How to Harness Your Superpowers

I’ll bet you think that you don’t have superpowers. WRONG! Everyone has them, it’s just a matter of accessing them. Most people have yet to discover that they have a superpower (and most of us have several) that’s just waiting to be unleashed!

According to my highly scientific study (in which I asked my Facebook friends which superpower they’d most like to have), flying is the number one superpower people wish they had.

Flying is all about lifting yourself up, high into the air. But how do you lift yourself up when you’re simultaneously weighing yourself down? Have you ever tied a helium balloon to a chair? What happened? Did the balloon fly away? No. Why? Because it was tied down, of course!

We’re all kind of like that balloon, tied down by our own beliefs and “brain junk.” You can’t fly, either because you think you can’t or because you never stopped to think that maybe you actually could. Remember in “The Matrix” how fast Neo plummeted to the ground when he was sure he couldn’t fly? That’s the point: how can you ever allow your spirit to soar, conquering massive obstacles along the way, if you’re sure that you can’t?

If you want to leap tall buildings in a single bound, then you have to change your thought processes first, beginning with your “brain junk.” Start fixing that here (and in the free chapter from my book, Business in Blue Jeans, and the accompanying workbook you’ll get when you subscribe to my email newsletter) then you can fly.

Reading other people’s minds is very exciting stuff. How exciting to know what someone else is thinking! But believe it or not, we all already have that superpower. Again, the only reason you haven’t experienced it is because you’re stifling it. The best way to stop stifling your mind-reading superpower is to start listening—super listening.

Super listening is when you listen with more than just your ears and when you listen to more than just the words. So for example, when you’re in conversation with someone, you look at their nonverbal cues, like their movements and gestures, their facial expressions, their body language. And you listen to more than just their words; you listen to their paralanguage cues, like their pace of speech, their tone of voice, their pitch modulation. By learning how to listen with all of your senses, you’ll begin to discern so much more information, it’ll be as close to reading minds as it gets.

Achieving super-intelligence also ranks highly on the desired superpowers, mainly because with super-intelligence, you can do almost anything. You can invent cool tools, come up with the best plans to solve any problem, remember the punch line to every joke, and take over the world (see “Avoiding Super-Villainy,” below).

So what’s keeping you from achieving this superpower? Well, the best way to achieve super-intelligence is to study—consistently and constantly. Reading is one of the best ways to learn new material, so if you keep your nose in a book, you’ll grow and learn on a continuous basis. Listen to podcasts and audio books when you’re driving or doing household tasks, and you’ll learn even more! Before you know it, your friends will be calling you “The Brain,” and you’ll have achieved super-intelligence.

I don’t know why immortality didn’t rank higher on my Facebook poll, but I’m apparently the only one who wants to be immortal. Maybe you secretly want it, too. Or maybe too many movie super-villains have sought immortality, so people are embarrassed to admit how enticing immortality really is (again, “Avoiding Super-Villainy”).

But did you know that you actually can achieve virtual immortality? Well, you can get close, let’s say. Obviously, you can lengthen your lifespan by exercising, eating right, and moderating your stress levels. But you can also bend time by increasing your productivity levels. Why, you can get literally hours back in a single day with just one little shift. Just imagine, if you accumulated hours per day, how much time you’d get back in a year! It’s sort of almost just like being immortal!

I’ve been referring to this particular one throughout this entire article, and frankly, it’s important. “With great power comes great responsibility.” You’ve heard that one before (and if you haven’t, you call yourself a person who wants superpowers? Pshaw! Go back, do your homework, and study the literature. Immediately.)

When you have superpowers, it’s your responsibility to look out for humanity. That means you have to do some good in the world. Give back, donate to charity, be kind to human beings who haven’t yet achieved their superpowers. Give massive amounts of value to your clients, your customers, and all of the people you’ve brought into your life.

Doing good is important to avoiding super-villainy, because doing good creates positive energy (in the form of strong character) that counteracts any potential negative energy that might come from being super—things like ego, greed, and selfishness. And you must do good while you’re in the process of becoming a superhero, too, because the positive energy will stave off envy and impatience, too.

Harnessing your superpowers is a lifelong journey. Unlike the characters in comic books, in real life, superpowers rarely come overnight or appear after a single bizarre accident. But if you dedicate yourself to the pursuit of becoming a truly magnificent superhero, you’ll be able to break world records, make a difference in the lives of others, and even, maybe, change the world.