Tag: Einstein

“You can blame Star Wars for that.”

I was talking to Guitar Monk Mathew Dixon, explaining that I see far too many people focusing on mind power and not realizing they need body power, too.

When I post pictures on Facebook or on this blog of me bending nails, bolts, steel rods and horseshoes, people often assume I’m doing it with just my mind.

I bent this horseshoe with mind directing body

While the process starts and continues with my mind, I am using my will power and mind power to direct my body to an end result: bending steel.

But why do so many people assume you can accomplish things with mind power alone?

Why do so many “New Age” types want to sit and visualize but not get up and act?

Why do so many people deceive themselves with magical thinking?

“You can blame it on Star Wars,” Mathew said.

Well, I’ve never seen a Star Wars movie.

None of them.

Or read any of the books.

To bring myself current, I watched the first film from 1977.

I nodded off several times during it.

While lines like “May the Force be with you” stood out, they were inaccurate to me.

Since “The Force” is always with you, a more accurate line would be, “May you be with the Force.”

The latter quote would remind you to align yourself with The Force.

But George Lucas didn’t ask my opinion.

“The second movie is the culprit,” Mathew explained.

The second one was the 1980 The Empire Strikes Back.

Apparently that’s the movie where a lot of things are accomplished with “Jedi mind tricks” and thought alone.

And apparently a lot of people assumed they could do the same if their mind were only stronger.

Yoda taught Jedi mind control for 800 years?

Good luck with that.

I don’t want to blame the movies, though.

The theme of “mind over matter” appears everywhere, in metaphysical literature as well as popular culture.

You’ll find it in comic books as well as bestselling books.

You’ll find it in Richard Bach’s Illusions and The Messiah’s Handbook and on television shows such as Flash and Super Girl.

Who doesn’t want to have the ability to create out of thought alone, or make things appear with a few magic words?

Who doesn’t want to have super powers?

Who doesn’t want to be Superman?

Or Superwoman?

The thing is, life doesn’t work like that.

You were given a body and a mind, and the ability to use both.

We are not brains in jars.

We are brains in bodies.

When we use both, then we can attract miracles.

But the miracles “appear” through natural means.

Even Wallace Wattles said those exact words — natural means — in his famous 1915 book, The Science of Getting Rich.

He stated that it’s the combination of mind and action that leads to attracting results.

It’s not just mind.

It’s not just body.

It’s both.

Slides of Einstein's brain. Without the body, it's just a curiosity.

If I pick up a horseshoe and “will” it to bend but not actually try to bend it, I’ll just be holding a horseshoe.

Nothing will happen.

I have to add my mind – mind power, will power, belief – and direct my body to actually bend the shoe.

It’s the same with anything you want.

If you want to attract a new car (or job, or spouse, or you-name-it), you want to begin with your visualization and affirmation. You won’t even try if you don’t kick start the process with your belief.

So, it begins with mind.

But if that’s all you do, you probably won’t attract anything.

You might even become skeptical or critical.

You’ll say “This mind stuff doesn’t work!”

Of course it doesn’t – if you are only using your mind.

But add your literal action, and you begin to co-create what you want into being.

It’s still not likely that what you want will just “appear” like in a Star Wars or Harry Potter movie.

I’m not ruling magic out. I believe in magic and miracles. I also believe that we live in a “no limit” universe, where we can probably do what some would say is impossible with the right mindset and proper action.

I’m just reminding you that you have a body for a reason.

Use it to aid in the attraction of your goal.

Use it for action.

There is real magic in the world: it’s using your mind and your body to achieve a specific end goal.

For example, if I want to write a book, I don’t sit and “think it” into reality.

Instead, I use every “mind trick” I know – from visualizing to Nevillizing to The Remembering Process and more – to get my mind around the idea of what I want.

And then I start writing.

I do something.

And it’s the combination of both mind and action that leads to me being an author.

None of this is a slam against Star Wars. I’m not blaming the movies at all. I’m told the latest installment, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is spectacular.

Just remember that movies and television shows program you, usually unconsciously and subconsciously.

Focus on solutions you can act on

Recently I watched the movie The Martian and came away from it realizing the focus was always on solutions.

It taught an “Anything can be solved” attitude.

I liked it.

And I recently saw the movie The Walk, the true story of a young man with the “impossible” dream of walking a tightrope across the World Trade towers in New York City.

And he did it.

The movie conveyed the message that virtually “anything is possible.”

I liked it, too.

Star Wars is great entertainment and it’s great fun to imagine having no limits due to mind power alone.

Just don’t think you can pay the bills with a Jedi Mind Trick.

Ao Akua,

Joe

Happy New Year!

PS – Happy New Year!!

Member BBB 2003 - 2016

I’ve been reading the book, The Einstein of Money, about the legendary investor — the inspiration for Warren Buffett and countless others — Benjamin Graham.

While I’m not personally an active investor in anything but guitars, a couple of cars, and rare books on marketing and metaphysics, I wanted to learn what this icon had to say about money.

Money Wisdom Revealed

As I was reading it, I was reminded of my own formula for attracting more money.

It goes like this:

Profit = P + P.

I failed algebra in the ninth grade (retook it with a different instructor the next year and got straight A’s, thank you for asking), so my formulas are simple.

They need to be, so I can understand them.

Mine goes like this –

Profit equals your Passion plus the Public’s Interest.

Here’s an example:

Waaaaay back in the early 1990s, I was inspired to learn all I could about Bruce Barton, the now forgotten ad man of the Roaring Twenties, cofounder of BBDO (the giant ad agency), a bestselling author of many books, including The Man Nobody Knows (still in print today), and so much more.

I was fascinated and mystified by the man, his enormous successes, and the strange reality of his being virtually forgotten by the 1960s.

All my research led to my writing a book that became (and still is) one of my most popular ones.

Early Famous Bestseller

So let’s see how the formula worked in this case:

My Passion urged me to investigate Bruce Barton.

There was no rhyme or reason to it.

No contract from a publisher.

No one paying me. (I was in fact broke at the time and struggling.)

From outer reality, there was no evidence at all that a book on Barton would go anywhere.

But I followed my passion anyway.

When it came time for me to title the book, I knew the Public didn’t care about Barton.

After all, he was already forgotten by the 1930s and dead by the 1960s and a footnote in advertising today.

The Public would not buy a biography of Barton.

What would the public buy?

What was their interest?

I knew from my own interest in self-help, self-development and success literature, that the Public has a solid, always hungry interest in success.

So I titled the book The Seven Lost Secrets of Success.

I used the formula of Passion (my interest in Barton) and added Public (their interest in Success) and created a new product (a retitled book).

But did it lead to Profit?

The book was first published in 1992. It quickly went through numerous editions, being sold to my mailing list at the time (this was before the Internet, so it was all snail mail).

One mutilevel marketing company loved it and bought 19,500 copies of it for everyone in their business. (!)

Later, a big publisher bought it from me and published it.

It’s still in print today.

So, yes, it led to Profit.

The formula works

The problem with most people is that they never focus on passion to begin with.

They just chase money.

Wrong.

Money is a lousy motivator.

Passion, on the other hand, is real fire.

But when people follow their passion, they often forget to think of what the public wants.

The public pays for it, so you need to tie your interests to their interests.

You have to find the intersection of your passion and their desires.

While someone later came out with a biography of Bruce Barton, it did not sell well. I’m glad Barton got the attention and respect a biography gives, but from a Profit standpoint, thinking of what the Public wants is wiser. (Actually, if you look at the subtitle of the biography on Barton, you’ll see that the author tried to widen his reach to appeal to the public by not just writing a biography of Barton, but by making it about America itself.)

Bio of Barton

Here’s my formula again —

Profit equals your Passion plus the Public’s Interest.

A lot of my thinking about this developed decades ago, when I read a little book from 1928 called, How to Profit from that Impulse.  While that 68 page book, which was about poetry, didn’t reveal any formula that I remember, it got me thinking about how to profit from your passion. That led, in time, to the formula I just revealed to you.

I’ve applied this same formula to my music.

When I decided to become a musician, I did enough research to shockingly discover that there are 3,000 new albums released weekly. (!)

That’s overwhelming competition.

How would I ever stand out in the crowd?

I looked at my Passion (making original music), thought about what the Public wants (to be healthy and happy), and opted to become the world’s first self-help singer-songwriter.

My Product/Profit became a new category of music that I call Healing Music.

This has paid off with seven albums so far, all doing well enough for me to be encouraged to make more. (And I will, including me playing the saxophone on a future album.)

Click image to pre-order new album

As you can see, the formula works.

You just need to apply it.

Here it is one more time for you to ponder —

Profit equals your Passion plus the Public’s interest.

I’m still reading The Einstein of Money, but doubt Benjamin Graham had much to say about my formula for success. And remember that even high rollers and big time investors are often motivated by something other than money.

As Donald Trump once said –

“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”

Play the game of attracting money, try out my P=P+P formula, and see what you think.

Expect Miracles.

Ao Akua,

joe

PS – Want more? The definitive audio course on attracting money is still The Secret to Attracting Money.

Member BBB 2003 - 2015