessed with
a strong and ambitious spirit, I read lots and lots of these books. My inner
world was coming alive again and my relationship with the “real world”
outside was coming to an end.
My promising career in international banking came to a close. In my
early thirties I moved to San Francisco. Eventually, I got a friendly divorce
and kept searching for the answer to what would make me happy. My
former wife and I are still the best of friends.
During this period of soul searching to find the answer of how to be
happy, I would take high commission sales jobs with the hopes of making a
million dollars so I could be financially independent and quit working. But,
my spirit was restless and wanted me to keep searching for happiness. So I
did. In hindsight, I probably would have made my millions if I loved what I
was doing and stuck with any one of the several opportunities that I left
behind. However, I’m glad that I kept searching.
It wasn’t because I lacked discipline. I lacked direction. I had enough
self-discipline to swim a mile or two in the frigid waters of the San Francisco
Bay almost everyday for five years. I’m pleased to let you know that I swam
across the span of the Golden Gate Bridge four times and from Alcatraz to
San Francisco twice. I had plenty of self-discipline.
In my late thirties I met my mentor Edgar Phillips who taught me the
secret to happiness which I will share with you in this book. Armed with this
knowledge, we tried to take it to the business world through a program
designed to increase productivity in the workplace.
Unfortunately, during the early 1980’s the business world had a hard
time accepting the major principle of Edgar Phillips’ philosophy. Can you
imagine that the business world didn’t readily accept being 100% truthful, no
matter what the consequences?
I found out that business at that time had a hard time relating to the
concept that being totally ethical would increase productivity. There was
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
8
some interest, but I did not find any serious players in the business world that
were open to what I had to share.
Since I’m not easily discouraged, I found success sharing this
information with athletes because I related it to a feedback mechanism that
they could not deny. I tied performance to the mind/body connection and it
worked like a charm. In 1984 I moved to Los Angeles to be near the
Olympics.
There, I met Ruby Fox. Ruby was struggling at the 1984 Olympic
trials and had one last chance to make the U.S. Olympic pistol team. After
only one forty-five minute mental training consultation with me, she shot 299
out of a possible 300 score and made the Olympic team.
During the Olympics, Ruby got into a sudden death shoot off for the
Gold Medal. She ended up with the Silver Medal because she became giddy
after a long string of perfect scores during the shoot off, and lost her focus.
Afterwards, Ruby told me that she was very happy with her Silver Medal and
it was an experience she will never forget.
In 1987 two-time world champion Lynne Jewell asked me to help her
and her partner Allison Jolley to prepare mentally for the 1988 Olympics in
Seoul, Korea. I did and they won the Gold Medal in yachting.
During the 1990’s I fine-tuned my mental training program by
working with golfers. I helped many golfers for free and supported myself
with part time sales jobs when they were available because I was very good
at selling products and services that I believed in.
There were times when I would sleep in my car or wherever I could to
make ends meet. You couldn’t pay me enough money to keep me from
doing what I loved, even though I was not being paid. At times, I was forced
to stop and regroup.
I’ve had many adventures and misadventures that I could share
with you, but I’ll leave that for a future book. Indeed, I was a Man with a
Mission that could be slowed down, but not stopped.
Eventually, I did start charging for my one-on-one mental training
consultations, and I trained well over half of the head PGA golf teaching
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
9
professionals in Palm Springs. I wrote and self-published the book The
Mental Keys to Improve Your Golf and began selling it on the internet from
my website http://www.mentalkeys.com in 1999.
In 2004, I produced a CD, “Using The Mental Keys to Polish the
Wheel,” which has been very well-received as a complimentary addition to
my book. If you are a golfer and want lower scores, then please read my golf
book and listen to my CD.
I offer a one-year 100% money back guarantee on my book and CD.
Very rarely have I received requests for refunds. Instead, I have received
hundreds of emails from golfers living in every corner of the world, telling
me about their lower scores and how my book applies to their life, as well as
their golf. (For those of you that are not familiar with golf, the lowest score
wins.)
If you are curious about what golfers have to say about The Mental
Keys to Improve Your Golf, then please visit my golf website at
http://www.mentalkeys.com, and read the countless testimonials from golfers
at every age and skill level, raving about their lower golf scores. I receive so
many positive comments from golfers that I rarely add the new ones to the
website.
It may have taken me a while to get here, but I’m a very happy person
and my spirit is having fun again. Now, it’s my turn to help you and many
others by sharing what has made me very happy.
Here is the answer to the last question. Why would I want to give
away something so valuable for free when it took me many years of my life
searching to obtain it? As I mentioned above, it makes me very happy
sharing this information. Plus, I would like to do my part in helping to make
our world a better place to live. I totally believe in the power of the insights
contained in this book. I know without a doubt that they will make you
happier. They work for me and will work for you if you use them. The
choice is yours to put these insights to work for you.
By not charging for this book, I take away all of your objections and
reservations for not getting a copy and reading it. All you need is the desire
to be happy or happier. You may even desire to have fun helping to change
the world for the better.
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
10
I know that you will benefit from what I’ll be sharing with you, and
many readers will tell their friends about How to Be Happy and Have Fun
Changing the World. They, in turn, will do the same.
Through the power of the internet and word of mouth advertising,
millions of individuals like you will read this book. It will have a positive
influence on many lives, and eventually our planet’s values. By the time you
finish reading this book, you will understand “why” and “how.”
If the insights revealed in this book make you happier, and you would
like to help me maintain and expand my efforts, feel free to send me a
donation. If not, that’s OK because I’m not in this for the money. I gave up
being motivated just to make money a long time ago. However, your help is
needed and will make a difference. So enjoy my book and help out .
Now that you know where I’m coming from, keep an open mind and
enjoy reading the rest of this book. The proof is in the pudding.
"The Joy of Life"
This is the true joy of life. The being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a mighty one. The being a force
of nature instead of a feverish and selfish clod of ailments
and grieving senses complaining that the world will not
devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole
community and that as long as I live it is my privilege
to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used
up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live.
I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief
candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I
have got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make
it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on
to future generations.
-George Bernard Shaw
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
11
Chapter 2
Owner’s Manual for Human Beings
When I was growing up, my parents didn’t give me an Owner’s
Manual for Human Beings. How about you? Were you given an owner’s
manual explaining how you were designed to function? Did it come with
instructions how to operate correctly and happily?
My mentor’s explanation of the chemical brain and how the brain
processed information, along with his total commitment to the truth, no
matter what the consequences, was an owner’s manual that made sense to
me. Edgar Phillips gave me direction and started me on the road to
happiness. Reading about the insights of other great teachers and thinkers,
helped me to fine-tune this owner’s manual that I’m about to share with you.
Human beings were designed by the Creator to all function the same
way. A good analogy is the hardware of a computer. We are all hard-wired
the same. What makes us behave differently from each other is the way we
think, feel and act, which is our software.
What most individuals don’t realize is that the power of your brain or
computer’s hardware varies according to the chemistry of your brain. You
can dramatically increase the power and efficiency of your brain or personal
computer by optimizing the chemistry of its cranial fluid. Let’s take it step
by step.
Improve Your Brain’s Chemistry
It is critical to conceptually understand that your brain actually
secretes chemicals corresponding to your positive and negative thoughts.
The resulting chemistry of your brain’s cranial fluid influences all of your
natural abilities and functions. This, in turn, determines how well you
perform in everything you do because your brain is like a powerful computer.
The power and efficiency of your wonderful personal computer can be
increased dramatically by optimizing the chemistry of your brain’s cranial
fluid. This fact is very easy to demonstrate in the world of sports with
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
12
athletic performance because of the mind/body connection. I have proven
this to be true many times in the arena of athletic competition.
I am not going to explain the specific details of your electrochemical
nervous system and list the numerous biochemicals that affect your behavior
and performance. This book takes a common sense approach to a very
profound conceptual explanation of what makes you tick as a human being.
The details are not that important. The concepts are!
For example, do you know the chemical composition of the gasoline
that powers your automobile or how the engine in your car works? You
know that if you turn on the key and step on the gas pedal, your car runs. If
not, you take it to a mechanic to have it fixed. You know that if you put
water in the gas tank, your car will not run. It is not necessary for you to
become a chemist or a mechanic to drive your car, as long as you understand
the basic principles. It may be nice to know the details, but unless you want
to be a chemist or a mechanic is it worth the time to learn?
The same is true of your electrochemical nervous system. It may be
interesting to know the details. However, do you really have the time or
desire to get a Ph.D. in neurobiochemistry, like Doctor Michael Raleigh at
the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA School
of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA? Doctor Raleigh specializes in the
neurotransmitter serotonin.
While he experiments primarily with monkeys, he has done tests with
athletes and fraternity members at UCLA. His research supports the findings
that higher levels of serotonin in the blood correlate to higher performance
levels and that changes in behavior cause serotonin levels to change. I had
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
13
the opportunity to meet with him in 1984 while I was in Los Angeles for the
Olympics. He agreed that my owner’s manual made sense and I was going
in the right direction.
If you want an eye opening account of how positive emotions cause
chemical changes that help heal the body, read esteemed endocrinologist Dr.
Deepak Chopra’s Quantum Healing (Bantam Books, 1989).
Your mind and body function together. Athletes live and die by the
performance of their bodies. From their own personal experiences, they
easily relate to the concept that their negative thoughts cause their brain to
secrete chemicals that immediately impair their performance. This
awareness helps them to be more objective and positive when dealing with
challenges. It helps them to control their emotions and increase their
performance.
A good metaphor to help you understand the influence of your brain's
chemistry on your performance is a fine-tuned racing engine. Those engines,
designed to run on super high-octane gasoline, sputter when using regular
gasoline.
This is similar to what happens when you are negative. You put low-
octane chemicals in your brain, causing your performance to suffer. When
you are positive and operating on instinct, your brain, metaphorically,
secretes super high-octane chemicals and your ability to perform excels as
you enter the “zone.”
Your brain receives input through your five senses.
SENSE STIMULI
See
Hear
Feel
Taste
Smell
Whenever you ‘see’, ‘hear’, ‘feel’, ‘taste’, and ‘smell’ something
(stimuli), it enters your nervous system as an electrical impulse through a
neuron (nerve cell). Once the electrical message reaches the end of the
neuron (called a synapse) the electrical impulse/message converts into a
How to be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World
by Michael Anthony
http://www.HowToBeHappy.org © 2005 by Michael Anthony
14
biochemical (called a neurotransmitter). Then, this chemical message is
converted back into an electrical impulse/message when it reaches the next
neuron. This process repeats itself over and over until the message reaches
the brain and is acted upon.
In reality you have an electrochemical nervous system. As the
chemicals change, the messages change and your brain’s performance varies
accordingly. When you are positive and operating on instinct, your brain,
metaphorically, runs on super high-octane chemicals. Your performance
excels and you feel at your best.
It is important to realize that your electrochemical nervous system is
an alternating electrical current that generates an electromagnetic field, which
is infinite in nature. The strength and quality of your electromagnetic field is
felt by those around you. As your awareness increases you will realize that
you can’t hide your feelings from those you interact with and they can’t hide
theirs from you. That’s why you have good chemistry with people you enjoy
being with and bad chemistry with those that you don’t.
What is even more important to realize is that the electromagnetic field
that your thoughts create cause attractor fields which affect your life and
happiness. We will talk more about the importance and power of the
electromagnetic fields your thoughts generate in this chapter and in Chapter
6: Cause and Effect Attractor Fields.
You can increase your natural abilities and happiness by consciously
adjusting the chemistry of your brain's cranial fluid. This fluid is affected by
your thoughts, diet/nutrition, exercise, rest, environment and physiology.
CRANIAL FLUID’S CHEMISTRY AFFECTED BY:
Thoughts
Diet
Exercise
Rest
Environment
Physiology
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