my thoughts

Achieving Balance Take 2

Wed, 9 Mar 2011 11:04:36 -0600

Although the original eBook, “Achieving Balance Through the Prayer of Jabez” was quite interesting to many people, it was too long and wordy. I have been very busy since writing it and I realized it needed to be converted from Flash to HTML5 so it could be read on an iPad or iPhone. I had a project to finish, which took 2 months, so the rewrite was delayed. I could have easily delayed the project to work on my own project, but it was important to someone in my world and I wanted to keep my commitment. The project was a source of stress, until realized it was just a matter of doing a little bit every day.

I hadn’t done a big project in my spare time in a long time. This required taking a new approach, which was to do a little every single day. It took a while, but once I started to do this, things fell into place. The project was a lot like constructing a Russian doll, you know dolls within dolls. In this case it was bootstrap procedure and a 2nd constructing an installation script to create a bootstrap with custom parameters. Dolls within dolls... it was a small simple, yet unforgiving world. Eventually I completed it and the space to finish converting my eBook to a simpler form and more current technology was created.

While I was writing the book I kept thinking about the goal a friend of mine has, which is to teach high school students how to plan and manifest a compelling future. He wants to write a book along these lines and is interested in the Focused for Success principles.

I am a very visual person and I’m especially fond of animation. So, I decided to create an animated eBook. The result is “Achieving Balance”. Click on the title to view it. I hope you enjoy it.

jquery-1.4.2.min.js ebook.js animate.js

MAGIC WAND

Sat, 5 Mar 2011 04:50:04 -0600

Blogs are really interesting things. They really help you discover what you want out of life and you can bring others along for the ride. This week I confessed that I had a rather uninspired week to my wife. I helped many others realize their dreams... but I must confess I’m looking for some direction. She provided good advice then suggested we write a blog about what couples talk about. She writes one side, I write the other side. I think this would be interesting.

Then I went searching. I started here, this site is actually a pretty good place to start. Then I found the “magic wand”. I’ve reproduced it here from Kate Hufstetler’s website, I think this is a good approach:

Don’t Know What You Want in Life? Play a Game.
By Kate Hufstetler
On Saturday, April 2, 2005 - 12:15

Have you ever said any of the following:
• My life is boring.
• I’m tired of this.
• There has to be more to life than this.

Whether you are finally breaking free of the past or just getting a kick start into your future… in order to move beyond complacency you need to know what you want in & out of life. The problem? Most people don’t know what they want. In fact many of my life coaching clients say they are so busy or so stuck that they don’t even know where to begin figuring out where they want to go & what they want for their lives. That is why people seek coaching. But what about you?

How about playing one of the games my clients use… Its called Magic Wand. If you do this, you can save yourself $220 of coaching fees. Here is how you play:

1. I want you to pretend that I am arranging for one of my friends that is a billionaire to pay for EVERYTHING you want and need during the next three years. You must fully get into this concept. It means that not only will your bills and wants be covered, but you can use it to free up time as well by hiring people to help you out when you need to be 2 places at once. In this way you will be free to choose the choice of your hearts desire knowing that everything else will adequately and responsibly be taken care of without any hassles, guilt, or demands back on you.

2. Under the realization that you have unlimited time and money, pretend I give you a magic wand. You may use this magic wand to create your ideal life. Picture it. Answer these questions to help get you started (then come up with more as you go to help spur yourself). With unlimited time and money:

◦ Where would you live? – What country, state, city/town? -- Would you be near the ocean, desert, lakes, mountains, river, or in the urban city? -- What type of housing would it be? Picture it clearly. Write it out—everything about it.

◦ What would you do? -- What hobbies would you explore? Sports? Arts? Intellectual pursuits? Travel? -- Would you (with so much free time) enjoy working / donating your time somewhere? What career would you pursue if you could pursue it simply because you wanted to spend your days that way while working?

◦ What kinds of vacations would you take? -- To where? For how long? 
◦ What would you do materially for yourself and your family? -- What kinds of things would you buy to fill your house ideally? What types of vehicles? What types of clothing? How much for vacations, college funds, help with your parents in retirement, preparing for your own retirement, weddings & proms & graduations for the kids, etc.

This is the start of the game. It takes a while to truly allow yourself to dream sometimes—but that is exactly what you need to be able to do in order to find out where your hearts desires lie. While this is the start of the game, once you are armed with the answers to these questions you will have a GREAT idea of where to begin in your pursuits of the life you want. IF, after doing this work, you still don’t know where to begin to manifest these dreams into reality…then check your local and internet listings for a life coach or a personal coach that can work with you according to your timing and financial budgets. There are thousands of great coaches out there that would love nothing better than to see you achieve your dreams.

Until next time--- all the best, Kate

Author's Bio
Kate Hufstetler is a well established personal life coach and spiritual facilitator who has helped many individuals like yourself. Her clients come from both the United States and overseas. She offers coaching services via email and phone consultations Her specialty is to cut through delusions that keep people living a mediocre unsatisfying life, to get them to engage reality, initiate changes in order to propel them to the life they truly desire.

Source URL: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Hufstetler8.html

Food for Thought

Wed, 2 Mar 2011 21:35:57 -0600

It has been too long since my last blog entry. Winter is nearly over and Spring is just around the corner. January and February are pretty much a blur due to cabin fever. I recently started re-reading The eMyth Revisited and yet again was reminded about the importance of knowing what you want out of life. Then I received the following newsletter from David Allen, of GTD fame, reiterating the same point. He writes:

“THERE ARE ONLY TWO PROBLEMS IN LIFE
Years ago, a friend added to my understanding of the fundamental duality of our universe by sharing this observation: "There are only two problems in life: you know what you want and you don't know how to get it; or you don't know what you want." This proposes only two solutions: (1) focus, then (2) organize and allocate your resources. Intend and execute. Create and complete. Make it up, and make it happen.”

The profound simplicity of this point of view is truly amazing. I think we all know what we want and make it happen with every waking moment, we just pay attention to the most obvious things vs. the most important things. This, coupled with comfort or fear are key reasons for self-limiting behavior.
 I’m hoping to learn to do scarier things and not be as comfortable in 2011, I hope you decide to do the same.

Creating a Happy New Year

Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:24:24 -0600

If you have written goals from last year actually reading them vs. trying to remember them is highly recommended. Clear goals increase the chance of success. In my case, I continued to explore many parallel paths to find something I enjoyed and that was a good business. I also focused on using my time better. Many of these goals lacked clarity and were confused with worry about the state of the world vs. the part of the world I live in. This external focus caused serious issues in my personal relationships.

My 2011 goals are simpler and clearer, which should provide a dramatic improvement. To this end I have written this fake interview:

Tip for Creating a Happy New Year from Focused for Success, Inc. President, Joe Bologna
After decades of research, Mr. Bologna reminds his clients to be very careful when selecting language for new years resolutions. He provided these guidelines in a recent interview:

“Resolutions work by influencing the subconscious through repetition. This is conscious for about 3-4 days... then it continues at a subconscious level, possibly forever. A tall order will take the entire year to manifest itself. Some things can take years, decades or a lifetime.

“Focusing is important because it gets past the first line of defense that make you... well you... and keeps you... you. It works because it defines what you want to become permanent in yourself. Repetition gets the job done.

“Unfortunately, the subconscious is only a bunch of associations reinforced by emotion. This means your "self" is totally incapable of recognizing the difference between the following statements asserted by your internal dialog:

1. I will not mention anything negative about my previous experiences with new clients.
2. I will __ mention _________________________ previous experiences with ___ clients.

To crowd out "negative" thoughts a different approach is required. Instead of focusing on the negative, install a new behavior.

For instance, when the thought of a painful past situation occurs decide to use it as a strength.

A more effective internal dialog might be:

I use the strength of my experience to dazzle new clients with lightning fast response and use my awesome network to get it done!

Joe

Achieving Balance through the Prayer of Jabez

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 11:34:27 -0600

It has been 14 months since my last blog entry. Much has happened. Changes at work. A lot of time away from home. Different roles. Management. Technical. It has been a whirlwind. There were many opportunities to practice the focused for success lessons.

Throughout all of this, my attitude was good. However, learning to apply the Prayer of Jabez has proven the most challenging.

The ability to be as selfless as possible is rare. Robert Collier points out in the "Secret of the Ages", that remarkable things are only possible when extreme need applies. I've seen this firsthand.

I'm still learning to be selfless... to this end I have written an animated e-book titled "Achieving Balance". If you are interested in my philosophy I am honored to share it with you via this animated eBook AchievingBalanceFlashbook.swf. Feel free to download as my gift to you.

All the best and Happy Holidays,
Joe