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  This past weekend’s event, Zero Limits 3: The Final Chapter, took all of us (myself included) to a whole new level of being.

There was the usual (usual for Zero Limits) talk of total responsibility, of course. 

I and Dr. Hew Len (pictured above) were adamant in pointing out you can never ever look out there and say that has to change. It all changes within you.

Trying to change the outer is like seeing your unclean or unshaven face in the mirror and trying to shave or clean the mirror.

All the work is within.

All of it.

No exceptions.

None.

There was also the usual emphasis on cleaning, or clearing, of the “data” within.

That’s a non-stop job of unimaginable proportions. Yet all it takes to clean is saying “I love you” and “thank you” inside to do the work.

You don’t even need “I’m sorry” or “Please forgive me.” Dr. Hew Len himself could be heard saying just the two phrases “I love you” and “Thank you.” Say the others if you like, or not. Follow your inspiration.

One particpant asked if cleaning was like having a mental etch-a-sketch device. A drawing or words (or thoughts) appear on the toy, and you just shake the etch-a-sketch and they all disappear.

I loved the image and instantly made it my own new clearing tool. When thoughts appear, I just shake the etch-a-sketch in my mind and they vanish. It’s my new meditation.

The hundreds of participants from all over the planet truly got that the only way to change is to do it by yourself, on yourself, from within yourself.

After the event ended, over dinner, I heard various conversations. People were at a different place.

They were loving.

Trusting.

Happy.

They (and me) were taken toward zero; to that place where the only goal, if there’s a goal at all, is to be “zero” – happy, loving, free.

Words can’t describe this. As I’m fond of saying, “zero” is what I call the whiteboard. There’s nothing on it. But as soon as you write something on it, you’ve put data on the board.

Again, the goal – if there’s any goal at all – is to be free.

This isn’t about getting results, or duplicating scientific experiments, or controlling life or anyone else.

This isn’t about intellectualizing life or developing a formula or code to manipulate life.

This is instead about getting to zero and from there you can hear inspiration and act on it – no interference, no static, no doubt, no data.

All that remains is love.

And even that is a word written on the whiteboard of the Divine.

Consider: What would you be if the etch-a-sketch in your mind got shaken right now and you went to zero?

Ao Akua,

joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – You can now watch the entire second Zero Limtis live event (the one from Maui in December 2007) right where you’re sitting, by going to www.zerolimitsmaui.com 

Note: Photo of me and Dr. Hew Len above by Nerissa. Left click on it to enlarge it.

 I was thinking the other day about the people who look at me as a celebrity. I was wondering why some people go ga-ga when they see me and others could care less.

The difference is those who saw me in movies such as The Secret, The Compass or Try It On Everything, or on television shows such as Larry King or Donny Deutsch, all have me branded in their mind. I’m a mind tattoo.

But how does that work?

How did a regular guy get turned into a celebrity?

How does a “branding” get into the mind, anyway?

I’ve met a fair amount of celebrities over the last few years, and I’ve usually had the same starstruck experience. 

But why?

And what can we learn from this?

Movies and television are great programming tools. Since the mind responds to emotion and visuals, a good movie or TV show will literally brand its characters in our minds. They can become unforgettable. They can become mind tattoos.

When people see me on the screen, they are actually programming their mind with emotion and imagery — the two best ways to make a mental impression — which means there’s a “brand” or “imprint” or “tattoo” in their mind around Joe Vitale’s face.

When they then see me on the street, their mind goes click, brings up the branded memory, and they get an emotional rush.

I know this feeling, too, of course.

When I went to Robert Redford’s Sundance ski resort in Utah a few weeks ago, I saw actor Russell Crowe (of Gladiator).

Before my mind told me who he was, it told me to stop and stare. Once I recognized him a moment later, I went ga-ga like anyone else who’s been programmed. I never did speak to him.

When I met actor James Caan, I was the same way.

Jimmy, as he likes to be called, was open, friendly and playful with me. But for the first few minutes all I could see was a super star. I could barely speak. I was starring at Sonny from The Godfather. It was hard to shake it loose and just see James Caan as the lovable tough guy he really is. (I eventually relaxed and had a wonderful time with Jimmy. He’s cool.)

Now here’s what this has to do with you and me:

If you want to change anything, you need to do it with emotion and imagery, just the way movies and television imprint your mind.

In other words, trying to change yourself with just thinking won’t cut it. You need to reach the emotional brain. You do that with imagery and feeling. If you add in repetition, you’ll create lasting change.

For example, I’ve been studying Spanish in prep for my trip to Peru in May, where I’ll be speaking to 35,000 people in a stadium about the Law of Attraction, along with Bob Proctor.

When I try to learn Spanish by looking at the words and repeating them, it’s an uphill struggle. But when I learn the language with visuals and emotion, and add repetition, my mind then accepts the new “branding.”

If you want to attract money, for example, see yourself already wealthy, feel the joy of helping yourself and others with the money, and repeat this in your mind as much as its fun to do so.

By doing this you will “brand” your mind with the new you. Once it takes hold (which can be very fast), and you act on your ideas, you will begin to attract money.

The lesson here is this: to change yourself you need to use imagery, emotion, and repetition. Do all three and virtually anything is possible.

“Espere milagros!”*

Ao Akua,

joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — For examples of the power of this kind of “mind branding” to create change, check out the Subliminal Manifestation DVDs Mark Ryan and I created on love and forgiveness, increasing sales, being fear-less, and attracting wealth. See www.subliminalmanifestation.com 

* “Espere milagros” is Spanish for “Expect miracles.”

Note: The picture is of an emerald green gem. I just felt like putting it there. No reason. Or was there? 🙂 Actually, it’s going to be the color of my eco-exotic hydrogen-hybrid Scorpion sports car, being made for me next month right here in Texas. 

 Everybody has problems but nobody realizes the truth about them. Once you get this, you will never have another problem – ever. If you’re interested in living a problem free life, keep reading.

First, realize we are problem-making beings.

It appears to be the human condition to find problems, create them, and/or attract them. Even when you resolve a problem, you almost instantly fill the gap with another one. Almost nobody knows this. Yet it’s the key to living a problem free life. You have to understand that as one problem disappears, another bubbles up to take its place. That’s how the human mind works. Some people like drama more than others, but we all seem to attract problems simply out of human habit. It’s our current nature. It’s our program.

Second, you can transcend all problems with detachment.

To paraphrase Buddha, life is suffering, but once you realize that life is suffering, you no longer have to suffer. You are free. At that point you realize that life is a theatrical experience and you are just playing your part in the script of life. You are detached. You are, in many respects, awakened. This second insight is just a deeper understanding of the first one. Yes, we are problem-making beings but you can also detach from the experience of the problems. You can witness them. You can watch them as if watching a soap opera on television.

Third, problems are due to perspective.

A problem to one person may be a blessing to another person. It depends on your intention, which directs your perspective. So where is the real problem? Is there even a problem at all? Dr. Hew Len, my coauthor on the book Zero Limits, often asks, “Have you ever noticed that when you have a problem, you are there?” He means that the problem is yours — yours in perception and yours in responsibility. Clear the beliefs in you that see it as a problem and the problem is gone. Poof!

The above insights work for any problem you can name.

Got money problems?

It’s only a problem because you aren’t accepting what you have and are focused on what you want with a feeling of lack or even desperation. You need to be grateful for what you have now and want more. When you do that with awareness and detachment, the issue isn’t a problem, it’s just your next activity. When you take the edge off your stress, you can more clearly see your next move.

Got relationship problems?

It’s the same sceanrio. It’s only a problem because of your perspective that it is a problem. From a higher view, it’s the next scene in the play of life. When you can take a deep breath, and realize this is just your next moment, you can more easily decide what to do. In fact, with clarity, there’s not even a decision. You know what to do and just do it.

To recap, the larger insight here is to realize that as a human you will always have “problems.” Always. But if you understand and accept that fact, you are then free from all problems and can lead an authentic problem free life.

You got a problem with that?

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS —  I’m not dismissing taking action to resolve problems, only urging you to have a more awakened perspective toward them. Getting clear helps resolve problems and understanding the nature of them is part of breaking free. For more info on this, consider my Secret to Attracting Money program or of course The Awakening Course. 

Note: Photo is of me wearing borrowed Dilem reading glasses. I don’t know where to get Dilem glasses in my area, but everyone thought it made me look smarter. 🙂

 I’ve been reading The Diamond Cutter by Geshe Michael Roach. It reveals the ancient Tibetan wisdom of Buddha on managing your business and your life. It could be called the Buddha’s money-making secret.

I’m not a Buddhist (I’m more a Transcendentalist), but I’ve gained insight and value from many of Buddha’s teachings. I enjoy practical metaphysics, which is the take-it-to-the-bank school of philosophy, which led me to picking up books such as The Buddha’s Teachings on Prosperity, and of course The Diamond Cutter.

I’m loving it. The latter ties in to two of my own books, The Attractor Factor and Zero Limits, and even my recent audioprogram, The Secret to Attracting Money.

The Diamond Cutter is a practical and reflective book asking you to look at and change the mental imprints in your brain causing you to attract the results you have in your life.  This includes whether you have money or not.

Mental imprints are being planted right now, at the rate of sixty-five per second. They are the “thought forms” in your mind that cause you to perceive the reality you get. They are the “perceptions” you created in earlier situations which are causing you to recreate similar situations.

Think about this:

When you look at a situation, you perceive it through a mental imprint.  More than that, the mental imprint brought it to you.

Going even further, you’re creating new mental imprints right now, as you read this.

If you’re reading this feeling love, a future moment will have you being loved.

If you’re reading this with judgment, a future moment will have you being judged.

And so it goes.

Talk about karma.

In short, you rarely ever experience objective reality. Each moment is not only colored by the past, but brought to you by the past.

As you might imagine, if you don’t observe and change the mental imprints you are creating (sixty-five per second, remember), you’ll just be knocked around by your own mind and you’ll blame it all on luck or fate or other people.

And don’t be so smug to think you’re above all this.

The next time you’re about to complain about lack of sales, or a bad economy or market, or a troublesome employee or customer or client or friend or loved one, stop and consider that a previous mental imprint brought the situation to you and you are right then and there creating a new mental imprint that will cause you to attract more of the same situation.

Re-read that!

It’s not the situations that cause you problems, it’s the mental imprints.

While the author doesn’t use the phrase “Law of Attraction,” I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that’s what his book is about. In short, your mind is creating your results. Change your mind, change your results.

But how do you change your mental imprints, especially when you have a storehouse of them and you are creating sixty-five new ones per second?

A clue is given in Roach’s book:

“Money itself is created by maintaining a generous state of mind.”

I just pulled that line at random out of the book. There’s more to the story and the remedy, but at heart the answer is the same: look at every moment with love, forgiveness and generosity. When you do, you begin to create new mental imprints to begin to bring about new realities.

For example, most people who hear the mainstream news reporting on a failing economy, fall into fear. They then act from fear and close off their actions, which causes them to shut down avenues to their own success. They are coming from a mental imprint that is based on fear. The result is more things to fear. And no money.

A more enlightened approach is to hear the same news but consciously respond with love, forgiveness and generosity. Instead of stopping their actions, they maintain them; instead of stopping their spending or their development, they maintain it; instead of stopping their giving, they maintain it or even increase it. The result is wealth. And lots of money.

The person who comes from a fear mental imprint will create a future of more fear-based mental imprints.

The person who comes from a prosperous mental imprint will create a future of more prosperous-based mental imprints.

Do you see how this works?

Your past thoughts, unconscious or not, brought about your current situation. Unless you change those thoughts as they are happening right now, you can predict your own future: the same as the past.

If you’re ready for a change, ask yourself what you’re feeling about this moment — yes, this one right now.

Personally I think just repeating the Zero Limits‘ mantra (I love you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, thank you) non-stop can clean up those mental imprints. But I’m no Buddha. Do what you feel inspired to do.  

But do something.

I created The Secret to Attracting Money program to help you clear those programs, beliefs, thought forms and mental imprints that are causing you to have problems with money.

Until you get clear of the mental programs, you will keep getting the same or similiar circumstances. You’ll say “Those lawyers are all the same,” or “Those construction companies are all the same” or “Those politicians are all the same,” or “Men are all the same” or “Women are all the same,” when in reality the only thing the same is you.

Roach’s The Diamond Cutter goes into all of this thinking with great depth and great writing. I’m loving it and I encourage you to read it. The book is in book stores and of course at Amazon. The author’s site is www.enlightenedbusiness.com

Remember, mental imprints are running your life. You can change them – with awareness, intent and work.

What do you want this moment’s mental imprint to be?

Choose.

Ao Akua,

joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — I can’t wait for Roach’s next book: Karmic Management: What Goes Around Comes Around in Your Business and Your Life. (Due out in September.) Meanwhile, go get The Secret to Attracting Money.

A few months ago the pool started losing water. Obviously there was a leak, but I couldn’t find it. Neither could anyone else. We all walked around the pool, looking for any obvious signs of holes or leakage, but nothing. I walked around inside the pool, too. Couldn’t find a thing. But the water kept leaving anyway. It wasn’t an emergency or even a priority, so I let it slide.

Now that the weather here in Texas is getting warmer, thoughts of the Summer come to mind. I couldn’t put off getting the pool fixed any longer. I’m going to want to be in it one day very soon.

So I called the pool company that installed it. They suggested I first hire a man who could possibly spot the hole causing the leak. I thought that was a long shot, since I and so many others had already studied the pool. But I made the call anyway.

Ramone came out the day after my call. He was talkative and friendly. Told me all about his online graffiti interests, how he writes reports on belief systems, how he used to run a pool company, and how he just hunts for pool leaks on the side for fun and profit. Fascinating guy.

Within ten minutes he announced he found the leak. I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. I asked him to show me.

He got in the pool, which had to be freezing compared to the warm Texas air, and pointed to the tiniest of slits on the bottom of the pool. It wasn’t even on the side of the pool all of us guessed it might be. And it looked like a leaf, not a leak. I shook my head in disbelief.

Ramone then went about repairing the leak. I was still in shock. I asked him to look around the pool even more, as I thought maybe he actually missed the real leak. I couldn’t believe the tiny slit he found was the reason I lost thousands of gallons of water.

He couldn’t find another leak, I paid him, and he left. The next day I put water back in the pool. Sure enough, it’s holding just fine. Ramone had found and repaired the leak.

Here’s the lesson:

When your brain is trained to see specific things, your eyes will spot them easily.

In other words, Ramone’s experience had wired his brain to be on alert for pool leaks. He could see them when you and I could not. You and I aren’t trained to spot leaks.

But this is how you and I walk through life.

We see what we have experience in seeing. We don’t see what we don’t have experience in seeing.

Simple enough, right?

So how do you awaken your brain to see what has been there all along?

When I was learning marketing decades ago, I listened to Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, and others. I read the classics by John Caples, David Ogilvy, Bob Bly, and more. I trained my mind to see what it hadn’t been trained to see or do.

Today I can see business opportunities when before I could not. Today I can’t stop myself from seeing them, any more than Ramone can stop himself from finding a pool leak. It’s now natural.

To “turn on” your brain, you need to have intention and take action. The intention is to accomplish something; the action is to train yourself to see what’s actually obvious.

How do you turn on your brain?

1. Read. This has been the #1 key to my success. Read biographies, business books, psychology books and more. Read “The Power of Impossible Thinking” by Jerry Wind and Colin Crook, read “Why We Make Mistakes” by Joseph Hallinan, and read “Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently” by Gregory Berns.

2. Listen. Use your travel, exercise and relaxing time to listen to audios that will expand your mind. Buy what interests you at www.nightingale.com (I have three audioprograms there: “The Secret to Attracting Money”, “The Missing Secret”, and “The Power of Outrageous Marketing”.)

3.  Train. Get coaching. I’m a big believer in having a mentor.  I have two coaching programs right now. Depending on your interests and intentions, one or both could help you awaken your brain. (See www.miraclescoaching.com or www.joevitalementoring.com) 

Final example: 

I’m about to go to Peru and speak in a stadium to 35,000 people about the Law of Attraction. I intend to learn conversational Spanish for the trip. To do so, I’m reading books, listening to audios, and looking for a tutor. This is all part of training my brain to do something it hasn’t done before (or at least not since High School Spanish in 1970).

Magic and miracles, money and more, are at hand. It’s simply a matter of “spotting pool leaks.”

Ao Akua,

joe
www.mrfire.com

PS — If you really want to expand your thinking, check out The Awakening Course. And stay tuned for the new audio, The Solution, coming soon to iTunes.