Mind Sequencing: Your Positive Energy Toolkit With Paul Hoyt

It’s time to recharge your energy and ignite your passion! Your Positive Energy Toolkit is your ultimate guide to unlocking your inner potential and harnessing the power of positive energy. Join Penny Zenker and Paul Hoyt, the Author of Surprises on the Road to Enlightenment and The Practice of Awakening II, to explain the simple yet powerful strategy to unlock your full potential, Mind Sequencing. Paul and Penny emphasize the need for individuals to allow themselves time to relax and recharge, for it is crucial for mental and emotional well-being. Hoyt also shares the three questions to help individuals identify their ideal selves, assess their current state, and shift their focus toward desired feelings. Discover proven techniques to overcome negativity, boost your mood, and create lasting change. So, hit that play button and listen to Paul Hoyt and Penny Zenker today!

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Mind Sequencing: Your Positive Energy Toolkit With Paul Hoyt

Welcome to the show. I’m always looking to share new perspectives and new ideas or challenge you in some way so that you can work smarter and not harder and live in more peace rather than more stress. I’m excited to invite an old friend. You guys are going to be along for the ride as we catch up. That’s going to be super fun.

Paul Hoyt is with me. A little bit about Paul, he’s a business consultant and a personal coach. He specializes in helping solopreneurs and small business owners develop and implement their startup and expansion plans. He’s also a passionate personal coach, helping others be the best person that they can possibly be. That’s because building a profitable, sustainable, and scalable business isn’t always about the numbers. Our lives and our businesses are intertwined. It’s about becoming the person that you have to be to get the result that you want. Without further ado, Paul, welcome to the show. 

Thanks. It is great to see you again. It’s been a number of years here. I’m very excited about the progress that you’ve made, the accomplishments you have, and the books that you’ve written.

Thank you. 

I’ve been looking forward to this conversation for a while.

I’m on your newsletter. I’ve been so head down. I haven’t done any networking or anything for so long. I’ve noticed that we are on this path together as well, talking about focus not just from a task perspective but also from a strategic perspective and a spiritual perspective. You have a number of books out as well.

I’ve published six books. I’ve got 3 or 4 more that are in various stages of development. My latest one was published in December 2024 called Surprises on the Road to Enlightenment, which is a collection of 80 little surprises, insights, and little nuggets of wisdom that I learned along the way. Each one of them was a surprise to me when I learned it. I wanted to share that with other people because who knows? Maybe there’s something in there that will surprise them too.

Maybe you opened that door. If you could share with us and share with me, since we’re catching up, what is something since we last saw each other, which is probably a good 8 to 10 years?

The Energy Of Thought

I’ve been blessed to make a lot of progress both in business and my personal journey over the course of the last 8 to 10 years. As I like to say, I’ve been trying to get my stuff together for 50 years and it’s starting to pay off. The truth is it started to pay off right away. I finally found a way to relax. I gave myself permission to relax a couple of times a day. That’s what worked for me.

One of the things that I like about the things that I’ve read from your teachings and your processes is the focus on physiology and the recognition that we have many of what I call Layers of Self. It’s one of the modules that I teach in my Mind Sequencing program. We do have Layers of Self, the physical layer, the emotional layer, the mental layer, and the spiritual layer. They’re all very much intertwined.

When I first started my journey, I couldn’t meditate because my mind was way too active. I did find a way to finally give myself permission and relax my body, starting at my toes and working up my body from my toes to my nose. Once I had my complete body relaxed, I was able to slow down my thoughts a little bit, calm my thoughts a little bit, and give myself a chance to heal, rest, and recover at an emotional, mental, and spiritual level as well.

I meditated for a number of years after that and got stuck on my meditations for about 25 years until I had some epiphanies in my mid-50s about twenty years ago or so. One of those epiphanies was very similar to one that you expressed in one of the things I read about you, and that is the energy of thought. That’s one of the things I want to speak to you about in this episode.

The Reset Moment

I want to come back to this idea of permission to allow yourself to relax. We are at such a fast pace “I have to get it done. I have to do more” mindset of chasing productivity. I was there too. I was trying to do that extra thing. I call these moments to relax or these moments to give yourself permission to recharge or rethink something reset moments. That’s what it does. It helps us recharge and reset our thinking and our physiology. You said you had a hard time. Maybe you can share what was the thing that allowed you, and everybody might be different, to give yourself that permission. Did everything blow up and your health deteriorated or did you find something else that helped you to open that door?

The key there was desperation. I woke up when I was nineteen years old and realized that I was unhappy a lot of the time. I was very tense, anxious, temperamental, sarcastic, bitter, and cynical. I could have a little fun every once in a while. Sometimes, that fun was at the expense of other people. I woke up one day and figured out that I’m only happy and relaxed for maybe 20 or 30 minutes a day. That’s only 2% or 3%. The rest of the time, I’m nervous, stressed out, and grumpy. Even when you and I met ten years or so ago at a business conference, other people caught me looking grumpy, serious, focused, and determined and not lighthearted, kind, and easygoing at all. 

When I first learned my total body relaxation meditation, it was one of those, “I got to let go of this stuff. I got to give myself permission to calm down, relax, and let it all go. It will be there when I get back. It will be there when I get ready. I’m going to give myself permission for 10 or 20 minutes to deeply relax, recover, and feel.” It made a huge difference. I made a lot of progress between the time I was 20 years old and the time I was 30 years old.

I want to do a shout-out to the audience. Take a moment to check in with your emotions and how you feel in your body. If you’re finding yourself feeling anxious, stressed all the time, and overwhelmed, these are triggers to help you say this is exactly when you need those reset moments. You need to build them into your day so that that doesn’t become who you are. At least for the moment, it’s not who you are down deep, but it’s how you’re showing up. It doesn’t have to be you. Remember that. That’s good. You talked about giving permission. You gave yourself permission. I want everybody out there to give themselves permission.

I’ve been using the football analogy. There are two halves to a football game and they have three timeouts allotted to take whenever they need to during those times. We could play it like a football game. On the first half of your day, you get to take three timeouts whenever you need them. You should take them because they could change the game, and then there’s the second half. For those of you tuning in, give yourself permission to take that time.

That’s a lovely analogy. I have never heard that before. I love that. I’m going to give you great kudos and credit for that. I’ll borrow it and give you credit whenever I can. 

Borrow with pride. Whatever we can do to make people happier and more at peace. Let’s come to the energy of thought. You said that resonated with you. What was it that struck you? How have you been using your energy of thought to create what you want in your life? 

I’ve been blessed to have a few epiphanies over my life. One of them happened in 2009. I was sitting in a pretty quiet state and I came across a word that triggered an energetic response. That word was jubilation. I read that word and immediately felt a little zing or a little pick-me-up. I went, “Wow.” Whenever I say that word to myself or see that word, I feel an energetic shift.

Words are labels on concepts. Words are labels on energy. If we can think of the word with our rational mind, we can trigger an energetic response. I started to think, “There’s got to be other words like that,” so I started looking at all of the synonyms for jubilation and then the synonyms for those words. I came up with a list of 2,362 words.

Is that all?

They represented about 1,496 concepts at the top. Triumph and triumphant, and success and successful are very similar. I began to focus my thoughts on collections of words. One of the things I learned very quickly was that if I could combine synonyms, it was more powerful than a single word. I could think to myself, “Courage,” but it was much more powerful if I thought to myself, “Courage, daring, bravery, boldness, gumption, spunk, and pluck.” If I added that spunk and pluck onto the end of that, a little bit of cheerfulness and a little bit of feistiness, it was even more effective.

I found this technique of energetic focus that allowed me to have combinations of words, typically synonyms, that immediately shifted my energy. One day, I was out walking my dog and trying to do a shift of energy and it wasn’t working at all. I thought, “I don’t know why this isn’t working. What do I have to do first?” I’m a project manager and computer programmer. I think of things in terms of sequences and project plans. I was like, “What do I have to do first?”

My answer came back to me that first, I’ve got to see the gap. I’ve got to see where I am and remember where I could be. I have to believe that if I focus enough time and attention, I can close that gap and I’ll feel better when I do. I have to choose to commit the time necessary to make that shift. Once I’ve made that commitment, then I can focus and make the shift, and then I’ll be the person I want to be and I’ll feel the way I want to feel.

That became my golden sequence, “I see, I believe, I choose, I shift, I am.” With that came the realization that it was sequences of energies that were far more powerful for me than just combinations of energies. A recognition that every time I had a combination of energies, there was a particular sequence that felt right to me or felt more powerful. Courage, daring, bravery, and boldness feel more powerful to me than bravery, courage, daring, and boldness. There seems to be a right sequence.

Also, with the words, the way that they roll off your tongue sometimes is that there’s better order. I hear what you’re saying.

Mind Sequencing System

With that, I created my Mind Sequencing system, which teaches people the art and science of creating sequences of thought and action that can be used to shift their energy. I have dozens or hundreds of sequences that I can use whenever I want to do it. Even more importantly than that, I built up the habit deep in my subconscious mind.

I know that I can shift my energy whenever I want. I know that there’s always a path to do that. There’s always a sequence of thought and action that allows me to be the person that I want to be. As I say in my Mind Sequencing system, you can learn to think the thoughts you want to think so you can feel the way you want to feel and be the person that you want to be. 

A lot of people are like, “That’s not the right order. You feel first.” I’ve had this discussion a lot. They’re like, “You feel first and then you think.” They give themselves this, “I can’t help it. It’s the way I feel.” How do you address that? I also come from the perspective that we give something meaning and that’s why we feel something. That’s then how we behave and act. Our thinking gives that meaning. Unless your hand is slammed into a door, that’s a different kind of feeling than what we’re talking about. How would you answer that if somebody said, “That’s not the order. I can’t control how I feel.”

I agree with the first and I disagree with the second. I do believe that the subconscious mind or the emotional mind is much more powerful than the rational mind. There are all kinds of estimates out there, 88% or 95%. Anything and everything we do is at a subconscious almost automatic level. The emotions do come first and then the thoughts follow. The thoughts are more reporters and historians than they are generals in command. I agree with that as the first part.

The cool thing about it is that we can retrain ourselves at a deep subconscious level. We can retrain ourselves to respond with loving kindness instead of with vindictiveness and anger when we get into a tense situation. We can retrain ourselves to control our subconscious mind and reprogram ourselves. Personality transplants take a long time but they can be affected. They can happen.

Some people are blessed to go to sleep with one person and wake up the next morning a completely different person. Eckhart Tolle is an example of that. The Apostle Paul is an example of that. Byron Katie is an example of that. These are people who had a burning-bush, struck-by-lightning, changed-overnight experience. For the rest of us, it’s about changing ourselves to a deep subconscious level with one thought, one prayer, one meditation, and one intention at a time.

It struck me because I talk about one reset moment at a time. It’s each one of those things, one thought, one prayer, and one recent moment. We make it so complex, and it doesn’t have to be. We don’t have to get from here to wherever we’re going in a nanosecond. We need to recognize the progress along the way and take those intentional steps.

It’s much like saving for retirement. You can either have a plan that says, “I’m going to strike it rich and win the lottery,” or you can have a plan that says, “I’m going to save a little bit with every paycheck. I put a little bit away every single time.” We can invest in our own happiness, productivity, health, and spiritual growth with one prayer, one meditation, one kind thought, and one reset moment at a time.

That’s right. It trains you well. I know you don’t know the concept because I’m coming out with this book in September 2024. From your experiences and your perspective, how would you define a reset mindset?

I would define a reset mindset as a willingness and an eagerness to realize the power we have to focus our attention and shift our energy anytime that we want to. That’s the Mind Sequencing mantra. Your reset mindset, my Mind Sequencing mantra, and the whole Mind Sequencing approach are very much the same. We’re talking about the same capability that every human being has in slightly different languages. To me, a reset mindset is that recognition of the power that we all have to take a moment, step back a little bit, change the focus of our attention, reframe that experience, and step into a different response and different perspective.

One of the things I do that I love to do is whenever I feel a little bit of tension in any conversation or if I want to feel a little boost of energy, I say to myself and the other person silently, “I love you. Be happy. Be strong.” I find myself repeating that over and over again. That gives me the energy that I want to have in that interaction. That’s an example of a reset mindset. It’s that willingness to change and that belief in yourself and confidence that you can step into a greater level of performance, a greater level of health and happiness, and a greater level of kindness and wisdom anytime that you want. 

Well said. I would agree with you. We are on the same path. We’re using different languages. A lot of people speak about the same thing in different languages and it attracts different people. We’re on a mission so that people can be their best selves, be happier, and achieve more without the stress and anxiousness that seems to come along with it. At the end of our time, I want to get your information, but if there was one question that I haven’t yet asked you, what would you want to share that I didn’t yet ask you that question?

The Path Of Three Questions

I’d love to share what I call the path of three questions, which is a simple sequence of three different questions that people can ask themselves to help shift their energy. It’s another example of Mind Sequencing but a very powerful one. Question number one is, “Who am I when I’m at my best?” I want everybody to have a vision of who they are when they are at their best. I believe that we all have this greatness within us that shows up a lot of the time or some of the time.

Question number two is, “Who am I right now? How am I feeling right now?” That helps you see the gap between how you could be and how you are. Question number three is the magic question. It is, “How do I want to feel right now?” Whenever you answer that question, you immediately draw that energy into your current experience. You’re like, “I want to feel more confident. I want to feel more at ease. I want to feel more patient.” However you want to feel, you immediately draw that into your current experience.

If the path of three questions doesn’t quite get you the results you want, there are a couple of bonus questions. Question four is, “What’s stopping me from feeling the way that I want to feel right now?” The answer is usually some sort of fear or attachment. Question number five is, “What am I willing to do right now to feel the way that I want to feel?”

When you practice that day after day and do it 10 times, 100 times, or 1,000 times, what happens is that it becomes the path of one question, which is that third question or that magic question, “How do I want to feel right now?” Whenever you ask yourself that question, you immediately begin to shift to feeling the way you want to feel and being the person that you want to be. I want to give the path of three questions away to the entire world. This has been an audience of people out there who don’t know it that will take that to heart and practice it day after day after day. I guarantee it will make a big difference in their lives.

What it creates in my language is a reset. It helps them see what’s in the gap and reset so that they can align around what they do want and how they could experience that. I love that there are so many different ways for people to find that reset. I love questions. They’re so easily accessible. You don’t have to pay anything for them. They’re right at the tip of your tongue. Those are powerful, simple questions that people can ask themselves every day.

I fully agree. 

The Focused Mind Community

Where can they find more information about you?

You can find it at three different places. There’s PaulHoyt.com, which is my business consulting place where you can find out a little bit more about what I do to help businesses plan their growth. There are 133 hours worth of training videos on there for free in the Free Resources section. For those people who may be struggling a little bit in business or facing a lot of opportunities, I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners over the last 22 years. I might be able to help you make sure your next steps are the right steps.

With MindSequencing.com, you can find out more about my Mind Sequencing program and how you can learn to have structured self-talk on steroids and learn to lift your spirits whenever you want. With the Focused Mind Community, you can join in with a group of other people who believe strongly in the power of focused attention, the power that we all have, to become the persons that we want to be.  

Thank you for all of that, and thank you for being here.

Thank you, Penny. It’s a great joy to see another person who’s on the same path and using all of their skills and talents to help make this world a better place by sharing with people the power of having a reset moment. I’m glad we reconnected.

Thank you all for being here. Without you, there wouldn’t be a show. I’m happy to have had this discussion with you to give you these golden nuggets that we got from Paul. Make sure that you’re putting this into practice. The thing that struck me that I heard myself say as you were talking is, “I love you. Be happy. Be strong.”

Everybody, think of whatever it is that’s going to be your next best thing to shift into your best energy. Find that one word or that sequence of words. Go check out Paul’s stuff. Know that you can achieve all that you’re looking to achieve in your life with less effort and less stress. It starts with the first step and the first reset moment. We’ll see you all in the next episode.

Important Links:

• Paul Hoyt
• Surprises on the Road to Enlightenment
• The Practice of Awakening II
• MindSequencing.com
• Focused Mind Community

About Paul Hoyt