Category Archives: Goals

Turn Wishes into Reality

If you happened across a magic lamp, complete with a genie begging to be allowed to satisfy the requisite three wishes, what would you wish for? World peace? A bazillion dollars?  A new car? A raise at work? That cute girl or guy to notice you? These are pretty common wishes, and most all people have wishes that would make them feel very happy if they came true. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how easy it is to make wishes come true. The reason is because when people have a wish, we usually think of it as something outside of us, or beyond us, and some magical force is needed to allow us to get it.   After you read this, that will change. Because you are going to learn the first step into turning wishes into something that you can easily achieve.

The first step is to turn the wish into a goal. Now for most people, a goal is simply a wish that they wish about a lot. Or maybe they might have started a few steps in the right direction, but in reality, it is still a wish. Not you. After you read this, you will be far ahead of everyone else.

You have to create what is called a well formed goal. Let’s take the wish of losing weight. Say 15 lbs. The first thing to do, is write down your goal. You can either do this as you read this, or after you understand this simple process, you can do it later. Lets start.

“I want to lose 15 lbs.”

The first step, is to state it in the positive. So instead of saying what you want to get rid of, express it in terms of what you want to be like after you’ve gotten rid of it. That changes the above goal to

“I want to weigh 160 lbs.” (If now I weight 175 lbs.) See how that works? Other examples:

“I want to quit smoking” becomes “I am smoke free.”
“I want to quit playing video games 5 hours a day” becomes “I want to spend my free time outside.”

The second step is to make sure your goal is totally in your control. If you need to depend on somebody else to make it happen, change your goal around so it only requires your action. 

The third step is to imagine all the benefits you’ll enjoy when your goal is true. I will fit into my pants better. I’ll feel healthier. I’ll be able to participate in sports more easily. You should really give yourself time on this one, because the more good reasons you think of, the easier it will become.

The fourth step, and perhaps the most difficult, is to make sure you keep the positive aspects of your current condition.  It can be sometimes hard to pin this down, because it’s difficult to understand how one can get benefit from something you don’t like all that much. The good part is, once you figure this part out, being able to achieve your goal will be a snap.  In my example above, I want to weigh 160 lbs, I have to discover the hidden reason why I’m stuck at 175 lbs.  One reason might be that I really enjoy eating ice cream every night after work. In that case, I’d have to find some other activity that I enjoy as much or more, and doesn’t give me all those calories. Another reason might be that if I lost weight I’d wouldn’t have an excuse not to be more social. In that case, I need to figure out how to work on those issues. If you have trouble figuring this part out, don’t worry. I’ll be writing plenty more articles that can help you easily resolve these issues, so make sure you check back often.

The fifth step is to make sure that your goal really is your goal. A lot of times we want to achieve things, but deep down we really want to achieve them to please other people. Parents, friends, spouses. Ask yourself this question: “If I achieved this goal, and NOBODY else knew, would I still want it?”

It might take some time, but when you work at it and run your wishes through these five steps, they will naturally turn into easily achievable results. And the more wishes you run through this simple five step process, the more you’ll be able to achieve in your life.  

And please be sure to tell others about this, so they can, like you, naturally and easily achieve dreams.

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Program Your Brain for Automatic Success

I read a news story a while back about some rich sheik from an oil rich country that visited the United States. He bought a motor home, and noticed that the motor home had a cruise control feature. He set the cruise control, and proceeded to go in the back to take a nap, thinking that motor home would drive by itself. I guess money can’t buy everything.

While they are starting to build cars that can parallel park themselves, I think we’re still a long way off from having cars will automatically drive us to our destinations.

But what if you were to discover a way to easily drive you to your destination? Almost as if by magic? How would you like to be able to program you brain to naturally find things so it would automatically make it easy for you to get what you want out of life? It’s a lot simpler than you might imagine. Are you ready to learn how?

The Chinese refer to it as ‘Future Memory.’ Ben Franklin (you rememeber him, right?) referred to it as a ‘Daily Review.’ It’s easy to do, and a lot more powerful that it appears.

First you need to establish a list of strengths, things you like about yourself, and another list things that you would like to get rid of. Bad habits, thoughts, beliefs. Make both lists as long or as short as you want, but make sure you have at least three on each list.

Now make a list of things you want to achieve. Make them good things, but not too far out there. For example, to lose 10 pounds would be ok, or lower your golf score by 5 points would be fine.  While you should always feel comfortable to set big goals, for this particular exericise, choose something small. After you easily prove to yourself that it works, you can naturally move on to bigger and better things.

So now you have three short lists, right? Here’s how it works. After you finish your day, sometime shortly before you go to sleep, review your lists. You can do this by hand or on the computer, either way is fine, as long as you write it down.  On on page, you should have your three lists. On each page after that make three columns, labeled stregths, weaknesses, and goals. Have a separte sheet or document for each. Under each column, write what ever you did that day to:

1) Decrease your weaknesses
2) Increase your strengths
3) Move toward your goals

The important thing is to remember any thing, any small thing that is a step in the right direction, no matter how small you think it is. For example, if your goal is to lose ten pounds, and you normally eat a whole pint of ice cream while watching TV at night, and on that particular day, you ate the whole pint MINUS a thimblefull, that is fantastic. Write it down. Feel proud. Feel gratitude. Thank yourself. Likewise with your strengths or weakenss. ANYTHING is fine.

The key here is to build momentum. The more you do this, the easier and more natural it will get. And you will likely see yourself changing in fantastic ways as if by magic. But because you are likely to start small, it’s best to keep this list a secret until you are comfortable enough to brag about your fantastic accomlishments to your friends. If you make sure to spend just a few minutes every night, you will slowly build momentum until your strengths far outweigh your weaknesses, and your goals will begin to appear almost automatically. And your friends will naturally wonder why you have suddenly become so successful.

And please remember to check back often, as I will be updating this site regularly. And while it’s good to keep the above technique a secret, feel free to share this site with your friends, because it really feels good to help people out.

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Blind Crow Lullaby

So I was walking up the steps to the Shinto Shrine in my neighborhood, when I heard this whoosh above my head. I looked up, and saw this big black crow gliding up in front of me, and then coming to rest on the branch of a large tree. I looked up, and saw two more crows sitting just beyond. Watching. Waiting. Images of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds flashed in my minds, along with an old Viking movie whose name I can’t remember where a guy got his eyes gouged out by some angry bird. Were they mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Did I anger the Shinto Gods? Lord have mercy, I hope not. I tried my crow call, (caw caw caw) which usually scares them away, but they don’t budge. They look at me. I’m certain ther’re deciding which eye to pluck out first before they send me plunging down the steps to a painful death.

I remember the first time I killed a crow. I was on my first ever hunting trip. Actually it was the only time I’d ever killed a crow. We went looking for doves, and a bunch of crows started flying overhead. Or a herd of crows or whatever you call a large number of crows flying in formation. I looked at my dad, and he gave me the go-ahead. So I closed my eyes, pointed my shotgun in the sky, and pulled the trigger. Naturally, because the crows were so thick, I hit one. I felt kind of bad. It’s not like the crow did anything to me. But from a skill standpoint, it was pretty easy. Close your eyes and shoot. Not nearly as a hard as I thought it would be.

It’s wierd when you think about it. That is how some people live their lives. You just go through, not giving much thought, and just close your eyes and shoot. I’m sure that most people, like you, have been able to consider at one time or another what would happen if you were to design your life. Instead of pulling the trigger and hoping to get something, you were able to develop a foolproof plan  that would make it almost impossible to not get what you want. Luckily, once you start to realize, now, how easy it is to set your sights on what you want, when you pull the trigger, you naturally can enjoy the benefits. And you know how to enjoy the benefits, do you not?

So after I got home, I looked up crows on google. Of course the first article that came up was how crows that hang out at shinto shrines have a tendency to eat peoples eyeballs when you least expect it. Go figure. Actually, that’s not what it said at all. It said that crows like to nest in places like small hills with lots of tall trees. And in when they have baby crows hatching, they suddenly become very aggressive and protective of their babies. I checked my watch, and sure enough, it was crow hatching season, not eyeball eating season. And here I was thinking the crows were gunning for my eyes, and they were thinking I had come to eat their children.  Now me and crows get along just great.

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Grazing Cows or Gazing Anxiety

I was getting more and more worried. Stress was increasing with every 18 wheeler that blew past my 4 cylinder rice burner, going a bit more slowly than I should have been. HONK! Sorry, I mumble under my breath. I should see the turnoff by now, where is it? I check my watch. Still ten minutes. Look around. No turnoff. What if I missed it? I don’t know where the next one is. I’m in the middle of about a million rolling hills populated by grazing cows. They sure don’t seem stressed. Don’t they know what they’re in for? I try to peek up ahead above the speeding traffic. Is that a turn off up there? Could that be me?

Not completely unlike when I was sitting across from Cheryl. Nervous. Shaky. Eyes briefly making contact then quickly escaping into the many available distractions around us.

“So, uh, what do you like to do?”

“Um, play tennis, and uh,” deep breath, “uh, you, know, stuff.”

“Wow. That sounds cool.”

I don’t remember leaving my brain at home. I was able to talk to her ok over the phone. Can’t the waiter come any quicker? Maybe I can spend an hour pretending to thoughtfully think of something interesting, while I’m looking at the menu, or maybe he will spill something on me so I can think of a reason to bail out. It’s not like this is my first time. Why is asking one person a simple question seem so much more difficult than asking somebody else the exact same thing? It works the same way, right? Brain makes thought, thought goes to vocal cords, mouth and lips and tongue move, sound comes out. It’s not like I’m going to do something different this time, am I?

My friend never has this problem. Of course he is a firefighter, and everybody knows that firefighters attract girls like Bill Gates can attract money. He was telling me the other day about this training exercise, where they have this old building set up, and they practice going in and putting out the fire. And I asked him, “why don’t you practice on different buildings?” He told me that most buildings basically have the same structure. They might look different on the outside, but on the inside they are similar enough. And when you train frequently, you start to to realize that what something looks like on the outside doesn’t really matter. All you really need to do is be able to notice the structure. And sometimes I ask  him why he doesn’t always have girls surrounding him. He told me he was tired of having the same conversations over and over and over.  He says that he learned that when you stay with something long enough, you really start to notice the small things that make you realize that this person stands out from the rest.

So anyways, after we ordered, it got a bit easier to talk, because she asked me if I was as nervous as she was. When I gladly said yes, that kind of broke the ice a little bit. I guess we both agreed on some level that it’s ok to embrace being nervous. We actually ended up not having that much in common, but it was an enjoyable conversation anyhow. And after I arrived at my destination on time, (actually five minutes early, because I hit all the green lights after I realized the exit was indeed mine) I was able to have another enjoyable chit chat with the suprisingly cute girl that was working there.

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The Blackrock Pass of Logic

“This one!”

“What’s it about?”

“Some guy that does some crazy stuff.”

“Oh, wait dude, look, that one is here!”

 

There were three of us. At the new multiplex. Thirty screens. 6 new releases, and two blockbusters (after only one weekend) all starting within 40 minutes of each other.  If we had another two hours, maybe we could come to a decision. Too many choices. We hadn’t even gotten in line yet. I had a pretty good idea, what I’d though we’d all enjoy, but…

Kind of like when me and two of my other buddies were backpacking. We had a four day trip planned, and we were on our second day in. We had three possible routes to take, all big loops, depending on the weather and the fishing. The only problem was, we’d only agreed that those two things would determine our choices. We didn’t take the time to consider how they would affect our choices.

“If we go left, we can fish some more.”

“Dude, I only caught three small ones, I’m done fishing.”

“Yea, but look at the map, these lakes are bigger, there’s bound to be bigger fish here.”

“Yea, but if we go this way, we can go over Blackrock pass. It says it’s the highest in the area. Think of the views, man!”

I didn’t really care either way. I only know that I didn’t beg and plead for two extra days off over the holiday weekend so I could listen to these two fools argue.

“Just make up your minds for pete’s sake!” I exhorted.

They reminded me of a buddy I used to have in law school.  He told me that once he was in a lecture, given by this professor that was famous for never losing an argument with his students. I mean never.  And this guy was going on and on, and my friend was certain that he’d made a logical mistake in his arguement. Not a big one mind you, but a small and noticeable one that might have a big impact the outcome of his arguement. Kind of like how Amelia Earhart is widely thought to have gotten lost by a mere fraction of a degree mistake, which added up.  Amazing what happens when you can make a small change and then just stand back and watch it grow. But the funny thing is, my friend, who is normally kind of shy, and doesn’t speak out much in class, somehow was able to tap into some magical source of confidence, like when you really know exactly what it is that you want, and you know exactly how you are going to get it. How many times have you been able to experience that knowing?  So anyways, my friend waited until just the right moment when he was able to exploit the advantage, and needless to say, the class was shocked. The professor was dumbstruck. He stood there for what my friend said was almost 5 minutes, which is a long time for a law professor to stand there and not say anything. A mime, yea, but not a law professor. Then someting funny happened. When my friend spoke, up, he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. He was able to just say it, and allow for whatever result. After the five minutes (which in reality was probably more like thirty seconds), the professor started to clap. And then so did the rest of the class. The professor said it was a pleasure and a wonderful surprise to be so skillfully out argued by an undergraduate. It does feel really good to out argue somebody, when you really know your stuff, doesn’t it?

So I made up my mind, and took the trail to the left. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t give any reason. I just made my choice. If they followed me, great. If they didn’t, well, I drove so I had the car keys.  Funny thing was, we took the path to the pass, which did have some fantastically spectacular views, AND on the other wise were some great lakes, which had some pretty decent sized trout.

And as far as which movie we picked, we decided to decide over a couple of drinks, and we met some people, and, well, that’s another story.

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The Puzzling Sudoku Babe

So I was hanging out at my friends house the other day, and it was raining, and their wasn’t much on TV, and my friend busts out this jigsaw puzzle. Like the one you used to do when you were kids. Maybe not. Maybe you still do them.  Like when you try to find an easy way to put the puzzle together, you start to line up the edges, so you can see what fits where, right? How easily can you imagine that, now?  The only problem was, my friend, who has a bunch of old jigsaw puzzles, something about her sister teaching some kids before or something, didn’t have any of the boxes. She just had bags and bags of puzzle pieces. And none of the bags even had any markings on them whatsoever, they were just old crumpled bags when pieces in them. We weren’t even sure if all the pieces were there. So as we continued to put things together, we started arguing over what was what. A castle! No, a gang of horses! No, no, an aquarium with tropical fish. And on an on. We were so pathetic, that we had about twenty different ideas of what it might be when we only had completed the outer edges.

It’s like when I was in third grade. We had to do some kind of math puzzle, and I had always thought I was good at math, even in the fourth grade. Maybe it had something to do with my pyramid project.  Anyways something I was even better at in 3rd grade was I was able to generate good feelings for my teacher, since I pretty much had decided that I was going to to marry her.  But we had this puzzle, and it was like one of those Sudoku puzzles, where you have to put everything in the right order. But unfortunately, the only order I was thinking about was our pizza order for our wedding night.  Boy did my mistake hit me when somebody else was able to get the puzzle right before I did. When the other kid jumped up with the answer, she beamed at him with a look that must’ve made him feel really proud. And I was still contemplating where the 9 should go.

Like when I was hiking with my friend one summer in the mountains. This huge tree had fallen in front of the trail, and when my buddy and I got there, there was this group of hikers that looked pretty inexperienced. They were looking at their map, apparantly trying to find their way around the tree. Now normally, you just climb over the tree, but this was a really really big tree. And they were looking up the hill and trying to find a way to go up and around it. And about every five minutes or so they would stop, and moan and complain about how much time they were losing. I guess they were on a tight schedule. Maybe they had an appointment with a bear who was supposed to steal their food at a certain time, I don’t know. Anyways, while they were looking up the hill, and back to their maps (which were in these really expensive looking waterproof map cases) my buddy and I decided to try something different. We made a decision, the kind of decision that you make when you are not sure how it is going to work out, but you make it anyways, just like the one’s I’m sure you’ve been able to make alot, right? So anyways, we backtracked about a hundred meters, and then traverse lower, going under the tree, and then easily come up on the other side of tree. It’s funny what happens when you focus on solutions instead of stressing over some appointment with some bear that I’m sure will be happy to steal your food even if you were a little bit late. It’s not like bears wear watches or anything.

So we finished the hike safe and sound, got a few pictures (but not of any bears), and later I decided that Sudoku just isn’t for me. I certainly don’t want to keep chasing something that I missed out on a long time ago, right?  It’s not like if I develop super skills on some obscure math problem my second grade teacher will pop back into my life and sweep me off my feet with a pizza. Besides, she’s probably like 80 years old by now.

And the funny thing is, by the time my buddy and I finished the jigsaw puzzle (which actually turned out to be a bunch of swans standing around in some park somewhere, posing for the picture no less), it had stopped raining and we were able to go out and really focus our energies on being able to enjoy the day.

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Secrets of the Egyptian Pyramids

Wait, what? The Egyptian Pyramids? What on earth does that have to do with you? I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pyramids before, probably watched a documentary or two on television at one time or another.  Maybe you’ve even given some though to exactly how they were built. And you probably have known one person or heard of somebody that believes the pyramids have some kind of mystical structure to them. Maybe it is their geometrical shape, maybe because they are pointing to certain celestial bodies, although I’ve heard that the celestial bodies they were pointing towards have since moved, or the Earth has moved, or the orbit of the Earth has moved, or something like that.

Kind of like when I was in sixth grade, and we had to do a science project. I remember reading about some kind of pyramid power, how if you get the right pyramid shape, and put it around a plant, then the plant would grow a lot faster than normal. I’ve don’t know if you ever taken the time to consider just how cool it would be to realize that as you can sometimes choose to use metaphysical technology to grow faster you can also use those ideas to grow other things faster. But anyways, some other kid had taken that idea for the science project, so I had to do something different. I had to go back to the drawing board, and think of something else. I think I stuck with the plant idea, but changed it. Kind of like when we have ideas, and you think you are really changing your mind, you’re really not, its just the same idea in a different format.

Which is what I did. I used different colored sheets to cover my plants and tried to find out which ones would grow faster depending on which color light was let through the plastic.  I guess it’s kind of like the idea of separating out the different wavelengths of light, and seeing which particular wavelength, by itself, is best for the plant, or makes the plant grow the most. Kind of how sunglasses filter out different kinds of light so refracted light off of reflective surfaces doesn’t blind you.

Makes me think of that crazy blublocker guy that sold those sunglasses all over tv and other places.  Which is a great example that when you think of something new, even if other people think you’re crazy, if you present your ideas with incredible amounts of enthusiasm, it’s pretty easy to be successful, because that  blublocker guy apparantly made a lot of money, just for selling sunglasses.

So I wasn’t able to see any discernable difference with my project. The blue film, and the yellow film, and the red film, all seemed to produce the same size plants over a four week period. And I’m pretty sure the kid that tried the pyramid scheme didn’t notice any particularly outstanding results in her experiment either.

The the real difference in both of our science projects, was that we were just kids who wanted try someting new. We didn’t really know what to expect, you know? Now those Egyptians, they were different. They didn’t just slap stuff together and hoped it would come out ok, like we did when we were kids. They had a plan. They had a goal. They knew. They picked something far far away, like a distant star, far enough away so that when they kept with the project, the distant star was still there. And each pyramid was huge goal in undertaking, requiring thousands and thousands of workers and planners all working together to get the job done. And one of the great side effects of building the pyramids was that it kept pretty much everybody employed and able to feel really confident, because they all knew that what they were doing was going to somehow contribute to society.

Imagine how much you could accomplish if you did the same thing. Pick a goal, something to point your efforts at, something that is far enough away that you can keep striving for it over the years. Something that will have fantastic side effects as you strive incessantly because you know deep in your heart that with the right attitude and belief systems, you will naturally and powerfully achieve your dreams, and just the Egyptians, leave your legacy.

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