Argue Your Way to Success

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.” – Leonardo DaVinci

When was the last time you had a really good argument with yourself?

It’s a little known fact that when you engage your mind in a logical, well-thought argument, you can quickly change your life in the direction you want it to go.

We’ve all had plenty of arguments with others before. Some of us are even really good at being argumentative! ☺ A passionate line of reasoning among friends can uplift and inspire us. “Truth springs from argument amongst friends,” wrote the philosopher David Hume. On the other hand, that same tired argument with our spouse or children can hurt and depress us. Relationship guru Gay Hendricks poignantly recognized that “most couples have not had hundreds of arguments; they’ve had the same argument hundreds of times.”

We’re all familiar with various styles of arguments. And while it’s beyond the scope of this article to discuss them all, I’d like to suggest a useful simplification here. At their core, most forms of argument are a method to attempt to change or defend a set of beliefs.

If your mother is arguing with you, what does she really want? She’s attempting to change your belief to one that matches her own view of how things should be according to her. If a lawyer is using logical, persuasive arguments in front of a jury, what is he attempting to accomplish? He wants the jury to align their beliefs of guilt or innocence to win the case. If CNN is blaring sound bytes of two politicos yelling at each other, what does each side really want? Each side wants you to disallow competing beliefs and adopt beliefs aligned with their own political cause.

Argument = Attempt to Change or Defend a Belief

If you think about it, large sections of our society are constantly trying to get you to change or defend a belief. Sales and marketing. Psychiatry and self help. Politics and persuasion. Science and sociology. At its core, each uses various methods to try to get you to pay attention first, and then align your beliefs in the direction they want you to go.

The reason a really good self-argument can quickly change your life is the fact that an argument, when accepted, works on your beliefs. It is your beliefs, both conscious and not, that ultimately dictate your perceptions. It is your perceptions that dictate your view of reality. It is your view of reality that dictates your choices. Your choices dictate your actions. Your actions determine your memory. You memory dictates your desires. Your whole life is thus a reflection of your beliefs.

There are many ways to change a belief that is no longer serving you: counseling, coaching, affirmations, prayer, self-reflection, learning, science, and experience are just a few. All have their place. But if you want to quickly cut to the core of something that’s been holding you back, I recommend having a really good self-argument!

The reason a self-argument is powerful is that argument is the syntax of the logical mind. Argument is how the left-brain, logical mind operates. The left brain works in a linear, time-based fashion. It selectively takes in pieces of information, attempts to establish relationships among them, and draws conclusions. It is the source of analysis, the perception of right and wrong, and contrast. The right brain, on the other hand, captures a gestalt of the information available. It works in a non-linear, timeless mode. It is the source of intuition, creativity, and insight.

The left-brain is judgmental. To the left brain, everything is black or white, right or wrong, provable or improvable. Like a stone castle, it defends itself against new information that doesn’t align with its current “facts.” The limitation of its processing power is that its “facts” are accumulated through a limited set of past experiences and popular memes (a meme is like a gene for the collective consciousness).

When new evidence is presented that operates against its current “facts,” the left brain will fight against it until presented with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But once it accepts that new information, it too will get locked in tight in the castle. When you work a good self-argument, you’re actually following the left-brain’s syntax. It’s like you’re inserting a Trojan horse past its walled defenses. Contained within the horse are new and more powerful facts that can shift your beliefs in the direction you want to go.

Always Argue Against What is False and Towards What is True

The secret to being a good self-arguer is to always argue against what is false and towards what is true. The more you recognize and embody what is ultimately true, the more powerful your arguments and your life will be. What made Plato, Newton and Einstein so persuasive across different generations is the fact that each had taken the time to study and understand some of life’s ultimate truths.

The perennial philosophy is one that, across all epochs and cultures, points to a set of consistent universal truths. Einstein summarizes countless spiritual and philosophical traditions when he says: “That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable.” It doesn’t require faith to believe in the perennial philosophy. It does require bold thinking and the willingness to observe the world around you. The perennial philosophy can be summarized as:

“There is one Life/Source/Love/God/Power/Intelligence and that Life/Source/Love/God/Power/Intelligence is Within Me.”

Ask yourself, “Does the statement that there is one Power and that Power is within me actually ring true for me? And more importantly, is it unequivocally true for me?” If it is, then you have a very powerful, timeless truth at your disposal that you can learn to argue your way towards and shift your life. If not, then a necessary step is to look around the world and gather evidence that there is one Life and that Life is within you.

Gathering the Evidence

Everything as we perceive it in the material Universe is real but not real at the same time. We know all the physical stuff around us to have a dimension in time and a dimension in space. For example, look at the object closest to you. Does it have a dimension in space? Sure it does. It has a length, width and height or a size and a shape. It takes up space. Now does it also have a dimension in time? It does. At one point in time, there was no object in that spot. Then it emerged or was placed there. And at some point in the future it will be no more. This is true for everything in the physical Universe: your body, your house, your car, your country, and your planet, all of it. Everything that appears material resides in time-space. It has a beginning and an end, a size and a shape.

Even the more subtle aspects of the material Universe have a time-space component. Light waves, for instance, exist in time and space. A light wave has a shape. It exists in time. Even your thoughts have a time and space component. While a thought is harder to discern in space than a building or light wave, it does contain a spatial quality. It occupies space in your mind. It also occupies space in the Universe. Your thoughts also have a time component – a beginning, middle, and end. You weren’t thinking of something, you began to think about it, you stopped thinking about it. Everything that can be perceived exists in time and space.

Intellectually, we know too that all matter that exists in time and space – be it as heavy as a planet or as light as a thought – is really energy. Einstein made it very clear: E=mc2. The entire Universe is made up of highly complex, infinitely varied, intelligently orchestrated energy fields. These energy fields coalesce and form different patterns that take shape in the material Universe.

(Stay with me. We’re in the process of identifying what is false in order to reveal what is real.)

The human brain is the instrument of our perception. It works in the realm of time and space. It is designed to perceive these energy waves and form them into recognizable patterns – patterns such as butterflies, dogs, buildings, and your parents. Different brains perceive different things. Imagine a chair sitting alone in a room. A bat brain perceives an electro-magnetic frequency of the chair. A chameleon brain actually perceives two chairs. A human brain sees a chair, but even that is open to interpretation. What does it signify? What does it remind you of? What color is it? Ask any two people and you’ll get two different perceptions.

You are not your brain. Your brain simply interprets energy waves through the five senses. Because energy is constantly moving, it has a frequency or a rate of movement over time. Faster moving energy fields have higher frequencies. Slower moving energy fields have lower frequencies. Some frequencies we can detect with our senses. We see in light frequencies, hear in sound frequencies, smell in scent frequencies, taste in taste frequencies, feel in feeling frequencies, think in thought frequencies, and even our bodies and the physical world are made up of combinations of slower moving, lower frequencies that are solid to the touch.

Do you have a hard time imagining everything you can experience as a frequency of energy? If so, try this little experiment. Imagine that you can amp up the perception of your brain so that your human eyes, instead of perceiving the slower-moving frequencies of light and matter, are now capable of perception like a high-powered microscope.

Now look at your hand. What do you see? You see that your hand isn’t really a hand at all. It’s a dynamic energy field, moving and oscillating at tremendous speed generating a pattern or frequency. Next, go back to your normal vision and allow your perception to go within. Bring your attention to the palm of your hand. Feel the blood course through your fingers and palm. Blood is a collection of molecules and corpuscles that are made up of atoms that are made up of very fine energetic frequencies called electrons, protons, and neutrons. Energy.

Bring your two palms close together without touching. You’ll feel a different kind of frequency between and perhaps even surrounding your hands. Do you feel it? Energy. Now bring your attention to your heart beating in your chest. Just feel its rhythm that is conducted by an electrical frequency. Energy.

Recall a time in your life when you felt really teed-off. When you were feeling incredible anger, rage, or resentment. Do you have a time in mind? If so, then you’ll notice the frequency shift in your heart. It probably feels tighter and more constricted than just a moment ago. Now take a few deep breaths and let these feelings go.

Next, think of a time when you felt sincere joy, gratitude, and appreciation for someone or something in your life. Recall the event and notice the positive feelings, the higher moving frequencies entering your heart. Your heart, which in essence is just a big frequency pump, will likely feel lighter and more expansive. The material Universe is energy frequencies that exist in time and space, including your body, emotions, and thoughts.

Other frequencies, the vast majority, are beyond our senses altogether. We can’t discern radio frequencies with our five senses but nevertheless they are there. We can’t discern X-rays, ultra-violet rays, and gamma rays either but science tells us they are there.

On the other hand, science can’t yet measure the frequency of love. Does this mean love doesn’t exist? Of course not. You don’t need a scientist to tell you love exists. It is self- evident. Perhaps one day, science will be able to measure the frequency of love just as it has been able to discover radio, electricity, and gravitational waves. If it does, it will not mean that love has been discovered. We will simply have developed technical capabilities to detect what has always been there.

So all this stuff that we can perceive – with our senses, with scientific equipment, from our experience – it all exists as energy in time and space. What does this mean? It means that none of it is real. All of it is temporary. It exists and then it doesn’t. How can something that is temporary truly be real?

I’m not denying the existence of the material Universe. It’s not simply all an illusion. It does exist. It is real. Jump off a cliff and the laws of the physical Universe are going to ensure that you hit the ground. It’s just that it all exists temporarily, so that your jumping off the cliff has a beginning and end in time and space. It is transitory. Anything that is temporary and fleeting is not permanent and therefore can’t be real.

Now let’s go even further and see if we can identify what is real. Go back to your microscope eyes. Increase your perception even further to that of a super high-powered level that can see even beyond the energy fields that comprise the material Universe. What would you see then? You’d see that – beyond the physical world and beyond the energy fields comprising the physical world – everything comes from One source.

Intuitively and rationally this makes sense. After all, doesn’t everything have to come from some place? If it didn’t, it couldn’t even exist. Nothing comes from nothing. Everything comes from something. A child comes from a parent. The galaxy comes from the Big Bang. What does the Big Bang come from?

Ultimately, at the finest levels, everything must come from something real, something that is beyond time and space. Correspondingly, this means that everything that exists in time and space must be an aspect of the same stuff. All is literally One. As the legendary physicist and contemporary of Einstein, David Bohm, put it, “Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness.”

What is this stuff from which everything else comes? It’s the Real. It’s Life/Source/Love/God/Power/Intelligence. Call it what you will. Everything else is an expression, a variation in time and space, of this original Real stuff.

At this ultimate real level, there is a) no time, b) no space, c) no end, d) no differentiation, and e) no experience.

If there is the single real source for everything and everything in the material Universe unfolds from this real stuff, what characteristics can we know about it? No one can really know it because it is beyond description. However, there are several things we can infer and you can use these inferences as evidence in your arguments.

It is real. We can discern that what is real must exist beyond time and space. If it were only within time and space, then it would be fleeting and temporary and unreal. Something must be real for the temporary to exist. Everything must come from something. Life/Source/Love/God/Power/Intelligence is the name we give to the real. In fact, it is the only true reality. Everything else is temporary.

It is everywhere and within everything. The stuff we perceive with our senses and instruments cannot exist independently of the stuff that created it. Just as a child has characteristics of the mother and father within it, all the stuff that we perceive must also have the same real source it came from within it. This temporal Universe exists within and from a real blueprint. Therefore, within all the stuff we perceive, Life also exists. Life is everywhere and within everything. Reality is everywhere within the forms we perceive.

It is creative. It is the ultimate creative force in the Universe. We can see this creativity in how the Universe unfolds in increasing levels of complexity. This creative force, this will to evolve and expand, is ever present. If it were not creative, nothing would exist. There would be no originating creative impulse.

It is silent and still. Music without silence cannot be heard. A bow launches the arrow from stillness. The originating source of everything must also be silent and still. If it was not silent and still, nothing could be created into the realm of form.

It is intelligence. Nature has an intelligence that even a child can see. Plant a pumpkin seed and a pumpkin grows. Put your attention on your heartbeat. Feel its rhythm beating in your chest. What is beating your heart? Digesting your food? Regenerating your body? Innate intelligence is doing that. Life is doing that. And life is intelligence.

It is self-aware. Source must be self-aware because it is only consciousness that can recognize itself. If it were not conscious, then nothing would be conscious. There would be nothing to reflect, nothing to perceive; nothing would exist. Life requires consciousness to perceive itself.

It is abundant. There is no scarcity in nature. There is only abundance. How is it that one watermelon seed produces a watermelon filled with hundreds of more seeds. How is it that the apple tree produces apples so effortlessly, and does this again and again each year? Reflect on how everything in life has within it all that it needs for its own abundant expression. It’s amazing. Abundant expression is the nature of life.

It is perfection. Imagine if, in this field of pure potential and creative expression, any real flaw existed. If a flaw did exist, the Universe would instantly implode and be destroyed. There would be no intelligence; there would be no Universal laws like gravity, quantum entanglement, electricity, time, or space because the flaw would create havoc in everything. With even a small flaw, nothing would exist and all would be chaos. Life, by necessity, is perfect.

It is you. It is within everything and everyone. It is all that is. Therefore you are real. You are timeless, eternal, undifferentiated, whole, silent, still, creative, intelligent, self-aware, abundant, and perfect. This is the real you. What is false in your life are any artificial conscious and unconscious beliefs you hold that tell you otherwise.

Beliefs and perceptions rooted in fear, separation, self-limitation, and denial are false. What is real in your life is the only real power in the Universe. They key to being a good self-arguer is to argue away from and deny what is false and temporary, and argue towards what is real. In this way, you reside more fully in this one and only reality – the reality of Truth.

How to Argue Your Way to Success

Now that we’ve identified a truth we can argue towards, the next step is to equip you with a framework to argue your way to success.

First, identify one thing in your life you sincerely want to change or improve.
It could be anything. Money, love, health, happiness, opportunities, acceptance. You name it.

“I’d like to have more ____________.”

Second, write down the limiting, false beliefs you are carrying about this area of your life.

If you can’t recognize any limiting beliefs, it’s not because they’re not there in your consciousness, it’s because you can’t see them … yet. But they’re there. Sometimes you can’t see the picture because you’re standing in it. With practice, it becomes easy to spot a negative belief in the moment but, for now, write a list of five to seven negative, limiting beliefs related to the area of your life you sincerely want to improve.

Some common false beliefs include elements of judgment, fear, worry, anxiety, depression, lack, limitation, bitterness, resentment, feeling trapped by the past, feeling stuck in current circumstances, failure, unworthiness, shame, guilt, ill preparedness, stupidity, feeling mismatched or misaligned, incompetence, hardship, bad luck, feeling judged by, not knowing what to do, poverty, loneliness, sickness, disease and anger.

For example, let’s say you wrote down “I’d like to have more money.” Next, you’d jot down the negative, limiting beliefs you are carrying about money and about things related to money like your job, your industry, the economy, the stock market, the dollar, spending, saving, investing, etc. Your list might look something like this:

1) Money is hard to come by.
2) The economy is tanking.
3) I just can’t seem to get sales going.
4) The dollar is worthless.
5) Money is scarce.
6) I can’t stand my boss.
7) I always make bad decisions about money.

Third, engage in a logical, passionate argument.

In order to have an effective argument, you need to argue against what is false and towards what is true. You need to do it with logic and with passion. Don’t be timid. ARGUE. FIGHT. DECLARE. COMMIT to what you know to be true at your core.

As you get ready to argue, remember that there’s nothing really good or bad, positive or negative – it’s only your perception that makes it so. Your perceptions are dictated by your beliefs. So change your beliefs and change your world.

The false belief is: “Money is hard to come by.” The argument goes against what is false and towards what is true:

“Hold on a sec, that’s a belief I’m carrying, but is it really true? And wait just a doggone minute, who the f)@+ am I anyway? Am I a feverish little clod fumbling his way through life or am I One with all that is? And if I really am One with all that is, as I know myself to be, how in the heck can I be so arrogant to believe that I am the one who is separate from the flow of abundance and opportunity that is Life itself? Give me a frickin break. What a joke. What a crazy, silly, sad belief. If I take myself out of the picture and just look objectively at the world, is money hard to come by for everyone? Or does it just seem hard to come by for me right now? Clearly, Bob Smith is raking it in right now. What’s the real difference between me and Bob? Aren’t we both aspects of the same Source? In fact, when I think about it, I know many people who are killing it. Even in this ‘down’ economy. In fact, although the press reports 10% unemployment, when I put down the TV remote and the newspaper, I actually see crowded freeways and airports, bustling restaurants and coffee shops, full grocery stores and people engaged in all kinds of activities. So is the economy down or is it I who am down? Why does it feel “down” for me? Hmmm, it must feel down to me because I haven’t made a sale in three months. Yes, sales are hard in this economy. But wait – has anyone in my company or my industry made sales during this same time period? Yes, they have. In fact, Sara Smith just set a record quarter. Hmmm. OK. So is my belief that “money is hard to come by for me and not for everyone else?” Yes, that seems true to me. Money is hard to come by for me but not for others. WTF? How did I come up with that belief? When I look around the world, I can see that it works really, really well. Nature blooms. Nature expands. Am I not part of nature? Why shouldn’t the same be true for me? How can I possibly be so arrogant as to think that universal laws of prosperity and abundance apply in the natural world, and in the economic world, to everyone and everything but me? Bull shit! What a lame belief. Starting right now, I’m going to embody a more true belief and it’s a belief that “Money is always circulating and I am in that flow of circulation.” I’m going to drop my sob story and focus on spotting the opportunities right in front of my nose. In fact, I’m going to call Bob Smith right now; I think I have the perfect solution for him.”

When you’re in a self-argument, you’re not arguing “out there” for things to change. You’re not pleading, begging, or angry at the Universe for not delivering the goods. You’re arguing within your own consciousness and against your own false beliefs and towards more truth. You’ll know you’re arguing correctly when you feel better as a result of your argument. You’ll have a greater sense of clarity, power and truth. You’ll notice that your ability to think creatively and find solutions will increase. You’ll spot new opportunities and have the presence of mind to act on them.

It is important to argue out loud and with passion. So find a place where you won’t be disturbed and the neighbors won’t call the police. It doesn’t have to take a long time to argue out an old belief – three to five minutes should do it – but keep arguing until you feel an inner shift towards more clarity, power and faith. Even a small shift is a powerful move in the right direction.

Over time, the more you argue out the false and embody the true, this clarity and power will direct your life in the direction you desire. In Gandhi’s words: “If I have a belief I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have had it in the beginning.” So go ahead and get started now… and argue your way to success.