Tag: paradigm

I heard CD Baby’s founder Derek Sivers wrote a book of 40 lessons for entrepreneurs. I found the book, titled Anything You Want. But I didn’t instantly buy it – until I saw the cover.

“Anything You Want”

That’s different.

Something about the playfulness and creativity of seeing the cover photo of a child neck deep in sand, with no title or author name on the front book jacket, intrigued me. I felt I was about to step into a world of no limit thinking. After all, how many publishers would release a book with a cover like that?

So I bought the book. And I love it. It’s a quick read but one that will stay with you. If you only read the principles on page 3 of the book, you’d have enough to work with for the year.

Example:

“Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.”

Yes! Whatever business you play in should be one you’re doing because you love it and see how it benefits others. You’re in the business of making dreams come true.

“Never do anything just for the money.”

Yes! I’ve been preaching this a long time. Money should never be the focus; passion should be. Follow your passion and let the money come as a result.

“Starting with no money is an advantage. You don’t need money to start helping people.”

Yes! Needing money is often an excuse to delay action. You can start with no money, experience or education. You can start and let the steps unfold. Just begin helping people.

“The real point of doing anything is to be happy, so do only what makes you happy.”

Yes! A trick of the mind is to make you believe achieving something will lead to happiness. Yet the truth is, happiness is in what you appreciate right now.

Sivers has other wise principles in his book. I strongly endorse them and recommend them. Here’s yet another major take-away:

“IF you’re not saying ‘HELL YEAH’ about something, say ‘no.'”

Yes! In other words, when presented with a choice or an opportunity, look for the “HELL YEAH! I WANT TO DO THAT!”

If it isn’t there, pass.

Go read Anything You Want by Derek Sivers.

It’s a “HELL YEAH!”

http://sivers.org/a

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Derek Sivers also suggests you do what scares you. He’s quick to point out that you don’t need to do what you dread, but you do need to go for the  “HELL YEAH!” – even it makes you tingle with fear/excitement. Read his book for more.  And go do what you know you want to do.

Last Wednesday I had lunch with God.

I didn’t know he was God at first. He appeared in the form of a man, dressed business casual, and acting like a wealth adviser. He wanted to meet to discuss some financial planning strategies and potential investments.

Sitting with him, he looked like anyone else at Central Market in South Austin. He was a gentle soul enjoying a smoothie. But what he said startled me.

“I have access to hundreds of millions of dollars,” he began. “The people who have this money want to invest in huge projects that require three million dollars or more.”

"Luxury is my comfort zone"

I listened. I had heard this kind of talk before. But I was about to hear a twist to it that made me feel goose bumps up and down my spine.

“These wealth angels want a project that makes a difference in people’s lives,” the man continued. “If you can put people to work, turn water into fuel, or anything else that’s considered humanitarian on a grand scale, they can make it happen.”

My mind recalled all the wild ideas I’ve ever had. I ran one or two by my lunch partner.

“That’s not big enough,” he said. “What do you believe in so strongly that you would give your life for it?”

Consider that: What do you believe in so strongly you would give your life for it?

I finally began to grasp what he was urging me to do: Think bigger than I’ve ever thought before.

I advise people to “Dare Something Worthy” and to imagine life with no restrictions. But I was apparently sitting with God, and He wanted me to think even bigger than that.

“If you’ve ever heard that money is no object,” he went on, “Now is the time to know it as reality. Money truly is no object.”

I let that sink in.

Money is no object.

Consider: What would you do if money were truly no object?

As I played with the possibilities arising in my mind, I remembered a blog post I wrote where I complained about the mainstream media. I said it was a negative programming machine and it caused most of the problems in the world. People watch it, absorb the distorted news angles, think the world is a mess, and then proceed to attract the very thing they fear through their fear.

Sitting on giant crystal maybe attracted God

For years people have wanted me to have my own television show. While that’s a great idea, I wondered what would be even better than that?

So I suggested someone create an Abundance Television Network as an alternative. Not just one show, but an entire network of uplifting programming.

It would air 24 hour news stories, reporting the facts, but framing it all in the positive. It would report on people doing heroic things. It would cover stories of inspiration. It would be the opposite of a catastrophe network: it would be a benestrophe network. “Benestrophe” meaning lots of good things happening at once.

So I told God about it.

“That’s a brilliant idea!” he said. “That’s the kind of visionary project my angels can get behind.”

God went on to advise me, “Don’t cut corners or settle for less than what you truly want. Create your vision and find out what you need to bring it into reality. Money is no object. There are no limitations. Miracles are possible. Anything goes. Get it clear in your mind. Then tell me.”

“Miracles are possible.”

Whew. I left that lunch inspired with a grand vision.

I also began to take action. I have a few contacts in the television industry. I had been on Larry King Live and met the cofounder of CNN. I knew TV reporters, producers, and personalities. I reached out to them.

God advised me to write out my vision. I began it. The seeds of The Abundance TV Network have been planted and the vision is taking form.

I have no idea what I’m doing. But that’s what I once said when I got the idea to start Operation YES, a movement to end homelessness. By not worrying about “the how,” and by taking inspired action, and trusting the process, the pieces began to fall into place.

Besides, Mark Twain said ignorance plus confidence equals success. I figure I have those qualifications. I can do this.

What about you?

If God met with you for lunch today, and told you his angels had millions of dollars to invest in a vision of yours that could help others, but that it needed to be huge and noble and something you would die for, what would you describe?

Remember, money is no object.

No dream is too big.

Miracles are real.

God’s listening.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – What would you do if you had lunch with God and was told money is no object and no vision is too big? You never know, your idea could get aired on The Abundance Television Network – or something even better.

Member BBB 2003 - 2011

I love the field of neuroplasticity. It’s so empowering. It basically states that your brain can be molded like plastic — and it can be reshaped and rewired by you.

Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz’s latest book, You Are Not Your Brain, written with Rebecca L. Gladding, M.D., is a great example. It’s in the area of what he calls self-directed neuroplasticity. In short, virtually any habit can be changed with the help of the four-step process he explains in his new book. You can now end your self-sabotage or any other poor habits. You can break free.

If you're not your brain, who are you?

I interviewed Dr. Schwartz for my Hypnotic Gold members. This medical doctor, psychiatrist, and researcher exudes high-energy, has deep faith, and loves his work. He was adviser for Martin Scorsese’s film, Aviator, about Howard Hughes. Now Schwartz is helping people like you and me learn to rewire our brains so we can get the results we want and become the people we long to be.

At the heart of his breakthrough approach is the understanding that you are something other than the material. That’s why you can be separate from your brain, mindful of it, and actually rewrite it. Hence the title of his book.

Dr. Schwartz is a man of science, wrote a mesmerizing science-based book in 2002 called, The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force, and yet he is also a spiritual man, and isn’t afraid to say so.

He doesn’t declare where thoughts come from, but suggests some of them serve you and others are “deceptive brain messages.” The latter you can learn to hear but not obey.

I told Dr. Schwartz that in most of my books, such as The Attractor Factor, I call limiting beliefs what he calls deceptive brain messages. Both are thoughts that don’t serve your highest goals.

You Attract What You Believe

Dr. Schwartz explained that in his work with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) patients, brain scans revealed that they were obeying messages firing in their brains that were hurting them. It wasn’t a problem with the patient, though, it was a problem with their brain. With new skills, they could learn to retrain their brains. (Dr. Schwartz wrote about OCD in his first book, Brain Lock.)

But this is true for all of us. Our brains may not always be helping. The message for us is that no matter what the struggle, you can change it. It’s learning how. Dr. Schwartz’s four steps are a universal solution that apply to everything from BlackBerry addiction to compulsive shopping to bulimia to junk food addiction, cheating, procrastination, to how to stop going back to your toxic ex, and more.

In short, here are the four steps:

Step 1: Relabel.  Identify deceptive brain messages and the uncomfortable sensations; call them what they really are.

Step 2: Reframe.  Change your perception of the importance of the deceptive brain messages; say why these thoughts, urges, and impulses keep bother you. (“It’s not ME, it’s just my BRAIN!”)

Step 3: Refocus.  Direct your attention toward an activity or mental process that is wholesome and productive—even while the false and deceptive urges, thoughts, impulses, and sensations are still present and bothering you.

Step 4: Revalue.  Clearly see the thoughts, urges, and impulses for what they are: sensations caused by deceptive brain messages that are not true and that have little to no value.

For the details, you can go to the book’s site (right here) or just get the book from Amazon or wherever you buy books. (It’s also on audio.). The book is a breeze to read, and you can grasp his steps easily. I highly recommend it.

The point is, you can exercise your body, and you can exercise your mind. I’ll call it Brain Yoga for now. This information teaches you to be the pilot of your brain, and not a passenger letting it fly you into walls. Books and research by such neuroscience pioneers as Dr. Schwartz excite and inspire me. They prove that you can have what you want with persistence, intention, and strategy.

That said, what do you want for you?

Are you ready to take action right now?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Pack a lunch and go visit Dr. Schwartz’s info packed site on neuroscience and conflict resolution at http://westallen.typepad.com/brains_on_purpose/about_jeffrey_m_schwartz_.html

Member BBB 2003 – 2011

The other night a friend from years ago visited. He’s going through hard times and felt down on his luck. I wanted to help so I asked him to tell me his story.

He began by blaming his life’s downturn on the economy. He said outside forces were to blame. He knew all the right things to do, did them, and yet life just threw rocks at him until he broke down.

I listened and decided that to be of the best service to him, I had to put on my ‘tough love’ gloves and be a good coach.

“There are no outside forces,” I declared.

He looked stunned. I guess he was expecting sympathy. I gave it, but didn’t want to leave him there.

He quickly replied with, “Surely there are things that happen outside of your control that cause you to have bad luck.”

“You attract all of it,” I said, speaking as lovingly but directly as I could.

I added, “There are outside elements out there that can serve you or stop you. What you believe inside you is what causes one or the other to come your way. You set up attractor fields in your life. You attract the outside forces to match what you inwardly expect.”

“But how can I attract all of it when I’m thinking all the right things and doing all the right things?”

I then went into my explanation of how we attract based on our unconscious programming, not our conscious thoughts. I pointed out this is my current life work, explained in my recent books and audios, to teach people how they are attracting what they get based on their inner wiring.

Erasing limiting beliefs

My friend just looked at me for a second, trying to comprehend what I was saying.  He asked, “But why would I take a life that was truly blossoming and cause it to fall apart? I had everything going for me. I had just moved into a big house. Life was great.”

“I don’t know — as there are numerous beliefs that could cause such a thing — but you know.”

“I do?”

I then asked one of my favorite questions:

“What does this life experience mean to you?”

He didn’t understand.

“The meaning you give an event is the belief that attracted it,” I explained. “How do you describe what happened to you?”

“As bad.”

“I know that’s how you see it, but what does it mean that this happened?”

He didn’t know.

I decided to try a different approach. I sat with him, doing my loving coaching, being patient, and explained that at some point early on there was probably a shift in his perception, beliefs or life experience. I asked him to tell me about it.

He was quiet for a while. He reflected and slowly said, “I remember sitting in my new home and thinking my life is so wonderful, that I don’t want to lose all I had created. I was then driven to not lose it all.”

“There it is,” I said. “You were driven by the fear of loss. A part of you didn’t want to lose your good fortune. The thing is, we attract what we love and what we fear. That’s where all the emotion is, which fuels the attractor fields. You attracted the very thing you feared.”

We attract what we love and what we fear.

He allowed that insight to sink in.

“So I set all this up?” he asked. “I did all of this to myself?”

“We all do it,” I explained. “We are unconscious beings here to awaken. These harder life experiences are often there to jolt us awake. No one is to blame. It’s about taking responsibility.”

“But what if I do it again?”

“When you get the lesson, you no longer need the experience,” I said, using one of the popular lines from my book, The Attractor Factor. “You won’t do it again.”

“When you get the lesson, you no longer need the experience.”

We talked for a while longer. He was visibly more relaxed. He thanked me for spending such personal time with him and said he didn’t have people like me to talk to where he lived. I explained that I created Miracles Coaching for that precise reason.

“My own life didn’t transform until I worked with a coach,” I told him. “And that’s why I created Miracles Coaching; to help others.”

The point is, we are unconscious to the drivers in our mind that attract the outside forces we blame for our circumstances.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”  — C.G. Jung

The field of neuroscience helps prove that fact. You don’t see all of reality. Your brain filters what you see based on your unconscious expectations. You see what you are programmed to see by your beliefs. The outer world is a mirror of your inner world.

If you expect outside forces to help you, you’ll see opportunities.

If you expect outside forces to harm you, you’ll see problems.

Until we awaken, those unconscious drivers will continue to steer us down the road of life. If you’re happy with the results you are getting, enjoy the ride. If you’re not, it may be time to do something about it.

What are you going to do?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — One thing you can do is relax. You can now hear samples of healing music on my first music CD, Blue Healer, by clicking right here.

Member BBB 2003 - 2011

The following comes from a long lost Law of Attraction manuscript probably from the 1800s possibly by a reclusive New Thought pioneer named Edward Gary Allens who I’ll talk about later. I cleaned these up but I thought they were worth sharing with you. Let me know what you think.

• Most people who claim to be loving are not.
• Most people who claim to be religious are evil.
• Most people who brag about a skill don’t have that skill.
• Most people who judge others don’t see they are judging themselves.
• Most people who say they are open minded are closed minded.
• Most people can rationalize any behavior they do.
• Most people think everyone else is batty.
• Most people never accept responsibility for anything they do.
• Most people are more blessed than they ever admit.
• Most people complain more than they compliment.
• Most people are jealous of other people’s good fortune.
• Most people will lie if they can get away with it.
• Most people take on the mannerisms of the people around them.
• Most people don’t know they get what they give.
• Most people have more trouble receiving than giving.
• Most people have trouble giving anything but potatoes.
• Most people don’t know they are most people.

Member BBB 2003 - 2011