I get emails regularly from people who want to use the tools
of visualization by themselves to “make” money results happen.
That’s great and I encourage it. With two reminders…
Don’t stop taking purposeful physical action toward
consciously chosen goals, and
Be open to pleasant surprises happening.
Seriously, you have NO idea the kind of spontaneously
good things that can happen.
NO idea.
And if you think you know all the good that can happen,
then be open to something happening that is even better
than THAT.
Here, listen to this one. True story.
A long time ago I used to teach weight loss workshops.
My brother was heavy, and had tried EVERYTHING to
reduce his weight. (This brother is not the stuntman
that Robert DeNiro beat up, this is a different brother).
One day at Christmastime, he was visiting South Florida,
and told me that it was outright deception for me to teach
people to reduce their weight, since real long term weight-loss
is impossible.
Nothing really works, he says.
I pointed out that people DO get results, and that in fact
I had taken off 30 pounds quite easily, and kept it off for
years with no effort, struggle or willpower.
He said that HE had tried lots and lots of things, including
pills, exercise, aversion therapy (don’t ask, this was a
1970’s fad involving electroshock), you name it, but still he
didn’t get results, so he knew for certain that really nothing
worked.
I said that I understood WHY he felt that way, but his experience
was different from mine, or clients I worked with. “That hasn’t
been my experience,” I told him, and we changed the subject.
(By the way, that phrase “That hasn’t been my experience” can
be MAGIC when you are dealing with an opinionated person
who disagrees with you. I learned it a long time ago from
Roger Dawson.)
Now, fast forward a few weeks.
(Again, this is a TRUE story. It sounds like fiction, but it’s true.)
My brother was Vice President of a popular retail store chain,
and his corporation was bought out by another firm. The new
CEO flew in from out of the country for a board meeting. (It
was a Canadian firm that did the buyout, but I think the CEO
was actually British. I’m telling you this so you can imagine the
accents. My brother has an Archie Bunker Brooklyn New York
accent, and the CEO sounds like Phil from EastEnders.)
At the end of the meeting, the CEO approached my brother
and said to him privately, “You need to lose weight.”
(How’s that for a conversation starter?)
My brother got a little defensive, as most would. “No, I don’t
need to lose any weight,” he said.
“Look,” the CEO replied. “You’re big and so am I. How much
weight would say that you need to lose?”
Disarmed by the man’s candor, or sincerity, or something, my
brother said — VERY conservatively — “Well, I could lose 40 pounds.”
The CEO made a wager: “I’ll tell you what….If you lose all forty
pounds by my birthday in April, I will pay you 150 dollars per pound.
But here’s the catch: If you lose LESS than 40 pounds I won’t pay
you anything. Of course, for each pound over 40 I will pay you
an additional 150. But if you lose less than 40 you will get nothing.”
My brother had a new motivation. Probably two of them — the money
and the personal challenge from someone he didn’t want to disappoint.
He knew he needed help with this project, but he didn’t call ME. He
called my mother instead. (Remember that he just told me two weeks
prior that I was misleading people that weight loss was possible!)
So he asked her, “Hey, how did Sean lose that weight back in 1989?”
She told him that a key element was food combining. Also called
Natural Hygiene. Made popular in the US through a book called
Fit for Life.
With nothing more than that, he got busy.
The wager started in January, and was set to end in April at the man’s birthday.
Long story short, my brother tried food combining, excercized faithfully,
took off 46 pounds within the time frame (what is that, four months?)
and received a check for $6,900!
Better still, he called me to say that this food combining wasn’t really a diet,
it’s just a new way of eating with no deprivation at all. Plus he had more
energy all the time (one of the REALLY nice things about food combining)
and could lift more weight in the gym as a happy and unintented by-product!
This was a win/win/win.
Did I mention he got paid 6,900 dollars?
That’s not a fortune, but remember that he got paid to lose weight, in a “diet”
that required no willpower!
Follow-up to that story: This eccentric CEO actually renewed the offer
with a second deadline (my brother had more than 40 pounds to lose,
remember) and ultimately paid my brother $10,500 dollars total — to be
slimmer than he ever was in his adult life.
My brother was so happy to have this happen, he thanked me with
a fancy new watch.
So what’s the lesson in this?
Great unexpected things happen, so let them. Be open to them.
I remember one of the first things I learned from a meditation
teacher a long time ago.
You can test it too.
He said that if you quiet your brain each day for a little while,
and make sure it’s a daily habit, you will find fortunate coincidences
happening in your life. Regularly, like clockwork. Happy things
will happen.
Like maybe a CEO paying you to take off the weight you thought
was impossible to lose? Sure!
Do a daily routine and find out for yourself.
The most powerful routine I know is from Win Wenger.
Win is a grad of the Silva Method in the 70’s, and a brain researcher.
He lifted the hood (bonnet) of the Silva Method “engine” and found
ways to generate even better results.
He even shared his findings with the Silva International organization,
but they didn’t want to make any changes to their course material, since
they were already getting impressive results around the world.
That doesn’t mean YOU can’t benefit from Win’s research, though!
More to come…
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