I just wrote an original article for a local magazine (Austin All Natural) about giving. It will appear in their December issue. As “luck” would have it, I just received this email, shared here with the author’s permission:
“Hey Joe, hope this email finds you doing well. I just had to write you and give you a quick testimonial. Remember I had sent you the leather bags and in turn you sent me all your books. They are awesome. So here’s my story.
“I had just finished reading your book “The Greatest Money Making Secret in History” and I was thinking about how much I liked giving things away. But I currently really wasn’t giving money, services, etc. to anyone on a regular basis. So I was pondering who in my life I wanted to give to.
“Then I remembered a homeless gentleman that hungout a few blocks from my apartment. Now generally speaking I’m not in favor of homeless people hanging out on corners with their little signs asking for money. But this guy was different. He was handwriting poems that he made up each day. I found it fascinating and I loved the fact that he was using his brain and at least offering people something of value and all he was asking was a quarter for a poem!
“I would typically see this guy 3 times a week. So I started buying a poem from him every time I saw him. But I was giving him a 20 dollar bill each time. It made me feel great and of course I could afford it.
“In your book we were told to give what we were comfortable with and I was. It cracked me up because he never remembered me but each time I drove off I could see him in the rear view mirror jump up and down in delite. On top of that I really liked his poems!
“This went on for a couple of weeks and in the mean time I was getting ready for a big move. I just recently moved from Los Angeles to Denver and I was really dreading the move, not only from a monetary standpoint but also mental. I knew it was going to be costly to move and I really didn’t know where I was going to get that much free cash flow for my move.
“Well low and behold two weeks after I starting giving as instructed in the book I had Macy’s North (the retail store) which is comprised of 10 of their stores on the east coast find my website out of the blue and they ended up placing a $12,000 wholesale order of which I profited over $5,000.
“Now consider this, I do both retail and wholesale orders but even my wholesale order on average are around $300 per order. NEVER, NEVER have I had one of this size. It paid for my entire move. I just can’t think of any other reason than the Power of Giving that I was given this order in return. Joe, it works. It really works.”
— Rob www.robdiamond.net for belt buckles and belts!
Well done, Rob.
What have you given today?
Ao Akua,
joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — Money is only one thing you can give.
There’s a recent in-depth review of my book Zero Limits at
www.chicagowellnessmagazine.com/pdfs/novdec2007/Page%207.pdf Enjoy.
Byron Katie teaches people “The Work.” It’s basically a simple questioning process. You take a statement that is bothering you and “work” on it.
For example, “My boss infuriates me” (which could be “My spouse infuriates me” or “My neighbors infuriate me” or “That blogger infuriates me”) could be the statement you focus on.
You now ask these questions:
“Is it true?”
“Can you absolutely know that it’s true?”
“How do you react when you believe that thought?”
“Who would you be without that thought?”
There’s a bonus technique to do after you answer those questions, too.
You take the original troublesome statement — “My boss infuriates me” — and turn it around, to its opposite: “My boss loves me.” (Correction: The turn around statement would be more personal, such as “I infuriate me.”)
Note how that feels.
This procedure is a powerful way for exploring what troubles you. There are many books and audios by and about Bryron. A good place to start is www.thework.com
While in Canada, I picked up a copy of her book, Question Your Thinking, Change the World. It’s a collection of quotes from Bryon. Here’s one:
“There’s no suffering in the world;
there’s only a story that would lead you to believe it.
There’s no suffering in the world that’s real.”
Chew on that.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — My Miracles Coaching program is currently accepting new applicants. See www.miraclescoaching.com
We came home from Canada and found our pool broken, dry, and beyond repair.
If you came home and saw that, what would you think?
How would you explain how you attracted it?
This is a beautiful exercise in how to uncover your beliefs.
What you decide an event means is the belief that attracted the event.
Let me explain:
From a pure life standpoint, events are simply events. They have no meaning. It just “is”.
From a personal involvement with life standpoint, the meaning you give an event is very relevant.
When I looked at my pool and saw the damage, here are a few thoughts that I remember thinking:
1. This would be a great place for a car port.
2. This is a great opportunity to build a bigger and better pool.
I didn’t fall into a victim mentality.
I didn’t see the event as negative.
I didn’t regard the destruction as a reflection of my self-worth.
I did wonder how it happened. (A hair line crack in the side of the pool finally gave way under the weight of the water and split open.)
But wondering about the why is how we humans learn new ways to prevent something undesireable from happening again.
The lesson here is about how the meaning you give an event reflects the underlying beliefs that attracted it.
This is a new concept for many, so just sit with it.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS – The meaning you give this blog post reflects your beliefs, too. 🙂
Three hours in a stretch limo with Secret co-stars Lisa Nichols and John Assaraf can be enlightening and exhilarating.
Lisa spent time on the phone with her editor, working on her first book. She’s on a mission to help teenagers survive. I was so impressed I told her I would pay to bring her to Austin to do her special workshop for local kids.
John and I talked about life, marketing, speaking, consulting, and more. He used the phrase “predictable transformation” to describe how his coaching program works: it’s designed to get results.
I told him about my Miracles Coaching and Executive Mentoring programs. The same philosophy is behind both: do what is asked of you and you’ll get predictable results.
What I loved most about being in the limo with these two wonderful people is their energy. They aren’t caught up in the world of external reality. Instead, they are creating their external reality by what they are doing inside and outside themselves.
I also noticed that when I hang around upbeat people like them, my own energy and thoughts go up. I want to do even bigger and bolder things in my life.
There’s a lesson here for you, too. Choose your coaches and support team well and shoot for the moon in your goals.
Ao Akua
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — The November issue of News You Can Use is now online at www.mrfire.com/nycu-archives/nycu-2007/november.html