Rechannel Sex for Success

Why are peak performers and high-achievers more prone to promiscuity and infidelity? Because sex is energy, it's a self-igniting fuel that when not used to power up the engine, ends up burning the car. And Type As tend to have a whole lot more of it! There’s been much scientific research linking ambitiousness to a high sex drive, and the marital indiscretions of charismatic celebrities such as Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, Elizabeth Taylor and Madonna serve as reminders of the sex-power connection. It would seem that individuals who are highly motivated, are more often than not, hornier than most too. So what can those with big appetites do to stay out of trouble yet continue climbing the ladder of success?

In Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”, he talks about the mastery of sex transmutation. Hill writes: “Sex mutation is simple and easily explained. It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expression, to thoughts of some other nature. Sex desire is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, men develop keenness of imagination, courage, willpower, persistence, and creative ability unknown to them at other times. So strong and impelling is the desire for sexual contact that men freely run the risk of life and reputation to indulge it. When harnessed and redirected along other lines, this motivating force maintains all of it’s attributes of keenness of imagination, courage, etc., which may be used as powerful creative forces in literature, art of any other professional calling, including, the accumulation of riches.”

Taoist practitioners have long understood this philosophy of sex transmutation and have employed the sexual instinct for the purpose of self-development and well-being. They understood that sexual energy could be a depletive force, as well as a creative one. Like fire, it can be destructive or productive depending on how it is used. According to Taoist master Mantak Chia, sex, when reigned and used properly, becomes an aid in the spiritual pursuit of enlightenment. Chia even went as far as to encourage men to have sex without ejaculating to intensify the experience without expending precious “qi” or life force. In the Taoist text “The Sexual Teachings of the White Tigress”, author Hsi Lai teaches women how use sex to enhance their health and vitality, and maintain their youth.

Call it Eros, qi, life force, mojo, lust or a crazy mad crush, that irrational instinct that rouses your loins is the very thing that you should thank for all your big breaks in life. But, often people with high sex-drives can become enslaved by the very thing that propels them towards success, much to the detriment of their careers and reputations. But there is a way to master that monkey!

The key to making your libido work to your advantage is to introduce discernment and restraint. Squander your mojo and you’ll be left with no more wild oats to sow in your career or creative pursuits. Nurture it, tease it and deprive it of junk food, and it will start working wonders for you. Sexual energy is most potent and influential when it exists in the mind. It is dissipated and weakened once it is physically expressed in the act of orgasm. So hold on to it, release occasionally, and redirect the bulk of it to your work and creative life.

The power of strategy

Consider the single and sexually frustrated man or women, who expends much mental energy plotting how to “target, trap, tap and tame” a desired mate. The same strategic thinking processes translate beautifully to career advancement. In order to be successful in the mating game, one needs to be, above all else, innovative. To keep a potential mate enthralled, one needs to be able to continually entertain, intrigue and most importantly remain a novelty. To stay on top of your game in the world of business requires pretty much the same skills: keep impressing your clients (entertain), make sure they think you know something they don't (intrigue), and always surprise them with something new (remain a novelty).

The power of conquest

I knew of a guy, let’s call him Jed. Jed was what some would call a player. In his early twenties, his made a list of all his sexual conquests: name, age, hair and eye colour and how well they rated in the sack. Today, Jed who is now an extremely successful Hollywood scriptwriter has shifted his focus. He now makes lists identifying possible projects he can work on, existing and potential clients he can approach, story ideas and areas where he can develop new business. He prioritizes this list according to how easily he can achieve each item, how lucrative they will be, and how much satisfaction he will derive from working on them. The amount of time Jed use to spend pursuing and romancing new paramours, he now spends writing brilliant stories. Sex allows us to gain more territory (we get access to a body or bodies that we previously did not have access to) and increase our influence (we mate and send out mini versions of ourself into the world), and by shifting our focus from the physical to the psychic, this expansion can take place in our work life too.

Keeness of Imagination

The “keenness of imagination” that Hill writes about is something that anyone in the grips of sexual obsession knows well. The smitten spend hours entertaining thrilling fantasy of past scenarios or construct encounters (complete with dialogue) that they hope to have with the object of their attention. Their imagination fires on all cylinders until it has exhausted itself with multiple scenes or perhaps multiple partners. Now take away the more obvious imagery and ideas associated with sex, and what’s left is an enquiring mind and a clear eye that causes one to delve deeper into the emotional states and existential quandaries that cause us to seek out sex with such a desperate and despairing urgency in the first place. What reveals itself is a fear of loneliness, of poverty and lack, the sorrow of loss, rage at and dependency on a parent, the urge to dominate or submit, the need for connection, the desire to win, the need for God or a resistance to pain or death. Remove the obvious and what comes to light are subjects that are the source of all the world’s most sublime art, and the impetus for all of humanity's advancements.

Courage

Watch the male praying mantis braving death in the arms of a female for a shag, or the male wasp spider, whose genitals get broken off inside his girl before she eats him after sex, and you won’t be able to deny that pursuing sex takes the type of “courage” that Hill might have had in mind. Now imagine how much better off that praying mantis and wasp spider might be if they hadn’t explored their women’s naughty bits? This courage and risky-taking proclivity when transmuted can lead to great success in terms of wealth acquisition. It is this kind of fearlessness that encourages the entrepreneur with only a hundred dollars in his pocket to turn his dream into a reality, or that nudges the investor eyeing a dark horse to make that leap when others daren’t.

Willpower

Defined as “the strength of will to carry out one’s decisions, wishes or plans”, I interpret willpower in the context of sex as the ability to meet your goal at all costs and without consideration for others. Squids, too eager to get down to business, pierce holes into their mates before inserting sperm into their cuts (ouch!); elephant seals have been known to crush hordes of seal pups when they are in a mating frenzy. Another definition of willpower is “firmness of will; the ability to control oneself and determine one’s actions”. Once transmuted, the sex instinct can convert willful insistence to pure, directive intent, which has the power to manifest greatness and an ebullient existence.

Persistence

Watch male lobsters boxing over who gets the girl, or observe the bowerbird of Northern Australia slogging away to build their complex tunnel like nests to impress and entice a mate, and it becomes clear that sexual desire inspires almost trance-like persistence among those in its grip. Persistence, as you probably already know, is a key ingredient for success, and when rerouted from carnal pursuits towards intellectual or spiritual endeavours, can result in long-lasting and ever-increasing victories.

Creative ability

According to certain cultures and religious texts, the purpose of sex is procreation. If this notion is correct, sexual intentions are thoughts of pure creativity. In the physical expression of sex, the creative power of sexual thoughts is diminished or extinguished. But if they are withheld and not constantly given an outlet of flesh to tire themselves with, these thought-instincts enliven, adapt and are forced to find different modes of expression, for example art, music, writing, acting or the expansion of empires. When the libido is brought to submission, a person is thus able to tap more fully than ever into their creative abilities and manifest their dreams when previously they could not.