Jumping at Opportunity

When we're in the Vortex, when we're actively aligned with our heart's desire, opportunities come at us fast.  The Universe is always conspiring to give us whatever it is that we focus on most.  When we are eagerly focused on what we want instead of focusing on everything that is wrong with our life, when we are happy and actively working toward our dream, then doors begin to open for us.  It is up to us to be prepared to walk through those doors and to claim our prize.

Opportunity is a funny thing.  It generally comes when we least expect it, and often comes when we're busy doing something else.  Take finding a partner, for instance.  You go through years of dating and wishing, wanting to couple up with someone so badly that it hurts.  Then, when you get busy working on a personal project or finally become contented living on your own, that's when the perfect person tends to show up.  It always seems to happen when we're not actively wanting it.

Focus: Why Lasers are So Powerful

I had a fascinating discussion last night with a master networker.  So fascinating, in fact, that long after it was over I couldn't stop thinking about what I had learned from it.  Have you ever had one of those moments where you learned something so profound that you suddenly realized that until this moment you had pretty much just been throwing sand in the wind?  Last night's discussion was like that.  Instead of sleeping, which is what I really, desperately, needed to be doing, I lay awake thinking about ways I could implement what I had learned.

As the title to this blog hints, the discussion was about focus, specifically as it applies to business networking.  Now, I've spent a lot of time on these pages talking about having a Clear Definite Aim, and about consistently holding a Clear Mental Image of that aim firmly in view.  I've explored how knowing exactly what you want is the first step toward manifesting it.  We spent a week doing exercises learning how to discover what it is that we really want, and we practiced spending time visualizing ourselves already having it.  Yet out there in the networking world, my efforts have been unfocused and vague.  I guess that explains why I've only gotten meager results.  Why is that?

Prosperity Project: Clear Definite Aim

Within every highly successful person is an unquenchable thirst for adding value to the lives of others.  Ralph Marston

 
Greetings, prosperous ones.  We have come to the end of our Prosperity Project.  We have pretended that we had lots of money to spend, and that game showed us a bit about what it is that we really value.  We have spent the past few days looking at the things that we enjoy doing most, and we have taken some time to decide what we are most passionate about.  Now, it's time to put it all together.  Today's question is the big FINAL EXAM:  What is it that you really want? 

Back in the very beginning of the Prosperity Project, we talked about a lecture by John Maxwell called How To Make Your Dreams a Reality.  In his lecture, Mr. Maxwell gave us a checklist to help us gauge how likely we were to manifest our dreams.  Do you remember that list?  Maxwell's final dream test question was Significance.  How does your dream add value to someone else?  Does your dream benefit others? 

Can you figure out a way that you can spend your days doing the things you love, for the reasons that you are most passionate about, in a way that other people will benefit from it?  If you can find the answer to that question, then you have found the key to bringing in the money you've been just pretending to spend until now.  If you can find the answer to that question, then you have found your Clear Definite Aim.  

Oh, you could be wrong.  It could be something else entirely.  Be willing to be wrong.   Whatever it is, if your heart is behind it, if it feels right to you, if it feels exciting yet terrifying at the same time, then go for it, even if it turns out to be crazy.  Even if it's not practical.  Even if you really should be doing something else.  DREAM BIG.

OK, so you've decided on your Clear Definite Aim, the big idea that you have that excites you, that you feel passionate about, that you know in your heart (even if it terrifies you and you know that people will laugh) is right for you, then I urge you to continue the daily visualization that we've been doing here on the Prosperity Project.  Spend 15 minutes every morning pretending that you are engaged in that occupation.  See yourself performing your favorite activity, and see people benefitting greatly because of what you're doing.  See the people being so grateful for the benefit that you are providing them that they give you large amounts of money in compensation.  Enjoy the way that feels.  See the people you do business with growing and thriving because of what you provide them.  See yourself receiving the revenues that your joyous work provides.  See it.  Feel it.  Stick with it.

The secret to visualizing is not to waver.  Once you've chosen your Clear Definite Aim, then begin to clarify your vision.  The more laser vocus you bring to your visualizations, and certainly the more emotionally you engage in the procedure, the stronger the attraction you create.  We have gotten a lot of practice here on the Prosperity Project in creating an imaginary world.  Take what you have learned here and continue in your make believe world.  See yourself as a million-copy-selling author.  See your photographs on the cover of magazines all over the world.  See your business ten times its current size, enriching the lives of people all over the world.

Is that it?  All I have to do is pretend I'm making money and I'll make money?  No, of course not.  There's way more to it than that.  But that is without a doubt the very necessary first step.  If you will take this one step, then you will have gone a long way toward making your dreams come true.  At least you know which direction take, and that's more than most people ever decide.

My work here on The New Book of Clues is not to provide answers.  There are experts for that.  My work is to suggest questions and to provide clues that might lead you to the answers that you seek.  I hope that you have enjoyed our journey as much as I have.  The Prosperity Project has taught me much about my relationship with money, and I am anxious to see what happens when I begin spending 15 minutes every morning visualizing myself as an internationally popular writer and speaker making huge amounts of money from my books and conferences.  When I come through your town on my tour, I hope that you stop by to visit.

Prosperity Project, Phase 2: Imagination and Passion

Greetings, prosperous ones.

Yesterday we looked at some qualities of successful people, and if you're anything like me you found some areas that you can improve in your own life.  My guess is though, you already possess most of those qualities in adequate amounts.  The fact that you are even here, reading these pages, shows that you have a clear desire to improve yourself along these lines.  My suspicion is that we are not yet succeeding because we have not yet become clear  as to what it is that we really want to do with our lives.  We have not yet decided on our Clear Definite Aim. 

We did, however, spend a few days thinking about our favorite activities and our strongest skills.  We have decided which tasks we perform that engage us so completely that time drops away and we are able to work effortlessly for long periods of time without tiring.  Wouldn't it be nice if our favorite hobby were also the way that we earned our money?  Then, we could play all day.  But surely there's more to it than that.  I was about to say that you can't get a job watching TV all day, but then I've seen some security guards who do just that.  What I will say here is that I believe we can create for ourselves whatever kind of job that we can imagine.  We just have to be creative.  That's the Imagination part Napoleon Hill talks about.

Money comes to us because we add value to the world.  If we're on the couch watching House, we're not providing anyone value.  If, however, we get an idea while watching House that we turn into a screenplay of our own, or if you're a doctor watching House and you get an idea that helps you save a life, now value did ultimately come out of that activity.   What will turn our favorite activity into revenue is a creative idea.  We must use our imagination to figure out a way that we can use our best skills and our favorite activities to provide a much-needed service to the world.  This will require thinking outside of your everyday TV-shaped box. 

For example, it's one thing to be a writer; it's another thing to be a writer with a message; and it's quite another thing entirely to be a writer with a message that the world is ready to embrace.  If you are a photographer, you probably have thousands of world-class photographs sitting in your files.  How do you package those in a way that they can become revenue for you?  Or if you're not feeling particularly entrepreneurial, how can you find someone like, say, National Geographic, to pay you lots of money to travel all over the world taking pictures?  Or maybe the thing you really want to do is that one crazy dream that came out as the answer to yesterday's question, that wildest dream you have that you've never pursued because it's just not practical.  Maybe, just maybe, it might be possible that if you were to really do that one crazy thing, it would be the one change that would make all the difference for you.  I'm just saying. 

As we've been saying all along, we must start right where we are, and we must start at the beginning.  Once we decide what we really want (and we're a long way yet from deciding that, aren't we?) we can't just quit our current jobs and jump into our dream jobs.  Life doesn't work that way.  There's karmic momentum that we have to contend with.  We must continue to carry on with our current lives, making sure to do everything in that Certain Way, consciously developing the character traits of success.  No, the beginning doesn't involve taking radical action; the beginning involves dreaming.  Before we can claim our dream life, we must first know exactly what it looks like.  To borrow from both Hill and Wattles, we must determine what precisely is our Clear Definite Aim, and we must continuously hold a Clear Mental Image of that before us as we go about our current activities.

Of all the steps and obstacles that we will encounter on the journey to our heart's desire, deciding a Clear Definite Aim is by far the most difficult.   It is why most people never even get started.  Most of us want conflicting things.  For example, I want to travel all over the world, but I also want to sing in the local community chorus and grow a garden.  I really like my current job at the pool store, and I know I could turn that into a money making enterprise that would reward me handsomely, yet it conflicts with my lifelong desire to see the world and to have several residences scattered all over the planet.  I also want to be an internationally known writer and speaker, and I can't see myself having time to do all that and build a pool store empire. 

We are all of us juggling conflicting desires that cancel each other out.  We are also further confused because some of what we think we want is actually what someone else wants for us.  Many of us are trying to fulfill our parents' dreams or our spouse's dreams.  Perhaps we have chosen our current profession because it is what was expected of us.  If our goals and our career have been chosen to please someone else, then our participation in that activity will always lack the passion necessary to drive us to success.  We must choose our own dreams, even if it outrages and scandalizes our tribe. 

So how do we untangle this knotted mass of conflicting dreams and obligations?  We use our imagination, of course!  A great way to find out what we really want to be, do, and have is to take the Passion Test.  Developed by Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood, The Passion Test helps you to determine your top five passions in life.  You can take the Passion Test online, but they will first ask you to sign up for a 30-day free trial.  You can also pick up the book at a bookstore or check it out from your local library.  It will be well worth the time and money involved to get the full version. 

In the meantime, though, here is the Cliff Notes version: 

First, make a list of everything that you are passionate about.  In this stage it does not matter that you might have conflicting desires; this is the brain dump portion of the exercise.  Don't censor yourself:  Coffee made my list, because first thing in the morning I am passionate about that first cup!  Write down everything that you will be, do, and have when your life is ideal.  Everything.  For now it doesn't matter how you could ever accomplish any of these things, it matters only that you want them.  DREAM BIG!   Remember that we are looking for your passions, not your goals.  "What's the difference?  A passion is how you choose to live your life.  Jack chooses to live life as a multimillionaire.  A goal is something you aim to achieve.  The goal could be stated as 'to earn $2 million within the next year.'"


Next comes the test part.   Got your list?  Look at the first two items on the list.  Of those two desires, which one is more important to you?  If you had to choose one and let the other go, which one would you keep?  Now, take your keeper and compare it to the next item on the list.  Of those two desires, which is more important to you?  Continue to compare the items on your list, judging between two at a time which is most important to you, until you reach the bottom of your list.  The last one standing will be labelled Passion #1.  Then take the next item on your list and repeat the process until you have chosen your top five passions.  If you get stuck, ask yourself this question:  "If I could be, do, or have 1 and it meant that I could never be, do, or have 2, would that be OK with me?  Which one matters more."

Here is an example from the book to show you what they mean:

Jack's initial list:

1. Being of service to massive numbers of people. 
2. Having an international impact.
3. Enjoying celebrity status.
4. Being part of a dynamic team.
5. Having a leadership role.
6. Helping people live their vision. 
7. Speaking to large groups.
8. Having an impact through television. 
9. Being a multimillionaire.
10. Having world-class quarters and support team.
11. Having lots of free time.
12. Studying with spiritual masters regularly.
13. Being part of a spiritual leaders network.
14. Creating a core group of ongoing trainers who feel identified with my organization.
15. Having fun, fun, fun!

Now here are Jack's final five top passions after submitting the above list to the passion test.

1. Helping people live their vision.
2. Being part of a dynamic team.
3. Being of service to massive numbers of people
4. Having an international impact
5. Creating a core group of ongoing trainers who feel identified with my organization. 

As you can see, this process will require some time, so I suggest that you don't try to do this at work while the boss isn't looking.  Take some time with it.  Go into your quiet place and really give it your full attention.  I plan to do mine this evening; although I've done this test before, we are continually evolving, so our list will evolve with us. 

Here then, is today's study question:

What are the top five things that you are most passionate about being, doing, and having in your ideal life?