What happened at that party? Leonardo threw these ideas together, and BAM! What emerged was idea for a perfectly designed parachute as well as a remarkable helicopter--hundreds of years before Wright brothers started building their flying machines! Talk about a soaring success! Don't you wish you'd been there?

#5 Offer best seat in house. You usually sit in that nice chair there by fireplace, but when a special guest comes over, you graciously offer it.

When you are entertaining a new thought, give it consideration it deserves. Every time you think a new thought, your brain is actually creating a new neural pathway. It's like a jungle in there, full of nerve endings and ganglia and all kinds of connections. Help it along. Make it comfortable.

Once you've considered an idea, that pathway is there. All you have to do to keep it "live" is to keep going down that path often enough to clear trail, but not so often that it becomes a rut.

#6 Listen, inquire, and show interest. Ask questions. Dig a little deeper. Find connections to other people, places, and activities. Learn as much as you can about your new idea.

#7 Relinquish control. Just like when you introduce guests to each other, you should not try to control outcome. Some guests might hate each other on sight, while others click instantly. People might argue, or a married guest might sneak off to a back room with someone other than their partner. Anything can happen!

That's not up to you. You're having this party to offer an opportunity for people to connect. Make introductions, insert a few comments, smile and acknowledge everyone, but for most part, just let things happen. Don't direct flow of ideas.

#8 Leave room for future possibilities. Even if you decide this guest of yours is insufferable, you don't want to burn any bridges. Be gracious, and be glad you were excellent enough to offer invitation.

You're not going to like every idea that comes your way. And you might not find any other interest or idea that connects with it initially. That's fine. You need to develop ability to recognize useful concepts and distinguish valuable and valid ideas from those lacking a strong foundation. That's what critical thinking is all about.

But you also need to file that idea away so that you can look it up if and when you DO meet a likely candidate for another gathering of thoughts.

There is a great deal of room for different styles of mental entertaining. Maybe you're best at dealing with only two ideas at a time, or maybe you want to throw a huge bash and welcome all comers.

Entertain in whatever style suits you. Tete-a-tete or bacchanal--it doesn't matter, as long as it's happening.

Learn how to entertain a thought. With a little effort, you'll become a perfect host or hostess to new ideas that come your way. And guess what? You'll have no hangover, no cleaning up, and no regrets.

Party on!

2. Choose one of bolstering beliefs you've just identified. On left hand side, write down that bolstering belief.

3. On right hand side, write down first thing that pops into your mind. Don't think about this. You will have an immediate thought. Just write it down.

4. On left hand side, write down bolstering belief.

5. On right hand side, write down first thing that pops into your mind.

Keep on going back and forth between two columns. Try not to stop before going on to either side: that is, don't 'think' about it, just let process flow. The goal is not only to uncover negative beliefs, but to get past them. So, once you've identified one underlying belief keep going. Others may come up. Continue until you end up writing same belief on both sides of paper -- and you believe it!

As you go through process, you may need to modify bolstering belief as pieces of your unconscious negative talk come through. For example, if your bolstering belief is 'I deserve to make a lot of money' and you uncover fact that you feel guilty about making more money than other members of your family, you might change it to 'I deserve to make a lot of money, regardless of financial situation of my family'. Just keep process going. You'll know when it feels 'finished'.

As a final note, if you start process and find that you keep having same 'first thought', just stick with it. When a belief is really strong (and most of these are, or you wouldn't be experiencing an inability to create what you want), it presents opposition to being exposed. Eventually, you'll relax with process and other thoughts will surface. Remember to take a lot of slow deep breaths and I strongly urge you to do this longhand.