Joe Vitale

Recently singer Sarah Marie kidnapped me.

If you’re going to be kidnapped, she’s the way to go.

We sometimes meet for coffee, and talk about everything from guitars and music to movies and dreams. We also “Nevillize” each others’ goals. She’s part of my support team for creating my own music, and I’m helping her produce a CD of ho’oponopono inspired, Opera-influenced healing music. I love spending time with her.

But this time Sarah said we would be going on a mysterious little trip. She didn’t offer any clues and my normal psychic powers couldn’t see in the dark.

I surrendered.

We met, got in my car, and I started driving.

And driving.

And driving.

We were going through remote wooded hilly areas that seemed perfect for UFO landings.

No sign of life.

No billboards.

No other cars.

Where was this woman taking me?

Sarah and husband JJ

Eventually we ended up at a hidden hilltop estate. As we passed through the front gate, Sarah told me this was the home of Martin Jacobvitz, a reclusive wood worker and luthier (guitar maker), and the jolly man was going to give me a private tour of his shop and guitar collection.

Now anyone who knows me knows I love guitars. I’ve met several luthiers and always learn a lot. The fact that Sarah arranged this private meeting was a thoughtful and priceless gift to me.

But the reason I’m sharing this story with you is this: the man who makes guitars in the seclusion of his home learned how from books.

From books!

Stop and think about this.

He didn’t take courses.

He didn’t do an apprenticeship.

He didn’t worry and fret about education and experience.

He didn’t let anyone talk him out of his wild desire and dream.

Instead, he simply read books and took action.

This is a huge secret to success:

You need very little to actually go for your dreams. Most of what you say you need are excuses for not taking action right now.

Let me give you a couple more examples:

Will Arntz (pictured above) is the man behind the hit movie What the Bleep!? I recently spent an evening with him. During it he told me he had no movie making experience at all. He hired people to help him. But when the editor he hired flaked out, Will simply took over the job. He learned movie editing on the fly and edited the now famous movie.

Nick Ortner (above) is the man behind the great EFT movie The Tapping Solution. When I interviewed him, I asked what experience he had in creating movies. He said, “I had a membership card to Blockbuster.”

How could these people create globally recognized movies with no experience?

What these people have in common is desire.

And desire is all you need to get moving on your dreams.

Yes, money, resources, talent and a long list of other things would be nice to have, too.

But what do you really need?

What’s really stopping you?

I suggest the only thing in your way is lack of action.

And you are in control of that.

If you focused on your desire, and let your passion lead the way, you’d attract what you need as you need it.

Knowing this, what are you going to do today?

What’s really stopping you, anyway?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – I met Sarah Marie over a year ago, when she came to my local book signing for Attract Money Now and spontaneously sang for me. I expected her to sing some folk song. She didn’t. What she sang was so much more, and it fried everyone in the room, especially me. I wrote about her as “The Woman Who Sang Past Fear” here: http://blog.mrfire.com/the-woman-who-sang-past-fear/ Expect great things from her. If you missed her singing to me the first time, here it is:

Member BBB 2003 – 2011

I’ve yet to meet Matchbox Twenty singer and Grammy-winning songwriter Rob Thomas but I’m sure learning from his music, songwriting, and success.

In reading everything I can about this talented young man, I found a 2009 article in Keyboard magazine that made my head spin.

The real secret of Rob Thomas’ success might surprise you.

It did me.

Here it is:

Rob doesn’t wait for inspiration. He works.

Surprise!

He takes massive action, which of course is the important hidden key word in the phrase “Law of Attraction.”

Rob said “…half of art is getting out of f***ing bed and doing it.”

He said he doesn’t recall the last time he worked a 40 hour week because he works 18 hour days. (!)

He went on to explain that he often spends entire days, one after the other, trying to write a song, and turning up nothing.

But then one day a hit (such as Her Diamonds, Push, Lonely No More) is there. He admits it’s the work before the hit that enables a hit to be born.

The article quoted visual artist Chuck Close as saying, “Inspiration is for amateurs.”

Wow.

“Inspiration is for amateurs!”

Made me think of the famous Jack London (author, The Call of the Wild) quote where he said he doesn’t wait for inspiration. He lights out after it with a club.

You may be wondering how all of this flows with my own philosophy of honoring inspiration and taking action.

I love it.

What Rob Thomas is doing is inviting inspiration with his working. There may be a time or two when a whole song comes to him as a gift, all written and ready to be sung. But I doubt it.

Inspiration comes when you show up and knock on its front door with work, and then when it gives you a peek, you take it and mold it into life.

Many authors have admitted their secret to inspiration was simply sitting and typing.

Ray Bradbury said writing a story a day gave him some classic sci-fi literature.

Jack London wrote over fifty books with his work ethic of writing 1,000 words every day.

How easy is this?

Consider —

A friend misread the Jack London quote and wrote 2,000 words a day. He wrote and published a dozen books before he realized he had accidentally doubled Jack London’s discipline.

I write virtually every day, maybe not as relentlessly as Rob Thomas, but maybe I should. He’s far more famous than me, and has far more girls after him.

The point: Don’t sit around and wait for inspiration. Discover the prayer of work, which invites inspiration. Yes, you may perspire along the way, but if you’re doing what you love, you won’t care.

Let me repeat that:

When you’re doing what you love, you may “work” longer hours than anyone else, but you won’t care because you’re doing what you love.

It looks to me like the success formula of Rob Thomas is this:

1. He follows his passion. He openly says all he knows how to do is sing and write songs. He’s focused.

2. He shows up to work. He says he works 18 hour days.

3. He continues to work. He shuns the parties and distractions and continues inviting inspiration through the discipline of work.

Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Do what you love by working at it every day and your intention will meet inspiration along the way. (Hey, that sounded like a song lyric.)

Rob is so clear about his purpose that he used to identify himself at airport security as “rock star” before he was one.

Finally, there’s another quote in the same interview with Rob that I like. He said don’t be afraid to screw up. To be exact, he said…

“Dare to suck. That changes everything.”

Now get to work.

Ao Akua.

Joe

PS – If you personally know Rob Thomas, please tell him I’d like to meet. He’s been an inspiration, and several of his songs are in the jukebox in my head and won’t stop playing, which is just fine with me. I love them. He also has a movement to help homeless people, so he might want to know about Operation YES.

Bonus: Here’s Rob Thomas singing the 1999 chart-busting hit Smooth (which he co-wrote for his wife, Marisol) as Santana smokes:

Member BBB 2003 – 2011

I’m reading Peter Bevelin’s book, Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, and having to stop every page or so to record an insight.

Within pages of starting the book, I read about how our genetics get “turned on” due to our environment. In other words, you may have genes to do any number of things, but unless they are stimulated by your surroundings, they will remain “off.”

Bevelin writes, ” So our behavior emerges from the mutually dependent activity of genetic and environmental factors.”

This is one reason your income is usually the average of the incomes of the five people closest to you. They help make up your financial environment.

It’s also why Ben Affleck’s recent movie, The Town, is about a city that appears to breed bank robbers. It’s their environment.

What can you do with this wisdom?

My suggestion (assuming you’re not getting the results you want) is to change your environment.

• That might mean rearranging your home or office, or even leaving it entirely.
• That might mean reading more success literature and more self-help material.
• That might mean attracting new friends that are already successful in your passions.
• That might mean joining associations that keep you stimulated with a focus on your goals.

The point is to surround yourself with the appropriate environmental stimulation to turn on the genes that will help you achieve your goals.

An example might be joining a fitness club or gym. I’ve noticed I work out harder and longer and more regularly when I hang around my bodybuilding friends rather than my Internet marketing friends. The first set of friends creates an environment for physical fitness; the second one creates one for online wealth. Nothing wrong with either one. But being conscious of the environment you’re typically in will help you understand the results you typically get.

I’m doing this with my music. I have several friends already successful at singing, writing music, and playing guitar. I’m spending more time with them to help “turn on” the genetics in me to excel as a musician.

One suggestion is to get into some form of coaching. By being coached you will get the stimulation and information you need to help you change. It’s part of changing your environment.

I’m enjoying Seeking Wisdom and recommend it.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – I’m not an affiliate for the book; nor do I know the author, let alone Darwin or Munger.

Member BBB 2003 – 2011

How can you make 2011 the greatest year of your life so far?

What can you do to attract all the magic and miracles you long for?

What are the steps you can easily implement right now to make the new year truly amazing?

Here are seven secrets you can put into action today.

1. Set Intentions.

An intention is a declaration. It is a statement of a future result. Intentions are better than goals, wishes or dreams. They are more concrete, emotional and inspired. The secret to making intentions work for you is to write them down. Thinking alone won’t cut it. You need to communicate with your subconscious mind. When you write out your intentions for the new year, you “command” your deeper mind to pay attention and deliver. But it won’t respond to vague intentions. Make them clear. If you were ordering a jacket from an online catalog, you’d note the color, size, material, and anything else needed to be sure you received what you wanted. Your intentions need to be that clear. What do you want? What would you welcome? And what would be even better than that? Write it down. And be sure to have intentions for every major category in your life, from health and romance to wealth and happiness and family. Here’s your chance to dream big.

Tip: To get out of the ego’s trap of thinking in terms of limitations, add “this or something better” to each intention. Example: “I intend to increase my income in 2011 by 50%, or something better.”

2. Schedule Actions.

Intentions are planning your future; scheduling is a commitment to your future. Get out a calendar and write down action steps. You won’t know every action to take, but you do know what actions to start with to get the ball rolling. Jot them down in a scheduler. This will help you clearly see what to do next.

Tip: If an intention seems overwhelming, break it down into doable smaller steps. As the saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you write a book? One chapter (or even one page) at a time.

3. Take Action.

Scheduling will help you see what needs to be done; action will get it done. Many fans of the Law of Attraction overlook the word “action” right in the word “attraction.” Nothing happens until something moves. If you want to make 2011 great, you must take action. Vash Young wrote many bestselling books during the Great Depression. His secret to success was his positive attitude and his non-stop action.

Tip: Look at your schedule (in step two) to know what to do. Then go do it. Your rule of thumb is to take ten actions every day in the direction of making your intentions for 2011 come into reality.

4. Face Fears.

Along the way in the new year you’ll have doubts, fears, set-backs and blocks. Don’t let them stop you. Fear isn’t something to redirect you; if anything, it’s simply warning you that you are leaving your comfort zone and doing something new. You can’t predict the future but you can create it by taking actions, even when you feel nervous or afraid.

Tip: Fear is an energy you can use. When you feel uncertain or hesitant, take a deep breath and use the energy in the emotion to propel you forward. Great successes don’t come from being without fear; they come from acting despite the fear. Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. ”

5. Feed Your Brain.

Turn off the mainstream news. It’s designed to program you with fear and uncertainty. Instead, listen to self-improvement audios, read success literature, and watch inspirational and informational shows.

Tip: Go through the catalog at Nightingale-Conant and buy audio programs that inspire and educate you, browse Amazon for success literature, self-help material, and biographies that educate you, and select presentations from TED that will change your life twenty minutes at a time. Your brain needs fed to keep your momentum high. You’ll have the best year of your life as long as you stay on a quest to learn, grow, discover and awaken. (Gift: Be sure to read my popular Law of Attraction book, gratis, at Attract Money Now.)

6. Set Rewards.

Here’s a little known secret to success: Plan to reward yourself whenever you manifest an intention. A friend once bought an antique piece of furniture whenever he accomplished a big sale. I once ordered a new car for myself when I won an honorable mention for a fitness contest. People are motivated by emotion, not logic. You’re the same. You can tell yourself you’ll make 2011 amazing all day long but nothing will happen without an emotional desire.

Tip: Decide what you want for yourself for each intention you listed for step one above. Write it down beside the intention. Look at the list daily, preferably just before going to sleep each night. That’s a great way to deliver a “command” to your unconscious mind.

7. Get Support.

Surround yourself with people who encourage, motivate, and inspire you. Create a mastermind group. Join a club of high achievers. Find at least one person who believes in you. I was once in the home of Jerry and Esther Hicks and saw a framed quote that Jerry said inspired him.  I can’t recall the exact words, but it said in effect: “I was able to accomplish more by having a friend who believed in me more than I believed in myself.” I started Miracles Coaching to help people with this secret.

Tip: If you haven’t yet found the support you need, begin by being that support for someone else. It’s good karma.

Obviously, there is much more you can do to make 2011 amazing. But if you just did the above seven secrets, you’d leap ahead of the crowd,  make all your previous years seem like starter homes, and create an unforgettable, amazing, and outrageously successful 2011 for yourself.

You can do it.

Go for it!

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Here’s the best tip of all: Make 2011 amazing with Miracles Coaching.

Member BBB 2003- 2011

I now have five best-selling audio programs with the company I love: Nightingale-Conant.

They are the audio leaders in self-help and personal improvement. They’ve been around since 1960 and have published such legends as Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Marianne Williamson, and Jim Rohn.

When I was struggling decades ago, driving to and from jobs I hated (or driving around looking for jobs), I listened to audios from Nightingale-Conant. That on-going in-car education helped reprogram my mind and direct me on the path to success. I still listen to their programs today.

My first program with them was around 1998, with The Power of Outrageous Marketing (still a bestseller). Today my programs include The Missing Secret and The Secret to Attracting Money to the recent home-run The Abundance Paradigm.

So imagine my delight when the President of Nightingale-Conant sent me a Christmas card saying I am now one of their all-time best-selling authors. (!)

Yes, I’m bragging but I had to tell somebody.

Dreams do come true.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – Merry Christmas!

Member BBB 2003 – 2011