I’m covering everything on my new weekly online TV show – from Seneca’s Stoicism to The Secret’s Law of Attraction to EFT Tapping to mindset, beliefs, coaching, ho’oponopono and more – and I’m just getting started! Every Friday I post a new episode. Every show is full of inspiration and information to help you achieve “Zero Limits Living.” Sign up for notifications, and watch all the recent episodes, at https://www.joevitale.com/zero-limits-living-tv
Expect Miracles!
Ao Akua,
Dr Joe
You’ll want to see the Summer 2021 edition of In the Limelight with Clarissa magazine with Dr. Joe Vitale (me!) on the cover. Exclusive feature interview inside (with more new photos). This is the magazine of supermodel and powerhouse entrepreneur Clarissa Burt. Love the ads in it too. Free online. See https://clarissaburt.com/in-the-limelight-with-clarissa-summer-2021-issue/ Enjoy!
My dear friend Michael Abedin, publisher, author, editor, and so much more, passed away last month. I wrote this article for the tribute issue of his magazine, Austin All Natural:
“Take Your Time in a Hurry”
Or,
As Fast as Wayne Newton, As Slow as Wyatt Earp
By Dr Joe Vitale
“Can I see the revolver?”
I’ve known Michael over ten years. We’ve shared everything from Cuban cigars to old Scotch, fast cars to great books, spirituality to marketing, Reiki to Bach Flower Remedies, to our lives personal ups and downs. He was the greatest storyteller I ever knew.
I had him MC my events, like Attract Money Now Live and the Advanced Ho’oponopono retreat. He was also the MC when I performed as a singer-songwriter on stage at The Townsend in Austin with my Band of Legends. He also published my feature articles for more than ten years, and put me on the cover of his magazine, Austin All Natural, more times than I can recall.
We got together often, and shared our struggles and triumphs, usually over a bottle of aged Scotch.
Once Michael visited my home and wanted to see the old Colt six shooter I own. It used to belong to actor and bodybuilder Steve Reeves. It was part of my collection of Reeves memorabilia. I had the revolver and the leather belt Reeves wore in spaghetti western movies like A Long Ride from Hell. Michael knew it and was eager to see it.
Michael put on the belt and put the gun in the holster. It fit his tiny waist. He looked ready to be in a Quentin Tarantino movie.
He walked around with attitude, the leather gun belt low on his hip, and looked like he was about to step into the O.K. Corral. With his long hair, boots, and jeans, he fit the part of old cowboy. Or an eccentric modern one.
Being Michael, he repeated advice from Wyatt Earp.
“Fast is fine but accuracy is final,” Michael said, paraphrasing the famous gun-slinging sheriff. “In a gun fight, you need to take your time in a hurry.”
“Take your time in a hurry.”
Michael and I loved the phrase.
It was a Zen-like reminder for every aspect of life: slow down but be aware.
Act but be present.
We both had a drink of Scotch to toast the old lawman and his wisdom.
“Have you ever fired it?” Michael asked, holding the Colt.
“Never,” I said. “It’s just part of my Steve Reeves collection. I never intend to actually use it.”
Michael stood and practiced his fast draw. While he convincingly looked the part, he wasn’t ready to be in a duel. He fumbled several times. The gun seemed to stick in the holster. Michael looked frustrated. He really wanted to get this right.
Because we were such close friends, I pulled out my phone and started filming him. That made him even more self-conscious.
He tried a few more times, doing his best to consciously will himself to be calm. He wanted to “take his time in a hurry.” He used his three decades of martial arts experience to center himself.
But he still withdrew the revolver too slow or too fumbling.
In a real gunfight, he’d be smoked.
“Pretend you’re Wayne,” I suggested.
“Wayne who?” he asked, his hand on the pistol.
“Wayne Newton,” I replied.
Michael stopped, his mouth agape, his eyes searching mine for meaning.
“Wayne Newton?” he repeated, baffled.
“I mean Wyatt Earp.”
“How did you get Wayne Newton out of Wyatt Earp?” he asked.
I shrugged. I didn’t really know. I was just trying to get him to loosen up.
I pointed to the now half empty bottle of Scotch.
Michael shook his head, took a deep breath, calmed himself, and pulled the gun out of the holster. It was smooth.
“Be slow in a hurry.”
Fast.
Easy.
Smooth.
He did it again.
And again.
Once he had the maneuver down pat, he stopped. But he spent the rest of the evening wearing the gun belt. We sat at the kitchen table, finishing our bottle of Scotch, talking, sharing, all with the gun on his hip.
On one level, it was surreal.
On another, it was simply Michael being Michael.
I loved him.
I miss him.
I comfort myself thinking Wyatt Earp, Steve Reeves and a long line of other greats, are gathered around Michael and listening to his stories. Maybe even watching him practice his quick draw.
And him reminding them, “Take your time in a hurry.”
Ao Akua,
Joe
Robert Collier remains one of my all-time favorite authors.
He influenced me when I was a kid in Ohio in the 1960s, with his books, The Secret of the Ages and The Amazing Secrets of the Masters of the Far East.
Collier was the first to introduce me to the Law of Attraction, mind power, positive thinking, and more, while I was a teenager searching for truth in books. His writings deeply influenced me.
“Plant the seed of desire in your mind and it forms a nucleus with power to attract to itself everything needed for its fulfillment.” – Robert Collier
I didn’t know Collier was a copywriter and direct response marketer until, as a struggling adult living in Houston, I stumbled across his magnum opus, The Robert Collier Letter Book.
I still remember seeing the hardback book, with a faded yellow jacket, on the shelf of Colleen’s Books in Houston.
I stared in disbelief.
I carried the hefty book to the front desk and asked Colleen if the author was the same one who wrote all those metaphysical books.
She didn’t know.
But as I scanned the pages, and saw sales letters for those esoteric books I had read decades earlier, I knew Robert Collier was the author of all of it.
It changed my life forever.
I was an OK copywriter before the letter book; I was a hypnotic copywriter after it.
And it was a mention in the letter book that sent me on a wild adventure to discover all I could about Bruce Barton, which led to my writing a turning point book in my career, The Seven Lost Secrets of Success.
And knowing that Collier was a marketer as well as a metaphysician paved the way for me becoming the same, and led to my book Spiritual Marketing, which was later retitled The Attractor Factor, which still later got me invited into the hit movie The Secret.
He so influenced me that I dedicated my book, Hypnotic Writing, to him.
I collect everything by and about Collier.
I have a paperback version of the Letter book, published during war years to save money.
I have an autographed copy of the first edition of the Letter book.
I have a little course he wrote on making money by mail.
I have a complete set of his original booklets.
What was Collier’s secret to success?
It wasn’t sales letters, as I would have guessed, it was ideas.
“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blue print, and begin to build.” – Robert Collier
Robert Collier felt the idea was more important than the sales letter for it, though he obviously made an icon status legend for himself with his letters.
Collier knew numerous people of fame during his lifetime, including strongman George Jowett. I thought that was synchronistic as I know many strongmen of today, including Dennis Rogers and Iron Tamer David Whitley.
I was having lunch with Jerry and Esther Hicks, of Abraham fame, a decade or so past, when Esther said that the greats of long ago met and had lunch, just as we were having lunch that day. They, too, had been influenced by Collier.
Collier left us in 1950.
I was born in 1953.
I often wondered if I were the reincarnated version of him.
Of course, I never got to meet him, let alone have lunch with him, but his spirit, ideas, and wisdom live on, in all of his books, but particularly in his magnum opus, The Robert Collier Letter Book.
Ao Akua,
PS – Learn more about the Law of Attraction with these in-depth audio programs http://www.nightingale.com/authors/joe-vitale.html
Here’s a deeper insight into how the Law of Attraction actually works:
I’ve noticed that as soon as I sign up for a seminar or workshop, changes begin.
It may be just the decision that triggers change, or it may be something more esoteric.
Let me tell you a true a story about how this works…
A few weeks ago I decided to go back into the studio with my band and record my sixth singer-songwriter album.
As soon as I decided to do this, song ideas and new opportunities came to me.
For example, one day I looked in Facebook and there was a notice that rock legend Melissa Etheridge was doing a crowdfunding campaign for her new album.
As you’ll see in a minute, I’m a huge fan of hers.
I scanned her offerings and there was one for a two-hour, in-person, songwriting lesson with Melissa herself.
That excited me.
It also made me nervous.
After all, I’m a newbie as a singer-songwriter and Melissa is a goddess at it.
But as I say, “A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot.”
I decided to go for it.
Within 24 hours, new energy for music hit me like waves of hot electricity.
I started writing new songs almost instantly.
Yet I haven’t had my session with Melissa yet!
As I mentioned, I’m a huge fan of Melissa Etheridge. Have been almost twenty years.
I fell in a hypnotic trance when I saw her on TV around 1995, scorching the screen with just her voice and acoustic guitar on an episode of Unplugged.
I mentioned her in my book on P.T. Barnum, There’s A Customer Born Every Minute.
I’ve seen her perform live numerous times.
I was a card carrying member of her fan club for years.
I bought a guitar signed by her.
I bought and read her autobiography.
I bought her song books to learn how she wrote her hits.
I tried to meet her, too.
She was going to be in the same organization I’m a member of (Transformational Leadership Council) and I thought I’d see her at one of our retreats.
I still haven’t met her.
But I will, when I have my private songwriting lesson with her.
And knowing I will, and knowing I will discuss my singer-songwriter passions with her soon, has turned on some “music production” switch inside me.
Just this morning, as I was working out, I received an entire song.
It just sort of “appeared” in my head.
I knew it was good because I couldn’t stop humming it.
I jumped off the treadmill and wrote the words down.
It was a complete song.
Everything was there.
I was amazed and delighted that it came with no effort and came by inspiration.
But it came AFTER I booked my lesson with Melissa and BEFORE I’ve had it!
Throughout my life I’ve noticed that when anyone makes a decision to attend an event designed to improve them, changes begin.
I saw it when I signed up to do a fire walk decades ago.
I saw it when I registered to experience The Forum seminar long ago.
I saw it when I signed up for Bill Phillip’s Body-For-Life challenge ten years ago, and more recently when I registered for his Transformation Camp and personally trained with him.
I saw it when I booked a saxophone lesson with Grammy nominated sax player Mindi Abair.
And I see it almost daily when people join my Miracles Coaching program.
As soon as they sign on the dotted line, and know they are committing to change, the change begins.
Why?
How?
I’m convinced it’s the decision to change that does it.
The decision sends a solid message to all parts of you that you are going in a new direction.
Suddenly your mind has a new target; a new goal.
Instantly your brain goes on “alert” for anything to help you with the upcoming changes.
There may be a more esoteric reason for it, too.
When you declare you are going to do something new, the Universe takes note, applauds you, and sends you support.
As Goethe put it –
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back — concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.“
Decision is the key.
It’s like turning the ignition switch on to engage the Law of Attraction.
Decide and things happen.
So, if there is something big you are considering doing, I say DO IT.
Just Do It!
Show your support for your desired change by signing up for it.
Make the decision.
It’s a concrete way to tell yourself and the world that you are doing something new, and you and the world respond by beginning the change that very day.
And yes, I am VERY excited to meet and learn from the rock icon herself – Melissa Etheridge!
Ao Akua,
PS – Learn more about Miracles Coaching.