law of attraction

You can achieve great things when someone believes in you.

I know this first hand.

Daniel Barret, my music producer, coauthor of The Remembering Process, and friend, urged me to create an album of all saxophone music before I felt ready to do so.

I even argued with him about it.

“You have a two year old son,” I began. “Getting me to record sax music right now is like my offering to train your son for the Olympics. He’s not ready. I’m not ready.”

But Daniel persisted.

My first all sax album

“You have a supernatural connection to the sax,” he said. “Every time I hear you play, I feel the power of it.”

Keep in mind that I had heard a baritone saxophone for the first time last January, when Thomas van der Brook came into the studio to add his bari sax to a track on my Reflection album.

I loved it.

I decided right then to buy a sax and learn how to play.

I did, too.

But that was only months ago.

I had a couple lessons to learn how to put the sax together, watched some YouTube videos on how to play the sax, bought 17 books on the sax, and a DVD course, and just kept trying.

Every week or so, I’d record my playing and send it to Daniel.

I was simply sharing.

But he used it as evidence.

He felt I was ready to record.

After a few months – and with Daniel’s polite but persistent encouragement – I took the jump.

I realized I had been arguing for my limitations.

Enough of that.

I agreed to create an album of all sax music.

Gulp.

That was a HUGE, BOLD, and SCARY move.

I didn’t feel confident.

I didn’t feel ready.

Yet I knew that one of the best ways to learn something is to simply dive in and create a project out of it. Recording an album of sax music would put me in a situation where I had to learn how to play, and fast.

I also knew that as soon as I stated an intention, and invited inspiration, that the Universe would rush in to help me.

And so the adventure began.

It helped that sax great Mindi Abair heard me play (during a Skype sax lesson with her) and said, “You have real talent.”

It helped that I went in the studio with Mathew Dixon and added some bari sax to the first track of our album, Invoking Divinity, which came out hauntingly beautiful.

But that wasn’t a whole album of sax music.

I still remember the first day in the studio with Daniel.

As he set up the mike, and I put together the mouthpiece and reed on my baritone sax, he looked at me and said, “On one level this is an insane thing to do, but let’s do it and see what occurs.”

The result?

Magic.

I played the baritone, tenor, and alto saxophones.

Back cover of sax album

Daniel mixed the music and added some tasty sounds.

I wrote and recorded some hypnotic odes, or prayers.

We ended up with ten tracks – the first five with the poems at an audible level, and the second five with the prayers at a subliminal, or below conscious, level.

I decided to call the album Afflatus, which means, “sudden Divine inspiration.”

And the album is done.

The miracle is complete.

When Mark Hallman, who mastered the album, heard it, he said, “This is the best music you’ve recorded yet. A masterpiece.”

When Mathew Dixon, my partner on several albums, heard it, he said, “It sounds fantastic! I just finished listening and it sounds incredible!”

I’m about as proud as any musician could be.

I’ll be selling the album in 2015 but I’ll be giving it away — yes, you read it right: giving it away for free — in December, as part of my birthday/end of year sale. (I’ll give you details later, of course.)

But I wanted to share this adventure with you today for the lesson it reveals.

It all started with someone who believed in me more than I believed in myself.

With encouragement, you can achieve virtually anything you can conceive.

What’s your dream?

I believe in you.

Go for it!

Ao Akua,

Saxman Joe

PS — If you want someone who believes in you, check out Miracles Coaching.

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Whenever I’m asked what methods I personally use to clear myself of limiting beliefs, I always say three things —

1. Ho’oponopono. This simple prayer, described in the books At Zero and Zero Limits, is what I do daily (even right now, as I’m writing this).

2. Tapping. Whether you call it EFT or TFT or something else, I use the “tapping” method almost daily, for anything that feels “off” in my life.

3. Questioning. I question beliefs much like Sherlock Holmes investigated a crime or Socrates guided his students into clarity.

I’ve touched on this last method in various programs and books, but never really explained it here, on this blog. Today’s the day to do so.

Here goes:

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I first learned the power of questions from Barry Neil Kaufman, author of To Love Is To Be Happy With.

“Bears,” as he likes to  be called, teaches that you can explore any limits in your life with the right questions and the right attitude. I studied with Bears in 1985 and still reflect back on what I learned from him.

Later, I gained deeper insight into this questioning method from Mandy Evans, who wrote Traveling Free and Emotional Options.

I’ve often called Mandy the original Miracles Coach. She’s helped me off and on for almost thirty years. I owe much of my clarity to her, which led to much of my success.

At one point, decades ago, I was so fascinated with the power of questions that I made business cards calling myself a Socratic Dialogue Consultant.

I thought I might help people by coaching them through the right questions and the right attitude. Life redirected me into writing books and coaching people through words.

But those business cards foreshadowed what I later became: a coach through my work.

So what are the right questions and the right attitude to clear beliefs?

My approach to getting clear through questions goes like this:

First, an attitude of unconditional love is essential.

Any sense of judgment will shut down your willingness to explore. You really need the attitude of detachment, curiosity, and pure accepting love behind every question.

Second, I explore beliefs with the curiosity of a benevolent angel.

When I sense or hear a limiting belief, I want to get curious about it.

Remember, beliefs are not facts. Beliefs can be explored.

They may feel like facts, but beliefs are mental judgments we made up at some point for a variety of reasons. They can be explored and released.

“There isn’t enough money for me” or “I’ll never find the perfect love” or “Sex is bad” are all beliefs.

None are real.

None can be proven by science.

None are universally agreed as true.

Those beliefs can be examined.

Many people can’t find their operating beliefs because they are living them as truths.

To explore a belief, you need to know the belief.

That’s why having an objective person help you can be priceless.

But one way to locate a belief is to ask yourself what a situation means.

In other words, I often say, “The meaning you give an event is the belief that attracted it.”

Think about that —

“The meaning you give an event is the belief that attracted it.”

When you feel stuck or have a problem, how do you describe it?

“I’ve always been this way.”

“This always happens to me.”

Your explanation of the event is most likely the belief that helped create it.

If you really feel you can’t locate the core belief, then just guess at it.

If you knew the belief behind the troubling circumstance, what might it be?

Take a guess.

Accept whatever comes as your starting point.

Now that you have the belief, or at least a belief to begin this process, you are ready to clear it.

But how?

My first question of any belief might be, “Do I believe it?”

After all, upon questioning, I might see that I really don’t believe it.

If I don’t, we can stop there.

But if I feel I do believe it, then the next question might be, “Why do I believe it?”

That question is searching for the evidence of the belief. That of course can be anything, from what I heard to what I saw.

I then want to go deeper and ask, “Do I believe the evidence?”

Again, I may answer no, I don’t, and I’m done.

But if I do believe it, I want to ask, “Why do I believe it?”

Again, we are digging deeper, looking for more reasons or stories for the belief.

At some point I might ask, “What would happen if I didn’t believe it?”

The result of all this questioning is freedom.

I’m the first to admit that doing this “Socratic Clearing” on your own is tough.

You can do it, but you’re stuck in the world of your own beliefs, questioning your own beliefs.

It’s like being in a hypnotic trance and trying to talk yourself out of your own trance.

It’s possible, but not easy.

Results will be faster if you actually work with a coach trained to help you get clear of your beliefs.

Of course, I created Miracles Coaching almost a decade ago to help you do just that.

You can learn more at Miracles Coaching.

Ao Akua

Joe

PS – My approach to questioning beliefs is different from what Barry Neil Kaufman, Mandy Evans, and others in their field practice. If you want to know more, please look for their books. If you want to go really deep, learn from the man credited with coming up with the process both Bears and Mandy use today: Bruce Di Marsico. There’s a three volume set of books based on his work that you might enjoy at  http://www.dialoguesinselfdiscovery.com/?p=stores&cat_id=1&product_id=10 There is also a warm book about Bruce Di Marsico called The Guru Next Door. See http://thegurunextdoor.com/ Of course, there are many other belief clearing methods around. One of my favorites is from Morty Lefkoe. See http://www.mortylefkoe.com/ And, for the record, the “person” who got me interested in beliefs at all, many decades ago, was Jane Roberts’ Seth. Jerry and Ether Hicks, of Abraham fame, took up the ball that Seth started, but (for me and many others) it all goes back to Seth.

PPS – This free new e-book can help you, too: http://www.theabundanceproject.com/book.php?linkid=428600

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In the October, 1927 issue of Nautilus magazine, prolific Law of Attraction author Brown Landone revealed a way to give yourself a “shock treatment” to attract more money.

I’m a huge fan of Landone. He wrote more than 100 books, including The Success Process, before his death in 1945. I was deeply interested in this article by him in this old magazine of New Thought ideas.

In it, Landone told the story of coaching a woman who came to him complaining that her husband had a weak heart and wasn’t successful.

She wanted him fixed.

New Thought author Brown Landone

Landone explained that he didn’t fix anybody.

He knew that once you found your own inner peace, the rest would follow.

He wrote:

“..I know that abundance is a result of attaining the kingdom of heaven, and that each soul’s kingdom of heaven is within himself.”

He went on to say that he might help in uncovering the source or cause for the heart palpitations and the lack of success, which would help the man discover his own inner kingdom.

In other words, if he could help the man get clear of his inner blocks, the results would follow.

So he agreed to see the husband.

After a brief discussion with the husband, Landone discovered the man had $647 in savings and made $47.50 a week. (This was 1927, remember.)

He also learned that the husband had lost much of his “gusto” for life; that he was simply going through the motions in his day to day life, without much hope or enthusiasm for anything better.

With that information, Landone did something shocking.

He told the husband to go out and spend all the money!

“I told him to buy his wife five new dresses that afternoon, to order a $90 suit of clothes for himself, to purchase a $740 auto within a week, and to buy a $6,000 or $7,000 home within a month!”

What!?

The advice stunned me.

How in the world could he tell a struggling man, just getting by, to go empty his savings and extend himself financially?!?

What logic was behind this?

I was riveted to Landone’s article, wanting to know why he gave such a controversial directive.

Landone went on to explain, “Beginning to lose hope, leads to lack of daring.”

He wanted the husband to wake up!

He wanted the husband to stretch.

He wanted him to dare again.

He wanted him to get out of his comfort zone.

He wanted him to shock his own mind and awaken it.

The man listened, and acted.

Landone said the first thing that happened is the man’s heart began to beat evenly again. 🙂

And then the man began to think of new ways to improve his position at work, which led to him getting promoted, and then getting a higher salary.

Within a few months, the man’s consciousness had changed to the degree that he left his job, started his own business, and saw his revenue leap to $90,000 a year — in 1927!

The man told Landone, “Why it’s silly to be poor, isn’t it?”

I love the story and the message.

In my book, Attract Money Now, I call Prosperous Purchasing one of the seven steps for attracting more money.

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The idea is to honor and appreciate yourself by being honest: when you have the desire for a product or service, and you have the funds, then go ahead and make the purchase.

It’s an affirmation of prosperity to do so.

But Landone suggested buying and investing more than what you are comfortable with, and putting yourself into a scary place financially, as a way to “shock” or “kick start” your own mind.

Instead of playing it safe, you shake yourself by taking a risk.

You over ride your fear with an act of faith.

And then you watch your mind come alive with new ideas.

It’s not about feeling desperate, but about feeling driven.

When I interviewed Jen Sincero, author of the book, You Are A Badass, she told me that her life changed when she hired a coach.

She also said making the decision to do so rocked her world.

“I tapped out my credit card to hire the coach,” she told me. “And the first thing that happened is I threw up.”

Jen went on to tell me that she called her coach and tried to get her money back.

“But the coach told me that my vomiting was part of the process,” Jen explained. “I was beginning my transformation right then and there.”

If you find yourself in a financial lull, consider giving yourself a prosperity shock treatment.

Simply Dare Something Worthy.

Consider what you really want to buy (for yourself or someone else) but are afraid to do so, and then go buy it!

If you are reading this and feeling your heart race and your palms sweat, then you know what to do next.

To be blunt, are you going to come from fear or faith?

Said another way, the idea isn’t to get rid of fear, it’s to use it as a catalyst for new ideas, actions, and results.

Dare and grow rich.

Shocking, eh?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Just as Brown Landone was a coach to the husband, you’ll get faster results with your own coach, too. Check out Miracles Coaching. Remember, it’s okay to stretch. It’s time to shock yourself into awakening. Do it!

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Someone on Facebook wrote a variation of this statement…

“Napoleon Hill said, ‘Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.’ This is the biggest load of monkey poo since the Law of Attraction. Right now, I am conceiving and believing that I can walk on water. Wish me luck.”

This is a wonderful example of illogical thinking.

Does the person really think they can walk on water?

Can they really imagine it?

Do they really believe it?

Obviously not.

And if they can’t, then they just proved Napoleon Hill right.

Hill said, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”  and not “Whatever your mind can make up, even though you don’t really believe it and it’s not really possible, it can achieve.”

Big difference.

And please note that Hill said you can achieve it, not that you will achieve it.

He wisely left room for the possibility of you not actually attracting what you “conceive and believe.”

He knew you still had to work all the steps, including taking action.

His quote wasn’t just about conceiving and believing.

He said there were at least 16 laws, remember.

He wrote about them in such books as Laws of Success and of course Think and Grow Rich.

The ridicule people give the Law of Attraction or Napoleon Hill is a reflection of people’s own belief system – only they rarely see it.

I remember being in Russia at one of the many book signings and author meet and greets I did there.

An elderly gentleman in one audience said, “I really want to believe in this Law of Attraction but the skeptics make a good case against it.”

“Have you ever noticed that the skeptics seem to hang out together,” I began, “and the Law of Attraction positive thinkers seem to gather together?”

He smiled, nodding, as it dawned on him what I was saying.

“Everyone is living the Law of Attraction,” I explained, “but some know it consciously and others do not. You are free to believe what you like and you will attract whatever evidence you need to support your belief, even when it’s illogical to others. That’s the Law of Attraction.”

Remember, you get what you really believe, not what you want to believe.

In other words, when you examine your own statements, you might see the twisted logic behind them.

But like the person who posted the opening line, you probably won’t see the fallacy of your thinking without someone there to lovingly point it out to you.

This is why it’s so important to have a coach.

A coach can listen to you speak, reflect back to you the very beliefs you won’t even hear yourself saying, and help you question any beliefs that don’t serve you.

For example, the person who was poking holes at Napoleon Hill’s statement probably didn’t realize they weren’t being logical or even accurate. Seeing this blog post, they might grasp it.

But arguing for limitations seems silly to me.

Why argue against goals, success, visualization, positive thinking and the like?

Why not argue for them?

After all, the whole point is to help you achieve success.

Why not find ways to prove Napoleon Hill right?

Hill also wrote, “Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.”

Anyone who tries to dismiss the positive and encouraging words of Hill is speaking without thinking.

More than that, they are raining on the hopes and dreams of other people.

That isn’t wise, kind, loving, or useful.

As Mark Twain said, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Napoleon Hill believed in you.

So do I.

Go for your dreams.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS – For the record, I can walk on water. I’ve done it numerous times, usually in Ohio, usually during the Winter months. We called it ice.

PPS – I also found this on Facebook: “Dear Optimist, Pessimist and Realist: While you guys were arguing about the glass of water, I drank it.” – Opportunist

PPPS – And here’s Napoleon Hill himself giving you some coaching:

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People have been asking the same question about the Law of Attraction since it made its public appearance in the mid 1800’s:

“Why doesn’t this stuff work for me?”

In 1926, William E. Towne addressed it in an editorial for his magazine, Nautilus:

“Many New Thought people fail to succeed in their undertaking because they expect the reading of an inspiring book, or the repetition of some good affirmation, to take the place of directed ACTION.”

The caps were his.

That’s how important he regarded ACTION.

He went on to write –

“It is necessary to work in order to get results and to get the best results it is also essential to LOVE your work.”

His answer still works (no pun intended) today.

In other words, sitting around and reading positive articles and inspiring books is fine.

Sitting and praying and intending and visualizing and meditating is also fine.

But at some point you have to get out of bed or out of your chair and do something.

And when you do, it’s smart to have an attitude of love and appreciation, as that feeling will help you get more of the results you prefer.

It seems to me that too many people expect a home run the first time they go up to bat.

They visualize what they want, take a swing, strike out, and say “This positive thinking stuff is BS!”

They don’t seem to realize that you have to repeatedly affirm and visualize and pray — and repeatedly step up to bat, too.

Success is in the moment, and isn’t always measured with dollars or home runs.

The more you can be here now, while taking action in the direction of your dream, the more you will learn, grow, course correct, and keep moving forward.

It’s the way of life – whether in 1926 or 2014.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Check out Miracles Coaching by clicking right here.

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