You haven’t lived until you’ve met your double.
I’ve been hearing about the other Joe Vitale since I was in college in the 1970s. He’s a legendary drummer who performed with everyone from Joe Walsh, Dan Fogelberg, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, John Fogerty, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Peter Frampton, Ted Nugent, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Beach Boys, Eagles and more.
Whew! What a list of rock and roll legends. Drummer Joe even wrote a recent autobiography:
I figured the drummer Joe Vitale was proof of a parallel universe. In this one, I’m an author. In the other one, he’s a drummer. And never the twain shall meet.
Until yesterday.
As you probably know, I already have one music CD out: Blue Healer. It’s blues meets New Age music. It’s designed to help you relax and heal.
What you may not know is I’ve been working night and day to record my next CD, a rocking album of original songs, all written, played and sung by me. They are songs of inspiration, motivation and transformation. I’m calling myself the world’s first self-help singer-songwriter and the CD is called Strut!
It’s an enormous undertaking to jump into such a project. I put together my trifecta: Daniel Barrett, Mathew Dixon and Guy Monroe. These are my coaches for my music. They are incredible and I love them.
When it came time to actually record my new music, Daniel said I needed a drummer. I thought for a minute and told him, “Well, it’s probably a long shot as he plays with the greatest of the greats, but what if I ask the famous drummer Joe Vitale?”
Well, I did ask Joe.
And Joe said YES.
Turns out Joe has been hearing about me for a long time, too. He once emailed me that people often ask him for advice about life. He writes them saying, “I can advise you on what kind of drum sticks to get.”
Joe flew into Austin and I picked him up. We instantly connected. He’s a non-stop storyteller, generous with his time and expertise, and as loveable as a kitten. I instantly loved the guy.
Over a light dinner before the first day of recording my new CD, I told Joe my purpose for the music:
“I love music but too much of it plants negative messages that we absorb without thinking. The Rolling Stones singing “You can’t always get what you want” is programming us to believe in scarcity. I want to record music that is as beloved as the classics, but instead plants positive messages in you.”
Joe loved the idea.
As I write this, we’re about to record day two of Strut!
Sit quietly and you might hear us rocking…
Ao Akua,
PS – If you want to know more about Strut!, please click right here.
If you want money for something you believe in, I may have a way for you to get it.
This is not my service and I don’t make a dime if you use it or not. They don’t even know I’m writing this. I just feel this is too good not to share.
I’ve seen bands, artists, authors, photographers, film makers, and new businesses get the money they want this way.
I first heard about this service when a start-up company needed fifty grand to create their product. They used the service and raised 350 grand — six times more than what they asked for.
And I just saw a band I know raise over ten grand for their new recording.
I’m talking about http://www.kickstarter.com
You can list your project there, describe it with an engaging short video and a written overview, and offer incentives for people to invest in you. It’s a win win. I love it.
I’ve not listed any of my own projects on Kickstarter, but I’ve helped fund several people that I found there and wanted to see their ideas come into reality. All did.
I can’t guarantee your project will get funded. Not all do. But everyone I know who used Kickstarter achieved their financial goals. It’s certainly worth a look. And it’s free to list your project.
One thing to remember: You still have to tell people about your project being listed on Kickstarter. In other words, don’t list your project and sit back and wait for people to find you. You have to go tell everyone.
One band I know (Patton Sparks), successfully raised what they wanted on Kickstarter. When I asked where the traffic came from to their listing on Kickstarter’s site, they said as far as they could guess it came from them telling their family, friends, fans, Facebook, etc. Almost no one poking around Kickstarter’s site actually funded their project. As always, spreading the word about what you are doing is essential.
Again, I’m not affiliated with Kickstarter. I love their noble service and urge you to check into them. I believe they take 5% of what you raise as their payment, which means just ask for 5% more than what you need for your project. If you don’t raise your capital, you don’t pay anything.
It’s a glorious time we live in when services like this one help make dreams come true.
Go see — http://www.kickstarter.com
Ao Akua,
PS – If you want encouragement and coaching to go along with making your dream come true, also look into http://www.miraclescoaching.com and of course be sure to read my free book, Attract Money Now.
A few days ago I sent an email to my mailing list requesting people hold the vision of safety for all those affected by the Texas wildfires. I pointed out that more than two dozen scientific studies proved when a group holds an intention in meditation, that intention tends to come to pass.
People from all over the world sat and prayed, or visualized, or intended and requested that the fires diminish.
What happened?
Almost instantly a friend who had been evacuated from his home due to the fires wrote to me saying the smokes seemed to clear, the power came back on, and he was told he could return home safely.
Friends of mine who were preparing to evacuate were told they were safe.
Then I looked at the news and saw that while the fires were still burning and there was no rain in sight, most of the larger fires around my area of Austin, Texas were either contained, put out, or greatly improved in containment.
That’s progress, but we’re not done.
At last count, there were 180 wildfires in Texas. The smoke from them could be seen from space.
This is a very real emergency, with over 1,400 people having lost their homes in my area alone, so I am sincerely asking you to help right now.
How can you help?
Two ways:
1. Go here and offer whatever you can:
http://in.gredients.com/2011/09/05/central-texas-wildfires-how-to-help/
2. Send love to the fires and see them burn out:
I know it seems bizarre, but we are at a point where trying the bizarre might be the wisest next step.
Send love to the fires…Visualize a steady rain coming down for several days in Texas…Pray and request help from your connection to All…
Most of all, be at peace.
These fires probably represent our own inner anger.
Life is an out-picturing of our internal state.
Your inner sense of well being will contribute to the well being and peace of the planet.
Do whatever meditation or technique you know to reach that inner place of serenity. Use ho’oponopono/Zero Limits or Tapping/EFT, or anything else you know of or can think of.
Inner peace is the answer to outer peace.
Here’s one way to achieve that inner state of serenity:
I love Neville (who I wrote about in my book, The Attractor Factor). You can “Nevillize” the end of the fires by going to the end result of rain falling and fires out.
Imagine that it’s now next week and you are telling a friend how the fires in Texas were really scary until the sky opened and the rains fell and the fires went out…
Really see the future right now.
Nevillize the end result of what you want.
Make that future vision so real that it feels like it already came to past.
Or, as Neville signed a book I own of his, “Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled.”
As Neville said, “Think of the world as a sounding box, echoing and reflecting what you have assumed.”
In other words, assume the reality that the fires are over.
Please do that right now.
Thank you.
Ao Akua,
PS — Please share this message as you see fit. Post it on Facebook, or Twitter, or elsewhere. As a group, we can make a difference. Let’s do this.
I love you.
I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
Why is this funny?
“I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.”
Every time I relate that line to someone, they smile and laugh.
Why?
It’s a great example of a paraprosdokian. A paraprosdokian is a sentence where the ending comes as an unexpected surprise. Another example is this –
“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”
I love how you can structure writing to make an impact. That’s why I wrote the book, Hypnotic Writing. But that isn’t the point of this blog post. Instead, I want to explore why the first paraprosdokian is funny, as it helps explain the Law of Attraction.
Most people believe God (or Divine, Tao, Nature, Allah, etc.) won’t grant wishes. That’s the underlying reason the above line triggers a smile. You can ask God for a healing, but you can’t ask God for stuff. God isn’t Santa Claus. Not according to popular belief, anyway.
Deeper than that belief is the one that says while God won’t grant wishes, He/She will take away sins. God’s loving and understanding, so of course He can release you of your oops.
As a result of this thinking, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for what you want. At least, that’s how some people think.
That’s pretty messed up, isn’t it?
This is why I keep writing books, such as The Awakening Course and The Attractor Factor, to explore the programming behind what we think, feel, and do. Most of us are running on autopilot. We have no idea we are led by the nose by our mental programming or mindset. Our beliefs – mostly unconscious – filter reality.
I was reading the new book, Redirect by Timothy Wilson, and loving the idea of story editing the meaning we give events, until I realized the author was victim to programming he didn’t even see.
In his book, he blows the whistle on different causes or processes that he says don’t actually work. Early on, he takes aim at the movie The Secret.
He quotes me as saying the reason you have what you have is due to your thoughts. He apparently missed the part where I said you have what you have due to your actions. Thoughts are only part of the equation.
Glossing over facts because they don’t support your underlying message is a common way to communicate.
But it’s not real. Or accurate.
Again, it’s not the author’s fault. He’s as unconscious as the rest of us.
In the same book, the author suggests that self-help books don’t actually work, else there would be a stand out title in the field. That’s strange logic, but let’s run with it. In the same chapter, he mentions one of the all-time greatest self-help books, Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 The Power of Positive Thinking.
How’d he miss that?
He also fails to mention such historic self-help treasures as Think and Grow Rich (been around since the 1930s), and The Magic of Believing (came out in the 1950s, still a classic today).
How’d he miss those?
On top of all that, he overlooks the fact that new cookbooks are published every week, and there are thousands of those in print, yet no one suggests “they don’t work.”
How’d he overlook that?
I’m not kicking the author’s shins, as I enjoyed his book and urge you to read it. But I am reminding us that we all have unconscious blind spots – even authors who try to help us see them. We don’t see them because they are unconscious.
The point of life is to awaken.
But how?
Paying attention to the results we get and then reverse engineering them to discover the thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and actions that created them, will help.
My forthcoming new book, Instant Manifestation, explores all this. It reveals that what you attracted right now is based on what you thought and did a few days ago.
When you understand that process, you can redirect your thoughts and actions right now, to attract a different reality in the near future.
What are you thinking right now?
What are you going to do next?
Your answers will attract what’s just around the corner.
Finally, to swing back to our opening example:
“I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.”
Forgiveness is a powerful tool for transformation. But you don’t need God/Divinity to forgive you. You need to forgive yourself.
Manifesting what you want is a God given birthright, though you may not have known it until recently. You don’t need to ask God/Divinity to deliver anything to you. You need to ask yourself and your connection to All That Is for what is in your highest good to receive.
Now go forth and make your life miraculous.
Ao Akua,
PS — Remember that an effective personal service to help you become more aware and attract more of what you want is Miracles Coaching. There are audio interviews and brief videos on the site to explain how it can help you, and you can register for a free consultation there, too. Go see http://www.miraclescoaching.com
Chuck Pennington created the beautiful website for my free e-book, Attract Money Now. I invited him over recently to have a tour of my guitars, books, Catarium, Steve Reeves collection, and more. But what he really wanted to see was my Alien Guitar.
Before I showed it to him, we talked for a long time about the Law of Attraction, manifestation secrets, and my book, The Attractor Factor.
Chuck has been able to use a short-cut formula to attract a lot of things recently, including moving near me, in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas. His family is happy. He is happy. Wonderful things are happening. To explain it all, he said something interesting:
“I just ask, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…’, and then I fill in the blank,” he explained. “Then I let go. More often than not, the thing I mentioned comes into my life.”
I saw this as a nifty formula for attracting what you love. Expressed in my own words, it looks like this:
There it is:
1. Request.
2. Release.
3. Respond.
Chuck will be the first to tell you this amazing short-cut formula works. I’ll be the second. Why not prove it to yourself and run through the three steps right now for something you’d like to have, do, or be?
I’ll walk you through the process.
1. Ask yourself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” and complete the sentence with something you’d like to have, do, or be.
Here’s what I would say for myself: “Wouldn’t it be cool if another Gibson harp guitar showed up in my life?* Wouldn’t it be cool to discover an environmentally friendly muscle car that I love? Wouldn’t it be cool if I found a way to quickly end homelessness? Wouldn’t it be cool if I found a way to help heal my mother?” Play with the question and answer it in whatever way feels right to you. Have fun. This is play. Enjoy.
2. Let go.
Letting go is an internal experience. In my book The Attractor Factor, I said this was Step Five. It’s often the hardest for people, as they sometimes feel an urgency to attract what they want. But letting go involves appreciating this moment and everything in it, as well as trusting the future moments with faith and positivity. If there are any internal snags where you feel a sense of desperation or impatience, those can be looked at, questioned, and released. (That’s why The Attractor Factor contains a five-step formula and not a three-step one; you may need a clearing step.) You want to maintain the spirit of playfulness. Again, enjoy.
3. Take action.
This should be obvious: when you get an idea, act. When you get an impulse to do something, act. When you feel inspired to make a call, or visit a friend, or buy a book, or attend an event, or hire a coach, or whatever it happens to be, ACT. You often don’t logically know where an action will take you, but by taking the action, the next steps are revealed. You may not know how to attract the end result you want, but you can start now, with some action that you are nudged to take, and the path will unfold. Take what I call inspired action.
Here’s a quick personal example of how this works:
Step 1. I’m a collector of Mark Twain materials. I have a hand signed photo of him which I love. So it’s easy for me to playfully request, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I discovered more Mark Twain goodies?” I don’t need any more Twain material, but I’d certainly welcome more. Note the difference: need is attachment while welcoming is detachment.
Step 2. Recently I heard of a 1902 engraved caricature of Twain, by Twain. He sketched it himself, of himself, on copperplate. I wanted it. I called to order it (notice I’m taking action) but discovered that it sold as I was dialing the phone. Oh well. I was momentarily disappointed but I let go. I just figured it wasn’t for me, and something even better would probably show up one day. No problem. No worries. Onwards.
Step 3. The next day the seller of the Twain self-caricature called me to say something unusual happened. The original deal fell through and the Twain piece was up for sale again. Did I still want it? I took action and pulled out my credit card. I now own the Mark Twain engraving. And I love it.
That’s how this short-cut works. Just three steps.
It’s that easy, too.
Again, the only time you may need an extra step is when you are attached to a specific outcome or caught up in a need or desperation for something.
Had I become fixated on the Twain piece, or obsessed or impatient with trying to own it, I would have been unhappy, stressed, and bound up with entangled energy. I would have had to “get clear.” My stuckness would have blocked the flow. And the whole point is to be in the flow. That’s where magic and miracles happen.
So use the amazing short-cut for whatever you can imagine. If you feel any internal “need” or “urgency,” at that point you can use any one of many clearing tools, with the most powerful of course being coaching.
Meanwhile, have fun with this. The more you play, the more you feel great and attract unexpected good fortune.
Why not try it right now, and then report what occurs for you?
Wouldn’t it be cool if…
Ao Akua,
PS — Yes, I showed Chuck the Alien Guitar. He’ll never be the same again. You can view him meeting it here: http://www.youtube.com/joemrfire
* News Flash: I actually did find another rare Gibson harp guitar, this one from 1915, exactly like the 1915 one on the cover of my music CD, Blue Healer. I didn’t try to locate it, either. A person I had already bought a collectible guitar from sent me a note asking me “out of the blue” if I might be interested in an old harp guitar he had. Would I?!! Obviously, I said yes. This short-cut Law of Attraction formula truly works. Wouldn’t it be cool if….