Tag: optimism

RIGHT after I posted my last blog — about wanting to attract a 1955 Mercedes-Benz Gullwing SL300 into my life —  I learned the windows in the Gullwing doors do not lower. That means once you close the doors, you are sealed inside.

It also means the inside cockpit will get HOT. Yes, there are side vents. But drivers in the 1950s would open the Gullwing doors at stop lights in order to let air in. (!)

No wonder Clark Cable has the door open!

I live in hot and humid Texas. This car would not be pleasant to be in for very long.

With this fresh news now in my awareness, the tag phrase “…this or something even better” takes on a whole lot more relevance.

I no longer want that car.

Lesson: Always be willing to adjust your goals as new information comes to you.

But let’s dig deeper.

Why did I want that car in the first place?

Why was I inspired to pursue it?

Why didn’t it work out?

I think there’s a lesson here for you and me. Let me reveal it through a quick story…

Teye and his amazing guitars

Recently I met Teye, an Austin guitar maker of some gorgeous hand made guitars. His are playable art. They sound incredible and look beautiful. He brought in two guitars (pictured above) and we talked for a couple of hours about guitars and music. Along the way, he told me his story. (Told here with his permission.)

At one point he was wealthy and well off. He drove a luxury car, was highly paid as a performing musician as well as a music teacher, and had the life most of us would envy. He was set for life.

But Teye wasn’t happy.

In fact, he told me he was almost suicidal.

Why?

Because he had no challenge. He was comfortable. He was coasting. He had nothing in him to turn into a fire. No spark. He was alive but dead inside.

He was one of those “quietly desperate” that Thoreau warned us about.

And that’s when he did something about it.

He contacted the late Tony Zemaitis, a guitar maker of now legendary and collectible guitars. Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and other icons love his guitars.

Teye commissioned Zemaitis to make a guitar for him. It would cost around ten grand to get the project rolling. This was around 1990, when ten grand meant more than it does today.

The late Tony Zemaitis

This was the action Teye needed to take to come alive again.

But I didn’t understand it perfectly, so I asked for details.

“How did ordering a Zemaitis guitar change your life?”

“Because I had to do something different to raise the extra money,” Teye told me. “Wanting it broke me out of my comfort zone and forced me to think bigger and act bigger. Today I’m a guitar maker largely because of that big step back then.”

This stunning guitar was made for Teye by Zemaitis. Today it's worth upwards to $100,000.

And that’s why I was led to want that Gullwing, a car selling for more than $850,000. Not that I’m unhappy or feeling desperate, but it was time for me to expand my potential and increase my wealth set point.

The effort to attract the Gullwing wasn’t about attracting such an expensive car; it was about stretching myself into being the kind of person who could easily afford such a car.

Previously the most expensive car I ever owned was the Rolls-Royce Phantom. I bought it for $450,000 — on the day the stock market dropped the most points since the Great Depression of 1929. So much for me being a victim of circumstances.

Getting that car expanded my sense of deservingness, and also led to the creation of the now famous Rolls-Royce Phantom Mastermind, an evening with me that became so popular ABC News covered the one I did with fitness celebrity Jennifer Nicole Lee. Those special masterminds also paid for the Rolls. In short, attracting the Rolls also attracted the means to pay for the Rolls.

Jennifer Nicole Lee at Phantom Mastermind

But the Gullwing was selling for $900,000.

That’s twice what the Rolls sold for!

This was expanding my own sense of what’s possible.

I remember making the call to the dealership that has the Mercedes. I was nervous. In my mind, I didn’t think of myself as a high-end car collector. I have a handful of cars, and I’ve given away a handful of cars. But I’m no Jay Leno.

See PS below about this book

Well, that’s simply a belief. And beliefs are what create our reality. So wanting that car made me look at — and dissolve — my limiting beliefs.

Obviously I’m not encouraging you to order cars or guitars beyond your means. But I am encouraging you to reach beyond your comfort zone and go for more. It doesn’t have to be a purchase, it can be a purpose.

Whenever you desire something bigger than yourself, you expand your mind, melt limitations, and turbocharge your energy.

I've hired Teye to build this beauty for me

The other day I interviewed Arielle Ford, the world’s most famous book publicist, for my Hypnotic Gold members. She told me the authors who were the most successful were the ones with “a sense of mission.” They weren’t just selling books; they were changing lives.

I finished reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s amazing book, Total Recall, and see the same sense of “goals bigger than me” syndrome. When he was governor of California, he created a list of goals that made the people around him hyperventilate. But he knew “big risk, big reward.”

My wanting a rare Gullwing, if only for a few days, expanded my potential to allow more into my life, and increased my creativity in conjuring up ways to receive more. After all, a billionaire friend once told me, “The more people you help, the more wealthy you can become.”

Think about that.

Lots of lessons in this post:

• Adjust your goals as new information becomes available.
• Desire something bigger than yourself to stretch your potential.
• Have a mission to serve others while expanding your own power.

You may have gleaned another lesson or two from this post and the last one. Feel free to share your insights with me and others with a comment below.

Meanwhile, I wonder what goal is next?

Ao Akua,

joe

PS — Your goals should make you excited as well as a little nervous. If you want to see someone showing you what it is all about to go for something truly huge, watch this video of Phillipe Petit in 1974 walking a tight rope across the Twin Towers. He spent years dreaming and planning. And when he got in the air on that rope high above New York City, he spent 45 minutes there! Read Petit’s astonishing book, Man On Wire (or see the documentary of the same name), for the breathtaking details. What is your big daring scary exciting dream?

Member BBB 2003 - 2012

Recently I posted the following on my Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/drjoevitale:

“Action attracts motivation. Get moving and you get motivated.”

That insight was driven home while I was reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, Total Recall, a book I love. Even at over 600 pages, I’m reading every word of it. There are lessons on life, fitness, marketing, achievement, politics, service, and so much more. It’s fascinating. You might say — as Arnold often does about life — it’s “Fantastic!”

I LOVE Arnold's book!

One of the methods Arnold uses to achieve such legendary success is setting goals. Nothing new there, but do you do it? And do you do it the way Arnold does?

Arnold declared he would be a famous Hollywood movie star while still a youth in Austria who couldn’t speak English. (!)

Talk about thinking BIG.

Throughout Arnold’s incredible book I see the reoccurring theme that big goals lead to big results.

Arnold doesn’t appear to have deadlines on the goals (unless it’s something like a bodybuilding contest with a specific date already attached to it). Instead, he has the goal in his consciousness and simply works toward it, trusting it will manifest in its own good time. This is different from what most people do: most set goals with drop-dead deadlines.

Not Arnold.

Judging from his astonishing life and all his record-breaking success, his goal setting process works.

What I’ve also noticed is that once he stated a goal, he began to move toward it. He started to take action. Lots of action. He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever heard of. When he saw his calves were weak, he started doing 1,000 calf raises exercises per day.

One thousand.

A day.

Talk about action!

Why is this photo here? See the PS below.

There’s a real secret here: action leads to motivation, and motivation leads to action.

You can test it out for yourself.

What do you have to do or want to do?

I need to write a blog post here for you every few weeks to stay current. I don’t always feel motivated to do so, because I don’t always have something to say when I first start writing. But my intention is to do my best to stay current, relevant, and interesting to you.

But how do I do that when I don’t feel motivated?

Here’s my secret: I simply go to my computer, fire up my blog, and start writing.

Yes, even when I have no clear idea where I’m going.

I take action anyway.

I know motivation will catch up later.

Same thing happens when I write songs. I may have no idea for a song and little motivation to write one. But I know I want to have one written.

So what do I do?

I start strumming my guitar.

I take action.

Yes, I love to have motivation first. But you don’t have to depend on it. You can call it out.

I just finished reading Neil Young’s autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace, and learned that’s how he writes most songs: pick up a guitar and start playing. Invite the songs to arrive with action.

He invites the muse with action

Hare’s what I invite you to do:

1. State a goal. Just declare it. What would you love to have, do or be? (Be honest.)

2. Decide to go for it. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to attract it? (If not, you haven’t stated the goal you really want.)

3. Take action. Whether you feel like it or not, just start moving. Let motivation catch up. (What can you do right now?)

All of the above requires a certain level of faith.

You have faith that stating a goal is going to make a difference.

You have faith that your decision is going to stir energies seen and unseen in the universe, in and around you.

You have faith that your actions will lead to the expected results.

You have faith that all of this will work out for your highest good, and in its own sweet time.

That said, it shouldn’t surprise you that the title of one of my next books is Faith.

Meanwhile, here’s another example for you:

After the completion of my fourth album, The Healing Song, I sat and felt at peace. I was relaxed, felt good, but didn’t have any motivation or goal to create any more music. As a result, no new songs came to me.

My fourth music album

When Daniel Barrett came by my studio for our twice weekly sessions, I told him how I felt. I said I think my music is over, as I don’t feel inspired or compelled or motivated to record any more.

As we explored the issues and my concerns, I suddenly felt I could do another album. I grew excited about it. I then declared, “I want to create one more CD by the end of the year. Let’s record five new songs.”

This was a pretty bold goal, especially when I had just said my mental well was dry, and the end of the year is only a couple of months away, but Daniel went with the energy and agreed we could do it.

In fact, he upped the ante and challenged me to create ten new songs for it.

I then declared that I would make it so. I made the decision.

And guess what?

There's that car again! See PS below.

As a result, a song came to me later that day.

And another the next day.

And a third a few days later.

Wait!

There were no songs before the goal, and three songs after it?

Hmmmmm. Maybe there’s something to this goal setting secret.

Note the insight:

Goals trigger action.

But you don’t need motivation to take action; you can start doing and the motivation will catch up.

Let me sum it up like this:

I love Arnold's book so much I hunted for a signed one

Goals are how you start a fire within yourself. You might be feeling “blah” and have no desire for much of anything but living in the moment and vegging. But let an inspired idea become a goal and suddenly you ignite the pilot light in your soul. Now you have direction, purpose, and energy. The goal triggers the release of new powers, and even begins to attract opportunities and more to bring the goal into reality. Welcome to the world of miracles.

Is this exciting or what?

Arnold knows this.

I know this.

Now you do, too.

What are you going to do with it?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — The car photos above are of a pristine 1955 Mercedes-Benz Gullwing 300SL, one of the most collectible cars in the world. I saw the listing for this one and felt inspired to announce it as a new goal.  No deadline. No pressure. Just thinking about it is stretching my wealth comfort zone, as these cars often sell for over one million dollars. But that’s the whole idea: to stretch. Wouldn’t it be cool if that amazing car (or something even better!) was mine in the next few months (or sooner)? So here I am, publicly sharing it with you. I have no idea when it will appear in my life, but I’m open and ready for it. After all, I do know how to attract cars. Now it’s your turn: What do you want to attract into your life next? (Be honest!)

Get any of my published books listed below as an e-book for only $3.99 (or less) each, thru November 2012. You can now read these books on your Kindle, iPad, or any other device or computer for e-books. Please check these out, grab the books you want, and share this post with your friends. Enjoy! Love, Joe

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Thank you
I love you

joe

A little-known secret to attracting success in all areas of life is to look for the win-win-win in every relationship.

• I don’t want to win but have the other side lose.
• I don’t want just a win-win, either, though both sides winning is pretty cool.
• I want to complete the circuit with everyone involved winning.

This is far more than what most people do.

Let me explain with a story.

For the last ten years we have lived peacefully in the Hill Country of Texas. We love it here. There is a vacant two acre lot beside my home office. The owners of it visit their property once a year. I try to buy it from them. They refuse. They come back a year later. I offer to buy it again. They refuse. And so it goes. The situation has been acceptable as they haven’t built anything on the property in all this time. It’s been quiet. All is well.

But recently they sent workers and surveyors out to their land. The writing was on the wall. Construction would begin soon. I was facing a year of noise from the building of their home, and then a lifetime of neighbors. I dreaded it. I was imagining my serenity gone forever.

I knew there had to be a win-win-win someplace here. I just couldn’t see it.

What was I going to do?

I went into my bag of tricks.

• I Nevillized the end result of owning the land.
• I used the Remembering Process and saw myself talking about owning the land a year after acquiring it.
• I practiced meditating on peace, so I could feel serene no matter what happened.
• I prayed to my guides and angels to show me the way.
• I cleaned and cleared.

I did everything I could think of.

But construction started anyway.

Where’s my win-win-win, I wondered?

Nerissa jumped online and found a five acre tract of land for sale near us. She looked it up to a get a sense of the price of land in our area. We were going to use that info to make a last ditch offer to buy the neighbor’s land. But her finding that information led me to come up with a wild idea.

Apparently all that cleaning, clearing and praying paid off.

I received an idea that I was pretty sure was genius.

I found the realtor for the five acres and told her, “If you’re good at one phone call, I can get you two sales of land.”

She was intrigued.

I told her the story of the two acres beside me. I told her about the five acres near us. And then I said —

“Call the owners of the two acres and tell them I will buy their land for the price of the five acres down the street.”

That would be a win-win-win.

This way I would get their land, they would get a much bigger lot for their home, and the realtor would get two sales.

Win-win-win.

Yes, I would be paying almost twice what the two acres are worth, but emotionally, that land meant a million dollars of freedom to me. It is well worth the investment.

Not everyone would do this, of course.

Most would fight to find a way to get the two acres and nudge out the neighbors. That’s a single win.

Another person might go for the win of the two acres, and try to help the owners of the acres find the equivalent land. That’s a win-win but not one to write home about.

Almost nobody would think to include the realtor. They’d use a shadow buyer to somehow cut out the realtor. But that’s a win-win, not a win-win-win.

Again, a little-known secret in life is to go for the win-win-win.

I do the same thing in my affiliate programs. If I endorse something, then I have used the program and love it so much I am now an affiliate for it (win), I know the creator of the program is making a fair profit from selling it through me (win), and I know the end buyer of it will be happy (win).

Why don’t more of us do this?

Most of the time we get lazy and just come from the mindset of taking care of our own needs. But I’ve found that the true joy in living is in taking care of your needs while you also take care of others.

Here’s one more story to illustrate my point…

Recently I was watching an incredible documentary called Rock Prophecies, about this amazing photographer for the rock stars.

Robert Knight has photographed the icons of music, from Led Zeppelin,  Slash, Jeff Beck, Rolling Stones to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, Sick Puppies, and more. Today he looks for the yet to be discovered legends, such as Tyler Dow Bryant. His story is riveting and inspiring. (Get the DVD at http://www.rockprophecies.com)

The photographer typically doesn’t sell the negatives to his breathtaking rare photos. He was the only photographer at Stevie Ray Vaughan’s last concert, for example, yet he’s never released those photos. Or many others, of many other stars. He’s been offered over three million dollars for his entire collection. He won’t sell.

But then Robert’s mother got Alzheimer’s. She had to be put in into a constant care facility. This was going to cost about $9,000 a month.

The photographer didn’t know what he was going to do but he knew something had to be decided.

Out of apparently nowhere, the sister to Jimi Hendrix contacted Robert. They worked out a win-win-win deal where Robert would sell the negatives of his Jimi Hendrix photos to Jimi Hendrix’s sister and the Hendrix foundation, and in exchange he would get enough money to pay his mother’s health bills every month.

Obviously this is a win-win-win. Robert got the money. The Jimi Hendrix foundation got the rare photos. And Robert’s mother is getting the care she needs.

Do you see how this works?

What I’m really talking about here is love.

Love everyone involved in your negotiation and partnership and you’ll naturally attract the win-win-win.

The next time you are faced with a negotiation, a sale, or a relationship issue, ask yourself, “Where’s the win-win-win here?”

If you assume there is one, then your mind will start looking for it.

So turn on your mental radar for the next win-win-win.

It’s there.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — I’ve been reading an insightful little book titled It’s Not All About Me and think it’s appropriate to mention it here. While this book isn’t about negotiation per se, it is brilliant in explaining that you need to focus on others in order to build rapport and attract what you want. A breezy, heart expanding, thoughtful and practical read. I recommend it.

Really, it's not about you

Member BBB 2003 - 2012

Just have to share:  I’m on the cover of the September issue of Austin All Natural magazine. Here I am with publisher Michael Abedin holding up the special issue. The cover story is about my fourth music album, The Healing Song. You can read the issue online by clicking right here or you can pick up a copy at health food and new age stores in the Austin, Texas area. Enjoy!

With publisher Michael Abedin