One of the biggest problems with our society’s attempts at evolving and finding true, measurable success and progress is that people are under the very mistaken impression that as humans we have some set of universal “rules” to live by.

This is simply not true, and the sooner that we - as a race - realize that fact, the sooner we’ll all be taking a giant leap up the evolutionary ladder.

No, I’m not talking about mutant powers (although I am officially an X-men geek), but rather the step up the evolutionary ladder that will allow us to start using our heads for something other than a place to keep dead brain cells during our college years.

Darren Hardy, President over at The Success Training Network, keeps a very informative and entertaining blog that I recommend you get on the distribution list for. One of his recent posts included a very cool and very appropriate clip from the movie ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance’.

I’ll skip the movie synopsis since that is far from my specialty, but I will tell you that you should see the movie, and you should definitely see this clip from the movie, which is posted on Darren’s blog.

The clip is a powerful few minutes with Will Smith while he is helping a boy to understand the difference between who we perceive ourselves to be, and who we really are, which is the point that I am making.

All parts of the Universe are made of the same cosmic “stuff” as Wallace D. Wattles calls it in Science of Getting Rich, and that “stuff” is simply energy. All things - no matter how big or small - are made up of energy.

What is it that causes energy to be in any given form at any given moment? The answer, my 3-dimensional friends, is Intelligence.

There is an all-powerful, all-knowing Intelligence that each of us is a part of, as well as a result of. What you call that Intelligence is totally up to you. Depending on your religious or spiritual beliefs, you will have your own “name” for this Intelligence, but no matter who you are, you believe that something is responsible for all of this.

I’ve never met anyone who believed that this entire existence - whether you believe in the Big Bang or the Garden of Eden - simply “showed up” one day without someone or something pulling the strings.

The Intelligence that pulls those strings is you. And me. And that guy over there. And that cat on your desk. And that bird outside your window. And that spider skulking across the floor. And that cricket out in the bushes. And that… You get the picture by now, I’m sure.

Every form of life IS life because it wants to be life. It chooses to be life. Everything that happens to us - or doesn’t happen - is a choice that was made on some level, at some point in time, even if we can’t possibly make the mental leap to understand that connection right now.

Everything happens on purpose - both the good and the bad. There is a classic argument that no one would ever WANT something bad to happen to them, but there are just as many ways to explain that concept. I will not get into that right now, but I will defer you to Mike Dooley’s excellent answer to those types of questions, which you can check out right here.

Some of you may have heard the phrase “With great power comes great responsibility”. As you begin to learn more and more about your hand in the creative process of your own existence, you will begin to understand that powerful concept more and more.

In order to claim “bragging rights” whenever you accomplish something wonderful, you must also be willing to brag about the fact that you did something that wasn’t so great. Why would you brag about that?

Because YOU caused it.

You prove with every single act of creation - no matter how big or how small, or how good or how bad - that you have the power of the Universe (or God, if you will) at your very fingertips.

To say that you did not cause a car accident, you must also say that you did not cause the love that you feel for others. To say that you did not mean to stub your toe is to also say that you did not mean to sooth a crying baby and teach it security and safety. To say that you did not put yourself into your present financial dire straits is to also say that you can never be wealthy.

Do you see the point here? YOU are in charge of all of this. Via your thoughts and your actions - but most importantly via your feelings - you are forming the very world around you because you are physically, mentally, and emotionally part of that world.

Every breath you take, every movement you make, every thought you have, and every emotion you feel are all forming your very existence here on the physical plane. Everything you do - or don’t do - makes a difference to someone, somewhere, at sometime - especially to you.

THAT is your Role.

Whew! Kinda scary, isn’t it?? Don’t worry, because here is the best part:

You are here to embrace and understand your power in order to experience this existence. You are not required to stretch forth your hand and part any large bodies of water. People are not waiting for you to cure their diseases. Your job is not to put a protective shield around the earth and hide it from harm.

Your job - which you CHOSE to come here and do is…

drum roll please…

…

…

To Experience Life!

That’s it. That’s all. To quote Neale Donald Walsch from his part in The Secret:

“So your purpose is what you say it is. Your mission is the mission you give yourself. Your life will be what you create it as, and no one will stand in judgment of it, now or ever”.

So whether you think big, think small, think good, or think evil, your Role is the Role that you have given to yourself. To once again refer back to Bagger Vance and the quote about our “authentic swing”:

“It’s somethin’ that can’t be taught to you or learned. It’s somethin’ that got to be remembered.”

Remember YOUR Role, and enjoy your life.

Peace, and happy musings.

I read two excellent blog posts today about how people learn about self improvement and the Law of Attraction, but then they either don’t utilize that knowledge, or they don’t follow through on their efforts.

This is a very real issue, and one that I am personally trying to extinguish with the Personal Development Partners website. I wanted to put a post out here on the blog about this in the hopes of sending a wake up call to some of the people who have seen the need for positive steps, but for whatever reason still aren’t seeing their efforts through to fruition.

Antonio over at ThinkBanc points out 2 potential reasons for this; people either don’t realize what is possible because they just don’t know the details, or - what I believe to more often be the case - they simply don’t believe in it.

Concepts such as the Law of Attraction are so foreign to what we have been brought up to believe, that people simply refuse to grasp that they can literally “change their stars” just by learning the proper techniques.

Rick over at Shards of Consciousness has an outstanding post on this same subject, and he adds in 2 more very real reasons why people don’t make good on their self improvement efforts.

One reason is Information Overload. Sometimes we try so hard to improve our lives that we can’t see the forest for the trees. We buy books, programs, and memberships, yet we don’t actually DO the work that it takes to effect the changes!

Another reason that is not so obvious, but just as true, is that some people simply don’t want to accept responsibility for making their lives better. After all, it is easy to just lay down and let life have it’s way with you. Making an honest and consistent effort to give your life a turn for the better is much more difficult than just sitting on a park bench and watching it all go by

Rick gets the Self Improvement Cornucopia of Truisms award for this little gem:

“Our thoughts and dreams come and go, whispering among themselves just below consciousness, the inhabitants of our mind that set up residence while we weren’t looking. Occasionally we wake up and see what we were doing.”

Is that priceless, or what? That is EXACTLY what happens to so many of us!

The desire as well as the power to manifest those desires are conspiring secretly just out of our grasp, and once in awhile they poke their head up, motivate and empower us, and then they sink back below as we once again fall back to sleep.

Here’s the million-dollar point, though. Those dreams and desires - and the power to bring them permanently into the light - are still there.

My own experience has led me to concur 100% with the experts quoted above as to the reasons why we are not dragging those dreams and desires kicking and screaming into the light, and here is a quick review so you can make sure that you aren’t one of the sleeping masses:

1. Ignorance of the knowledge or the application of the knowledge that can help us.
2. Refusal to believe that we truly have the power to effect positive changes in our lives - short of a miracle or a lottery win, that is.
3. Information Overload - a.k.a. sticking our noses in the truth, yet still managing not to get any on us.
4. Refusal to take responsibility for our own success. Funny thing is that people who won’t take responsibility for their success also seem quite adept at not taking responsibility for their failures, either. Makes you wonder what they ARE taking responsibility for…

The bottom line is that the knowledge and the training that you need to create your version of the “perfect life” are literally at your very fingertips. A few deft clicks of your mouse or a fancy keyboard maneuver and you could be reading the outline to the rest of your life right here on the Internet in a lot less time than it would take you to think of a good reason to not put forth that effort.

Ever since the movie The Secret came out - and even before then - the resources have been available for people to get off their butts and do something with their lives, yet people are still stubbornly refusing to do so.

Are you one of those people who is going to take this opportunity to wake up and start making the changes that you desire, or are you going to just sit there and let this blog post be just another notch in your belt of Information Overload?

The choice is - and always has been - yours.

One of the most powerful ways to bring the things that you want into your life is to use the amazing power of our imagination in order to visualize the success that we desire.

Some people call this “positive thinking”, but truly effective visualization goes way beyond simply holding an image in your head. However, that being said, the easier that it is for you to hold an image in your head, the easier it will be for you to practice the other visualization techniques as well.

The gratitude filled folks over at Tabblo have come up with a very cool (and free) new way to bring together the images of your life into a format that works best for you, and that is very simple to share with other people.

A “tabblo” is basically a blank canvas that you can easily add images and/or text to using several different design templates that they offer, or you can manually create your own.

Think of a collage of pictures, only online, and completely customizable, and you’ll start to grasp the idea. Also, all of the tabblo’s can be printed in any number of different formats, even in a book!

To see what I’m talking about, click below to go to the tabblo that I created which I have entitled ‘Shopping with the Law of Attraction’:

Also, for another great example of the type of things that you can do with Tabblo - including the hilarious picture below - click the picture to be taken to this person’s tabblo:

The possibilities are endless, and I want to encourage you to use these types of tools in order to make your visualizations effective!

I mean, if putting together an entire book of your desires and then putting it on your coffee table doesn’t frequently remind you to deliberately create your life, I don’t know what will.

Also, I have put together a Law of Attraction group there on the Tabblo site that you are welcome and encouraged to join.

The basic idea is that everyone who is using the power of visualization in order to manifest their desires can share visual concepts by keeping all of our tabblo’s in one spot. By seeing how other people are visualizing, you make get inspired to manifest new or different things into your life, or you may just be inspired by someone else’s pictures, text, or visualization concepts. If nothing else, you’ll be entertained for a few minutes, so check it out!

When visualizing, practice the following concepts to make your visualizations powerful and effective!

1. Always feel as if what you are visualizing already exists for you. If you think “I am going to have this someday”, then it will always be “someday away”. Visualize in the NOW, and your goals will manifest in your life.

2. Never NEED the things that you are visualizing. If you are desperately needing the things that you are asking for, then all you are doing is sending out a “I wish I had this” vibration and all you will manifest is continuing to wish that you had it. Want the things that you are visualizing, Believe that you already have them, and Feel the joy that having those things brings to your life. The Universe will deliver!

3. Visualize as often as you like - the more you do it, the faster you’ll get what you want. Also, take advantage of the time right before you go to sleep and right after you wake up to practice visualization. Your subconscious mind is most receptive to programming during those times, and you will get the most out of your efforts when you get your conscious AND your subconscious mind working together.

Okay, that’s it, that’s all. Now go out there and create the world that you want by finding ways to hold the images of that world in your head. Next thing you know, you’ll be living in it.

Remember:

“Thoughts become things… choose the good ones!” - Mike Dooley and TUT ’s Adventure Club

Several years ago a friend of mine challenged me to run a marathon with him. Before then I had never run more than about 4 or 5 miles, but the Capricorn in me was up for the challenge! With no real idea of what it took to train for a marathon, I set out to get into at least good enough shape to cross the finish line skating safely this side of a heart attack…

After running a few long distance routes, I employed the same technique that I encourage in others, and that is to set and accomplish short term goals as a way of stepping slowly but surely towards the long term achievements.

I decided that if I could run HALF a marathon, then anything after that would all be downhill. Having bolstered my confidence by pulling off a few 8 mile jaunts, I mapped out a 13.2 mile route and set off down the road one morning on a circular route that would bring me back to my starting point at the end of the 13.2 miles.

I don’t know if you have ever done any long distance running before, but I can tell you that when you are out there and you’ve got 8-10 miles successfully under your shoes, you start to realize that a 13.2 mile route is… well… long!

As I crossed over the 10 mile mark, I was definitely in the home stretch, but I found myself at the bottom of a long, gradual hill that went up for about a mile before it leveled out. Why I didn’t foresee that when I originally mapped out the route is beyond me…

Anyway, my confidence started to falter, but after running 10 miles (my longest run to date at that point), I was NOT willing to just give up and walk the last 3 miles home. At that point, a particular phrase just popped into my head, and it became my mantra for the rest of the journey:

13 Miles to Graceland

Why that particular phrase came to me, I’ll never know. I’ve never been to Graceland, and I have also never spent any consistent amount of time as an Elvis Presley fan. My father swears that I had a brief fling with “fandom for the King” when I was young, but I’ll never admit to it.

Anyway, I used this unusual phrase as my focus point, I put my head down, kept running, and I made it to the end of the route in just under 2 hours and 46 minutes. Not too shabby for someone who used to think that physical fitness was watching the Olivia Newton-John video “Let’s Get Physical”…

The point to all of this rambling is that I accomplished that lengthy goal by employing 2 very basic and very well-known techniques:

1. Setting short-term goals
2. Applying a consistent effort over the long-term

Over at the “A Better You Blog”, Patricia has a wonderful list of short-term tasks that can be accomplished or decided upon in only 30 seconds, and it is amazing what an impact such a small amount of time can have on you, or someone that care about.

When you start to add up those 30 second deeds, take it up to a few minutes of doing the right thing, then begin to put forth 30 minutes of effort, take it up to an hour or more of your time towards yours goals, etc., something amazing starts to happen.

After awhile - a very short while, in fact - you will have been accomplishing short-term goals so often that you will have accomplished something HUGE!

Remember, the achievements that we make in life are not done all at once. They are made up of a tiny step here, a small step there, another step in the right direction, yet another, and on down the line.

Too often in today’s society we tend to judge both success and failure in a very short-sighted manner. No one ever got rich, lost a large amount of weight, or accomplished something truly remarkable by making one gigantic effort, but rather by applying the principles associated with those positive achievements over and over again on a consistent basis.

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, or how bad you think you are, the truth of the matter is that your journey to your chosen destination begins with one foot in front of the other.

After all, it’s only 13 miles to Graceland. :)