James Bond is the original Goldenballs. The man walks as though he has golden nuggets between his legs that every woman wants to get her hands on, and every man would like to possess! He has an attitude of being in control and he has bucket loads of charisma.

Charisma is one of the greatest tools for success and high impact thinking. When you think of charisma, people like Cary Grant, George Clooney, Bill Clinton or Tony Robbins might come to mind. Perhaps you marvel at the charisma of Oprah or the regal wisdom of Maya Angelou. Charisma is charm, warmth and personal magic. It is not dependent on physical attractiveness. Charisma is about fire and inner spirit and the ability to connect with others.

Charismatic people are hard to dislike and hard to harm. That is why it is such a wonderful weapon in the secret agents mental armoury. They seem powerful; this gives them an edge. They seem disarmingly warm and friendly; it’s so much harder to be nasty to someone you actually like. So they have this psychic shield around them.

A healthy self-concept gives you the “bottle” to take action, to stand your own against the richest / smartest / most powerful people. With a winning attitude and the charisma that goes with it, you can get into places and into minds that would otherwise be sealed.

How do you get this charismatic high self-concept?

It starts with liking and loving yourself.

The simplest ideas are often the most effective.

Every day repeat to yourself, “I like myself. I love and accept myself as I am. I am highly pleasing to myself in the presence of other people.”

Begin to count your blessings. What do you like about yourself? Appreciate those things. Account for them regularly. What are you good at? What are you getting better at? How are you improving? Who loves you and whom do you love?

That takes care of half of charisma. The other half comes from asking yourself: “What’s interesting / fascinating / sexy about this person? What do I really like about him / her? How can I be of service to this person? How can I make this person feel better right now than they did before they met me?” Taking a sincere interest in other people is a habit that can be learned as easily as the habit of ignoring or disliking other people was learned. Switch them.

To grease the wheels of charisma further, you can also look at presentation, personal grooming, posture, health and above all quality of your speaking voice. All those are covered and freely available on the web. A quick Google search should reveal all!

And now the flip side.

The real genius of attitude is being able to adjust it to meet the circumstances. There are times in a secret agent’s life when it pays NOT to be a tall poppy. Then one has to play with the inner psychology, to temper one’s persona like a chameleon to become invisible, unnoticed, so that one might observe more closely or escape without being caught.

Your mind is a most marvellous machine. And you can adjust your moods, emotions, and the level of projected energy with consummate ease. Simply put yourself into the physiological state of the emotion or feeling that you wish to elicit. Stand and breathe and think as you would if you were having that emotion. Bestride the decks like a giant, a colossus of confidence. Then switch to being like a shy, quiet, small man or woman in the corner. Switch between these states. Switch between happy and sad, between joyful and angry, between passionate and bored. Keep doing it until you realise that you do indeed control your emotional states. You do not need outer circumstances to change for you to feel better. You change the inner circumstances and make the emotions you want. E-motions are energy in motion. You set them in motion.

Play with taking your emotions to higher and higher levels. Turn up the joy dial. Turn up the feelings of bliss. Adjust your attitude from poor me to lucky me, from bad me to wonderful me. You set the tone. You control the deck.

Article by Wily Walnut