Week 23 (2020) and some thoughts on distractions

Last week I decided to do one of the suggested exercises — the one where we remove all distractions and disengage to listen to our own thoughts.  I had planned on doing this at a later, more convenient, time but I had just experienced a week of overwhelm and I needed some clarity.   So, last Sunday, with some unease about how I was going to get through the next several hours , I started my day of disengagement.  I began with a 3-hour walk – training for an upcoming half-marathon.  And that part was easy – just walking, observing, thinking – and totally enjoyable.  A great start.

Back at home, things got a bit more difficult.  I can sit still and think/meditate for about an hour at a time.  Between times, I was a flurry of activity, getting a lot of household chores done.

So, this is what I learned:

• the reason for my lack of progress in my goals isn’t laziness, it’s how easily I’m distracted.   Which is valuable information because I can learn to limit my distractions.
• when not distracted, I want to do my chores/work/dharma.  Knowing this is fueling my engagement with my dharma and making it easier to eliminate distractions.
• that my clarity improved and, most importantly, I was able to recognize and appreciate the small miracles happening in my life daily
• my energy improved
• that I need to set aside regular times during my week to disengage, even if it’s only for a couple of hours at a time

I am so grateful for the challenge of this exercise!  Thank you.

Have a great week.

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Week 18 (2020) … and some thoughts on Law of Attraction

Two things have been uppermost in my mind this week – one each inspired from our Hanel reading and the latest scroll.

I’ve been having trouble with the concept of living each day as if it were my last and making every minute count.  I’ve been flicking between being inspired to feelings of guilt and exhaustion.  Mostly the latter.  At the end of each day, I’ve been asking myself (while looking at the gal in the mirror) ‘have I done enough today?’  And the answer is, invariably, no.  Cue onset of guilt.  And promise to do better tomorrow.  But how much is enough if living each day as your last?

I brought it up with my mastermind partners (Gary and Kim – thank you, you’re great!) and we talked about living with intention.  And perhaps that’s the answer – set my intentions at the beginning of the day and work towards achieving them.  And instead of asking the gal in the mirror ‘have I done enough today?’, I need to ask ‘have you fulfilled your intentions today?’.  And maybe that’s enough.

My other thoughts this week were on Hanel’s chapter that considered the Law of Attraction, especially the part that stated that affluence within creates affluence without.  I know that I’ve been focusing on the affluence without part without giving as much consideration to the affluence within.  And that has been the topic of most of my sits this week.

How does one create affluence within?  Well, given what we’ve been learning over the past several weeks, it should be obvious – focus, creativity, gratitude, joy, service.  And then add in the rest of the makeover qualities.  And because I tend to be a visual person, I created a image to help keep me on track to create and develop my affluence within.

Have a great week!

Week 17 (2019 – 2020) … and some thoughts on engagement

I watched the webinar featuring Andrea Waltz on thriving with social media.  The big take-home for me was the emphasis on engagement (ie actually taking part in online conversations).  Her suggestion is that we should be spending 50% of our social media time on engaging with others.  On one hand, I was thrilled – means that I don’t need to spend so much time on content creation.  On the other hand, it means that I should be spending heaps more time engaging.  So how much engagement do I normally do?  Maybe 1- 2%, higher on a good day.  Which means I’m pretty good at promoting my expertise, less so on the other social niceties.  Next I wondered if this type of behaviour is limited to my social media activities.  And I realized, that no, my lack of engagement carries over onto other parts of my life as well.  This shows up in my marco polo activity, although I’m getting better (big shout-out to my mastermind partners Kim and Gary who make it so easy!)  So where is the fear coming from (and this is just another version of ‘what am I pretending not to know?’.  But at this stage, I no longer care about that – it’s time to change.  So small steps forward: new entry on my POA – 15mins/day on being engaging.

And now for something totally different ….

This week we were given the option of reading Hanel lessons of our choice.  I went back to lesson one;  I suspected that I missed some keys points while I adjusted to his language.

In lesson one, Hanel first describes our relationship with our subconscious mind, the Universal mind, the outside world and harmony.  During my sit after this reading, a thought entered my mind: I am not alone.  Actually, this thought wasn’t a whisper – it seemed like a shout. This wasn’t about being physically alone as I’m surrounded by family and friends.  It’s the sense of being alone that comes from not being able to share your essential self with another.  But, when I can connect with the Universal mind, in harmony, I’m not alone – I’m part of something so much greater!

I realize that my words are failing to explain this well.  All I know now is that I approach my ‘sits’ with so much more enthusiasm because it’s my time to belong and to share.

Week 16 (2020) and discovering more about my DMP

I had a bit of a breakthrough this past week when reading my DMP.  My listed goals are mostly short term and focus mostly on achieving financial liberty.  And there is nothing wrong with that, and I certainly have a burning desire to achieve those goals. But what happens next?

Some thoughts that have floating around in my mind for a long time finally crystallized. Education has always been an important part of my life and I’m eternally grateful that I was able to pursue a university degree without worrying about the cost – not because my family had the resources (we didn’t) but because, in those days, the only barriers were desire and ability.  And after three degrees, my total debt was $1000.  Sounds like a fairy tale now.  I want my nieces and nephews (and their children) to have the advantages that I had – the ability to pursue their dreams.  So my plan is to establish a family trust that will provide loans to cover education or business start up costs.  The trust will be named after my parents because of the love and values that they have bestowed on family (and continue to do so).

So, how am I going to fund this trust? At the moment, I have no idea.  But one of the most important things that I’ve learned over the past year is to focus on the what – the how will reveal itself eventually.

Part of this week’s lesson popped out at me this morning:

We can only see what already exists in the objective world, but what we visualize, already exists in the spiritual world, and this visualization is a substantial token of what will one day appear in the objective world, if we are faithful to our ideal.

I plan to be faithful.  And I know that I won’t be able to achieve this without the help of others – a mastermind.

Have a great week!

Week 15 (2020) and some thoughts on harmony …

A couple of weeks ago we were asked to think about harmony and it’s been on my mind since then.  I initially started thinking about the definition of harmony and examples.

My definition of harmony:

Two or more entities working together, through the same or different modalities, to achieve a common goal.

Lots of examples:

• singing in harmony
• team work on a project
• physiological systems in the body
• actually, any system (mechanical, electrical, electronic, ecological, etc)

But the one example that is foremost in my mind is the harmony in a true mastermind.  I’m a visual person and I use some concepts from my engineering studies to aid me.  When I think of harmony, I visualise a number of wave forms acting in phase.  Without going into a lot of detail that would make your eyes glaze over, when a number of wave forms act in phase the result is a much bigger wave form.

blue line is resulting waveform. Other lines are input.

And if the resulting wave form is the resonant frequent of the system, then the result is even bigger!

How great to see the directed energy of a true mastermind harnessed to achieve a mighty goal!

Have a great week!

Week 14 (2019) and comments on October Sky

It’s 1957 amidst the Cold War between the USA and the former Soviet Union.  America is surprised and dismayed by the successful launch of Sputnik, giving the Soviet Union the upper hand in the start of the space race.

Homer Hickman is attending high school in Coalwood, a town that exists only to mine coal.  There are few prospects and even fewer expectations of a better life.  Even the local high school principal sees his responsibility is to educate (male) students just enough for work in the mine.

Homer is inspired by Sputnik and dreams of living Deadwood, and designing rockets for NASA.  He has many obstacles – an unsupportive family, lackluster education, and no financial resources to attend university.  A teacher, hearing of his experiments in building his own rocket, encourages him to enter regional science fair with the hope of winning the national title and securing a scholarship.  He persuades his friends to raise their expectations for a better life and they join him in the design, manufacture, and trial of their rockets.  They meet each obstacle head on — solving each problem involving materials and manufacture by enlisting help from others in the town with the expertise.

Eventually, they have a successful design and win local and national science fairs to secure scholarships and a university education for all four of them.  Homer becomes and engineer and worked for NASA.

It’s a perfect story of success:  Homer’s goal of designing rockets and not working in a mine (DMP), meeting each obstacle as it rises and finding a solution (PMA), bringing possible solutions into reality (POA) and enlisting the help of others (his friends, other experts, and townspeople) to make it a reality (MMA).

Wonderfully inspiring (true) story!  And while I have seen this movie before, it was a real pleasure to see it again through the perspective of the four-part plan for success.

 

Note:  As I sit here writing this, the Auckland afternoon sky has become an eerie, glowing orange.  It’s the smoke blowing over the Tasman from the horrific bushfires in Australia.  My heart goes out to the thousands still in danger.

Week 13 (2019) … and finding enthusiasm in my DMP

My DMP isn’t a static document – it changes as my confidence in myself and faith that I control my future improves.  I’ve noticed lately that my enthusiasm when I’m reading it has become a bit forced.  I was missing something.  My DMP has a number of things that I want – the type of improvements that would make my life (or certainly my home) more pleasant.  But not exactly bringing out the the deeply held desire or yearning that I need to express to help drive me to joyfully work on my plan of action.

I  dedicated a sit to answering the question “What do I really want?”   The answer?  I want to be successful.  Not exactly earth shattering. But the feeling that I get when I say “I am successful!” is a yearning and a celebration.  What is success to me? It’s making a difference in other people’s lives and being confident about my financial future.  Almost everything in my DMP describes what this success can look like – which is fine.  It just needed the context.

I added the following to my DMP:

I greet each day with joy and enthusiasm, and with confidence that this will be the best day of my life. I celebrate the success in my life.

I’ll be adding and tweaking my DMP as needed.  But for right now, it’s expressing the first step: having a burning desire.

Have a great week!

Week 12 (2019) … and thoughts on getting what you want

A couple of weeks ago I made a huge step forward in meeting one of my DMP goals.  Out of the blue, a company contacted me about using my services.  What they wanted coincided with exactly what I’ve been thinking about for some time.  But soon after my happy dance around the house and a few fists pumps in the air, my mood spiraled downwards.  Badly.  And it took a few hours before I crawled out from my fetal position, questioned my sanity, and regained some equilibrium. What on earth happened?

Fear, I think.  Realizing that I really do have this power to choose the life I want.  That my desires will manifest. Or not. The responsibility is mine.

Suddenly, the reality of this week’s lesson hit home.

There are three steps, and each one is absolutely essential. You must first have the knowledge of your power; second, the courage to dare; third, the faith to do.

It’s one thing to accept the statement philosophically — it’s quite different to live it.  I hope after this first brief stumble, I’ll be able to embrace, courageously and with faith, the next steps forward in my life.

Have a great week.

Week 10 (2019) … some thoughts on working hard vs struggling

A few years ago I watched The Secret and thought it was a load of rubbish.  It seemed to suggest that all one needed to do was to sit around thinking and wanting something (usually stuff) and it would land in your lap. I’m no doubt being harsh and judgmental about the premise of the program but it went against the values that I was brought up with – you need to work hard to get ahead.  You need to earn success.

I’ve lead a pretty charmed life.  Every twist and turn has allowed me to gain from previous experiences and use them in the next.  And I’m so grateful for that.  But somewhere along the roads traveled, I’ve picked up struggle.  I’m defining struggle as hard work plus frustration plus lack of confidence plus lack of faith in a successful outcome.  Not a good place to be.  And it’s taken some time to realize that struggle is not mandatory.  It is something that I chose.  And I hadn’t realized how much of that particular cement I’d been carrying around.

Over the past few weeks I’ve developed more confidence in myself and more faith in the future, not to mention some optimism and curiosity.  I still believe in the value of hard work.  I just choose not to struggle.

BTW – I still think that the movie version of The Secret is a load of rubbish.  It focuses on only the first of the four habits – a burning desire – and ignores the others: an action plan, positive thoughts, and an alliance.

Week 9 (2019) and thoughts on fairness

Earlier this week I was driving around town (and listening to my movie trailer soundtrack) and I noticed that a truck ahead of me had this printed on the back:

Life isn’t fair … get over it

What an odd thing to have on your business vehicle.  It wasn’t scrawled on — it was professionally painted.  And the truck belonged to a business that I recognized as being one of the largest in the country.

And while I agree that life isn’t always fair,  it’s the ‘get over it’ that truly stumps me as a business motto (or as any type of motto).  Why would anyone embrace that type of cynicism?  That accepting the status quo of any unfair situation is ok?  Is it to absolve yourself of any responsibility of making even the smallest attempt at achieving fairness?

Even days later, I’m still curious about why it’s on the back of the truck.  If the company truly believes it, I feel sorry for them.  Or perhaps it’s part of a marketing campaign – which would be really sad.